Time for a Full Lockdown Now ?
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Having listened to a Manchester A&E doctor and a North Wales nurse on Radio 5 Live last night, together with the twitter appeal by South Wales hospitals for people to help turning covid patients, UK wide our NHS is in a perilous position. There is no easy solution, but a UK wide total lockdown now might just help stem the spread and give the NHS a chance to cope. Draconian and inconvenient but necessary.
Completely agree. People cannot play by the rules so take away their toys.
Neighbours went to England for the sales. Enough said I am bouncing.
The problem is we’re already supposed to be in the most serious Level 4 lockdown that is available in Wales – apparently equivalent to the lockdown from March but it’s literally business as usual for most people.
As you say, people are travelling wherever they please and seeing who they please quite simply because the rules are completely unenforceable.
The entirely bombastic tones being delivered from Westminster and the media about the vaccines (good news focus) and the suppression and trivialisation of negative stories about deaths and hospital admissions means the public’s resolve for living with restrictions has vanished and we are sleepwalking into an American infection style scenario.
Let’s face it even the rapidly increasing infection number in Wrexham isn’t bothering or worrying most people round here.
I’m not quite sure what it will take to get things under wraps, as even if Johnson announced a full lockdown across the UK – the cat is already out of the bag so to speak.
Matt – fully agree some people are behaving as if they have already had the vaccination and are now back in ‘business as usual’. When you see the pleas from hospitals who are desperate to get staff and volunteers from anywhere it shows how bad the situation is.
Till we have a vaccine and hopefully the Oxford one by the end of the week — the logistic however will mean we will be into March before we can say we have a mass number of people vaccinated- and until then everyone needs to adhere to the guidance- don’t mix more than your bubble and don’t travel unnecessary.
Hospitals are at bursting point and they don’t even have the fall out from the Christmas infections caused with mixing over the weekend. Wrexham will no doubt be close to 1000 by the end of the week.I am afraid that people ignoring the threat posed by the virus is a fact of life now (the irony!). Many simply don’t care because they believe they are of an age where they will simply shake it off after a few days of minor inconvenience if they catch it, so carry on and ignore it. Any traumas will be for others to deal with, not them. For others, who lack the means to understand, the only answer for them is denial. That way there is nothing to worry about. Simples.
The trouble is, a lockdown is largely unenforceable and people know it and so you have to rely on everyone acting responsibly. And that will never work. The police were never intended to police lockdowns. Their numbers have been run down following years of underfunding and are now further reduced due to some of their front-line staff contracting the virus (the same for all services at the sharp end). And we will never have another lockdown as effective as the one in March because businesses cannot close down like that again, and because people have become accustomed to living with them and what they can get away with.
Even on a local scale, you see houses with 5 or 6 cars parked outside over the festive period. They clearly don’t think any restrictions apply to them. They’re something for others, not them it seems. It will be interesting to see how sensible people will be on New Year’s Eve. Hospital staff must be dreading January.
A national lockdown on the run-in to full vaccination after the Oxford vaccine is declared safe won’t eradicate the virus, nothing will, but it has to at least help ease hospital congestion at a crucial time. And let’s face it, a national position would make it easier for people to understand and accept than the current position. It might just make it less convenient for the deniers. And anyway, would it make that much difference to people’s lives? I mean surely, the extent of life for the majority of us these days is very restricted, in social terms. It’s a great time to be alive I know, but it’s better than the alternative.
Why are the BBC in England so surprised by ambulances stacking up outside hospitals, with patients in the back ? Had they taken any interest in Wales they would know that has been a common occurrence here for years, so much so , that little comment is made about it anymore unless it becomes a dozen or more.
Sorry but lockdowns are not working, people are going to do what they want. Unless they make it illegal for people to move around unless its necessary it want work.
People have got weary of the effort is takes to stick to the rules. It is just like sticking to a diet, giving up smoking, learning a language or taking up exercise, it requires a level of application that most of us just cannot manage, even though to do so is for our own benefit. Combine this with those who have to mix at work or in education, winter weather, those in denial, those who think they are immune and those who think rules only apply to other people, the result is a laxer regime, more transmission and increasing R rates.
People blame the BBC, but the deniers and rule breakers don’t engage with the mainstream; they tend to be those who live in their own echo chambers getting their news from the ill-informed and spreading their own misinformation.Iona you link to other types of activity that people start and then drop due to lack of will power and personal motivation even when their own life could be at stake. Many people will in a few days be making New Years resolutions that most will break before the end of January.
The return to school next week is a real worry due to the spread that was showing up within schools just before Christmas. As the new virus spreads more easily schools are at risk of becoming a the breading ground and spreading centres. The testing at secondary schools seems a nonsense to expect it to be fully operational at the start of the term. It is no wonder the school Unions are worried for their members and pupils.
Time for martial law to enforce the lockdown. Might be harsh but nothing else is working.
Australia are tossing out party going uk back packers but we threaten a small fine at best.
Get the armies on the streets and let’s give them a kick up their selfish arses!
Teachers who have been self isolating will go back to classes where families have been prats
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