Do we need full lock down ?

[blakeley]

With Easter approaching and good weather forecast, do we need full lockdown so we get through this quicker ?

 

[Amarillo]

With Easter approaching and good weather forecast, do we need full lockdown so we get through this quicker ?

There is something to be said for a partial full lockdown. (Spot the oxymoron).

Full lockdown for those with gardens.

Outside exercise permitted for those with no garden.

It will never happen. There is no way any government would dare discriminate against garden owners.

 

[T6 CFO]

With Easter approaching and good weather forecast, do we need full lockdown so we get through this quicker ?

Nobody can answer that. The epidemiology experts guiding the government don’t know. It’s a one step at the time approach with future action dependant on the numbers which are as yet unknown.

I suspect your asking on the basis that the temptation to break the guidelines will increase and a clear lockdown would be simpler. I don’t agree with the that as it would penalise the ones abiding. I would prefer to enforce it on those who don’t instead.



Mike

 

[GrannyJen]

From todays example, NO.

Two weeks ago I would have said yes at the sight of full car parks, crowds of people on the greensward giving no one any room, ....

Today, the best weather of the year and it was practically deserted.

 

[BerndRos]

Here, last night, Portugal issued a decree that over the Easter period for 15 days, no one may pass from the council area where they reside into an adjoining council area. In effect it stops dead anyone thinking of getting away for Easter.

 

[Jay gas]

There is something to be said for a partial full lockdown. (Spot the oxymoron).

Full lockdown for those with gardens.

Outside exercise permitted for those with no garden.

It will never happen. There is no way any government would dare discriminate against garden owners.

Unless they own any gnomes

 

[Jay gas]

I’ve been out working on cal this weekend and have noticed very little traffic on the motorway and Aroads linking towns around here on the south coast.
Saw a lot of people out biking and walking around residential areas but maintaining a social distance. Had a couple of motorbikes fly past me at around 90-100mph on the a31 they were in a real hurry on there essential journey. And 4 cars with 4 young people in each that raised my eyebrows. Oh and lots of people on Southampton common sunbathing and having a picnic.
Most people do seem to be observing the government rules for social distance but as always it will be the few that bollocks it up for the many

 

[Soton Campers]

The government is starting to change its language. I'm hearing "these rules are requirements backed by law" instead of "guidelines" and "wherever possible". Hopefully this'll be enough....

 

[willwander]

We were out on our dog walk today. Quite a few people about.
The only ones breaking rules were teenage scrotes in tracksuits with their girly little chav bags. Usual suspects.

 

[EddieEagle]

Not forgetting the usual 'don't do as i do, do as i say'. Scottish chief medical occifer....scrote

 

[M&E]

I did see a group of kids in the park yesterday, but mostly people behaving decently & observing the guidelines

 

[Ocean Spirit]

I'm afraid some people need full lockdown because they are too self centred to care and this comes in many guises.....stupidity, selfishness, false sense of security...oh wait that last one is the same as the first one.

I don't want full lock down as I can and do respect social distancing and I love my exercise. But around me I see blatant grouping. and non essential / non exercise outdoor circumstances.No way are some of these groups all from the same house hold nor are they essential.
I have to go to work tomorrow (I'd rather be at home) so I went and fuelled up for the week ahead. In the queue stood 2 meters apart, a group of all ages on bikes turned up at the shop attached to the station to choose there snacks. Granted only one person got in line but as the conversation progressed and someone wanted a magnum, one of the adults said "if they don't have it we've got some in the fridge at our place".

Made me so MAD

 

[GillianC]

The government is starting to change its language. I'm hearing "these rules are requirements backed by law" instead of "guidelines" and "wherever possible". Hopefully this'll be enough....

I liked the term ‘this is an instruction’ not a ‘request’.

 

[EddieEagle]

I am , in my opinion, able to self regulate my self isolation.
There are sadly many who think they know better, they may have their own idea of what the rules, instructions mean.
Who will enforce these rules, requests and instructions? The old expression “you and who’s army?” comes to mind .oh dear ,troops on the streets, oh I do hope not...........
get brexit done.....sorry , stay home , protect the nhs, save lives .

 

[Maxx]

I do believe stricter control or enforcement are necessary, in my area at least

My newborn arrived on the 22nd of March, the day before the lockdown began. She developed newborn jaundice and has needed almost daily monitoring, which has meant taking her to the local health-centre (at their insistence as they are no longer doing home visits). My observations from
having to make the journey on an almost daily basis is that initially there was good compliance, then from about day 3, brilliant compliance but from about day 6, compliance has been reducing in my area, to the point that recently my journey’s have felt like a typical one traffic wise and the supermarket car parks I pass en-route have been rammed. Although far from scientific, I have been booking the appointments for the same time everyday as I thought it would be interesting to observer behavioural changes.

My wife and I are also both NHS employees, in fact my wife worked on the frontline up until 3 days before she gave birth. Although the service is holding up admirably given the circumstances, the situation is dire and unlike anything I have ever witnessed before. Anything that can be done to reduce community transmission, must be done.

 

[aileron346]

Although it’s become a national sport to deal with some of the Coronavirus situation by grumbling about the behaviour of others... I have a slightly different view. I think, by and large, the lockdown has been a massive success. Of course there are transgressions but numerically, these are of little consequence to the big picture... the point of which is to generally reduce human contact.
I think we should all lower our blood pressure, do our bit by social distancing and maybe recognise that something of this nature will never get 100% compliance. The bigger danger is probably a reaction against over-zealous telling off from both sanctimonious members of the public and some (some) police forces not quite understanding the point of the guidelines. We need to keep everything in proportion even when we are under pressure.

 

[Wongo]

No point in any lockdown if your a medic and cant get PPE, what a scandal.

 

[WelshGas]

No point in any lockdown if your a medic and cant get PPE, what a scandal.

Notice who is making these assertions. The Royal Colleges have not been vociferous and the Director of ICU, from the Midlands, on the news this pm didn’t mention it, only the fact that the occasional ward or area had momentary shortages due to internal hospital delivery problems. Also, I know from personal experience that PPE can be misused/ overused.
A patient who is intubated and ventilated is basically a closed system. Unless you are involved in the head, mouth or ventilator circuit then just emptying a urine bag, changing a drip bag or taking bedside observations doesn’t require full PPE because the chance of infection is very, very limited, no greater than walking through the hospital door.

 

[mikebravo]

With Easter approaching and good weather forecast, do we need full lockdown so we get through this quicker ?

Further restrictions would slow the spread and therefore lengthen the overall period of time it would take for the virus to peak and for general immunity to develop. It does not get us through quicker. The quickest route is actually to have no restrictions whatsoever, maximum transmission, hospitals inundated and max death rates. So, I don’t think anyone should hope for a quick turnaround. We are in it for the long game; to flatten the curve (on a chart of infections over time). With many months of restrictions ahead, I think it’s important thatwe strike the right balance; a degree of freedom is required if people are expected to stick to the restrictions. Total lockdown is not sustainable over a long period; there would be a social revolt and the whole thing would blow up.

 

[Jay gas]

Further restrictions would slow the spread and therefore lengthen the overall period of time it would take for the virus to peak and for general immunity to develop. It does not get us through quicker. The quickest route is actually to have no restrictions whatsoever, maximum transmission, hospitals inundated and max death rates. So, I don’t think anyone should hope for a quick turnaround. We are in it for the long game; to flatten the curve (on a chart of infections over time). With many months of restrictions ahead, I think it’s important thatwe strike the right balance; a degree of freedom is required if people are expected to stick to the restrictions. Total lockdown is not sustainable over a long period; there would be a social revolt and the whole thing would blow up.

We seem to be placing a lot of faith in the herd immunity aspect of this virus. I read with interest this morning that 91 people who have had covid 19 from Daegu South Korea have tested positive for the virus a second time after supposedly having already had it. Some one on here did mention false positive tests on here a while ago and as South Korea has been leading the way with the amount of testing is it just a blip in testing or have the caught covid 19 for a second time. Apparently they are carrying out tests and hope to have the answers next week

 

[willwander]

No point in any lockdown if your a medic and cant get PPE, what a scandal.

politicising the pandemic won’t help anyone

 

[Digger]

No need for full lockdown if the idiots respected the rules and kept their distance and stopped behaving like they were immune. Separation seems to be the best solution at the moment (at least that what I told the wife) until the evidence goes against it. We also need the police to use their powers correctly in what must be a difficult time for them too. And as quoted this is not a political issue but a serious world wide problem.

 

[Ocean Spirit]

No need for full lockdown if the idiots respected the rules and kept their distance and stopped behaving like they were immune.

Yep! and there is the problem but even if you take it back a step and these people don't believe they are immune they're prepared to risk it in the belief they will have only mild symptoms and then don't give a monkeys about others they come into contact with who could be hit worse by it, which is why it's so infuriating.

However, being old and / or having underlying health conditions is no longer considered the only way you can die from this so the sooner people deal with the newer evidence the better we'll all be.

 

[clarinetbcn]

Total lockdown is not sustainable over a long period; there would be a social revolt and the whole thing would blow up.

I think it's ironic that we live in a society that prides itself on supposedly having tamed/dominated/overcome nature to assure humans' domination of the earth, but when we have it in our power to stop this virus cold, suddenly we throw up our hands and say, "total lockdown is not sustainable over a long period, there would be a social revolt and the whole thing would blow up." How much sacrifice are we really willing to make in order to protect our most vulnerable? If any of us were asked, how much sacrifice are we prepared to make for our own child, I have no doubt of the answer. As a society, how much sacrifice are we willing to make to protect our parents' generation, those who would, and did, sacrifice so much for us?

 

[Maxx]

This post is based on observation only.
I went out earlier for the first time in about 8 days. Joined the queue to enter the supermarket. A lady aged mid fifties joined behind me, a few minutes later an elderly man joined the back of the queue, at which point the lady behind me said “Dad, what the hell are you doing here...” The average age in the supermarket was approx 80, typical content of shopping trolley was gin, tonic water lemons/limes, newspapers, some gardening paraphernalia and a small quantity of food. Observed quite a lot of close quarter conversations happening and people generally ignoring the guidelines including one elderly lady coughing her way around the place.

I get that self-isolation is challenging for all kinds of reasons but as the evidence has shown from all the countries that imposed strict controls (in many cases stricter than ours) the number of infections reduce and so does the number of daily deaths, which in the case of both Italy and Spain did not reach the daily highs we have now seen.

The way I see it, the rules of a lockdown are much like the rules of the road, if we all follow them, things generally work out pretty well but it only takes 1 person to ignore them for several other people to suffer the consequences.