I think this past week has been a game changer in terms of my own observations. The roads around where I live have been extremely busy back to what they are like on non school days. This doesn't mean to say that all these people were going against the guidelines but why all of a sudden are there so many about? It seems like the lockdown ended unofficially.

 

 

 

 

Its just bad communication from the government. This is what I've said since day 1. Even simple messaging like 'stay 2m away from each other at all times'...the UK is a country where the majority of people, especially older people who are more at risk, still use feet and inches for heights and small distances. It would have cost nothing for all the comms to say 2m (six feet) before going out, instead of just recklessly assuming that everyone in the country knows how big 2m is or will have the gumption to look it up rather than just guessing.

I'm very intrigued by how the UK is being reported in other countries right now. Has anyone seen anything?

It seems some shops are beginning to re-open, a Fish & Chip shop has re-opened, even a Chinese take away shop is due to re-open on our shopping precinct, I'm guessing some shop owners need to open as they need to survive as they are losing trade, in a way we have to support them, you can't boycott them. I guess some people want to go back to normality I get that its their livelihood. Social-distancing is still in force though. The most annoying thing, there will be queues everywhere outside the chemist, bakery, butcher, supermarket etc etc once everything is open, it be harder for people to move around in the shopping precinct.

It does really feel like people are starting to be much less strict with the rules. Up here it’s been raining heavily yet it’s still at least 3x busier than a few weeks ago.

 

I’d love to see the international reaction to Britain’s actions as well but you just know the little Englanders ‘Britain knows best’ folk will still back their wonderful leader :’) (and some of the people who most fit that description are Scottish lol)

It does really feel like people are starting to be much less strict with the rules. Up here it’s been raining heavily yet it’s still at least 3x busier than a few weeks ago.

 

I’d love to see the international reaction to Britain’s actions as well but you just know the little Englanders ‘Britain knows best’ folk will still back their wonderful leader :’) (and some of the people who most fit that description are Scottish lol)

 

It doesn't matter what other countries think of us, the fact is most of Western Europe got hit pretty bad and we reacted too late. The country has been locked down over 5 weeks now and guess what, people are bored. When you have people who have to spend all day inside with no job, the first few weeks are probably OK but after that boredom massively creeps in. People break the rules everyday in realife, so it's not surprising it's just annoying. And it's not just a UK problem either it's happening all around the world. Admitedly clusters of people, but it's still happening.

 

Yes there are lots of different strategies but there's no guarantee there will be a vaccine. There are not vaccines for other coronaviruses. There's a very small window of opportunism but of course it's clear as mud social distancing will be the new normal for many months to come

People break the rules everyday in realife, so it's not surprising it's just annoying. And it's not just a UK problem either it's happening all around the world. Admitedly clusters of people, but it's still happening.

 

Any increase now in people flouting the lockdown rules is likely because of the news that some other countries are starting to ease their lockdowns I think. Almost all flouting the rules will be lower risk groups such as younger people I would think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With no possible vaccine we will never return to life as before the virus. No foreign holidays, no tourism, no office working, no travel, no seeing friends/family when you like, no pubs/clubs/bars/restaurants/cafes.

 

Wow. Enough to make me want to give up on everything :( Cheers Roo.

It doesn't matter what other countries think of us, the fact is most of Western Europe got hit pretty bad and we reacted too late.

 

It's less about it mattering what other countries think about us — it's just interesting to see the differences between British and international media coverage.

 

 

 

With no possible vaccine we will never return to life as before the virus. No foreign holidays, no tourism, no office working, no travel, no seeing friends/family when you like, no pubs/clubs/bars/restaurants/cafes.

 

Could see a lower birth rate though because of less people meeting each other and becoming couples which could arguably be a good thing as a stabilization of the world's population would put less pressure on resources.

 

Just thinking of a positive from it.... :)

Edited April 26, 20205 yr by dandruff*

Any increase now in people flouting the lockdown rules is likely because of the news that some other countries are starting to ease their lockdowns I think. Almost all flouting the rules will be lower risk groups such as younger people I would think.

 

You'd be susprised how many people you see flouting the rules, from my own eyes personally it's been a complete mix- only ones I haven't laid witness to are the eldely.

 

With no possible vaccine we will never return to life as before the virus. No foreign holidays, no tourism, no office working, no travel, no seeing friends/family when you like, no pubs/clubs/bars/restaurants/cafes.

 

Wow. Enough to make me want to give up on everything :( Cheers Roo.

 

I think eventually there will be a vaccine, or a drug that lessens the symptoms. There are too many powerful countries working on a solution. But the problem I have is everyone is pinning their hopes on this mythical vaccine which the world is clamouring for and will go through minimal approval and regulations. So you don't really know what you are putting in your body and how safe it actually is. The more exposure the virus has to the population, the chances are it lessens the effect. I suspect most countires will be secretly willing the fit and healthy to pick up the virus and achieve some sort of herd immunity whilst hoping there is a strong vaccine in the offing. That seems to be the stategy most countries appear to be adopting (of course without actually saying they are wanting to achieve any sort of herd immunity).

 

 

It's less about it mattering what other countries think about us — it's just interesting to see the differences between British and international media coverage.

 

But it doesn't really matter though, the Western media are the ones with influence and they all have their own pandemics to report on. All the big European countries got hit pretty hard for the majority so I think we just fall under that category.

 

For what it's worth I don't necessarily follow the thought process that we acted too slow in a lockdown etc. - I think the major problem we had is we allowed too many public gatherings to happen in those first couple of weeks in March..

Could see a lower birth rate though because of less people meeting each other and becoming couples which could arguably be a good thing as a stabilization of the world's population would put less pressure on resources.

 

Just thinking of a positive from it.... :)

 

I do think this is quite a selfish view some single people such as myself are finding this difficult especially as we are living on our own so to see you laughing about a problem that is worsening peoples mental health is quite twisted.

He’s not laughing about it though, just trying to see a positive which everyone should be doing.

He’s not laughing about it though, just trying to see a positive which everyone should be doing.

 

It is a selfish response.

It doesn't matter what other countries think of us, the fact is most of Western Europe got hit pretty bad and we reacted too late. The country has been locked down over 5 weeks now and guess what, people are bored. When you have people who have to spend all day inside with no job, the first few weeks are probably OK but after that boredom massively creeps in. People break the rules everyday in realife, so it's not surprising it's just annoying. And it's not just a UK problem either it's happening all around the world. Admitedly clusters of people, but it's still happening.

 

Yes there are lots of different strategies but there's no guarantee there will be a vaccine. There are not vaccines for other coronaviruses. There's a very small window of opportunism but of course it's clear as mud social distancing will be the new normal for many months to come

I think the main reason there is no coronavirusses with vaccines yet is because they usually cause nothing more than a cold OR like MERS and SARS are contained to a small aread of the world and have pretty much died out. There is a MERS vaccine in development though, according to WHO.

 

The news here has been talking about how horrible your government rracted to all of this and ofcourse Johnson being in hospital. Plus the fact that only hospital deaths are counted.

 

Other than that the focus is mostly on New York, Russia and lately more Brazil as well as the lowering numbers in Spain, Italy, France and Germany

It is a selfish response.

There is positive sides to it though. I don't neccesarily agree with his statement but people staying inside for a while has brought the world a few good things as well

I think this past week has been a game changer in terms of my own observations. The roads around where I live have been extremely busy back to what they are like on non school days. This doesn't mean to say that all these people were going against the guidelines but why all of a sudden are there so many about? It seems like the lockdown ended unofficially.

 

I would put it down to more places being opened.

 

Takeaways and places like B and Q being opened are going to result in more traffic on the roads. I also know of many people who were on furlough have started to be called back to work now social distancing measures have been implemented in their workplace.

 

A further thought I had was that perhaps in the first three weeks many people were isolating and have now recovered from their symptoms.

Are there any thoughts as to why it is speculated in the media that we will have closures on many things such as restaurants to the end of the year yet even Italy are proposing to open restaurants on 18th May.

 

I am finding it extremely hard mentally living in a flat alone when I hear stories in the media everything will be closed until the end of the year and we won’t be able to meet friends or family it seems that other countries like to give the public more hope yet our government and media like spreading as much fear and panic as possible.

 

It is causing extreme mental health issues amongst people having to sit and think each day that they may be stuck alone for the rest of 2020 when it seems to be the opposite in other countries.

Are there any thoughts as to why it is speculated in the media that we will have closures on many things such as restaurants to the end of the year yet even Italy are proposing to open restaurants on 18th May.

 

I am finding it extremely hard mentally living in a flat alone when I hear stories in the media everything will be closed until the end of the year and we won’t be able to meet friends or family it seems that other countries like to give the public more hope yet our government and media like spreading as much fear and panic as possible.

 

It is causing extreme mental health issues amongst people having to sit and think each day that they may be stuck alone for the rest of 2020 when it seems to be the opposite in other countries.

 

It's all pie in the sky, nobody really knows. We were about 2-3 weeks behind Italy and there was a mention on an important 12 week period during the lockdown, which following the model of other countries, we are on the same path. But we are probably 4-6 weeks away yet imo as we were slow to react initially.

 

Personally I think resturaunts will be able to open as it's fairly easy to implement social distancing measures, but bars/pubs likely to be more of a challenge..

It's all pie in the sky, nobody really knows. We were about 2-3 weeks behind Italy and there was a mention on an important 12 week period during the lockdown, which following the model of other countries, we are on the same path. But we are probably 4-6 weeks away yet imo as we were slow to react initially.

 

Personally I think resturaunts will be able to open as it's fairly easy to implement social distancing measures, but bars/pubs likely to be more of a challenge..

 

I guess next week is week 6 of lockdown, probably been the most painful experience of my life mentally.

 

And agreed hard to put a timeframe on anything but I do find it baffling we have media reports no friends or family until December, no Christmas, no restaurants yet we have other countries who were more overwhelmed than us planning for these things Mid to late May it doesn’t really add up.