Photos of friends on social media with their arms around family/friends

[ke002]

I don't believe I'm wrong in understanding that rules are still in place to practice social distancing with everyone outside your household/bubble.... So I feel so frustrated seeing friends/extended family (cousins, uncles) posting photos on social media with their arms around their family and friends, heads close together, etc. I'm not talking about with people they are in a bubble with. One friend posted photos of her family on holiday with both her parents-in-law plus her sister-in-law and her family and they're in photos all very close together.
My Mum asked me last week if we can start hugging and I really thought carefully about it and said no. She cried about it but I know it's the right decision but it's like a kick in the teeth seeing friends photos.
I worked on a Covid High Dependency Unit for the first 3 months and I truly feel broken by my experiences. I do not want to go back there.

@beanbaggo

As only a small fraction seem to have been infected (7% antibodies compared with 60% or so in a few really badly affected places), it’s naive to think we’re passed it permanently.

People are pushing more and more against the rules and boundaries - which is natural as social distancing goes against our human nature - but at some point a tipping point will be reached and infections will gain momentum again, as they have in many, many countries (Australia, USA, France, Spain etc), so its unrealistic to think we’ll buck the trend and be able to get completely back to normal with no resurgence if we continue more and more to get back to normal social behaviour.

As we’ve done a pretty good job of suppressing it, it’s starting from a pretty low base in most places - many areas have few if any cases - so it won’t happen overnight. That’s the problem with exponential growth - you only notice when it’s getting out of control.

From people I talk to, with numbers being low currently, people are pushing the boundaries now as they see it an opportunity to have a bit of normality before things worsen over the autumn,
not because it’s “all over”. Of course, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, but understandable in my opinion. I’m definitely more relaxed than I was and am allowing my children to have play dates etc though I’m stopping short of hugging and kissing everyone I meet, let alone post on social media, which does seem crass in the circumstances.

Social distancing is over. No one does it now.

Also, that’s just not true. Yes, some people aren’t socially distancing at all, but most people seem to be becoming more relaxed, and many aren’t back to anything close to pre-March social activity... and also, a lot of people are continuing to take rules very seriously (you just don’t see them all bunched up in pubs and sharing hugging selfies on FB - obviously). Also, mask wearing is still pretty ubiquitous where I live for instance.

It seems like your post is agitating for us all to treat Covid as history.... which, ironically, is the one sure fire way to ensure it won’t be!

It’s a bit like saying “yay, I’m close to my target weight” after being on a diet, and then saying “I can now eat all the pies again and I won’t gain weight, because the effects of a diet are permanent, right!”

I'll hug who I want and who wants to hug me back. I'll also post what I want on social media. This is not nazi Germany ffs. I've been out 3 times since lockdown. F off and stop judging. Human contact is a necessary thing. Good for you if you have enough people in your house to hug. Stupid thread.

@roxfox

I'll hug who I want and who wants to hug me back. I'll also post what I want on social media. This is not nazi Germany ffs. I've been out 3 times since lockdown. F off and stop judging. Human contact is a necessary thing. Good for you if you have enough people in your house to hug. Stupid thread.

👏👏👏

I know someone who does this and she says she’s shielding.....or was shielding. So even when she was supposed to be shielding there were various photos, one with a friend, with a relative, with a different relative. Arm in arm.

Someone commented “social distancing” and she claimed the person was her bubble. Then the next day posted a photo arm in arm with someone else! 🙈😁

Then a few days later posted a photo inside someone’s house with 8 people crammed together in the photo.....they’re all single so 8 different households!

Social distancing is over. No one does it now
No it isn't. Yes plenty of people do.

I’m still social distancing 🤷🏼‍♀️ and so are my family.

It seems clear to me that if we follow the rules we can actually get some semblance of a normal life. If we don’t we risk ending up like Aberdeen and back in lockdown. I want my kids to stay in school and my husband to remain in work (hospitality) as long as possible so my part in that is to stick to the rules. I haven’t hugged anyone outside this house or been in another house since March and only been anywhere I can stay 2m from people.

We've seen DH's family for the first time since Christmas. We interracted normally at an outside venue. Due to travel and the age of his DM, they are the only family he will be seeing in 2020. It is highly likely that it will be at least 18m since our last visit at Oct half term last year before we get back. Hopefully his elderly DM will stay on good form so he can see her again. Expecting him to stay 2m away from the only relatives he'll see in over a year is frankly cruel.

I've seen my mum once and gave her a brief hug, faces aimed away. She was in hospital ill back in Feb... I suspect that the chest infection and DVT that she had around then were Covid, ironically I kept away with what felt like a regular cold to protect her. That was 4 months without seeing any of my family.

I'm generally happy to give people space. I'm generally happy to keep my interactions outside unless the risk of hypothermia becomes excessive.

It's natural for people after nearly 5 months to need natural contact. Photos on SM could well be the 30 seconds they got together for a hug after keeping their distance the rest of the time.

Diets are a good analogy. A strict diet can be done for a short time with great success... but the inevitable binge will be harder. A more sustainable diet with some acceptance of human nature and emotion has much better chance of working longer.

What we see on SM is the "cheat" moments. It's not necessarily the whole truth.

In 2019 there were 496,354 deaths (slightly lower than average). Covid or not, hundreds of thousands of people will die during the rest of this year. Better to live (and die) feeling loved than isolated. Better to grieve knowing that you shared your love than withheld it out of fear.

We're still social distancing. I can't imagine the horror of passing covid onto someone I love. But yes, my Facebook feed is full of people who are seemingly not social distancing. It's a worry. And will be even more of a worry in September when schools are fully back.

It shocks me too. Just log on to the government website or bbc news and it's quite clear.

How people don't get it I have no idea. I think many just don't care and I feel
It's very selfish. We are all as a community in the same boat.

I hugged my family yesterday.

The diet analogy is a really good one. Keeping to the rules all the time is the ideal but occasional lapses are understandable. It’s better to try and do your best most of the time than give up entirely. But yes, if the rules go out the window entirely then we will eventually see the consequences.

I’m not hugging/kissing family members/friends but we aren’t staying 1m apart. Like PP has said we are able to go out for dinner inside with 5 friends and sit around a tiny table together!

Also those rules are a joke now softplays have been allowed to open!

The rules are so confusing! I thought that it was up to five households outside (eg restaurant garden) with social distancing of 2 metres or if that’s not possible then 1 metre or more plus taking extra steps to mitigate the risk. Or two households inside (eg restaurant or house) with social distancing of 2 metres or if that’s not possible then 1 metre plus etc.

I thought restaurants were supposed to check that bookings for inside aren’t more than two households?

I could well be wrong though. The rules are so confusing, change all the time, vary for the four U.K. nations and I have no idea which ones are law and which guidance

*up to six households

I feel absolutely flabbergasted that somebody upthread wouldn't hug her mum, when her mum asked her to. Because "the government told me not to" .

Unless the mum is particularly elderly or vulnerable or has underlying health conditions, why on earth wouldn't you hug her, if she is willing to accept the personal risk that goes with it?

Yes lots of family / friends hugging could (& probably does) spread the virus asymptomatically, but I think we can now safely say that the real risk only really lies in somebody hugging somebody else who is at risk.

I genuinely cannot understand why so many adults are unable to rationalise this? You know who is vulnerable / higher risk within your own families / friendship groups, so just avoid getting in close contact with them, and they will remain protected.

Are people seriously not going to hug their own mother / father / sister until a vaccine may or may not arrive??!! Completely bonkers!

Some restaurants are checking its only 2 households if inside, some don't care.

I saw a photo from a local Breeze ride the other day. 12 women on the same table inside the local cafe, not even 1m away from each other. Its all very well shrugging it off but it annoys me as everyone who does this increases the risk to all of us.

It really doesn't increase the risk to us all, the chance of some one having it in those 12 people is so tiny.

I think people are more likely to have blood pressure that high at moment frothing at people doing things they don't approve.

I do appreciate that the chances of one of those 12 people having it are unlikely. But multiply this by all the other large groups allowed in that establishment over the last few weeks, and multiply it by all the other establishment not adhering to the rules and someone will have it.

Or we may as well just allow fully packed sporting venues back.... Because it'll be similar figures, just spread out rather than all at once.

Plus the cafe is 5 miles from the town which was front page of the DM yesterday being touted as the next lockdown location.

I went out for family meal last night. 4 birthdays out of the 7 of us.

You can't SD! Not sat around a table!

But the only people I do go closer than 2m to are family.

I may feel different in a high risk area.

My town has had 2 cases in 22 days. I don't feel my family are a risk to me or me to them.

The media have done a job on most people. Living in fear.

@HeresMe I agree - I'm utterly astounded by the fear that has been stirred in people by both the government and media over the past 6 months.

Yes we all need to be careful / wash our hands / wear face masks / be particularly careful around the elderly and vulnerable. But the level of fear & loathing by many - how dare somebody travel abroad, how dare somebody hug their friends / family and post it to social media, how dare somebody eat out in a restuarant and not socially distance. Its completely bonkers, and rather scary too.

I will take all sensible precautions, but no government is able to tell someody that they cannot hug their own family or close support network. They can advise - yes, but its then up to the individual as to whether they follow that advice. Why anybody else should get involved & judge them seems completely insane.

@HeresMe

The media have done a job on most people. Living in fear.

Absolutely!

[quote MajorClanger123]@HeresMe I agree - I'm utterly astounded by the fear that has been stirred in people by both the government and media over the past 6 months.

Yes we all need to be careful / wash our hands / wear face masks / be particularly careful around the elderly and vulnerable. But the level of fear & loathing by many - how dare somebody travel abroad, how dare somebody hug their friends / family and post it to social media, how dare somebody eat out in a restuarant and not socially distance. Its completely bonkers, and rather scary too.

I will take all sensible precautions, but no government is able to tell someody that they cannot hug their own family or close support network. They can advise - yes, but its then up to the individual as to whether they follow that advice. Why anybody else should get involved & judge them seems completely insane.[/quote]
This, with bells on. Un-fucking-believable. And the level of snipy, nasty informant culture, of virtue signalling and moral superiority and almost piety, of public shaming, of almost demanding obsequiousness for being a 'Covid hero' is what is unprecedented.

People afraid to hug their dying relatives after 6 months in lockdown. Fucking hell.