BBC article-how to socialise under new rules

[VaTeLaverLesMains]

Social distancing: A practical guide to how to socialise now https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52848793

Just read this and thought worth sharing for people who can have people round.

Big for those fellow shielders

[NotEverythingIsBlackandWhite]

Mmm, just read those guidelines. I don't understand why you need to set your alarm and wash your hands every 45 minutes if you aren't touching things. Seems a bit overkill to me.

I'd probably sooner skip the garden party and stay locked down for longer.

[LisaSimpsonsbff]

I think quite a few of these are a bit over zealous. E.g.

If you had 12 two-metre by two-metre picnic blankets, you would each need to sit at the intersections where the blankets meet to guarantee that you're two metres away from the other people in your group and two metres away from passersby.

Why do I have to sit two metres away from not just people but also all the perimeters of my garden? Does my wall have coronavirus?! Should I do this if I'm alone, too?

[LisaSimpsonsbff]

The 'wash your hands every 45 minutes' doesn't appear to have any rationale behind it other than the 'do everything you can to ensure that no one accidentally enjoys themselves' advice that is repeated throughout the article

[MadameMarie]

I think i'll just stick to staying at home, hopefully continue to wfh and just going out for daily exercise and a weekly shop until things go back to some form of normality hopefully at some point next year.

[VaTeLaverLesMains]

Yes, I think the article is a bit wrong where it seems to be saying everyone has to be apart?

[Pipandmum]

For goodness sake all it takes is some common sense! Ridulous Ridiculous to suggest everyone groups in every 45 minutes to wash their hands as according to this article you have to clean the bathroom between each visitor. If they are 2m away from you and not touching anything why do this? I'd just stay at home thanks.

[iVampire]

The rationale for 45 min handwashing is to be a piece of theatre to remind you that these are not normal times

Keeping 2m from your perimeter is because you don’t know how close your neighbours are to the fence

Apparently sales of Sheewees are way up - and always remember that urine is a compost accelerant, so get those who can to pee on the heap

[VaTeLaverLesMains]

I wondered what people would make of it all. I doubt people will be following all this advice.

[Drivingdownthe101]

The article is insane. No I don’t need to put a ‘please wash your hands’ sign up in the bathroom for my mum, who is 60 years old and is well aware of the need for washing her hands after using the toilet. And an alarm every 45 minutes for ‘hand washing time’? I genuinely thought it was a spoof at first.
Be sensible, keep your distance and wash your hands.

[Pinkblueberry]

If you're inviting overweight men who are older, they face a very different risk to young families with young children. If you're inviting people who've had the virus that's very different again. Think about the invitation and think about who you're putting at risk.

FFS. Are the overweight men being forced to attend this garden party against their will? Pretty sure an invitation isn’t the same as a court summons and those you invite can say no and assess the risks for themselves. That’s as far as I got, I can’t be arsed to read the rest. Honestly if we have so little common sense then no one should be leaving the house at the best of times, never mind during an epidemic.

[MadameMarie]

Don't forget singing happy birthday twice when washing hands.

[Drivingdownthe101]

If you're inviting people who've had the virus that's very different again

I thought we weren’t supposed to be changing behaviour based on whether we’ve had it or not, due to not knowing how immunity works? So surely this is irresponsible? The whole article is dire.

[VaTeLaverLesMains]

I was thinking it all sounded quite a hassle! If this is what it takes to be safe I'd rather just drink gin and zoom.

[Pinkblueberry]

You need to find some way of measuring. You could get a two-metre pole, a bamboo cane, a tape measure or a broom or whatever you can improvise with, hold it and spin around in a circle - everyone needs to be able to do that without knocking into each other.

Just envisioning everyone spinning around with brooms in the garden this has got to be a spoof...

[SomewhereEast]

FFS if this is the New Normal just shoot me now....

[LisaSimpsonsbff]

Keeping 2m from your perimeter is because you don’t know how close your neighbours are to the fence

So am I never, ever allowed within 2m of my fences? Because that news has just reduced my garden in size considerably...

FFS. Are the overweight men being forced to attend this garden party against their will? Pretty sure an invitation isn’t the same as a court summons and those you invite can say no and assess the risks for themselves.

Tbf, there will be a wave of MN threads about how unbelievably rude someone (probably a MIL) is to invite the MN-er over when they KNOW they had asthma as a child and how it's basically a declaration that they want the DIL dead.

[Pinkblueberry]

Maybe we should have been doing the ‘two metre pole’ thing right from the start. You walk everywhere with this Gandalf the wizard staff, because of course we’re all to silly to estimate two meters - and hold it out and spin whenever you stop somewhere or have to stand in a queue. You can also poke people who get too close

[Drivingdownthe101]

I’m wondering if I can implement the 2 meter pole thing with my kids. It’ll stop them trying to use me as a climbing frame!

[ITonyah]

If you're inviting overweight men who are older, they face a very different risk to young families with young children. If you're inviting people who've had the virus that's very different again. Think about the invitation and think about who you're putting at risk

So the BBC have decided if you have had the virus that deffo gives immunity? And that overweight men are more likely to catch it than young people?

Don't remember any of this being proven?

[Drivingdownthe101]

And the ‘think about who you’re putting at risk’ thing is such bollocks! I assume anyone invited can say no? It’s up to them to assess their risk, not the person inviting them. ‘It’s an invitation not a summons’ as they say around these parts.
That article really is a low point in BBC reporting.

[ITonyah]

If you think you've had coronavirus and/or you're low risk, meaning you're young, you're slim, you're female - those are the main variables - your behaviour at a picnic is probably going to be much more relaxed with regards to things like sharing the potato salad and using other people's cutlery

If you THINK you've had coronavirus??!

This article is a bit shit.

[Drivingdownthe101]

More than a bit shit!

[ParsnipToast]

@ITonyah

If you're inviting overweight men who are older, they face a very different risk to young families with young children. If you're inviting people who've had the virus that's very different again. Think about the invitation and think about who you're putting at risk

So the BBC have decided if you have had the virus that deffo gives immunity? And that overweight men are more likely to catch it than young people?

Don't remember any of this being proven?

They are assuming overweight men are more likely to be severely ill/die from it, not catch it.

[PurpleDaisies]

Comparing that article with Jonathan Van-Tam’s comments during today’s coronavirus briefing makes me think that that article is really irresponsible. This is a very dangerous moment for the country with lockdown guidelines being eased. He was very clear that these new guidelines apply to everybody and they must adhere to them properly at all times, whether you’re young, slim and female or not.

[IcedPurple]

You should do anything you can do to signal that this is not a normal gathering. You are having a picnic or gathering at a time of a deadly serious disease circulating widely in the population. We still have a high level of transmission in the UK

Between this and the suggestion that you mark off sections in your garden with chalk - and so much else besides - this is really a bad joke of an 'article' . Dementor central. The BBC should be embarrassed. And before anyone screams at me, the author isn't an 'expert'. He's just a bog-standard GP who got himself a sweet gig on the telly.