Covid-19

[Luce]

Thanks Ella. I really wish the mask thing came in earlier. Also I'm pleased about the groceries because I stopped weeks ago but was never sure if I was getting lazy/complacent.

We're back in local lockdown again, having been released two weeks ago. Honestly, I never know whether I'm coming or going these days, it's getting so hard to follow/remember let alone trying to explain to the kids.

[bramblerose]

I still wipe down groceries

Local lockdowns all around us again. I'm not really 100% sure what we can do and where. We live very near the borders of Merseyside and Warrington.

Also I can totally get where smals friend is coming from. Cummings set the tone when he fucked off to Barnard Castle. Why should* we give up seeing family when we can sit with 30 strangers in a pub or go out for a meal with 30 other people in a restaurant or go out to work with other people.


*I know why but I can definitely see where's she's coming from

[Smunder Woman]

Yeah, I can totally see why people aren't complying. It's hard enough when you're never even quite sure what you're meant to be complying with.

I've just sent Joe to the barber. He's tried to cite COVID as a reason why he can't go for a haircut

[olive]

I definitely see where Smal’s friend is coming from too. Especially as children are still at school sitting in classes of 30.

If we were in the UK and wanted to see my sister and parents altogether that would put us at 7 and I’d be really tempted to just do it.

[smalex]

BTW when I call her a zealot- IF she'd just been reflecting on what she was comfortable doing I wouldn't have had the slightest issue with it, but she seemed to expect everyone to do more than the legal limits and comply with her particular version of lockdown. She was particularly scathing about her own sister (who by most standards was having an appalling time of it), needless to say, there was no iota of empathy for anyone she might not know.
By VE day, somewhat inevitably, she was drunk in the street with the neighbours and the kids were playing with all the kids in their road on a daily basis (this particularly got to me as my child entered week the third month of having no social interaction whatsoever). She's a bit of cliche, really, but I reckon also a good representation of the typical life cycle of lock down attitudes.

[Mountain Goat]

(I hope you didn't think I was being snarky when I referred to myself as a zealot after you said that, as I really wasn't, I was just taking the piss out of myself. I only do snarky approximately once a year. )

I definitely think you're right about her being a good representation. And as well as people who are just fed up with the whole thing, people who no longer take instruction from the government, and people who think it's all a HOAX anyway, you have people who need to break sudden new rules in order to maintain childcare or keep their job.

[Luce]

Yep, I see it too. I'm having to break the rules on Tuesday because T is getting his eyes lasered so mum is picking up Theo from school. This is no longer allowed but I don't have any other option (considering the ££££s we've just paid) and is it involves both childcare AND an eye test then I think I'm safe under the Cummings rule. FFS.

[Luce]

She seemed to expect everyone to do more than the legal limits and comply with her particular version of lockdown.

Honestly, fuck her and fuck those people. They made a hard time SO much harder, judgemental bastards.

Sorry to be rude about your friend

[Smunder Woman]

My family are all still like that. To some extent I understand it, but it's also infuriating.

[smalex]

She seemed to expect everyone to do more than the legal limits and comply with her particular version of lockdown.

Honestly, fuck her and fuck those people. They made a hard time SO much harder, judgemental bastards.

Sorry to be rude about your friend

It's ok. Honestly her sister had such a terrible time (her partner had walked out just before lockdown, left her with a 7 week old and a 3yr old, so she was stuck on her own with them, the ex kept turning up roaring drunk in the middle of the night shouting and screaming, then eventually attempted suicide, etc etc) and my friend had zero understanding that once or twice their mum buckled and went and helped her out. I stuck up for the sister (by saying 'I know it's not ideal, but I feel so sorry for A, I can see why your mum has done it') and she didn't talk to me for three weeks .

[Squirrel]

If we were in the UK and wanted to see my sister and parents altogether that would put us at 7 and I’d be really tempted to just do it.

We were saying this yesterday. I can think of loads of scenarios - for example two grandparents have provided childcare to three children during the week, but then when it's Granny's birthday at the weekend they are not supposed to come over for Sunday lunch? People are obviously going to go ahead anyway and I honestly can't blame them.


ETA: I was on the phone and missed loads of posts and I feel a bit silly now. What you all already said, basically.

[Luce]

A part of me wishes they'd just call a full on lockdown for the next 4/6 weeks. I mean, absolute hell on earth obviously. But it's just so tedious now, rules that don't make sense, tedious restrictions etc.

Does their tend to be a third wave does anyone know? If we repeated lockdown again and got the numbers really low, what's to stop it coming back every time we all start to socialise again?

[FiveO'Clock]

and is it involves both childcare AND an eye test then I think I'm safe under the Cummings rule. FFS.

Surely, having your mom pick up your son for a medical appointment is within the rules there?


During our Zoom call today, the two women who have to go into the office were sitting next to each other on the same laptop without masks. There are two wings to the building, so each could have half a building and a bathroom to themselves all day. If they're comfortable with the risk, it's nothing to me, though it occurred to me that the new employee (someone hired during the pandemic who had been out of work for a while) might not have felt she could say anything.

[Luce]

and is it involves both childcare AND an eye test then I think I'm safe under the Cummings rule. FFS.

Surely, having your mom pick up your son for a medical appointment is within the rules there?

Nope, definitely not; we're not in the same household or bubble. I think we now should be cancelling the eye lasering because we can no longer ask my mum for childcare help (I have to drive T home from the eye appointment so won't be back in time to pick Theo up from school). But we're not going to do that.

[smalex]

I heard some scientist on the radio saying the government should accept its now endemic in the population and act accordingly, but didn't elaborate on what acting accordingly might actually be, which was annoying.

I think the 'circuit breaker' idea isn't a bad one, but guess as the weather cools we're always going to be losing. I'd guess people wouldn't adhere so much and would probably be less hesitant about coming out of it than they were the first time, though, so we might possibly just end up in the same position a few weeks later. But if we're just trying to nurse the situation through until the spring snd/,or possible vaccine etc then it might be worthwhile. I'd certainly take a month now rather than 3 months later on.

[Mountain Goat]

God no. I wouldn't even blink at going ahead with that, it's so minor a risk/infringement and the pain of cancelling too major.

What if they actually do go ahead with the national lockdown they're whispering about and claiming won't happen (which with this govt is the biggest sign it might well happen). I'm now even more disinclined to book a holiday if they're going to say I can't actually go on it two days before. In some ways I'd rather they had just said enjoy the summer, lick whoever you like, but come September the kids are going back to school and the rest of you are shut ins until May. At least you'd know. (Before anyone says I know that would also be terrible )

[Lola]

A part of me wishes they'd just call a full on lockdown for the next 4/6 weeks. I mean, absolute hell on earth obviously. But it's just so tedious now, rules that don't make sense, tedious restrictions etc.

Does their tend to be a third wave does anyone know? If we repeated lockdown again and got the numbers really low, what's to stop it coming back every time we all start to socialise again?

Absolutely nothing can stop it. All we can do is wait for a vaccine. Sorry

[Ella77]

Agreed. Nothing would prevent wave after wave really.

Jeez, Five :eek:. What were they thinking?

[Luce]

So considering a vaccine just isn't going to happen, certainly not the way we'd like then do we just live like this forever now?

[Ruby]

Why isn't a vaccine going to happen?