Exercise could be banned - Matt Hancock

[LittleRen]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52172035

"Matt Hancock told the BBC's Andrew Marr that the government would "take action" if further measures are needed to bring the coronavirus under control.

It comes after reports of groups of people gathering in parks during sunny weather this weekend."

So do we think this will happen - normally this is how it goes, the threat comes, and a week later it's reality. It's a shame that people still flouted the rules this weekend :(

I can't see a thread on this already but please let me know if there is one!!

I don't expel a lot of air when I am running but anyway, when I meet someone, if I can't get a decent distance away (eg because a car is coming and I can't get into the road) I pull my snood over my face as a face mask.

why not stop running, keep a distance and got into the road when the cars have gone?

That would be far safer, or, just a thought, restrict your running to paths where you can give people safe distance?

I'm not sure a one-off blast of air from an almost certainly healthy runner is going to expose someone to a high dose of the virus though - it's NHS/medical workers who are getting high doses.

That's quite an assumption. If you are healthy you could be a super spreader with no symptoms.

Just as with HIV, you have to assume that you may be infected and that others may be infected and act accordingly with care and responsibility to fellow humans.

You may or may not be invincible but the people you exhale over as you run past them may be vulnerable and may get sick or die. Pulling your snood down may offer some protection but it does not guarantee that you will not infect someone in tha way that keeping your distance will

That's so interesting about exercise and viral load etc.
I definitely feel it when I exercise outdoors regularly. I sleep better, eat more sensibly and feel stronger. Vitamin D also plays a huge part in bolstering the immune system and most people are lacking in the UK.
I have been really resenting the constant implications on so many threads that a nation of couch potatoes suddenly started going for walks. As many others have pointed out, EVERYTHING else is unavailable, every team sport or activity, and most people do something, whether its just walking to work, having a swim, or playing golf. I am not a proper runner, I don't look particularly athletic, but I am an outside cat, I need fresh air and I walk miles for both my mental and physical health.
I hope we can think for ourselves and what is actually best for the UK and quit wishing for armed police to keep us in our flats just because Spain has them. We have to fight this the best way for us.

Maybe instead of avoiding runners they should do some running themselves so as to optimise lung functioning and capacity!

The people at most risk of Covid-19 are either elderly, obese or have existing health conditions. They may not be able to run.

I think it's a bit much when people who are disciplined and take care to preserve health are treated as spreaders of disease

I am sure that everyone will support people in being healthy and running if they can. The people who are highly likely to spread disease are the runners who ignore social distancing and there are plenty of them. I have to avoid the fastest route to my training area so as to avoid knuckelehead joggers who think the rules do not apply to them.

It is not OK to pull you snood down and run too close to someone who might die because of your actions.

I worry so much about people's mental health especially if they can't go out for there allowed exercise. I do think obviously what's going on with Coronavirus is catastrophic but we can not avoid dealing with mental health as the death rate from this will be tremendous.

I've changed my walking route in order to avoid the majority of runners and cyclists who have no regard for social distancing.

It's all bullshit. We are not prisoners. They can't stop people going out to exercise and it would defeat the purpose of keeping everyone safe. The extreme measures being taken now are what are actually going to kill people. There will be so many suicides from prisoning people in their homes and then from the economic depression, caused by shutting everything down

@mindproject is right a thousand times over.

She says what so many of us are saying, and it's falling on deaf ears. The lack of empathy for MH problems on here at the moment is absolutely shocking, and it shows how little progress there has really been in this area. Scratch beneath the hashtags and 'mental health awareness' posts on social media, and you find a void.

I've changed my running route to avoid the fat heavy breathers

This too, @Flinstones

I do think obviously what's going on with Coronavirus is catastrophic but we can not avoid dealing with mental health as the death rate from this will be tremendous

I'm neither fat nor a heavy breather. I just choose to walk rather than run or cycle. And I'd rather the open mouthed runners and cyclists would stop thinking that social distancing doesn't apply to them and bloody moved or, god forbid, stopped for moment to allow passing at a safe distance.

So maybe exercising in proximity to others isn't a good thing?

Yes, I actually agree completely with you that running and similar stuff needs very careful thought right now.

I live in a city and can find spacious areas but not DESERTED ones, so I would not run right now. By "exercise," I'm talking mainly about walking briskly in outdoor areas. Running is OK if people can find areas with very low concentrations of people I reckon, but this is not possible for our family right now.

In my experience it's the walkers not the runners who don't move. Usually two abreast and don't bother walking in single file. The number of times I've run on the road to avoid them and then cars have not given a shit about whizzing past close by, it's a miracle I'm not a goner from being hit by a car!

I do think obviously what's going on with Coronavirus is catastrophic but we can not avoid dealing with mental health as the death rate from this will be tremendous

And the mental health effects of having a close family member die alone in hospital and not being able to be with them or go to the funeral?

Or the mental health effects of the drs and nurses dealing with overwhelming numbers of seriously ill and dying patients?

This is such a huge balancing act right now but can you really countenance a lifting of the lockdown causing large numbers of deaths?

I really don't think arguing who experiences the worst mental health is the issue here, the point I'm making is mental health is a huge problem with detrimental effects, we need to be considering ALL people who would suffer from mental health.

can you really countenance a lifting of the lockdown causing large numbers of deaths?

Can you countenance the continuing of the lockdown that is in itself going to cause a large number of deaths, just deaths that will occur somewhere else, and be less public/shocking?

There is no easy answer to this, I honestly think its another example of how arrogant we humans are.

We genuinely seem to be looking for a way to 'beat' this virus and prevent people dying, without really entertaining the idea that some things aren't beatable and whatever we do will cause many lives to be prematurely lost.

I really don't think arguing who experiences the worst mental health is the issue here, the point I'm making is mental health is a huge problem with detrimental effects, we need to be considering ALL people who would suffer from mental health

Well said again, @Flinstones

Right, so what are the solutions then?

We lift lockdown because people with mental health issues are suffering and the economy is suffering. Then what?

Does everyone get to choose the level of risk they are willing to accept or do we all just have to expose ourselves to the risk, like lambs to the slaughter?

I take it people with mental health issues are ok with catching the virus, maybe dying or a close relative catching it and maybe dying? Everyone has weighed the risks and decided that's the best option?

There is no easy answer in this awful predicament, I think the point the post initially was trying to make was people who are on lockdown ( who completely understand why they are & completely support the NHS) would suffer dreadfully if we go in a full lockdown & are not able to go out at all. Whilst we are home safe from the virus there are mental health issues that could for some end very badly, we can not & should not ignore this.

I have a foldi9ng wooden builder's rules which at full stretch is 2 meters long - may be I should go out walking with it and use it to keep people at bay! What I really want is all the many many litter louts who come up to this road and then walk in the woods stuffing their faces with sweets an chocolate and drinks and then dump it all in our pristine woods that never have any litter in them are force marched back up to here with black sacks to pick up every single bit of litter they have dropped in the woods.

There are lots of downsides to lockdown - many conditions aren't getting the treatment that they need, GCSEs and a levels have been seriously affected which might have severe implications, final year degree students have basically not had a final year thanks to strikes and Covid and are looking at three years study disappearing down the plug hole, livelihoods are going down the toilet - it's all horrendous. I still can't see what the alternative is though? Open everything back up and let fate take its course? We see how bad the health implications are with us on lockdown. How bad would it be if we weren't?

Mental health is a broad church. Compassion for those suffering MH problems? What about those with germphobia, which is fairly common? They're probably terrified of lockdown ending. How about the fact that mental health problems frequently go hand in hand with poor physical health. Those with mental illness are statistically more likely than the rest of the population to be in one of the vulnerable groups. Then there's the devastating impact on mental health if we're having mass deaths with no hope whatsoever of hospital treatment. Because everyone's sick at the same time and the NHS can't cope.

I think it will happen today or tomorrow and people that are flouting the rules will be to blame and ruin it for everyone. They need something in place before Easter otherwise all the idiots will be out in force again. We're really being very soft. Just need to look at pictures coming out of Spain to see how much tougher their police are.

I take it people with mental health issues are ok with catching the virus, maybe dying or a close relative catching it and maybe dying?

The thing with mental illness, @Hearhoovesthinkzebras, is that it's an illness. When people are mentally ill, they don't think in the way that people think who aren't mentally ill.

I have weighed all these things up. Yes, I'm fine with catching CV and dying. I keep trying to catch it, but I can't, as nobody will go within miles of anyone where I live. I have no particular reason to want to be alive in a semi-lockdown, never mind a full lockdown. I am ok with friends dying, and with my parents and siblings dying, though it would be horrible. I'm not ok with my children dying, but they are older teenagers, and I worry about them dying all the time due to the risks involved with being alive. They are all healthy, with no other conditions, and so CV is (to my mind) just another risk factor for young people who terrify me by doing risky things all the time, and about which nobody turns a hair.

I had PND (which mostly consisted of an absolute terror of random cars mounting the pavement and killing my babies, etc, etc, etc, etc). Then severe depression following another awful event. So I am no stranger to mental health problems.

I have a neoughbour with a learning difficulty and mental health problems.

She is coughing continually and it sometimes wakes me up at night. She started coughing several days ago and only stops when she makes one of her trips outside to walk around the shops.

I appreciate that she is not a bad person. She simply does not understand how much of a risk she is to others.

@DarnedSocks

What should be done about this person? Should her need to go outside trump the need of the community to be protected from her?

I do not understand what you are proposing should be done.

What is it you want to happen exactly?