Totally, utterly and completely staying inside the house

[ChicChicChicChiclana]

Is this actually a good thing for anyone (anyone who is mobile, obvs)?

My mum is 88 and has copd and walks with a walking frame but she has been walking up her garden path and along the quiet row of bungalows on the estate where she lives for 10 minutes a day since lockdown started. She feels she doesn't want to seize up completely. She has also had chats with neighbours standing more than 2m away on her garden path.

I think this sounds fine and sensible? I am sure any joggers or walkers would give her a wide berth as they go past but they will be very few and far between where she lives.

Otoh, I have another relative who is 16 years younger than my mum but is also on the ultra shielded list due to organ transplant. But this person is physically so much fitter than my mum, she's more like 25 years younger. She is always on the go, very energetic, very fast moving. She literally has not set foot outside her front door since lockdown started, not even to do a 10 minute walk round the block. Again, she lives on a quiet estate with hardly any traffic.

What is the benefit to her of never going out at all? Is this actually what people are doing?

I had notification a few days ago that I’m now on the shielding list and I’m still going out early to walk the dog through the woods and around the common next to our house for an hour or so. It’s very rare that I see anyone and if I do they’ll be in the distance.

My husband asked me earlier what I’d do if I strictly couldn’t go out and my answer was that I’d probably have a breakdown, and I believe that I would. I’m young, fit and healthy (despite being on this list, it’s just due to an anomaly which wouldn’t usually affect my life) and I’m always on the go so to be cooped up in my house would be detrimental to my well being, mentally and physically.

We’re a family of four and my youngest son is also now on the shielding list for the same reason as me, it’s an hereditary condition. The letter states that you’d supposed to practice social distance within the home by keeping 2m away from other family members who live here, you’re not to share beds and bathrooms where possible, you shouldn’t spend long in the same room as someone who isn’t shielding and meals should be eaten in away from them too.

It’s an awful lot to have to deal with on top of the worries that everyone else has at the moment.

People have to make their own decisions, both because they're the best placed to do so, and because they know what will give them peace of mind.

At 88 with impaired mobility, your mother has to weigh up what she thinks will happen, healthwise, if she stays completely inside, against the chances of catching it. There are a lot of people in similar positions and they're in a rock and a hard place. I do fear that many vulnerable elderly people may lose muscle strength over this time.

Your other relative, meanwhile, wasn't trying to maintain mobility before this so diesn't have to balance that against the organ-transplant.

My dh is shielding with asthma on immunosuppressant drugs but we go out for an evening walk with our dogs to some fields where we barely see anyone. He climbs over the stiles without touching the fence posts ( which is quite funny to watch). It's important to control his asthma that he keeps exercising. Other than that he does not go out anywhere.

My mum is shielding but does walk of an evening with my Dad. They go out about 9pm for a stroll round their area.. mum says it’s not the same as the daytime but she’d otherwise go insane. In 7 weeks, they’ve yet to meet anyone out walking at that time! My mum also goes for a drive a couple times a week. We live near the moors in Yorkshire & she drives up to a carpark overlooking a reservoir and just sits in the car & enjoys the radio! If it’s empty up there & no-one is around, she goes for a short stroll around..

It’s so hard for those shielding I think, especially if in good health bar an underlying condition like my mum. She was so fit & active prior to all this. Loved walking, swimming & enjoying her retirement with friends having lunch etc

What your mum is doing sounds perfectly reasonable, but I also don't think spending twelve weeks of an otherwise fit and active life at home is going to kill her friend, provided she uses some common sense (e.g. not sitting still for so long she's likely to get a blood clot). As long as she's making an informed choice and it's not causing her to develop mental health issues, I don't see the problem?

I don’t understand this magic 12 weeks thing
Do people think at 11 weeks 6 days there’s a virus around and at 12 weeks , they’ll come crawling out of their bunkers, blinking in the sunlight and it will have magically disappeared it’s gone?
No, it’ll still be here.

Don’t people realise that for the 30,000 that have sadly lost their lives..the other 65 million , 970 thousand have survived

@Dowser it's likely to be extended. I won't be rushing going out after 12 weeks
Mine isn't so much the increased chance of catching the virus but I can't fight off infection so a simple chest infection is hard enough

I think if it is extended then people will need to make their own decisions about their safety and wellbeing. For some it just won't be possible to stay at home..

Advice has changed for shielders from "12 weeks"to "end of June".
I don't think anyone shielding does think 12 weeks is magic @Dowser, any more than the rest of the population thinks 3 weeks, then another 3 weeks means it will all have gone away.

@Dowser
Everyone who I've spoken to who is shielded knows that this will be until there is a treatment or a vaccine or enough herd immunity is created.
Nobody is expecting to go out after the 12 weeks is up.

Shielders on my FB have received a second letter this week, extending the shielding for 12 weeks from the date of the second letter.

Fresh air has such a massive health benefits, mentally and physical. I find you feel so lethargic if you don’t go for a walk every day.

19yo Dd hasn’t set foot out the door since lockdown started. Won’t even go in the garden. She’s convinced she’s really high risk.....I’m not sure she is at all but she’s not risking it. She seems quite happy.

My son is a CF patient and is shielded, he's 15 and we're desperately overcrowded at home so we're not all automatically shielded to protect him. I'm in the next group down so still vulnerable.
We've not set foot outside the house apart from emergency hospital admissions.

Our CF consultant is advising NHSE and is helping to rewrite the shielding guidelines at the moment, some CF patients are healthy despite their illness so will likely be advised that they don't have to shield. Sadly my son isn't likely to fall into that category.

Do people think at 11 weeks 6 days there’s a virus around and at 12 weeks , they’ll come crawling out of their bunkers

No

I am in the shielding group, as is nearly everyone in the cancer support groups I participate in. Noone whatsoever has such a simplistic view

I can only speak for dd who says she won't be coming out the house until there's a vaccine.