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Shielding freedom!

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everydayupsanddowns

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Hope anyone who had been advised to shield (or has chosen to do so) is able to enjoy a little more freedom today with a cautious trip out and possible meet-up - socially distanced of course - with another person.

Enjoy it while the sun is still shining!

People who are shielding remain vulnerable and should continue to take precautions but can now leave their home if they wish, as long as they are able to maintain strict social distancing. If you choose to spend time outdoors, this can be with members of your own household. If you live alone, you can spend time outdoors with one person from another household. Ideally, this should be the same person each time. If you do go out, you should take extra care to minimise contact with others by keeping 2 metres apart. This guidance will be kept under regular review.
 
I was watching the responses on Twitter yesterday and not a single person welcomed this change, and all said they would still be staying at home.

On Thursday a member of the public asked about shielding at the press conference, and Chris Whitty said "now that the peak has passed, we need to plot a path, I think hopefully in the very near future … But still remain very cautious because … the number of infections remains high and the risk has not gone away." Then on Saturday Jonathan Van-Tam said "I believe this is also a very dangerous moment. We have to get this right."

I have no idea why the government suddenly announced this change in policy on Twitter at 10pm on Saturday night, and no scientific reason was given to justify the change at yesterday's press briefing. Yet they did say that shielding will not only continue to the end of June, but will likely be extended. Even the director of primary care for N.H.S. England had no idea this change was coming, it seems to have been entirely a political decision which had not been communicated to anyone in health care.

Very few people seem to trust the government, myself included. I have no reason to believe that the risk and high number of infections went away in the space of two days. I have every reason to be sceptical of them giving how they announced the changed, that medical experts and practitioners cannot explain it and recommend ignoring it, and that there has been no change in the statistics. As one of the journalists pointed out, only to be dismissed by Jenny Harries, the number of deaths seems to have stopped falling and plateaued based on the seven-day rolling average on her own slides.

All of which is besides the fact that I live in a city where it would be physically impossible for me to ensure I remain two metres from anyone else unless I go out at 3am. And now mass protests are now apparently legal, whilst other people are coming home from spending a day on crowded beaches.

A lot of us are feeling very angry about this announcement.

That all said, it is important to point out today's changes only apply to England and Wales. The government advice in Scotland and Northern Ireland is still that people who are shielding should not leave their homes.
 
I also saw it reported that the announcement on Sheilding had been embargoed till 22.00 hours. Many seem to think they are expecting a story to break that did not and this was meant as a distraction. ???
 
I saw that too. I tend to avoid conspiracy theory style explanations, there is usually a more simple one. But this seems to be a rare occasion where that is the only thing which does make sense.

Even councils, who are supporting shielding people, are now complaining they had not been forewarned either.
 
I was watching the responses on Twitter yesterday and not a single person welcomed this change, and all said they would still be staying at home.

On Thursday a member of the public asked about shielding at the press conference, and Chris Whitty said "now that the peak has passed, we need to plot a path, I think hopefully in the very near future … But still remain very cautious because … the number of infections remains high and the risk has not gone away." Then on Saturday Jonathan Van-Tam said "I believe this is also a very dangerous moment. We have to get this right."

I have no idea why the government suddenly announced this change in policy on Twitter at 10pm on Saturday night, and no scientific reason was given to justify the change at yesterday's press briefing. Yet they did say that shielding will not only continue to the end of June, but will likely be extended. Even the director of primary care for N.H.S. England had no idea this change was coming, it seems to have been entirely a political decision which had not been communicated to anyone in health care.

Very few people seem to trust the government, myself included. I have no reason to believe that the risk and high number of infections went away in the space of two days. I have every reason to be sceptical of them giving how they announced the changed, that medical experts and practitioners cannot explain it and recommend ignoring it, and that there has been no change in the statistics. As one of the journalists pointed out, only to be dismissed by Jenny Harries, the number of deaths seems to have stopped falling and plateaued based on the seven-day rolling average on her own slides.

All of which is besides the fact that I live in a city where it would be physically impossible for me to ensure I remain two metres from anyone else unless I go out at 3am. And now mass protests are now apparently legal, whilst other people are coming home from spending a day on crowded beaches.

A lot of us are feeling very angry about this announcement.

That all said, it is important to point out today's changes only apply to England and Wales. The government advice in Scotland and Northern Ireland is still that people who are shielding should not leave their homes.

Why are you feeling angry? The shielding advice was only ever that - advice. Now the advice has changed, but it's still up to you whether you follow it or not. You are not obliged to go out. Food deliveries and other support aren't affected.
 
Why are you feeling angry?

Because for a very long time there has been a lack of information.

We still have no idea when shielding will end, because we do not know what the conditions are for that, nor what new scientific knowledge there is to say who should be shielding or for how long. The letter I received says to shield for "at least twelve weeks," which takes it to June 16th. But all recent government information says it ends on June 30th (in England) but that has never been communicated.

We feel ignored and the first time we received any sort of update on shielding was when a question from a member of the public was chosen on Thursday at the press briefing. The information we were given then is that it is still dangerous. Not enough to know what to expect, but at least it was something.

Then on Saturday evening, by a tweet, suddenly we are being told it is safe. By a housing minister who has just been revealed to have acted unlawfully to help a party donor avoid a large tax bill. Contradicting the statements of the Chief Medical Officer only a few days previous. With every medical organization unable to offer any advice because they had not idea this was happening. How can we trust anything the government says if this is how they act regarding information on our health and our lives?

We ere never obliged to not go out, shielding is entirely voluntary. And it is very hard. But we did it because it was the right thing to do for ourselves and others. Certainly in my case, my original motive for following the advice was because the entire effort of the country was to avoid overwhelming the health system and I did not want to be responsible for wasting an intensive care bed. I made that effort knowing it would have damaging effects to me because it was the right thing to do. Because I trust the medical advice that if I did catch the virus it would have difficulty fighting it.

As of now, because of the behaviour of the government, we have no idea what the medical advice actually is. In my case there are three charities covering my conditions and not now of them knows what is going on to offer specific advice. Doctors have no idea what is going on to be able to offer advice. And the government, at yesterday's briefing, said the situation is still dangerous that shielding will likely be extended yet it is also safe to ignore shielding. How is anyone supposed to make sense of that?

That so many public health experts are critical of the government's actions and do not support them. That the Chief Medical Officer says the infection rate is still high, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer says the situation is very dangerous. That the government are treating our lives as some sort of political capital. Saying we can safely go out when, to any independent observer, this is untrue. When it is physically impossible to follow social distancing in urban area making their "good news" a P.R. stunt that has no benefit for many of us.

That is why I and many others are angry with a rushed announcement devoid of any medical or scientific justification, which leaves us no better off that we were. We already could choose to go out, all the government have done is use us to get headlines.
 
@Becka I fully respect your point of view and your decision.

I think the key to the latest announcement is that the government is in fear of a huge mental health crisis if the present situation continues, and is making successive small "concessions" like this in an effort to show some light at the end of the tunnel.
 
Boris even said whe he last fronted the briefings that the sheilding were to still sheild, I think that was last Thursday. It seems mad to let the shielded out before the last changes to everyone else had not been implemented yet!
I am not in the Sheilding group but I am an ex Health Worker.
 
This is what Boris Johnson said on Thursday:

And that’s why we continue to be extremely vigilant in our approach and what we are announcing today is very very cautious. We are taking some tentative steps forward; both with education and the economy, and a little bit with family and friends. But we need to get that R down, we need to get that infection rate down so that Jay, everybody who is being shielded, now can be released. But I assure you we are working as hard and as fast as we can.

Who knew just how fast they were working!

Today Matt Hancock was asked why the decision was rushed through with no G.P.s made aware of the change, but gave an unsurprisingly dismissive reply. Even though there are plenty of reports today of G.P.s either asking people not to contact them because they do not know anything, or advising people to ignore the government because the medical risk has not changed.

Also notable is that today's briefing did not have a senior science or medical officer to be able to offer any explanation or justification. So we are still no better informed. Hancock was joined by Professor John Newton, coordinator of the N.H.S. England testing programme, but as far as I am aware he is not a member of SAGE.
 
As far as I can tell what ever announcements they make they have not been thought and planned with the people who have to implement them.
 
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