People not quarantining!

[PoppyRae]

Just a bit of a rant. My neighbours got back from France on Friday. The husband went back to work this morning. Their son is riding his bike outside as I’m typing this. My son’s friend knocked on our door to play this morning, he just got back from France with his family yesterday. Makes me so mad! We cancelled our holiday this year because we couldn’t afford to quarantine (DH is self employed) Are most people not following the rules or am I just surrounded by idiots?!

We didn't go away either. I'm really glad we didn't actually, though I've felt it. I've really longed for our annual stay in France.
Nobody I've known has quarantined following their return from trips abroad. If anything, we've had sleepover requests for kids like the day after friends returned from Europe. It doesn't boil my piss but it does make me sort of shake my head. These parents know I'm recovering from an almost fatal heart attack. I went into cardiac arrest. The heart attack was caused by an artery tear, so not diet or lifestyle-related in the least (which is slightly scarier because it was so out of the blue). So I feel like, you know, just quarantine and then, when you're done with that, we'll see you... we'll have that sleepover. But please, don't arrange sleepovers the minute you 'deplane'. I just find it a bit thoughtless. I think most people really think 'it won't happen to me' and so they don't think or care about you or me or the next guy.

@TheVanguardSix I’m so sorry to hear that! People can be so thoughtless. I hope you feel better soon 💐

I don’t understand why you wouldn’t report your neighbours? Unless we all behave sensibly we won’t keep a lid on this.

Yes, the embarrassing English version of quarantine.

Compared with true quarantine:
Right now if you go from Hong Kong (virtually no covid deaths) to Taiwan (virtually no covid deaths) you have an obligatory 2 week hotel stay. You pay £1,000 and get all your meals delivered included. Medical staff on hand. Everyone wears masks.

They are rightly scared of covid. They have in place SARs-based protection measures. Consequently their economy and education sectors are open.

Yes definitely report them. We all need to be careful to avoid a rise in cases especially with schools starting soon.

Do you know where the husband works?
I’d be making an anonymous call there to let them know so they can warn their other employees.

You only have to look at the myriad threads on here with people saying they will leave false phone numbers for tracing if asked in restaurants etc to know that the selfishness that has come to the surface during the crisis knows no limits.
I despair really.

Covid has definitely shone a light on morality. I think there's quite a few selfish people out there, it's just not quite so obvious in normal times. You only have to think about how many CFer threads there are!

Do you know what the husband does for a job? My friends came back from Spain at the weekend - he works in construction so has gone back to work (quarantine doesn't apply apparently) and she is full on quarantining with their teenagers. Madness, in that he's out of the house at work, but completely in line with the rules.

My point being that some people are still working, depending on what sector they're in. But they should be at home the rest of the time.

Surely his work know where he was on holiday? I'd be very surprised if they let him come in (unless he works on the list of exempted jobs).

Report them.

Depends on his job. Some jobs are exempt from quarantine.

Dial police non emergency and ask for advice.

@Shedpaint

Do you know where the husband works? I’d be making an anonymous call there to let them know so they can warn their other employees.

Why anonymous, if you are going to report, at least name yourself or actually tell the neighbour you are going to.

Just as well they don't live in the Isle of Man where quarantine is strictly enforced and people have been jailed due to breaking quarantine rules

I am not saying this is right at all but they may have made a judgment that it was highly unlikely for them to have caught it. Yes, I know you will say that that is not their call to make but I can sort of understand it. They may also have not bothered filling in the forms so are confident no one is tracking them...

Before you jump on me, we came back from France last week and we are following quarantine to the letter (and no I am not complaining about it per se, we knew it was a possibility when we went on our pre-COVID booked trip)

However, I frustrated by it because:

• we drove via Eurotunnel
• very minimal contact at quiet service stations, washed hands, used face masks etc
• stayed at our own villa with its own pool
• went cycling but otherwise didn't do any sightseeing
• in the course of 2 weeks DH or I went to the supermarket 3x. The supermarket was large, very quiet and everyone wore masks.
• the R number in our region was well below 1
• bloody passport control asked us if we'd filled in our quarantine forms but then didn't ask to see them, FGS! (I suppose they are relying on people to comply rather than run the risk of being caught out)

Contrast with where we live in the U.K., social distancing not always observed, supermarket busier, people crowd in/don't wear face masks etc etc.

So the risk of us having contacted it on holiday are vanishingly small and it could be argued there is more risk going about our daily lives at home.

But the rules are the rules and we are following them

We’ve never really been as interconnected and interdependent as we are now, and many people are struggling with that realisation. Soon, the decision not to quarantine can reverberate around a school, leading to the quarantining of tens of more pupils, and lots of ensuing stress for their families (not to mention any who become ill from covid - but I think people are more wary of the risk of school closures, which they see as a direct threat).

The decisions of people in my city to hold large gatherings have never been of my concern, but can now plunge us into a local lockdown, potentially putting other people’s livelihoods at threat.

I guess it’s akin to keeping everyone back in detention for the actions of a few pupils.

Hong Kong has cycled in and out of strict control measures AFAIK that are damaging the economy there. Strict quarantine of new arrivals has not been their silver bullet to keeping things 'normal'.

They should do more checks.
I am not sure if they are doing any checks at all on people quarantining, to be honest. I don't think they are.
We are quarantining at the moment, so are our neighbours. We haven't left the house and I haven't seen my neighbours do anything they shouldn't be doing.
I cannot believe people are so stupid as to not follow the rules, more so when their neighbours know they have been to France. And going to work...wow!!

Why is everyone frothing over this and comparing to Taiwan and Hong Kong who have “virtually no deaths” the past 3 days our death toll has been below 10! That’s virtually no deaths in a country of 66 million! I just can’t get my head around why everyone is so afraid of a virus that kills less than ten people a day?

@Sunnydazey I’m not scared of the virus itself, even though I’m vulnerable I’m very unlikely to die or get seriously ill. I am scared of cases rising and being put back into lockdown again, and potentially losing jobs if this happens. I’m doing everything I can to stick to the rules to help cases stay low. I really wish everyone else would too then we might stand a chance of getting through winter with only limited local lockdowns and no school closures.

@Sunnydazey

Why is everyone frothing over this and comparing to Taiwan and Hong Kong who have “virtually no deaths” the past 3 days our death toll has been below 10! That’s virtually no deaths in a country of 66 million! I just can’t get my head around why everyone is so afraid of a virus that kills less than ten people a day?

Exponential growth. By the time deaths rise you’re already screwed.

Remember this? Played out to the letter.

It would be useful though to require all people returning from a quarantine destination to take a test (at their own cost) whether symptomatic or not, say, 7 or 14 days into their quarantine. It would also be useful if the government were tallying how many people in quarantine from France/Spain/Croatia etc actually do develop COVID so we know whether the quarantine is proportionate or not.

I 'beat' quarantine by 6 hours, but would have obeyed it as I am fundamentally law-abiding. I think it's pretty pointless though as it's arbitrarily and crudely applied, poorly enforced and we have no evidence of its effectiveness.

What’s more, those who say they won’t quarantine because they have already had it aren’t safe either.

www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/world/covid-19-coronavirus.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR1j2rfN8_HlKzuC6M47zAG9OoUcQeLXyMjHqucRoYdsylFeeqet7LsHsY8

Yes, I know folk who continued as usual when they came home.
It really annoyed me.

Should have gone on holiday then.