Members of the Government’s Scientific Group for Emergencies (SAGE) want Britons to ditch plans for family reunions over the festive season, weeks after millions are set to be released from lockdown.
The advice presented to ministers says that whenever announcing that a particular form of social interaction needs to be avoided, then they actively propose and reinforce a less risky form of socialising.
These could include carrying out the activity at a later date, such as planning a summer family get together to replace meeting at Christmas.
If people find it emotionally or almost impossible to avoid making contact with someone outside their household then they should be encouraged to make meeting that person as safe as possible.
For instance, if you want to meet someone, then you should self-quarantine before having contact for at least 14 days and then avoid direct and lengthy contact when meeting.
Boris Johnson has insisted the four-week lockdown, due to expire on December 2, should be enough to get the COVID rate down and protect the NHS.
The Prime Minister said England will return to the three-tier system after the nationwide shutdown comes to an end.
This could mean some communities will be under stringent constraints over the Christmas period, including a prohibition on the mixing of households.
Speaking at the Downing Street press conference on Friday, he acknowledged many were worried, weary and fed up after a rebellion on the measures from Conservative MPs.
Boris Johnson said he had every confidence the measures would work so hospitals would not be overwhelmed and the lockdown could be lifted as planned.
Christmas is in December and should stay as such, but we just have to adjust and accept that things might be a tad different this year. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing and some of us are fortunate that we live in an era where we can remain connected with our loved ones through technology, unfortunately, not everyone comprehends that technology, particularly the elderly, so they’re totally isolated.
But let’s not forget that as human beings we do need social contact and not just tech, but just for the time being while this virus has a hold on us and has taken us all prisoner we might just need to make the best of a bad situation – it’s not ideal, but what other choice do we have?
And I know we have plenty of conspiracy theory people out there that believe that this is a ruse for our Governments to control us, and they could just be right – our Governments might never allow us to have freedom again.
Boris Johnson might be spewing all his rules, we can’t do this, we can’t do that, but I can bet your bottom dollar that families will definitely be going to see their families Christmas Day, and they won’t give a damn if they get fined for spending time with their families over Christmas – what are the Government going to do? Police everyone over the Christmas period?
Should we cancel Christmas and remain at home? Perhaps we should, and be thankful that we still have our families fit and alive. Maybe we can have the biggest Christmas ever next year and the Government can give us all an extremely nice bonus for forfeiting this one this year.
But by that time we might all be mind-controlled by then!
