Bubbles of 10 'outside'? Would rather stay with my parents please

[RC000]

Would anyone else rather be able to stay with their parents/another household rather than this supposed outside 'bubble of 10' where I presume you have to still socially distance?

We can't be the only family with elderly parents who live hours away (5 here) who are desperate to see grand children? AIBU?!

The virus has not gone away, the lockdown was to protect less than 10% of the population who are vulnerable or elderly and to protect the NHS. If people go shopping, so what. Just don’t go to see your elderly relatives. I wouldn’t be surprised if the govt extended the lockdown for shielded and vulnerable including elderly but let the rest of us out.

That’s a lot of people to be protected from what will be an even greater threat if ‘the rest of you’ are running about willy nilly spreading it right left and centre. How will this 10% survive if it’s not safe for them to go out at all for an indefinite period? Or do you think they’re all on their last legs anyway? I’m shielded due to drugs I take. I’m not old or ill, I’m a productive member of society, a higher rate taxpayer. Reading threads like this and realising how many think like you I realise I’m fucked.

@NaturalBornWoman So what would you like us to do? For those of us who are not shielding, vulnerable or unhealthy?

@NaturalBornWoman what do you suggest then? 100% of us stay indoors until Covid20 appears or a vaccine is found? It isn’t going away so we have to live with it. If I had shielded relatives I would advise them to stay in but understand that they may choose to ignore me as I don't know what’s going on Mentally.

What do you suggest the government does. So easy to criticise but what do you suggest?

NaturalBornWoman what do you suggest then? 100% of us stay indoors until Covid20 appears or a vaccine is found?

Of course not, do you really see those as the two options? Lock in 10% of the population who are vulnerable indefinitely whilst everyone else carries on as normal, increasing the incidence of transmission in the community or alternatively lock in 100% of the population?

The virus has not gone away, the lockdown was to protect less than 10% of the population who are vulnerable or elderly and to protect the NHS. If people go shopping, so what. Just don’t go to see your elderly relatives. I wouldn’t be surprised if the govt extended the lockdown for shielded and vulnerable including elderly but let the rest of us out.

I know that seems like a simple and logical solution, but it's not "job done, we've protected the nhs, now we don't have to any more". The nhs will only stay protected so long as the amount of virus circulating is as low or lower than after lockdown.

It's also not just about protecting the vulnerable. High levels of virus spreading through the community, even just amongst younger or otherwise less vulnerable people, will not be ok for anyone. As well as health services being overwhelmed again, people won't spend money or go to shops or get their children educated if levels of illness go up to high levels again. The tourism and hospitality industries will stay crippled. Vital services like dentistry will stay limited.

No matter how we do it, we all have to keep levels of virus in the community at a very low level that can be kept track of by testing.

That's without even taking into account the fact that the most vulnerable people don't all fit neatly into a box that can stay at home easily. I don't want my local hospital's top paediatric consultant, who might be a BAME man or someone with diabetes, to have to stay at home for months or years. What about a child's best friend, or the local dentist? It's not all conveniently old and frail people.

The only way we can have a semblance of normality is if we have extremely low levels of virus circulating. We don't want lockdown to be the way we do this anymore - we can't afford for lockdown to be the way we do this any more! But we still have to have it as the goal, even while we're opening things up again and gradually seeing more people. We can achieve it too if we have good tracking and tracing and if we do things in safe ways.

A lot of this is up to us.