Should I report my neighbour?

[Dugee]

I was chatting to my neighbour on Thursday. She said she had just received a positive coronavirus test. I've seen her go out three times today. One time she came back with supermarket bags (but only a couple of bags). She doesn't have a car and I didn't see a taxi, so I think she must have got the bus (she may have walked but it's 3 miles to the nearest supermarket and it's been raining heavily today).

I'm working from home at the moment and my desk is in the front bedroom window, so I can see the comings and goings on our corner of the road.

I don't know whether to leave it and see if I notice her going out again next week, or report her.

If you are going to report her, you should at least tell her that you are going to.

@CremeEggThief

Question: How is it different going out and about after a positive Covid test, or when you have the 'flu, a nasty stomach bug, diarrhoea, chicken pox, or any other usually mild conditions, that could endanger a vulnerable person?

Just because none of the above should be happening in an ideal world doesn't mean it still isn't.

I personally know of people over the past few months who have a nasty cold/'flu who have tested negative for Covid, but instead of thinking they're not well and shouldn't be out and about, they go about life as normal. Some of them even get old antibiotics from someone they know, instead of going to the gp, in the mistaken belief that the antibiotics protect against or cure viruses.

A friend of mine had a picture on social media of her 3 year old in a trolley in the supermarket the morning after she had projectile vomiting. By the comments, most people knew the child had been ill, but nobody cared she was already out and about. People either don't or won't realise that being off school or work means you shouldn't really be going anywhere else either.

So unfortunately, instead of the Covid crisis making us think about how all illnesses can impact on the community, it seems to be limited just to Covid.

That's not right either. However covid is highly more contagious, far more so than other infections, among the population and as a result, it's many times more lethal to vulnerable populations.

You don't have the right to kill people and when you knowingly walk around spreading a highly contagious virus which is lethal to vulnerable people, that's exactly what you're doing.

@Strawberrypancakes

Mind your own business.

All this reporting people and spying on neighbours is horrendous.

This person has Covid. Has potentially gone in a taxi , risking the driver. She's also risked anybody she met.

Would you be so blaise if it was your elderly/vulnerable relative/friend she met.
I'd report her.

Mind your own business.

All this reporting people and spying on neighbours is horrendous

Would you report a drink driver?

I had a friend who reported her neighbour for drink driving, and it turned out that neighbour had been drink driving with children in her car as well.

Sometimes we have to look at the bigger picture, the law and public health safety. Especially think of those in our communities who are vulnerable and being put at risk by selfish idiots who think they're above the law.

...this woman with covid went into a supermarket. If shes that irresponsible, did she even bother wearing a mask or if she did, did she wear it carefully?

Uses confined spaces like a bus or taxi. Touches trolley handles and produce, touches her mask, or maybe not even bothering to wear one and so breathing out large amounts of airborne covid particles in cramped busy aisles

Replacing the trolley or basket as she leaves carelessly, we already know she doesn't give a damn anyway or she wouldn't have left the house. Then some unsuspecting customer or supermarket staff touch it seconds later, possibly infecting many others, some of them vulnerble, and the chains of infection grow.

Yes, Flaxmeadow, but where is the difference between any of that in anyone who has any infectious condition that could be transmitted to anyone vulnerable?

There isn't a single person on this site who hasn't behaved in a similar way to your description, with another infectious condition. I've gone into supermarkets when I've been ill with a flu, temperature, diarrhoea, etc. and not bothered with any extra precautions, apart from maybe using a tissue. My only thought on those occasions has been, "poor me having to go out like this when I feel so bad", and to be honest, very few of those trips would have been essential.

I'm not saying it's right, but it's how it is.

Yes, Flaxmeadow, but where is the difference between any of that in anyone who has any infectious condition that could be transmitted to anyone vulnerable

Because those other infections do not have the same potential to overwhelm, even shut down, our health service and hospitals.

Look at what happened in Naples hospitals the other week. Covid left hospital patients, (covid or non covid), dying unattended in corridors, even dying unattended on the floor.

Yes I would report her. There is absolutely no excuse for this at all. And I don't say that lightly.

But they are still potentially as dangerous to anyone vulnerable on an individual basis, we all do it, and yet it's only Covid positive people who get all the hatred and judgement?

I appreciate this is probably something that should be discussed as a separate matter, but in my view, a lot of precautions and advice on Covid are what we all should be doing as a matter of hygiene control for all infections and diseases anyway, and this situation could have been used to drill the message home that maybe we all need to think more carefully about spreading and passing on any infection, instead of only from a Covid point of view. Yet people are still in fear of losing their jobs if they take time off.

@CremeEggThief

I agree there probably is a need for more public health awareness around those infections too. Media government and NHS campaigns even.

But the covid situation is much more serious. The restrictions and rules in relation to covid are not so much to prevent people catching it. They are to prevent large amounts of people catching it all at the same time, within a short space of time.

If we got rid of all the restrictions tomorrow, our health service would be overwhelmed in a matter of weeks. This would not just be disastrous for those with covid, but also for non covid patients. It would also mean many staff, in the NHS and other vital services, and staff in food infected too.

The lockdown is to save vital services for everyone

*staff in food retail

I appreciate that and respect your views, Flaxmeadow.
Thank you for your well thought out responses.

You too CremeEggThief
All the best

It is a difficult thing. My neighbour works in a hospital and has had family round all the time this year (previously tier 3 area). I'm assuming he knows whether he has/had covid19 but it seems irresponsible to me having different households mixing inside. I haven't reported him but I'm disappointed in an NHS worker doing this

I would report. She actually HAS Covid and either doesn't understand the guidelines or is deliberately ignoring them for selfish reasons. Either way, she is a danger to vulnerable people. There was a thread last week where a woman wanted to do a bit of shopping on her way back from getting a Covid test and she was quite rightly rounded on for being selfish and irresponsible. People are bloody idiots.

Offering to do her shopping is a waste of time. She's not going to pick up on some hidden message that she needs to stay at home, if she was gormless enough to go shopping in the first place.

@Flaxmeadow

Yes, Flaxmeadow, but where is the difference between any of that in anyone who has any infectious condition that could be transmitted to anyone vulnerable

Because those other infections do not have the same potential to overwhelm, even shut down, our health service and hospitals.

Look at what happened in Naples hospitals the other week. Covid left hospital patients, (covid or non covid), dying unattended in corridors, even dying unattended on the floor.

It astounds me that after all these months there still are people who do not understand the difference in contagion between this virus and others.

Or the concept of asymptomatic transmission. Those are the factors that make this situation different and that require us to think of our actions' effects on others. Yet after nearly a year the willfully ignorant and selfish still prevail. It's disgusting.

@Clutterbugsmum

I seriously think the biggest consequence of this pandemic is what utter arseholes a lot of people are.

The does not revolve around you as individual, we are never going to be able to get back to a 'normal' life while people will not follow the rules. It's not hard to understand what happens when you don't.

The latest spike is because idiots had to have their big drinking session before we went back into lockdown, and now we may have a longer one because of it.

And those saying about reporting a neighbour for drink driving, yes I would why the hell wouldn't you.

Every word so true.

Covid certainly is showing the self-centered assholes for who they are.

I would keep your nose out

It's a 10k fine isn't it?

No I wouldn't.

Really hoping people aren’t actually stupid enough to go out with CV.

But could it be that she has received her results long ago enough that she’s already isolated for the 14 days? Or that when she got the test her symptoms had already been ongoing for that period? Because (and tell me if I’m wrong!) I think the guidelines say if you have symptoms to isolate for 14 days, or if you get a positive test you must isolate for 14 days from when your symptoms began.

You could give her the benefit of the doubt. You could straight up ask her. “Have you isolated for the 14 days?” If no. Report.

Ok, so elderly neighbour has reported her to the police. Reasons being that her kids went to their dad's on Saturday and came back on Sunday, plus she was spotted in the corner shop on Monday. This is in addition to the outings I saw on Friday. The police told elderly neighbour that they will come round and question her and may need to take witness statements, if she is found to have been breaking the law.