Anyone else just think it’s great that life is back to “normal”?

[curiousitygotthebetterofme]

After two years of covid restrictions, I mean.

Was just watching Glastonbury and looking at the big crowds of people there, it’s hard to believe we have had so many restrictions over the last two years.

This time in 2020 and even this time last year I never thought we’d get back to this level of normality, well at least not for an extremely long time so I just think it’s wonderful to see everyone back together and enjoying themselves again

More "living with covid - deal with it" callousness on display here. If covid was like any it her illness, it wouldn't be the global crisis that is. And Long Covid isn't "rare", and its Omicron which has tipped me into constant pain.

But we are going to have to live with Covid no matter how we feel about doing that. It isn’t going away and there is no attitude we can have that will make it go away.

When my family dealt with two nasty illnesses in 2019, that was shit for us but it wasn’t the fault of other people being callous.

It doesn't feel like old days the economy is fucked.

@ArcheryAnnie

2% of self reported symptoms after 4 weeks is rare

I've been rather shocked at the casual callousness of some of the posts on this thread, the "some people will get covid but tough shit, we can't organise society around the needs of vulnerable people".

But then I thought what is happening is that those who either have never had covid, or who have had it really mildly or who were asymptomatic, still don't really understand that the risk of covid is far wider than that of "vulnerable people".
**
Please don’t be patronising. We understand it perfectly well. And I am CV although not CEV. I know that if I catch ANYTHING, there is an increased risk to me that the general population do not face. I know that clinically vulnerable and older people die from contracting flu and other serious illnesses that most people don’t even deem dangerous to anyone – and that is why people always went (and still do) to work and other places when carrying infections that were dangerous to some people. Covid is not the only thing out there. Post viral syndrome isn’t a new invention of Covid. Mortality and the fragility of our human lives have always been there, but Covid made us face some uncomfortable truths that we tend to ignore – there are things out there that kill us.

I am CV. I have had Covid (very mildly). I have had flu far worse. Twice. I am not saying that Covid may not be dangerous to the minority who are more vulnerable; I am saying that the minority who are more vulnerable are under threat from many more things. So no, we cannot organise the whole of society around them. That would be impossible. We cannot live in isolation and lockdown for ever. And I do not want to. Because I may be more vulnerable. But I wish to LIVE before I DIE. I cannot control when and how I die. But I can control living, and having a fulfilling and enriching life before I die. That is something lockdowns and restrictions don’t give us – and the withholding of those things has serious consequences for everyone, including the vulnerable, or haven’t you seen the explosion of mental ill health in all sections of society, caused by the psychological impacts of living an abnormal and isolating life not designed for social animals?

I am CEV and I am really enjoying this summer. Living with a vulnerability and risk is life for me, and I refuse to add misery into the mix.

If covid was like any it her illness, it wouldn't be the global crisis that is.

See it's stuff like this that really annoys me. There have been a number of global pandemics, look at Spanish flu, it killed millions and it didn't disappear it is still around we just have flu vaccines now. Swine flu was classed as a pandemic not that long ago. Plus Covid 19 isn't even the most serious Coronavirus out there, SARS and MERS are much worse.

It is the reaction to Covid that has caused so many problems.

One in fifty really isn't rare.

We just went on a cruise round the UK and nowhere were people wearing masks, except out of choice. No masks on the cruiseship either. It just felt so relaxed and normal. And then on my return, I had to take my mum to the local hospital for a minor issue. I made her wear a mask as per the instructions only to discover that none of the staff were wearing masks anymore. I kept mine on because I had a bit of a summer cold and didn't want to pass it on but it was so good for my mum.
It feels like we have reclaimed life.

Things cost more globally but I don't notice much change to my day to day life, though.

@ArcheryAnnie It is luck, yes. I have had to live with a chronic condition that was missed again and again throughout lockdowns because the GP practice wasn't seeing people in person and I was considered less important than COVID.

@Jalisco whilst I don't want to see the kind of restrictions we had between late March and July 2020 again, I think it is reasonable to change some aspects of life to reduce the risk of spreading Covid 19 to vulnerable people. Proper sick pay and not going into a workplace when positive, wearing a face covering on public transport especially planes, for example.

I also don't want 'Covid' having been an excuse for poor service, leading to those who provided poor service continuing to do so. Banks come to mind, many GPs for example.

Sympathies to you, @pucelleauxblanchesmains
Thats whats really upset and angered so many. Cancelled operations, therapies, so many assessments done over the phone rather than being seen in person, because covid might get caught and someone might get ill with it.

I can promise you, more than two years on, that many people with covid and post-covid conditions weren't (and aren't) considered at all important, either. (My teenage DS had to do much of the care for me, to my shame.)

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with the sentiments, but I think they are unrealistic. My employer offers six months full pay and six months half pay for sickness. People still go to work sick! For all sorts of reasons, none of which are to do with pay. And for those on SSP I do agree it is too low. So if we force employers to pay more, it'll be the public who pay for it in increased prices. Does everyone sign up to that? I'm fine with it, but I earn enough to afford it. For now.

I caught Covid a few weeks ago. First time. And very mild. And as I work from home due to disability I hadn't been many places. It wasn't my trip to Mexico on a plane. Or the one to Greece on a plane. Or the visit to the office for a meeting. It was going to the pharmacy where nobody except me was wearing a mask, in including six staff and the other customers, many of whom were older and potentially more vulnerable than me. I wore a mask because the poster on the door asked me to. I had been nowhere else in the five days before I tested positive. Go figure.

I'm happy to argue and pay for better sick leave, and to say that people who are sick shouldn't be in work. But I'm not prepared to limit my life. I will assess my own risk, not just to covid but to everything I do in life, and then act accordingly. Everyone else can do the same thing.

It's amazing! We live overseas and it was so liberating to take our masks off at immigration and not put them back on until we got on the plane to go home. I don't think the point of lockdowns and other control measures is to make sure noone ever gets covid but just to spread out who gets it when to make sure the NHS isn't overwhelmed. The government should have been using the time bought by lockdowns and other measures to strengthen the NHS but I very much doubt they have.

I’m sitting typing this on day two of COVID end yes, I’m absolutely delighted. I’m so pleased to have been able to go into DC’s schools this year, to have them host parties and play dates, to receive their first ever full year at school despite my eldest being in year two. I will take any vaccine to continue these times and spending special moments with people I love.

I stuck to all the restrictions, but yes completely agree with you that it's lovely to see people out enjoying themselves and socialising again.

For the overwhelming majority, Covid was never anymore dangerous than catching the common cold. Now, with vaccines and improvements in treatments it's rapidly becoming just another footnote in history. We should never have locked down in order to protect the tiny percentage of those who were vulnerable to Covid. And we should never lockdown again.

The devastating long term effect to the economy, people's livelihoods, people's mental health, student's education and people's physical health (because Covid signed the death warrant for the hundreds of thousands who's serious illnesses went undiagnosed and untreated for too long) just wasn't worth it. It was never worth it.

And I speak as someone who was diagnosed with cancer just days before the first lockdown and who's health was severely compromised as a result making me much more vulnerable to Covid than most.

@ArcheryAnnie it is luck yes, like a lot of things in life. It’s luck that you didn’t get post viral syndrome from an illness prior to covid, which some people get.

And it’s not callousness, it’s people being realistic and getting on with life. Covid isn’t going away. I know the risks and the stats. Id rather not worry about covid or all the other many viruses I could get and get on with my life. What else would you rather people did?

@peaceanddove can you elaborate what you mean by dangerous?

i get that with vaccines, the death tool has become much lower. Still much higher than flu but lower.
However, I’m not aware that flu or a cold can give 20% of people long term symptoms (aka long covid). I’m not aware that 5% of people catching the flu end up affected so severely that they can’t carry in working ( full time). I’m not aware that having a cold is increasing the risk of diabetes and strokes or CVD.

So I’m curious to see what you classify as dangerous tbh.

You do realise that vaccines protect you from death but not from long covid right?
And that about 1 in 5 people get long covid, aka lingering symptoms that just last, some of which are disabling?
And you also realise that the symptoms you are getting from covid are getting worse with the number if exposures? So the more you are getting covid, the more I’ll you get.

Vaccines are great in general. I wouldn’t do Wo the polio vaccine for example.
But the current covid vaccine is crap. It doesn’t last and only protect from death, not from being disabled by said virus. It needs to be much better for us to relax Imo.

@MumbleAlwaysMumble

Where is the 20% of people have long covid figure from?

This is the data from ONS

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/prevalenceofongoingsymptomsfollowingcoronaviruscovid19infectionintheuk/1june2022

@toomuchlaundry

Thats self reported and 'suspected' covid.

Its not unusual to have post viral fatigue.

I'm not sure how self reported post viral fatigue counts as being disabled