Move towards more personal responsibility

[Orangeblossom7777]

Just seen this on the BBC. Thoughts?

Move to personal responsibility after Easter, says Hancock
Matt Hancock, who's faced two hours of questioning by MPs from the health and science committees, said there would be a shift to an emphasis on "personal responsibility" rather than social distancing restrictions after Easter - once the vaccine has reached the most vulnerable people.

He said the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) had recommended that once all those aged 50 years and over had been vaccinated - group 10 on their priority list - social distancing restrictions that "damage" society were likely to be lifted.

"I think that, should we manage to get the number of deaths, the number of hospitalisations, down sharply because of the vaccination programme then essentially I think we will get to the point where we are protecting the most vulnerable and there [is)] the argument for more personal responsibility, he said.

I am all for that. But unfortunately people can be selfish and irresponsible.
Ideally everyone should take personal responsibility to keep themselves and their loved ones safe, as they should have been doing since day 1.

But how can you take personal responsibility if your employer isn't following guidelines and reporting them may result in you losing your job?

We live in a world where everyone's lives are intertwined with others. I think it's easy to say it's a "personal responsibility" when you have all the power to make decisions and to keep yourself safe. What about other people who can't?

If everyone over 50 and the vulnerable has been offered the vaccine the rest would be low risk presumably

I am so ready for this.

Sounds great to me. If everyone vulnerable has been vaccinated by then I'm all for it.

I'm all for this. I'd rather it was a bit sooner, but at least I can see a way through now.

Of course that's how it should be. Once everyone vulnerable has been vaccinated, we should stop social distancing etc. Otherwise it will never end.

The problem with "personal responsibility" is that the only way to avoid catching it is to stay home and not interact with anyone in person. Most of the current measures are there to protect others, not to protect the individual.

There are a lot of people who are vulnerable but classed as such in any official way - in particular people from BAME backgrounds, and many disproportionally affected already due to deprivation, the type of jobs they have, overcrowded homes etc.. This will be disastrous for them and many others too.

I'm totally fine with this - it is EXACTLY how we've lived our lives up until March this year... Its not new. It basically means, manage your own personal hygiene; if you feel ill, consider whether you should be going out to that house party or staying at home til you feel better..

I think this is absolutely great news. To those who think it isnt - seriously - you want the government to continue telling you that you cant have a playdate for your kids? or you cant have your mum AND your sister in your house at any one time because it ISNT SAFE?

From spring next year, with the vaccine roll out we are going to be in a significantly different place to the one we are in now. Anyone who thinks the state should be making decisions over how we live our lives at that point is frankly welcome to emigrate to China or Russia.

To be fair the risk factors for the under 50s (apart from specific vulnerable groups who will be vaccinated) are mainly changeable by diet and exercise for example diabetes and obesity.

Hmmm I worry about what will happen in workplaces. By April I’ll be 30 weeks pregnant. I don’t want my employer to suddenly drop all of the precautions they’ve put in place.

Sounds good to me. I hope they keep to this.

Ha, Ha, personal responsibility will just mean all the irresponsible twats just doing whatever they like, some people need to be told what to do.

Did he not also say that part of this is a culture shift has to happen where people with flu symptoms, runny noses do NOT go into work and get their colleagues sick?

@BlueBrian

Ha, Ha, personal responsibility will just mean all the irresponsible twats just doing whatever they like, some people need to be told what to do.

there have always been irresponsible twats though. Just because we've been living under rules which have infringed on practically all of our freedoms doesnt mean we should carry on doing so?!

Good luck with that then.

All the people who dont care about health / think it's a hoax / arrogant fuckers will create problems for the NHS and everyone else.

@PlanDeRaccordement

Did he not also say that part of this is a culture shift has to happen where people with flu symptoms, runny noses do NOT go into work and get their colleagues sick?

Well they actually paid people enough to afford to be sick, they might not have to drag themselves into work, and infect everybody else.

And pre Covid even those lucky enough to get full pay when off sick wouldn’t stay off every time they had a runny nose because they’d very soon get a warning for being off sick too much.

I am fully onboard with this.

The whole point of the restrictions to stop the nhs falling over, if we vaccinate the vulnerable and elderly the nhs can keep creaking on. Some improved treatments will come along and big outbreaks maybe squashed with testing. The media will stop reporting it, people will get bored, it’ll just gradually get forgotten. Yes, sadly still some people will probably catch it and a few of them will die but at that point the restrictions probably cause more health problems than they solve. The restrictions were never about crippling the economy for decades so every single life was saved and no one ever got sick - we don’t stop everyone from getting chicken pox or glandular fever or flu. We don’t do much to prevent obesity, which is probably a far greater risk to a lot of people’s long term health than covid. Life involves a level of risk, at some point once the very vulnerable are vaccinated I think we have to accept the residual risk and get on with things.

I’m far more alarmed by Hancock talking about wanting to test everyone with symptoms of any virus even just a runny nose in perpetuity (with swabs?!), him saying no one should ever work or go to school if they have a runny nose (that’s the entire education sector shut all winter then) and perpetual “no regrets” measures like hand washing (fair enough) and “aspects of social distancing” by which I suspect he means masks, which I definitely don’t think is fair enough.

@PlanDeRaccordement

Did he not also say that part of this is a culture shift has to happen where people with flu symptoms, runny noses do NOT go into work and get their colleagues sick?

Yes he did. And we should be taking more sick days. Something which would be easier if we didn’t have the lowest SSP rate in the OECD.

I look forward to the bill the government will be putting forward in order to increase SSP...

I do wonder of some may miss the shaming and blaming though and may be a bit sad for it to end, going by some posts on here. Maybe they will need to find something else to talk about perhaps

Good. About time. We’ve lost all sense of proportion for a virus with a 2% mortality rate

Plan yeah, it's all well and good him saying that but he can afford to stay home when he's sick, many people can't. If he wants people to stay home then sick pay needs increasing.