If you're still sticking to ALL the rules/guidance - why?

[RaspberryCoulis]

Will start by saying I am not sticking to the covid rules any more. Obviously I can't go places which aren't open. But we have had people in the house, kids are going out with friends probably in larger numbers than are permitted, we're crossing local authority boundaries which is supposedly illegal in Scotland. Why? Because we've been in lockdown for a year, cases here are very low, and some things are more important than Covid.

But on every thread there are people claiming that they are sticking rigidly to every single rule and guideline, never breaking ANY rule. They would probably say I was a selfish covid-denier who was hellbent on murdering their granny.

So if you're sticking to all the guidelines and rules, without fail - why? People who are clinically extremely vulnerable (officially) I can understand in part if they're not vaccinated. But the rest of you? Is it because you're scared of Covid, or scared of your neighbours, or scared of breaking the law by mistake?

@RonaLisa

If you look at where we are in the vaccination program, we are still not finishing vaccinating those who are most at risk, yet we’ve vaccinated approx 50% of the adult population so far (Scotland).

It is more than just a tiny minority of people we are trying to protect.

@Confusedandshaken

There are people within my family and friendship group who think they are special and that the rules don't apply to them. Unsurprisingly they tend to be the less intelligent people. Any respect or liking I had for them before is greatly diminished now.

Okay but have these dimwits caught covid??

It seems that you are getting more juvenile the more you say, seeking validation for risk taking.
Our family is mainly composed of engineers so risk is a common topic.

I am keeping to the rules because cleverer people than me have devised those rules as a way of reducing C-19 sooner and allowing normal commerce and health services to resume sooner than if we make our own decisions. These rules lower risk
Do you have no sympathy for women in labour without a friend with them, or those who are in hospital and isolated when miscarrying.
We have someone waiting for an operation, that ward and the staff have been taken off their specialisation.
Do you not see that there is a connection between the selfish and the delay to the innocent.

You are affecting the risk that hospitals continue as they are. Do you not accept that? Or do you accept it and say 'tough' I'm going MY way
Sod You lot!

@BlowDryRat

I've let the DC go out to the fields to play with more than one friend. I've also had one of their friends in the house when they needed to use the loo. My reasoning is that

• they're all in the same class/families so are mixing all the time anyway
• we're all doing lateral flow tests twice a week, including the kids
• I've been vaccinated, so has DH and so have all the adults in our families that we're likely to see regularly
• I'm WFH and getting grocery deliveries. DH is at work but they've all been vaccinated due to their jobs (not patient-facing)
• rates are low in our area
• we've had restrictions on our lives for over a year. I'm not killing anyone's granny and I'm not going to worry about letting the kids go out to play after all they've given up on the past 12 months.

Good for you. Glad the children are enjoying life.

@RonaLisa.

You say no one is likely to die. Statistically that is true but we don't know if it's actually true for that particular group of teens. Anyone of them could be an asypmtomatic carrier, anyone of them could be the exceptional fit, healthy youngster who dies or contracts long CoVid instead of making a good recovery. Taking chances like that is playing Russian roulette but with very good odds.

I can understand teens will be inclined to take that chance. They are young and irresponsible, they think they are indestructible but I don't understand why an intelligent adult would gamble with their life and the life of others.

@justasking111

Re long covid my DS caught glandular fever at uni. talk about long GF he was ill on and off for a decade. Whenever he got run down stress, work down he went again. Long Covid is not some unique new phenomena. It is just the long term affect of another virus

This. Post viral syndromes have been around since forever. I missed almost a year of a levels due to glandular fever. I know one individual whos had long covid. But prior to that if she got a cold or any kind of infection she'd be off work at least 2 weeks. She has an immunity issue unfortunately. However she didn't help herself at all by putting myself through so many fad diets and punishing exercise regimes.

Honestly? I have two daughters, and we've been going for walks as a three and not a two. And before you were allowed to sit down somewhere, we knew of a secluded bench where nobody goes, where we would drink out takeaway coffee.

Other than that, yes, I follow the rules because I desperately want this to end. Also my daughter is a nurse on a Covid ward and her experiences put the fear into me (I followed the rules but wasn't overly worried until her ward became a covid one and suddenly everything seemed real)

Surely people are able to see they are doing all of this for others and not themselves? Why does it matter if you’ve never met the person you may potentially have saved the life of?? I’m honestly shocked by the idea that if you don’t know any vulnerable people the rules don’t apply. Anyone can have a heart attack or a stroke or an accident and not be able to get the help they need because the hospitals are full of strangers with covid.

Thank you @Nuitsdesetoiles

The poster above who said the rules are easy to follow and no big deal.... I have no words.

@RaspberryCoulis

"The person who is a "twonk" is the one who thinks that someone who speeds or breaks Covid rules is just the same as a murderer.

In my opinion."

I didn't call anyone a murderer. Are your comprehension skills always absent or is today a bad day for you? If everyone picked and chose the laws they wanted to obey we would have anarchy. Google it if you haven't heard of it. HTH 😀

Funny how you think speeding and excess road deaths are never linked. Again, low comprehension skills, sadly ...

@RonaLisa

The likelihood of death is lower but so is the likelihood of running someone over in the first place. What I’m saying is that if a death occurs, it is moe manslaughter than murder, but still something I would want to avoid.

I'm sticking to it because there aren't many other options. I probably wouldn't hesitate to see my family, but they're not happy doing it until restrictions are eased. The only places I want to be are closed. The places I need to be mean I have to wear a mask or I can't get in.

" If your teenagers have their friends round, nobody is actually likely to die as a result."

Well, probably not that you will know about, so it doesn't count then, does it? People are still dying, although yes to a lesser extent.

They may also help to spread the cases, increase chance of new variants, and give people a nice side-effect of Long Covid - keeping us trapped in this hell-hole of a lockdown for even longer.

Just because you cannot see the effects in your own immediate family/friends does not mean that you have not contibuted to it and that these things are not occurring. Please think of others and the bigger picture beyond your own life.

Because I’m not a selfish twat.

This.

OP I dont believe for a second you put this post up in good faith. very very goady and with obvious intention to cause a debate, you knew that full well which is why so many of your responses to other posters are snipey and well thought out - you already had your responses in mind to anyone who disagreed with you and you knew full well that the majority would.

I suppose it might seem naive and stupid to follow the rules when you've got quite a bit of control over managing your own risk - wfh for a year, online shopping etc. Might seem very reasonable to 'bend' the rules to see other people like you, or go for a nice drive, and you can all have a giggle about the sheep that continue to follow the rules.

It's a bit of a different story for people who are having to take more risk than they're comfortable with in their life, completely within the rules. Frontline emergency service staff, for example, teachers, essential retail, carers. I'm in childcare, and I am face to face with 30 children each day, as well as other staff. I want the children and their parents to trust that I'm taking every reasonable precaution, and definitely staying within the guidelines, to reduce my risk and therefore my risk of transmission to their households. I'd like to think they're all doing the same, to respect the staff and other children, but I know some aren't. Children talk. I am not a carer, but I have friends who are caring for a family member, and they want to keep their own risk to a minimum to protect their loved ones.

@mn81987

"
Totally agree with you OP, I bet all those saying they've stuck to it have bent the rules slightly to suit them!
I'm back to doing what I want and having a lovely time!"

^^^^^^^^

Well bully for you
I ware a mask 8 hours a day.
So does dh - both key workers.
Shopping once a week
Not had friends over.
Not been in other houses.
Not seen / held my lovely new baby granddaughter.
Or seen adult dc other than zoom.
Not been able to visit mil who had been in hospital since or celebrate her 80 birthday.
Not even when she caught covid in hospital and recovered
Not seen my beloved sister who lives 30 minute drive away since September.
So no not broken the rules.
Miss these people terribly.
But if we all carried on interacting the virus would be rife.
It's highly, highly contagious and 3 out 4 people , that's 75 % who catch it are a symptomatic.
It's Shit.
But unless you can think of a better way ?????

I'm cev. My husband's my carer. Our kids are both disabled. He's their carer too. If either of us got it there's a reasonable chance it would kill me and if my husband got it, while he'd likely recover that's 3 disabled people utterly screwed until he was back on his feet.

I'd rather not take chances.

When I was younger drink driving was made illegal but for a long time it remained socially acceptable. Nearly everyone I knew did it (not me because I'm a risk averse rule keeper /sheep). Not one of them ever killed anyone. That doesn't mean that it was a safe thing to do or that drink driving should be legal.

Regularly breaking CoVid rules and not catching CoVid isn't proof that what you are doing is safe or ok. It just means you got away with it that time.

@Sugarbelle

OP I dont believe for a second you put this post up in good faith. very very goady and with obvious intention to cause a debate, you knew that full well which is why so many of your responses to other posters are snipey and well thought out - you already had your responses in mind to anyone who disagreed with you and you knew full well that the majority would.

Impossible, @Sugarbelle. I'm a terminally thick, poorly educated twonk who is lacking in comprehension skills.

It's a wonder I can spell my own name.

Not being goady - I see all around me, every day, that people are having people in their houses. Travelling for non-essential reasons. Going into supermarkets in groups. Meeting outside not just for exercise. Doing all sorts of things which are against laws/rules/guidance.

Isn't it funny that I am seeing one thing in everyday life, yet everyone on MN is still staying inside?

I’m following the rules because I’m scared of getting caught.

I wouldn’t attend mass gatherings or super spreading events if I weren’t scared of getting caught, but sitting in a garden today in a rule of 6 today instead of Monday I might do if I wasn’t a goody too shoos.

Can’t believe the sanctimony of some on this thread though. Some people honestly seem to believe that ethical living starts and ends with covid.

@celiafforcandle I think the guidance is now that women are supposed to be allowed a birth partner throughout. Lots of hospitals not following it - not because of people bending the rules, but because there is a disproportionate focus on covid and some people many of whom are on this thread think it’s ok to do anything as long as it keeps covid down.

Isn't it funny that I am seeing one thing in everyday life, yet everyone on MN is still staying inside?

You don’t have to stay inside though do you?

@RaspberryCoulis

It’s almost like your anecdotal evidence isn’t representative of the general population. That’s odd.

The rules are easy to follow and no big deal.

For you. For others, they are a huge deal - they have changed our entire lives and what I’m doing now is half-living, not living.

I’m sticking to the rules because where I am, they still allow us to see other people and travel. There were a few exceptions when instead of 3 other adults, I met 4. Or I hugged a friend at the end of our walk. However, I don’t think I’d still be sticking to them if I was in the UK.

I completely understand you OP and I think there comes a time when people start doing their own risk assessments. A friend in England is meeting up with her parents on Monday, as per the new guidance. She is desperate to hug her dad, who is going through cancer treatment at the moment. When I asked her why wouldn’t she just hug him, she said ‘because of the rules’. They’ve all been vaccinated and aren’t actually scared of passing it to each other. But they can’t contemplate breaking the rules.

I guess it works for them because neither person lives alone. I’ve ‘broken the rules’ and hugged people in the past out of sheer desperation. I would happily get Covid tomorrow, I’m not scared of it. At all. Chances are, I’ll be fine. I’d rather catch Covid and be ill for some time, than continue this half-life which is unbearable.