To ask if we’re heading for another lockdown?

[TreeLine6]

So covid cases are rising and like clockwork, the likes of independent sage are back in the media calling for ‘protections’ like masks, isolation and social distancing to “avoid full lockdown”.

Is it time to reintroduce some measures like the rule of 6, a cap on large events numbers and maybe distancing and early closure for hospitality as independent sage are calling for?

Personally I feel that with vaccines and treatments, we are now in the best position we’re going to get with covid and would be very reluctant to comply with further measures, that themselves cause enormous harm.

Because you think they worked so well before?

Lockdowns are next to useless. Beyond destroying businesses. I don't see what was actually achieved by previous lockdowns.

So, no, I doubt it very much and most of us would not comply anyway if politicians were mad enough to re-start this circus.

There is a vaccine available. End of story.

I wasn't aware that it had ever stopped for hospitals. I've had a few hospital appointments over the summer, at 3 different hospitals, and all still asked outpatients to wear masks unless exempt.

I'm minded to start wearing a mask again in shops etc. Hospital admissions are rising again, and the rate of increase seems to be getting steeper. I had a cold all last week because a twattish colleague thought it was a good idea to come to a team meeting with a cold. I couldn't get a booster appointment till the end of this month, either.

Mask wearing, distancing and good hand hygiene, plus vaccinations, will hopefully be enough to keep things manageable. The hospital situation is likely to be fucked anyway, what with bed blocking and staff shortages.

one of my parents is in hospital and then tested positive for covid. they have been moved to 4 different wards in the last 10 days and they are still positive for covid. no wonder its spreading and I cant for the life of me see how the hospital they are in thinks that this is good or even acceptable infection control. my parent has become a super spreader through no fault of their own. When I visited before they got covid I was the only one with a mask on and using the hand gel. in a busy hospital with lots of staff, patients and visitors. I asked a nurse and was told it was up to me what I did. When health care settings have such a lax view of the situation its no wonder the general public arent bothered about taking measures. if we do then we are back to compensation of businesses which the country cant afford. no wonder the death toll isnt announced any more. its going to rise and rise at this rate./

COVID is not like flu for everyone. I am medically vulnerable and it is still on the forefront of my mind.

I don't think people would comply with a lockdown. Even if it was scientifically recommended, there will not be one.

Our work policy is to attend if we test positive but do not have symptoms. That does not sit right with me.

No

I hadn't heard of warm banks. Maybe they shouldn't have closed the bloody libraries, they used to suffice... And the Circle Line, before they de circled it.

Stupid to say you won't comply - if it's the law you have to or stay indoors.

It's stupid to respond to people saying they won't comply by saying they'll have to. They won't. Plenty of us didn't last time so are speaking from experience.

You clearly get that actually, hence adding the or stay indoors bit. Although that's wrong too. People can and did host illegal meetups outside as well as inside. I went to more than one myself last time, though the majority of my lockdown events were indoors. That would also happen again.

Ultimately, lockdown now is such an obviously stupid idea that of course we aren't heading for another one OP. It would be politically impossible and in the unlikely event it were implemented it wouldn't be observed.

the trouble is most people call a bad cold flu. Most people have never had proper flu, if someone has flu they generally can’t get out of bed

Off topic but does the circle line not go round in a circle anymore? I don’t live in London as you can tell, and we got very confused on the circle line when we went in summer as we got the wrong train

The government lost control over lockdowns with Dominic Cummings testing his eyesight and going for a drive nonsense

and then the parties

people just wouldn’t comply now (not that they are needed we now have vaccines)

I test twice a week for work,plus before seeing anyone vulnerable if I have a sniffle/sore throat etc, I wear a mask to visit my mother in a Nursing Home. I still clean my hands frequently. I will be having booster. I'm not prepared to do another thing. My son suffered a great deal from isolation and loss of schooling, my wider family is not the same as it was. I'm not going through it again.

One very simple and easy step is to re-introduce masks…It's such a basic thing to do…It's quite unbelievable how stupid some people are.

Fuck right off with that attitude because for some people it’s not a basic thing. For me they cause panic attacks AND they interfere with being able to understand people because I’m hard of hearing. Masks are in no way a natural state of affairs and the stress they have caused - not least from people like you - mean that they should absolutely not be the subject of rules again.

If anyone is worried about the possibility of another lockdown or even significant restrictions, it's worth having a think about the political process that would have to happen. No Tory PM could hope to survive attempting to implement them. The backbench would remove Truss immediately. Even Johnson knew he didn't have the option do to anything more than masks back in December 2021, and he was in a much stronger position with his parliamentary party at that the time than Truss or whoever follows her will be. It's simply not a possibility with the parliamentary composition as it is.

I'm immunosuppressed (MS), my dad has COPD and my mum is vulnerable too (and they're both elderly!)

We spoke briefly about another lock down and rising cases. We aren't worried anymore. It's on us to protect ourselves (wear a mask etc), social distant from someone coughing and open the office / home windows for ventilation etc

We do not want lockdown

I was at the doctors last week and the waiting room was full of elderly people coughing and frail. I was the only one wearing a mask and I was the youngest by about 40 years!

People of all ages are obviously grateful for their freedom. 😊

Let's go for it, maybe we can get inflation up to 30% after another lockdown or two.

One very simple and easy step is to re-introduce masks…It's such a basic thing to do…It's quite unbelievable how stupid some people are.

Pot kettle black.

The only people who think either of these things are true about mask laws is people who weren't going to suffer the downsides of them or have any responsibility for trying to enforce them.

What we now have is an increasingly disenchanted population of people who saw masks and more fail to control Omicron in the UK, the England and Scotland examples being instructive, and who have been subjected to the lengthy fiasco that was Partygate.

We also know, because it's what happened last time, that public spaces like supermarkets wouldn't be willing to take on the responsibility of enforcement either. It is not a good idea for a myriad of reasons to have laws that the state visibly can't enforce and that potentially alienate people from public health messaging.

While well fitted FFP3 masks can be helpful, the idea that mask laws are going to do anything on a population level at this point in the pandemic is irredeemably fuckwitted. There was a window of time when probably the majority of people bought into it, and that window has been and gone. Those of you who want mask laws back need to understand that a population who are willing and able to wear good quality masks in public spaces is not one of the options we are choosing from.

The young wouldn't comply. They have given up enough. And the tories will still be partying whilst telling us not to mix.
i wouldn't follow anymore advice.

Why "the young" ?

No, they changed it back in 2009! Broke the loop ☹️

I too have severe deafness helped with aids. I have absolutely no objection to wearing a mask in crowded/public/health settings. None. Yes it is difficult to understand people but once you explain they are usually very helpful. How do you exit your comfort zone at all even without a mask? Oh I get it, it's all the mask's fault nothing to do with your underlying issues.

If I saved just one person from getting Covid by wearing a mask it will be worth it. I have Covid right now and am freezing and shivering despite a house full of heat. I am miserable and now cannot have the booster until a certain time has passed from testing negative. Someone passed it on to me, someone who was infectious and refused to wear a mask. Very selfish.

Nope. There might be measures to protect the most vulnerable but covid is now treated like seasonal flu. Vulnerable people will have a vaccine at least once a year to protect them. We'll see a surge in colder months as people are mixing more indoors, but we won't lock down like we did when we had no vaccines or treatments.

Why was it insane? What do you invisage the alternative would have looked like?

Considering that going by the government's own charts, we reached the infection peak before each lockdown, I don't think that it would have actually looked all that much different.
Except of course that we wouldn't have all been locked up with needing a "reasonable excuse" to leave the house.
Thank goodness the PTB decided to ride out the last peak rather than re-introducing all the mitigations. If nothing else it proved that infections will hit a natural peak and then reduce, without locking us in our homes.

No, those days are thankfully over. I never bothered with the rules and guidelines anyway, they were always unenforceable and amounted to a financial nightmare waiting to happen that we’d be paying a long time for.

Thank goodness the PTB decided to ride out the last peak rather than re-introducing all the mitigations.

Yes, that was a very good thing. And it's not like there weren't calls for stronger restrictions either. I recall Indy Sage wanting a circuit breaker in Dec 2021.

SAGE do not currently publish any forecasts

Probably because they made a fool of themselves with their previous forecasts