Would you not see your friends and family?

[SqidgeBum]

BJ seems to be floating the idea of a 2 week national restriction on socialising in October. Essential work would stay open, but people will be told not to socialise with any other household. Sky news reported

"Proposals being worked up for such a "circuit break" could see essential travel to schools and workplaces continuing, but restaurants and bars would shut - or perhaps run on restricted hours - and different households would be asked not to mix."

Where I live, there are about 10 cases a week, and we havent had a death since august 23rd. I know that's not the case around the whole country, so I am asking would you comply with the government bringing in restrictions that mean you go to work, but you cannot see another household? They are proposing this would last for 2 weeks minimum.

Do you think it will help as we head into winter, or is it just another finger plaster over a gaping wound?

I live in an area of local lockdown. I can have a cleaner, tutor, ironing lady, nanny and a variety of handy men in my house. Just not my friends and family.

I can travel in a car with my family providing I wear a mask. I just can't go in their house.

I can meet my friends and family in a pub, have a meal, get drunk, and share a taxi home. I just can't go in their house.

I can send my child to school where he spends time only with the children in his bubble. They do not keep 1m apart when playing at break times or sitting in the classroom. However my child is unable to visit the house of one of these children after school.

For the virus to be slowed, we need to see much stricter measures. Classes of 15 with children in school for half the week and at home for half the week. More restrictions on pubs. Restaurants encouraged to offer take out services. Stricter limits on the number of people allowed in shops at any one time. I could go.

@hauntedvagina
Like you say, it’s all a load of baloney.

Thanks @Dowser

Either lock me down or let me out. I'm finding this half arsed attempt of a lockdown far more damaging to my mental heath than the full lockdown in March.

I’d comply for a two week period.
Hopefully slow transmission a bit, in fact I would happily do that two weeks out of 6 or whatever. No big need for stockpiling, not long to wait till you could see people again etc.
I’d much rather do that and keep schools and as many businesses open as we can. Everyone who can work home continues to do so, but there would have to be some legal protection for others, so they still get paid.

None of that will fix the problem but I think a series of short circuit breaker type lockdowns might help us preserve normality a bit, keep infection rates tempered and do the minimum damage to the economy.

I’m still hoping to go to Tenerife next month.
My friend flew out today.
That’s why all this stuff is just crazy horse shit.
She’s in a lockdown area, but allowed to fly to Tenerife..wtf
Pull the other one Boris, it’s got bells on.
You couldn’t make this stuff up.

Close all pubs, gyms, restaurants, softplays etc....their owners and employees will be fine to live off fresh air for 6 months!!
Businesses fail all the time. It’s not up to us to keep propping them up when economic circumstances dictate their closure. I don’t see why I should support them at the expense of seeing my family.

@Ranunculi

Close all pubs, gyms, restaurants, softplays etc....their owners and employees will be fine to live off fresh air for 6 months!! Businesses fail all the time. It’s not up to us to keep propping them up when economic circumstances dictate their closure. I don’t see why I should support them at the expense of seeing my family.

Eh ..... because all of those places are business that employ people who pay taxes, and they themselves provide revenue to the government. That revenue keeps essential services open. How do you think the government, hospitals, and society functions without businesses? Just wait til your kids school has no money, or your hospital has no funding for cancer care, or your GP has no appointments because they cant afford enough docs, and you will see how important having businesses paying taxes is to a society. Or do you think your family doesnt need a functioning society, as long as you can have a coffee in your moms kitchen?

Businesses fail all the time. It’s not up to us to keep propping them up when economic circumstances dictate their closure. I don’t see why I should support them at the expense of seeing my family.

Businesses have done and will always fail , however thousands of businesses closing all at the same time (whether they were good/bad/indifferent, or profitable) through no fault of their own, making hundreds of thousands of people unemployed is a bad thing for everyone.

It astonishes me how 6 months later how many people still seem to think "the economy" is something entirely separate to them, their lives and their health.

Yes I’ll comply, mainly because I want to protect the vulnerable, also I want there to be available itu beds for anyone who needs this level of care.

I would comply. I haven't seen my family since March, so it won't really make much difference!

It astonishes me how 6 months later how many people still seem to think "the economy" is something entirely separate to them, their lives and their health.

Agreed.
The testing situation is a complete shambles and is down to the government to sort out (immediately!) if they want a reasonable proportion of the population to comply with any stricter measures.
However, I feel the government are damned if they do and damned if they dont attempt to prioritise the economy. At the start people were saying they're putting the economy above peoples lives, ignoring that the 2 things are intertwined. "The economy" isnt anonymous CEOs in suits, and FTSE 100 company directors. How many people were thought to have died due to the austerity measures brought in in 2010?
You cant have a functioning society with free healthcare and education, and provision for paying benefits to those in vulnerable situations, and pensions, without a large % of people (on all types of wages) paying taxes.

I'd still Go and see my aunt who's dying of cancer. She's got so little time left (days not weeks we think) so what would if matter if I had Corona virus? And I'm not worried about her infecting me.

But would restrict other socialising if told to.

I am not sure that rising figures are to do with people not complying. I think they are more likely to be that the rules are allowing the virus to spread, but I’m not really sure there is a solution apart from a vaccine. Even then, how many people are going to bother to get vaccinated? Hardly anyone I know gets vaccinated for seasonal flu.

I could cope with a defined short lockdown. I think. But like a pp said, I just cannot mentally cope without seeing my family again for as long as the last one. The rule of 6 means we can’t see each other altogether now as there’s 9 including children and I’m finding that so tough as it is. I don’t want to feel like this, and a massive part of me feels so pathetic that I can’t cope without seeing them.

I guess it’s probably different if you have children and need childcare or you have mental health problems, but how often do people on here see their family normally? For me, not seeing my parents for six months is absolutely normal (and Christmas is something we look forward to as this is one of the occasions when we would usually see them), but DH sees his sibling maybe once a week just to kind of shoot the breeze I guess - I think if I was seeing my DM once a week she would think that I was unable to “adult”.

Nobody is following the rules anymore because nobody trusts anything that comes from the Government

Myself and family are thankfully not suffering with mental health due to isolation as we have support bubbles for the single family members.

Therefore I would comply with the rules as I'm not selfish. I wish the same could be said for others.

We would comply with the rules.
I do think, if schools remain open, people feel like things are back to normal and forget.

Yes I will comply, I just hope all those who are saying they won't comply realise the more you fail to comply, the longer and tighter the restrictions will be.

@NewStart2020MyArse

I, and thousands may be millions of others, cannot mentally cope with a lockdown like the one that happened in March. I will not comply for my families sake. Call me selfish if you like. I don't care. Its survival of the fittest now. Sorry....

Fucking nasty.

We only see our families 1-2 times a year, so unless it's childcare I do struggle to understand why people feel unable to go a few weeks without seeing family. Is it really going to be that difficult or unbearable when there's video calls?

@Stellaris22

We only see our families 1-2 times a year, so unless it's childcare I do struggle to understand why people feel unable to go a few weeks without seeing family. Is it really going to be that difficult or unbearable when there's video calls?

I only see my family every 3 months or so. I will still find it hard not to see anyone at all, especially as I am about to have a baby. Loneliness is real. For some people, being lonely is crippling.

Also, I don't believe it would only be 2 weeks. If it is two weeks, I dont see how much good it will do when covid can take many weeks to make it's way through a family.

[quote Littlemiss74]@Anna713 why do you think it’s not working in Bolton? Are people just not abiding to the rules?[/quote]
It appears so
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/20/covid-scepticism-behind-high-bolton-infection-rate-says-local-mp

@weepingwillow22 Yes, I read that too. I despair tbh. All I can say is that is not the attitude of everyone in Bolton. I suppose it does explain the horrendous rates of infection though. I hope the skeptics read this and change their minds but I very much doubt it.