To think if you think it's a risk to see family at Xmas then don't

[BenidormLife]

I keep seeing so many posts and people saying Boris should change the rules over Christmas.

If you or your family are at risk/vulnerable or you feel you don't want to see family then don't. You don't need Boris to tell you, just use your own common sense.

I won't be seeing family over Christmas because I don't want to risk it but I don't need Boris to tell me. My best friend will be meeting all her family but they have self assessed and that's fine.

There are lots of people who are going to go against their better judgement and see people rather than upset them by changing plans.

It would make things a lot easier for people if there was a clearer message.

I'm staying with my household this year because I can. However, if that meant one of my relatives would be alone then I would absolutely go and see them. I don't feel any anger towards those that want to see their families. Isolation is more dangerous than covid for a lot of people.

I don't think blaming others for the spread of covid is useful. Humans are social animals and it's natural to want to interact with others. Viruses jump from person to person. It's just the way things are.

"It's not about your own personal risk here. You don't get to decide that you wish to take that risk and potentially end up using NHS resources, meaning others potentially miss out on treatments. It's not about YOU."

This is not correct.

We've always got 'to decide that you wish to take that risk and potentially end up using NHS resources'. We don't refuse treatment to people who drink too much and cause an accident, or destroy their health, or travel abroad without injections and come home with an exotic disease, or have unprotected sex and catch an STD, or people who play risky sports, or who eat too much and develop type 2 diabetes as a result, or obesity, etc, etc. And they all 'use up NHS resources', often at times when demand is even higher than it is now.

Most of us try not to 'bother the doctor' if we think we can manage not to, but we all pay for the NHS and expect it to be there for us when we need it, without altering our lifestyles dramatically to 'protect' it, even at busy times of year. And some of the demands now made upon us to 'protect the NHS' go way beyond just slightly altering our lifestyles.

Many people absolutely rely on face-to-face social contact in order to stay mentally and physically well. All sorts of facilities are set up just to provide this contact in order to do so, because its importance is well recognised. Many people have noticed a decline in the condition of loved ones in care homes deprived of contact with beloved family. Solitary confinement is a known and, in civilised societies banned, form of damaging punishment.

Just because those who are fortunate enough to have enough support or not to need it choose to sneer at and belittle the needs of those who do, it does not mean that they are reasonable. Nor is it reasonable for those who are very frightened of Covid to expect others to damage their mental health to attempt to make the scared feel better.

We all have needs. We are all entitled to try to meet them and ask those who offer to help us, but we are not entitled to demand others to do so at the expense of their needs.

I am risking assessing for my own family which means I will have to decide in January if it’s safe to send my 4 year old back to school or will it be a risk to my ECV DH life as a directly result of people only thinking about their families this Christmas.

Well call me demanding but I don't fancy getting a killer virus because some berk has decided to take it upon themselves to "conduct a risk assessment". I've got people around me at work talking about the elaborately multi looping 20 person "bubbles" they're constructing in order to be able to do whatever the fuck they like over the ten days, after which they'll come into an environment that the rest of us have no choice but to be in, given that it's our place of employment. They're deliberately and knowingly exposing people around them to risk that those people have not agreed to, and this at a point when we're all set to have vaccinated half a million by the start of January so it's not even as though there's all that long to wait now until things start to be a bit more normal, so what they are doing is not only stupid but also unnecessary.

Of course there's a risk, but each family needs to decide what the risk is and if they are willing to take it. What is more important to them. For us, it's important that we see family at Christmas so we will be going. No one is especially vulnerable, oldest is 60s. We are happy to take that risk. There are other things just as important as covid.

amicissimma I completely agree. I had already waited 13 months prior to this for an appointment with an ENT consultant which has now just been cancelled indefinitely. That's the only time I've attempted to use NHS services other than having two children and a smear test every three years.

Also using phrases like "killer virus" to imply that this is striking down everyone in it's path is just ridiculous.