Covid Anxiety in Friend?

[marshmallowfinder]

I have a friend who is petrified to be around other people because he is still very scared about catching Covid. I just cannot get through to him. He constantly justifies his behaviour and it is at the point where I am going to have to distance myself because it's impossible for us to do things we used to enjoy, or have any normal life together.

Does he have a point though? Are we all being too casual about the dangers? My reality has sadly become skewed by all this. Does anyone else still feel like this? Thanks in advance!

This is a very naive view. Covid, unlike other airborne diseases, attacks all major organs and the brain. No one knows whether they will just get a short lived cold like illness, or suffer something more serious. My husband suffered long covid for two years and it’s triggered again for several months at a time if he picks up any virus. Last year (so long after the pandemic had settled down) he collapsed once and it was thought he may have had a stroke. Scans revealed no evidence of one and he recovered. The medics said that they have seen and still see, lots of odd neurological and cardiovascular events in people who have had Covid. Any medic will tell you that it is not like any other disease.

I don’t think you’re over reacting - if more people paid a bit more attention to hygiene there probably wouldn’t be half the stomach bugs and viruses going around that are.

There’s a lot of coughing doing the rounds in my local town, where the majority just cough into the air, don’t put their hands over their mouth or heaven forbid use a tissue.

His response does seem extreme, especially with regard to policing things like when you touch your face. However, I would hazard a guess that he is more well-informed than those at the other end of the spectrum. There are those who speak only of the acute stage as though there aren’t already millions of people with long covid just in England. There are those who talk about handwashing for an airborne virus. There are those who ignore the tens of thousands of children who get long covid each year in England. There are those who think we can’t afford things like air cleaners in school, help to isolate when contagious, lower nosocomial infections etc. I’m yet to hear how we afford the billions and billions that covid-related health issues are costing and forecast to cost on things like the NHS, productivity, workforce, welfare bill, education.

What sort of things does he say to justify his behaviour?

Totally agree. I had it really badly, it was horrendous, I'm very worried about getting it again and opening windows would be a great start. I think people's general hygiene is worse than pre Covid.