ADs and The Brave New World

[BogRollBOGOF]

When you kind of hope that a new thread meanders on quietly because it means that life is being fairly stable...

What are ADs?

Here's the copy and paste job...

Definition of AD
^AD stands for anti dementor.
There are creatures in Harry Potter called dementors, who suck all hope and happiness from you and eventually take your soul. Way back at the start of the pandemic thread after thread was posted on by posters like this and anyone who'd dare question anything or disagree with anything (like putting cheese in your coffee) was bullied off these threads. And so any actual discussion disappeared and it became an echo chamber of misery.^

We are the antidote to that. We follow the rules, but not the "roolz" and we question and discuss with respect to each other. It's all very civil.

I genuinely think the best way to protect our communities is taking the odd virus on the chin. I'm sure we underestimate the social aspect of immunity and the need to expose ourselves to germs outside our household. The first cold I had this year was grim. Second was much more normal

I'm really struggling with the thought of returning to isolations. Makes me really paranoid about what I can do I'm case I end up as a close contact. Means stuff I was looking forward to I'm really worried about. We've had covid and DH and I have had all 3 jabs. The idea of having to isolate seems ridiculous.

DD 11 had to do 3 isolations last year when she was identified as a contact when she knew in practise she hadn't actually been near the positive person. I don't know how she'll cope with any more. She missed loads of Y6 milestones. I hate the minimising that these things aren't important.

Masks have been mandatory at work since late October (office environment, capacity reduced below pre-pandemic levels, no vulnerable clients). At first I thought I would wear them on the days I could cope, not on days when I was feeling fragile. But I quickly decided that asking myself if I could cope was stressing me out so it's easier not to wear at all and then I don't need to worry about people seeing me wearing it one day but not another. I know it's not really about the masks but my general state of anxiety.

It's just dawned on me that it's not going to just be masks is it?
It's going to be the constant announcements about shops keeping us safe.

That sort of thing has pushed me to shop more locally. Throughout all of this, the local shops have treated me like a human being

So they get my business.

Oh dear god, I never even considered the whole close contact isolation in terms of what I've got booked over the next few weeks. Shit.

I've already had conversations with close friends again regarding being named as a contact. As in if you're going to need to name me should you get covid then we can't meet. I don't get paid if I have to isolate. Now I'm going to spend the next few weeks worrying about the class bubble bursting as I don't get paid then either. My nerves are in shreds.

I won't be wearing a mask other than for work. I only wear one there because they make me.

And if you test positive for omicron you have to isolate even if triple jagged

I meant if you’re a close contact of a omicron

Are the government seriously expecting us to believe that every Pcr test is now going to be analysed to find what variant the person has?

When will this bullshit end?

Please send photos of crazy cats and tortoises.

PCR tests do already get analysed World . That's how they know the incidence level of the different types.

Masks mean that the rest of my Christmas shopping will now be online, probably the evil Amazon. I’m not going out and about with my mask on. Good job I didn’t burn my mask. 😂.
I’m getting lanyard for the supermarket, I can’t be dealing with the panic attacks and hot flushes, that’s not including the not been able to see or hear.
My DSis and I have decided that we are seeing our parents come what may.

@Taswama

PCR tests do already get analysed World . That's how they know the incidence level of the different types.

I don’t believe all of them do get analysed. Maybe just the positive ones?

Well we're seeing family at Xmas already care for grandchildren which has always been okay.

The government organised COP 26 many nations attended. We've had football and rugby matches with Africa countries. So politics and sports weren't suspect. Bloody hypocrites

@WouldBeGood

And if you test positive for omicron you have to isolate even if triple jagged

Even though its thought to be the mildest variant?

Every time I think things cannot get any more stupid/mad/nonsensical they prove me wrong.

OH coughing and sneezing here thanks grandchildren, triple jabbed he's not doing a LFT sticks test.

Here I am! I've currently got covid and am feeling pretty dreadful, came close to having an ambulance called out for me on Saturday night but thankfully feeling much better now. I have had antibiotics prescribed. My 5 year old has it too but she seems absolutely fine, bit of a cold. Even though I am feeling dreadful I still have the same feelings about the insanity of restrictions etc. Oldest girls school has cancelled their coffee morning and I am worried we won't get the nativity at primary school.

Oh no, get well soon @smallandimperfectlyformed

@smallandimperfectlyformed ah poor you. Keep resting . Antibiotics for complications seem quite common. As for Nativity Xmas fairs all cancelled again this year here 😞

The middle years of our school switched to an Easter play in 2020, they managed to show what they'd got so far in an assembly in mid-March 2020 but never got to do the full performance. That was DS1's class (and DS2's turn this year). The current plan is to stick with an Easter play (eases Christmas congestion) and older ones to perform afternoon and evening to spread the audience. I don't know about the younger years. It's a smaller than average school so year groups tend to pair up anyway (hence school hall getting a lot of use!)

I'm hoping they get to perform to an audience. It's a valuable, holistic learning and performing arts in a starchy curriculum.

There's an AIBU on that theme. A lot of people sticking up for nativities and the wider symbolism of constant petty cancelations of things disproportionately affecting children, and same old core of sucking it up and minimising the cumulative damage. Far more people speaking up about the toll than 12m ago and that keeps my optomism up.

Keeping my spirits up by reading this thread. Sending get well soon vibes to those who are poorly. Despairing at 40 year old, fit, slim healthy friends on Facebook waiting in telephone queues of over 6000 to book their booster jab in order to save Christmas. Scary stuff and they worry me.

Sorry 3000 not 6000

If people only read or listen to the BBC as their trusted broadcaster, it’s no wonder they are terrified into irrational behaviours. That and the headlines which sneak into the corner of our vision when filling up with fuel etc. There has been a constant barrage of fear and nudging for nearly two years, so much it’s hard to know up from down sometimes.

The overall result is devastating to the mental health of the nation.

Thank you for the well wishes everyone. Still feeling rubbish and have to isolate until 9th December at least. Waiting for home test for 6 year old, her PCR test was inconclusive. Dreading being told she's positive as well and we have to isolate even further! Not fun in a 2 bedroom flat on the 3rd floor. Worldgonecrazy I agree with you about the nudging, I really hope we don't go back to the repeated announcements over the tannoy about keeping us safe at the supermarket!

@Worldgonecrazy

If people only read or listen to the BBC as their trusted broadcaster, it’s no wonder they are terrified into irrational behaviours. That and the headlines which sneak into the corner of our vision when filling up with fuel etc. There has been a constant barrage of fear and nudging for nearly two years, so much it’s hard to know up from down sometimes.

The overall result is devastating to the mental health of the nation.

I think that's gone a long way into escalating my mask issues. It was always going to be tough to lip read, hear people, and claustrophobic when I struggle with breathing warm humidity anyway, but the months of constant bombardment of images of knacked NHS staff with only exhausted eyes as a human feature, constant adverts, and staged media images (masked children at isolated desks in classrooms) at a point when the only possible escape from it all was yet another sodding walk of people throwing themselves in hedges has really amplified my natural difficulties to the point when I can't look at face level in a masky public place, and I physically recoil and shut my eyes in response to inadvertant direct eye contact with a discombobulated pair of eyes. It's bloody tough because I'm a get out of the house person. I need people (in addition to some quiet time). Last winter it got to the point of being pretty close to having agrophobia, but I ploughed on through panic attack/ overwhelm each sodding week to buy the week's shopping to keep that habit of leaving the house, not give into the fear, and keep that scrap of normal to build on for when life improved in the spring. There were large parts of last winter where I just wanted to passively cease to be. Hibernation would have been good.

My brain didn't really unclench until mid-August. Admittedly our "holiday" to June 2020/ Ireland probably helped me to see what we did have as the petty, but grinding level of restrictions shifted slowly. My life really was not recognisably normal until September. 18 sodding months.

*

I may have bellowed a hearty "FUCK OFF" at the soundbites of spineless twats baying for yet another lockdown on the radio discussion yesterday.
Fortunately DH no longer WFH in the room above

It is quite terrifying that there is a significant, vocal minority that thinks that shutting down society is a reasonable response at any given moment. It's a long time now. We have vaccinations. We have treatments. This is not Feb/ March 2020 watching in horror as Italian ICUs fill up with a mystery illness.

The thought that there are people who want this as their "new normal" is horrifying and it worries me that they always will hanker for lockdowns for any reason. Freedoms have been hard-won for centuries and the thought that people would willingly throw it away in a world where we're fortunate not to be under regimes like the Taliban or other despotic governments really does horrify me.