All change!

It's a bit of a different post than I'd normally make on here as it's raining cats and dogs here as I type this but as of Monday we can do more NOT that all restrictions have gone away, they haven't but in what ought to had been a moment of celebration that we'd got to a point we could do that, there's a fly in the ointment.

It seems a fair number of people had brought into the UK  a Covid variant from India, highly likely to had been people from that sub continent by not taking tests and if positive self isolating compounded a lowish vaccine uptake in come communities that simply cannot be down to not being able to be vaccinated.

This means the authorities are running round like scolded cats testing and laying on more inoculations, even vaccinating all  17's and over  in households that might have almost adult children, parents and grandparents all under the same roof  in certain areas of concern to both bring down transmission rates with the risks of hospitalization and to try to keep the date we can ease all restrictions around the expected one of June 21st.

It's annoying as many people with physical, mental health needs and issues have struggled through this pandemic, grappled with our own issues around things like generalized anxiety, struggle with social situations with lots of people and noise  to get ourselves vaccinated and it appears others who could of too, did not.

The price of such behaviour is that normality in terms everyday social interactions may be delayed a week or two and for what? Thinking what everybody else was doing didn't apply to you and risking everyone's lives.

Getting out of this thing needs all of us pulling together with no ifs, buts or maybes.

New Year Covid Changes

There are reasons why I do get cranky which does tend to lead to the ow ow ow posts on this blog but sometimes its a less personal thing that really messes my head up and that's a topic I'm returning to today.

Many of us are familiar, perhaps too familiar with the Covid-19 pandemic that's in much of the World and while the accompanying restrictions do vary depending where we live but the basic principals are the same: keep your distance while interacting with others, wear a face covering in shared often indoor settings like shops and keep strict hygiene with your hands including visiting a shop.

After an increase in the infection rate otherwise known as "The R number", many of us in England (the different parts of the UK such as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own rules) found ourselves put in areas with greater restrictions following the relaxations from around Fall.

One problem has been the discovery of not one but two variant strains that are more adapted to increase the rate of transmission and following a short-lived change as of today we're being told in effect to stay at home followed by a series of permitted exemptions and breaching them will break civil law so you may be fined and ultimately sent to prison if you don't pay up.

Nothing in this is remotely perfect take for instance the substantial closure of schools open only for "Key Workers" like people in the health service so parents can still work while children are looked after or children who would be more at risk of parental abuse without someone keeping an eye on them.

For all others "Online learning" is meant to be offered of which the quality of teaching varied hugely and over a third last time were not able to learn due lack of equipment, internet connections or a suitable space to learn without detractions apart from how adults told to work from home are supposed to do that AND supervise children at once? 

The other thing with these restrictions concern being out of doors as we've been told we "should" only go out to exercise for no more than an hour once a day which doesn't include walking the dog and say powerwalking or cycling.

For many of us being out of house, away from the constant messaging, mentioned endlessly on tv and radio being able switch of is vital not least if like me you have anxiety issues rooted in childhood incidents and abuse and yet it's to be rationed in a crude way.

Of course trying avoid busy spots and times matters to cut person to person potential contact down but if you can't shop by yourself why should you be restricted to being out once when a person that can (and people in shops don't always follow the rules like being only two inches away waiting at the tills with no mask on!) can be out to shop and out to exercise on the same day? 

Are we not capable of making sensible decisions?