Social distancing from friends and family 'COULD end on 17 May'

[wheresmymojo]

The Times is reporting that the impact of the vaccinations is going so well that the Govt COULD end social distancing between friends and family on the 17th May.

I feel like they wouldn't write this unless they felt fairly sure of their sources and it being reasonably concrete but I'm afraid to get my hopes up too much!

That being said for those still following the rules who is first on your hug list?

I know PILs are top of ours as they're just down the road and they've both had their two vaccinations now...am pretty sure we'll all have a sob!

I am also boggled that there are people allowing the government to dictate who and when they hug and what they do in their own home. Everyone I know is making their own judgement with appropriate risk assessments - for example, everyone in the group is vaccinated or has had Covid, or they’re taking LFTs beforehand etc.

Palacegirl77

So would you feel to know your child's teacher was hugging all and sundry and not sticking to social distancing?

They aren’t.

@picturesandpickles

I don't think this would be wise, but then the government isn't wise.

I wouldn't rely on one media report, will have to wait and see.

Personally I am more missing just being close/near to people than hugs specifically.

When you say this isn't wise - there were a total of 7 Covid deaths yesterday according to the NHS statistics. With Covid, not necessarily from Covid. For the whole of the United Kingdom. Genuinely, at what point will you feel that people should be allowed their civil liberties back? 1 death from Covid a week? A month? I find it so strange how invested people are in keeping restrictions when it's so blatantly clear there is no longer any need for them.

@DenisetheMenace

RedcurrantPuff “My offspring wear a mask too *@palacegirl77*. I don’t like it but it is what it is and better than schools being shut.”

Redcurrantpuff, my opinions sometimes diverge from yours. Our youngest offspring, in Sixth Form College, has asthma. At the beginning, we were told it was a major risk, it was later downgraded as his asthma is controlled. He stayed at home for a year and worked, sometimes with, sometimes without, online support to protect his CEV dad, who had his second jab today, thank providence.

He returned to College 3 weeks after dad had his first jab because we felt that was a balanced compromise and he had missed so much already.
It’s thanks to people like you, who don’t necessarily agree with the need for mask wearing by their own kids but support it nonetheless, that give people like us the confidence to send ours back in after the most difficult year.

So, thank you 💐

Thanks Denise. My youngest is autistic with sensory issues and has an exemption card from the dr but we have said to him to wear the mask if he can and he generally manages fine.

@palacegirl77 I haven’t looked back on the thread but I thought PP said she had just hugged a few friends briefly outside.

Teachers are actually people with lives outside of work and their whole lives don’t need to revolve around their job and pupils.

@HermioneWeasley

I am also boggled that there are people allowing the government to dictate who and when they hug and what they do in their own home. Everyone I know is making their own judgement with appropriate risk assessments - for example, everyone in the group is vaccinated or has had Covid, or they’re taking LFTs beforehand etc.

Yes I agree. There are other tools in our arsenal now instead of relying on lockdown/social distancing. We need to learn to use these now.

@nordica

This is bad news for those of us still waiting to be vaccinated if it means infection rates go up. How hard could it be just wait until June to at least give us in our late 30s and early 40s a chance to get protection from the vaccine? The R rate was already up this week.

I've had my first jab thankfully, and I'm looking forward to things opening up because we are still following the rules, but I know if feel exactly the same in your position. I think we should wait until June as originally planned so that as many people as possible can be vaccinated. For the sake of a few weeks, it's worth it.

I’d rather wait until we’re vaccinated. While we are very low risk of Sergio us illness, I’ve recently seen friends of a similar age with long Covid and I was shocked. I’d rather wait a few weeks. Pressure from family who are vaccinated will be high, though.

@palacegirl77 I don’t know how you made a leap from hugging my two closest friends hello and goodbye in our gardens to hugging ‘all and sundry’. We are allowed to socialise - since April where we can meet 6 people outdoors. Anyway, even if I was hugging everyone is sight currently, in two weeks time it will be ‘allowed’. What will have happened between now and the 17th? I think you need to direct your ire at those who deserve it - like the Government who decided 35 people in a room is ‘safe’ with sanitiser and an open window (or in my case, no window to open). Or is it because I’m a teacher that I’m held at a higher account?

Hugging and SD is advice anyway not law or if it is law maybe someone could link to this law.

[quote motherrunner]@palacegirl77 I don’t know how you made a leap from hugging my two closest friends hello and goodbye in our gardens to hugging ‘all and sundry’. We are allowed to socialise - since April where we can meet 6 people outdoors. Anyway, even if I was hugging everyone is sight currently, in two weeks time it will be ‘allowed’. What will have happened between now and the 17th? I think you need to direct your ire at those who deserve it - like the Government who decided 35 people in a room is ‘safe’ with sanitiser and an open window (or in my case, no window to open). Or is it because I’m a teacher that I’m held at a higher account?[/quote]
Maybe I made the leap because you said you were hugging friends when you see them. You didnt say just 2 of then and you didn't say outside.

[quote RedcurrantPuff]@palacegirl77 I haven’t looked back on the thread but I thought PP said she had just hugged a few friends briefly outside.

Teachers are actually people with lives outside of work and their whole lives don’t need to revolve around their job and pupils.[/quote]
She said she was hugging friends when she saw them. She didn't say 2 and she didn't say outdoors.

@palacegirl77 My post yesterday: “I’m pretty sure if I caught Covid it would be from the prolonged close contact I have in an unventilated classroom, not a quick hug hello/goodbye meeting my friends in their gardens.”

I acknowledge ‘friends’ could be from 2 to 2 million but definitely said it was brief outdoor contact.

She said she was hugging friends when she saw them. She didn't say 2 and she didn't say outdoors.

So what? None of this means she’s been in any way unreasonable or that she doesn’t care about children. Leave her alone. Teachers have had one of the hardest times in all this mess that they never signed up for.

And I’m not a teacher btw before I get accused of sticking up for one of my own.

[quote motherrunner]@palacegirl77 My post yesterday: “I’m pretty sure if I caught Covid it would be from the prolonged close contact I have in an unventilated classroom, not a quick hug hello/goodbye meeting my friends in their gardens.”

I acknowledge ‘friends’ could be from 2 to 2 million but definitely said it was brief outdoor contact.[/quote]
The post I quoted and replied to was
13motherrunner

Who is still socially distancing? I’m a teacher and I haven’t seen SD for ages. I’ve been hugging my friends when I see them

I'm glad you are feeling safe enough to hug people. I would like my child not to wear a mask in your class if you're happy to get that close to others (you must be low risk).

The people I know who work on schools are absolutely still social distancing outside of school because they know that on balance they are more likely to pock up or transmit the infection to others simply by virtue of the huge numbers of people they are in contact with and the impossibility of distancing properly at work.
When you are the greater threat, it is up to you to take precautions to protect others.

@RedcurrantPuff

She said she was hugging friends when she saw them. She didn't say 2 and she didn't say outdoors.

So what? None of this means she’s been in any way unreasonable or that she doesn’t care about children. Leave her alone. Teachers have had one of the hardest times in all this mess that they never signed up for.

I tell you who has had a hard time. My 12 year old. Who has to sit in a mask for 6 hours a day because her union thinks that will keep her safe. It's complete nonsense. My daughter isnt hugging her friends. Is it too much to expect a teacher to adhere to the guidelines? Ultimately I think it's great she's hugging people, she must be low risk - so if my daughter was in her class why would she need a mask? That's the point.

@Scarby9

The people I know who work on schools are absolutely still social distancing outside of school because they know that on balance they are more likely to pock up or transmit the infection to others simply by virtue of the huge numbers of people they are in contact with and the impossibility of distancing properly at work. When you are the greater threat, it is up to you to take precautions to protect others.

Excellent point.

My autistic 12 year old is wearing a mask all day every day, as is his 15 year old brother, as are all other high school children in Scotland.

@Allmyarseandpeggymartin

Not sure people are following the social distancing rules anymore op - especially where people are having negative LFTs

Agree with this.

I've always been a rule follower but I e spent the whole year in classrooms whilst being told we dont need masks in them but once outside those covid safe school walls I need a mask and to keep my distance.

I did keep SD and I do wear a mask. But since LFT since jan and having had both vaccine doses with friends and family I no longer SD when I know they are also testing.

Don't hug though - I agree not being able to this has been bliss

if my daughter was in her class why would she need a mask?

Kids aren't wearing masks in classrooms to protect teachers specifically, kids are wearing masks in classrooms because when they weren't, infection rates spiralled in schools and secondary children, who were the most infected subset of the population, were taking covid back home and giving it to their families.

If you think the govt would implement masks in classrooms to protect teachers, you obviously haven't been paying attention to what the government thinks of teachers.

They also weren't doing LFTs though before masks? Surely finding cases is better than masking non-infectious kids? Our (large) secondary had 5 cases between September and now. Hardly spread like wildfire. Probably because we adhere to the other guidelines (like not hugging granny).

No one is on my hug list. Didn't do it pre-pandemic and won't be starting now.

The only people I hug are my dc's.

palace yes, LFTs and masks are now in secondary schools because we don’t have any other mitigation measures, particularly social distancing, and that was a disaster. It created a pool of covid infection that leaked out into the community.

LFTs aren’t good enough at finding positive cases to say that we don’t need to wear a mask when in classrooms not social distancing.