Chris Whitty in The Times today - don't meet friends and family unnecessarily

[MrsMiaWallis]

"Emergency patients will be turned away from hospitals, causing “avoidable deaths”, unless the public starts obeying the lockdown, England’s chief medical officer warns today.
In a stark intervention designed to shock, Professor Chris Whitty warns that everyone who meets friends and family unnecessarily is a “link in a chain” that threatens the lives of vulnerable people"

Worth noting. I had to pick up a prescription from my local town and was surprised to see so many people - mainly middle aged women, some of whom I know and had always seemed like rational intelligent people - walking around town and chatting on the pavements, unmasked, no social distancing.

Apologies I don't know how to do share tokens.

@Orangeblossom77777

I feel cross with their messaging and fear campaign- this is a result of some areas being in low tiers and Christmas mixing, two weeks ago all of which they allowed

Now it is about two people meeting to walk right.

I never understand why people say this....the message is quite clear. STAY AT HOME. Even I can compute and comply.

[quote Unsure33]@Meredithgrey1

Well I run a business and the financial help as far as we are concerned has been very good . Clear and concise on gov uk and we have managed to keep going .

But I appreciate that not every business is the same. There are thousands on connotations of situations. And if people lose their livelihood then their mental health suffers and they become ill. So of course it’s a balancing act .[/quote]
Of course there has been support which has been very helpful, but if they closed all shops except supermarkets and pharmacies, stopped all takeaways, closed all nurseries, the bill would be an awful lot higher.

@laidbacklife, but if the schools and nurseries completely close, then there'll still be Staff shortages across all sectors and the hospitals will still be full of the older population.

I trust Chris Whitty more than the government- am not government bashing because l think they are in am impossible situation but he knows what he is talking about

@Vintagevixen

Chris Whitty - number one on my (non politician) shit list, beating Vallance to number 2. Closely followed by Neil Ferguson. And every member of SAGE.

Yeah, grr, all those fucking experts eh?

@daisychain01 "normalization of deviance means that people become so much accustomed to a deviation that they don't consider it as deviant, despite the fact that they far exceed their own rules for elementary safety'

thats food for thought. it seems we are going to have to learn this the hard way as a nation doesn't it, just until we get the vax in to people, hospitals might get overwhelmed etc

I never understand why people say this....the message is quite clear. STAY AT HOME. Even I can compute and comply.

Unless you need to go to work, in which case go to work. Or drop your kids at school. Or get a takeaway coffee. Or go for a walk in an undefined area. Or take the kids to the playground.

Or if you're a Tory minister, go to your second or third home. Or go to Greece to check on your holiday home.

The messaging is far from clear, and significantly weakened when their own people are ignoring it.

Meeting one other person for a socially distanced walk outside is not going to have as much of an effect as:

-Shops like B&M and Homebase remaining open to all

• Early Years settings remaining open with no restrictions
• People sending their children to school when they don't really need to (not meaning critical workers who work outside of home or people who simply can't work with their children there, I mean families who are sending them because they loosely meet the requirements and want them out of the house to make their lives easier)
• Having tradespeople in and out of houses for non emergency work. My neighbour is using lockdown to remodel his new home whilst living elsewhere before moving in!

-Employers forcing staff into work even when said staff can work from home. This is a huge problem in my area. One well known employer here (locally) has also on the quiet instructed their staff to ignore the app if pinged and test and trace!!

If they really want to stop this they need a strict lockdown, true essentials only, for a period. Which no one, me included, wants. But whilst you can still merrily pop out to buy paint and gardening equipment whenever you fancy it's not going to endear people to taking it seriously, is it?!

I’m a big believer of sticking to the rules, but we now seem to have people creating their own ideas of what people should and shouldn’t do. It’s all about self assessment alongside the rules, and if you can see that you are not being a threat or risk to others or yourself with your actions, then that should be okay. However, that’s assuming the public are capable of using common sense to the situation, which unfortunately isn’t the case for a lot of people.

The messaging is far from clear

It's very clear.

@IrenetheQuaint

I am always baffled by the fact that so many posters get worked by individuals who meet one other person for a walk (which is legal, v good for MH and much lower risk than meeting the same person inside), but not at all worked up by the employers who make their staff come into the office even though the work can be done from home (which is illegal and significantly increases risk - even if the employees stay 2m apart, I'm not sure that is enough to avoid transmission if you're working in the same office together all day).

It's like people love judging individuals but have a massive blind spot when it comes to employers. So weird.

Because one is a choice and the other isn't I suppose.

This comes down to the very basic fact that Chris Whitty’s view is one dimensional his job is solely to work on protecting the NHS and stopping the spread of Covid, he knows he will be able to put food on the table he knows his job is secure. Other people don’t they have other worries and concerns outside of catching/spreading covid mental health being one of them. Meeting with one other person for a walk outside is not what’s driving the spread, it’s hospitals, care homes, workplaces but they are not easy targets. Throughout the pandemic he has paid little thought to the healing power that even the slightest socially distanced human interaction can have. Mental health matters and it matters a lot. I will never be willing to sacrifice my mental health for something I don’t believe is contributing to the issues we are seeing so I will continue to meet a friend for a walk, get a takeaway and see my support bubble these are tiny things compared to what our lives used to be filled with and it would be cruel to take those away.

@Forgothowmuchlhatehomeschoolin

I trust Chris Whitty more than the government- am not government bashing because l think they are in am impossible situation but he knows what he is talking about

He knows a limited scope i.e. stats and the virus.

What he fails to comprehend is basic human behaviour. Humans are going to human. He is trying to blame all of us for people simply being human, when what he should be blaming is an inadequate health service.

People are bored. Many don’t know how to function outside of all the entertainment we have access to 24/7 normally. Cinemas, shopping centres, gyms. I get that people need human contact but the huge swathes of people near me. In groups, churning up the previously quiet river walks, with their huge cups of coffee naturally, piling into ANY shop that’s open for something to do...drives me nuts.

@Itsnotlikethiswithotherpeople

Totally agree that employers forcing staff to come into offices unnecessarily are contributing far more than one outdoor walk.

So very true - and something the government could address quite easily.

@Forgothowmuchlhatehomeschoolin

I trust Chris Whitty more than the government- am not government bashing because l think they are in am impossible situation but he knows what he is talking about

How do you know that he knows what he's talking about? All he does is present slides as far as I can see. Yes, he answers questions about the virus occasionally, mostly with a 'We don't know yet'. Knows fuck-all.

The health service is inadequate but even if it was fu cruising at peak excellence, it would struggle with 46 000 absentees and a huge spike in admissions.

@Katie517, great post. Healing power indeed.

I have severe postnatal depression and have been instructed by my gp and cpn to go on regular distanced walks with others. I accept transmission needs to be curbed but the isolation is dangerous too

Seeing lots of posts atm about ‘middle aged women and men’ apparently being the new target for accusations. Seems people have moved on from the elderly now. Maybe some are working towards cancelling anyone out over the age of 50? It’s sad to see so many ageist comments, and people turning against each other. There are many younger rule breakers, as well as older ones, but no evidence that any specific age range is breaking rules any more than others.

Chris Witty ‘knows fuck all’....😆😆😆Yes he’s a qualified and experienced doctor and epidemiologist. Ffs.

I guess women are more likely to talk and perhaps older women are even more likely?

Great post Katie

Exactly

@Livelovebehappy

Seeing lots of posts atm about ‘middle aged women and men’ apparently being the new target for accusations. Seems people have moved on from the elderly now. Maybe some are working towards cancelling anyone out over the age of 50? It’s sad to see so many ageist comments, and people turning against each other. There are many younger rule breakers, as well as older ones, but no evidence that any specific age range is breaking rules any more than others.

I said middle aged. I'm middle aged so I noticed them.

Also saw a joint 18th on dds social media yesterday with over 50 teens. Held at a parents house.

What he fails to comprehend is basic human behaviour. Humans are going to human. He is trying to blame all of us for people simply being human, when what he should be blaming is an inadequate health service.

He does know behaviour, he knew we’d get fatigued. He also has behavioural advice. Everyone gets it but we still need to cut transmission.