On the main page of the website today there's reference to research showing that only a fifth of those who claim they are willing to self-isolate actually do so in practice. What might this tell us about the "overwhelming public support" for measures and more measures?

On the main page of the website today there's reference to research showing that only a fifth of those who claim they are willing to self-isolate actually do so in practice. What might this tell us about the "overwhelming public support" for measures and more measures?

This is why speaking up matters.

Generally I think tribal politics online achieves little, and venting in Telegraph comments with people who agree with me about lockdown, though little else, is pointless. So I spend a lot of time on Twitter, Guardian comments (the lion's den for a lockdown sceptic!), and even comments in tabloids I have no time for, trying to be persuasive and courteous, & to encourage people I do not know, one by one, to think through their private doubts, and to feel it is OK to be open about their doubts.

I too am open to be persuaded the other way. That is part open dialogue. The evidence supporting ongoing restrictions is currently weak at best.

Well, at least we now have an anthem.... Van Morrison sings, drawing analogies to the days of the Berlin Wall....

Born to be Free.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDFYrjD0dtZa0&v=FYrjD0dtZa0&feature=emb_rel_end

“The new normal, is not normal/It’s no kind of normal at all/Everyone seems to have amnesia/Don’t need the government cramping my style/Give them an inch, they take a mile.”

On the main page of the website today there's reference to research showing that only a fifth of those who claim they are willing to self-isolate actually do so in practice. What might this tell us about the "overwhelming public support" for measures and more measures?

This is why speaking up matters.

Generally I think tribal politics online achieves little, and venting in Telegraph comments with people who agree with me about lockdown, though little else, is pointless. So I spend a lot of time on Twitter, Guardian comments (the lion's den for a lockdown sceptic!), and even comments in tabloids I have no time for, trying to be persuasive and courteous, & to encourage people I do not know, one by one, to think through their private doubts, and to feel it is OK to be open about their doubts.

I too am open to be persuaded the other way. That is part open dialogue. The evidence supporting ongoing restrictions is currently weak at best.

A number of my Facebook friends have friends of their own who have unfortunately succumbed to doomerism. Unfortunately attempts to convince them otherwise usually fail, as they tend to either shriek about killing granny, being an anti-vaxxer (which I'm really not, I can't stand the anti-vaccine brigade, and Andrew Wakefield should frankly be locked up for fraud), or they just shout insults and block.

It's like this "if you don't support lockdown, people will die" is such a thought-terminating cliché that a lot of people can't, or don't want to, try to get past.

It's like this "if you don't support lockdown, people will die" is such a thought-terminating cliché that a lot of people can't, or don't want to, try to get past.

Yes, it's frustrating. They're so fixated on that, they can't see the truth of the opposite: if you DO support lockdown, people will die.

I think some people won't get the message until something happens to them personally or someone in their family - e.g. if someone can't get medical treatment they need.

In my own area, we have around 20 cases per 100,000 people (total population of about 135,00, huge geographical area). The only significant outbreak in the region was miles away from my local town and associated with a very specific group of people.

Yet FB today was full of relieved messages from people who had downloaded the app and discovered levels were "low" for their postcodes, which anybody with half a brain could have told them anyway!

I think some people just can't be helped. Perhaps only unemployment/deprivation will served to overturn their fear.