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?

[quote Dowser]@HazeyJaneII
😂😂😂
Noble it isn’t.
It’s called getting on with life
You should try it.![/quote]
Considering the needs of her child that would be a bit difficult for her. How insensitive.

I just hope OP, you are genuinely reading and hearing what people are saying here. It basically translates as 'enlightened self interest'; your fate is tied to everyone else's. You find that annoying because you have been encouraged to believe we are all individuals who can, to some degree, have what we want. It's a fallacy.

Lockdowns don't work. Well, they do, but ..

Lockdowns do work because obviously the more people keep apart the less the virus spreads. You do know this.

We can't have full, household-imprisonment lockdowns over here for some of the reasons you mention - essential services still need to operate, etc.

This doesn't mean that ANY attempts to restrict people mingling and spreading the virus aren't worth it.

I'm sure you must be able to see this, really.

YANBU @RaspberryCoulis

The only possible reason for any lockdown was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed. Not to stop long Covid or any infection. Or lest there be mutations, which are bound to happen.

The vaccines are a great success and the elderly, who are most at risk have been vaccinated.

It’s time to lift the restrictions now. I’ve had enough, as have most people I know, whether or not they’re obeying.

I’m quite happy to travel, or have tradespeople in, or whatever. I don’t go near people to transmit the virus anyway.

I find it terrifying that people are saying the restrictions are a minor inconvenience.

Jeez what an utterly vile thread.

There are two types of people rule followers and free thinkers.

Anyone who really still thinks that following the rules will get us out of this clearly doesn’t have strong critical thinking skills.

Lockdowns are only vaguely sensible policy as very short term measures. The cure becomes worse than the disease quickly.

Thankyou @ilovesooty

@Dowser
Noble it isn’t.
It’s called getting on with life
You should try it.!

We have been shielding medically vulnerable ds all year, and will have to continue to do this to a certain extent until he is vaccinated...despite this, and some pretty difficult stuff happening, we have very much been living and we've worked hard to bring positives into the year for all of us as a family.

I don't stick to the rules because personally, life gets so bad in lockdown, I would rather risk it.

I don't get all this , "because I'm not selfish" crap. To be honest, if you're bitter and unhappy in lockdown and it makes you sick - you develop loneliness and that has it's own risk factors. Say you had a heart attack because of loneliness - you take up a bed in hospital. You die and leave your family. Doesn't that make you selfish because you're leaving your family? Because you were too scared of covid to live.

Remember when you point a finger, 3 fingers point back at you.

@kellehi

Lockdowns don't work. Well, they do, but only if everyone undergoes strict home isolation. But that is impossible. People have to go out for perfectly legitimate reasons. Those reasons are given in the exemptions and are the reason that the police aren't arresting anyone who steps foot outside their door.

More covid cases/deaths are generated by people undertaking these perfectly permitted activities, i.e. going to work and accessing the NHS, not to mention the shortcomings of the NHS infection control itself than there are by people breaking the law, i.e. sneakily meeting up with another person indoors.

So, again, lockdowns don't work because you can't exclude people from meeting any other people outside of their household 100% of the time. It's not that 'the last lockdown didn't work because of people who broke the rules'

Lockdowns will never work and hopefully the government will figure this out before 2022...

Exactly. My son has worked all through lockdown. He wasn’t furloughed . He wasn’t paid to sit on his sofa. He had to work with others. Should he have said I’m just downing tools. I’m staying at home. It’s lockdown. Pay me. What about his wife. She’s gone to supermarkets to do the family shopping. Their son works at McDonald’s. He’s been in since they reopened doing 4 shifts a week.. then when college was open, he was in studying for A levels. Lockdowns don’t work because they aren’t full lockdowns. Many people have worked throughout. Life as we know it would’ve ground to a halt in April when the food ran out.

@Teateaandmoretea

Jeez what an utterly vile thread.

There are two types of people rule followers and free thinkers.

Anyone who really still thinks that following the rules will get us out of this clearly doesn’t have strong critical thinking skills.

Lockdowns are only vaguely sensible policy as very short term measures. The cure becomes worse than the disease quickly.

Made all the more vile by your post.

@Teateaandmoretea

Jeez what an utterly vile thread.

There are two types of people rule followers and free thinkers.

Anyone who really still thinks that following the rules will get us out of this clearly doesn’t have strong critical thinking skills.

Lockdowns are only vaguely sensible policy as very short term measures. The cure becomes worse than the disease quickly.

Stupid post

There are two types of people rule followers and free thinkers.
You're right. Of course, there's all the sheeple who blindly do as they're told and can't think critically, and then the enlightened free thinkers who know they're so much smarter than the sheeple.

There’s loads having their own quiet rebellion

There probably are areas where there is a higher amount not following but lament schools closing etc

AfternoonToffee: I am one of many where there will be no picking things back up from last year, but it wasn't covid, so it doesn't matter.

I am very sorry about your MIL.

My experiences of long-term chronic illness weren't Covid. (obviously). I don't think everything is Covid, and nothing else matters. I just have an extreme fear of long-term illness because of my past experiences, and don't want long Covid to send me back to those times.

My dad's clinical vulnerability and eventual death were due to myeloma, long before Covid. But my experiences of some people sneering at his restrictions and implying that my mum and I were just hypochondriacs when we tried to avoid bringing infection to him, have made me sensitive to those who express contempt for those who take precautions against Covid. I'm not saying that you personally are, but there are certainly examples on this thread and others.

I stuck to all the rules at the start and didn’t see DP for six weeks. No adult company, no work, so no income. I have suffered from health anxiety in the past and couldn’t risk that starting again. But I went completely mad. If was a very dark time. I then realised that rule was stupid so started seeing DP before officially allowed, and quietly doing things to keep me ok, going by risk not rules. That approach still makes sense to me.

It’s the moving of the goalposts that makes me think this is political not realistic and not now a proportionate response to the risk.

@ddl1

AfternoonToffee: I am one of many where there will be no picking things back up from last year, but it wasn't covid, so it doesn't matter.

I am very sorry about your MIL.

My experiences of long-term chronic illness weren't Covid. (obviously). I don't think everything is Covid, and nothing else matters. I just have an extreme fear of long-term illness because of my past experiences, and don't want long Covid to send me back to those times.

My dad's clinical vulnerability and eventual death were due to myeloma, long before Covid. But my experiences of some people sneering at his restrictions and implying that my mum and I were just hypochondriacs when we tried to avoid bringing infection to him, have made me sensitive to those who express contempt for those who take precautions against Covid. I'm not saying that you personally are, but there are certainly examples on this thread and others.

I agree. My OH has myeloma and it's impossible to shield properly. He is having to go to either a hospital or GP surgery weekly, if not twice per week during treatment, which lasts 3-6 months. He's had to wait in crowded unventilated waiting rooms (sometimes for over an hour) to see the oncologist. He's had to wait in crowded unventilated GP waiting rooms for regular blood tests. He sits in day treatment units for his infusions between 1-3 hours (again no ventilation). He even has to go in person to a different hospital to pick up his bag of medication as they insist it can't be dispensed by a "normal" local chemist and can't be collected by anyone other than the patient. Then there's the MRI scans, x-rays etc that are needed. Their precautions against covid are a joke - sometimes they insist on a covid test 2 days before he goes in for an infusion or consultation, sometimes they don't - it's a lottery and makes no sense when they ask - it's random, presumably whoever books the appointment either remembers or forgets it. What's even worse is that they don't want me to have a covid test even though I attend appts with him! Sometimes they do a temperate check on arrival, sometimes they don't. When he's having an infusion, the nurses don't change gloves or wipe the finger oxymeter or blood pressure cuff between patients - he has to "remind" them to do it.

It's really no surprise that Covid runs rampant through hospitals - it's all very badly organised and managed.

Pressed enter too soon. Until the NHS sort themselves out to make hospitals "safe", then you really can't "shield" the vulnerable, as it's the vulnerable who are the ones most likely to need GP/hospital appointments and treatment.

Because every person who breaks the rules risks spreading the virus.
Because if cases rise, restrictions will continue for longer (or increase) with all the collateral damage they cause.

@Teateaandmoretea

Jeez what an utterly vile thread.

There are two types of people rule followers and free thinkers.

Anyone who really still thinks that following the rules will get us out of this clearly doesn’t have strong critical thinking skills.

Lockdowns are only vaguely sensible policy as very short term measures. The cure becomes worse than the disease quickly.

Can you please stop with the insults? I imagine you wouldn't like being called stupid, thick and all the other names some are calling people who are not following the rules, so please don't throw insults at people who are. I am not an inferior stupid person, lacking in crtical thinking skills, who is not a free thinker, you are not a stupid thick moron who is going to kill people. We are just two people with different opinions on what is best for us to do.

@WouldBeGood

I stuck to all the rules at the start and didn’t see DP for six weeks. No adult company, no work, so no income. I have suffered from health anxiety in the past and couldn’t risk that starting again. But I went completely mad. If was a very dark time. I then realised that rule was stupid so started seeing DP before officially allowed, and quietly doing things to keep me ok, going by risk not rules. That approach still makes sense to me.

It’s the moving of the goalposts that makes me think this is political not realistic and not now a proportionate response to the risk.

Exactly. We all need to do what’s right for our own mental and physical health We all need to do our own risk assessments I don’t expect anyone to give up their life for me The same as I’m not giving up my life for them. People hate it when I say this. Tough.

Being a ‘free thinker’ is not even going to get you the outcome you want. Lockdown to lift earliest.

It won’t help businesses re-open sooner. Or sectors get back on their feet.

@Howmanysleepsnow

Because every person who breaks the rules risks spreading the virus. Because if cases rise, restrictions will continue for longer (or increase) with all the collateral damage they cause.

But it doesn’t does it? If it did all the people protesting would have been ill or dead. Same with the people attending the sarah everard vigil. Did all the people who attended Cheltenham races get ill or die ? Some might but not all or we would’ve heard about it? All the ravers? Have they died a death? I see the same people working in our town centre shops that have worked all year round. All fine. They weren’t allowed to be furloughed. They had to go to work. Surely they would be very ill or dead by now. We were evacuated from Tenerife last March when spain went into lockdown. 300 people on the plane. 3000 in the airport. Like a scene from Exodus. Never seen anything like it in my life. There was no sanitiser. No social distancing. No masks. Who broke the rules then? Answer me that oneL

It was pack us in like sardines and ship us out. It was bloody ridiculous.
A totally ill thought out knee jerk reaction.
We even spent an extra hour on the plane on the tarmac because of the utter chaos, there wasn’t a slot for us to leave.

So anyone who has a go at me after that farce because I’ve lived my life as normal can go and do one.

I just sat on that plane and thought if we get it, we get it and we will just have to deal with it and no we didn’t get it and neither did my friends who were shipped out to different airports on different days in the same conditions.

Because I don't trust my neighbours not to grass me up

If it did all the people protesting would have been ill or dead. Same with the people attending the sarah everard vigil.

The poster said ‘risk spreading the virus’. Not sure how you got to dead.

I have followed the law because it has been easy to. Simple as that really. It hasn't required proactive effort - just don't go out, don't meet people, it's pretty simple. I don't understand how anyone can't comply with this - you don't have to do anything.

The rule I have considered breaking - but didn't - is the masks in shop rule. I could arguably claim my asthma prevents me wearing a mask. Thing, I can manage it for about ten minutes before it gets too bad, so I have to rush round and get shopping done within that time. I hate wearing a mask. But, so far, I've complied with that rule too.

@skirk64 it’s not easy though is it? Do you not miss family and friends terribly? One thing I have gained from this is knowing that I have such lovely people around me that not seeing them is hard - and that makes me lucky