Get rid of all restrictions

[AnEpisodeOfEastenders]

I think it's time for all restrictions to be removed. There has been plenty of time for people to be vaccinated / boosted that want to, those that can't or don't should take their own precautions.

If we test positive then we shouldn't need to isolate, shouldn't need to declare it and should just treat it as a normal cough / cold / illness. If you feel up to going to work, out to the pub, seeing friends or family then do so. Everyone I know who have had it say they feel fine.

Life has been disrupted for far too long, the costs associated are astronomical and will be a crippling debt for generations to come.

Yes, let's just get on with life.

*I have never said people are stupid for not agreeing with me

The stupidity is not even trying to understand the scientific facts.*

People, even highly qualified people, can interpret 'scientific facts' very differently.

Just because someone disagrees with your presumably inexpert interpretation, doesn't make them 'stupid'. You make yourself look a bit stupid insisting that they do, especially given your habit of consistently misreading posts.

@MaxNormal

FTR, I am an Actuary who models this stuff for a living

So? One of my best friends is an actuary and has a completely opposing viewpoint to you. I have a stats degree and likewise. I can't believe you think you're som much more highly educated than everyone else just because you're an actuary. That's actually funny.

What kind of an Actuary is that person?

There are varying specialisations (General Insurance, Investments, Life).

My specialty is life insurance/reinsurance, and Pandemic risk is a large risk for us.

Dafuq is this thread even thinking? Yeah sure, open everything up. When your son, or your husband, or your aunt breaks their leg/has a choking incident and goes to A&E - and finds a huge backlog - or a completely shut up shop - then maybe you'll understand? A pandemic doesn't end because you decide to risk everything on everyone's behalf

I agree wholeheartedly, OP.

We have to learn to live with this now and we can't keep restrictions in place indefinitely. Few people I know are following all of them anyway now.

I am in the CEV category. I am still not in favour of restrictions. I have decided that going forward I will only adhere to rules in unavoidable circumstances and where I can definitely see some benefit (e.g. wearing masks in medical settings).

Other than that, fuck it.

We barely have any restrictions at all.

Just because someone disagrees with your presumably inexpert interpretation, doesn't make them 'stupid'

@IcedPurple I haven't said anyone is stupid for not agreeing with my interpretation.

What I said was that believing that ending restrictions would mean the pandemic itself has ended is stupid. I think that is fair comment.

Ooo another one who wants everything to collapse!

It’s a finely balanced act at the moment, imagine what happens if we remove all restrictions, and anyone who has covid goes to work

At the moment out of 100 employees 5 are off , they come to work, then that’s 50 who get it, and share then to 10 more each via family, and they share it

Not everyone will be well enough to go to work, the great majority will be ill and off work, some will be hospitalised, some will get long covid

Let’s hope the next variant is even less illness causing than omicron and less transmissible, and it reduces in both ways each time

But in the meantime some restrictions are necessary to allow everyone to work and the economy start to recover. We do as you suggest now and there will be issues with businesses not able to work

@AnEpisodeOfEastenders

I think it's time for all restrictions to be removed. There has been plenty of time for people to be vaccinated / boosted that want to, those that can't or don't should take their own precautions.

If we test positive then we shouldn't need to isolate, shouldn't need to declare it and should just treat it as a normal cough / cold / illness. If you feel up to going to work, out to the pub, seeing friends or family then do so. Everyone I know who have had it say they feel fine.

Life has been disrupted for far too long, the costs associated are astronomical and will be a crippling debt for generations to come.

100% AGREE

Well the number of admitted patients with covid stands at 8, 240. About the same as mid-November figures. And well below the 35k peak in January last year. If we can get through the next few weeks without any dramatic increases, I don't think we'll see any further restrictions and it will be hard to justify the current restrictions from March onwards when the typical winter demands on the NHS recedes.

Worth a watch.

I’d be interested to see proper stats on what proportion of people are actually too unwell to work with it - I suspect it would be a minority of people, rather than the majority, especially now vaccines have reduced the severity of disease in most cases.

Could someone please list the restrictions that make life so unbearable now that "it's hardly worth living"?

@FourTeaFallOut

Well the number of admitted patients with covid stands at 8, 240. About the same as mid-November figures. And well below the 35k peak in January last year. If we can get through the next few weeks without any dramatic increases, I don't think we'll see any further restrictions and it will be hard to justify the current restrictions from March onwards when the typical winter demands on the NHS recedes.

We have a few issues this time around that we did not during Dec 2020 - Jan 2021

1. Higher proportion of healthcare personnel are getting infected thus you end up with more problems when delivering care.

1. Non-covid NHS waiting list is now much larger (6M+). In theory, you can punt these folks for a few more months to deal with the covid cases but that will 100% mean more excess deaths in that population cohort.

1. We still have a very material amount of people in the UK who are unvaccinated. This includes children, who act as reservoirs for infections and then spread them to the parents (who are now exposed to infection if not boosted).

The UK made a mistake in not giving permission for parents to vaccinate all children. This is going to come back to bite us over the next few months.

1. The vaccine advantage that we enjoyed with Delta is mostly gone without Boosters due to Omicron.

@TheSunIsStillShining

Could someone please list the restrictions that make life so unbearable now that "it's hardly worth living"?

Well, I wouldn't call it "hardly worth living." That's going a bit far.

If you want a list of restrictions to be lifted though, here it is:

All of them

@IcedPurple

*Thats just it.

I am an expert in Pandemic modelling.

I can talk about this sort of thing based on many years of experience.*

Of course.

Tbh if someone is using mn to get message across and not expert channels really they’re a punter like anyone else.

Get it published / apply to a group specialising on it / link to it etc

I am no kind of expert, but I find it extremely annoying that anytime anyone suggests relaxing restrictions, they are accused of being indifferent to the suffering of vulnerable people.

We are living in hard times and there is no perfect solution or easy answer.

Lockdowns protect the immunosuppressed but cause and exacerbate mental illness, unemployment, domestic violence, child abuse and delay in the treatment for other diseases, while also increasing the national debt which can be terribly detrimental for future generations.

@marshabradyo

Would be great if you were able to give the restrictions rather than just say all of them which makes it look like you dont know what they are....

Current England restrictions
Masks in public unless exempt.
Try to social distance where possible (2m distance optimal)
Do not leave home if positive or have symptoms and waiting on a PCR(you may leave home to escape dangerous situation, to have a test or to gey medical attention).

You are advised to LFT 2 to 3 times a week and asked to daily test for 7 days if close contact.

Wales, scotland and NI have some additional restrictions.

Which of these restrictions are causing you difficulty?

Cracking good job that literally no immunosuppressed people have called for lockdown on this thread then @Coyoacan

[quote Covidworries]@marshabradyo

Would be great if you were able to give the restrictions rather than just say all of them which makes it look like you dont know what they are....

Current England restrictions
Masks in public unless exempt.
Try to social distance where possible (2m distance optimal)
Do not leave home if positive or have symptoms and waiting on a PCR(you may leave home to escape dangerous situation, to have a test or to gey medical attention).

You are advised to LFT 2 to 3 times a week and asked to daily test for 7 days if close contact.

Wales, scotland and NI have some additional restrictions.

Which of these restrictions are causing you difficulty?[/quote]
I think this is to op?

@marshabradyo

Sorry my mistake meant for @topseyt

@PastMyBestBeforeDate No, they haven't but it would be perfectly understandable if they did. However lots of people have, in their name, accused others of being totally heartless and holding an "I'm alright Jack" attitude.

I'm not advocating a solution to this gordian knot, though I do think the compromise of wearing facemasks and generally keeping a social distance from others, is the least we can do.

Publish what?

They don't care what the experts say. Isn't this painfully obvious at this point? We are all holding HUGE red neon signs warning them.

I can think of several top of their field experts (far more experienced than I am) who have been rebuffed via official and unofficial channels. These people are all highly competent, and they truly to care about avoiding a catastrophe.

The only thing Boris cares about right now is his own survival & ambition via maintaining his hold over his party.

Its terrible to watch it all unfold, because the coming deaths and economic problems in early 2022 could have been largely avoided with a reasonable plan (which did exist).

Surely there is some middle ground between a hugely restricted life and being permitted to go to the pub (per the OP - fgs) with a virus variant that could potentially infect half the room including the staff who have no choice but to be there.

I'd argue we're in that middle ground right now & it would be hugely risky to remove basic mitigation until we know more about how this wave is playing out.

As for going to work, have the government done such a number of some people that they think the best response to shit employment conditions / government support during a pandemic is to make it easier to go to work with confirmed COVID?

My point exactly.
These "restrictions" are common sense when you are ill with a communicable disease (yes, even the cold, flu, noro, etc)

What are ppl on about to lift?

It makes zero sense how selfish and stupid ppl are - en masse.
Especially when there are to things we know:

1. it can cause long illness of unknown severity
2. there are many things that can be done to mitigate it (from masks to ventilation in indoor spaces and everything in between)

And yet, the narrative is to live with it, to take it on the chin and other utter bollocks.
If we want to have normal everydays take mitigating action. If we want to make sure that our healthcare system doesn't crumble: mitigation + funding
to have a healthy economy (as much as possible): can you guess? mitigation + directed funding

It should not be that hard to understand. The fact that it is okay, rather: encouraged, to infect a generation with something that we know little about in the longrun is selfish and short sighted.

the telescope that has been launched in the past few days costed 10b. british ttr 37b. one is on it's merry way towards the sun, the other is a disgrace.