R number up, new lockdown threatened

Surely we can exist without holidays for a year? I can't understand why so many people have already forgotten there is a pandemic going on.

The virus doesn't move about - it's the people who do. .

It may not be as bad for younger people to get infected but then again it might. The point is we don't know.
The long term effects seem to be damaged lungs, weakness and fatigue. (we know a young policeman who had the virus back in April and he is not properly well again)

Incidentally nursing homes in Sweden have been giving patients morphine rather than resuscitating oxygen. I am not sure I want to be living there right now.

mercatornet.com/did-covid-19-open-the-door-to-euthanasia-in-sweden/63962/

Living with uncertainty is a lesson we need to learn - along with disappointment.

there was nothing to stop people going into their own lockdown if they thought that the Govt were leaving it too late.
Nothing except the certainty of losing their job if they did that.

Most people weren't paying close attention to how this was going in other countries and it was being played down by our government, so why would they decide to take that huge step into joblessness?

I hope that research is underway into how people of working age are being affected by covid, now that business is opening up again, and that local lockdowns can perhaps be avoided.

www.itv.com/news/2020-08-23/dossier-reveals-worst-case-scenario-if-no-deal-brexit-and-second-covid-wave-coincide

if second wave and No Deal collide - we will be in REAL big trouble

Well silversurf count me out of your theory that the economy is more important than lives.I'd guess you haven't lost anyone during the past months.Sadly thats not the case for many of us,my family have lost 12 people ,family,friends families,workmates the son of a good friend people aged from 34 to 88 .I'd prefer us NOT to lose anyone else thank you.The economy will recover in time we cant have our friends back

"A government spokesperson said the document “reflects a responsible government ensuring we are ready for all eventualities”."

Trying to avoid these eventualities would be good too.

Grammaretto: what I find very chilling is the number of people holding up Sweden as an example of a country handling the pandemic sensibly. Even my hairdresser the other week said she couldn’t understand why we had to go into lockdown given that Sweden hadn’t and their handling of the pandemic had been more successful than ours.

......^but there was nothing to stop people going into their own lockdown if they thought that the Govt were leaving it too late. Can't we take personal responsibility any more^

Many of us did just that, but it is commonly accepted that cancelling Cheltenham and that football match could have saved many many lives in the first weeks.

Think back to that last week before lockdown!

People were taken by surprise. They'd read about Italy, but blamed Italians for living together in multigenerational households and being in the habit of hugging each other. They didn't think it could happen here in the UK.

People were worried about getting their hair done and legs waxed and stripping the supermarkets bare of toilet rolls and pasta. I wonder how many people were infected in those last few days in their desperation to do things which weren't very important.

The government has said that it delayed lockdown because it thought people would tire of the restrictions. I don't understand the logic of that. Sure, people did tire of the restrictions (and some people didn't stick to them anyway), but tiring of them a few days earlier wouldn't have had the same effect which delay did.

Many people just didn't take it seriously and they had very poor role models ... and, yes, people were worried about losing income.

Sadly FarNorth I don't think the government does have much understanding how it's affecting individuals and communities.

When the s*tstorm of Brexit hits mainly the same communities which will suffer most from the Covid fallout, I really do hope that the people who "lent" the Conservatives their vote see them for what they are.