[quote Wigeon]@HesterShaw1 - ok, I think the reason is that some people believed the government’s rationale for the hugging advice, which was based on the scientific fact that a disease like Covid is transmitted through close contact, and the more close contact, the more the spread of the disease, and therefore the greater risk of illness and death to both you and others.
And as an ordinary member of the public, it’s very hard to understand the risks of Covid over time, so some people have trust that the government, and crucially, some world-leading scientists experts who advise them, are making decent judgements as to when stopping close contact is sensible, and when. resuming it is low enough risk.
So it’s really not just “doing something because the government says so”, it’s trust that there are good reasons for that government advice.
Now maybe the govt advice is ridiculously over-cautious, maybe we should have put up with higher illness and death if there had been unrestrained hugs throughout - these are reasonable challenges. But I also think it’s a reasonable position to put your faith in those who are far more expert than you at assessing risks of a totally new, very contagious disease.
And I’m personally still not at all sure what the “right” policy should have been - as ever, it’s all about weighing up risks and benefits of every choice here.[/quote]
Don’t forget on the gov website they reduced the covid risk down from a highly infectious disease on March 19 2020
For me that meant no reason not to hug or to
carry on as normal
If the government had thought it was more serious than it was they wouldn’t have done that
Would they?