For everyone who's bending the rules!

If only they would!

GrannyRose15

MayBee70

But it did work because the r rate came down.

But it didn't get rid of the virus. It didn't give the NHS enough time to prepare for a bad winter. Instead it caused untold damage to the economy, family relationships, mental health and our democracy and still didn't prevent the chaos we are seeing today in our hospitals. Lockdowns don't work.

We'll never get rid of the virus. The only disease we have ever completely eradicated is smallpox.

Lockdowns are a way of keeping infections as low as possible until we have other things in place that will help us manage the virus to an extent that is acceptable to the general public.

Its nearly a year since the first outbreak in the UK and we are still being told that its our fault if the NHS is overwhelmed, but as far as I can see the governments in the UK have done nothing to shore up NHS services. I know you can't just magic up nurses, but there must be something we could have done to prepare for a second wave.

Maybe somebody with better knowledge of the NHS than me would be able to tell me what would have helped?

I used to chat to a young mum on the bus in the summer, who worked at The Range.
They had one fridge freezer in the shop, which meant they could stay open, and she had to leave her young child and work there as a "keyworker".

I think the problem was Alegrias1 that over the summer the NHS was trying to catch-up with all the cancelled operations and treatments due to the first lockdown (according to several senior Healthcare Professionals that we know)

More nurses and doctors are coming through the system, but it’s a long training period.

Thanks GG13.

This is not criticism of the NHS at all - more criticism of the government. I think most of us knew that there would be a second wave, is there nothing they could have done to prepare? Maybe they did, I just don't know about it.

BTW - DH and I have had to use the NHS twice over the past year and both times the attention and treatment we got was excellent.

Wellness, very confused, walking is a good thing surely? We go out with our dog every day, come into contact with no one, and see no one in between walks how is that risky behaviour to ourselves or others?

GrannyRose15 The first lockdown worked while it was happening but as soon as it was lifted people went bak yto living exactly as they had previously, which wasn't enough to keep the impetus that the lockdown had given us. There was a feeling that the worst was over and we could relax and get together again. It wasn't, and we couldn't.

The time while everyone was kept at home, watching TV or the internet, should have been filled with "Public Service Announcements" getting information rammed home about how we would all have to continue taking the utmost care not to spread the virus.

is there nothing they could have done to prepare? Maybe they did, I just don't know about it.

I know that nurses and doctors who were newly qualified were being trained in ICU procedures, but my knowledge relates to only one hospital. Presumably it happened elsewhere.
I also know that experienced nurses and doctors were trained in ICU procedures in readiness but that, of course would mean taking them away from their other duties.

As operations were not going ahead anaesthetists were redeployed to ICU.
The partnership between the NHS and MoD means service medics can be called upon.

Not all patients require IC treatment.

Duck Daftbag1, duck, you’ll get lambasted for that view by many on here, trust me , I know!!!!

Thanks for the info Callistemon

GrannyRose But it didn't work last time did it even though far more people were compliant. If it had worked we wouldn't need another one.

Of course a lockdown works .... look at the figures last summer .... but unfortunately people rush out each time the lockdown ends and get together and get apathetic about wearing masks, hand washing and distancing, and then we are back to square one. Your reasoning is illogical.

Nanna58

Duck Daftbag1, duck, you’ll get lambasted for that view by many on here, trust me , I know!!!!

Nanna why? We are still allowed to leave the house for exercise, at the moment!

Nanna58, I was puzzled by your comment as well.

Mary doll, what an offence comment. Listen to the people who walk on the front line if you wish, they are saying people are not obeying the rules but interpreting them as they wish. You don’t have to be a curtain twitcher, just observant. You do as you wish.

Sparkling, What are on earth are you talking abou?. No way was it meant to be offensive.
I have been shielding for nine months. All of my neighbours have been here for twenty five years. They know my circumstances. A new neighbour reported me to the police for having visitors during lockdown. The police arrived and were horrified to find the visitors were actually my daughter and son in law, who are my carers and bringing essential shopping and medication!
That was what I meant by curtain twitcher. ?

I find your post offensive! Perhaps think before you jump in to attack someone who is just home from hospital, after suffering a heart attack!!

What is it that posters on here object to about going for walks? Is it the duration of the walk, the distance, the possibility of passing other people, or the potential for falling over?

Maybe a mixture of all or any of those. Chris Witty on TV this morning said we should ask ourselves every time we are going out, "do I really need to do this".

More shops being allowed to open means less furlough to pay.

Grannygravy13 B&M have an extensive range of food products in their stores, several aisles of everyday foodstuffs, although nothing fresh, so do Poundland, or they certainly do in Oxfordshire, which means they probably carry even more in less affluent areas. These shops are essential to the least well off in society.

Alegiras Small pox has been eliminated but polio is very close to elimination. The only places where it is still present is a few enclaves in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

To be clear, by blaming people who ignore the rules, it certainly doesn't follow that I support the government. It's not an either/or situation.

The government are liable, to a large extent, for the tragic mess we're in right now.

Too little, too late, u-turns, confused messages, half measures etc. (need I go on?). It's been like watching a train crash in slow motion.

Still, whatever the government, the public are liable too, in general (not all of us, of course).

I don't necessarily agree that the majority are doing their best to comply. Where's the evidence?

I have friends, neighbours and relatives who openly admit to breaking the rules a little - yet declare they're using 'common sense'. I despair.

I have eyes, so I witness the behaviour of others, when I walk the dog. I stay well clear of them now, cross the road or change direction - just to avoid any interaction.

I know a nurse who works on a Covid ward. She's dead on her feet, overwhelmed and broken. She's planning to leave nursing.

The NHS was understaffed before Covid. My D a newly qualified nurse was put in charge of a ward of seriously ill patients with other staff looking to her for guidance. She found it stressful and worrying. What if two or more of her patients became very ill at the same time? Who would she help as senior staff were in other parts of the hospital and it would take time for them to respond.

She found the same situation in two other hospitals.
They didn't have enough staff then so no wonder they are struggling so much now.

Hetty for all of us our evidence can only be anecdotal and local. In my area and the places I shop there is high level of adherence to the rules. Our incidence of COVID is and has always been well below average, although with the current variance of the disease it is much higher than three months ago. I live in a highly populated rural area, with large villages awash with new estates, many science and warehouse parks and it includes a town that has the highest poverty rate in the county.

As I said, our evidence can only be anecdotal, although in my case the staistics for the area support what I see.

People talk about the briefings on tv and what we are told but it occurs to me that a lot of the people flouting the rules would never watch bbc tv much less a news programme. What they need are celebrities - reality stars rappers influencers etc - going on social media telling it like it is
.the briefing advice is surely often preaching to the converted

M0nica

Hetty for all of us our evidence can only be anecdotal and local. In my area and the places I shop there is high level of adherence to the rules. Our incidence of COVID is and has always been well below average, although with the current variance of the disease it is much higher than three months ago. I live in a highly populated rural area, with large villages awash with new estates, many science and warehouse parks and it includes a town that has the highest poverty rate in the county.

As I said, our evidence can only be anecdotal, although in my case the staistics for the area support what I see.

I didn't realise you live in Barnsley, which is the town currently with the highest poverty rate in the country.

I didn't realise you live in Barnsley, which is the town currently with the highest poverty rate in the country.

M0nica said the highest poverty rate in the county - I assume she means her county.