To be more confused after BoJo's press conference than I was before it?

[Fev11]

I watched all of today's press conference as i have family members who fall into at risk groups.

The guidance before today was clear to me- self-isolate for 7 days if continuous cough or fever

but now I am not at all clear what it all means. That started with not even being clear at what time the press conference would actually take place!

Surely in a time of global crisis our government should, above all, aim to communicate their plans clearly with specific guidance?

AIBU?

They don’t have enough labs to test

The system can’t cope

@KenDodd - Yes, well, there's that, and we all wish that there were enough tests, but there aren't. So this is the next-best thing.

Not clear at all. Don't go to the pub, but the pubs are still open. Why are they still open if we're not allowed to go there. What's the point?

What about weddings? Are they classed as mass gatherings?

Fuck sake, what don't people understand about the concept of lots of people in the same room, breathing the same potentially virus-laden molecules that will invade their body and could land them in a hospital bed on a ventilator, if there's even one available.

Call it anything you like, a wedding, funeral, bar mitzvah, football match, drinks down the Red Lion, The Mouse Trap. It doesn't matter!

I'm not sure what was difficult to understand.

Oh I have a yearly check up and flu jab for a ‘chronic disease’, I missed that part!

Clear as vodka to me. Or was it gin? Both bottles looking tempting.

Right. Wading through various links it seems that if any additional household member develops symptoms they must isolate for seven days from when symptoms appear, regardless of where they were in the original fourteen day period. Still confused though, because surely the fourteen days must start again for any other household members who haven't yet had symptoms....they could now catch it having escaped so far.

This will all change so fast anyway, pressure from WHO for longer isolation period. I read somewhere people can be infectious for a further 14 days from the end of symptoms. Probably much less so though.

Hi, We are moving this to the Coronavirus topic area now.

Not clear at all. Don't go to the pub, but the pubs are still open. Why are they still open if we're not allowed to go there. What's the point?

It's advice, not orders. You know how we are advised not to smoke, but it's not actually banned? Like that.

I am starting to think the confusion is deliberate. In between the crises of where to get food, how to carry on work, worry about losing job and money, no one has time to decipher or question what the fuck we are being told.

It was a bit confusing when BoJo started talking about how it's household self isolation if someone has a cough or high temperature even for food/necessities... except for exercise whereby people should keep a distance from one another?!

I’m pregnant so I’m now supposed to self-isolate for 12 weeks. I’m lucky because part of my job can be done from home, but I do not think my employer is going to be terribly supportive of not having me in the office for 3 months, and they will have to adapt my job so someone else does the bits that cannot be done from home. Also, as I haven’t had my 12 week scan yet none of my colleagues know I’m pregnant so I will have to let them know before I’m ready (I know this isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things).

I can see my employer saying that I will have to take part of the 12 weeks unpaid if I can’t complete all of my job role from home. I’m finding this whole situation quite stressful and need proper guidance from the government and a promise that I won’t be financially ruined.

what don't people understand about the concept of lots of people in the same room, breathing the same potentially virus-laden molecules that will invade their body and could land them in a hospital bed on a ventilator, if there's even one available.

Well some of us have employers that insist on us working in this environment every day. Some even work in professions where the government are mandating that we must not shut, despite not being emergency services. So regardless of how clear the advice is (it wasn't at the press conference, though they have clarified now) it is incongruent. And that makes it harder for people to accept. Don't go to the pub for lunch even if you are fit, healthy and young, but do go to school even if you are immunocompromised. Ridiculous.

I thought his message was very clear. The isolating thing depends if you are self- isolating (7 days) or, if you live with people which means the whole household isolates together (14 days to cover transmission/incubation). Avoid if you can pubs etc so really non-essential get-togethers. If pubs are going against his advice, then just use your common sense and not go, considering the PM has consulted the top advisers which I would rather listen to than my local publican. Time for celebrating in the pub later! The thing with schools is tricky as because they are children, the obvious result of closing schools is that a great deal of essential staff (NHS, shops etc) will be unable to work due to child care issues, and vulnerable grandparents would be more likely to risk looking after them. So I think keeping the elderly at home and minimising contact, but letting business go ahead where necessary for healthy younger individuals is quite sensible.

I thought it was clear information ...but DS now has a slight cough.Not bad enough for me to give him cough medicine. No temperature. He wants to go to college tomorrow. So do we all stay at home for 14 days only to realise later he just had a very slight cough?

What about weddings? Are they classed as mass gatherings?

Yes, obviously.
In what way is a wedding not a mass gathering?

I am up and ready to babysit the future generation and catch their germs but I promise not to go to the pub when I leave school!

What's the point in not going to pubs when kids and schoool staff like myself are still having to go in every day... I'd be far safer in a hygienic restaurant with some staff who keep a good distance than at work - we don't have the means or set up to keep things clean like a hospital can, we don't have any protective clothing, there is no option to keep a good distance as I work in nursery and primary 1. Absolute madness!

So do we all stay at home for 14 days only to realise later he just had a very slight cough?

Yes. Because it might not be just a very slight cough. And even if it is, he / you could pass that illness on to someone else form whom it might not be so mild at a time when the NHS is going to seriously struggle to treat people.

Also what's not clear is how anyone is supposed to afford any of this... which is probably why Boris is doing it this way round, as it's not his problem! Say a family with 4 kids has one person fall ill with a symptom every 10 days ... self isolation could go on for the e fire family for weeks

@CrazyHorse yes you all need to self isolate for 14 days, he may only have Coronavirus in a mild way. You definitely have to stay at home or you risk spreading it.

@AgnesNitt1976 you must not go to work if you have a temperature and a cough, the guidance is very clear. You could be spreading it amongst the most vulnerable.

@Wejustdontknow 30% of people with coeliac have reduced spleen function. These people are more at risk because they catch viruses more easily. The remainder, as long as they are healthy and following a gluten free diet, should be at the same risk as the rest of the population.

The problem is that most coeliacs don’t know what category they fall into.

If you don’t understand what he said then I’m sorry but you’re a bit dim.