Will you comply?

Artytarty

I will probably not be able to fly to London to see my newborn first grandchild at the end of May.
who knows how old he be before I can hold him in my arms.
we are thinking of getting one of those "portal" gizmos, it's like FaceTime but the camera follows you around the room . As it is when we FaceTime, my daughter has to hold her phone, add a baby to that and it's difficult.
does anyone have one of these and would they recommend it?

my elderly Mum still walks her dog.
instead of going together , we now meet at the field and walk together but apart.
also, she will sit in her kitchen with the sliding doors open and I sit on the garden bench for a chat but the thought of her being so alone for many many months is awful. She lived for the bridge club, the social side as well as being a cut throat player!

greenbee

Portal is apparently very easy to use and ideal for older/elderly people as it is one-touch. It is also on offer for mother’s day, so now is probably a good time to buy.

Artytarty

thank you thanks, and in answer to the thread question, yes, rigorously.
in fact I'm rather apprehensive that I will never feel comfortable out and about and in company again.
when I watch tv. all I can think about in the soaps, dramas etc is "look at all those people"
re Portal, do you need one at each end?

Artytarty

Too late to the party.
everywhere sold out of them

nannywindow

My Dad who is 90, has only a 50% lung capacity and lives alone, thought he was only being isolated for 2 weeks. No, it's 4 months at least I told him for the umteenth time. However he wanted to start his car and give it a run, so I said "Ok but don't stop or talk to anyone, go straight to the car ( garaged and isolated ) drive around for a bit and then straight home.  " ...........  " Well I think I'll get some petrol while I'm out " he replied. Why get petrol, he can't go anywhere . I'm afraid I'm talking to a brick wall. I shall still ring him every other day and my DD will ring on the opposite day, but I can't trust him not to go out. So I've given up, he will do what he wants but at least I've tried my best.

pineapple

I think anyone thinking this will just be for 12 weeks is kidding themselves. If you have a high risk health condition or are perhaps living with someone who does, then be prepared to bed down till the end of the year or longer. They say a vaccine could be a year or more away.    

Pyxis

pineapple said:

I think anyone thinking this will just be for 12 weeks is kidding themselves. If you have a high risk health condition or are perhaps living with someone who does, then be prepared to bed down till the end of the year or longer. They say a vaccine could be a year or more away.    

I’m pretty much resigned to that.

KxMx

A vaccine is undoubtedly a long way away, but science progresses with this disease everyday, figuring out how it works, testing treatments,
recognising more common symptoms, developing an
antibody test (already well along).

I think it will probably be longer than 3 months but I'm confident we won't all be shut away at home until a vaccine comes out.

skogar

I know that this was really a discussion for people who were advised to self isolate, but I have some questions from outside. We are currently trying to support both OH's and my parents. Mine live fairly locally and both are used to using computers etc but OH's parents are not. I have been trying to sort them out with food deliveries so they don't have to go out but am really struggling due to the demand. I think we are close to resolving those issues but I am sure we are in for the long haul.

My concern now is how do I support them with the other aspects of self isolation, particularly OH's parents who do not use computers.

OH's Mum reads avidly and loves going to the library. The obvious solution would be an ebook reader so she could borrow ebooks from the library but she would not be able to load them on. Does anyone have any alternative ideas about this or any ideas to make the isolation sightly less tedious or other interesting ways of maintaining contact rather than just regular phone calls. Any advice would be much appreciated.

skogar

Another point about social distancing is that it is important that everyone does it as much as they reasonably can whether or not they think they will be badly affected, because it will significantly reduce the transmission of the virus. The fewer people who get the virus, the fewer the number of deaths. As the virus can be transmitted before symptoms are observed this is a very good way to reduce the transmission rate. Although an individual may be low risk the people they transmit it to may not be. So I am trying to minimise contact as much as possible because I want to minimise the risk of the people I am close to catching the virus.

This is quite a good explanation of the impact that social distancing can have.

https://www.itv.com/news/2020-03-21/coronavirus-why-social-distancing-works/

So if you are self isolating although you may be doing it to minimise risk to yourself you are also massively reducing the risk that you will pick up the infection and infect others. I'm sure most of you know this already but I thought I would share it just in case the thought that you are also reducing the risk for others will make the isolation a little easier to bear. It must be tough.