“We have to learn to live with it” – Star Readers' discuss the possibility of a delay to lockdown restrictions ending

We've come such a long way, what's so bad about a short delay to ensure we can come out of lockdown restrictions for good? We asked our readers’ how they’d feel if the government delayed the ending of Covid restrictions on June 21, and this is what they had to say:

Lisa Barry says, “If it needs to be delayed then do it because if they don’t we will be in full bloody lockdown again” — it’s better to delay with a pause where we are now, rather than rushing ahead only to step back once more. Can’t really argue with that. If it were to happen, June Humphreys would be; “Angry we do not want another lockdown.”

Tony Warrington said, “If you watch BBC and Sky, we will still be in lockdown all year. 1 million people marched in London on Saturday....nothing on the MSM” — A quick Google search shows this theory to be wrong. But I can understand your scepticism over the amount of coverage given to it in comparison to other stories, but sadly you’re wrong here.

Martin Thiselton believes that there is “still insufficient data - Did Bournemouth beaches incident spread the virus? Did the Liverpool match in March 2020 spread the virus? If outside events are not spreading the virus then surely the Music Festivals etc can go ahead whereas if the indoor events spread more then hold back on the nightclubs. Only my opinion. Everything since 8 April and 17 May have felt so good in contrast to being locked down that to preserve all that has been achieved so far ought to be the number one priority.”

Meanwhile, Rachel Green is of the opinion that; “It's the idiots that are not social distancing and keeping their faces covered that are spoiling it for everyone.”

Simon Pidgeon is wearing his cap of scepticism here, saying it “will be delayed until 2026, that's how long will take to vaccinate everywhere” — good news Simon, three-quarters of adults in England have received at least one dose so far. Not too far off now, surely?

Keely Hutton replied on Twitter, saying that; “We will always have variants so are we going to always have delays/lockdowns? We can’t live like this for the rest of our lives. They can’t promise if we delay for a couple of weeks we will be out of it so people will just rebel and that’s when trouble will happen.”

Pat Sellars says that any decision to delay is; “Better safe than sorry.” And, Bev Pepperdine would be very; “Angry with Dithering Doris.”

Angela Spooner says that she has; “always been in favour of doing what is necessary and what is right however I’ve come to the conclusion Covid is never going to go away there will always be new variants emerging but you cannot carry on through life in lockdown after lockdown we now have to carry on as normal, most of the vulnerable people have been immunised. Life is short and you only have one life, too many peoples plans and lives have been ruined through these lockdowns.”

Meanwhile, Kerrie Roebuck believes that; “there’s no need to lockdown again. We have to learn to live with it. The pubs and shops have been open a month now and there’s been no significant rise in hospital cases or deaths. The variant is spreading through those who haven’t had the vaccine. Scrap the age groups system and ask anyone who wants to be vaccinated to book an appointment.”

On the otherhand, Karen Johns would be “gutted but if it needs to be delayed then that's what we have to do, unfortunately there has been too many people doing just as they like putting others at risk and being selfish.”

Adrian Finney responded very sensibly, cognisant of all of the possible issues and not responding with a knee jerk response, “The numbers to watch are hospital admissions and deaths. As long as they stay low there won’t be any need to delay the lifting of lockdown. If deaths and hospitalisations behind to rise again though? Then the brakes are put back on.” Quite right.

We received so many responses in this discussion that unfortunately we can’t feature them all but you can see the rest of the discussion here on Facebook and on our Twitter also.