To be more scared now than I was of Covid?

[Thesupercosyquilt]

I know IABU. I need to get a grip.

I wasn't frightened of Covid. The first few weeks were scary, all the uncertainty etc. But once my kids school closed, life for our family kind of carried on somewhat normally. DH and I were both out working at that point. I never thought we would catch it, we're all relatively healthy. I understood people felt differently and was sympathetic towards that, despite some of the more extreme opinions.

But now, with fuel price hikes, food shortages and now petrol being rationed, I am actually scared. It feels like all the panic of March 2020 all over again.

Don't worry, I'm not going to panic buy five million loo rolls. But I have such a sinking feeling knowing this is the start of really crap times ahead unravelling right before our eyes.

To the person who said “I wonder how many if those commenting are affected” - I will be working every hour and limiting spending. I’ve just been through years of bad times. Eventually you get bored of being scared and anxious. That ball of nervous acid in the stomach causes health problems. You realise the anxiety is pointless. So, you say how can I turn this around so I can come out better and turn this into a win? Because anxiety is self defeating and self sabotage.
In this case clearly we can

1. save
2. use less petrol
3. long term look at greener options 4)reduce our outgoings as much as possible
4. prioritise staying mentally healthy and resilient.

What choice do we have?

I was always more scared of a major economic crash than covid (once it was clear it was fairly similar to other Covid viruses - albeit more virulent but less deadly than something like MERS.) destroying the economy should never have been an option. We haven't even begun to feel the real effects of that yet. Poverty is always the biggest killer.

BP has driver issues because they pay shit a former employee said they could make more money driving a forklift truck than a BP tanker

The rising costs of everything is what is terrifying me right now. I don't have a spare penny after everything is paid as it is. Re petrol also I've used half a tank in 3 days this week of the new unleaded where my needle normally would barely have moved. Looks like I'm going to need a tank a week where normally it would be every 2.5 - 3 weeks and it's £10 more per tank to fill up than this time last year. That on top of hearing my house this winter and buying food is on a different level to any concerns I had/still have over catching covid

I think the current shortage of drivers , fuel
etc is due to BREXIT and not covid 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

What she said.

Bold fail

@Theunamedcat

BP has driver issues because they pay shit a former employee said they could make more money driving a forklift truck than a BP tanker

Yes pretty much, there have been manageable shortages for years, and despite the obvious solution being to increase pay and improve conditions, this hasn't been done. The shortage is not surprising, and wasn't unforseen, its just been exasperated and made worse by brexit and covid, but was always going to rear its head at some point.

There is no problem getting petrol in my city, and the food I can’t get from my weekly shop at Tesco I get elsewhere without a problem.

All those people commenting that fuel shortages have been seen before, are you referring to the blockade protests in 2000, or has there been some other petrol shortage crises that I’m unaware of? That was due to an entirely different scenario. It was due to road blockades as a protest at rising fuel prices, so once those protesting were persuaded to stop, the crises disappeared. This current crisis is much more complex, and systemic, we can’t just “decide” to magic up more lorry drivers, like the protestors decided to stop protesting. It was short lived precisely because the solution was relatively easy. We’re not in that situation now, this isn’t a rerun of 2000.

step away from the news
it is far too depressing

have you food in the cupboard, petrol in the car?

universal credit cuts

It hasn’t been cut, they have just removed the temporary uplift now that we have reopened everything. Employers didn’t pay people extra, if they needed more money they had to work overtime or find second jobs etc.

I do understand where you are coming, we have had a few posts on or local Facebook page during the last week so people could share which local petrol stations had petrol and diesel recently.

Quite worried about the blood test situation as well, a friend’s DC is waiting for one and clearly quite unwell but no idea if it will happen on the date booked, surgery warned it might not.

@Macncheeseballs

Not everyone owns a car

This is true. Without descending into doom and gloom what is happening also affects other forms of transport.

Supermarket is far away here and in the first lockdown it was a real problem to get there and get back.

I found myself changing my habits regarding all kinds of things.

I've got a way to go though.

Having said that I empathise regarding the worry.
For me it has been in the background for a couple of years now, I seem to live in denial for a time and then it surfaces with a minor thing happening.

I know it is a sign that my mental health isn't great.

I had my bloods done a couple of weeks ago no problems. I asked the phlebotomist about the shortages, and she said it wasn’t a problem.
DD had his done at a different place this week, again no problem.

@Volterra

I do understand where you are coming, we have had a few posts on or local Facebook page during the last week so people could share which local petrol stations had petrol and diesel recently.

Quite worried about the blood test situation as well, a friend’s DC is waiting for one and clearly quite unwell but no idea if it will happen on the date booked, surgery warned it might not.

They should still be doing urgent blood tests if there are concerns, it's routine stuff that can (sort of) safely be delayed. There is a shortage but we aren't out of them, the surgery needs to look at the local contingency plan if they don't have any rather than fob people off.

@MrsLargeEmbodied

step away from the news it is far too depressing

have you food in the cupboard, petrol in the car?

Yes, this. I check it once a day only for information and also listen to the World Service regarding other countries as I feel I should know.

And then I try to count my blessings.

It makes a good news story if we all panic, the media seems hell bent on whipping it up again.

No which is weird as I usually get quite anxious about stuff like this. I do however need petrol as my red light has been on for days. Must sort that today.

@Underamour

To the person who said “I wonder how many if those commenting are affected” - I will be working every hour and limiting spending. I’ve just been through years of bad times. Eventually you get bored of being scared and anxious. That ball of nervous acid in the stomach causes health problems. You realise the anxiety is pointless. So, you say how can I turn this around so I can come out better and turn this into a win? Because anxiety is self defeating and self sabotage. In this case clearly we can 1) save 2) use less petrol 3) long term look at greener options 4)reduce our outgoings as much as possible 5) prioritise staying mentally healthy and resilient.

What choice do we have?

Yes I kind of agree with this.

@maddening

It makes a good news story if we all panic, the media seems hell bent on whipping it up again.

I absolutely agree with this. The empty supermarket shelf picture this week could be because they’re clearing it for Christmas stuff. It’s ridiculous to go into a spin about it.

Yup and very frustrated that Borris is doing nothing about it. I didn't support lockdown at all but was glad he took action, with this he seems to be just sitting back and letting it happen. We have a massive military they need to be out driving the trucks yes they aren't qualified but I'd rather they said hey the army out driving lorries between say 11pm to 5am stay off the roads than have shortages.

Booknooks I agree with you it absolutely is the surgery. We are round the corner from friend at different surgery and 2 of us in my family had some recently.

But that doesn’t help her at the moment and means a usually healthy 24 year old is sleeping all the time, unable to exercise, sweating abnormally and breathless after a short walk with no idea of whether blood test will happen on the date it is booked as has been warned it may not happen. I’m sure they will get it sorted but rubbish for the situation to have occurred in the first place.

Yes op I'm feeling the same . This impending feeling of doom which some people don't seem to have noticed and seems quite a few people on this post have totally missed your point

My energy bills have just gone from £53 to £106 and I'm a single parent who is facing possible redundancy . Prices of everything are going up already and then these other price rises will then be passed on to us too. It doesn't matter if you don't drive, price hikes in fuel with will eventually filter down to you in other ways.

I'm also so worried about the nhs backlog

Feel like things are imploding and like you im way more scared of this kind of thing than I ever was of the virus

I'm not sure the Gov is to blame, more the just-in-time delivery /shop set up the supermarkets adopted over the last few years.
But really - did the hugely paid CEO of Tesco not ponder one day that if all the eastern europeans are leaving to spend lock down at home he might just need a few more lorry drivers to replace them. It's inexcusable of this lot of supermarket owners - they put profits first, save on drivers as everyone is shopping online, then when shopping starts again no one to do it duuuuh.
The fuel thing is another thing that should have been seen by BP etc - it demonstrates the attitude of those at the top - pay peanuts for drivers, get monkeys, Ha the monkeys leave and they have NO contingency plans.

And the gas normally comes in on tankers - Oh, tankers stuck in China due to on board Covid etc - let's do somethina about it - Oh, No let's not do anything then blame the gov when there's shortage.
The other gas thing is that it comes into Europe (which we are connected to I believe) By pipeline from Russia - oh that's a good idea to be dependent on Russian gas.
Not particulary Gov decisions, more corporate decisions.

I don’t like the way things are at the moment in that people I come across seem very fractious and stressed. Many seem to be on a tight fuse and a lot of people are losing it. I think this has caused many of the domestic disasters we’ve been seeing lately. I’m also slightly concerned about what’s coming. I’m just hoping that it’s a blip. I’m another that wasn’t overly concerned about covid either.