Hello,
I wanted to canvas opinion as to whether I should intervene and say something to my friend about the fact she is still is taking her five-month-old baby out for a walk everyday in London despite the Coronavirus lockdown.
She has a large house and garden, no other children (so she's not accompanying older kids to the park or anything) and a husband she could leave the baby with if she felt she still wanted to take the risk and go out for a walk. Instead, she insists on taking the baby with her every day.
I am a parent myself of teenage offspring, so I have been there and I do sympathise with people who have toddlers/young children and are living in a flat without a garden who need to burn off some steam. But to take a small innocent baby outside who has no say in the matter just seems unnecessarily selfish.
Studies have proven the virus is airborne, can stay in the air for up to three hours, is worse in urban areas, attaches to air pollution and can be spread by people jogging as far as five metres away. It's surely no coincidence that the U.K. tragically has one of the highest death counts per capita in the world when the government is still allowing people to go out every day to shops and parks? (By comparison, in Greece, for instance, people have to text the local police station for permission to leave the house for any reason whatsoever and, as a result, there have been only 150 deaths from Covid 19.)
I feel so worried that my friend keeps putting her baby at risk like this. I've sent her articles on studies about the dangers of going out, which she seemingly has chosen to ignore. Do you think I should say something more direct to her or do I just have to stand back and watch her do this?
Thanks for your thoughts!