Table 2 Acceptability of official advice to “shield” to interview participants
Quote 1 | “I heard on the news in February that this was around, I heard it in January actually, I locked myself in because I knew what was going to happen. So, the actual notification from the NHS was the 23rd March at which time I’d already locked myself in for about four weeks at that time” (Shield 5) |
Quote 2 | “This was the first official notification we had from anybody about [shielding], and it’s dated 22 June. It’s from [local authority organisation] saying that, ‘You were sent a letter from the government as you have been identified as being extremely vulnerable’. Well, the answer to that was, well, no, we didn’t” (Shield 10) |
Quote 3 | “We did watch the broadcast every day on the television from the government because my husband found it fascinating. I got a bit lost because it’s so complicated…” (Shield 9) |
Quote 4 | “I started to watch some of the daily briefings from the government and then stopped because I was becoming a bit… I thought, oh God, I’ll never leave my house ever if I keep watching these! [laughs] So, you know, it became a bit depressing” (Shield 7) |
Quote 5 | “Watching it on the television sometimes with the announcer like Boris, I’d get confused because they’d say something and then they’d change It” (Shield 9) |
Quote 6 | “Daily briefings from the government, it almost felt a bit flippant that people like me were told to shield…. I felt a bit as if we were pushed to one side and it’s quite fine that your life is put on hold and you have to stay in your house… let’s get everything else back to normal but forget about the shielders, they can just stay at home out of the way” (Shield 12) |