Up to the 2nd December.

Everything Gardendisy, Growstuff and Geekesse write I am in agreement with. My GS is in primary school so teachers staying in their own bubble is doable. He goes back to school today after nearly three weeks at home (one week half term) and I’m sure it won’t be long before he is off again, isolating. Children will be in and out of school like yo-yos. You can’t tell me that this is good for their education and mental health.

Just reading all the different opinions on here makes it so clear that whatever decisions are made by the government, some people will not agree with them. Add a bit of scientific knowledge to those opinions so that they carry more weight and it is even worse. SAGE is made up of highly respected scientists but so is the ‘unofficial SAGE’ ( I think that is what they call themselves). The opinions of these two groups often clash.

Then add on the advice from the economists, which almost inevitably is completely in opposition to the medical fraternity, and we have a complete broth. Somehow, the government has to make sense of all this and make decisions that suit everyone. Oh, dear! Glad I am not PM.

If 25% of the population are at high risk then that IS a worrying number. I was thinking maybe our modern lifestyles are at fault, or maybe it is due to hereditary. Whatever is the cause, I'm guessing people had all these underlying conditions when Spanish flu was around judging by the numbers who died then.
So, we are not made perfectly, some will be luckier than others with their health and it may always be a case of survival of the fittest when it comes to pandemics. I guess that is the logic behind herd immunity.

You can't please them all, can you? With the experts on each side disagreeing with each other how can the rest of us know which is the most sensible path to take?
Apparently there is a chart about exactly where the infection is being caught and it's universities, care homes and hospitals which are top of the list. Therefore shutting shops, pubs, hairdressers and the like doesn't seem logical does it?

Spanish Flu was a flu virus (not a coronavirus), which infected approximately a third of the world's population. Although there are some similarities, there are also a number of significant differences. Both are primarily respiratory, but Covid 19 also causes blood clots in the veins and arteries of the lungs, heart, legs or brain, which is one of the reasons a different group of people are at high risk.

I just don’t get this angst and Christmas upset. It is but one day!! How selfish can people get? Self self self. Just follow the rules and we can all benefit.

I wish we had had the second lockdown sooner with an extended half term break for schools to try and break the cycle. An extra planned week off school wouldn't have made much difference to schooling ( compared to intermittent self- isolating), but might have been a hard check on virus reproduction.

What infuriates me most is the constant contradiction. To be told '2 December' by the prime minister on Saturday and then on Sunday hear Michael Gove say that 2 December was an 'aspiration' gives such a bad impression and is so unsettling it makes things even worse. Few people will have thought that 2 December meant '2 Dec come hell or high water'. Michael Gove's intervention just makes it sound in sincere as well.