Funny how the people who plan to isolate themselves expect everyone else to keep working.

[LucheroTena]

This.

People on here prepping to isolate themselves and their families. Taking kids out of school, not working. For how long, 18 months until a vaccine is available??

The same people expect others in the service sectors to keep working - supermarket workers, NHS staff and so on. Going on about getting all their shopping delivered and so on.

Some of the preppers / self isolators on other threads were berating NHS retirees for being worried about being asked return to work, and telling NHS nurses who were voicing worries about isolation and childcare that they should lose their jobs.

Selfish irrational weirdos. I don’t know anyone in real life like this but seems like there are dozens hiding away on here.

everyone is selfish when it comes down to it

Agree but it just comes from a place of anxiety and the overwhelming desire to keep their ow families safe.

I’m a teacher, I’ll keep working until either (a) my school clothes or (b) my children’s school closes and will need to stay at home due to childcare.

Over the next three weeks I have 2 parent evenings, plus my own children’s parents evening to attend. I teach on average 150 children a day (5 x classes of 30), lots of people contact but nothing I can really do and if everyone had the same attitude of hiding away the country would grind to a halt.

Apologies for typos - school run chaos!

Yes - unrealistic unless we want the entire infrastructure of the UK to grind to a halt.

I'm not 'prepping'. If I get Coronavirus it's unlikely I'll have much of an appetite so the food I have in the freezer should tide me over if I can't get out of the house.

I agree to some extent, but even if only a small % isolate themselves, that’s fewer people in the loop to pass things on so it ultimately helps reduce infection spread (I’m not a science bod so this is rudimentary understanding)

I thought that on a recent thread... someone said they’d be self isolating (haven’t travelled anywhere, no known exposure) and would get their shopping delivered.
The delivery drivers can’t self isolate then?

I think schools are a hotbed of infection. I think if there is virus in the area they should close. Kids can be gross. Picking their noise., spitting (secondary) sharing and sucking pens, pencils, rulers etc. Biting nails, hands in mouths, chewing gum and sticking it on chairs tables etc.And I’m not sure they wash their hands properly.

But they won’t because they are scared of parental fallout and childcare

Nope they are more special than the delivery drivers, the packers, people in the food prep and distribution chain. Those who will keep their electricity and water running, bins collected, roads repaired, etc. Emptying shelves of food contributes to the type of panic that will end with their homes being broken into and all their tins nicked anyway.

I’m a teacher

I think we need to consider the impact of isolation on the elderly.

My 92 year old DF goes out every day to community based activities. . Without these he would sit alone at home all day every day apart from short visits from carers. His quality of life is already poor. Isolation would make it intolerable - prolonging his life in order to keep him in solitary confinement. What is the point?

@TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince Agreed. That’s not to mention the problems created by budget cuts. My school has lukewarm water at best in the toilets, not all soap dispensers are full and we have no sanitiser except in the kitchens. I see the way my cleaner cleans my classroom. It’s a cursory wipe with a cloth that has wiped countless other areas. I don’t blame her, we have a team of 4 cleaners to clean a 1200 secondary school.

It will help if people who can do. If you can easily work from home then there will come a time it makes sense to consider it rather than continuing to travel to work.

Surely it can only help if those that can isolate do so?

We could easily, dh works from home, I'm an open uni student, one dc in nursery and one in primary. It wouldn't cost and jobs or make a difference to the economy if we self isolated. Autism so we don't tend to go out much anyway.

But it would relieve some pressure on the school, local heath service in the event of a local outbreak.

I can't see why that would be an issue?

My mum is also in a nursing home, she needs 24/7 care. If all the caters and nursing staff decide to isolate she will be left to starve and rot in her bed.

There’s no point in everyone sticking rigidly to travelling to work. Fewer doing so takes off the strain.

@IheartNiles Perfectly worded. The workers you describe are the invisible workers essential for society to function. Let’s hope they aren’t so self-absorbed as others on MN and decided to self isolate

Most prepper things I've read are the exact opposite regarding expecting delivery drivers. If they have prepped then they have had all their food/ medication in for at least the past couple of weeks and have been trying to point out to the people who are calling them mad that the reason they are prepping is so that they dont have to rely on delivery drivers to get food to them if they have to self isolate. The ones who did all this when most prepping threads started got bits and and when, which surely is the opposite the people who are panicking buying and clearing shelves now?
Seems to me it's the people who are not prepared that will have to get stuff delivered as they dont have the supplies in if it comes down to having self isolate.

The preppers board has lots of different posters though, including teachers, those in the NHS etc. who are and will be working.

While I have seen some people who are contemplating taking kids out of school (especially those who have underlying health conditions) or working from home to lessen the spread, or maybe due to anxiety, being prepped and buying extra bits calmly over a long period of time to actually lessen panic buying, is very different to expecting others to shoulder responsibility.

I hear what you’re saying but nothing in their language suggests this is an altruistic act. It’s all about protecting themselves while everyone else can just go running around to facilitate their choice.

It’s expected that people should self isolate, but these people will want emergency services to keep working, they forget that emergency services can’t run without cleaners, admin staff, porters, pharmacy, and consider them selfish if they don’t stop working & go home...you can’t have it both ways

It’s always the same flawed logic with stuff like this... panic buy 20l of fresh milk and 6 extra loafs with no freezer space!
Self isolate but expect deliveries from all n sundry.

Self isolation only works if you have supplies and stay away from others.

Yes, I thought the same on another thread. People were figuring out how long they would be able to last in isolation, but they expected to still have gas and electricity, Internet, the TV to watch, deliveries to their door 🙄

I agree I've made this point a few times that they expect schools to close and stay home but the world to carry on Food delivered etc. I think it's the fact that everything's online now and you don't see a human so they don't think and yes quite selfish too . We need to carry on as normal yes take care but we can't all stay home for months .

Fortunately I don’t know anyone like this in the real world.

And all the hysteria about hand sanitiser, everyone has a tap don’t they?

I have an underlying health condition, running water and soap and no money or space for a load of tins and jars and UHT milk which I wouldn’t ordinarily give house room.

There’s another thread where an OP’s dh has told her to take the kids out of school, watches the news on a rolling basis and has hyped himself up into a panic even though he himself will be going to work. I would be ending my marriage over that.

No the vast majority are either working at home or living on savings.
I've not seen a single poster say they plan to stay at home and go on benefits.st
Peppers also don't panic buy, I and many others started sticking up the minute Wuhan was locked down in January meaning many of us have had everything in for weeks. I have not heard of any peppers clearing shelves but I've heard of plenty 'it's only don't naysayers suddenly go panic buying.