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COVID-19 etiquette and good manners after 19 July 2021

(187 Posts)
ElderlyPerson Sun 04-Jul-21 12:25:45

news.sky.com/story/covid-19-face-masks-will-be-a-personal-choice-under-much-more-permissive-regime-of-measures-12348408

news.sky.com/story/covid-19-doctors-call-for-targeted-coronavirus-prevention-measures-to-stay-after-19-july-12347670

These two points of view do not seem to gel together!

So, what to do?

Is there needed a general public consensus on COVID-19 etiquette and good manners after 19 July 2021?

For example, if someone chooses to go to a nightclub where there may not be restrictions, that is one thing, it is not necessary for everybody to go to a nightclub.

Yet everybody needs to eat, so it seems to me that people who might behave COVID-19wise in one way in a nightclub might lbe entirely happy to behave in a different way COVID-19wise in a supermarket, out of consideration for other people.

It is like people going round in shorts in a city, but gentlemen wear trousers and ladies wear a skirt if going into a church or a cathedral.

Another example, wearing swimwear. Alright on a beach or at a swimming bath, but people (usually) do not go shopping in Tesco in swimwear. It is just how people behave. It may possibly not be illegal, (I don't actually know), but it is just not done.

Years ago, 1950s, 1960s, some people would go round shops smoking, even in places like cake shops.

Gradually it got that people did not do it.

The government's approach to COVID-19 seems to be heading towards the 1950s widespread attitude to smoking of people having to put up with it because of a so-called 'right to smoke'. Some people even disregarded the NO SMOKING signs in some railway compartments, though many smokers respected that, some grudgingly.

Is the policy that the governmentv seems to be heading for having a 'right to covidise anywhere' akin to a so-called 'right to smoke anywhere except in church'.

However, a week is a long time in politics and so what is announced nearer 19 July 2021 may not be what is being telegraphed by the government at present. But it might be.

So do we need the public to adopt some sort of COVID-19 etiquette and good manners that by courtesy people choose to restrict themselves in ways that go beyond the very lax legal restrictions?

If so, how should that come about? Put out by the British Medical Association?

Maybe the BMA needs to do that if the government is unwilling to do so.

This thread is to enquire how people here feel about there being such a guide to COVID-19 etiquette and good manners after 19 July 2021.

Alegrias1 Wed 07-Jul-21 12:47:34

I know I'm not MayBee70, but I'm not going to just sit here and allow misleading things to be posted without question. I'm not sneering about peoples lack of scientific knowledge but I'd hope that people would take notice of simple arithmetic when required.

If a reader thinks deaths have risen 4-fold in a day, that's scary.

If deaths have actually increased by one or two and are only just into double figures, that's something else.

MawBe Wed 07-Jul-21 13:36:46

I knowI'm not MayBee70, but I'm not going to just sit here and allow misleading things to be posted without question
I am not claiming any exponential increase, or a trend, just quoting hard facts
Are you questioning the figures I quoted?
Are they inaccurate?
So in what measure are the stats I quoted “misleading things” ?
This patronising dismissal of any opinions other than those which chime with your own is both unjustified and misplaced.
However, Tesco was clearly quiet.

Alegrias1 Wed 07-Jul-21 13:45:16

So then.

37 deaths reported on Tuesday, having happened before Tuesday. Actual number of deaths on Monday, 3. That will probably increase. Actual number of deaths on Sunday, 15.

Here's a nice representation, yesterday's figures in orange.

MawBe Wed 07-Jul-21 13:58:43

Ooh colours!
That’s pretty.

rosie1959 Wed 07-Jul-21 14:46:15

Thank you Alegrais1 for your information without hype
Still in slightly windy Jersey where they have now stopped isolation just because you may or may not have been near someone with Covid Looks like the UK is following as too many in isolation
We have now deleted our Covid tracker App

maddyone Wed 07-Jul-21 17:16:46

Mawbe you are just as entitled to post on here as anyone else, and you should do. There is no need to be offended nor intention to offend. We all have different opinions and we’re all entitled to express them. In my case, I have said before, I do respect Alegrias when she talks about statistics and science. She is a scientist and I am not. When I know a poster has a certain knowledge I like to know their interpretation or knowledge. That doesn’t mean the opinions of others are not interesting or valid. In saying that, I am not implying Alegrias, or anyone else on here is a world authority on Covid.

Thank you Alegrias for the figure of how many people died yesterday, not of Covid. It’s just about putting things into context I think. Hospital admissions and deaths are rising slowly, but vaccinations are rising quickly. Hopefully we’ll be in a different situation in another couple of months.

There are apparently 8 Covid patients in the hospital I was in during January when I had Covid. Then there were 500 plus Covid patients in the same hospital.

Alegrias1 Wed 07-Jul-21 17:24:40

Thank you rosie1959 and maddyone.

MawBe Wed 07-Jul-21 19:39:56

you are just as entitled to post on here as anyone else, and you should do. There is no need to be offended nor intention to offend. We all have different opinions and we’re all entitled to express them

Thank you Maddyone but I was not expressing opinions but posting a copy of facts - the latest stats as published - and quoting the words of Sajid Javid
However I defer, as no doubt the Health Secretary woukd to Alegrias’s presumed superior knowledge although how she can justify laying down the law as if she were the only scientist/ economist/statistician/ health professional on GN is beyond me.
Nothing other than my observation regarding chickens, counting and hatching was a matter of opinion.

Alegrias1 Wed 07-Jul-21 20:09:30

I'm not laying down the law MawBe. I read back my posts and I didn't say your numbers were wrong, or anything at all like that. I did try to clarify that thinking we'd jumped from 9 deaths to 37 in one day wasn't a good way to think of it, and why.

But you seem to have taken it very personally, and seem to take exception to someone disagreeing with you. And if somebody starts using sarcasm towards me, I'm going to respond.

As for chickens, well I'm lost ?

MawBe Wed 07-Jul-21 20:13:23

As for chickens, well I'm lost ?
Surely anyone with a grasp of economics would appreciate the dangers of counting chickens before they are hatched.

Alegrias1 Wed 07-Jul-21 20:18:45

MawBe you really are being very unpleasant and unfair.

I won't be responding any more.

MayBee70 Wed 07-Jul-21 20:45:57

Someone on Facebook just now said she was so worried for her son as he may no longer be able to make people wear masks in his ambulance. And someone else has said people are already starting to not wear masks. So much for people behaving responsibly.

M0nica Wed 07-Jul-21 20:50:43

I hope I am posting a photo with this. The text is rather intersting and this seemed the best COVID thread to post it on

MawBe Wed 07-Jul-21 20:57:48

Alegrias1

MawBe you really are being very unpleasant and unfair.

I won't be responding any more.

I am sorry Alegrias I clearly misunderstood, thinking you sought clarification of my “chickens” reference.

Elvis58 Wed 07-Jul-21 21:20:36

I will burn all my masks on 19th July, good riddance and goodbye!

Marydoll Wed 07-Jul-21 22:11:41

Elvis58

I will burn all my masks on 19th July, good riddance and goodbye!

So how will you react if asked to wear one in a shop or on public transport? I'm curious.

ElderlyPerson Wed 07-Jul-21 22:33:12

Marydoll

Elvis58

I will burn all my masks on 19th July, good riddance and goodbye!

So how will you react if asked to wear one in a shop or on public transport? I'm curious.

That reminds me of the line from an episode of Steptoe & Son where Albert Steptoe is said to have burned his ration book on VE day.

Rationing did not totally end until 1954.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom

Marydoll Wed 07-Jul-21 23:13:01

Elderly Person, thanks for taking the time to post the link about rationing. To be honest, I was never a fan of Steptoe and Son, I couldn't quite take to Wilfred Bramble.
When I was teaching, one of our Social Studies topics was the Second World War. We had facsimilies of identity cards and ration books for the children to look at. I even brought in my own mother's identity card for the children to see. They were fascinated by the items we had, including gas masks and militaria.

M0nica Wed 07-Jul-21 23:22:48

Chris Witty has said that he will be ditching his mark and only wearing it in three circumstances.

He said: “I would wear a mask under three situations, and I would do so, particularly at this point when the epidemic is clearly significant and rising.

The first is in any situation which was indoors and crowded, or indoors with close proximity to other people and that is because masks help protect other people - this is a thing we do to protect other people, this is by far its principal aim.

The second situation I’d do it is if I was required to by any competent authority. I would have no hesitation about doing that and I would consider that was a reasonable and sensible thing if they had good reason to do that.

And the third reason is if someone else was uncomfortable if I did not wear a mask, as a point of common courtesy of course I would wear a mask so under all those circumstances I would do so. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/chris-whitty-masks-lockdown-covid-b1878776.html?fbclid=IwAR3dOmGsexhyFJG3Xvo6mmsNncWAjx5oySx9bOKJ2mnDsSr2I1arHfiVYes

Which are the circumstances that most unmaskers, including myself, have listed as the circumstances when we too would wear a mask.

I am going to follow the scientific advice and do as Chris Witty does.

May7 Wed 07-Jul-21 23:51:51

Not aware that he actually said he was ditching his mask

ElderlyPerson Wed 07-Jul-21 23:58:09

There were lots of interesting wartime measures, like the rule that dress fabric had to have a small repeat size for the patterns printed on them, and a maximum of four colours. The small repeat size was to save cloth because they knew that people making dresses would match the pattern joins. That small repeat size rule resulted in a wartime fashion look for women's dresses.

www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-clothes-rationing-affected-fashion-in-the-second-world-war

But it says that they exchanged their uniform at demobilisation, but they didn't as many were placed on the reserve and could have been called back if the need arose so had to keep their uniform available in case they were recalled.

Marydoll Thu 08-Jul-21 00:07:01

You certainly are very knowledgeable, EP. You would have made an interesting guest speaker. I never knew that about clothing. We usually concentrated on foodstuffs, since there was so much information to cover in one term.
I'm guilty of derailing this thread, so I shall retreat! Goodnight! ???

ElderlyPerson Thu 08-Jul-21 00:44:07

Goodnight Marydoll.

Summerlove Thu 08-Jul-21 02:22:53

Alegrias1

I know I'm not MayBee70, but I'm not going to just sit here and allow misleading things to be posted without question. I'm not sneering about peoples lack of scientific knowledge but I'd hope that people would take notice of simple arithmetic when required.

If a reader thinks deaths have risen 4-fold in a day, that's scary.

If deaths have actually increased by one or two and are only just into double figures, that's something else.

You know no one wants facts! They want to post what they want!

growstuff Thu 08-Jul-21 04:36:35

I agree with you MOnica.

When I originally read what Chris Whitty said and had thought about it, I thought it was a bit strange.

As a confirmed advocate of continuing to wear a mask (in case people hadn't noticed wink), it's exactly what I intend to do, so Chris Whitty's "ditching his mask" is more or less the same as my "continuing to wear my mask".

I wondered if the government is trying to use some kind of psychology here ie. giving people a "choice", but still encouraging them to do the decent thing with regard to others.