[mfDjB]

The lockdown was tightened for Christmas. [1]

1: https://nypost.com/2020/12/20/londons-covid-19-christmas-loc...

EDIT: It's weird that people don't believe me. Here is a BBC article talking about the Tier 4 lockdown that occurred right before Christmas:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55380644

From the article:

"Millions of people across England have been banned from meeting friends and family indoors over the festive season as they enter a new tier-four level of Covid restrictions, while indoor mixing has been restricted to Christmas Day alone for the rest of the country."

Perhaps someone in the comments could show me evidence that London was "loosening the lockdown for Christmas"?

Also I live in London (and did during Christmas, where I cancelled my plans because of said lockdown), and am British.

[simonbarker87]

Nope, December was pretty free and easy (comparatively speaking) and Christmas Day was not a lockdown. Boxing Day was (sort of) but I know plenty of people breached that and travelled home after Boxing Day.

Source: am British also (and stayed home and saw no one at all over Christmas and new year, just sayin)

[mfDjB]

I am British and living in London. From the article:

"London saw wild scenes of a weekend mass exodus before the start of a Christmas lockdown and travel ban sparked by a new, more infectious mutation of COVID-19."

[simonbarker87]

Cool, not sure how your quote is related to what I said (not snarking here, genuinely don’t see the link)

The mass travel before the Boxing Day restrictions kind of proves people were away from home, seeing family etc this spreading the virus.

[mfDjB]

To quote your post: "Nope, December was pretty free and easy (comparatively speaking) and Christmas Day was not a lockdown"

For people living in London, Christmas Day was indeed a lockdown.

[simonbarker87]

I saw plenty of pictures shared by families meeting in London on Christmas Day so perhaps the OP should have put “this is a consequence of people breaking the restrictions on Christmas Day” caused by wilfully ignoring the rules or confusion.

[pjc50]

I think I've figured out what happened; Boris spent ages trailing "looser restrictions for Christmas" and then changed them on the 20th. However that still included "the Christmas rules allowing up to three households to meet will now be limited to Christmas Day only".

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-ministers-state...

The last minute changes are confusing to all of us. You can help by not citing anti-sources like the NY Post.

[lmilcin]

We are probably living in two different worlds. There is reality and there is the world you live in.

In real world it is not the restrictions that save lives, it is people following them. If people ignore restrictions it doesn't matter whether they were or were not tightened.

Actually, if people were sane we would not need restrictions. Everybody would wash their hands, avoid touching their face, wear their mask properly (ie. not faking wearing the mask) and avoid physical contact with other people unless necessary. And all research suggests that would be enough to deal with the virus.

The fact is that Christmas in almost every country resulted in mass movement of people that just have to go and meet their families. And it doesn't matter for what reason it happened, it is just a fact.

So, regardless of whether there were or were not tightened restrictions, there is going to be an inevitable increase in cases.

[mfDjB]

I am afraid I don't understand your point, are you saying London did in fact loosen it's lockdown over Christmas?

[gambiting]

The point is that it's absolutely irrelevant if the lockdown was loosened or tightened, if UK entered tier 4, 5 or 127. The indisputable fact is that millions of people travelled on Christmas day to visit friends and families, allowing the virus to spread. For a large number of those, such a visit was simply not possible just a day before because they were already in Tier 3 where meeting people inside was not allowed. So yes, Christmas day was a significant "loosening" of restrictions for those people.

[flak48]

Rules kept getting stricter on paper but none were really enforced in the real world

[mikestew]

I am afraid I don't understand your point

I don't think you're trying very hard, the comment was pretty clear. But in case you are truly confused, no, that is not what parent was saying.

[diegolo]

it was made it more strict on Christmas Eve.

[worik]

What matters is if people follow lockdowns. Are people getting fatigued? Starting to resist where before they complied?

[brendanmc6]

Following your nonsensical logic there would be no difference in covid cases between states or nations. Obviously this is not true.

It is absolutely the government’s job to enact policy to slow the spread of deadly disease. It is also the job of governing leaders to encourage and educate citizens on how and why they should comply with these policies. This is where the USA is failing miserably.

We could discuss the tradeoffs and the details, that’s fair, but it’s totally irresponsible of you to say that this massive spike in cases was ‘inevitable’.

[tasogare]

No he could be right: the covid is better handled in places were people are more careful, which explains the difference between countries. In fact there is less deaths in countries with less or no restrictions (Taiwan, South Korea, Japan) than the ones who heavily locked down their population (Europe) which tends to prove the point.

[lolc]

The specific argument was that people didn't change their behaviour enough. The inevitable consequence being more cases. Inevitable as in "can't change it anymore, the cases are rolling in."

I don't see how you arrived at your reading.

[lmilcin]

Every nation spends their Christmas differently. And the rise in cases will also heavily depend on what was done by the government before the Christmas, so no, not every country will see exact same increase in cases.

[lhnz]

Where I live in North London, there was a testing centre for people that were not showing any symptoms. Before Christmas (and after the Tier 4 restrictions were introduced) there was a huge queue of people without symptoms that were very interested in finding out whether they had Coronavirus.

I found it quite strange, since if you were staying at home and had zero symptoms, why would they need a test? However, somebody let slip that they were getting tested in order to get confidence travelling home to visit their family... Therefore, while people were locked-down, I think many worked around this.

[anthilemoon]

I live in London but I went back to Paris where I'm from for Christmas. Here in Paris it was the norm: everyone got tested before driving to their families for Christmas. The days before Christmas there were white tents every couple of blocks where you could get tested without an appointment. You're probably right that's what lots of people in London did as well.

[tomatocracy]

Yes. Some employers here (London) also offered testing on-site for this exact purpose.

[robtaylor]

Nope. It was wide open for Christmas Day.

Source: Being in UK.

[stupidcar]

In tier 4 areas, which included London[1], no mixing was allowed over the Christmas period, including Christmas day.

Source: Being in London during Christmas.

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55380644

[mfDjB]

No it wasn't. I live in London.

Also from the article:

"London saw wild scenes of a weekend mass exodus before the start of a Christmas lockdown and travel ban sparked by a new, more infectious mutation of COVID-19."

[bitcharmer]

You must live in a different London than the rest of us then.

[barnacled]

Not for much of the country, including London.

Source: living in (what was at the time) a tier 4 area

The issue is the new strain, clearly. Cases were growing even during the November lockdown.

[simonbarker87]

Growing in the southeast from memory but the rest of the country saw pretty strong decreases I think.

Wasn’t Kent the first place things started to really kick off and take a turn in mid Nov?

[barnacled]

yep, I literally got married on the 18th and tier 4 was brought in on the 19th. Much of the rest of the country was in tier 3 and the xmas days were rolled back from 5 to 1 with only xmas day itself permitted, only in lower tier areas and with more restrictions.

Little weird to be getting to -1 downvotes for something that's a google away...

London and the SE is where the new highly infectious strain originated from and was more or less entirely locked down. Big chunk of population here too...

[simonbarker87]

Updated: I’m an idiot and forgot the article was London focussed.

You’re inadvertently doing the London thing that Londoners do where you conflate a comment about the whole country to just be about London. London may have had increased restrictions (which I doubt had the level of observance they should have but hey ho) but the rest of the country didn’t. The parent comment didn’t specify London, they were talking generally and, generally, restrictions were loosened for Christmas.

[mfDjB]

The article being discussed is specifically about London, and the articles I reference refer to London.

[simonbarker87]

Ah, fair point, I was focussing on the comment that kicked this chain off and forgetting the article was London focussed - apologies.