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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

‘D’H has announced that Covid doesn’t exist.

423 replies

OutOfLine · 27/03/2021 11:05

Name changed for this.

One year since lockdown 1 began and DH has announced that Covid does not exist.

The illness is ‘no different to flu’, he is not having the vaccine because ‘he doesn’t need to’ and if he falls ill with any symptoms listed as Covid he will not be taking a test and will phone in sick with backache or some such nonsense.

AIBU to think WTF?
Apparently he has thought this all along and decided to let us know as he is sick of ‘having his freedom taken away from him’.

What started as a chat about weekly testing ended up with this.

I don’t know what to do with this information. All year (pre. weekly testing /vaccine rollout) he’s just gone along with it all.

So, along with AIBU to think he has lost his mind, WWYD or say in this situation?

OP posts:
OutOfLine · 28/03/2021 05:38

Denying the existence of Covid is a non-starter. However, being angry and frustrated and lashing out verbally at all the things that have happened as a result of Covid is perfectly reasonable
I think many of us are utterly pissed off at the moment.

OP posts:
OutOfLine · 28/03/2021 05:47

@StanfordPines

I think the problem with Covid is that at the level that most of us experience it it isn’t that different to flu. I had Covid two weeks ago and am still recovering. Had this not been a pandemic and I just got ill I would have put it down to flu or similar. I possibly wouldn’t have even bothered the doctor.

If Covid had a unique symptom, like a very obvious rash, your ears go blue or you bleed out of your eyes (like we see in films about pandemics) then there would be no chance to brush it off as something else.

Absolutely this! I know one person who literally had a cold around March 2020 who bangs on about being a Covid survivor. A relative of mine was absolutely floored with ‘flu’ at Christmas 2019 (horrible persistent cough, temp, couldn’t get out of bed) and took Months to recover. Absolutely certain this was one of the early Covid cases looking back. The lines are blurred and it’s no wonder people are confused.
OP posts:
AlternativePerspective · 28/03/2021 06:01

I would tel him to leave.

i would tell him he’s entitled to his views, but given his stance on testing and saying he just wouldn’t isolate I would tell him that I wouldn’t be party to putting other people at risk.

Incidentally, I am always Hmm at people who say it’s “just like the flu.” Those people have clearly never actually had flu, because if they had they wouldn’t be thinking that flu is no big deal either.

FWIW, I very nearly died of flu 4.5 years ago, and I was 43, not overweight, but unbeknownst to me I had a genetic heart condition which had previously never been diagnosed. This culminated in me developing two other, additional heart conditions.

In the past 4 years I have spent numerous nights in hospital, the worst of which being 2019 when I went in for scheduled surgery to replace a heart valve, which was cancelled because the surgeon didn’t believe i would survive. I crashed anyway, spent a total of 6 weeks in hospital, 12 nights of which were in ICU, 3 cardiac arrests, 1 stint on a ventilator, 4 weeks on oxygen even when I came out out of ICU, a different procedure called a mitraclip which incidentally wasn’t licenced for use on the NHS until December 2019, so a relatively new treatment as well.

That “new” treatment has transformed my life back to a semblance of normality, but I have been told that this is a short term fix and that I will ultimately need a heart transplant, although fortunate not to be on that list yet.

And now I have annual flu vaccinations, as does everyone else who is at risk of dying of the flu. And yes, some people die, because some people either don’t have the vaccination, or they have underlying conditions they didn’t know about.

If it wasn’t for the vaccine programme the death rate from flu would also be high.

And yes, there will always be COVID, and yes, people will always die from it. But that doesn’t mean we just ignore unprecedented amounts of deaths.

I’m not a shopping bleacher either, but I won’t entertain anyone who would put me, or anyone else at risk. As you say, there is middle ground, but the difference between the two extremes is that the shopping bleachers aren’t actually putting anyone at risk although if they are e.g. transferring this fear to their children then it does need addressing.

But the deniers are actively contributing to the deaths of other people, those with underlying health conditions which they didn’t know they had. Or who because of those conditions cannot be vaccinated.

We don’t have smallpox any more because of vaccination, vaccination which incidentally was mandatory iirc.

We don’t have the amounts of deaths from measles or numbers of children born prematurely with severe SN because of rubella because of vaccines

We don’t have the numbers of cases of TB because of vaccines

I’ve unfriended about 25 people on facebook because of these kinds of views. Some of who have have been longstanding friends. I wouldn’t choose to be make friends with a COVID denier, as such I don’t choose to continue friendships with such avid COVID deniers either.

LifesLittleDeciders · 28/03/2021 06:36

I’ve never written this on MN out of all the beats I’ve been on here. But seriously. LTB. What an absolute moron.

I do wonder how the families of the people
Who have died with or from covid feel about these idiots. How absolutely devastating it must be to lose someone to an illness that others are passing off as ‘the government just want to take out freedom and sell us to the big green guys in the sky’

Put him in the microwave while he’s still got his tin foil hat on.

TryingAgain16 · 28/03/2021 06:45

I think for me the issue would be that at some point he is likely to catch it if he isn't going to get vaccinated. Is he then going to expect you to take care of him?

Is he going to pass it on to you or your DC or other loved ones in the event their vaccine hasn't worked (and there are quite a few reasons why a percentage of the population don't hold to the vaccine).

I think my next moves would depend on how he is normally. If you are at the end of your rope with him, I would see this as the tipping point into divorce. If he has been otherwise a good husband, I would let him have his moment for now and then if he carries this shit on I would fix a date in my mind at which I would ask him if he still believes all that covid crap he came out with back then and if he said yes, I would separate and divorce. These types don't improve with the keeping and you don't want to be living with a deluded loon like this in old age. Your life would be utter misery and with no upsides of any sort .

FortyFiedWine · 28/03/2021 06:47

@Nitpickpicnic

YouTube YouTube YouTube.

Brace yourself for the trajectory of where this goes next... for some reason it seems to go from ‘I have a legitimate concern about a current event thing, perhaps I’ll watch a couple of vids’ quickly down a slippery slope of conspiracy theories, then anti govt shit, then the oh-so-delightful Menz Rights. With a side serving of ‘conservative’ ‘politics’, ‘science is just one possible opinion’ and ‘all feminists are c*nts’.

After that, if you’re like the wives and partners I know, you find yourself single wondering how the hell it all happened and went so completely to shit. Honestly, it’s the new blight on society. Let me know if you find the antidote. I’ll buy a batch.

Horrifying but true. I've noticed this trend amongst the men in my social circles too. All in their 40s. I think it's the new mid-life crisis.
Cocogreen · 28/03/2021 07:06

Hi OP.
Ugh, I feel for you.
Sounds to me his mental health has been affected by the year of virus and lockdown and his fear or blood tests and needles have turned into absolute terror of being vaccinated.
Forget his absolutely insanity about it all for a moment - when he calms down can you have a conversation along the lines of “ I know you don’t want it but it will protect me as well if you get it “ ( or something along those lines) . Can he take a valium or something to calm him down beforehand?
I know he’s being an idiot but I think his fear of injections has turned his brain!

SidSparrow · 28/03/2021 07:18

Hi OP

You're man is bang on the money. I wish there were more like him.

(He is highly qualified academically)

So he has a brain. So maybe you should hear him out.

SidSparrow · 28/03/2021 07:19

*your Smile

SidSparrow · 28/03/2021 07:26

@AlternativePerspective

I would tel him to leave Jesus!! Bit extreme. Did you ask your partner to leave when you disagreed with them about something.

The flu is no laughing matter, but you had a heart condition! So it's hardly the same as a healthy person getting flu. Like covid, it's those with co-morbidities that are by in large the worst affected.

Do you have issue with the vast amounts of people who don't get the flu vaccine?

lightlypoached · 28/03/2021 07:29

@TriggersBroom Thanks

FlyingBurrito · 28/03/2021 07:39

@SidSparrow

Hi OP

You're man is bang on the money. I wish there were more like him.

(He is highly qualified academically)

So he has a brain. So maybe you should hear him out.

The OP has been quite clear that his academic achievements are not in medicine or science. She has listened to those who have those qualifications to form her views, who then would change their views based on what someone who doesn't know what they are talking about thinks?

No sensible person would think that was the right way to make decisions.

AlternativePerspective · 28/03/2021 07:41

The flu is no laughing matter, but you had a heart condition! So it's hardly the same as a healthy person getting flu. Like covid, it's those with co-morbidities that are by in large the worst affected. except I didn’t know I had a heart condition, and that is precisely the point. No-one knows they don’t have an underlying medical condition. People think that it couldn’t happen to them, until it does.

Remember that 13 year old who died and people were so upset because he was “a healthy 13 year old,”? He wasn’t. He had an underlying condition he didn’t know about which meant that COVID killed him. Except now people seem to have forgotten about him because those with underlying conditions, the elderly etc have just been considered disposable by the rest of society.

Except healthy people who catch COVID are becoming seriously ill. Not everyone who is taken into hospital has an underlying condition. Not everyone who calls an ambulance because of breathing difficulties has an underlying condition, and more importantly, most of those who have reported having long COVID don’t have underlying conditions.

As for whether I would leave my partner based on a difference opinion, well of course that depends on that opinion doesn’t it? If it’s a difference in opinion on what to have for dinner then no of course not. If it’s that he was an antivaxxer conspiracy believing moron who has no regard for the lives of others then bloody right I would.

SidSparrow · 28/03/2021 07:58

@FlyingBurrito

You don't need a degree in medical science to realise we're being had. If he is academic then I'm sure he can apply his brain to other matters.

@AlternativePerspective What do you suggest then, we all stay home like frightened little rabbits in case we might have an underlying health condition. And you didn't answer me - do you have beef with people who don't take the flu vaccine? Life has to resume and it's people like you holding it up. Healthy people are catching covid, very very very few are seriously ill with it. Were you in an uproar in 2018 when flu was really bad that year (killing more young people than covid ever did). Were you wanting masks and lockdowns and mass vaccination then? Do you not drive in case you might crash.

It's about time people learned to live with covid and let people get on with their lives. The vulnerable are vaccinated so time to move on. If you're still scared then stay home and get your shopping delivered. I've done lockdowns and played by the rules but now it's over and anyone wanting this to continue is extremely selfish to the vast majority of people who can and want to get on with their lives.

NinePremium · 28/03/2021 08:00

This reply has been deleted

Withdrawn at the user's request

GreyBow · 28/03/2021 08:22

I sincerely hope any adults who have never been to the optician do not drive!

The DVLA recommend all adults who drive have an opticians appointment every two years. Personally, I think that should be the law, rather than a recommendation. But if you caused an accident and it was found you had never been seen, I think and hope the police/ a judge would take a very hard approach.

DH and I have 20:20 vision. We go every two years, and we pay extra for the extra scans to keep an eye (Ha!) on our sight. The DC go every year. Yes, we all go to the dentist every 6 months too.

mostlydrinkstea · 28/03/2021 08:22

It sounds like he is scared. He is feels shame because he is scared. To stop the feelings of shame he has to find something outside himself to place the blame. If Covid isn't real then he doesn't have to feel the shame of fear of needles or whatever he is anxious about. So Covid can't exist. If there is no virus he doesn't have to face his fear or mange his anxiety.

As this is all happening at an emotional level there is no point arguing with it because it isn't about a reasoned out argument but an adult man who can't manage his anxiety and fears.

Can he talk about his feelings at all?

GreyBow · 28/03/2021 08:24

Don't know how that ended up on the wrong thread 😆

Your husband is ridiculous though 🙄

SidSparrow · 28/03/2021 08:34

@GreyBow

Should have gone to specsavers by the look of things Grin

GreyBow · 28/03/2021 08:37

@SidSparrow 😆😆😆

MoreWater · 28/03/2021 08:42

I think that people like your DH overestimate the agency that they had in their own lives pre-Covid; and even if they don't, how much did they take advantage of it before all of this?

OutOfLine · 28/03/2021 08:45

@GreyBow

Don't know how that ended up on the wrong thread 😆

Your husband is ridiculous though 🙄

Haha!! I was wondering where you were going with that! 🤣
OP posts:
Randommother · 28/03/2021 08:47

I can't tell you how much I detest the Covid deniers / anti-vax brigade. The problem is people get suckered in to believing their arguments, with potentially devastating consequences. My mum is a prime example, she's mid 70s with a host of medical conditions that mean Covid would most likely be fatal for her, yet she's refusing the vaccine. She lives alone and spends a lot of time on Facebook and YouTube, I've looked at some of the sites she follows and the misinformation there is horrific, but there's no persuading her. It's like a virus in itself - The Awake vs the Sheeple...

I think part of the problem is that people watch films like Contagion, and expect pandemics to play out Hollywood style, which clearly doesn't happen in reality. We're all very weary now after 12 months in lockdown, and for those who haven't seen the devastating effects of Covid first hand it's only natural to feel frustrated and start to question why. The internet is rife with misinformation, so you can see why people get suckered in to believing it. I wish I knew how to make my mum see sense, I've given up trying now.

ssd · 28/03/2021 08:49

I think people with his views should be happy to sign something saying they won't need an ICU bed if they get covid, as it doesn't exist.

SidSparrow · 28/03/2021 09:00

@ssd

Yes, and whilst at let's deny treatment to smokers, the obese and those who take part in risky hobbies.

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