To not understand the outrage at Dominic Cummings?

[Wow123]

Please don’t flame me for this. I’m not posting this to be controversial. I am someone who always tries to see the good in people which has been to my detriment at time’s in the past so I’m very well aware that maybe I’m missing something here and being too kind when he possibly doesn’t deserve it.

My understanding is that Dominic Cummings is saying that he only returned to Durham on one occasion which was because he had fears about potentially being unable to look after his child if him and his wife both ended up too unwell with Covid. I can understand the logic in that.

I appreciate the government advice at that stage was to stay home but if he genuinely didn’t have anyone to help with his son, then I can understand his fears and that he was trying to put his child first as any parent would.

My understanding is that a matter of days after, the government did clarify that travelling in the event of needing support with children if you had caught covid was an exceptional circumstance and that travel in that instance was acceptable.

I personally live hundreds of miles from family and don’t have anyone I could ask for help in the local area was I to become unwell with Covid so this does resonate with me.

I understand that there were sightings of Dominic Cummings on other dates in Durham which indicate that he travelled back up there. If this is true, I definitely agree that he needs to be sacked, but at this stage, there is no proof of this.

Am I missing something here?

75 in a 70 zone
I know I shouldn't dignify this daft analogy with a response....but come on😂😅

@Whattheduck "So he was willing to let his parents look after his son if they became to ill therefore possibly passing it onto them"

His sister, not his parents.

Suggest you read newspaper headlines and subsequent outpourings of angst on social media with a large pinch of salt in future.

Whilst I will say again, in his position, this was a pretty stupid act, I think what people do not seem to understand is that the government had to come up with a simple message that made blanket rules because anything else would be too complicated. They knew that if they said " it is ok to collect your child from uni" or " it is okay to travel to family for emergencies" etc, that the majority would come up with other okay things. However, when you are in a situation where you cannot follow the rules because you are an essential worker, you end up having to risk assess everything you do and end up taking more risk than those who have locked down. When you HAVE to go to work, HAVE to go within 2 metres of known Covid patients to provide care to them, HAVE to be within 2 metres of other health professionals to talk to them/ hear them/ look at and discuss x-rays/ notes etc, you make sure you are very clear about how Covid 19 is transmitted. You do not cough in front of others, you wash hands after touching any surface, you keep your head/ breath pointing away from others when talking, you keep an eye on your health, you wipe surfaces regularly. But, you also understand that even when you work with Covid patients, the risks of being very ill from it if you are fit and healthy are very low. You understand that walking out of your door, getting in a car and driving somewhere is only going to be a risk to emergency services which are not likely to be needed in low traffic conditions. You know that if you do have to stop at services, providing you wipe surfaces before and after and any coughing is into a tissue which is thrown away, and you wash your hands, the risk to anyone is miniscule. I do not think this man put anyone at all at risk of catching Covid19 but I do accept that he should have owned up and apologised. However, with the current inevitable reaction to the story, you can kind of see why he would not have wanted to publicise what happened.

CovidicusRex

Exactly, one of the biggest complaints seems to be that people couldn't go into infectious wards or homes with their kids to visit dying people.

Did you want to?

This couple isolates with their kid and with his sister who nominated herself to be on hand in case they were both incapacitated. How does that compare with healthy families visiting highly contagious infection wards and homes?

"Cummings isn't the sheepdog; he's the wolf. To a sheep a sheepdog is a wolf."

But with entirely different intentions...

I keep hearing about his mum's birthday on Mumsnet, but how come BBC news has never mentioned it? The other possible breaches are regularly referred to but not this party.

Yes. Let's all not give a shit about what anyone does. No rules, no laws, no ethics, no morality. Let anarchy reign! Viva the anarchists!!

It's about credible trustworthy leadership
Do you otherwise consider D.C. to be your credible and trustworthy leader - let's forget for the moment rhis recent rule-breaking? Do you hold him up as a moral compass for the nation?
He is a senior civil servant. Not some sort of infallible God-king.

don’t get it. If he hasn’t done any harm what does it matter what he did in the process of doing no harm? Would people also want him to be sacked for doing 75 in a 70 zone?

70 in 75 zone

😂😁😁😁😂👍🏻👍🏻

yeah doesn't matter much 😂😂😂😂

He is a senior civil servant.

Duh.

Whose actions the PM and 5 cabinet leaders have justified in the face of all guidelines. Yes credible leadership.

Because it strongly appears to be hypocritical

Not some sort of infallible God-king

It's amazing how much people imagine the sheepdogs to be God-kings.

However, when you are in a situation where you cannot follow the rules because you are an essential worker, you end up having to risk assess everything you do and end up taking more risk than those who have locked down Yes it's all about risk assessment. To give a trivial sheep example. One of my sheep broke his leg. The vet turned him on his back and put on the cast. I had to hold on to him -for bloody ages. We weren't social distancing. But in that instance the health of the sheep was more important.

At the first sign of his wife getting ill, Dominic “Herd Immunity” Cummings was so convinced of the probability of them both being struck down so badly they would be left incapable of providing basic care to a 4 year old that they were prepared to break quarantine and travel 250 miles away ( with who knows what stops they made along the way). And this is a man with better access to information about the virus than any of us.

Shouldn’t we be examining his thinking? Either this was an incredible over reaction that put many other people at risk of infection, or he knows something about risk that we don’t.

In any event his wife the over reaction is clear, his wife was fine to provide childcare and he wasn’t hospitalised, so it was all unnecessary. Perhaps it wasn’t about childcare at all.

Stay home save lives they told us.

@NailsNeedDoing: Utterly incorrect to imply that if you unknowingly come into contact with a disease it won't infect you!!! What you actually mean is that is people didn't know someone was infected, they couldn't blame them for passing the infection on. The virus can't establish people's mind set and alter it's effects accordingly.

infallible God-king.

this thread keeps giving. 😁

The outpouring of hate and negativity over this weirdly upsets me more than the act

I don’t like it especially but the sheet volume of hate directed his way is shocking and a bit scary to be honest

It’s not like the government ever made any attempt to stop the geographical spread of covid.

No, not at all. I mean it's not as if they restricted the movement of the entire population in order to combat the spread of the illness.

@hfrdgftcsdg - I'm in that 0.1% too

The hate is scary??? It’s more scary if people allow their elected representatives to lie to them and don’t hold them to account. Anyone who isn’t furious about this must have a screw loose. The entire cabinet have shown that they are happy to lie to the British public even although it may cost lives. That is why people are furious.

I don’t like the hounding he’s having. There is a four year old living in his house. It must be very scary to have the press outside surrounding his dad like th

If Cummings had admitted he made a mistake apologised and stepped down no one would be bothering with him anymore. It’s not personal. It’s based on his position as the most senior adviser to the prime minister, making the laws the rest of us peasants have to abide by.

@Vanhi those getting upset about guidelines being flouted, are the same people who'll advise an OP to mind their own business when a neighbour is having a party, and will slag off the government because they don't agree to the guidelines.

Like that!

I live within half a mile of the guy. There is no shortage of local support. Even if you didn’t have family in the area (which he does) there are at least 3 local volunteer groups that I can think of off the top of my bead, providing practical support to those who are self-isolating. Not to mention a plethora of supermarkets and independent grocers, butchers, fishmongers, wine merchants etc who are doing doorstep deliveries

I don't think that is the issue and wouldn't have been for me, if I had been ill. I doubt you feel like eating much anyway, so as long as you've got something in the house you'll be ok.

The point is he has a four year old child. And although he broke the rules and should resign (but won't) I won't support the braying mob because I am not hypocritical and know I would have called on family help in a similar situation. Ideally got them to come to me but if I had felt well enough to drive, taken the 4 year old to them.