Anyone still suffering lockdown fallout?

[EmmaEmerald]

I don’t want to tag any of the original people who helped me out a lot as I know this thread will attract a lot of nasty folk

but every so often I feel absolutely in shock still at how the fallout goes on.

suppose I’m seeking reassurance it won’t be like this forever but it might be, I guess.

What use is a carer who infects you with something likely to kill you? Lowering standards of safety isn't the answer.

We need to raise the status of carers, improve pay, make sure foreign candidates can get visas and come here.

Just to check, you know I'm talking about vaccination right? Covid positive carers are another issue again.

And yes, we did and do need to do all of those things, but we were clearly not going to achieve them in 2021 in the middle of a pandemic. It took a long time for the care sector to get into this mess. Which is why it was such a terrible idea to bring in the vaccination requirement for carers. It did a huge amount of damage that we didn't fix by getting rid of the rule, and the bed blocking and care worker shortage has fucked over huge numbers of vulnerable people.

It was an appalling policy, and it doesn't become less appalling because we wish we weren't in that mess to begin with. It made a bad situation even worse.

@Iwasafool "What use is a carer who infects you with something likely to kill you?"

2022 & 2023, my mother spent many weeks being cared for by nurses in hospitals and carers in a care home. They were superb. We are grateful to them all.

The point is, you are in that situation because you need the care. She could have caught anything off any of them and in her frail state, we are aware that might be the end.

But the point is, she needed the care. I used the Tube to visit (probably the staff used it yo get to work) - she could have caught something from me!

And both hospital and care home talked to us both, in depth, about the problems caused by attempting mandatory vaccination, and exodus, and with remaining staff telling us things like "I don't want my kids growing up to be treated like this so I'd rather they didn't work in healthcare".

Mum and I didn't mind at all about unvaccinated carers. We were extremely grateful to them. We are both vaccinated, that's our choice. We want others to be free to make theirs.

My late father worked in healthcare. He could have brought something deadly home any day. Some risks have to be accepted. I appreciate his job maybe made us have a different view than those who seem never to have heard of infectious disease before....but I am genuinely baffled at the attitude of people who seem never to have been aware of infectious diseases before!

Attempting mandatory vaccination, and bringing us dangerously close to a two-tier society of vaccine passports, is one of many ways the government shot themselves in the foot in gaining public respect. Incidentally, a shop near me had this little altar to the prime minister. (Said shop has since closed down.)

And both hospital and care home talked to us both, in depth, about the problems caused by attempting mandatory vaccination, and exodus, and with remaining staff telling us things like "I don't want my kids growing up to be treated like this so I'd rather they didn't work in healthcare".

Yep. People need to understand that deliberately and avoidably creating a situation that worsens staff shortages means you are lowering safety standards. In a way that can't be fixed just by changing the stupid rule once you see how wrong you were. When people are stopped from doing a job, they don't just sit there on a shelf ready to be slotted back in once it becomes politically desirable for them to return.

Care workers were applauded every Thursday night. They went out in the first very scary few weeks when no one knew what COVID was. There were videos of people just dropping dead in the streets being circulated and videos of people in hazmat suits spraying the streets.
They selflessly took the risk that they would be exposed to a disease that we didn't know the profile of, in order to provide care.

Then, after many exposures, they became the most selfish, dispensible people ever.

@EmmaEmerald

There is an (old) but interesting article here about different countries and their approach to mandatory vaccination.

I think however much we blame our government and Boris, there was a global mandatory response to varying degrees.

With a global pandemic, it’s pretty much a given that we’ll follow what our
neighbouring countries are doing.

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/countries-making-covid-19-vaccines-mandatory-2021-08-16/

No not all of us, the ones who didn't want to put the safety of the vulnerable first. Of course not everyone felt like that, most people I know and worked with felt it was their choice which of course it was.

By the way as someone who was working in care at the time with a nurse and a doctor in the family none of us clapped on a Thursday night. Feelings varied between it was pathetic/useless/insulting/patronising.

No you change he rule when conditions change, our government were slow in making the change. That doesn't make the original decision wrong.

As I said no one I worked with would have put your mother in danger by refusing vaccination. Our home was 100% vaccinated. We have a doctor and a nurse in the family and they both had their vaccinations as soon as possible as they believed it was the responsible thing to do.

Of course we can't protect everyone from everything but we should protect people where it is possible.

I know about infectious diseases thanks, I was a child in the 50s when polio was rife in my city, I went to school with kids in calipers and kids died. When they arrived at school with the polio vaccines everyone just lined up.

I also remember smallpox outbreaks in the 60s and 70s. There was a doctor's surgery in the road where I lived, there were queues down the road till late at night as the doctor worked a 14 hr day protecting his patients.

So you can forget your patronising comments about people not knowing about infectious diseases.

The conditions in which they made the decision are what made it a stupid one.

It was wrong because it drove workers out of the care sector that weren't replaced, making everyone less safe and fucking over the NHS, and they knew this would happen but did it anyway. It's completely indefensible.

@Iwasafool so how is it you don't know about the crisis situation re staff? And how did you not see it coming a mile off? It was so predictable.

Thanks to people who posted

I'm trying not to be too depressed and didn't come back to thread as it's all so depressing and I really was on the edge (yet again) when I posted.

I did spot the poster effectively telling the suicidal ones to pull ourselves together - but just kept quiet in order to get through the week.

But I really appreciate many of the posts.

On a rare night out this week, I was really surprised how often the L word mentioned - I never talk about it IRL but I got the impression there's a delayed reaction, some struggling to recover still, others have had friends vanish on them, and there's a kind of domino effect...one person cba, then it sort of spreads.

I do really want to put the "lockdown suicidal period" behind me and to that end, I should probably come off on MN, but end up hanging around as many evenings and weekends, it's the only "company" I have.

I'm very glad that people found their social circle just fell back into place.

I know there's likely to be a kind soul asking what I tried to get mine back on track. The answer is - everything. I tried everything.

I also tried meeting new people. Nothing has worked, so I just have to accept things the way they are.

Those in the same boat - I wish you all the best. 💐

@EmmaEmerald

@Iwasafool The elderly parents board is an interesting read post Covid. I wonder if the emotional blackmail the NHS sometimes use to try and get people to take on the care of elderly relatives has ramped up since Covid. Due to the exodus of care workers.

I agree with @OrangeMarmaladeOnToast The vaccine mandate was fucking insanity. And your posts made some really good points Orange.

Unfortunately hindsight is an amazing thing and my attitude towards compulsory vaccination changed radically when it became clear it wasn't the kind of vaccination that means you simply don't get it but the kind where it means you 'might' be less ill. Vaccinated or not it still meant we could be passing it around anyway- so by that point I was very much of the opinion it should be personal choice - I myself got neurological problems immediately after 4th vaccine - and I am now not anti vax but I personally won't be having more. I've improved but 18 months later I still have some very uncomfortable issues with neuropathy in lower legs, weird twitching sensation in toes at times and migraines a few times a week at back of head , plus dry eyes , none of which I had before. If patients were getting it whether staff were vaccinated or not then I don't really see the point in decimating staffing levels based on dogma- it would be better simply daily testing on arrival and sending home staff testing positive.

@JenniferBooth Hi! Always good to see you. 😊

Was interested to read your update - do you think your life changes would have been the same regardless?

Going to leave PMs open for a bit in the hope that the "pull yourself together, pathetic suicidal woman" folk have the decency to zip their lip for a couple of hours. After that I'll go to bed early.

@EmmaEmerald I guess it may have happened regardless I just suddenly got really really scared i would never see him again. It took a lot of guts to write to him and i discovered he was feeling the same. Ive just got back from there. Id been with him since Thursday morning.

I think for a lot of us who were going through lockdown and perimenopause/menopause at the same time the lines may be blurred. Coping with both menopause and lockdown will have been hard for many women.

We were lucky nothing awful happened to our family. It wasn’t easy and the lockdown in the country we live in was longer and more draconian than the UK and we had a newborn but tbh I’ve mainly forgotten about it now. It just doesn’t feature as particularly traumatic for me. Difficult, unpleasant but not something that would give me any kind of long term issue.

I can completely understand people who lost people or suffered because of lockdowns.

@EmmaEmerald its always good to see you too.

@EmmaEmerald

I think I‘m definitely still feeling the fallout. Life feels different. Everything feels a lot more frail. I felt disheartened at Christmas : presents etc, the consumerism. I keep looking at things thinking : this is crazy, why is this necessary. I took my daughter shopping yesterday :and the amount of clothes, packaging, waste. I was at my happiest this week at a deserted beach, watching my children play. It felt so natural, open and away from the adult world we’ve created.
One of my children is autistic, and I feel like there is this constant pressure to ‘adult’ him. E.g. is when adults want you to eat, this is what you should eat, you need to eat with a knife and fork : because it’s what the adults want.

I think things need to change : education, consumerism - I think we need to strive for a more natural, childish, innocent way of living.
I’m sorry you feel so down, you’re not alone. X

Yes. We need a new system.

There is no system to have in place for a Novel Virus.

Well, apart from a Quarantine....................

Like this you mean

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/london-wiltshire-novotel-england-india-b937988.html

All about the health though innit!!