To feel no more worried about getting COVID-19 than anything else?

[Afibtomyboy]

Just that

I’m not vulnerable. I’m fit and healthy.

It would be a serious challenge if I was very ill because I’m a single parent with no support structure. But that applies to any serious illness.

I’m no more worried about catching Covid 19 than anything else. And seeing as I am not particular worried about contracting anything in particular, it means I’m not worried about contracting Covid. It really doesn’t bother me.

In fact, with Covid one would get a great deal more support than, say, if I got pneumonia.

I’m one else completely lacking the FEAR??!

This whole things has just brought out the worst in some people on both extremes, I’m certainly not in a position to laugh at anyone nor would I want to.

I don't give a flying fig. As for elderly relatives... I AM the elderly relative. Neither of parents or their siblings are still alive so my sister & I are the seniors in our family. You under 40s should be out there living & worrying about your own physical & mental health. We oldies have had the cream of this country (free education, cheap homes, job security etc). It's YOUR time now & you only get one go at it.

I'm not at all worried about getting it. Have already had it anyway. I AM worried about the fact that I'm not able at the moment to get treatment for either me or my children for various other health problems and do occasionally indulge in 'but what if it's cancer and not gallstones' thinking.

I'm also not really worried about passing it on. My parents are both dead, mother recently. No other older relatives that I see more than very occasionally. We only ever saw my husband's parents once or twice a year, and now have stopped seeing them altogether (they don't go out at all). And somehow because of my job/ neighbours/ where I live, it is very rare for me to be in close proximity for 5 minutes or more to any elderly person. I suppose it's possible that some of the younger people I encounter are vulnerable, but I see very few people on a regular basis and no one has mentioned it. Whole days, even weeks, pass and I don't have a conversation with anyone older than I am (early 40s).

Does anyone else live like this? Am starting to wonder if it's slightly abnormal. I spend most of my time either with friends of my own age, my small children, their parents (usually quite a bit younger than me) and my students (18-21). If I go to the local pub
or cafe I'll have a long chat with the barman or my nearest neighbours. But they're all younger than me too. Oh and the gym -- but those people are all super young and presumably wouldn't come (very small and sweaty) if they were vulnerable.

OP I think that’s an oversimplified view. This is a new disease with some evidence of long running effects and it may well mutate.

My sister was mid 30s generally fine health until she caught glandular fever about 5 years ago. The illness put her immune system into overdrive and she has been left with multiple life limiting auto immune diseases. She can't cuddle her children without it hurting her and at 39 she's been told to prepare for when she can't work and eventually may struggle to walk. Complications of her diseases are complex and have drastically reduced her life expectancy, it is horrific and heart breaking. Even if you think you're in fine health you don't know how an illness like covid could impact you immediately and in the future. I am very scared of catching this and do everything to avoid it.

@Pleasegodgotosleep

My sister was mid 30s generally fine health until she caught glandular fever about 5 years ago. The illness put her immune system into overdrive and she has been left with multiple life limiting auto immune diseases. She can't cuddle her children without it hurting her and at 39 she's been told to prepare for when she can't work and eventually may struggle to walk. Complications of her diseases are complex and have drastically reduced her life expectancy, it is horrific and heart breaking. Even if you think you're in fine health you don't know how an illness like covid could impact you immediately and in the future. I am very scared of catching this and do everything to avoid it.

And you the same about glandular fever? Highly contagious

Glandular fever is still around. Readily contagious, too.

The air is full of glass. This is just another shard.

I think I have had covid (before testing was available) and it was extremely mild in the sense that I never really felt ill. The main symptom was complete loss of sense of smell, and there's the rub really....because about six months on it isn't back. It might sound trivial and it's not the worst, but it is depressing. Many or most things I can't smell. The remainder I can now smell faintly, or they smell horrible and not of themselves. I have had to switch to unscented shower gel and other products, all the things I used to enjoy just smell like burnt chemicals or rotting fish. I can't use any scent to relax or evoke memories, or just enjoy. If there is fresh paint or new tarmac or gas, I won't know. Two of those have already happened and just nothing.

I still hope it will return but I used to have a really good sense of smell and losing that is not nothing.

My bigger worry though is the fear that it may lead to Parkinsons or some other long term neurological problem, this is an increasing concern and some neurobiologists I really respect are deeply worried about it. I read an article recently by one of them, doing everything he can to avoid getting it basically for that reason.

There was also a study in I think a US prison population...nearly all had been asymptomatic but nevertheless most of those without symptoms had lung damage...I don't know what the long term outlook is there.

I am not saying people should be terrified, not at all. Just that even the mildest versions may not be as harmless as they seem.

I don’t think there is anything trivial about losing one of your senses 😨

If I were you I wouldn’t be so worried about dying but about things like long covid and damage

Same here. Only worried about giving it to elderly and vulnerable relatives. Can you pass on the flu without really getting ill yourself?

Yes you can.

I would just also check...when people say they are not vulnerable, they mean they are not in the official 'vulnerable' category from any condition that they know of?

Obviously no one, of any age or level of health, can be certain they will not have serious issues with covid. It's hopefully relatively rare but some of the most catastrophic cases would no doubt have said they were not vulnerable. Also, separately, no one knows for certain if they have an undiagnosed underlying condition.

I don't think people should panic or overly consider these hopefully unlikely scenarios. Just checking that no one actually believes they certainly can't be vulnerable.

@whirlwindwallaby

Same here. Only worried about giving it to elderly and vulnerable relatives. Can you pass on the flu without really getting ill yourself?

I heard that asymptomatic cases of flu are not contagious. Apparently that was one of the reasons they first suspected asymptomatic transmission of covid since it was spreading so much more easily than the flu.

@IdkickJilliansass

Yes you can.

People keep telling me that if you can get out of bed or off the sofa then it's not the flu, so based on that I figured I've never had it. So I could unknowingly give my grandmother the flu the same as with Covid? That's what I thought the difference was.

No I am not worried for either myself or DD.

Have been very careful seeing elderly parents through it all, though my brother went round a few days before he got ill with Covid and managed not to pass it on as they sat in the garden! Parents are pretty get on with it people and are out shopping etc with sensible precautions.

I know lots of people who have had it as I was in London in March and work as a nurse. All bar one back to full health.

I had a kick arse chest infection two years ago that left me feeling ill for months afterwards, so I know that there are lots of these types of illnesses that can do that. Its not just Covid that causes that, but I can't spend my life worrying about germs every second of the day. Got stuff to do!

I think they mean if you have mild symptoms of a rotten cold but not bed bound etc it’s not likely to be the flu but yes you can be asymptomatic and pass it on. I had the flu once and thought I might die

I really am not worried in the least. It does not enter my head. I worry more about other things like cancer which I am far more at risk of.

Even a relatively mild virus can kick off a post viral auto immune response.

Most mild viruses dont kick it off in such a large percentage of those infected though do they? What else might you catch this year that gives you a 1 in 20 chance of months of sickness? Glandular fever and ?

It's around and it's not going away. There is definitely a higher chance of getting run over or injured in a car accident, so no, I'm not too worried. I'm more worried about all the kids/teens whose education is being fucked and all the businesses that are being ruined to be honest.

Exactly the same here OP. To listen to others you would think that everyone that comes within 50 metres of someone that has tested positive is going to die. Madness.

Just watched Extinction by David Attenborough and now I’m scared of the future. There will be more pandemics, no doubt.

Anyone could pass on a virus to a vulnerable person at any time. Why is this one special?

Which other virus is so deadly to the elderly and in wide circulation? I get flu jabs yearly so no there’s not any other virus I’m likely to get that I could pass to someone vulnerable.