ADs and their very long lists!

[LivinLaVidaLoki]

We were up to 999 posts so thought we needed a new thread!

So I've signed up for a vaccine trial. I don't know yet if I'll be accepted as my weight goes slightly into the obese BUT I suspect it will be fine as they do need to test what if any difference it makes.

I don't want the vaccine roll out but, as part of a test, I know I will get excellent monitoring should I develop any symptoms and or side effects. (There is a 24hr phone line for any serious symptoms) The initial test and first injection is next week, so I'll soon know.

What I really hate is the 'normalisation' of our current situation as regards multiple rules and regulations. It's almost like the fight has gone out of everybody and we are forgetting how restricted and constrained we are.
According to The King's Fund website, in 2018/2019 NHS general and acute bed occupancy averages in the UK was 90.2%, and regularly exceeded 95% in the winter. Is that really so much different to now?

@SufferingFromLongLockdown

Lovely ADs, any thoughts? Ive had contact from someone who I think was a D and I'm not sure I can be bothered to reply.

People do change their mind. The fear could go, or they can see that nothing has improved despite everyone 'being careful' and they could regret such a limited, fearful summer when the outcome is the same.

The only thing is I don't meet people where I feel I'd be treading on eggshells as that's too stressful. I get that they're scared and are managing different risk factors to me with a different tolerance to risk and I love them dearly and can offer any amount of empathy over the phone, but I can't put myself in a position where I might worry I've accidentally slighted them by causing them stress by being too relaxed in real life and potentially damaged a friendship that I'm hoping to sustain for the future.

Yes, this is sort of it. I'm not sure how much I care about the friendship though. I think this situation has not shown many people in a good light.

Reed do you really need to go the hygienist? I use a water flosser and electric toothbrush. I don't let them use that horrible polishing machine thing so I just don't go.

A dentist who won't allow you to use a bathroom sounds awful.

Evenstar are you on crutches? I'm sorry, that is absolutely neglect. I would write to the local MP. You genuinely might get seen that way.

@Worldgonecrazy I will be tackling my weight in Jan. Just a couple of days to go. I lost ten stone in the past so i know i can do it. I agree with @MoltenLasagne though.
And im sorry but looking and feeling like a scruffbag because the hairdressers/salons were closed for so long doesnt help. It decreased my motivation. And it was obvious it wasnt just about the virus when pictures emerged of barbers plucking mens nose hairs while beauty salons still wernt allowed to open.
If it looks like misogyny and feels like misogyny, its misogyny
Caroline Hirons was great at calling it out.

Thank you @AcornAutumn things aren’t as bad as that yet, it is having a significant impact on my general health due to the way I am bearing weight and compensating with other joints.

I hadn’t thought of my MP, but to be honest he is a Government yes man and even voted against feeding children in school holidays. I feel I would not currently be seen as a priority, I saw a poor woman on the news needing both knees replaced who had no realistic prospect of being treated. To be fair though when DM had a knee replacement some years ago there were people at her pre-op clinic in wheelchairs as their treatment had been left so long. I feel that COVID is being used to explain the normal winter crisis and treatment delays that years of underfunding have caused.

I can afford it luckily, although I know I shouldn’t have to, the NHS seems to have effectively closed it’s doors to us, literally in the case of my GP surgery where a huge No Entry sign has apppeared on the doors. I do feel very let down.

Is anyone else struck by the echos in the "key worker"/NHS designation of the soviet nomenklatura class? Like this particular class as being the designated as such means that they are always able to access the childcare/schooling that is not available to all during the lockdowns. And in a wider sense the impact of all of this on people who are working in the public vs private sector in terms of job security and therefore income in particular. I'm not expressing myself very well, but it seems to me more generally reflective of the fracturing of society along various lines.

@Reedwarbler lack of toilets is awful. There's no logic to it either, is covid supposed to love loos?!

@Anotherpointofview1 - I think I know what you are trying to say. I feel very much that anyone working in the private sector is a bit of a second class citizen at the moment, whereas actually, shouldn't we be desperately trying to encourage private sector to boost the economy and actually pay for the public sector employees?

I also hate when I see discounts for "keyworkers". They are the only ones with a stable job at the moment. My job is hanging by a thread (travel) and the uncertainty is petrifying.

The whole thing frankly, is fairly dystopian.

The key worker designation is ludicrous. DSis's work (private sector, not healthcare or healthcare adjacent) managed to get all staff designated key workers. Those on the ground I would 100% agree with. Those working at head office on non urgent projects which could easily wait until the end of lockdown (if not the end of the pandemic), not so much.

If they had redeployed some of these staff to do things to support the actual essential work, I would be more sympathetic - but they didn't.

when DM had a knee replacement some years ago there were people at her pre-op clinic in wheelchairs as their treatment had been left so long. I feel that COVID is being used to explain the normal winter crisis and treatment delays that years of underfunding have caused.

An acquaintance of mine paid something like £9k about four years ago for a knee op as she was told the waiting list was 9 months, and with two kids and and active job and a lot of pain she didn't feel she could wait that long. I paid for an op on my throat a few years ago because the NHS was chaos.

I also hate when I see discounts for "keyworkers". They are the only ones with a stable job at the moment.

Yes I've found this difficult, I lost about 75% of my income in April - August with no Government support. There are people who are losing their businesses and homes, they need the discounts.

@MercyBooth totally agree that is utterly demoralising to feel unkempt and scruffy due to no haircuts etc.

I saw something terribly sad when I visited the tip this afternoon (this excitement is still available to us in Tier 4) A man turned up with an entire car full of perfectly serviceable household items and what looked like around 100 brand new books and threw them all into the skip for waste for burning. The charity shops are shut, our local Freebay page has closed, he may have had a pressing reason to clear the things urgently but it seemed such a terrible waste.

It made me think of how much stuff like that has been wasted this year and adding to that the mountain of single use plastic from PPE and disposable items, this is another huge problem to deal with.

Schools aren’t going to go back are they?

Well I've just lost my shit on Facebook over schools. Why are teachers elevated to the status of demi gods who can't possibly work because it's too dangerous but every one else can, all the care home workers, factory and warehouse staff can work.

Oh my god I think I can get the kids in school as key worker children if the criteria remains the same!

Hurrah!!

Now I just need my work to decide they do still need me in when last time they didn't. While it was nice to be paid to be at home and just checking emails every now and then, I do think it would be better for my mental health and the dcs to be out of the house.

@flower11

Well I've just lost my shit on Facebook over schools. Why are teachers elevated to the status of demi gods who can't possibly work because it's too dangerous but every one else can, all the care home workers, factory and warehouse staff can work.

I wonder if its just hearing the loudest. The teachers that are happily getting on with their jobs don't sit on SM shouting for school closures. Those shouting for closures won't care about the risk of redundancy as they figure they will always find a teaching job as it's a safe job compared to many private industries.

But yes I find the key worker thing frustrating in how it has polarised more sectors of society. When people say lockdown except key workers they seem to forget you need electricity, gas, bin men/women, lorry drivers, bus, train drivers, sewage operators blah blah blah who have kept society going.

Ahem!! We are not key workers. We are now called ‘critical workers’ 😱

Critical worker makes it sound like you spend all day picking faults in things!

I’m sure I’ve read somewhere on mumsnet that teachers are different because they spend all day in contact with kids and don’t wear PPE. Although I may have imagined that - not sure what’s fact and what’s fiction any more,

Last time both parents had to be key workers. I work for the NHS and didn't manage to get my children into school. They went back for the last few weeks of term in the end.

I'm technically a "critical" worker but I can be critical from home so I don't know that I'd get a school place. He was at nursery last time but I had a different job then.

Ha, do we now have?

Extremely critical worker
Critical worker
Key worker
Worker
Furloughed

So so tired of the Covid top trumps to the exclusion of everything else.

Mental health concerns - typical response - get a grip, don't you know we are in the middle of a pandemic, if you can't cope speak to your GP.
Worried about children / young people's education - children are resilient / they will bounce back / it's only a short period of their life what about old people
Worried about hidden harms of drug and alcohol and domestic violence - ah well just fuck off - we don't know anyone like this and Covid is more important.

I could go on but you get the picture. Sorry but I stupidly read a couple of the Covid boards before posting this

This picture of Romford's ambulance crisis...I'm sorry but I had to laugh

mobile.twitter.com/CoronaDoubter/status/1343952776397787137

My DH had a “key worker” letter in case he got stopped by the police on his commute (how dystopian is that?) but he’s not someone anyone would imagine to be key. Actually society doesn’t function without so many people doing the most obscure jobs that most of us have never heard of.
I didn’t attempt to send to key worker school as I’m a SAHM and it seemed like taking the piss. Don’t think I’ll try my luck this time either.

DH got a Key Worker letter incase he had to go off travelling last time. The supermarket were having enough stock issues without untended technical crises in the distribution stage of things.

I was holding out hope on schools but I'm rapidly losing it now. Looking at the news it all looks like it has every other time they've leaked out shit a couple of days before so that people her softened up by the news prior to the gov announcement, because the fucking cowards won't just come out and say it.