I’m being made to feel stupid for sticking to the rules, anyone else?

Friends have said you are "going over the top", they have not said that you are stupid the feeling is coming from within.

You know you are not stupid. Just deal with Covid the way you want to and dont concern yourself with what others are doing.

Friends do not agree with everything so I would not argue with them, you cannot change their minds anymore than they yours.

TenaciousB - NOBODY has the right to try to make you feel stupid at all! Please ignore them and follow what makes you feel safe. Do you consider the people who try to belittle you to be 'good friends' - if so, I think I'd be changing those who I take heed of.

You're doing the right thing, by sticking to guidelines. NOWHERE in the UK is 'safe' (I think I'm right in saying that the lowest numbers are in The Scilly Isles'.

Keep yourself safe, TenaciousB - vaccinations are 'just around the corner' .

AJKW

Sorry but I see it from your friends perspective. With a survival rate of 99.85% then I do question why young fit healthy people are locked away; meanwhile the world economy’s are failing. The biggest problem we now face is the 2nd Great Depression, government induced. Something is going on Covid is the excuse.

If it was your mum that was in the 0.15% who didn't survive would you feel the same? People who quote survival rates also don't take into account those suffering long covid, or those who suffered in intensive care for long periods. Then there are all those whose lives have been lost or shortened as a result of postponement of other treatments because the hospitals are full of covid patients. I'm sorry but imho you are the stupid one!

I think everyone should abide by the rules otherwise we will never get rid of the virus. It’s those who are not keeping to the rules that are helping to make matters worse. You should definitely stick to the rules it’s not a game playing with your life.

Say I would rather be safe than in hospital..

Those who think it is only lethal to the old, so we can all go on doing what we want to are presumably those with no parents or other older relatives? Or they think that the worst thing for their Mother and father is not to see their grandchildren for a while. A fate worse than death!

Perhaps they have never seen that clip where the sergeant is told to tactfully give bad news to Private Jones.. He lines the platoon up, then bawls, "Right, all those with mothers two steps forward. - No, Jones! ^Not you.!"

There is no tactful way to put it. Older people die of this virus in disproportionate numbers BUT by no means only older people. Every death is a tragedy to someone and of patients who recover, more of them than you would think take a long long time (if ever) to get back to their previous health. Don't condemn others to it just because you believe that you can survive intact.

My husband and I are in a Childcare bubble with our daughter and son in law. We babysit our 5 yr old and 3 yr old GC a couple of times week, after school, as Mum has a part time job and Dad is also at work. They are dropped off at our house and picked up before bedtime. As this involves covering for work we are following the Govt guidelines and are happy to do so. Now we are entering the latest Lockdown, our daughter has asked if we can look after the 3 yr old for a few hours each week so she can homeschool the 5yr old without the 3yr old being there. My question is - does homeschooling class as ‘work’?

I don't know whether it is classed as "work" but I think you might well be within the rules to do it, as you are already in the bubble with them. It would make things a lot easier for her to homeschool the older one alone, and the little one would have you all to themselves for a while too. It is up to you whether you want to take it on. Maybe you could have just the older one sometimes instead, to even up the "Mummy time" and the "Granny time" a bit - to prevent jealousy, and "divide and conquer".

With the announcement of a third lockdown and warnings about the new variant Covid strain being 50-70% more transmissible, I sincerely hope people will follow the rules now.

We were invited to a friend’s home for a ‘small get together’ during the Christmas period - not in a bubble with them and I understood that several households would mix. We were in a tier 4 area before yesterday’s announcement, and yet this invitation was extended as though everything was normal. We refused and were called killjoys for pointing out that we are being cautious because of serious underlying health conditions and that tier 4 meant no indoor mixing anyway. I’ve since found out that one of the couples who went have since tested positive and the hosts are holding their breaths waiting for their own results. I couldn’t tell you how many of our neighbours had family gatherings on New Year’s Eve - cars turning up, kids running around, party food being carried in. Why do otherwise intelligent and rational people seemingly lose their minds at the thought of having to make even small sacrifices during what is the most serious health crisis in living memory ? To anyone with similar views I would say enjoy your dinner party, it could be your last.

My daughter was also very surprised (and disappointed) to be invited to two separate 'little gatherings' by friends. It seemed that they thought it OK.

She replied, saying 'No thanks, it's against the law - and far too dangerous!'

Pammie1, it seems that they are not 'intelligent and rational people' at all. We just previously misjudged them!

Quote AJKW Sun 03-Jan-21 09:51:15
Sorry but I see it from your friends perspective. With a survival rate of 99.85% then I do question why young fit healthy people are locked away; meanwhile the world economy’s are failing. The biggest problem we now face is the 2nd Great Depression, government induced. Something is going on Covid is the excuse.

Young people catch the virus and spread it to anyone and everyone, many of whom will be seriously ill or die. Some young people are seriously ill and die.
There is plenty “going on” including Brexit and strains on businesses, schools, education, families etc etc.
However Covid is real, extremely dangerous and still here.
It’s not a cover up for any other issues or problems, however it has exacerbated many.
Wake up to the facts.

As far as I can tell the survival rate in the UK is not 99.85% but 97.22% so she is seriously underestimating the chance of dying, apart from anything else.

www.google.com/search?q=death+rate+from+covid19&rlz=1C1SQJL_enGB859GB859&oq=death+rate+from+covid19&aqs=chrome..69i57.8599j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Varian If my sums are right, that is a death rate of one in thirtysix, instead of one in six hundred and sixtyseven. Quite a difference!. If the chances of winning the lottery were one in thirtysix, it would be a far more likely and attractive proposition than one in six hundred and sixtyseven.

(I await the mathemeticians and statisticians proving me wrong)

Carry on doing the right thing, we are and so are our friends, not worth taking any risks, especially now that the rate is increasing so fast. Stay safe.

Elegran

Varian If my sums are right, that is a death rate of one in thirtysix, instead of one in six hundred and sixtyseven. Quite a difference!. If the chances of winning the lottery were one in thirtysix, it would be a far more likely and attractive proposition than one in six hundred and sixtyseven.

(I await the mathemeticians and statisticians proving me wrong)

Which figures are you using? I can't get to a death rate of 1 in 36, which sounds astonishingly high.

AFAIK it's generally accepted that the death rate is about 1 in a 100, but it's difficult to know for sure. At the beginning of the pandemic, fewer people were tested so the number of cases was certainly higher. There's much less uncertainty about the number of deaths, so it could be that the deaths are actually a lower percentage of those infected.

Ah! I've just got it! 76,305/2,770,000.

Looking at the figures over the last week, that's probably not far wrong. I hope the people who though this was all just like flu will do their own sums.

CleoPanda The survival rate isn't 99.85%.

Not only that, but it's estimated that about 1 in 7 people have long-term serious after effects.

Growstuff If the survival rate is 99.85 in a hundred, then the death rate is the remaining 0.15 in a hundred, which is about one in thirtysix. If the figures were publicised that way round, as death rate instead of survival rate, perhaps fewer people would be conviced that it is just a mild illness.

I heard today that in India they have closely examined 80,000 covid cases to try to ascertain how these cases had spread. The answer was about 10 people originally. Do you remember those diagrams that were shown several times during the early stages of the pandemic last spring? They showed how one person could infect 2, those people could each infect 2 others and so on.

I'm in France and we aren't in a full lockdown at the moment. We've had lunch with a two couples who have the same degree of caution as us - pretty high. We know that they've seen very few other people.

Before Christmas I was chatting over the phone to a French friend and he told me what he was doing for Christmas and the New Year. This involved meeting two friends coming from another part of France, then his two sons, wives and children on Christmas Eve and his daughter and children on Christmas Day. New Year's Eve was to be spent with 3 other couples (which exceeds the 6 limit) and there will be children there too.

There's no way he could find out who all these people had mixed with over the 2 weeks or so before Christmas. I think that if you cannot be certain who the other people have seen you have to decide whether to take a chance or not.

I'm going to be 74 this year and I'm not ready to die yet and certainly not from covid which by taking care I hope to avoid.

Sorry, in my last post I picked up mistakenly on Cleopanda's figure of 99.85, instead of your 97.22, which would give a death rate of 2.78 in 100.

My calculator makes that one in 35.97 (but I am open to correction on the maths)

Elegran

Sorry, in my last post I picked up mistakenly on Cleopanda's figure of 99.85, instead of your 97.22, which would give a death rate of 2.78 in 100.

My calculator makes that one in 35.97 (but I am open to correction on the maths)

That's what I got too when I'd found the correct figures to work with.

I'm no expert, but it does seem about right.

There were 830 registered deaths and 60,916 new cases yesterday. Both are rising.

Deaths usually occur a couple of weeks after cases are first registered, so that means of 60,916 cases, there will be 1,692 daily deaths. Sadly, the way death rates are rising so fast, that's entirely feasible.

Dinahmo I saw a theory somewhere or other that only about 20% of people are involved in the majority of transmission. The other 80% are being extremely cautious.

However, as you say, 1 person can very quickly become 2, then 4, then 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, etc etc. That's why the modellers talk about the doubling rate. At one stage, the doubling rate in the UK was 3 days, so in just less than four weeks, a single case becomes 512. If the case/fatality rate is really 1 in 36, that means that 14 people could die as the result of one person.

My town went from 5 cases on 22 December to 40 cases on 29 December and it's over 80 now.

I really get cross when people think they can take unacceptable risks. I know some people would rather not know, but the above really is how serious it is.

Stay at home ... stay safe... Very clear instructions.
The “rules “ are causing issues with too many people- maybe your friends are showing signs of bravado? arrogant? or stupid? How can they think they know better than the Scientists or politicians? Doesn’t make sense to those of us that have followed the news and have watched the Pandemic sweeping the world.
Ignore negative comments from friends- do what you think is right and tell them why. We are allowed our own opinions.
I’ve posted about family issues on here- covid /rules related and have received mostly good support/positive comments but also a few rather harsh responses which could upset. I remind myself that harsh comments usually come from bitter people or those with their own agenda- they can still hurt at the time just like your friends comments.
Try not to let negativity shake your beliefs in what is the right thing to do!