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Original poster

On course for another lockdown?

650 replies

TalkToTheHand123 · 19/03/2022 07:07

Covis cases on a rapid rise, heading towards 100,000 daily cases. Are we heading for another lockdown?

OP posts:
Juno22 · 19/03/2022 08:23

MrsLargeEmbodied exactly. There are no restrictions on anyone travelling into the UK from anywhere in the world. No testing, no need to be vaccinated. Anyone who thinks a lockdown might be on the cards is deluded.

Blinkingbatshit · 19/03/2022 08:24

There will be no lockdown unless a new more dangerous variant appears - let’s hope it doesn’t!!

tempester28 · 19/03/2022 08:24

No - haven't we decided there is no point?

TypicaIMe · 19/03/2022 08:25

LFTs aren’t picking up Omicron cases in the first few days even with symptoms

This is absolutely true in my experience.

DD was ill for about a week before she tested positive a week ago last Wednesday (despite testing daily).

Me and DH were also ill for a week before testing positive last Saturday. After DD tested positive it was obvious we had it too as our symptoms were the same, but it still took several days to get a positive result.

Same has happened with so many people I know who have tested positive recently. With my past infections I've gone positive as soon as I had symptoms, or before.

megletthesecond · 19/03/2022 08:25

No. And I'm a right pessimist. Still in masks and only just gone back to her gym.

Although, if hospitals and routine treatment ever struggle it might happen. Maybe a variant from hell might take off one winter. But hopefully not.

ImJustMadAboutSaffron · 19/03/2022 08:27

@hamstersarse

Given lockdowns don’t work and only achieve a reduction in infections of 0.2%, all the while destroying the economy, jobs, education, mental health….yeah, good idea!
Do you think all the previous lockdowns were pointless and shouldn't have happened?
TypicaIMe · 19/03/2022 08:27

@Lightning020

Surely the virus is one up from a mere sniff for most now. As is usual for pandemics the virus mutates to become more infectious but way less deadly.
This isn't true re the course of pandemics. Viruses may become less deadly, they may not - there's no hard and fast rule, but it's a myth that they always mutate to become less deadly.
pralinee · 19/03/2022 08:28

No, it will go the other way. Guidance to test and self isolate will be dropped, as soon as tests are no longer free. Schools and businesses cannot continue to operate with scores of nearly or perfectly healthy staff sitting at home for a week. The guidance will change to stay off if you're too ill to work, go in if you're not. That's my prediction, anyway.

BoristalkedaboutBruno22 · 19/03/2022 08:28

@YellowAndGreenToBeSeen

Not in a 109 years.
Love the typo but you are about right. Pandemics are roughly every hundred years or so.

So no, I don’t think that we will have another lock down but in about a 100 years or so there will likely be another pandemic.

Wingingthis · 19/03/2022 08:28

Lockdown for what? I thought the whole point of lockdowns was to buy time for vaccines/boosters to be rolled out etc.

Waxonwaxoff0 · 19/03/2022 08:29

Of course there won't.

Makeitsoso · 19/03/2022 08:30

No. Definitely won’t happen.

Jonny1265 · 19/03/2022 08:33

No chance

FourChimneys · 19/03/2022 08:35

No, I hope not, and I'm speaking as someone who is extremely vulnerable to Covid, with no effective resistance from vaccines.

I think the only possible reason for another lockdown would be a dangerous new variant which killed children rather than older people, more like Spanish Flu. I suspect there would be a lot of support for a lockdown if we saw large numbers of children dying.

MeanderingGently · 19/03/2022 08:36

Of course not. We've been there, done that....quite literally, to death. Illness rates might be rising but hospitalisation rates much less so and we don't have thousands dying of the virus any more.
Quite apart from that, we have no money left for a lockdown; there is debate about their effectiveness and people are far more worried about rising prices/cost of living, possible loss of jobs and the world-wide effects of the war in Ukraine. With all that going on, I do think lockdowns are very much yesterday's news.....

carefullycourageous · 19/03/2022 08:36

@PotteringAlong

We don’t need a lockdown. Hospitalisations are low, death rates are low.
Hospitalisations are not low and are rising. Deaths are not low and are rising. Care homes are now at risk of serious outbreaks due to waning immunity. There are impacts on services due to outbreaks/high circulating cases.

But lockdown is a) not going to happen and b) not what is needed and c) something we should be avoiding at all costs.

IMO we should not have got rid of masks on public transport/in shops, and should not be getting rid of isolation if positive.

We also need to look at the next vaccination list because if it is 75+ only, we could be in serious trouble.

sweetzy · 19/03/2022 08:36

@Lightning020

Surely the virus is one up from a mere sniff for most now. As is usual for pandemics the virus mutates to become more infectious but way less deadly.
Tell that to my fit and healthy friend who narrowly avoided being hospitalised or the little girl I know who now has really poorly controlled asthma after her mild case of omicron.
Tulipomania · 19/03/2022 08:37

No of course not.

Current rise in cases is due to all restrictions being removed. Infectious people are now free to move through society and infect vulnerable people. They don't even need to wear a face mask.

Government should at least have retained mask wearing.

ClariceQuiff · 19/03/2022 08:38

@YellowAndGreenToBeSeen

Not in a 109 years.
Better start prepping for lockdown 2121!
3cats4poniesandababy · 19/03/2022 08:38

Let's just f**k the economy a little bit more.....

MarshaBradyo · 19/03/2022 08:40

@pralinee

No, it will go the other way. Guidance to test and self isolate will be dropped, as soon as tests are no longer free. Schools and businesses cannot continue to operate with scores of nearly or perfectly healthy staff sitting at home for a week. The guidance will change to stay off if you're too ill to work, go in if you're not. That's my prediction, anyway.
Agree we’ll keep moving in this direction
BigButtons · 19/03/2022 08:42

@TypicaIMe

LFTs aren’t picking up Omicron cases in the first few days even with symptoms

This is absolutely true in my experience.

DD was ill for about a week before she tested positive a week ago last Wednesday (despite testing daily).

Me and DH were also ill for a week before testing positive last Saturday. After DD tested positive it was obvious we had it too as our symptoms were the same, but it still took several days to get a positive result.

Same has happened with so many people I know who have tested positive recently. With my past infections I've gone positive as soon as I had symptoms, or before.

Absolutely spot on. I had symptoms for a week before lft was finally positive. So I had been at work, in school, coughing and sneezing into tissues and breathing my covid breath into the air. I am sure many others were doing the same. We have a mass outbreak at my school currently. Far bigger than we have ever had in these past 2 years. I have a friend, a nurse, who is currently very unwell with covid. She has had it twice and has never tested positive on her lft. Only confirmed by PCR.
FoxyFoxyLoxy · 19/03/2022 08:43

@Lightning020

Surely the virus is one up from a mere sniff for most now. As is usual for pandemics the virus mutates to become more infectious but way less deadly.
Exactly. I have Covid at the moment. Felt a bit off colour on Tuesday, heavy cold symptoms on Wednesday and positive LFT, positive PCR on Thursday.

If Covid wasn't a thing, given the symptoms and progression of the illness, I would have been in work on Friday as I felt fine to be in work. I have had worse colds in the past, and worse hangovers. Obviously for a tiny minority it will be a lot worse but it really is very mild.

MrsWinters · 19/03/2022 08:44

Nope, this is intentional running it through the population so we have high numbers in the summer when it will affect the majority less and the NHS can cope with the surge.
It’s basically herd immunity, but they can’t say it as that phrase is politically toxic

TypicaIMe · 19/03/2022 08:46

I do think that free LFTs should still be made available for CEV people, though.

I'm super susceptible to Covid and also inject immunosuppressant drugs weekly. I need to be as sure as I can be that I'm not infected when I inject. To that end I currently test at least twice a week. When LFTs are no longer free I won't be able to do this unless I pay for tests, which I won't be able to afford.

Initially it was thought that all CEV patients would have access to free LFTs, but they've quietly changed it so that only those eligible for antivirals will be. Trouble is, they've also changed the eligibility for antivirals, too - I have a letter telling me that I am and was sent a priority PCR to access them only two weeks ago. However when I called to chase them up last week after I'd tested positive, I was told that the criteria had recently changed and I was no longer eligible. My condition hasn't changed, but I suspect the desire for the government to cost cut has.

If I can't test prior to taking my medication, I can't take my medication, and that's a whole other expensive mess the NHS will have to clear up (not just for me, but for the thousands of others in a similar position too).