Thread 3 shielding chat

[AuntieSocia1]

I hope this unimaginative thread title doesn't put off all the amazing posters from this group!

As we transition into this new phase things could get interesting....

Waves to lurkers

Email is from dhsc.clinically.extremely.vulnerable@notifications.service.gov.uk

@Teaistheanswer I work in a school and am CEV. I have had my job role changed to admin duties completed from home since September. If you're in tier 3 then your school should make similar adjustments for you?

Tier 3 : VERY HIGH

Work and school
• Work from home where possible
• If you cannot work from home, speak to your employer about taking on an alternative role or change your working patterns temporarily. You can attend work if this is not possible
• You should continue to attend school or college

From the email I got and I checked and we are in the Very High tier. So I'll have to check with supervision.

@Egghead68
Department of Health & Social Care would indeed make sense, wouldn’t it? If I had a working brain I’d be dangerous. Probably still only to myself, but one never knows...

@Babysharkdoodoodood
I think at this point you need some BIG sharks to just eat Difficult Colleagues & Manager. Seems like a reasonable adjustment to me...

I am wondering if I typed in my right email address in April now!

I don’t remember getting a confirmation email & just checked & can’t seem to find one so you might have... I think we had to put it in twice though: the thing where you put it in & then do it again for “are you quite sure you’ve put in the right one so we don’t either send emails to someone random or off into the etherweb...?” - but I might be muddling myself...

You might be able to argue that as someone who’s CEV your workplace isn’t/can’t be made COVID Safe so you need to be allowed to either WFH or if the school can’t support that they need to furlough you. I have read FAR too much about The Rules...

@MarieVanGoethem thank you. Sadly back to teaching tomorrow as the Gov have made it clear need new letter to work from home in education.

I spoke to the Dr’s receptionist who said that Dr’s do not write letters, as not paid to do so, and refused to let me talk to any Dr.

@MarieVanGoethem

I don’t remember getting a confirmation email & just checked & can’t seem to find one so you might have... I think we had to put it in twice though: the thing where you put it in & then do it again for “are you quite sure you’ve put in the right one so we don’t either send emails to someone random or off into the etherweb...?” - but I might be muddling myself...

You might be able to argue that as someone who’s CEV your workplace isn’t/can’t be made COVID Safe so you need to be allowed to either WFH or if the school can’t support that they need to furlough you. I have read FAR too much about The Rules...

Well, we've already had at least one case in the control room, so a couple had to self isolate. Some else isolated for 1 day and decided then not to bother. Everyone else used the resilience room while it all got deep cleaned.

Big kerfuffle as apparently the screens are made of glass, not perspex, and I think there's been an accident!

@Poppystars - have you any way to move surgeries? Your current one don’t seem very well set up to meet your needs. Though I’m aware I’m sodding spoilt my GP hasn’t charged (think fee where I’m registered is £20) for a couple of letters done for me. If everywhere near you has such... aggressive... phone triage... I guess you’re stuck though.
I mean, it does, broadly speaking, go against current government advice - ALL the CEV into work with the wee disease vectors unless in The Mysterious Super-Special Tier 3 Areas That Are The Very Worstest. They have indeed M&Sed COVID restrictions... And then the shielding hokey-cokey will begin once more.
I don’t know if it would be worth contacting Vicky Foxcroft in her capacity as Shadow Minister for Disabled People - she’s been very good at advocating for people who’re shielding (whether or not they are [people who identify as] disabled) through all this (in fairness, she’s shielding herself, so she’s a certain amount of skin in the game; but she’s also a reputation for being an excellent constituency MP, so...).

@Babysharkdoodoodood
Jesus Wept. I’m sort of glad when things happen to other people that reassure me I’m not the only person apparently living in an improbably-plotted drama...
How in the actual hell did they get the wrong screens?!
Enjoy being home. Like really REALLY enjoy it.

Hi everyone, well the last 3 weeks of WFH have been absolutely manic. Once word got out at school that I was free to do ‘jobs’ for whoever, I was inundated. It has been lovely. I’ve felt useful and the time has flown. I’ve worked more hours than I would have at school! Tomorrow however I am back in class. I’ve missed the children so much but I have the serious collywobbles tonight. There’s already a year group shut and 6 staff members isolating, and case numbers here are a teeny bit higher than they were at the start of lockdown 2. Feels like being thrown to the lions. SD hugs of solidarity with all the other CEV teachers who will be in front of their smartboards in the morning, praying the Russian roulette wheel doesn’t stop at their classroom.

Hope all goes well @stressisanoption and anyone else back in school tomorrow. I am back in but only in my main class till Christmas so 30 children instead of 90. Cases in my area some of the highest in the country and still rising so I will be on heightened meerkat alert all day! Expecting to be shattered by this time tomorrow.

Hope work goes well tomorrow.
Back in school here!

I have discovered I had not put my email address on the Gov website, oops! Added that now.

So one vaccine approved.
Personally am thrilled as hope reduces community spread. For me, it appears I have been taken off a list so I will be priority 11. Another year of online shopping, not seeing anybody and just going to work where I cannot keep dodging bullets of they change rules in school as everyone at risk will be vaccinated. Not feeling happy.

Sorry @poppystars.

My consultant is looking into whether I can have the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine with my condition (I am NHS staff). I suspect not, sadly.

Good luck to everyone who’s Back To School (as it were...)

Is there someone you can talk to about why you’ve been taken off the ECV list @Poppystars? It must be very stressful having shielded for so long & not having been contacted about it - especially if you have a rare[r] condition &/or complex health needs. Gah. Removals should be based on the increased-improved knowledge - like how almost no children have to shield now & they’ve been able to remove lots of people with severe asthma from the list (obviously they’re still considered vulnerable with the much wider vulnerable group that pretty much tallies to people under 65 who’re entitled to flu jabs on the NHS & the other groups identified as more likely to be seriously unwell with COVID-19). Just shunting people off the list with no explanation is exactly what they said they’d absolutely not do - they were meant to contact people by... I think it was the end of September? There was a big review over summer of the whole list using the New Rules - they were meant to look at individual risk in-depth. So being removed from the list is meant to be good news, but it really REALLY needs to come with a clear & thorough explanation as to exactly how & why the decision was made - & made for you as an individual, not in any kind of general terms. So yes including your condition & medication[s], obviously - but also your personal context as well as the general. It’s [meant to have been] your own team that decide[d] (either GP or hospital, depending on who added you) so giving a really thorough explanation with any additional stuff factored in to the decision-making like (lack of) hospital/ICU admissions &/or blood results &/or weight etc would be much easier for them than for some random team. I do totally understand if you don’t feel able to trust the decision though - especially after all the “no, you’re still on the list” business. If there is a charity for the condition that saw you put on the list & they’ve a helpline or email support service or anything though, hopefully they’d be able to offer at least a wee bit of help/advice in general terms. Have you any people you’d trust to meet outdoors - in terms of them distancing - when the weather perks up a bit? Maybe wearing a mask? The isolation of this is just so utterly desperate - & it’s very easy to find yourself genuinely scared of being around people. I don’t know if maybe having to be round them at work stops that? I’m struggling with it though - I go outside (in a mask) to put stuff in the bins in my front garden; & I go to medical appointments that have to happen in person & people not distancing & not wearing masks properly really puts me on edge.

@Egghead68
I hope you get some good news on the vaccine front: will the Oxford one be suitable given its more conventional design? Hopefully the approval on it won’t be much behind the Pfizer...
I’m still hoping shielders will get moved ahead of the 70+ cohort. I’d barely got rid of my Baby Giraffe walk (which came after the Interpretive Dance Situation) & it’s now back again courtesy of deconditioning. As for the state of me when I do a couple of flights of stairs to get to the haemophilia department at the hospital - highly embarrassing...

Hi @MarieVanGoethem I’m pretty sure the Oxford one will be suitable for most of us shielders but, as it’s only 62% effective I think I will need to shield until there’s herd immunity. I’m sorry about your deconditioning. I’m doing lots of pacing up and down my small flat to try to keep up some muscle strength but it’s not doing much.

Roll on the end of all of this.

Consultant said he is happy for me to have the Pfizer vaccine. I’m pretty elated!! Starting to hope the end of shielding is in sight.

Oh @Egghead68 that’s fantastic news! I’m so SO pleased for you
Trying to exercise at home is such a nightmare, isn’t it? My Distressed Zoo Animal imitation is pretty much limited to while my brother’s out; & my physio is a weird jumble. My push-ups (against the wall) are decidedly variable & I could really do with more padding for sit-ups. And the cats not wanting to join in. I’d actually be much worse off if I didn’t have a frankly daft MSK set-up: I’ve quite a lot of muscles that don’t relax under anaesthetic (presumably to make up for the lazy articles that I can’t activate at all ) & they don’t “go” in quite the same way. Still not ideal though as I’ve something that goes bananas if you decondition & I already take over the maximum dose of the best medication for it.
Is it too early to ask the Tiny Orchestra Of Self-Pity for festive music?

For anyone who can’t have the Pfizer one, the latest with the Oxford is that it’s 90% effective if you have a half dose then a full one. Accidental discoveries FTW!

Thanks Marie! I am impressed you are doing sit-ups. Definitely hard with cats around though!

Really hoping we can all (well almost all) get a suitable vaccine soon.

Not that many & not that often. But they’re excellent for core stability (which I massively lack) & activating back muscles... Will be a while before I try Doom! Sit-Ups though - you start lying on your back with your legs together, feet parallel & toes pointed, arms roughly in demibras; sit up drawing your knees upwards & your feet along the floor towards your bottom, bringing arms up to 5th position/en couronne; then you stretch your legs & feet back out as you reach forward over them [think usually lob arms backwards rather than holding stretch, but my mind is messing with me in what it thinks is a hilarious fashion). Then reverse. And repeat. And it is mercilessly fast. It’s actual years since I’ve been well enough to dance (trying class during first lockdown 3/4 killed me, I’m mortifyingly unfit) but it’s still in my Official Plan. I own far too many pretty leotards to abandon the idea completely...

My cats really are ceaselessly fascinated by me silly fluffbundles which does give indoor exercise a whole additional layer of Interesting & Special. My black cat is absolutely terrified of strangers, but he still stealthily observed my community physio appointments last year; while my blond cat was so openly fascinated that my demonstration I was still able to get myself up off the floor without needing to summon assistance almost had to include him... (Said blond cat is currently curled up beside me, his tail wrapped around my arm. Silly kitten.)

Vaccine news is indeed exciting news. And very absolutely hope we’re all able to be vaccinated ASAP & start... having a few wee moments of “normal”. Whatever that is [now].

It’s exhausting just reading about doom sit-ups, @MarieVanGoethem! I won’t be trying them any time soon. Your cats sound lovely. I miss pets.

Roll on the vaccine!!

This might be of interest (not sure if it’s already been posted):

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/940936/Priority_groups_for_coronavirus__COVID-19__vaccination_-_advice_from_the_JCVI__2_December_2020.pdf

Thank you for the JCVI stuff @Egghead68 - was an interesting read. Note they didn’t address the not-insubstantial issue of “we’ll vaccinate the people in care homes first” when it’s the Pfizer vaccine that’s available first & it’s much more sensible to take vaccines into care home settings than haul residents out. So they’re pretty much inevitably going to have to wiggle the list a bit. Or possibly a lot. And they have in fact just guessed at our risk level, haven’t they? I mean, more so than the rest of the modelling. We’re into serious guesswork territory. (Or is that unfair/unreasonable?)

TBH I sometimes wonder if I imagined/dreamt some of the stuff I used to be able to do. I quite literally dream of dancing - I was still able to get across the width of the Royal Opera House stage in a super-basic grand allegro enchainement even a couple of years ago (though had to start left to get the left: 3 lots of reconstructive surgery has made that knee ridiculously unreliable)... I’m cygnet size, but have Big Swan dreams...

I'd be interested of peoples thoughts here.
If someone is shielding ( officially as in received letters etc )
Do you think your carer ( again in receipt of carers allowance ) should receive the vaccine at the same time as the person who is shielding ?
For information - I am the carer of my dh , he has various illnesses as well as partially sighted . I have shielded with him to protect us both. We don't shop or socialise in any way . When he gets his vaccination and therefore more free to go out etc , he will still need me to accompany him even if it's still just for Drs appointments / hospital .