How can it be illegal to see a member of family? Even from 2m+? Even with a mask? What is this world

[Napqueen1234]

High risk area so likely to be tier three. In this modern world how can it be illegal to see any family for months and months on end. It’s cruel and unfair and completely unsustainable.

Plus I am fed up reading about people not following the rules as a reason all this crap is dragging on. Everyone I know is following them!

@Napqueen1234

High risk area so likely to be tier three. In this modern world how can it be illegal to see any family for months and months on end. It’s cruel and unfair and completely unsustainable.

I agree. We need to actually (finally) take proper measures to contain Covid. Like Australia, New Zealand, and the Isle of Man did. Or South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan.Their lives are mostly normal now. Their economies are healthier too. This dragged out on off different rules across the country and months of half hearted stuff has got us to this situation. It won't get better for months and months and months unless and until we grab the bull by the horns.

You wouldn’t call the first lockdown half-hearted if you had experienced what I did during that time

The hyperbole on both sides is annoying. It's not like you haven't been able to see your family. I'm in a strict lockdown area and for lots of the year have still been allowed to visit family either outside or inside. Just SDs and wahed hands etc which hardly ruined my liberties It's also not as if everyone I've been in touch with has caught CV and died.
My family are immigrants from a country that suffered war and then a dictatorship for decades and tbh it does sound a bit whingy and end of the world. "Can't see friends and family" it's not like anyone's been sent to the fucking Gulag for meeting up with their Mum in a park. (Whereas my uncle was thrown out of a window for meeting with a friend with the wrong politics).

Maybe they should look into medications that Trump and Chris Christie (ex governor of New Jersey)

I was afraid Chris Christie wouldn’t make it because he is overweight and probably have high blood pressure due to his weight and age

And he have asthma. And yet both of them turned out ok .
Maybe we can start seeing our family more if it is really helping.

A local medical university (UVA) discussed they have been using these medications on CoVid-19 patients and they found it does help. I hope it is true. But watching Chris Christie gave me hope. Then again we will see.

I have lost a family member and didn’t see him at the end because of Covid. I can’t wrap my head around what has happened worldwide in just 10 months or so.
Countries worldwide are or are again imposing similar restrictions in a desperate attempt to slow the spread of the virus so that basic essential services can continue to operate for us all.
It’s not ‘cruel’ of anyone to do that. It would be pretty stupid given the science to just let it rip through our population.
As for deciding and accepting your own risk - you are increasing everyone’s risk. Someone asked where is the humanity in not being able to. Humanity is thinking about not just yourself !

@Toontown, quite!

Agree.

If masks are so fecking wonderful they aren’t working well in Spain are they?

It wouldn’t surprise me if they are increasing infection rates. Everyone touches the damn things and then touches stuff. So you breath wet air into a piece of cloth, let the germs grow in wet Petri dish of fabric and then touch the door or the bananas in Tesco

anyway yes - I’m not being told I can’t see my family indoors: literally fuck off. I’m on scotland and it’s made no difference. The cock up was students in halls of residence. Then they lost control.

They have lost people now. I have obeyed every bloody rule being after six months, my extremes family is coming in my house and I will see them in court over it

heron the science isn’t fixed. More and more eminent scientists worldwide are questioning this approach. Many are censored.

There is emlimination, suppression, gentle spread and the “let it rip”. Had we let this gently spread over the summer we would have been in a far better position now entering winter. This has been a catastrophic folly

I absolutely see differing opinion calledyoulastnight and I don’t ignore any expert peer reviewed data/research etc. I just don’t take anything else into account as I myself am not a virologist and am unable to assess credibility of pronouncements without credentials iyswim.
Don’t discount differing opinions and political pressures and missteps have happened (I think the government have been shambolic largely) but at heart will be guided by the science and this last week there has been clear urgent worldwide consensus. That’s my reading of it.

Toontown my husband’s grandmother is Jewish and she is the only surviving member of her family after the holocaust. She is in her 90s, in a care home and devastated that she can’t currently see her family. In fact her earlier experiences seem to have made it even more important to her to have her family close. It’s possible to have experienced greater horror and still find the current restrictions cruel and difficult.

@Toontown

The hyperbole on both sides is annoying. It's not like you haven't been able to see your family. I'm in a strict lockdown area and for lots of the year have still been allowed to visit family either outside or inside. Just SDs and wahed hands etc which hardly ruined my liberties It's also not as if everyone I've been in touch with has caught CV and died. My family are immigrants from a country that suffered war and then a dictatorship for decades and tbh it does sound a bit whingy and end of the world. "Can't see friends and family" it's not like anyone's been sent to the fucking Gulag for meeting up with their Mum in a park. (Whereas my uncle was thrown out of a window for meeting with a friend with the wrong politics).

This. Added to that are in an era, where it is possible to keep in touch with our loved ones electronically.

I’m not of the view that we should “let it rip”, but it is automatically assumed that that’s your view if you question any element of restrictions

@MadameMeursault

Do you want to kill your family? If not then suck it up. It’s only for a short time, which will be shorter if everyone complies and longer if they don’t.

I really wish people would stop believing and saying that it'll be over quicker if we all do as we're told. It really won't, the whole idea of the restrictions is to slow.the spread and therefore make it take longer.

Yes there may be a vaccine, and that may shorten the time it takes for the world to build some sort of immunity, very possibly not full, but hopefully enough to reduce the severity in the vulnerable to the level of a cold (which can still be deadly to many of the vulnerable). Otherwise with the level of restrictions we have now it could take 10+ years to get to that point.

The psychology is interesting.

Some deny, some inflate, some use anger, some appeal, some berate.

With such a broad spectrum of emotional responses it is impressive that the government ever got such wide compliance during phase one lockdown.

It is going to take a large amount of fear to get the same response again this winter.

Agree it is frustrating that if anybody criticises the current restrictions and the way they ramp up to no benefit is then accused of wanting to let it rip through.

I don't hear people wanting it to rip through. A more Swedish approach is not letting it rip through. It is recognising you can't control a virus that largely spreads asymptomatically. Restrictions that encourage social distancing and discourage large crowds are good. Trying to micromanage so many aspects of people's lives when they don't feel the benefit is unsustainable.

To the person asking- yes the reason I want to see my family is to kill them obviously.

Sorry to those who have had babies in lockdown I’m in the same position and it’s been unbelievably hard and shit.

For those saying it will be over soon- will it? It’s been the longest worst 8 months of my life (sorry for never having experienced war so not having a worse point of reference) and I can’t cope with the thought of it going on indefinitely.

The stupid bit is you go to work and sit in an office - because your boss has the right to say they like it better that way - but you cant see family which is what keeps your mental health balanced

@amusedtodeath1

So you're a carer, not a medical professional? What you'd prefer is not relevant. We have to do what's best for society as a whole, it's fucking awful that people are dying alone, but the alternative is letting this run and you don't want to see the utter shit show that would be?

You think it's shit now, but you ain't seen nothing yet and you will if people don't do everything they can to minimise spread.

And it's not all about deaths, it's about keeping enough people well to keep the power on, supermarkets stocked and the NHS operational.

Can you imagine what would happen if there was no gas, electricity, food or medical care. How scared would you be then?

You need to realise this could be very very serious, but it doesn't have to be for the price of a few inconvenient rules, and yes some people will suffer more than others, but this way is better for society as a whole, including the economy.

I don't understand why you assume all this will happen. It didn't happen in March when the virus had been circulating for months with no restrictions in place. It hasn't happened anywhere in the world as far as I know. We have so much more protecting us now, without extra arbitrary untested laws about not seeing family. We have:

• mask wearing in public places
• 2m rules everywhere
• no large scale events
• restricted number bubbles in schools
• people staying at home when they feel unwell
• mass testing
• some contact tracing even if not very effective
• some proportion of the population with an immunity which is higher amongst the crucial populations (healthcare workers etc)
• increased hygiene measures

But you seem to be saying without this new rule of not seeing family there will be so much illness and death that society will collapse. Where is the evidence for that?

and students etc do what they like with no consequences, people who dont wear masks in shops same, parties - just told to disperse if they are caught yet we cant see people in our garden at 6ft

I think people think that masks prevent the spread completely and have gone back to normal. The breaks need to go on. It’s human nature to think our relatives are not a risk.
Ask the thousands of people who have lost their relatives if they would rather not be able to see their loved ones for a while or never.

It is cruel op. During lockdown a neighbour used to take his chair to talk to a different housebound neighbour. He used to sit outside and talk to him through the window. It was super cute and inventive. Nobody called the police on them.

We have been under local restrictions for 10 weeks now. Yesterday I finally cracked, cried all morning then illegally went to see my sister. I feel much better this morning for seeing her. I'm not under any illusion as to how serious Covid can be, but enough is enough. Cases have sky rocketed in my area despite a ban on households mixing, this isn't working and it isn't sustainable. My mental health and that of many others I know can't take anymore.

@Napqueen1234

High risk area so likely to be tier three. In this modern world how can it be illegal to see any family for months and months on end. It’s cruel and unfair and completely unsustainable.

Just ignore it. It's bloody ridiculous.

@Fawnfour

Fair enough, I apologise for any offence caused. So if I'm not in the minority and most people want to put up a United front, why are all the posts suggesting how ridiculous it is and unsustainable

Because the minority are very vocal and they use this section of the forum to sound off.