People uneccessarily self-isolating are annoying me AIBU

[Alialialiali]

self isolation is different to social distancing

self isolation you enter when you or anyone in your family develop a cough or a high temp or you/family member are in a vulnerable group

social distancing is what we should be doing as a minimum all the time. ie. minimise going out.

All those people self-isolating at the drop of a hat you are causing the problem. For self isolation, you WILL need to stockpile food etc because you want to eliminate going out for 14 days.... But if we all self-isolate then we are all going to need to stockpile which is what everyone has just done last week. ie. why the government didn't mandate it in the first place... cause of crazy people.

We are in week 2 of this and we need to have the stamina to get through to month 18. You are not going to do this by self isolating for all that time.

So, people self-isolating and therefore stockpiling are annoying me... AIBU?

What part of NON essential contact do you not understand?

Here is the link you have been asking for:

www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-statement-on-coronavirus-16-march-2020

It tells us no more NON ESSENTIAL contact. That means every single contact you make outside of your own house needs to be for a medical emergency or to pick up food.

You so keenly wrote how are we going to cope with 18 months if we are self isolating? Well op it is debatable whether you will even make it that far if you refuse to see sense.

It is not optional
Social distancing is a very fluffy word and can mean almost anything.
SO lets be clearer

NO contact AT ALL with anyone unless it is a full blown emergency. I am hoping we have got through to you now. The link will already be out of date, as every day this is changing, you need to keep up.

Do you really want to see thousands of people die because you could not work out what non essential contact means??

@Alialialiali

The way I read it, "go out if you must" is for people in households where nobody has symptoms

"Self-isolate" means "please find a way not go to out, even for food". So if you or anyone in your households has relevant symptoms, the advice is Do not go out. Even to get food. Find another way to get food. Only in this way can you save lives by avoiding to infect others.

So basically, in order to be able to follow the government advice, people do need to stockpile a couple weeks' worth of food, not only for themselves, but to avoid infecting others should they become in infected themselves.

If everybody only buys exactly what they need for each day, then everybody will need to go to the shops every single day. That is not going to help us stop this virus, especially when all of the people who usually went to restaurants and cafes are also going to the shops now. We need to do fewer, bigger shopping trips, ideally with fewer people in the shop at any one time.

So how can people stockpile "a little bit" without preventing others from getting enough food? These are my ideas so far. I am happy to be corrected by others if this makes no sense, and would love to hear other ideas:

1. First, if you can do so, then buy from places that have a continuing food supply but have lost their customers. Restaurant supply companies come to mind as the most obvious. They have perfectly good food, but retailers cannot easily start reselling it right away, because it comes in different package sizes, with different bar codes, has not gone through supplier vetting and price negotiations, etc. Some restaurants have also converted themselves into food shops so they can stay in (some) business and keep their suppliers operating.

2. Second, when you are out shopping, if there is plenty of something on the shelves, buy a little bit extra. A little bit does not mean 3 months' worth of loo roll FFS! But if you usually buy for 3 days, buy for 4 if you can do so without emptying the shelves. That might require buying some things that you don't usually eat. Over time, everyone will be able to stockpile a couple weeks' worth of food if we do it slowly. This will mean that individuals can self isolate without going hungry if they start to develop symptoms.

What if you've already self isolated for 14 days therefore of the assumption that you are now clear of symptoms - are you expected to continue to social distance for the next 12-18 months.

Yes. Because you can still pass it on, although I imagine it's less likely e.g. you can pick it up from an atm, then leave it on a shopping trolley for someone else to pick up.
Also, unless you've been tested, you dont know if that headache/cough/fever was CV or just winter sniffles.

Maybe we should forward this thread to Boris, this is exactly why he has to put the country into a proper lockdown, until it does we are going to continue to hear this kind of thing. Ridiculous to think he could do the soft and sensible version, seemingly not everyone can grasp even the basics of what constitutes non essential contact.

I truly despair.

You can't expect the entire nation to have 2 weeks worth of goods stockpiled for the next 18 months can you?

Yes, this IS what we should be aiming for if we want people to survive.

All this finger pointing at other shoppers for empty shelves is time wasted when we should be demanding the government and shops make it easy for people to get in the required food.

The last thing we need is people leaving homes where someone has covid-19 to go get basic supplies.

Self isolate means not going out at all, even for food (anyone can do this if they choose to but mainly people that are ill, vulnerable and over the age of seventy)

Non essential contact - means everyone else, only going out for food and medical emergencies and NOTHING else.

Supermarkets can cope with a little stockpiling, they are prepared and ready for it, they can not cope with people buying 12 months of pasta, loo roll etc. Stockpiling for two weeks is very different from stockpiling for months if not years. The supermarket channels should adapt, and also there is only so much pasta anyone can actually buy and store, at some point it will taper off.

Your ignorance is outrageous. Educate yourself or shut the fuck up.

Don’t know how to link, but go to YouTube and look up “Dr Jack LBC” and listen to what a London A&E consultant has to say about this.

(Hint - he is begging all of us to stay at home unless we have no choice).

Listen to it, then feel embarrassed about your stupid post.

YABU people like you are the problem! You said that if you are ill you would put a face mask and go to shops. This is against guideline as well as research. #Stayhome as much as possible to avoid spreading the virus.

A billion pounds was spent on food last week, if you do the maths that roughly equates to one extra weeks shopping per household. So it seems that almost EVERYONE has done this, bar you, so either 99.9% households in the country are completely wrong and stupid - or maybe you have just misunderstood?

Supermarkets can cope with a little stockpiling, they are prepared and ready for it, they can not cope with people buying 12 months of pasta, loo roll etc. Stockpiling for two weeks is very different from stockpiling for months if not years. The supermarket channels should adapt, and also there is only so much pasta anyone can actually buy and store, at some point it will taper off

This is simply not true, currently.

Most people aren't stockpiling 12 months. Most people are just stockpiling a little extra.

Apparently the UK have stockpiled £1billion of goods, which sounds like a lot but this only boils down to £15 each.

The supermarkets run on a just-in-time system, where they predict what they need and order it to arrive in the store. They don't have massive warehouses of stock in case of need, which is why we're seeing empty shelves now.

They overorder to keep the shelves looking full to give an idea of abundance (knowing they'll bin it) but they don't actually have stocks in case of crisis. And this is exactly the problem.

Supermarkets are absolutely not prepared for "a little stockpiling" when we all do it at once, this is the whole point.

We should be demanding government and business do some proper crisis planning the in the future, not put in place systems that put profit before our safety,

Please stop blaming individuals or assuming you know how it works, instead get some facts and look at the bigger picture.

Yes, you are.

Firstly, reasons why a person may choose to self-isolate may not be obvious, to you.

Secondly, how can you blame someone in self-isolation for panic buying? They aren't the idiots going out and buying 2 new freezers and doing mini tours of various counties, playing some kind of pissing game as to how much crap they can hoard. Who says they haven't arranged deliveries? That's what you're supposed to do. If they're in isolation, they can't be at the supermarket at the same time.

Thirdly, the more people self-isolate, the more people are taken out of the equation in terms of transmission. How is this not getting through?

Fourthly, why are people who choose to self isolate "annoying" you? We'll all be forced to do it soon anyway. If anything, they're helping you avoid doing it sooner.

This is what a PP has mentioned.

@Alialialiali - please listen to this, all of it. We all need to be staying at home all the time, unless it is absolutely necessary not to.

Stockpiling accusations aren't even accurate.

twitter.com/greg_callus/status/1241510621973229577?s=21

FFS this is a stupid OP. I don’t WANT to self isolate. I am following Govt advice. My DD age 20 has a fever so the other 3 adults including me have to for the next 2 weeks. We have supplies because both my DDs brought back their own food from uni and DD’s BF can drop supplies if we run out.

I had also done a shop for basics to last a week or so in case we had to in advance - following Govt advice - because DH has diabetes. I normally shop for the next week or so anyway.

18 months?

'We are in week 2 of this'?!?
Where the Jeff have you been? Sorry, rhetorical question, up your own arse, clearly.

Can I just add, in case anyone is reading this thread and having a panic attack.

The 12-18 month figure does not mean everyone in their homes and all businesses shut for that long constantly. It means we lift the restrictions as far as seems sensible after probably 12 weeks (as China is doing), monitor the effects and then revisit things like self isolation for people with symptoms and the vulnerable if and when deemed necessary. They are learning more about this virus. The entire world will not stop for 18 months. 12-18 months is the figure scientists have given as a ballpark for having a vaccine ready. Nobody is going to have to wfh or not see their granny for a full 18 months. The economy would not survive.

WRT self isolating vs social distancing, I have no problem with anyone who wants to do the former even if they’re not in an at risk group. Every little bit helps.

I had to go to the supermarket on Friday. A shop assistant said emphatically that people are still buying too much and that’s why the shelves are empty. They’re imposing restrictions now - I saw a guy at the till buying 6 blocks of cheese, and a shop assistant took 3 of them off him. Which I think is fair enough.

I received a doctors letter telling me to self isolate for 12 weeks due to a auto immune condition

Dp has cancer, is type 1 diabetic (30 years) and 20 months ago had his spleen removed so is in the vulnerable group.
If we waited for a letter to say stay in from his doctor we would wait an awful long time

He rang his doctors surgery who said they knew nothing about the vulnerable staying in for 12 weeks. He got put through to his GP and he reiterated what the receptionist had said.

We have been doing some social distancing before Social Distancing became a thing
We watched the news from China and could see this had the potential to get scary. It might have all blown over and been contained but we didn’t want to take any chances.

Before this blew up I was shopping at 2am and buying a few extras here and there just in case we got to a stage where we couldn’t go out.

What annoys me is people on here saying they are staying in but only go out for vital stuff and then list a number of errands that were not at all vital.
And the ones who are in the vulnerable group who are waiting to be personally told to stay in for 12 weeks

Just have some sense and do it.

Dp wasn’t really going out before this but is certainly not going out now.

Whilst I will go out and do the shopping as and when we need to it will be once per week at most and not when supermarkets are crowded.

We are waiting for when they can test us as we all went down with something so similar over Christmas New Year time

@Alialialiali - DD developed a temperature on Thursday. So DH, DD and I have been self isolating since then. We come out of SI in 14 days. It seems what DD has is a run of the mill cold though, as she is all snotty but no cough.

I still go for a run every day at 5am when there's no one around. I don't go out at all the rest of the day.

IABU to carry on with the SI for the rest of the 14 days?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3857186-tesco-hour-for-nhs-workers-not-going-as-planned

This is what everyone going into lockdown at once looks like.... we may even be worse than Italy in 2 weeks time.

Stay safe everyone. Intention was only to highlight this point. I'd rather be proven wrong if it meant we saved more lives.... i just think telling everyone to self-isolate immediately is not really thinking through the consequences of that. Even during normal times, we don't all shop at the same time... telling everyone to self-isolate ensures exactly that... in my opinion... which i accept could be wrong.

But people who have the virus may not know it. Temperature and cough are not the only symptoms. You may have a tight chest only and then it goes. It affects everyone differently. If you have the virus (and don’t know it) and you cough into someone you are spreading it. The germs stay on hard surfaces for Up to 72 hours, soft furnishings and paper for 1 hour. This is why you must stay in. China has overcome the virus by staying in. They also have a different structure to us. Us British are not so disciplined..

So the council are making extra room for dead bodies to be frozen. This is a fact as I was doing the paper work for it. So don’t knock the “staying in “ as it is predicted from people’s ignorance that more WILL die.

Why would telling people to self isolate cause everyone to go shopping at the same time?

Why would telling people to self isolate cause everyone to go shopping at the same time?

Do you seriously need to ask this question?

Because they need to eat food and aren't meant to go to the shops.