Rule of six doesn't mean social distancing is over

[givemushypeasachance]

A lot of people are looking forward to socialising with friends and family in gardens from 29 March. With some nice weather on the way, some BBQs and picnics and drinks in the garden sound great. Outdoor socialising in fresh air is safer than indoor socialising, but it's not 100% safe. Particularly if you're sat close together in a gazebo or tent! Ventilation and distancing are still things to think about if you have vulnerable people visiting, haven't been vaccinated yet, and just want to try to keep cases in the community low. At the local primary school 4 of the 7 year groups are isolating with multiple cases right now - it's still circulating, and passing on cases can put entire year bubbles and workplaces out of operation.

From the govt roadmap: "As soon as possible and by no later than Step 3 [May 17th], we will also update the advice on social distancing between friends and family, including hugging. But until this point, people should continue to keep their distance from anyone not in their household or support bubble."

And I’ve seen family and friends all through lockdown , hugged , had parties ... the whole nine yards and we’ve all lived to tell the tale.

Funny that

We must be part of the 99 per cent then.

Social distancing is guidance, not law. I’ve given up caring anyway, loosely following the rules but not going to stay 2m apart from everyone and my family will be allowed to hold my baby.

@MiddleParking

your sort
agrophobic cranks

Horrible language.

[quote ilovesooty]@MiddleParking

your sort
agrophobic cranks

Horrible language.[/quote]
You’ll live.

A few months ago I'd have agreed with you but looking around the people who have given up social distancing are the over 60s. I'm now fed up and unwilling to do this any longer
This is my experience as well. Now it feels like everybody is breaking the rules to an extend and I'm starting to ask myself why I am inflicting this to my family when none of us is high risk.

What is the point of your post OP? Has Chris Whitty taken a day off and asked you to step in and write a condescending patronising message to the minions?

@LovelyLovelyWarmCoffee

A few months ago I'd have agreed with you but looking around the people who have given up social distancing are the over 60s. I'm now fed up and unwilling to do this any longer This is my experience as well. Now it feels like everybody is breaking the rules to an extend and I'm starting to ask myself why I am inflicting this to my family when none of us is high risk.

Oh I see. The over 60s. I bet some of those proudly proclaiming either that they'll do what they like or that they've never been responsible aren't over 60.

And @MiddleParking of course I'll live. It doesn't make your personal attacks any more palatable.

I couldn’t care less. These people need told.

Seriously can people hear themselves?

Are people genuinely waiting for Boris 'I'm a moron' Johnson to give them permission to hug their parents?

Really?

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?

@MiddleParking

I couldn’t care less. These people need told.

Yes. I noticed you appeared not to care less about delivering personal attacks.

Congrats I guess

ilovesooty I’m in my 30’s, clinically vulnerable and, as yet, unvaccinated. I’m still going to hug my family and go indoors. I’m done and I can’t live like this. If that means that I get seriously ill then I genuinely no longer care at this point.

@JeanClaudeVanDammit

They are terrified of that, yes.

Well I think that’s completely excessive and I hope their terror eases soon because thinking of your own child as a walking vector of disease who endangers the life of everyone they come into contact with is not healthy.

Absolutely this.

I also have family indoors. And I visit them.
There was one family member who we kept safe from covid and stuck to the rules. They died. Without covid playing any part.
What a fucking waste.
So yep we all see each other. My dB and his family (7) my mum, teen sibling. Dad. In laws.
Theninlaed have also taken my kids to sil and GGP who has had both doses of vaccine. Is dying anyway and her wish was to see the kids.
I also see my best friend and 1 other friend and dc
Only one has had covid very early in. Works in a hospital.
I'm not letting anyone tell me how to live my. Life.

Most of my neighbours also have relatives in etc.
I stuck to the rules at 1st but its just ridiculous now.

Imagine the kind of parent who looks at their beautiful child and doesnt see that, but instead sees a (to quote my son) "walking bag of covid" laser focused to wipe out all who come within 6ft of him.

I think you need to find new friends if this is how they think of their own children.

And Johnson can fuck off if he thinks I would stop hugging all the people I love to hug. I'm not going round licking strangers all willy nilly, I am hugging the woman who gave birth to me. In what fucking world is it remotely acceptable to make that "illegal" guidance

But as I say, a TA at the school just died of covid and they don't want to be the direct cause of their much-loved childminders getting sick as well

We have stuck to the rules to keep us safe and for that reason, I wouldn’t want anyone to get ill or worse as we deemed ourselves above the rules.

I think many gave up SD a long time ago let alone now. No one I know hugs friends etc so it’s hardly a hardship to sit apart,

While I believe it came from the best of intentions, I can agree the OP could be taken to be a little patronising. However, I'm struggling to understand the mentality of many on this thread.

1. People are struggling mentally and emotionally with the lockdown restrictions. Financially, people are worse off due to businesses being closed, furlough etc.

2. Things are going well from a vaccination programme perspective and in terms of cases, hospitalizations and deaths reducing.

How does that equal "fuck it, I'm going to do what I like now"?
Surely, if point 1 is the case you'd want to get a million miles away from anyone talking about needing restrictions and therefore not want to risk causing another surge and another lockdown? Surely, you want to help those individuals stuck on 80% pay and the businesses that are struggling? They can only open if Govn sees cases and hospitalisations remaining low.

If point 2 is true (which is certainly appears to be looking at the figures) why would you want to risk that amazing progress by pushing too far too quick?

If it's a disagreement with the lockdown lifting plan (e.g what activities are allowed when, what opens first etc) I can understand that a little more but this thread seems to be more "I've had enough so I'm not following any sort of restrictions at all".

Do people honestly believe that if we unlocked everything, with the current vaccination rate standing at it is, with no social distancing etc that cases and therefore hospitalisations wont rise?

Outdoor socialising in fresh air is safer than indoor socialising, but it's not 100% safe
Nothing is 100% safe, nor should it be. I'm going to see my grandparents on Monday and yes we will hug. I'm probably more likely to be injured on the 1 hour drive than by covid. They have had both vaccinations and I'm going to do an LFT the day before. Its not illegal, so we will use our judgement.

I'll hug my adult DD next time I see her...17th April to be exact, fucked if I'm going to wait until Boris "let's" me.

@givemushypeasachance

A lot of people are looking forward to socialising with friends and family in gardens from 29 March. With some nice weather on the way, some BBQs and picnics and drinks in the garden sound great. Outdoor socialising in fresh air is safer than indoor socialising, but it's not 100% safe. Particularly if you're sat close together in a gazebo or tent! Ventilation and distancing are still things to think about if you have vulnerable people visiting, haven't been vaccinated yet, and just want to try to keep cases in the community low. At the local primary school 4 of the 7 year groups are isolating with multiple cases right now - it's still circulating, and passing on cases can put entire year bubbles and workplaces out of operation.

From the govt roadmap: "As soon as possible and by no later than Step 3 [May 17th], we will also update the advice on social distancing between friends and family, including hugging. But until this point, people should continue to keep their distance from anyone not in their household or support bubble."

I'll hug who I like when I like, thanks.

treedice I don’t doubt hospitalisations would rise if we relaxed restrictions. The lockdown was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed though. It’s a year on, admissions and deaths are right down and yet there is still no relaxing of restrictions. I live in a very touristy area - last summer the harbour area was literally shoulder to shoulder everyday for months. We still had the lowest infection rate in the country.

The idea is to manage the pandemic, not end it entirely as that seems impossible. So, no, tbh I am beyond caring if infections rise again, as long as it is manageable. Life has to go on.

@TheLost thanks for the response.

I appreciate it is super difficult for those in areas with low cases - it must seem so OTT.

But your point about overwhelming the NHS is key right? If hospitalisations rise (which you suspect they will) that increases the risk of the NHS falling over right? If we have a big increase in hospitalisations, that increases the risk that we run out of spare hospital beds for people who have been in car accidents or doctors available to help someone with a heart attack - all because we have so many Covid patients.

The restrictions are loosening, albeit slowly so we can put the breaks on if a load of patients do need hospitalising. I'm not sure what the alternative is? Just cancel all restrictions and wait and see how many patients we end up with?

I’ve been waiting over a year for an iron infusion as they’ve stopped all non-essential treatment at my local hospital. I can’t go privately as my local private hospital has been taken over by the NHS as they’ve moved wards to allow for Covid wards in the main hospital. I am currently having to sleep downstairs as I’m too ill to climb the stairs to bed, all I do is sleep and cry and no one will help me. I’m not entitled to a vaccine yet as I’m not officially considered clinically vulnerable as I have no diagnosis as all my appointments have been indefinitely cancelled.

The government has known what was going to happen. They’ve pissed about building pointless Nightingale wards knowing that they can’t staff them, then dismantled them, then put them back together again. They have done nothing to prepare for this apparently now inevitable third wave and yet still expect citizens to listen to the rules that they are absolutely making up as they go along. Until last week in Wales you could get your haircut but not buy baby clothes, for example.

I am at the point now where I am just doing what I want because I have felt so ill and fed up for so long. I genuinely don’t care anymore.

How at risk is the NHS at present? The number of Covid inpatients is in steep decline, but have those most at risk from death / serious illness received at least their first dose in the vast majority of cases? I've been trying to work it out from the official data but I'm crap with statistics.

Also, we've been told that at some point we are also going to have to live with an "acceptable" number of deaths / hospitalisations, but I'm not sure what this magic number is exactly?

It's the uncertainty that has tipped me over the edge. I don't trust the roadmap; they have done u turns before and there have been a lot more mentions in the media recently about how the dates in the roadmap are "at the earliest" which makes me feel like they are preparing to extend them.

My best friend's husband was killed in an accident during the first lockdown which wouldn't have happened if he'd not been on furlough. Another friend lost her dad after missing most of the last year of his life; her kids did not get to spend that previous time with their granddad. My mum (who lives abroad) is probably going to have missed two years of my children's lives by the time she sees them, and I'm mindful that I had already lost two grandparents by the time I was their age.

Sorry if that sounds garbled. What I'm trying to say is that you never know how much time you have left with your loved ones, and I've reached my limit of how much of that I'm willing to give up for the greater good. If that makes me selfish, so be it.

I don’t know anyone who religiously social distanced really. Everyone I socialise with, such as my neighbours while our kids play on the estate or friends I bump into at the park or meet up with.. we are all respectful. We don’t hug, we don’t hover in each other’s spaces. But we walk side by side or stand side by side or with the neighbours, we stand perhaps a little less close than we may have previously done.. no-one is remotely concerned with 2m nor has been since last summer. Lockdown one was different, people were way more anxious at the unknown. I’ve flatly refused to distance my young kids anymore, I think it’s cruel. I can’t tell me 3 year old not to play with a kid she makes friends with in the park .. we told her to move away from people so much in lockdown one that she started getting really jumpy about other people & saying they were scary! That was the final straw!

Outdoor transmission is vanishingly rare. Let’s all enjoy spring & summer! Be kind & respectful to peoples wishes. Evaluate your own risk.