What is reasonable for the government to impose on people in the fight against coronavirus.

[Treesofwood]

Most people seem to agree it is reasonable to

1. Prevent people from seeing people they love.
2. Prevent people from going to school.
3. Prevent people from going to the theatre.
4. Force people to wear cloth over most of their face even if they don't want to in public.
5. Stop people from hugging.
6. Stop people from working.
7. Stop children from playing with their friends in the park.
8. Force people who are well into self isolation for two weeks.
9. Ban people from having sex with people they don't live with.

10. Stop (just) adult children from going back to their family home from university.

I would have never believed someone who told me a year ago that these laws/"guidance" would be in place.

There are some things that it is not seen as reasonable for the government to do, despite the fact it would save lives.

But I would argue that most of the things above would have been laughed off as ridiculous in 2019. After all we don't live in a police state.

Where will it end? How much further down the line will we go. How many more things will we lose? Bodily autonomy? It will definitely head that way if some MPs have their way.

Who heard the 1pm r4 news? That poor family who got told off for moving their chairs nearer to their distressed mum at their dad's funeral. Wtf have we become??

Thank you @rookiemere.
An interesting read but still impossible to extrapolate an exact average from that but I am no statistician.

@GetOffYourHighHorse

PHE and their dusty old computer systems. Ok for monitoring chickenpox outbreaks at primary school, woefully out of their depth in a pandemic

Who else is to blame but the Health Sec and the PM ? they appointed Dido Harding, Serco and control PHE plus the technology they use! it is the responsibility of the Government, there are plenty of commercially available database programs and it seems unbelievable no one thought to check the suitability of the S/W being used.

My company do not use use Excel, because it can't handle v large files, its a known limitation - assuming that is the reported issue?

Hancock has done too many screw ups, he has lost credibility, he didn't even know that nurses etc give out vaccinations - so it is now right to call for him to go.
I believe this is the first time the opposition has said this.

'Who else is to blame but the Health Sec and the PM '

What, do you think PHE is only full of office juniors or something and Hancock installs all their software?! I blame their CEO, their directors all their senior staff who should've seen excel wasnt ever going to suffice and they should have got their arses in gear. PHE who had to be told to stop recording a death as covid even if they had a positive test several months ago.

'That poor family who got told off for moving their chairs nearer to their distressed mum at their dad's funeral. Wtf have we become??'

Yes that man needs sacking. Thankfully they don't represent all funeral directors so you mustn't panic. We haven't 'become' anything.

'Who else is to blame but the Health Sec and the PM

What, do you think PHE is only full of office juniors or something and Hancock installs all their software?! I blame their CEO, their directors all their senior staff who should've seen excel wasnt ever going to suffice and they should have got their arses in gear. PHE who had to be told to stop recording a death as covid even if they had a positive test several months ago

PHE is Govt quango, run and funded by HMG......hence, ultimately, Hancock is responsible as is his boss.

From the Gov.uk Public Health England is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in the United Kingdom that began operating on 1 April 2013. Its formation came as a result of the reorganisation of the National Health Service in England outlined in the Health and Social Care Act 2012

So an organisation formed, funded and run by the Conservative Govt/Dept of Health......

Perhaps you would like to blame Corbyn?

@GetOffYourHighHorse

'Who else is to blame but the Health Sec and the PM '

What, do you think PHE is only full of office juniors or something and Hancock installs all their software?! I blame their CEO, their directors all their senior staff who should've seen excel wasnt ever going to suffice and they should have got their arses in gear. PHE who had to be told to stop recording a death as covid even if they had a positive test several months ago.

'That poor family who got told off for moving their chairs nearer to their distressed mum at their dad's funeral. Wtf have we become??'

Yes that man needs sacking. Thankfully they don't represent all funeral directors so you mustn't panic. We haven't 'become' anything.

That funeral director is following the rules

Are you suggesting that other funeral directors BREAK the rules?

After all, these rules are no hardship really are they? That family just need to get on with it

The Scottish and English governments have been pure shite. No consistency, no endgame. Changing goalposts, blaming the public, who have been obedient beyond belief. No proper testing and tracing. No ability to listen to anyone other than people invested in the scaremongering. Shocking.

'That funeral director is following the rules. Are you suggesting that other funeral directors BREAK the rules?'

Hmm, that's odd. I've read the guidance and can't see anything about relatives must be stopped from comforting each other?

Venues have to be of a size that enables social distancing but obvisously funeral directors shouldn't barge in mid service and move mourners comforting others.

Do you think the covid marshals are going to lock up mourners in Dictatorship Prison?

Anyway, as hospital admissions and ventilated patient numbers are climbing steadily I expect it will only get worse so stock up on smelling salts hamster, you're going to need them.

I wonder if I would be classed as having 'Long Covid'. I had something I suspect was covid in late December. Have not been ill since and had private antibody test months back which confirmed I had antibodies, and the illness I (and DH) had matched covid symptoms in all ways. So as I said in the covid thread, its possible I didn't have covid but had it asymptomatically after that and didn't know, but it seems more likely I did have covid, though it was not confirmed by a test as obviously tests were not available then, hence private antibody test out of curiosity. However, I have still not recovered my sense of taste properly. Its not totally gone as it was, but I cannot taste many things properly and everythings kind of..dull tasting still even 9 months on. This is not problematic as such, more annoying, but as its a long lasting symptom, would I be one of the longcovid stats? Or is it only about fatigue and such that actually impact on peoples lives meaningfully? Been wondering this for a little bit.

'PHE is Govt quango, run and funded by HMG......hence, ultimately, Hancock is responsible as is his boss.'

Yes correct he is ultimately responsible however I blame senior PHE staff who couldn't manage a piss up in a brewery. Someone should have flagged up their shit software years ago.

Sorry, kind of offtopic for this thread, it was after reading the BBC link posted just upthread that made me post there..apologies if anyone is anoyed by offtopic post.

Its a shame the studies seem to have been extremely small on it so far. 143 and 128, though I d expect larger studies in time of course.

@GetOffYourHighHorse Well if the Govt doesn't fund for LAN/WAN and Server upgrades to run the latest hardware and software, what do PHE do?
But its not just PHE, many household names use old H/W and S/W.

But i agree with you on the funeral fiasco, looks like the official didn't take any notice (or care) of the family telling them that the two sons and their mum were in a family bubble.
Not in the rules, just some jobs worth.

'Well if the Govt doesn't fund for LAN/WAN and Server upgrades to run the latest hardware and software, what do PHE do?'

Well they do what every organisation does, they budget, prioritise and business plan. They are just a bumbling organisation that as I said previously all well and good at monitoring noro outbreaks but not this. What does Scotland have, is their Public Health Scotland just as shite I wonder.

@GetOffYourHighHorse

'Well if the Govt doesn't fund for LAN/WAN and Server upgrades to run the latest hardware and software, what do PHE do?'

Well they do what every organisation does, they budget, prioritise and business plan. They are just a bumbling organisation that as I said previously all well and good at monitoring noro outbreaks but not this. What does Scotland have, is their Public Health Scotland just as shite I wonder.

Fairly sure NoroV would be dealt with by local authority public health teams

How many more times do i have to tell you? PHE isn't any other organisation? a Quango! its only income stream is the Govt and PHE will have an IT budget, but not for major IT refreshes, they cost millions.
PHE's remit does inc preparing for public health emergencies but they can only do that with correct funding, the pandemic exercise in 2016 identified issues, not all dealt with.

@rookiemere Local taxi drivers are quitting in droves. I was told this today. The mask requirements in shops meant less non drivers were going shopping so less ppl were using taxis. Now the pub curfew has put the cherry on the cake. Job isnt worth doing anymore. The one who brought me home from Tesco at 7pm made £22 ALL DAY.

Good luck getting a taxi in an emergency if you dont drive. Because a lot less of them will be doing the job.

@Janevaljane

Who heard the 1pm r4 news? That poor family who got told off for moving their chairs nearer to their distressed mum at their dad's funeral. Wtf have we become??

Personally, this sort of thing was why I was so annoyed with the Cummings Durham business.

Bereaved families ought to be able to console a widowed mum at a funeral.

Random drives around the country, while actually positive for coronavirus, shouldn't be part of this.