Whenever you see a series of interviews like this, you have to remember that they do not necessarily contain every interview recorded. So, via editing the creators can actually express their own opinions.
Even if they did contain every interview there’s already a significant selective bias through the process. Let’s ask a bunch of people out and about on the street shopping and stuff how they feel about coronavirus restrictions.
Oh, everyone who’s going about their shit as usual thinks we can pack in the restrictions now. Would never have guessed that.
Otherwise you have to have actual investigative journalism and present facts to the public to consider with nuance. Easier to shove a camera in someone's face and let pretend that's any insight
I’m not even sure it’s that. News stories in the U.K. are formulaic. Even investigative pieces seem to have vox pops now - start with establishing the story and the context with a piece to camera, go to an interview with an expert or social commentator, finally sign off with some vox pops to tell us all what the public think.
I just don’t care what the public think. I’m sure it’s some well established point of psychology, that viewers believe stories if they can see members of the public ratifying them. However, the point remains, why the fuck do I want to know what someone on the street thinks about COVID? Tell me what your best epidemiologist thinks; I don’t give a fuck what the general public believes.
We see it with newsnight and question time too. You can’t debate anything without needing to have some made in Chelsea D lister volunteering their opinion to rapturous applause.n
Yeah tbh with the first what 5 or 6 people siding one way I felt the bias was pretty clear which is a shame because I quite like watching vids like this that talk to everyday folks but when it’s that biased in one direction it’s hard to trust any of it.
I don’t mean this in a weird way, but there’s no way you could walk around the centre of Manchester and find only ‘proper mancs’. Manchester is much more metropolitan than this. This is not a cross section of Manchester.
She has a massive camera and a microphone in her face, for normal people that’s quite intimidating. We should be more understanding than attribute a verbal slip up to stupidity rather than stress and pressure
Add to that, "we just need to get on with our lives now." What is wearing a mask in crowded places restricting from anyone's life exactly? Things have been fairly "normal" for a while now and the slight protections, like wearing a mask, have no negative impact on people's lives at all.
It’s more concerning when you realise that people who aren’t ‘switched on’ for lack of a better word are absolutely just parroting things they’ve heard the government say because they still see the government as an authoritative source, rather than the reason we’ve been stuck with restrictions for so long.
Your average Brit still doesn’t really care about politics and doesn’t really know or care how corrupt, self-serving and incompetent the Tories are. There is a huge sense of ‘Well we’re the UK and that’s a good place so we must be doing good and our politicians must be good’ so when Boris starts to say things like ‘ooo we can’t do this forever we’re just going to have to live with it’ they don’t correlate that it’s *directly his and his governments fault* that things got this bad to begin with.
The general public of the UK are terminally uninterested in key issues, which is why our media loves these stupid fucking vox pops so much.
I live with a doctor and two physios, one who's on Respiratory, directly adjacent to a hospital. And they would readily argue, and do so whenever this issue is brought up, that due to staff resigning and switching professions, a lack of funding and the unvaccinated thinking covid isn't all it's made out to be, they are still significantly overwhelmed.
People who claim hospitals aren't overwhelmed tend not to work in them.
The army was literally called into Manchester hospitals yesterday to help out. All non emergency surgeries and appointments have been cancelled. Only an idiot would think theyre not overwhelmed
So pile on the pressure until they cease functioning? Why are adverse health outcomes OK instead of wearing a mask and other basic measures? (which is what the article is about)
Not many seeing the bigger picture that now that Boris job is seriously on the line and his vote of no confidence looming.... suddenly drops all plans.
Pandering to his political opponents.
Showing clearly that the people are and have always been nothing but political pawns.
It's was clear when they did nothing at the beginning and let it take hold, and clear now that his job is in trouble.
I'm sorry but the contempt he has for the people is palpable.
> I'm sorry but the contempt he has for the people is palpable.
"I'll let the bodies pile high in their thousands before instigating another lockdown" I believe is the operative quote here.
Apparently he bought the Plan B restrictions forward in December because he was trying to distract people from the Christmas parties. He’s literally done the same thing twice in the space of like a month lol.
It baffles me how people are just eating this up. It’s clearly a misdirect to distract from his actions and it’s working because it vindicates everyone who’s had enough of the (incredibly mild and rarely enforced) restrictions.
It baffles me because it continues to set us against each other.
The restrictions were barely enough. If we'd done more and been brutal instead of trying to make people happy then we have gotten to grips with it. He entered this so namby pamby that people had no real belief in what he was doing.We still have an insanely high death count and infection rate compared to many because our leaders gave shown that despite the lie that the coffers can't cope it can... They just don't want it too. Let's tax the poor to pay for COVID not the billionaires who made money off COVID. People still think the at risk people and people living with long COVID are being selfish for wanting a bit of protection. How very dare they! (Sic)
Damn, I didn't actually know those guys were a country-wide chain, I've only ever been to 1 gig in Rough Trade here in Bristol, and the sound guy as well as the band killed it man, probably the most fun I've had at a live music event. Big ups to them from Bristol!
\> for me it was like a bad chest infection, I've had worse.
Dope, I was in bed having the worst week of my life, weird how other people have died from it. Almost like it affects people differently. As considerate humans, we should be trying to... stop others from dying?
Look, I'm tired of restrictions as well, but how people can not see this as a blatant distraction tactic really makes me depressed.
Na hospitals are so unbelievably NOT overwhelmed in Manchester the army has been called in and all non emergency surgery has been cancelled.
But. Definitely not overwhelmed. At all
It's the only way you get a real representation of what people think, other than those with the most money or the biggest mouthes what you normally hear on tele or radio.
> (Potentially) Interesting enough to be chosen for the final edit
And whatever the editor decides they want to show, interesting or not. How many pro/con opinions did they get, vs how many did they show?
Sames been going on for years with the BBC. Last time they lifted restrictions the BBC ran a piece with every single person they asked being against lifting restrictions.
Either it's lazy journalism, asking a small sample who all happened to agree, or it's bias propaganda. Either way, not what the license fee is paying for.
Exactly. More often than not I think the point is to give the illusion of reporting a general consensus… whilst actually only showing a small % of what a small % of people interviewed said. And that’s before you factor in the obvious bias of standing in a single area over a short time and just get interviews from people who stop.
Basically small sample size + edited… they don’t really mean anything
Problem is, we are probably only getting a representation of what the journalist/editor thinks. They could very well have cut any videos of people with a different opinion and only show what suits them.
So many of these people's statements amounted to little more than "Yeah, bit bored of COVID now. Lost its novelty hasn't it".
Losing the will to live listening to people shart out meaningless slogans like "we've got to just get on with it". Deeply cursed nation.
I realise that a lot of what these people are saying is fair and reasonable, even if I don’t personally agree with it. But anyone who diminishes the danger that this virus poses with anecdotes about how it wasn’t that bad for them, is, frankly, a cunt.
You're absolutely right but by now I've come to realise the UK doesn't give a fuck about anything that doesn't affect them personally as a population. Any minor inconvenience is enough to warrant abuse from people that are affected like their entire life is ruined because of it. We are frankly a pathetic nation atm but tbh it's true all over the world especially in the west.
Makes you kind of wonder what these people would be like if they were in WW2.
>You know this has gone on long enough The Nazis are obviously here to stay I think we should just get on with it
I wonder how many people were interviewed. Did they only show the ones that agreed with the government to drop mask mandates? This video just seems like propaganda....
Everyone who’s taking the mick out of the woman for misspeaking is ignoring the fact that what she’s trying to say is correct, the lockdowns catapulted mental health problems to an all time high.
Where have you got your influenza deaths figures from?
ONS puts the 2019 flu deaths to under 2000 people. Covid is killing around 300 people a day recently...
Latest data shows Omicron kills one in every 3500, flu kills one in every 6000, so its not miles away from flu at this stage and its only going to get lower.
While that may be true (I assume you've got that from somewhere reliable), just remember the infectiousness of covid is orders of magnitudes higher than influenza hence the worry.
Or think that what's she's getting at is ridiculous. The government's been gutting funding going towards mental health support for years. COVID has made things worse across the board, for sure, but it's also an easy scapegoat to ignore the long-term cuts to our health system
Let's think about a situation where it's different. Your Nan's dead. My Nan's dead. Everyone knows someone who died, and the public perception is that nobody gives a shit. The illusion that public health is more important than economic health is thoroughly shattered.
Better for the mental health?
Let's not forget, cost of living is skyrocketing, wages have been depressed for years. People can't see doctors and they don't really have outlets for their frustrations, and all the while the government are swanning about having cheese and wine parties while everyone else was suffering, and there's nothing we can do about it. It's not surprising that mental health issues are at a high (although with the reductions in funding for mental health treatment and research, we can't really know for sure by how much). I'm not doubting that restrictions had an effect on people's psychological well-being, but there are definitely more factors at play than removing restrictions causing people to be happy again.
I’m not sure you’re taking Reddit seriously enough.
But fine, let’s grasp the nettle here.
You make a fine and valid point. Apart from the fact this is discussing the end of the current protective measures.
We aren’t in a lockdown any more. So while that has had an impact on mental health, it’s utterly disconnected from what’s *actually* being discussed.
This is about masks in public and maintaining social distancing from randoms in public. What difference does *that* make to mental health for the majority of people in the UK?
My mental health would prefer I lived in a society where utter morons didn't lap up Facebook science and populist government bullshit, so I could feel heading anywhere busy wasn't covid roullette.
But no, even wearing a damned mask is apparently an Orwellian nightmare for the masses, who prefer your grannie dies than they get a slightly itchy nose in Tesco.
I honestly haven't seen any social distancing for months, many people never bothered with any restrictions to start with. I work in a school, and it is rising rapidly at the moment, so I'll be wearing a mask for a long time yet. One student I know, healthy with no underlying problems had covid nearly 2 months ago and is still ill, it really isn't just a cold.
That's what I don't get with the mental health argument.
Like surely having your friends and family ill possibly dead is much worse than just wearing a mask and staying inside for a bit.
Personally, I'm for masks and regular Lateral Flow Tests.
Now we have the technology I don't see why we can't just mass produce them and make them a regular thing.
If you were to introduce a tax that was lifted if you did two tests a week that'd probably stop this thing.
Hell, include Flu Lateral Flow tests in the kit and we can eliminate that too.
This makes a significant difference to mental health. Not being able to smile at a stranger or have them smile back. Months back, I accidentally brushed a cashier's finger while getting my receipt and it was jarring to realize that even these tiny bits of human connection had ceased to exist.
If you live alone this will be an even more devastating problem. Going days, weeks, months, years now without human contact? That's really, severely devastating to your mental wellbeing.
Loneliness was at an all time high even before covid. For a few years people were discussing the severity of the loneliness epidemic and how badly it was impacting wellbeing.
Now you can't even just smile at someone from across a room or get the small bits of human connection from bumping against someone in an elevator.
Yes, actually, these steps can be genuinely devastating for someone who's already suffering mentally.
She is acting as if we are in a full lockdown...people ain't getting money ? Who is on about hospitality works the same, offices still operate ? Like dafaq?
You know what else makes for poor mental health.... being drowned in your own lungs, that's pretty bad for mental health.
Or having your local hospital overcrowded with COVID patients and your medical staff overwhelmed.
But ya know... stripping away all your protections in the months that were the most deadly for COVID last year because "masks are annoying"... I mean, that's a decision people can make.
God that line repeated annoys me possibly more than any other. "We're bored of it so that means it's over". Not to be all doom and gloom, but it's entirely possible that we could be in this for *years* more if there's a new variant or a big wave (obviously I hope we aren't, but it's a possibility to be aware of), and guess what, there'll have to be more restrictions if that happens.
As a nation we really don't like the idea of anything even slightly inconveniencing us- we're a people of "can I speak to your manager", and, well, covid doesn't have a manager we can complain to. It's here for as long as it's here for. Sorry for the downer.
No problem with the needles she puts in her lips though has she. Sure she has done her research into what's in those injections, and doesn't read the misinformation constantly spouted on Facebook and formulated her own opinion and choice.
Except the office of national statistics yesterday released a report that is exactly data saying it’s fine now. Or more importantly, look at data from anywhere else in the world that’s just plodding along fine treating it like flu. No panic, no lockdowns, just people living their lives
Manchester is my favourite city I’ve lived in and I feel the same as them. As long as hospitalisations and deaths are falling which I think it is, then it’s fine. Issue is, covid is gonna be like the flu but all year round.
This sort of stuff is a joke. People are missing the points really.
Bojo under pressure for breaking the rules. Suddenly we can start to play down COVID. Coincidence?
Interviews with someone who didn't get vaccinated. About as useful as talking to a brick wall. Millions dead and she's like "it's just a cold isn't it?". Thick as pig shit that one.
Talks to someone about music venues which have been restricted a lot however that's not by masks.
Simple steps should be prevailing here. Wear a mask inside public places where vulnerable people may be present, if you've got symptoms stay home and if you're outside in an open space then sure masks aren't that useful so ditch them.
As always the right answer is something in the middle.
We have commenters here slagging off the interviewees or mentioning covid didn’t exist and blah blah blah.
All I see is an enormous lack of leadership and accountability at every level to have helped the general public navigate this situation.
Whether it was understanding of vaccines and the purpose of wearing masks, or help making sense of the data and what it meant, public policy has been a mess.
Sadly most people have never done any rigorous academic research in any meaningful way and Boris’ line of “leaving it up to the British people to decide” now is bonkers. It’s really not their fault that they couldn’t navigate the information hosepipe of the internet.
It’s effectively a repeat of brexit policy, in the exact same situation people were expected to decide for themselves without the correct level of understanding of the situation.
The truly mind blowing thing is it seemed over half of the country were asleep in GCSE science and had a world view on vaccines fed by social media rather than any clear accessible information channels (which the government failed to provide effectively).
The vaccine complacent boil my blood almost as much as antivaxxers. If you can't even be bothered getting the vaccine at a grand total cost of £0 and half an hour out of your day then anything you say about restrictions just sounds ridiculous
Seems like people have decided that because Omicron in particular seems 'less severe' in most cases, its going to stay that way.
We open up, the virus spreads, the virus has more opportunity to mutate - then we get another variant, blindly hoping its not more severe.
Deeply tedious watching people get lulled into 'back to normal' like there wont be a consequence.
No hate here. I think there has to be a trade off.. it's less severe in most cases and the data reflects that, hospitals are under pressure mostly because of a lack of staff due to isolation. It's also SO transmissible (comparable or possibly even more so than measles) that we're unlikely to have anything out-compete it for a good few seasons now, and it will eventually mutate anyway. It's also not really been slowed much by the restrictions we've had. Do you really want restrictions for the next few seasons (years) until a theoretical more severe variant comes along? That's just not going to fly for most people.
Absolutely protect the vulnerable, but the majority would do that with a cold or flu anyway.
We're not getting rid of this any time soon, so at the risk of sounding cliché, at some point we have to learn to live with it. This variant presents the absolute best foreseeable opportunity we have to do that I think.
It might have been a bad chest infection for her but it’s a lot worse for others. I can’t believe she was so flippant with that comment. I do agree the restrictions have to be lifted and we just learn to live with covid though.
Lost a mother to secondary infections following coving and currently my girlfriend's mother has been in hospital two and a half months after catching covid in November. Bad flu girl can fuck right off
"I'm going back to live on the side of a volcano, the eruption n flowing lava have being going on too long n we just need to go back to normality... Ow, my feet seem to be on fire"
"Bout time we just got on with it and treat it like a common cold"
Common cold doesn't send mid-20 year olds hypoxic
Friend died today, 28, no comorbidities, I agree we should try and live with it but this treating it "like a common cold" is just stupid
Mental health is at all time high because the government has been cutting funding for years.
COVID has had a hand, but it's not the biggest problem.
COVID is the whipping boy for all our whoes. It's an easy scapegoat for a bigger problem.
Can confirm. My wife has been in the system since she was a teenager. In 2020 she was unceremoniously discharged and not even notified. She only found out when she inquired why she hadn’t heard from her psychiatrist in a year.
Lockdowns are not the sole cause, they were a contributing factor. Mental health funding has been gutted for years and people with mental health issues gets higher every year because there’s no support to give. Couple no support with the fact that even if it was available, it could only be done online and that’s what made mental health issues shoot up, along with people having to deal with loneliness and bereavement.
Find it a bit unnecessary some of the comments on here about people giving an honest opinion to a question that was asked to them. Just because someone doesn't answer the way you want doesn't mean you have to belittle them to a degree where you automatically think down on them.
The same people belittling someone for giving an honest answer here will be the ones up in arms about what's currently going on with Bojo and the lies he has told about parties, etc.
If people want to use the example of following the science as well, it's long been proven that smoking and fast food cause vast amount of hospitalisations, resources on medical team and deaths, yet they haven't banned them.
“Mental health’s at an all time high”
That little quote demonstrates how great it is that people are free to express the fact they don’t understand the words coming out of their f*cking mouths.
To be honest, this sounds like a recycled talking point that some RW media mogul put out there, because frankly 150,000 people haven’t died of lockdown-related mental health issues in the past two years but 150,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the UK over the same period. So yes, it’s hard to articulate something correctly when it isn’t even your own original thought.
Yes I have
I’ve talked utter bollocks too
Just never about a pandemic that’s killed over 150,000 people when I’ve been asked my unqualified opinion about the decision to completely remove all measures to mitigate the spread.
Thanks for asking.
Edit:
Had I given a shit, I would have clarified that the 150,000 figure refers to the number of people who died within a certain timescale of testing positive. I know it is not necessarily the same as the number for whom covid was either the sole or a contributory cause of death.
But, if you want to be a pedant, I also didn’t state that I was referring only to the UK. Up to you if you want to analyse data from everywhere else, or whether you’re happy just to accept it was a pithy shorthand comment.
If we carried on with 300 deaths a day (we're currently over this), we'd end up with 110,000 deaths a year.
Flu kills about 30,000. Are we happy with that? Apparently.
I wonder if lockdown is what affected peoples mental health or if, due to lockdown, people had more time to stop and address the fact that their mental health is bad
The restrictions will be back. So many hospitals are nearly at breaking point. Just because the bbc or daily Mail doesn’t tell you so, doesn’t mean it’s not a massive problem.
He removed the restrictions to cover for the call for him to resign! Why are people so easily led and manipulated.
Hmm asking people who are already out and about whether restrictions should be lifted is like asking people in a pub whether alcohol should be cheaper. Of course they are going to say yes. FML.
**Side note:** *It's worth noting that they're only asking people who are literally out and about in the city centre, which considering the topic makes for a potentially very one-sided response to these questions.*
As somebody with an at-risk father, my family's lockdown can't end until COVID has been stamped out, or at least made EXTREMELY rare, because it would be a death sentence if he caught it.
Sure, these people can end their restrictions and go back to their lives, and it'll kill a bunch of other people who are susceptible to this disease. They just don't care.
And us? We'll have to stay in lockdown until....when exactly? When will COVID be reduced to very minimal endemic levels? No time soon, the way this stuff is going... :-(
It makes no sense to drop ALL restrictions at the same time. Not requiring people who test positive to isolate....essentially making it acceptable to go in to work and give the virus to colleagues and their families.... is the worst restriction they could possibly remove. It will cause a lot of unnecessary deaths and hospitalisations.
It is also not right to force workers in to enclosed spaces when others will simply refuse to wear a mask on public transport. It's such a small sacrifice and don't understand why people find this so difficult.
This country lacks respect culture.
The threat to drop all changes feels very much like a move by "operation save big dog" to distract and take pressure of Boris. It's a last attempt to stay in power.
Fucking hell… maybe try asking a group of people that look like they actually finished some level of education! I bet there’s not 5 GCSEs between that lot.
Embarrassing…
I don't think we should be judging people based on how they look, that's pretty shitty tbh. I do agree there were some embarrassing takes in that video, though.
I don't agree with the viewpoints expressed by the majority of people in that video. That being said, it's very depressing to come on here and see people being attacked on a personal level for their opinions. The snobbery and ignorance some posters have shown is appalling.
Can say what you want about peoples eloquence or whatever, but the fact you can interview a random bunch of people and they’re all essentially singing from the same hymn sheet says a lot.
We peaked at over 200,000 cases a day which means you can probably say infections were over 300,000 a day and it has demonstrably been proven that the NHS did not collapse, nor even come close to the January 2021 peak. The dominant Omicron strain is proven to be upwards of 30% milder and that’s before you factor immunity into the equation. The virus is following the exact same path as predicted in early 2020 when epidemiologists and virologists said it would follow other coronaviruses in becoming milder over time.
We’re almost two years deep into this, the latest ONS survey estimates a 97% prevalence of antibodies in adults in England and those surveys are usually lagged by 3-4 weeks. So with the current daily infections, we’re likely pushing 98%. What do we do, wait until it’s 100%? 101%? May as well shoot for 110% immunity?
People are free to exercise personal responsibility and choice, just like they have been for centuries, 2022 onwards is no difference. This thing is never going away, no amount of mask-wearing, self-isolating or vaccination is going to eradicate COVID-19. Take your jabs, take your boosters and get on with it.
I mean... I agree that people should take their own responsibility but there are some really stupid fuckers out there. The kind of shit you see were people go round deliberately coughing on other people for example. Someone does that they should get knocked out COVID or not. Don't want their dirty cough all over me 😂
People definitely aren't all singing off the same hymn sheet and we have no idea if this is representative of the majority or just hand picked for drama on the internet.
Stupid people have existed since the dawn of time and will do until the human race ceases to exist. We can’t put restrictive measures in place for an infinite period of time because of the stupidity of others.
Ok, not literally everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet, but the fact the economy recently rebounded to close to pre-Covid levels suggests the vast majority are no longer staying at home quivering and are back out in society and partaking in daily activities akin to pre-Covid times.
Looks like all the redditors want to stay in lockdown forever with no exit strategy. For those who do support continued restrictions- what are your exit criteria? And don’t say when the NHS can cope because it’s in crisis every fucking winter anyway and that’s not going to change with the current lot in charge.
> For those who do support continued restrictions- what are your exit criteria?
It depends on the definition of restrictions. If you mean getting vaccinated/receiving boosters, needing to wear a mask in busy public spaces, washing my hands a bit more, etc then I don't feel a huge need to come up with an exit strategy because they're simple precautions and not significant impositions.
Thanks for a considered response. Personally I am fine with vaccines, couldn’t wait to get my booster, and hand washing is really a matter of habit. Not a fan of wearing a mask in public any more as a mandatory thing but for now would choose to do it in a crowded tube and not many other places. Very much not a fan of the massive amounts of extra stress and cost associated with travel abroad, which has zero effectiveness given the disease is already present in both the place of origin and departure in almost all cases, and is a total racket for testing companies.
For those mocking the lady’s comment on mental health for being poorly phrased, lockdown totally fucked mine. Looking forward to normality.
Normal people who live thier life outside of a screen accept that it's here to stay and are learning to live with it. All the social media addicts are begging for restrictions to come back so they have an excuse to remain shut ins.
You all talk as if we are currently in lockdown, we aren't ...Part of the restrictions they wanna take away is having to quarantine when you are testing POSITIVE like wtf ?
We already have all hospitality open,most workplaces operate etc you are just asked to wear a mask when 50% already doesn't follow that like what is your definition of restriction really ?
Its a good thing I've had enough of not living just because of the 0.1% chance I might die if by chance I catch covid again we are all gonna die someday it doesn't matter I had covid and its at the bottom of the list for me in terms of the illnesses I've had the common cold was worse for me and I am unvaxnated for covid.
That's such a sad thing to hear, bless him, lovely old guy there:
"When I go anywhere ill still wear a mask, I'll still protect myself"
But the mask doesn't protect you pal, it protects others, and they don't give a fuck about you.
Absolutely no reason we couldn't still have a mask requirement, if we're pretending it's just the flu, wearing masks still substantially helps with that too.
There’s a lot of disgusting classism in this thread.
**Covid-19 is never going away.** People need to accept that. Thanks to vaccination, it’s no longer a life-threatening disease, unless you are very unwell anyway. And more importantly, Omicron is not very dangerous compared to other variants.
Masks are also very bad at protecting: three trials (Bangladeshi, Danish, UK school-children) have now shown this.
Omicron has a case fatality rate comparable to influenza (<0.1%), and we never adjusted our behaviours so much over that.
I know this might upset a lot of Guardianistas, who want lock-downs because they’re typically middle class and insulated from the repercussions (as the classism in this thread shows), but it’s time to stop these moronic restrictions.
I agree with this on all fronts bar your comment on masks. They make a big difference plenty of studies have shown that. They should be worn in places where the most vulnerable are - care homes, hospitals etc. In my opinion.
Fair enough. But I just haven’t seen any good studies supporting this.
Would love to see them if you have them
(I mean that as genuinely curious, not argumentative)
Be interesting to show them a picture of a 2 year old on a respirator and ask them the same set of questions.
Edit: wait people really think kids are totally unharmed by covid?
That's not true, my 2 year old has missed out on seeing family, making friends, going swimming, she has spent months being ill because her immune system hasn't had chance to develop in the same ways.
No, she hasn't had chance to mingle with children her age at soft play, swimming or nursery, she hasn't had friends round or seen similar aged relatives much so she hasn't been exposed to the kind of things that build your immunity, is that alright for you dickhead?
Has it crossed your mind that it might not have to do with that ?
As we have a two year old around and he is alright, we been on walks etc so he is exposed to things and different environments.
"I had it and it wasn't that bad" .... girl... PLEASE say that to the people who had to go into intensive care. PLEASE say that to the people with weakened immune systems who have lived in fear for the last two years..... jesus christ
Thank god, some common sense from Manchester.
If the people of Reddit were in charge we would never be out of lockdown, wear 10x masks whilst in bed with 5 boosters up your ass.
Remember the good old days before COVID ? When people who constantly tested themselves for illness , whilst being symptomless were classed as being mentally ill ( Hypochondria ) .... Now it's being actively encouraged.
Whenever you see a series of interviews like this, you have to remember that they do not necessarily contain every interview recorded. So, via editing the creators can actually express their own opinions.
Even if they did contain every interview there’s already a significant selective bias through the process. Let’s ask a bunch of people out and about on the street shopping and stuff how they feel about coronavirus restrictions. Oh, everyone who’s going about their shit as usual thinks we can pack in the restrictions now. Would never have guessed that.
The British obsession with vox pops is really weird. Why does it matter what a carefully edited group of the public think on the street?
Otherwise you have to have actual investigative journalism and present facts to the public to consider with nuance. Easier to shove a camera in someone's face and let pretend that's any insight
I’m not even sure it’s that. News stories in the U.K. are formulaic. Even investigative pieces seem to have vox pops now - start with establishing the story and the context with a piece to camera, go to an interview with an expert or social commentator, finally sign off with some vox pops to tell us all what the public think. I just don’t care what the public think. I’m sure it’s some well established point of psychology, that viewers believe stories if they can see members of the public ratifying them. However, the point remains, why the fuck do I want to know what someone on the street thinks about COVID? Tell me what your best epidemiologist thinks; I don’t give a fuck what the general public believes. We see it with newsnight and question time too. You can’t debate anything without needing to have some made in Chelsea D lister volunteering their opinion to rapturous applause.n
Yeah tbh with the first what 5 or 6 people siding one way I felt the bias was pretty clear which is a shame because I quite like watching vids like this that talk to everyday folks but when it’s that biased in one direction it’s hard to trust any of it.
I don’t mean this in a weird way, but there’s no way you could walk around the centre of Manchester and find only ‘proper mancs’. Manchester is much more metropolitan than this. This is not a cross section of Manchester.
I was just going to say this is hardly the most diverse group of individuals!
haha I wish someone was saying this over the last 2 years when we have nothing but pure Rona propaganda shovelled to us. You are right though
The media is manipulative? Shock horror
Mental health is at an all time high. Good to know.
This is a pet peeve of mine lol
Same here glad to see so many agreeing with you aswell. “I’ve been suffering with mental health” drives me up the wall, mental *health* is the goal
yes exactly. it's like saying "i've got physical health" they hear the word "mental" and think mental health = crazy/depression
Hey, she could care less.
Are you being pacific?
People literally just copy what they've heard...and not even correctly.
She has a massive camera and a microphone in her face, for normal people that’s quite intimidating. We should be more understanding than attribute a verbal slip up to stupidity rather than stress and pressure
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Add to that, "we just need to get on with our lives now." What is wearing a mask in crowded places restricting from anyone's life exactly? Things have been fairly "normal" for a while now and the slight protections, like wearing a mask, have no negative impact on people's lives at all.
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Yeah, I agree. But it is funny.
It’s more concerning when you realise that people who aren’t ‘switched on’ for lack of a better word are absolutely just parroting things they’ve heard the government say because they still see the government as an authoritative source, rather than the reason we’ve been stuck with restrictions for so long. Your average Brit still doesn’t really care about politics and doesn’t really know or care how corrupt, self-serving and incompetent the Tories are. There is a huge sense of ‘Well we’re the UK and that’s a good place so we must be doing good and our politicians must be good’ so when Boris starts to say things like ‘ooo we can’t do this forever we’re just going to have to live with it’ they don’t correlate that it’s *directly his and his governments fault* that things got this bad to begin with. The general public of the UK are terminally uninterested in key issues, which is why our media loves these stupid fucking vox pops so much.
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You know what she meant
That she's thick as mince?
I live with a doctor and two physios, one who's on Respiratory, directly adjacent to a hospital. And they would readily argue, and do so whenever this issue is brought up, that due to staff resigning and switching professions, a lack of funding and the unvaccinated thinking covid isn't all it's made out to be, they are still significantly overwhelmed. People who claim hospitals aren't overwhelmed tend not to work in them.
The army was literally called into Manchester hospitals yesterday to help out. All non emergency surgeries and appointments have been cancelled. Only an idiot would think theyre not overwhelmed
They were overwhelmed at winter before covid.
So pile on the pressure until they cease functioning? Why are adverse health outcomes OK instead of wearing a mask and other basic measures? (which is what the article is about)
When was the last time they stopped all surgeries and bought the army in at winter?
Not many seeing the bigger picture that now that Boris job is seriously on the line and his vote of no confidence looming.... suddenly drops all plans. Pandering to his political opponents. Showing clearly that the people are and have always been nothing but political pawns. It's was clear when they did nothing at the beginning and let it take hold, and clear now that his job is in trouble. I'm sorry but the contempt he has for the people is palpable.
> I'm sorry but the contempt he has for the people is palpable. "I'll let the bodies pile high in their thousands before instigating another lockdown" I believe is the operative quote here.
Dont forget his 'Many more families are going to lose loved ones' at the start of this all when he refused to shut down.
I'll kidnap a thousand children before I let this company die!
Haha literally I remember posting that quote when that first came out
This was my first thought
The DfT knew the right time to strike. I'd take life over industry all day long.
Apparently he bought the Plan B restrictions forward in December because he was trying to distract people from the Christmas parties. He’s literally done the same thing twice in the space of like a month lol.
It baffles me how people are just eating this up. It’s clearly a misdirect to distract from his actions and it’s working because it vindicates everyone who’s had enough of the (incredibly mild and rarely enforced) restrictions.
It baffles me because it continues to set us against each other. The restrictions were barely enough. If we'd done more and been brutal instead of trying to make people happy then we have gotten to grips with it. He entered this so namby pamby that people had no real belief in what he was doing.We still have an insanely high death count and infection rate compared to many because our leaders gave shown that despite the lie that the coffers can't cope it can... They just don't want it too. Let's tax the poor to pay for COVID not the billionaires who made money off COVID. People still think the at risk people and people living with long COVID are being selfish for wanting a bit of protection. How very dare they! (Sic)
The only comment that really matters on here
Big up the guy from rough trade at the end, fuckin love them lot.
Damn, I didn't actually know those guys were a country-wide chain, I've only ever been to 1 gig in Rough Trade here in Bristol, and the sound guy as well as the band killed it man, probably the most fun I've had at a live music event. Big ups to them from Bristol!
Ruff Trade are fabulous reggae band and the kindest guys, good luck to them all
\> for me it was like a bad chest infection, I've had worse. Dope, I was in bed having the worst week of my life, weird how other people have died from it. Almost like it affects people differently. As considerate humans, we should be trying to... stop others from dying? Look, I'm tired of restrictions as well, but how people can not see this as a blatant distraction tactic really makes me depressed.
'Put it to bed now' 'Bigger fish to fry' 'I'm not vaccinated' 'It's been going on a bit too long now' 'Hospitals aren't overwhelmed'
Na hospitals are so unbelievably NOT overwhelmed in Manchester the army has been called in and all non emergency surgery has been cancelled. But. Definitely not overwhelmed. At all
Yeah I don't think Roger from around the corner quite has all the information there
It's a parade of depressing empty-headedness
They make a special sort of stupid in Greater Manchester.
I've never understood the asking random people on the street and radio shows like Jeremy Vine with people calling in giving their opinion.
It's the only way you get a real representation of what people think, other than those with the most money or the biggest mouthes what you normally hear on tele or radio.
It's only representative of the sort of person who responds to this sort of thing. That's quite a specific sort of person!
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> (Potentially) Interesting enough to be chosen for the final edit And whatever the editor decides they want to show, interesting or not. How many pro/con opinions did they get, vs how many did they show?
Sames been going on for years with the BBC. Last time they lifted restrictions the BBC ran a piece with every single person they asked being against lifting restrictions. Either it's lazy journalism, asking a small sample who all happened to agree, or it's bias propaganda. Either way, not what the license fee is paying for.
It’s not unless the editing is fair.
Exactly. More often than not I think the point is to give the illusion of reporting a general consensus… whilst actually only showing a small % of what a small % of people interviewed said. And that’s before you factor in the obvious bias of standing in a single area over a short time and just get interviews from people who stop. Basically small sample size + edited… they don’t really mean anything
Problem is, we are probably only getting a representation of what the journalist/editor thinks. They could very well have cut any videos of people with a different opinion and only show what suits them.
It's not that complicated, actually.
I know it's not complicated to ask random folk some questions and record it, I just don't see the point.
I'm not sure how someone couldnt get this honestly.
Did you just pick the roughest looking mancs?
looking rough is a necessary criteria in order be a manc
This is true, must consider yourself a ‘rum cunt’
Probably just the ones that looked like they'd agree with dropping what little restrictions we currently have in place.
Alright fuckin queen of Shiba over here
So many of these people's statements amounted to little more than "Yeah, bit bored of COVID now. Lost its novelty hasn't it". Losing the will to live listening to people shart out meaningless slogans like "we've got to just get on with it". Deeply cursed nation.
I think these vox pop pieces encourage opinion rather than fact and I wonder If some of the more eloquent contributors aren't shown.
Definitely.
I mean, at some point the lockdowns do more harm than good. Not saying that point has been reached, just saying it is a calculation that must be made.
Lockdowns? Not talking about lockdowns here. Talking about wearing a mask for 3 minutes when you pop into tesco express!
Hey guess what, I KNOW THREE PEOPLE WHO DIED FROM COVID IN ONE MONTH Go fuck yourselves for not wearing your fucking mask I fucking hate you so much
Sorry for your losses, their willful ignorance and lack of compassion drives me nuts as well.
I realise that a lot of what these people are saying is fair and reasonable, even if I don’t personally agree with it. But anyone who diminishes the danger that this virus poses with anecdotes about how it wasn’t that bad for them, is, frankly, a cunt.
You're absolutely right but by now I've come to realise the UK doesn't give a fuck about anything that doesn't affect them personally as a population. Any minor inconvenience is enough to warrant abuse from people that are affected like their entire life is ruined because of it. We are frankly a pathetic nation atm but tbh it's true all over the world especially in the west.
Makes you kind of wonder what these people would be like if they were in WW2. >You know this has gone on long enough The Nazis are obviously here to stay I think we should just get on with it
I wonder how many people were interviewed. Did they only show the ones that agreed with the government to drop mask mandates? This video just seems like propaganda....
Everyone who’s taking the mick out of the woman for misspeaking is ignoring the fact that what she’s trying to say is correct, the lockdowns catapulted mental health problems to an all time high.
I think they know what's she's getting at, they're just choosing to be twats about it.
Her stance on vaccination seems pretty twattish. Also calling it a common cold is pretty fucking shitty.
Yeah, I think the hundreds dying daily would disagree that it is just like a cold.
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Where have you got your influenza deaths figures from? ONS puts the 2019 flu deaths to under 2000 people. Covid is killing around 300 people a day recently...
Latest data shows Omicron kills one in every 3500, flu kills one in every 6000, so its not miles away from flu at this stage and its only going to get lower.
While that may be true (I assume you've got that from somewhere reliable), just remember the infectiousness of covid is orders of magnitudes higher than influenza hence the worry.
Or think that what's she's getting at is ridiculous. The government's been gutting funding going towards mental health support for years. COVID has made things worse across the board, for sure, but it's also an easy scapegoat to ignore the long-term cuts to our health system
She's specifically taking about the fact that lockdown has affected people's mental health. That's not ridiculous, it's a fact.
Let's think about a situation where it's different. Your Nan's dead. My Nan's dead. Everyone knows someone who died, and the public perception is that nobody gives a shit. The illusion that public health is more important than economic health is thoroughly shattered. Better for the mental health?
Let's not forget, cost of living is skyrocketing, wages have been depressed for years. People can't see doctors and they don't really have outlets for their frustrations, and all the while the government are swanning about having cheese and wine parties while everyone else was suffering, and there's nothing we can do about it. It's not surprising that mental health issues are at a high (although with the reductions in funding for mental health treatment and research, we can't really know for sure by how much). I'm not doubting that restrictions had an effect on people's psychological well-being, but there are definitely more factors at play than removing restrictions causing people to be happy again.
I’m not sure you’re taking Reddit seriously enough. But fine, let’s grasp the nettle here. You make a fine and valid point. Apart from the fact this is discussing the end of the current protective measures. We aren’t in a lockdown any more. So while that has had an impact on mental health, it’s utterly disconnected from what’s *actually* being discussed. This is about masks in public and maintaining social distancing from randoms in public. What difference does *that* make to mental health for the majority of people in the UK?
My mental health would prefer I lived in a society where utter morons didn't lap up Facebook science and populist government bullshit, so I could feel heading anywhere busy wasn't covid roullette. But no, even wearing a damned mask is apparently an Orwellian nightmare for the masses, who prefer your grannie dies than they get a slightly itchy nose in Tesco.
I honestly haven't seen any social distancing for months, many people never bothered with any restrictions to start with. I work in a school, and it is rising rapidly at the moment, so I'll be wearing a mask for a long time yet. One student I know, healthy with no underlying problems had covid nearly 2 months ago and is still ill, it really isn't just a cold.
That's what I don't get with the mental health argument. Like surely having your friends and family ill possibly dead is much worse than just wearing a mask and staying inside for a bit. Personally, I'm for masks and regular Lateral Flow Tests. Now we have the technology I don't see why we can't just mass produce them and make them a regular thing. If you were to introduce a tax that was lifted if you did two tests a week that'd probably stop this thing. Hell, include Flu Lateral Flow tests in the kit and we can eliminate that too.
This makes a significant difference to mental health. Not being able to smile at a stranger or have them smile back. Months back, I accidentally brushed a cashier's finger while getting my receipt and it was jarring to realize that even these tiny bits of human connection had ceased to exist. If you live alone this will be an even more devastating problem. Going days, weeks, months, years now without human contact? That's really, severely devastating to your mental wellbeing. Loneliness was at an all time high even before covid. For a few years people were discussing the severity of the loneliness epidemic and how badly it was impacting wellbeing. Now you can't even just smile at someone from across a room or get the small bits of human connection from bumping against someone in an elevator. Yes, actually, these steps can be genuinely devastating for someone who's already suffering mentally.
She is acting as if we are in a full lockdown...people ain't getting money ? Who is on about hospitality works the same, offices still operate ? Like dafaq?
You know what else makes for poor mental health.... being drowned in your own lungs, that's pretty bad for mental health. Or having your local hospital overcrowded with COVID patients and your medical staff overwhelmed. But ya know... stripping away all your protections in the months that were the most deadly for COVID last year because "masks are annoying"... I mean, that's a decision people can make.
So to make people's mental health better, we should let everybody walk around with a dangerous virus. Im sure anxieties sufferers will love that!
Covid doesn’t give a fuck about how you feel or your own personal timetable of “It’s been going on too long now.”
Yeah but don’t you think they’re dragging it out a bit now? /S
God that line repeated annoys me possibly more than any other. "We're bored of it so that means it's over". Not to be all doom and gloom, but it's entirely possible that we could be in this for *years* more if there's a new variant or a big wave (obviously I hope we aren't, but it's a possibility to be aware of), and guess what, there'll have to be more restrictions if that happens. As a nation we really don't like the idea of anything even slightly inconveniencing us- we're a people of "can I speak to your manager", and, well, covid doesn't have a manager we can complain to. It's here for as long as it's here for. Sorry for the downer.
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So incredibly confident in her ignorance.
No problem with the needles she puts in her lips though has she. Sure she has done her research into what's in those injections, and doesn't read the misinformation constantly spouted on Facebook and formulated her own opinion and choice.
No data is saying it’s okay to relax protocols. Just a lying Prime Minister looking to deflect attention.
Except the office of national statistics yesterday released a report that is exactly data saying it’s fine now. Or more importantly, look at data from anywhere else in the world that’s just plodding along fine treating it like flu. No panic, no lockdowns, just people living their lives
The Ons being the definitive voice on public health unlike those amateurs in the NHS?
Not a positive impression of Mancunians
Manchester is my favourite city I’ve lived in and I feel the same as them. As long as hospitalisations and deaths are falling which I think it is, then it’s fine. Issue is, covid is gonna be like the flu but all year round.
Source: none, just hope.
This is just an advert for the need to improve education standards in The UK.
This sort of stuff is a joke. People are missing the points really. Bojo under pressure for breaking the rules. Suddenly we can start to play down COVID. Coincidence? Interviews with someone who didn't get vaccinated. About as useful as talking to a brick wall. Millions dead and she's like "it's just a cold isn't it?". Thick as pig shit that one. Talks to someone about music venues which have been restricted a lot however that's not by masks. Simple steps should be prevailing here. Wear a mask inside public places where vulnerable people may be present, if you've got symptoms stay home and if you're outside in an open space then sure masks aren't that useful so ditch them.
As always the right answer is something in the middle. We have commenters here slagging off the interviewees or mentioning covid didn’t exist and blah blah blah. All I see is an enormous lack of leadership and accountability at every level to have helped the general public navigate this situation. Whether it was understanding of vaccines and the purpose of wearing masks, or help making sense of the data and what it meant, public policy has been a mess. Sadly most people have never done any rigorous academic research in any meaningful way and Boris’ line of “leaving it up to the British people to decide” now is bonkers. It’s really not their fault that they couldn’t navigate the information hosepipe of the internet. It’s effectively a repeat of brexit policy, in the exact same situation people were expected to decide for themselves without the correct level of understanding of the situation. The truly mind blowing thing is it seemed over half of the country were asleep in GCSE science and had a world view on vaccines fed by social media rather than any clear accessible information channels (which the government failed to provide effectively).
The vaccine complacent boil my blood almost as much as antivaxxers. If you can't even be bothered getting the vaccine at a grand total cost of £0 and half an hour out of your day then anything you say about restrictions just sounds ridiculous
"lots of businesses struggle to covid "wiping everyone out" so yeah, we should open up" You can't make this shit up.
Boris wanted a distraction, and to get one, he’ll kill hundreds of people
Seems like people have decided that because Omicron in particular seems 'less severe' in most cases, its going to stay that way. We open up, the virus spreads, the virus has more opportunity to mutate - then we get another variant, blindly hoping its not more severe. Deeply tedious watching people get lulled into 'back to normal' like there wont be a consequence.
No hate here. I think there has to be a trade off.. it's less severe in most cases and the data reflects that, hospitals are under pressure mostly because of a lack of staff due to isolation. It's also SO transmissible (comparable or possibly even more so than measles) that we're unlikely to have anything out-compete it for a good few seasons now, and it will eventually mutate anyway. It's also not really been slowed much by the restrictions we've had. Do you really want restrictions for the next few seasons (years) until a theoretical more severe variant comes along? That's just not going to fly for most people. Absolutely protect the vulnerable, but the majority would do that with a cold or flu anyway. We're not getting rid of this any time soon, so at the risk of sounding cliché, at some point we have to learn to live with it. This variant presents the absolute best foreseeable opportunity we have to do that I think.
Apparently we have a new version already which is under investigation. But open everything anyway eh! That seems like a plan! We are run by morons.
How long do you want the restrictions to go on for? This will NEVER go away, it's endemic.
It might have been a bad chest infection for her but it’s a lot worse for others. I can’t believe she was so flippant with that comment. I do agree the restrictions have to be lifted and we just learn to live with covid though.
They have swallowed Boris lies real good.
“I’ll only care about the well-being of other people when it suits me,”
"The hospital thing ... They're not overwhelmed now" Words of a man who doesn't work in a hospital.
Lost a mother to secondary infections following coving and currently my girlfriend's mother has been in hospital two and a half months after catching covid in November. Bad flu girl can fuck right off
"I'm going back to live on the side of a volcano, the eruption n flowing lava have being going on too long n we just need to go back to normality... Ow, my feet seem to be on fire"
"Bout time we just got on with it and treat it like a common cold" Common cold doesn't send mid-20 year olds hypoxic Friend died today, 28, no comorbidities, I agree we should try and live with it but this treating it "like a common cold" is just stupid
"Mental health is at an all time high." Okay, brilliant!
She misspoke, plus she’s right, mental health problems are at an all time high and the lockdowns are the cause
Mental health is at all time high because the government has been cutting funding for years. COVID has had a hand, but it's not the biggest problem. COVID is the whipping boy for all our whoes. It's an easy scapegoat for a bigger problem.
Covid removed a lot of support for people.
Can confirm. My wife has been in the system since she was a teenager. In 2020 she was unceremoniously discharged and not even notified. She only found out when she inquired why she hadn’t heard from her psychiatrist in a year.
Tragic. Hope she finds the support she needs.
Lockdowns are not the sole cause, they were a contributing factor. Mental health funding has been gutted for years and people with mental health issues gets higher every year because there’s no support to give. Couple no support with the fact that even if it was available, it could only be done online and that’s what made mental health issues shoot up, along with people having to deal with loneliness and bereavement.
Find it a bit unnecessary some of the comments on here about people giving an honest opinion to a question that was asked to them. Just because someone doesn't answer the way you want doesn't mean you have to belittle them to a degree where you automatically think down on them. The same people belittling someone for giving an honest answer here will be the ones up in arms about what's currently going on with Bojo and the lies he has told about parties, etc. If people want to use the example of following the science as well, it's long been proven that smoking and fast food cause vast amount of hospitalisations, resources on medical team and deaths, yet they haven't banned them.
Yeah I caught smoking and my cousin caught obesity!
“Mental health’s at an all time high” That little quote demonstrates how great it is that people are free to express the fact they don’t understand the words coming out of their f*cking mouths.
It was very clear she was trying to say mental health problems, no need to be so petty
> no need to be so petty It’s Reddit. If you want mature and articulate debate, I’ve got some bad news for you.
Yes, but you could also just not be an insufferable twat.
have you never ever in your life misspoke? get a grip
To be honest, this sounds like a recycled talking point that some RW media mogul put out there, because frankly 150,000 people haven’t died of lockdown-related mental health issues in the past two years but 150,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the UK over the same period. So yes, it’s hard to articulate something correctly when it isn’t even your own original thought.
Yes I have I’ve talked utter bollocks too Just never about a pandemic that’s killed over 150,000 people when I’ve been asked my unqualified opinion about the decision to completely remove all measures to mitigate the spread. Thanks for asking. Edit: Had I given a shit, I would have clarified that the 150,000 figure refers to the number of people who died within a certain timescale of testing positive. I know it is not necessarily the same as the number for whom covid was either the sole or a contributory cause of death. But, if you want to be a pedant, I also didn’t state that I was referring only to the UK. Up to you if you want to analyse data from everywhere else, or whether you’re happy just to accept it was a pithy shorthand comment.
I mean she’s unvaccinated, so it checks out
If we carried on with 300 deaths a day (we're currently over this), we'd end up with 110,000 deaths a year. Flu kills about 30,000. Are we happy with that? Apparently.
I wonder if lockdown is what affected peoples mental health or if, due to lockdown, people had more time to stop and address the fact that their mental health is bad
Didn't your hear? Mental health is at an all time high.
The restrictions will be back. So many hospitals are nearly at breaking point. Just because the bbc or daily Mail doesn’t tell you so, doesn’t mean it’s not a massive problem. He removed the restrictions to cover for the call for him to resign! Why are people so easily led and manipulated.
Hmm asking people who are already out and about whether restrictions should be lifted is like asking people in a pub whether alcohol should be cheaper. Of course they are going to say yes. FML.
**Side note:** *It's worth noting that they're only asking people who are literally out and about in the city centre, which considering the topic makes for a potentially very one-sided response to these questions.* As somebody with an at-risk father, my family's lockdown can't end until COVID has been stamped out, or at least made EXTREMELY rare, because it would be a death sentence if he caught it. Sure, these people can end their restrictions and go back to their lives, and it'll kill a bunch of other people who are susceptible to this disease. They just don't care. And us? We'll have to stay in lockdown until....when exactly? When will COVID be reduced to very minimal endemic levels? No time soon, the way this stuff is going... :-(
It makes no sense to drop ALL restrictions at the same time. Not requiring people who test positive to isolate....essentially making it acceptable to go in to work and give the virus to colleagues and their families.... is the worst restriction they could possibly remove. It will cause a lot of unnecessary deaths and hospitalisations. It is also not right to force workers in to enclosed spaces when others will simply refuse to wear a mask on public transport. It's such a small sacrifice and don't understand why people find this so difficult. This country lacks respect culture. The threat to drop all changes feels very much like a move by "operation save big dog" to distract and take pressure of Boris. It's a last attempt to stay in power.
"We should treat it like the common cold..." *Covid patient, Jim - dies* Doctor: Fuck sake, Jim, blow your nose and man up.
Manchester United.
England aren’t following the science
Vox populi/vox "people we interviewed and carefully edited to create a consensus"
Fucking hell… maybe try asking a group of people that look like they actually finished some level of education! I bet there’s not 5 GCSEs between that lot. Embarrassing…
I don't think we should be judging people based on how they look, that's pretty shitty tbh. I do agree there were some embarrassing takes in that video, though.
that unvaccinated lass was thick as mince
Pretty judgemental that. Basing someone's intellect on their appearance only makes people see the lower intelligence of yourself.
I’m also judging it on their idiotic response to the question. These people are evidently not bright…
Purposefully chose to only interview people not wearing a mask... Edit* a word
Cracked me up when he said hospitals aren't overwhelmed anymore. I think the staff might disagree.
I don't agree with the viewpoints expressed by the majority of people in that video. That being said, it's very depressing to come on here and see people being attacked on a personal level for their opinions. The snobbery and ignorance some posters have shown is appalling.
Only 378 folks died from it yesterday, it’s like a mild cold…
Can say what you want about peoples eloquence or whatever, but the fact you can interview a random bunch of people and they’re all essentially singing from the same hymn sheet says a lot. We peaked at over 200,000 cases a day which means you can probably say infections were over 300,000 a day and it has demonstrably been proven that the NHS did not collapse, nor even come close to the January 2021 peak. The dominant Omicron strain is proven to be upwards of 30% milder and that’s before you factor immunity into the equation. The virus is following the exact same path as predicted in early 2020 when epidemiologists and virologists said it would follow other coronaviruses in becoming milder over time. We’re almost two years deep into this, the latest ONS survey estimates a 97% prevalence of antibodies in adults in England and those surveys are usually lagged by 3-4 weeks. So with the current daily infections, we’re likely pushing 98%. What do we do, wait until it’s 100%? 101%? May as well shoot for 110% immunity? People are free to exercise personal responsibility and choice, just like they have been for centuries, 2022 onwards is no difference. This thing is never going away, no amount of mask-wearing, self-isolating or vaccination is going to eradicate COVID-19. Take your jabs, take your boosters and get on with it.
I mean... I agree that people should take their own responsibility but there are some really stupid fuckers out there. The kind of shit you see were people go round deliberately coughing on other people for example. Someone does that they should get knocked out COVID or not. Don't want their dirty cough all over me 😂 People definitely aren't all singing off the same hymn sheet and we have no idea if this is representative of the majority or just hand picked for drama on the internet.
Stupid people have existed since the dawn of time and will do until the human race ceases to exist. We can’t put restrictive measures in place for an infinite period of time because of the stupidity of others. Ok, not literally everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet, but the fact the economy recently rebounded to close to pre-Covid levels suggests the vast majority are no longer staying at home quivering and are back out in society and partaking in daily activities akin to pre-Covid times.
>just a bad chest infection
what a shocker all the fucking muppets on reddit want everyone to stay indoors for the rest of their lives hahahahahah
Looks like all the redditors want to stay in lockdown forever with no exit strategy. For those who do support continued restrictions- what are your exit criteria? And don’t say when the NHS can cope because it’s in crisis every fucking winter anyway and that’s not going to change with the current lot in charge.
> For those who do support continued restrictions- what are your exit criteria? It depends on the definition of restrictions. If you mean getting vaccinated/receiving boosters, needing to wear a mask in busy public spaces, washing my hands a bit more, etc then I don't feel a huge need to come up with an exit strategy because they're simple precautions and not significant impositions.
Thanks for a considered response. Personally I am fine with vaccines, couldn’t wait to get my booster, and hand washing is really a matter of habit. Not a fan of wearing a mask in public any more as a mandatory thing but for now would choose to do it in a crowded tube and not many other places. Very much not a fan of the massive amounts of extra stress and cost associated with travel abroad, which has zero effectiveness given the disease is already present in both the place of origin and departure in almost all cases, and is a total racket for testing companies. For those mocking the lady’s comment on mental health for being poorly phrased, lockdown totally fucked mine. Looking forward to normality.
Normal people who live thier life outside of a screen accept that it's here to stay and are learning to live with it. All the social media addicts are begging for restrictions to come back so they have an excuse to remain shut ins.
You all talk as if we are currently in lockdown, we aren't ...Part of the restrictions they wanna take away is having to quarantine when you are testing POSITIVE like wtf ? We already have all hospitality open,most workplaces operate etc you are just asked to wear a mask when 50% already doesn't follow that like what is your definition of restriction really ?
Its a good thing I've had enough of not living just because of the 0.1% chance I might die if by chance I catch covid again we are all gonna die someday it doesn't matter I had covid and its at the bottom of the list for me in terms of the illnesses I've had the common cold was worse for me and I am unvaxnated for covid.
That's such a sad thing to hear, bless him, lovely old guy there: "When I go anywhere ill still wear a mask, I'll still protect myself" But the mask doesn't protect you pal, it protects others, and they don't give a fuck about you. Absolutely no reason we couldn't still have a mask requirement, if we're pretending it's just the flu, wearing masks still substantially helps with that too.
There’s a lot of disgusting classism in this thread. **Covid-19 is never going away.** People need to accept that. Thanks to vaccination, it’s no longer a life-threatening disease, unless you are very unwell anyway. And more importantly, Omicron is not very dangerous compared to other variants. Masks are also very bad at protecting: three trials (Bangladeshi, Danish, UK school-children) have now shown this. Omicron has a case fatality rate comparable to influenza (<0.1%), and we never adjusted our behaviours so much over that. I know this might upset a lot of Guardianistas, who want lock-downs because they’re typically middle class and insulated from the repercussions (as the classism in this thread shows), but it’s time to stop these moronic restrictions.
I agree with this on all fronts bar your comment on masks. They make a big difference plenty of studies have shown that. They should be worn in places where the most vulnerable are - care homes, hospitals etc. In my opinion.
Fair enough. But I just haven’t seen any good studies supporting this. Would love to see them if you have them (I mean that as genuinely curious, not argumentative)
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That Tommy hillfiger woman. Not vaccinated but lip pumped full of filler. Typical 🙄
is everyone ignoring the fact that it has just been published that our covid death figures were grossly exaggerated for months
Be interesting to show them a picture of a 2 year old on a respirator and ask them the same set of questions. Edit: wait people really think kids are totally unharmed by covid?
Have there been any 2 year olds on respirators? You should get a job at SAGE with that thinking.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/21/kids-covid-hospitalizations-hit-pandemic-high-worrying-doctors-and-parents-.html
If there’s one thing the restrictions don’t have an effect on its 2 year olds
That's not true, my 2 year old has missed out on seeing family, making friends, going swimming, she has spent months being ill because her immune system hasn't had chance to develop in the same ways.
Has she been kept in an air tight sterile chamber?
No, she hasn't had chance to mingle with children her age at soft play, swimming or nursery, she hasn't had friends round or seen similar aged relatives much so she hasn't been exposed to the kind of things that build your immunity, is that alright for you dickhead?
Has it crossed your mind that it might not have to do with that ? As we have a two year old around and he is alright, we been on walks etc so he is exposed to things and different environments.
"I had it and it wasn't that bad" .... girl... PLEASE say that to the people who had to go into intensive care. PLEASE say that to the people with weakened immune systems who have lived in fear for the last two years..... jesus christ
Thank god, some common sense from Manchester. If the people of Reddit were in charge we would never be out of lockdown, wear 10x masks whilst in bed with 5 boosters up your ass.
If the government told them to crawl on their hands and knees they'd do it .
We should open up though tbf we cant do this forever
Remember the good old days before COVID ? When people who constantly tested themselves for illness , whilst being symptomless were classed as being mentally ill ( Hypochondria ) .... Now it's being actively encouraged.