to remind you that we are actually allowed outside?

[Pishposhpashy]

I am following social distancing guidelines.

I am not seeing friends or family.

I am getting nearly all my food delivered online.

I am going out once a day for my allowed daily exercise. Yes, to my local park, because I live in London, in a flat with a 4 year old and no garden.

I am constantly seeing threads on here berating "idiots" for "flocking" to parks and suchlike. But the thing is, if I go to the park for my walk, and see other people there - they aren't "idiots", they are people doing the same thing I'm doing - their ALLOWED daily exercise!

I mean, if you have a garden, bully for you. But I don't, we are allowed out, and I will continue to take my son for a walk in the fresh air once a day.

I know we are allowed, but I have a small garden to sit in, and I don't need to have a break from my family, so I'm only leaving the house if I absolutely have to. And I think others should do the same.

I, on the other hand, think this is idiotic.

Parks are perfectly safe if you keep distance.

My anxiety levels would be through the roof if I had gone for a daily walk in a park crowded with people, like the ones currently shown on YouTube and social media. It would defeat the object of enjoying fresh air when you have to dodge round people trying to keep 2 metres apart. I'd sooner go out at 5 am!

are they social distancing

Some are trying, but honestly not really. I've seen lots of people who are quite clearly having a catch up with their friends, or lots if families on the field all trying to keep to their own household but because theres too many on one field it's just not working.

I also live near a big park and go there every morning whilst still relatively quiet. It's big enough to walk round a couple of times with my tunes on, most people give each other a body swerve then it's back home I go without having to touch anything.

It's the people in the park that are treating it like a sports day - having picnics, using the basketball court and exercise stations despite big signs saying not to, the families that don't go in single file when people are oncoming etc that people find fault with.

If I were to go today and it was busy I'd just keep walking and avoid it. Apply common sense and the best piece of advice I've heard so far - act as if you have the virus and moderate your behaviour accordingly.

Ethelfleda

@iHateJanuary2020 There is evidence to the contrary and your expert is simply one of many with an opinion.

There are other experts who say it can live on plastic for 3 days and paper for 24-48 hours. This has been widely reported.

We are advised to leave deliveries that are plastic-wrapped in quarantine for 3 days. All our deliveries (non food) are going into a quarantine 'corner' for 3 days .

In China where we have friends, who were in a far more severe lockdown than here in the UK, they were advised (and advise us) to leave outdoor shoes at the door or 'quarantined' for some time as the virus can possibly be transmitted on soles of shoes.

The truth is, they are still learning more and more about transmission. I'd rather err on the side of caution and take as many measures as possible.

I completely agree op. There were photos of a large local park on Facebook yesterday. Yes there were quite a lot of people there, but they were all people on their own or in family groups and were all observing social distancing. The dozens of kids in the skate park on the other hand....

@Ethelfleda It can be caught by touching surfaces. Ehy else are we told to wash or hands? Why are people wearing gloves inf it isn't caught by touching? Why are people told not to touch their faces with unwashed hands? Of course it's likely it is caught through contact with surfaces. (The PP who said not has quoted one single expert who others will disagree with.)

@alibongo5 I saw those pictures to & totally agree!

It will be interesting to survey the population's fitness levels after this is over. Will people maintain their new-found fitness and healthier lifestyle though, that's the question.

it will have a positive impact, but it's a bit like the current positive environmental impact of fewer planes in the sky, few cars on the road etc.

Will things lapse back to how they were before or will the improvement be long lasting....we can but hope.

I haven’t rtft, but if a vaccine is 18 months away, and there is no way lockdown can continue this long (I’m no economist but there won’t be an economy after this long and the effects of this will be far worse than Covid-19) isn’t it inevitable that most of us will get the virus? The whole point of lockdown at the moment is to flatten one huge spike into several smaller ones so the NHS can better cope. Yes, I understand that if you are particularly vulnerable you won’t be going out at all, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of us should be forced to stay locked in our homes jeopardising our physical and mental health. My DH works in a supermarket where it IS impossible to keep the 2m distance at all times. There is simply not the physical space to do this. Reducing the number of staff is not an option at this time for obvious reasons. We are very likely to contract Covid-19 at some point and I want to be as physically fit as possible when I do. I will be taking my daily outdoor exercise as per Government guidelines.

I think people get a bit confused over it all.

Going out for a walk is absolutely fine.

Taking a picnic to the park, doing a spot of sunbathing, having a group cycle, meeting friends in the park etc are not.

I was under the impression that the proportion of people in ICU who are overweight or obese is roughly equivalent to the proportion of the public who are overweight or obese.

A BMI of >40 is cited on the CDC website as an independent risk factor though. Seems intuitive if you think about it - ventilated patients with this virus are needing much higher pressures than usual, particularly the PEEP to oxygenate the lungs. Central obesity as happens in fat men, is going to make ventilation - already unusually hard with COVID-19 more difficult, due to reduced chest wall compliance.

The issue is that parks can become crowded. Maybe in time they will have to operate a one in, one out regime like supermarkets to control numbers? or close them.

I fully appreciate @Pishposhpashy that it must be so hard for you with a toddler. But maybe a walk 'to' the park and not in it if it's crowded is one option?

What worries me is that many families with children can't control their child's behaviour.

Where we walk, on a country track, the path is barely 2 mtrs wide in places. Some families are walking 4 - abreast. When we 'pass' the kids don't have the sense to move into a single file and the parents seem clueless too.

It's fine taking a child outside but everyone needs to be thinking ahead when other people get close, and whisk their child out of the way.

No one is saying you can't go out at all, it says you can have exercise.

It's inevitable that in London because of the population size when lots of people go for a walk you end up with lots of people out at the same time. It makes it very tricky.

But what it doesn't say is it's ok to sunbathe, sit on a bench and have a bbq. That's what people are criticising. People using this as a holiday, not people exercising for a short time.

We are all allowed to exercise and we need it for mental health purposes. It is the fact that people flock to regular sites such as parks and crowd them that the police are trying to prevent.

The police are trying to stop crowds because they state quite rightly that to enable social distancing they have to prevent a build-up of people. How do you say to 1 person it is ok to go to the park but not to the other 100 who also want to go to the park. What they are saying is go to your local park and stay away from others. Dont flock to the beaches and the popular tourist spots, so how do they decide to work out who's doing what- their answer is dont drive to where you are going because the journey should be limited to your locality and don't relax your rules of separation just because it's a sunny day because the virus does take a holiday just because it's hot.

It hard to work out what's best and how to implement it but I do know i would rather go to a place where I can take my kids to get some air and sit and relax away from this all, just for a minute would be nice. But luckily I have a garden and we have to think that others may not and that we should stick to our gardens and let those who dont have a garden go, to the local park.

Its a lot better than everybody taking a walk along a narrow pavement passing each other. The rules are there to protect us but if people do not understand why the rules are there then that is the problem. The police have been told that they are to try to guide people and educate them nobody doubts they have a difficult time understanding what they are supposed to do just like we have a difficult time to understand what we are supposed to do.

The aim is the same for everyone to keep us apart to ensure the virus is not allowed to spread. It new to us all so let us not start to bicker about the interpretations and get the real message that matters.

The police officers are human beings who are just as much at risk and more from the virus they are out working to protect us they don't want the hassle of doing this and I'm sure that it will go back to normal when things are normal and I think we all agree these are not normal times.

@jinglinghellsbells so what about pets then ? Should people be washing their dogs and cats paws ?

I was under the impression that the proportion of people in ICU who are overweight or obese is roughly equivalent to the proportion of the public who are overweight or obese.

You are correct but that doesn't stop lazy journos or posters on here from twisting facts to suit their personal vendetta

It will be interesting to survey the population's fitness levels after this is over. Will people maintain their new-found fitness and healthier lifestyle though, that's the question

I’m going out for daily exercise but it’s absolutely no way a healthier lifestyle than before. I used to do the school run twice a day (a mile each way), walk the dog in the evening, weekly Pilates class, weekly kettlebells class and a long cycle ride with my family at the weekend. Being reduced to one walk a day I already feel lethargic and unfit, and I imagine far less able to fight off a virus than I was previously.
Many of the people you see walking that you wouldn’t normally see walking probably usually go to the gym in their lunch hour or after work, or go to organised classes etc. They can no longer do these things, so they’re walking in parks instead.

I think the criticism levied in Govt updates about uptick of cars on the road and people using the parks (when they were told they could go out once a day to exercise) is propoganda designed to detract from the bigger causes of the spread of the virus which are likely to be from insufficiently protected and untested NHS staff and care workers and insufficient home delivery options forcing people and shop staff into close proximity in order to get food and basic essentials.

But luckily I have a garden and we have to think that others may not and that we should stick to our gardens and let those who dont have a garden go, to the local park

Some of us live in places where we have a garden (id say 95% of the dwellings here do, the only flats are those above shops in the village centre) and we can go for a nice walk while maintaining plenty of distance from everyone we meet. We don’t all live in crowded places. We all need to assess the risk based on our own circumstances.

yes, I think some people just don't know how active many people normally are. Gyms are shut. Many no longer are cycling to work. All their weekly sports are not available etc etc An amble with the toddler in tow is not the same at all.

Yanbu OP

I'm so fucking sick of people sneering at "couch potatoes" who "suddenly want to exercise" If they had the tiniest amount of compassion or humanity they wouldn't need to have it explained to them why sedentary people are going for a daily walk

Will people maintain their new-found fitness and healthier lifestyle though, that's the question

A daily walk in no way compares to the physical exercise involved in going to work for most people, let alone the loss of gyms/pools/classes and team sport facilities. I'd expect the fitness profile to go down, not up.

Well said OP, too many threads managed by the people Police at the moment. We are doing what works for us in order to stay within the guidelines and as we only have a shared green, I’ve been taking my 6yo old out for daily bike rides. He’s loving the fact everyone says hello (from across the street, obvs) and inevitably we pass people from his local school, the kids love that too. I’m closer to people in the supermarket at the moment than I ever am out for exercise with my son.
Happy birthday @JaceLancs I’m glad you’ll get to see your DD 😊