Coronavirus - Strange times

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bilky asko
Posts: 1400
Joined: Sat 08 Nov, 2008 19.48

cdd wrote: Mon 06 Apr, 2020 09.42 I got mine. Bizarrely, it looked like it came out of an inkjet printer.

Back to supermarket tales, my local Tesco Express has two entrances (from opposite sides) leading into an enclosed "porch" before the actual entrance. People queue, close together, inside the enclosed area.
Not too bizarre, if I ever use Docmail that's inkjet printed, for example. And inkjets are far more energy efficient than laser printers.
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Martin Phillp
Posts: 1469
Joined: Wed 11 May, 2011 01.28

My local Tesco Express has a one way system that nobody is adhering to. It's also pot luck if you have to queue or not, when I went on Sunday afternoon, I had to queue, yet today there wasn't one.

The one adult rule in Sainsbury's appears to be helping in making the time stood in a queue shorter, even if the queue continues to be long. Ironically I'll miss being able to shop instore on a Saturday afternoon without having the masses clogging the aisles.
TVF's London Lite.
all new Phil
Posts: 1965
Joined: Sun 13 Feb, 2005 00.04
Location: Next door to Hell

Is anyone else really struggling to imagine things returning to normal any time soon? There’s been a lot of talk recently of an exit strategy but it doesn’t feel like it’s even worth thinking of yet.

I have to go into work a few times a week, purely to check on the building. It’s hard to imagine what is now a cold dark building being full of people once again.

PS get well soon Boris.
thegeek
Posts: 858
Joined: Sat 04 Jun, 2005 12.35

all new Phil wrote: Tue 07 Apr, 2020 00.20 Is anyone else really struggling to imagine things returning to normal any time soon?
I'm already resigned to the fact that the schools aren't going back until September, and it's pretty unlikely we'll be going on holiday this year.

Small potatoes though - I read somewhere (it wasn't this thread, was it?) that pretty much everyone in the country would lose a second degree connection to the virus. That's happened to me already with the news of a colleague's brother dying yesterday.

It's gonna be a bit boring, but at least you can't actually die of boredom.
tightrope78
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri 27 Feb, 2015 15.35

I’m working on the assumption that we won’t be back at work (physically) until June, and even then it will be a staggered start. With regards bars, restaurants and large gatherings that probably won’t happen until September. And when September comes there’s a high chance, though not inevitable, of a second wave and therefore more lockdowns. Holiday wise we might get away in September (we have no children) but I think there’ll be huge amounts of the world where we won’t be allowed to travel to, including parts of Spain and Italy.
cwathen
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Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 17.28

tightrope78 wrote: Tue 07 Apr, 2020 12.33 I’m working on the assumption that we won’t be back at work (physically) until June, and even then it will be a staggered start. With regards bars, restaurants and large gatherings that probably won’t happen until September. And when September comes there’s a high chance, though not inevitable, of a second wave and therefore more lockdowns. Holiday wise we might get away in September (we have no children) but I think there’ll be huge amounts of the world where we won’t be allowed to travel to, including parts of Spain and Italy.
With international travel I agree, I don't think that will get back to normal for a year. If you manage to get it under control in your own country the last thing you want is to allow more cases in, or allow someone out to catch it and bring it back with them.

In terms of normality returning within the UK though, I don't see it being that far off. Coronavirus can't be the only consideration for months on end. There will come a tipping point when the damage being done to the economy and society moves from affecting livelihoods to actually costing lives in itself. There are mental health considerations to people being so isolated for that amount of time. Suicides directly caused by the lockdown measures will happen, if they haven't already.

Meanwhile whilst at present there is widespread public support for these measures, that will quickly evaporate, possibly much more quickly than the health experts are comfortable with. And once that happens where do you go? If there's no public support or consent for continuing the measures then do you really go stronger to enforce them? Whilst many nutters are going about social media sharing posts demanding 'Full Lockdown now! Get the Army Out! Shoot them!' hopefully anyone with an ounce of common sense realises that once you start justifying that sort of action you'll never put it back in the bag again and next time it won't take anything quite so serious. I don't believe there is actually the will within government to do anything like that either, which again rather time-limits the restrictions to as long as the majority of the public are willing to accept them.

At the daily briefings the press questioning has very much shifted to 'how long is this going to go on for'? in recent days. That question will only keep getting louder, in the end they'll have to answer it.

Even on Sunday when Matt Hancock was threatening banning exercise on Sunday morning, I don't think he was authorised to threaten such action; there seemed to be somewhat of a back pedal on this threat by the end of the day, followed the next day by the government advising councils AGAINST closing public parks.

I think a further extension of the lockdown to the end of April is inevitable, but from May we'll go back to where we were before it - that is restaurants, bars and pubs still shut, social distancing still being required whilst outside but most people able to go back to work and to travel around.

Meanwhile I'd expect a gradual reopening of everything else by the end of June (although I'd imagine schools will decide it's not worth it with only a few weeks of the academic year to go), with advice to follow social distancing lasting until September.
gottago
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Joined: Thu 29 Jan, 2009 19.50

cwathen wrote: Tue 07 Apr, 2020 13.23 I think a further extension of the lockdown to the end of April is inevitable, but from May we'll go back to where we were before it - that is restaurants, bars and pubs still shut, social distancing still being required whilst outside but most people able to go back to work and to travel around.
I really can't see it being as early as May. We're still some weeks behind Italy and they're unlikely to be easing any sizeable restrictions until May.
tightrope78
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Joined: Fri 27 Feb, 2015 15.35

gottago wrote: Tue 07 Apr, 2020 13.32
cwathen wrote: Tue 07 Apr, 2020 13.23 I think a further extension of the lockdown to the end of April is inevitable, but from May we'll go back to where we were before it - that is restaurants, bars and pubs still shut, social distancing still being required whilst outside but most people able to go back to work and to travel around.
I really can't see it being as early as May. We're still some weeks behind Italy and they're unlikely to be easing any sizeable restrictions until May.
Absolutely agree with you. People are impatient. This really will be the long haul. June/July but no congregating until the Autumn. The UK is not carrying out a good enough testing regime to allow a similar relaxation of the rules that we’re seeing in Austria. Some people can’t grasp that the UK is most like Italy and Spain and therefore restrictions may get tighter long before they’re relaxed.

In saying that though I do think there’s a case for reviewing the restrictions on a regional basis. Northern Ireland (where I live) and Scotland are doing quite well and the restrictions are being enforced. There is a case that places like London, Birmingham and the North West need to be treated like ‘red zones’ in Italy. It’s of course no coincidence that those places seem to be where the lockdown is most obviously being flouted.
all new Phil
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Location: Next door to Hell

Part of me is pleased that we have a government that is clearly uncomfortable with imposing strict measures on what we can and can’t do. Long term having the public on side is far better than restricting through force.
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WillPS
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Hospital admissions have yet to level off and capacity is running out.

Until those two figures yield there can't really be any loosening of restrictions, and even then it has to be extremely tentative - like allowing families to meet in their homes in groups of no more than 10.... then wait 3 weeks to see what effect that has.

What I find more likely is the restrictions being ignored to the point they are no longer useful (and all the hell that will unleash).
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cwathen
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Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 17.28

gottago wrote: Tue 07 Apr, 2020 13.32
cwathen wrote: Tue 07 Apr, 2020 13.23 I think a further extension of the lockdown to the end of April is inevitable, but from May we'll go back to where we were before it - that is restaurants, bars and pubs still shut, social distancing still being required whilst outside but most people able to go back to work and to travel around.
I really can't see it being as early as May. We're still some weeks behind Italy and they're unlikely to be easing any sizeable restrictions until May.
What will still be known by May is how effective lockdowns really are from the countries that started them earlier. China (claims to) have all but eradicated it with a lockdown, Spain and Italy have evidence that it's working, there is early evidence here that a lockdown far short of that imposed in other countries is nonetheless working, but in France the lockdown doesn't seem to be getting a handle on it at all with the number of new cases continuing to rise, and of course if Sweden continue to have no lockdown and it doesn't cause a runaway disaster then the evidence might be increasingly that lockdowns aren't an effective means of controlling it.

As I said, it's not necessarily about the point at which Coronavirus ceases to be such a threat which will end the restriction, it's the point at which other considerations and risks overtake the threat from it, and IMO the latter is a hell of a lot closer than the former.
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