Do people actually not understand the rules or are they choosing not to?

[Anniemabel]

Some people openly disagree with the rules and have chosen not to follow them. But others seem to not understand the rules and I can’t work out if they actually find them confusing or if they are kind of trying to give themselves a reason not to follow them by almost kidding themselves that they are ambiguous.

For example mum on our class whatsapp asked whether her child would be sent home if she sent him into school with a cough. Cue various parents saying as long as he doesn’t have a temperature with it that’s fine. Another explained the need to test for any one of the three main symptoms, the mum acknowledge the response by saying “it’s all so confusing” but sent her child to school the next day anyway.

Similar questions arise about the rule of 6 all the time, saying it makes no sense. The “spirit” of it makes complete sense. The more people in a group the more likely it is that one might have covid and spread it to another. There are technical loopholes depending on how you interpret “gathering” but it’s clear as mud that they basically mean don’t have more than 6 people in your house please.

I kind of prefer the people who openly break the rules to those who apparently don’t understand them!

I don't believe it's confusing if you take the trouble to look at the government website it's crystal clear. People say that because they don't want to comply and it somehow makes it "not their fault" if they say they are confused.

Yay," another everyone is stupid except me! " thread!

Understanding the rules properly now requires people to actively research them every few days at the moment if you’re not the sort of person that watches/reads the news regularly and thoroughly, so I can understand why people don’t automatically know them all. I suppose it is a choice not to be checking all the time what the rules are, but a reasonable one. If the government want to impose this on us then it’s their job to educate us, it’s not our job to ask them how they’d like us to conform.

Choosing not to. The government has yet to come up with any convincing evidence for any of their knee-jerk policies (and I say this as a lifetime Conservative voter until the last election). Their cack-handedness is quite astonishing.

It’s not confusing if you follow the news and keep up to date with it all.

So many people seem to think you need to have a temperature with Covid. I think the whole temperature checks thing (my dhs work is still doing this!) has fuelled this.

I think there’s also an element of people realising a lot of people with it are completely asymptomatic so the whole testing / track and trace thing is potentially flawed by that and sadly I think that makes people less likely to bother to stick with it all.

I have always said the rules were easy to follow but when my local council implemented local restrictions it was a dogs dinner, probably as it happened same time as Boris announced changes Monday

But most of the rules people aren’t rolling are the basics and you can tell by looking at threads on here that people are just still trying to do what suits them

1. They keep changing them
2. They are different in different areas
3. The one point when we all thought we knew them (no travelling to a second home / other house etc) turns out we were wrong and we could have done that after all (a la Dominic Cummings)
4. People don't want to have to follow the rules so they try to find ways around tg m
5. Who trusts the government anyway? Everything they say is so slippery that it slips out of your mind
6. Some people are easily confused...

To be fair, my son’s school said that a cough isn’t enough to keep them at home u less parents have strong reason to believe it may be Covid. She said unless there is an accompanying fever then the school would be happy to have them if we, as a parent, think it’s just your typical winter cough.

She said the LEA had been in touch with schools and said to stop requiring tests for typical cold symptoms because they can’t cope with the unnecessary demand.

As in the testing centres had gone to the LEA and it was then fed down to teachers.

@BillywilliamV I don’t think everyone is stupid, I think they are pretending to be stupid and thinking that it might give them an excuse not to follow the rules. It’s that bit that I’m finding annoying!

I think it can be a bit confusing when it changes and varies from area to area but people are choosing to be confused as they don't really want to follow them.
I do think the media are a lot to blame as they spend a lot of time telling us how confusing they are rather than explaining them. They also are getting more convoluted as people seem to want everything spelling out rather than taking responsibility for their own safety.
Apparently an expert on R4 told a presenter this week that it is really very simple. This is an infectious disease spread by people so the fewer you meet with, the more distance and barriers between you and the less you transfer with your hands, the less likely you are to catch or spread it.

Some don't understand the rules. Some may be trying to get the rules to fit with what they want to do. Others will ignore the rules.

Things change so frequently that people need to keep up with the changes and that is hard.
Latest guidance about testing children I have found has a publication date of today (25th Sept 2020):
www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-parents-and-guardians-when-you-should-book-a-coronavirus-test-for-your-child

I understand the rules, but I can also see that they're heavily flawed and not particularly based in science. Therefore if someone questions them I'd try to explain the reasoning behind a measure, but also the reasoning why it is flawed.

We're going to get the blame whatever happens, the government have made that clear. So I've no objection with people working out what is best for them to do and protect others. For instance, a gathering of seven from two otherwise isolated households, is far safer than a gathering of six from separate, highly sociable households.

Some people are genuinely confused, partly due to rules being different across the UK (like if children are or are not included in rule of 6). Also, local lockdown rules are a bit different. I think one issue is terms like ‘reasonable excuse’ greatly differ for different people, so that varies. Others are just not taking it seriously/don’t care. As lots of people are working and children are back at school, I think in some ways it feels less serious. Most pools are open and pubs have a curfew but are still open until 10pm, which isn’t that early (plus people will just drink faster, I would have thought). As deaths haven’t risen yet, that also contributes to people feeling lax about it. It’s definitely a mixture.

So many people on my FB seemed to think that when you were allowed to see friends and family after the first lockdown, that meant hugging and kissing, big family/friend gatherings. Loads of pictures of big group selfies, 'can't wait to see my sister and family for a big hug' comments etc etc. That sort of thing is what's pushing us all towards no households meeting. Why couldn't they be happy that they were allowed to see friends and family again, but stuck to SD as per rules. And they now say 'we've been good and stuck to the rules' 🙄

@Anniemabel Do you know if you can go to another household if you are in a committed relationship or not? (if in a restricted area)

Do you know what is defined as a committed relationship?

Or can you sit with 5 other people, outside at a pub & from how many different households?

Not got a clue and neither did Matt Hancock when asked.

Thats before we get into mask wearing exemptions, QR codes or the exemptions to seek childcare acoss families

Its mess, no wonder so many are confused and do not trust the Govt on CV.

@WhyNotMe40

1. They keep changing them

1. They are different in different areas
2. The one point when we all thought we knew them (no travelling to a second home / other house etc) turns out we were wrong and we could have done that after all (a la Dominic Cummings)
3. People don't want to have to follow the rules so they try to find ways around tg m
4. Who trusts the government anyway? Everything they say is so slippery that it slips out of your mind
5. Some people are easily confused...

This is a pretty comprehensive summary.

Ask Dominic Cummings.

I think the lack of freedom in the rules now begets a sense of disbelief and obtuseness.

My dh spent yesterday trying to find a loophole in the rule that because our 11 month old spiked a fever the night before and there were no test available, it meant our whole household had to quarantine for 14 days.

All the little freedoms that we grew used to over lockdown - going for a run, doing the weekly shop, having to withdraw our our child from school - nope, not allowed.

No one has framed them as harsher than lockdown, but coupled with the lack of testing, they actually are more strict.

“So many people on my FB seemed to think that when you were allowed to see friends and family after the first lockdown, that meant hugging and kissing, big family/friend gatherings. Loads of pictures of big group selfies, 'can't wait to see my sister and family for a big hug' comments etc etc. That sort of thing is what's pushing us all towards no households meeting. Why couldn't they be happy that they were allowed to see friends and family again, but stuck to SD as per rules. And they now say 'we've been good and stuck to the rules' 🙄“

Amen

I know what u mean about having to check regularly if any changed.

A friend of mine. Didn't know for 3 days we'd gone into lockdown at that point in time she'd come off fb as she was sick of hearing about covid.
She then appeared back in after 3 days with a status about how pissed off she was that the play park was closed and that wtf is this queing about in aldi.

Even now she doesn't watch the news and relies on people tk tell her. She thinks the whole thing is shit closing anything as her son is bored indoors when he can't go to places.. Obviously not now as all open but she's vocal how pathetic it is when people talk about local lockdown because her ds hates being in.

All the rules surrounding testing seem to be confusing.
People seem to think that if they've come into contact with a case, they need to get a test (no, just isolate).
Also if one family member has symptoms the whole family is getting a test (no, just isolate)
Getting a test for a runny nose or headache, which is confusing because at one point the Gov said you should get a test for anything even vaguely resembling covid and now they're saying only the 3 main symptoms.

I was talking to my grandma recently and she wasnt aware that anyone could even get a test if they werent a HCP or in hospital 🤦‍♀️

[quote Anniemabel]@BillywilliamV I don’t think everyone is stupid, I think they are pretending to be stupid and thinking that it might give them an excuse not to follow the rules. It’s that bit that I’m finding annoying![/quote]
However a lot of people are "stupid", although it's not nice to say or really the right word to use.
Many people are below average intelligence, or are genuinely unable to understand or keep up with the complex and ever changing rules. It was easy during "full" lockdown when there was a very narrow range of what was allowed. But now there are different rules for different regions, many exemptions and exceptions and lots of grey areas. For someone who is not very literate or struggles to comprehend the information on e.g. the government website, it probably is very confusing.

Maybe the rules are difficult to understand because the government wants them to be ... maybe government wants the public to fail ...so that when the death toll is so so high it can be the stupid public's fault.

Many people have fallen for this already. It's a convenient narrative.

I teach in an area which has greater restrictions. We've had 5 cases in our small school already yet many of the staff appeared oblivious to the rules the other day!! When a few of us explained them there were still,staff saying, "that's just ridiculous- I'm still seeing my mum/ gran etc after work"....