Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this cyclist was inconsiderate?

41 replies

Moomoomoomin · 12/04/2020 11:59

We went on a walk early this morning through the meadows with the DC. My youngest DC had fallen over and I was giving him a hug and making sure he was okay.

A cyclist zoomed past very close to us. The path was very wide and he could have easily moved out of the way.

DH seems to think what the cyclist did was fine because he was going really fast and had overtaken us in a few seconds. He thinks the risk of him passing on coronavirus to us is slim to none.

I think the 2 metre rule is there for a reason and the cyclist should have swerved to the other side of the path. I know I will be looking out for symptoms in us all for the next two weeks.

A petty thing to disagree on but who is right?

OP posts:
PotholeParadise · 12/04/2020 12:06

He was inconsiderate and your DH is right.

This virus has a R0 of 2.5, which means on average an infected person will pass it to 2.5 people, although I've seen it quoted as 3 to 4 people.

If you could catch it by being passed momentarily by an infected person, it would have an R0 of about 500 and we'd all have it by now.

HugeAckmansWife · 12/04/2020 12:33

if you were crouched down giving him a hug is it possible that the fast moving cyclist just didn't see you in time to safely move over - an emergency swerve at speed might have been dangerous?

Original poster
Moomoomoomin · 12/04/2020 12:37

My DH was not crouching down so he would have seen him. I just wish I knew how dangerous being so close to someone even for a few seconds is? I don’t want to be overly anxious but surely they are the rules for a reason?

OP posts:
CuriousaboutSamphire · 12/04/2020 12:39

Think about that emergency swerve at speed again. On a path through meadows, with walkers already on it...

That was about as unthinking as the jogger who slogged passed me yesterday. Slogged uphill, pudding and panting, sweaty and totally focused on himself ignoring me and the woman behind me, didn't move over, we did, just brushed passed us so close you could feel the air move.

Nobody needs exercise more than anyone else needs to feel safe.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 12/04/2020 12:39

Pudding????? Confused

PotholeParadise · 12/04/2020 12:41

You've got half the rules, is the problem. This is not a licence to start chatting up close with people with a stopwatch in hand, but in full, the advice went:

Coronaviruses can be spread when people with the virus have close, sustained contact with people who are not infected. This typically means spending more than 15 minutes within two metres of an infected person, such as talking to someone for instance. From gov.uk

WHO have the same thing somewhere.

The novel coronavirus is not magic. It works like other viruses. In fact, it is less contagious than rhinoviruses that cause the common cold, which have an R0 of 6 people.

Musereader · 12/04/2020 12:51

Yabu . The virus is carried in droplet clouds from sneezing or coughing. The droplet clouds exist for about 5-10 seconds in the air. The 2 m rule is so that if someone does cough or sneeze you are not close enough for it to land on you or for you to walk through the cloud while it exists. Unless the rider sneezed at the exact moment he passed you, you will not get infected from him even if he was infected.

You can be stood next to an infected person, but if they don't breathe directly on you as in face to face 2 inches away. You will not get infected the thing with sneezing and coughing is that it projects the virus outwards up to 2 m to land on anybody in that direction and that far away. You can stand as close as you like behind someone sneezing, even at the side and you are still safe. Just don't walk into the cloud, or touch their hand.

Also keep in mind that the 2 m rule is because they are in as much danger from you, because they don't know if you are infected as much as you don't know they are.

VeganVeal · 12/04/2020 12:53

I'd be worried if it was me, we really dont know everything about how it spreads. Lots of people have contracted it, so must have been in close contact for only a few seconds. But how close, do we know 2 metres is enough even? I'd definitely be looking out for symptoms and maybe consider self isolation, its just not worth the risk. I certainly wouldn't be risking the children by taking them out for walks. You are playing roulette with their health

FrippEnos · 12/04/2020 12:53

HugeAckmansWife
if you were crouched down giving him a hug is it possible that the fast moving cyclist just didn't see you in time to safely move over - an emergency swerve at speed might have been dangerous?

If this is the case then the cyclist is going to fast for the conditions that they are riding in.

Original poster
Moomoomoomin · 12/04/2020 12:54

VeganVeal do you think so? This is how I naturally feel but DH is trying to tell me I’m letting anxiety get the better of me. We live in a flat so without walks there would be no time outside for the children. Maybe that’s better than them getting unwell though?

OP posts:
PotholeParadise · 12/04/2020 12:59

VeganVeal

Have a Biscuit, and go to school.

The OP is not playing roulette with her children's health, as health is about more than slim possibilities of viral exposure. Factors like cardiovascular health, mental health, vitamin D and resistance exercise, which promotes bone development.

Queenoftheashes · 12/04/2020 12:59

You are absolutely letting anxiety get the better of you. See the sensible comments from pp explaining how the virus spreads.

shineaflight · 12/04/2020 13:01

Love all of this "the virus has an R0 of...."

You've all been watching contagion 😂😂

NotMeNoNo · 12/04/2020 13:02

YABU. The 2m rule is intended to prevent people hanging around/chatting/queuing for long enough to transmit the virus. The risk from pedestrians or cyclists passing slightly closer on paths must be minimal in comparison to all the other risks. All this pronounced leaping into roads and hedges to avoid people and taking offence is missing the point.

VeganVeal · 12/04/2020 13:06

Say what you like, we dont know how it spreads. Only a few weeks ago people where saying its ok it only kills the old and ill, lets go to the beach, and here we are today 6000 dead in the UK alone.
Its difficult if you live in a flat but I know what I'm doing, staying in!

PotholeParadise · 12/04/2020 13:10

OP, your DH is right, and I am a certified mad LTBer.

Your children cannot spend the next three months in a flat, and if people continue to spout bollocks on MN, we'll have a rickets epidemic.

Viruses don't have brains. They don't go round looking for someone breaking the rules, and exclaim, "I can infect them now!"

It is about exposure and your own immune system. As a very loose analogy, imagine standing outside when it is very lightly drizzling. If you stand outside a garden for ages, your clothes will eventually become appreciably wet. We'll call that enough viral exposure for you to catch the virus yourself. If you sprint from one end of a standard garden to the front door and go inside, you will barely have any wet spots. So you don't catch it!

The probability is the jogger didn't even have it in the first place. If he had, out in the open air, the wind dissipating anything he breathed out, and past in a couple of seconds, you won't have caught it.

NotMeNoNo · 12/04/2020 13:13

I think we do know how it spreads though. By droplets either directly from cough/sneeze/contact or on surfaces. Its not for example water borne like cholera. Has anyone heard otherwise?

PotholeParadise · 12/04/2020 13:14

Love all of this "the virus has an R0 of...."

Never seen Contagion. Is it any good? I do like my science-nerdery!

^Say what you like, we dont know how it spreads. Only a few weeks ago people where saying its ok it only kills the old and ill, lets go to the beach, and here we are today 6000 dead in the UK alone.
Its difficult if you live in a flat but I know what I'm doing, staying in!^

No mate. You were. A few weeks ago, I was prepping!

I have been obsessing over coronavirus since January and had enough in to isolate for two weeks if anyone developed symptoms by mid-February. I was posting on here in January that even if it had the same death rate as the flu, the NHS couldn't handle the additional burden and we needed to contain it.

Musereader · 12/04/2020 13:16

It was always more likely to kill the old and ill, but there was always a 0.2% chance of someone young and healthy dying from it. The stories we are hearing are those unlucky .2% which in a population of 66 million means 13,200 young or healthy people dead. Less likely does not mean never.

QuixoticQuokka · 12/04/2020 13:17

The cyclist should have given you space if they were going fast anyway, or slowed down to pass you safely. If you had not realised they were passing or reacted and moved then both of you and the cyclist could have been injured.

sirfredfredgeorge · 12/04/2020 13:18

All this pronounced leaping into roads and hedges to avoid people and taking offence is missing the point.

Well, the point of the moving away from people is to relieve the anxiety of people like the OP, but yes the taking offence is silly.

Fivefourthree · 12/04/2020 13:20

You'll be fine Flowers

Original poster
Moomoomoomin · 12/04/2020 13:23

VeganVeal you are scaring me now. I don’t know if you are the sensible one and everyone else isn’t taking it seriously enough or if you are as insane as I am and I need to listen to everyone else.

I do know my children can’t spend months or years until there is a vaccine in a tiny 2 bed flat.

So rightly or wrongly I’m going to listen to everyone else and my DH. We might go out for walks earlier in the morning from now on to limit the risk as much as possible. I don’t want to pass my anxiety on to my children.

OP posts:
Original poster
Moomoomoomin · 12/04/2020 13:24

Thanks everyone. Flowers

OP posts:
Pinkocelot · 12/04/2020 13:26

The cyclist should have given you space if they were going fast anyway, or slowed down to pass you safely. If you had not realised they were passing or reacted and moved then both of you and the cyclist could have been injured.

This.

Why do they have to be such arses. If you can easily cycle away from someone, why go next to them.

Swipe left for the next trending thread