Look I think our government have made mistakes going into this and probably will coming out, even the scientists don't agree on what is the best route out of this pandemic so what chance has the government got, the time to judge is not now but when and if this virus disappears, so now we have to do what we can to protect each other, wash your hands, stay alert, stay safe
The indignation people seem to have when you pass by them is funny. There’s a Tesco at the end of our road that has pretty much had a queue since lockdown started. Only half a dozen people or so so it’s been fine. It’s a small shop so the aisles are only about 5’ wide. I was in there the other week behind some silly bint who decided she needed to have a think about which pop she should buy. I patiently waited for about 30 seconds, asked her if she was going to decide, and just walked past her when she said she wasn’t. The daft cow looked As if she was going to have an embolism then and there, such was her rage. I just laughed at her and went about my day.
We do a 2 mile walk around our village every morning, choosing a route where it's easy to cross the road to keep social distancing. So far people have been pretty sensible and keep out of each others path, but some people, largely people out running, seem oblivious. We live on the edge of the Peak District but are avoiding the hot-spots because there is no safe way to enjoy them.
. The initial outlook was that it was only deadly to the frail and elderly, I don't know if it deliberately diverged away from that, or if the subsequent measures were intended to scare the hell out of everyone in order to maintain protection for the frail and elderly?
You're right, even as I typed it I was thinking ruin was too strong. It's a quality of life thing, at my age (60 next week) looking forward to existing just for the sake of it holds no interest, barely better than lying in bed in an old people's home frankly. I've set myself up deliberately for a low key simple life and it's looking like I won't get it. Totally selfish I know.
Called for some petrol yesterday, it's also a small co-op. 2m distances marked on the floor. Was stood behind a young couple, the guy kept looking down at the markers but every time the girl in front of them moved forward, they moved up just behind her. You can't account for stupid.
I watch the briefing every day, mainly to listen to the scientists ( certainly not the journalists ), and the message that comes across loud and clear is that they don't know a lot of the answers because the virus is still very new and data is being collected all the time. There are studies going on all around the world but a lot of the data is conflicting and sketchy at best. I must admit that I hadn't realised that there are about 50 people on the SAGE committee. That's a lot of opinions and explains why the minutes on their website are quite extensive.
Bern we are on the other side of the peak park next to the trans pennine trail. In 15 years of us living here we have never seen as many people as there have been over the last 2months.
As time goes by the only thing I can be sure of is that every day I become a little more confused. Could be old age. I don't do birthdays as such, but 60 is some kind of milestone. No thread please or I'll have to start wishing everyone else HB and posting pictures of my dinner.
Enjoying a walk along the seafront used to be or joy , but have only done it 3 times on a week day since lockdown . Now shops and takeaways and pier reopening everything’s going on ,it’s a bit like Benidorm or bust down there . Bit risky . Betty goes on bike in the early hours dodging the after marth ! Roll on winter ,I think
Are you in shielding by any chance ...if you are can you get tested earlier than most . Or insist on one .?
Its been pretty quiet up here in Cumbria over the past few months. The supermarkets have been reasonably empty and most people seem to be sensible and are keeping 2m apart. Theres always a few that will flout the rules like the family at the end of our street who had a house party last week that was broke up by the police. Went for a walk down the beach this morning as i barely see anyone there and the place was littered with empty cans, BBQ food boxes and broken glass. Always seems to be after the weekends that theres more rubbish as people must get together for a pish up. My missus is on the clinically extremely vulnerable list so was told to sheild until the end of June at the earliest. She's now been told she doesn't have to after tomorrow. No idea what, if anything has changed for them to decide that. They seem to be just making the rules up as they go and some seem to contradict themselves. My dad was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in March so him and my mum have been self isolating since then with my sis dropping off their shopping and stopping for a chat from the end of the drive. Hopefully i'll get a chance to see him at some point.
I don’t agree with the idea of locking down sooner unless they had imposed a military backed curfew total lockdown like in some countries and I just don’t think that our nation would have accepted that. The reason is that very clever scientists will have advised the government on what the length of time they could realistically hold a lock down would be before people just ignored it. Let’s say for arguments sake that’s 10 weeks. If you lockdown at the start very early, ten weeks later when people give up on it they’ll be interacting at a time of very high community infection still. You have to lock down when you’ll get the maximum benefit from it. As we’ve seen a lot of people in the last month have already been ignoring it. Imagine if they’d adopted that attitude three weeks earlier due to an early lockdown. also I’d like to remind everyone that the government at no point said, lockdown and the virus will go away. They said lockdown or we fear our hospitals might not be able to cope. They said lockdown to flatten the curve. Not lockdown to eradicate the virus. And at no point have they said once lockdown was lifted there wouldn’t still be deaths. This virus is here to stay at least for a few years. For all those blaming the scientists or the government. These people have stopped man many more people dying that would have if they’d done nothing. They’ve stopped many many more businesses going to the wall than would have if they’d done nothing. but at no point did they say they’d save every life or every job or every business. they stopped a worse peak and that’s it. From now on it’s gonna be up to all of us as a nation to apply common sense moving forward. Good hygiene and not being a dick will go a long way to getting us back to normality. Unfortunately this country has a lot of dicks. So god help us.
I’d just like to add after reading back what I typed that I dont in any way wish it to sound like the loss of anyone is not a tragedy. What I meant was in some terrible way I think we might have to accept it as how life is for a while.
[QUOTE My missus is on the clinically extremely vulnerable list so was told to sheild until the end of June at the earliest. She's now been told she doesn't have to after tomorrow. No idea what, if anything has changed for them to decide that. They seem to be just making the rules up as they go and some seem to contradict themselves..[/QUOTE] There may be good reason for that as one of my sons is working with Imperial to ascertain why some people are more susceptible than others to it. It's apparently something to do with T-cells so maybe whatever is wrong with her doesn't result in a low T-cell count so she's only as susceptible as, say, you or I. As with the rest of the world they're learning as they go along so what might appear to be good practice at one time is found out not to be later; look at the change of attitude over putting people on ventilators for example.
We should have been advised by and we should have listened to one man only - Chris Smith , he seems to be the only one I can listen to without shouting at the TV
