Will social distancing be around for years

[frasersmummy]

Is this our life now.. Queues outside every shop. Kids no longer in full time education
Family gatherings banned
Theatres dark cinemas closed.

I don't think I could cope mentally if this goes on beyond the end of the summer with no end in sight.

@wynona I’m sure I read somewhere that the social distancing was just advice/guidelines rather than actually scientifically backed

It won’t happen. Football etc may stay behind closed doors but people will not tolerate being told they cannot mix with anyone outside their household for years, I don’t think they’ll tolerate it very much longer at all in fact.

I keep watching concerts and thinking will that ever, happen again ? :(

No.
However I am worried about people who either had agoraphobic-like tendencies before this whose anxiety is now becoming crippling, or are now acquiring anxiety about going out.

And this: I thought it was to slow the spread...But seeing how people are vowing not to send their DC to school in the hopes of not getting it at all, I'm left puzzled.

Me, too.

Saw a cheery comment today on a newsfeed from someone in WHO (I appreciate that is the vaguest reference ever) saying that it may take a good 4-5 years until it's under control.

I wouldn't be surprised but I don't think it will be like this for so long. I am fairly sure we will find some more manageable way to live with it. As someone with elderly relatives, I can't see them staying out of circulation so long.

I do wonder what impact it will have upon children growing through this though - for whom it is not just a blip in their life but part of their formative years.

Although I know some parents also think their particular child(ren) would not cope well with the changes...

@AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii really? I had assumed that there was science behind social distancing for children.

When will someone ask the policy makers these questions?

No. We will either get a vaccine, treatment, it will disappear or become endemic (so a childhood disease like measles, mumps, chicken pox - most kids would get mildly). It could be several years though.

The problem is we are so fortunate to have amazing healthcare and also vaccines, and so this is so shocking. Our grandparents just had to live with diseases like this.

For our neighbours it has stopped already. Today, one side had mum, brother, sister in law and niece around for a picnic all sitting together on a blanket passing each other food etc and the other side had a family with two children over all sitting in a teepee getting gently merry. Why do the rest of us bother when neighbours have so little care for their own well-being and even less for their neighbours? When questioned... we can do what we like and we can't be arrested. So that's okay then - bugger the actual ramifications, as long as you can't be arrested!! Oh and one of them is proactive in the village FB page for food banks during the crisis and is a paragon of virtue... all fur coat and no face mask!!

@MrsTravers

I wonder that too. Many small children will not remember, but mine are 11 and 15. I'm wondering if my kids will become germaphobes who refuse to take any sort of chances or incredibly resilient people who take not a bit of life for granted.
I hope it's the latter, but the reality is probably somewhere in the middle. Likely depends on how parents handle the crisis now.

Wynona

I can’t keep track of what I read and tbh I don’t focus my science reading on children

But AFAIK most of the science says there’s no need for children to do it

But they want to inflict this on them

metro.co.uk/2020/05/14/heartbreaking-pictures-show-french-children-social-distancing-playground-12704240/

Belgium are developing bracelets that will beep if kid get too close

I try not to be a bore, but if you object to this, please write to every relevant authority. I hear rumours that politicians think we don’t support the end of lockdown. Make sure it’s not just one perspective they hear.

I think that we do have to learn to live with this? The threat that we managed to overcome was to 'protect the NHS'. We managed that.

How do we get out this? By taking reasonable risk. Not everyone will agree with what reasonable is.

I think that social distancing has a limited time period. It has to. Unless the country wants to become bankrupt there is no choice.

Belgium are developing bracelets that will beep if kid get too close.

Ffs. As a parent, that's a big "No, thank you!"

Belgium needs to go back to making chocolate...

No way. It can't be.

People won't put up with years of not seeing family, friends, partners, etc.

It would be awful for society as whole as well. A whole generation missing out on several years of education would have a massive impact on the country and economy. Even higher unemployment than predicted if all entertainment and hospitality permanently shut, plus presumably most TAs, school cleaners, childcare, etc out of a job. No new couples meeting and potentially having children would also cause a major decline in birth rates for a long time.

@LilacTree1 thank you. Very helpful.

I do want someone to argue with me and explain why there is social distancing for children. I think I must be missing something.

If you're feeling like that, imagine what it's like for people who are shielding, who won't be leaving their home before Christmas if them. And their spouses, who are having to choose between going out and having to isolate within the house; or being able to share meals and a bed with their partner but never being able to leave the home.

Shielding is still, however, a choice. And plenty of people have had to live like this for a long time, usually due to being major infection risks after cancer treatment, and that's just life, there's no expectation that the rest of the world has an obligation to live like droids for the foreseeable future.

@damnyankee Think I shall copy your mantra!

Shall we cling to the hope that it just makes them very good at hand washing?

In fairness, it doesn't yet seem to have affected my 8 YO son who still spends most of his time with his fingers in his mouth or up his nose!!

Wynona - I think the truth with all of this is we simply don’t know

They were assumed to be superspreaders at the start but now not

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/children-may-not-be-super-spreaders-afterall-new-research-suggests-1.5552099

I’m afraid my own medical experience has taught me to do my own risk assessment but maybe that’s not a bad thing

We are lucky food producers and refuse collectors haven’t gone on strike. Yet.

Tin “ there's no expectation that the rest of the world has an obligation to live like droids for the foreseeable future.”

This.

@MrsTravers

My son was all of 12 before he stopped all that , so now I am not without hope I can get him married off .

Yes, let's cling to that!

@LilacTree1

No - it's a great thing! And some people are very resistant to it, oddly enough! Not sure why .

No. Of course not. There will be a vaccine. And better treatment. At that point, it will become similar to regular flu in that it’s a horrible virus we live with that unfortunately kills thousands of people every year. We’ve gone about normal life with the risk of many horrible viruses.. this one will be similar eventually. There have been pandemics before, it didn’t keep the world apart for long.

As soon as other governments decide to fully open there economy every other country will follow.. No country will want to be last to do it and risk falling behind while other countries economies recover...

@DamnYankee you give me hope. Before, it was a mildly antisocial habit which I hoped he didn't indulge in outside the house.

I can now see him being barked at for it on a daily basis by teachers (not unreasonably - yay!). Or sending him home (not yay!!).

Can't blame them really.

Thank you for the and the reassurance that that they do eventually grow out of it. Please do join me in more until he does.....

Thank you for the reassuring replies.

Spent too long listening to nicola sturgeon.. Social distancing and part time schooling are here to stay..

I was a bit freaked it's nice to hear some sensible voices

I'm not sure what people are on in GB going so over the top with all this - in Germany churches, schools, restaurants etc are open again, yes with social distancing etc and yes they did better than GB but I don't see why in a couple of months GB should not be the same!?!