Has everyone just given up on social distancing?

[Esbm2015]

It certainly feels that way and is making me very anxious and frustrated.

I’ve been following the rules with my friends when I have seen them and have been working from home.

This morning on a work call many of my London based colleagues attitude was basically that I was being too sensible and that i need to get over my concerns about travelling into the city on the tube and train as there’s nothing to worry about. I still don’t feel comfortable taking an hour long journey by train and bit more by tube - esp as trains were so unreliable and unclean pre-Covid and of what I’ve seen many on board are not wearing masks etc.

Also they were happy to say they are not SD at all with friends and family, just strangers. Many have shared pictures of themselves on social media with no SD at all hugging etc.

I just find it very frustrating - plus I didn’t get chance to say that actually I don’t really care about going back into London for the foreseeable. I’m having a great time where I live right now, even while sticking to the rules and seeing friends. But I was made to feel ‘uncool’ and anxious that am still trying to follow the rules and care about SD!!!! I’m just frustrated at working with people who have such views that they feel they can now do as they wish and change the rules as they see fit! End of rant!

I think there is a real range of attitudes, and remember lots of people have different situations which mean it's more tricky for them to social distance, therefore more relaxed about the whole thing, I'm thinking people which school aged children who know in a couple of weeks they will be exposed to loads of potential contacts, so you can understand why they think it's bonkers being really cautious now, or perhaps people in jobs that you can't easily be S.D in. If you have a job and set up at home that makes it fairly easy to remain socially distant then it makes sense though are being more cautious, pay as it's pretty easy for you to be.

I don't think everyone has given up, but there are plenty at both ends of the spectrum. Don't feel uncool about it, just do things your own way at your own pace, it's such a complex situation.

I've met up with - brother, sister (and their families) and two friends. Probably not in "the rules" but we all know the risk we are taking after having not seen each other for months. I still SD with strangers though as places get busier it's increasingly hard. WFH after my furlough ends too so don't need to worry about SD at work

I am still distancing from all family and friends apart from my daughter and grandkids but doing that again with them when they are back at school. However I am having to sit close to adult students I tutor which makes me uneasy.

Honestly where I live it seems to be back to normal for the most part. To be fair when you look at the things that are allowed it does start to seem a bit pointless. DS1 for example is 13 he plays on 2 cricket teams and a football team so that's 33 other kids not including the subs at training. they are lso allowed to play matches against other teams so that's a different 33 kids each week. In 2 weeks he will be back at school where his 'bubble' is abiut 250 kids. So you kind of start thinking why do we bother.

Hell even Heathrow isn't socially distancing. In we walked off a long haul flight and while they ask you to keep 2 metres from the person in front of you, you're shoulder to shoulder with those beside you because the queue snakes and they didn't widen the lanes. No temp checks and the immigration officials aren't wearing masks. It's not exactly giving the right message.

No. We are doing it as much now as we were from March 24th.

@morosetinkler really? 1 hr outside exercise a day, no stopping for a chat, 1 person 1 trolley at the supermarket, no none essential shops, no pubs or cafes, no work unless essential or working from home? I'm impressed you haven't cracked up yet!

Nobody's really doing it in my town anymore. Don't blame them really, it's gone on long enough.

It feels that way in my local shopping centre, which I left very promptly today because of it. It fills me with fear about returning to school in a couple of weeks.

[quote Bunnybigears]**@morosetinkler really? 1 hr outside exercise a day, no stopping for a chat, 1 person 1 trolley at the supermarket, no none essential shops, no pubs or cafes, no work unless essential or working from home? I'm impressed you haven't cracked up yet![/quote]
We get our shopping delivered, we don't go to pubs or cafes. We do do more than an hour of exercise but we love the remote countryside so we are usually there. We aren't doing any socialising with other people.

@Bunnybigears same for me, shielding as much as I can still
Food is delivered and WFH, no pubs/shops etc

Sounds like fun!

I have to admit that I will now visit friends and family, but that seems like a decent sacrifice for all of our MH. What isn't worth it though, is not wearing a mask in shops where possible, still iffy about using public transport and not hugging /snogging total strangers in shop aisles. I have to live my life but I don't need to be a dick about iyswim.

I’m an introvert so I’m fine with not going to pubs and restaurants just yet and never shopped unless for essential items in my entire life. DH and I had a long walk today around a very big park near our home as we do most days, it’s many acres. We had a chat about social distancing and people’s perceptions and what they will do and came to the conclusion that really for fun some really do need to go out and about to enjoy themselves.

I will happily sit under the pear tree in the garden with DH eating one of his tapas lunches he likes to put together doing The Times crossword. I have actually found my MH far better not having to mix with people. I don’t dislike people I just find them tiring. Some of my friends have really withered on the vine because of lockdown though. I have got to spend more time with DH than I have in the 22 years we have been together as he often travels with work and have really loved it as has he.

I’m not socially distancing because the risk Covid poses to me is minimal and I don’t mix or socialise with anybody vulnerable. It would feel a ridiculous if I’m honest for me to be behaving as if I was at imminent risk from an invisible killer.

I think if you’re happy and enjoying yourself, that’s great. Nobody should be making you feel bad about it and nobody should be judging you - unless you’re making judgmental remarks about others. You do you, and let others do them.

@Esbm2015, My DM's best friend who can be painfully thick sometimes still, to this day is sore about being refused entry into my DM house when we were in full lock down .

Not here. I hate that other people aren't, though! Last week I was waiting patiently beside a parked van as there wasn't room for people to pass from the opposite direction and people behind me started tutting and squeezing past me AND the people coming the other way. I don't know why people can't follow basic rules and use basic courtesy either.

I'm not a big socialiser, but I've given up on social distancing from my family when we are together.

I've just had to spend two weeks at the home of my increasingly frail and infirm elderly parents as my Dad was particularly ill and had been in hospital. There was simply no other alternative and I would never have just abandoned them to their fate. I had to get there on public transport too.

Social distancing while helping them to move around their home, helping them with their multiple doses of an array of medication etc. would quite simply not have worked or even been an option.

Outside of family though, I am not a big socialiser anyway and do tend to fairly naturally keep my distance, as I just prefer to keep myself to myself generally anyway.

If I do really have to go somewhere I will though. With a mask, although I minimise it because I hate them.

We don’t social distance.

@Userzzz

We don’t social distance.

Why not ?

@morosetinkler because we refuse to stop living our lives over a virus that has a very low mortality rate. Our family and friends don’t socially distance either. Most people are waking up to the fact that this whole lockdown has been a farce.

Pretty much.
But then I work in hospitality and at the moment people appear willing to sit on each others laps to get a half price meal, because they certainly do stamp their feet when you can't 'squeeze' them in.
No one bothers with the one way systems, at least once a day large groups are pulling 2&3 tables together and get shitty when asked not to.
I've given up as have most of my colleagues, we're constantly shouted at and called all sorts by customers at the moment without trying to enforce social distancing with no actual real authority to do so and no one listening anyway.
I honestly couldn't give a fuck any more.

I dont think the people I see have completely given up. People definitely give you more space, there's no pushing pass, accidental knocking into each other, no leaning over each other in shops. Definitely still queuing with distance to get into shops or at checkouts. I feel there is still a definite distance between strangers, not as much as in March though. But did you know you can check cases in your local authority on the gov website? It tells me there have been 11 new cases so far in August. And all but 3 were in the first week. Much lower then the 30 a day we were getting in march/April (my LA was very badly hit to begin with). So I'm not that scared at the moment and with schools returning in 2 weeks we just gotta get back to normal

People seem to have given up. Wearing masks, washing hands and social distancing can be effective but people are too stupid/selfish to bother anymore. God forbid it interferes with their social lives!

Also, people saying risk is minimal to them is not the point..,it’s about transmission . meanwhile my poor 81 year old dad has been stuck in the house since March.