You can't visit your family but you can sell houses

Think you may have to take weather conditions into it. Wind assisted can transport it further, you wouldn`t want to sneeze into the wind.

 

Whilst I agree that the principle of the rules is sound; the manner in which it was delivered is questionable.

it’s ok to have your nanny or your cleaner in but not your mum and dad!

only a public school educated elite could consider that a message that all of the country would appreciate.

 

This - but I don’t get the negativity.
Like vegetables - no one is going to even try if the guideline is ‘if your diet is 10% fruit and 80% veg, you’ll be much healthier.

likewise - if you’re stood next to someone 1.5m is far enough, but if you’re both walking in the same direction, 3m and running 10m. Not exactly a punchy message is it?

In our house we refer to the distance as ‘the full Richard’ as Richard Osman is 2m tall

 

It’s obviously not fine, but the damage lockdown does to livelihoods can’t be ignored either.

It’s true that we could have continued to remain in lockdown for a few more weeks/months. The R could remain at about 0.7 and the prevalence would continue to decrease from 136,000 (ONS estimate on Sunday). However, it’s never going to be completely eradicated until we get a vaccine. The fact that some cases are asymptomatic makes this impossible, as we can’t tell everyone (including key workers) not to leave their house for any purpose (including food shopping) for at least 2 weeks, and trust that everyone adheres to it.

The alternative (as has happened in every other country releasing restrictions) is to get the economy started again and save livelihoods whilst ensuring the prevalence doesn’t increase. You may think it’s too soon to do this because there are still 500 deaths a day. You might be right. However, the people that are dying now were likely to have been infected 3 weeks ago when the prevelance was much higher. If the mortality rate is, say, 0.2%, the prevelance is 136,000 and you test positive for a 1 week period, that’s 39 deaths per day (I know, it’s a crude estimate). Of course, still 39 too many, but far less than the 500 per day currently. This will continue to decline provided the R stays below one.

In order to keep the R below 1 whilst kickstarting the economy, we’re allowing additional freedoms for people to get back to work. Some people are questioning how is it more safe to go to work and mix with colleagues than it is to mix with family and why there’s one rule for one and one for another? Whilst its the case that it’s much easier to be disciplined with social distancing with colleagues than it is with family, the primary reason there hasn’t been a further relaxation for social interactions is the potential impact on R. It’s estimated that the potential increase in the level of transmission from people returning to work is unlikely to push the R above 1. However, if you were additionally to allow more social interactions, the cumulative effect could increase the risk above 1. It’s just about keeping the total number of interactions that take place in the entire population as low as possible whilst still getting people to work. So which is more important? Getting people back to work or letting your mum and dad visit for cup of tea and a chin wag? Obviously the former.

If your view is the relaxation is starting too early, only time will tell, but there is usually a 3 week period between infection and death, and we know the prevelance is much lower now than it was 3 weeks ago.

If your view is that the relaxation should also apply more widely to social interactions and not just for work purposes, it’s clear that saving livelihoods must come before meeting your mum and dad, and at this stage only one can be allowed.

 

My concern is that we haven’t got enough data to really know what the current R number is because we’ve not tested enough people.

 

The ONS estimate doesn’t use data from people that have come forwards for a test. Using that sample of the population would be heavily biased as they are only people that believe they had symptoms (with some exceptions).

The ONS estimate uses a random sample of the population, and whilst that sample is relatively small, the top end of the 95% confidence interval is only c250,000, and they plan to continue conducting more and larger testing surveys to ensure we have an increasingly more accurate picture of prevelance. The R is then measured based on the change in prevelance. The risk factor (ie whether we increase or decrease lockdown restrictions) is based on a combination of R and prevelance.

 

Then the issue is one of communication because last week (IIRC) we were given 2 different R numbers that were significantly different on the same day.

 

I only heard 0.5 to 0.9 overall but then I know it is pretty difficult to determine R without two reliable estimates of prevelance, which I don’t think we have at the moment. All we know is it’s somewhere below 1 because cases/deaths are declining.

It’s also the case that the R is much higher im care homes and much lower in the rest of the population. The impact on care homes is a big concern. However, the ease in restrictions should only directly impact R in the wider population, as there should be no change to footfall in care homes.

It also means that whilst the R in care homes is 0.9, the R in the wider population is then only 0.5. This actually gives us much more room for manoeuvre when considering what restrictions can be eased for the wider population.

 

Actually there is, plenty of science looking at the distribution of airborne virus particles from exhalation. The volume/exposure of virus particles drops with the square of the distance, but the force of the exhalation increases the number of virus particles and the force with which they are spread. So stood face to face at 2m, you are exposed to 1/4 of the virus than if you are at 1m. Walking 2m away, you get more exposure than stood, and more still running. Shouting exhales more virus than talking.

 

We’ve face masks at work and disposable gloves for anyone making face to face contact, weigh ridge operators are wearing gloves and plastic face screens whilst dealing with HGV drivers, I see no reason why estate agents can’t supply you and the viewer with the same type of PPE to guard against infection. It just needs folk to apply themselves to the issue and come up with whatever solution works for their business.

 

As I understand it, there’s quite a lot of safeguards that need to be put in place for viewings, including washing hands upon entry and exit, cleaning the door handles after a viewing etc. It can certainly be done safely, as if as people adhere to the guidelines.

 

"Big lavish international holidays" is my favourite Government quote so far

 

This might be a silly question, but why would you buy a house *now*? We are in the middle of a pandemic, the economy is shrinking and you could save yourself a massive amount of cash by waiting for the prices to drop in 3-6 months when job losses rise if you are certain that you are not going to be one of the casualties. I could understand trying to sell now - to get top dollar - but I don't get buying.

 

I suppose it depends what your motivation is for moving, new job maybe in a different town, bigger family, downsizing due to retirement or invalidity.

 

Couples splitting up....

 

So much for the belief that we have common sense!

 

The thing that makes me "laugh " is you can queue for half an hour to get into the supermarket, 2 metres apart, 1 in 1 out. Then when you get inside, it's f'king mayhem with people walking up and down all aisles, you can't fail to get within 2 metres of people,

 

Study this guy's technique. It may help.
It might also explain why @JLWBigLil hasn't been shopping since 2002.

 

House owner is expected to sanitise the property before each visit.

 

If the guy didn't know the woman it would have been funny as ****. But they were obviously together and staged a video of themselves to try and look funny. But yes I'll try that technique next time i go and see how long it takes to get me thrown out, lol