With regret... thread: I’m not sure you can blame the public for not having perfect knowledge of the risk pattern for the virus when the Government’s strategy heretofore has been based on the issuing of strict, defined rules and regulations

The entire strategy, either deliberately or accidentally, has been to remove personal responsibility, measuring your own individual risk and making your own decisions about behaviour from the equation

So for instance the lack of understanding about inside / outside is inherent to the strategy, not a side-effect. If you tell people there is little risk of outdoor contamination, they are then not going to follow rules about only meeting one household outside.

So without going tin-foil hat on this, if you choose rules and regulations and enforcement, then you can’t really do the education piece with much vigour because the public are then going to say “well, then your rules don’t make any sense”

IMHO the weirdest and most unique thing about Britain’s response has been the total lack of enforcement, which is often advertised beforehand. It’s like running the GDR without the Stasi. If you’re going to be diktat-issuing authoritarians, at least do it properly.