Anyone else feeling depressed about Covid?

[bluetuesdayy]

Cases, deaths and hospitalisations all rising.

Media drip feeding about pressure on the NHS and new variants.

Feel like it's Groundhog Day with this government. Surely they cannot lock us down completely again?

Yeah I am depressed about it.
I know more people with it at the moment than I have for a while, and it's all coming from schools.
Only about 10% of people in supermarkets wearing masks (if we're lucky).
People in work not wearing masks. Getting colder now so not as keen on having the window open.

A single parent with asthma I know has just tested positive. I am worried about her and how she will cope being poorly at home with two kids to look after who will probably get sick too. And praying (despite not being religious) that none of them get bad enough to need any medical intervention.
No news still on my teen getting his vaccine, my booster not due for 6 weeks.
People generally seeming either disinterested or actively aggressive in response to people who have concerns. And not prepared to take simple steps to protect their community like wearing a mask on the bus/in shops or doing lateral flow tests twice a week.
Government are making a monumental mess of the whole management and messaging of this.
Feel like we are all being gaslit.
Very depressed indeed :-(

Yep, I wasn't up until this last few weeks. Dc had a positive PCR test on Monday morning, there were about 10 cases in his class, no reverting back to bubbles and minimal communication about about it to parents. The only reason we took him for a PCR was that he had a positive lateral flow and the only reason we got him to take a lateral flow is because it's rife in his class and wanted to keep on top of it. He has absolutely no symptoms, so obviously wonder how many other children in his class have it and don't know as I can't imagine all parents are doing the lateral flows on their children. We've now had to cancel our half term holiday.

It's now endemic. We will all inevitably catch it at some point. Que sera

Yep, nearly 2 years, 3 lockdowns and 1 big vaccine rollout later and it’s like de ja vu. Feels like it’s never going to end.

@DoctorSnortles

How about people wear masks and keep their bloody distance, for starters?

It’s all very well flinging oneself around about lockdowns, but if people wore masks, stopped breathing on each other and stopped pretending that Covid isn’t caught from sitting around chatting in enclosed spaces we might be able to get a handle on it.

Secondary school kids need to be back in masks, too. Case rates are insanely high in my school, thanks to the government guidelines which are basically ‘Pretend Covid doesn’t exist. Open a window, but only if no-one will get too chilly.’

Totally agree

I still think a lot of the difficulty stems from politicians etc acting as though the rules didn't matter

Considering I lived with, worked with, breathed, became consumed with and obsessed with covid last year, I feel bizarrely fine now.

Not that I think it’s suddenly gone. Of course it hasn’t. But I think we are at the point where mitigating factors eg vaccinations are maxed out (whilst realising booster roll out/ teenage etc is rubbish). So my brain has accepted this is how it is.

I have been to loads of covid cases in work in the last few weeks. Of course, this is not a scientific poll as it’s my own personal experience. But they are all, without exception, unvaccinated. Last year I didn’t see my Mum except on her doorstep; for 15 months, due to my exposure at work. Neither did my kids/ her grandchildren. Now, I do. I know a small % will catch it and become seriously unwell, even die, despite vaccinations. And this is heartbreaking. But I also recall 3 years ago where I spent weeks responding to really terribly unwell people, mostly elderly, with ‘chest sepsis’, over the autumn/early winter period. Very sadly a lot of those people died. I caught a shocking chest infection, likely off these patients, over Christmas. As did most of my colleagues. Pre covid, this was just accepted as an occupational hazard.

And now it’s COVID. It’s out there, we are all likely going to get it at some point, wearing masks:distancing etc is sensible, but life has to go on as it isn’t going to disappear, esp with the testing of such a wide variety of symptoms now.

@tinyteepee, summed it up perfectly.

I just can’t stand the absence of true normalcy, and right now where I live (Connecticut, USA) we are in a very good position. But still my young kids (ages 7 and 10) need to wear masks to school, and I get depressed seeing all the shuttered businesses in my town that didn’t make it. NYC—a place where I lived for eleven years—is a shell of its former self. It’s the economical Covid fallout and ongoing fear that travel may once again become restricted, that puts me most on edge. I’ve seen my family in the UK once in 18 months (I’m very close to my parents), and would probably have a breakdown if I don’t see them as planned this November.

Yes, me. Recently witnessed a surgeon and nurse wife at very crowded social event without masks. They may have recently had it but wouldn't you at least pretend to be socially conscious?

Well I won't be "locking down". I have already given up 19 months and counting - work from home, don't leave home, wear a mask, kids education / exams ruined, online university for my oldest, still wearing masks in schools, no school at all between March 2020 and August 2020 and again December 2020 to April 2021, no leaving your local council boundaries according to Queen Nicola Sturgeon, businesses ruined.

We've done our bit, we're all vaccinated. It's not our job to "save the NHS". The NHS is not fit for purpose and hasn't been for years.

I will not be stopping seeing people in our house or their houses, I will not be telling the kids they can't see their friends, I will not stop seeing my parents.

I don't believe Johnson will lock England down again. I think Queen Nicola may well do, using Cop 26 as an excuse, and in an attempt to look in control.

@MarshaBradyo

I don't think you would find restrictions more annoying than the virus if you caught it.

Did you not read the post where I said we’ve had it in household

You do realise for many it’s mild don’t you. Particularly after double vaccination.

What an odd assumption.

Exactly- I know numerous people who’ve had it recently- and several of those with high risk aspects such as heart, lung and brain issues, currently chemo, very elderly and whole families. None of whom had anything worse than mild illness & much less that the other multitude of ie stomach bugs and flu/colds also spreading everywhere atm.

Probably because we’ve not been exposing ourselves to these either and immune systems are out of date! Get the vit d & c in!

Easy to say, @KingsleyShacklebolt, until you start to see the true consequences of a health system being overwhelmed. Read up on what happened in northern Italy and parts of the US in 2020 - including NYC, which has one of the best-resourced health systems in the world.

I don’t know what the answer is, and I’m not advocating another lockdown. Equally, I don’t believe that the British public will accept what a completely overwhelmed healthcare system will mean: no A&E, no obstetric care, no trauma surgery, bodies lying in hospital corridors. That all happened in Italy- and don’t kid yourself that that was because they have a crap health service - it’s actually excellent. But, if hospitalisation rates cross a certain threshold, no system can cope.

Didn’t they get rid of some of the powers to just order lockdowns? I’m not sure Tory MPs (much as I dislike them generally) will vote to bring them back.

The problem is, a lot of you are "not worrying" because you are not one of the nurses or doctors who will have to spend shift after shift caring for COVID patients in an understaffed, overstressed ward with half the other nurses and doctors sick with COVID or in isolation at home for a sniffle. Or teachers who will work among covid-infested students. If this continues like this, health professionals and teachers will eventually resign en masse, because they will get tired of carrying the majority of the pandemic work and responsibility on their shoulders while the rest of the population "doesn't worry" and "goes on about their life as normally". I bet they would like to, also.

I find restrictions more depressing than actual virus if you have lost a loved one I imagine you would feel differently

FFS why do people always feel the need to trot this out.
Like the PP I find restrictions more depressing than the virus...and guess what...the virus killed my mother. Stop telling me how and what I should feel.

"Masks have very little impact, they have a maximum reduction of transmission of around 20% in an "ideal use" scenario, however in a "real world" scenario they reduce spread by

I don't know what to think anymore. I'm in Ireland and our cases are just going up and up. We wear masks in public places, where I am there is 100% compliance with mask wearing, literally everyone wears them. Social distancing is still a thing. We have one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe. Teens wear masks all day at school and can be double vaccinated. We have covid passes for indoor dining etc. On paper we are doing everything right but our numbers are still going up?
I dont think we will go back into lockdown here and our current restrictions like mask wearing and social distancing have just been extended but I really don't know wtf is the right thing anymore.

Is it so much to ask, to wear a mask? I do wear a mask everywhere indoors. I think we should be responding to this as they do in Europe. Masks everywhere so that the infection and mortality rates are really low. It's atrocious that so many people are dying, completely unnecessary and frankly selfish. Watching benches of Tory MPs, none of whom are wearing their masks makes me want to weep. They really don't care about anyone.

This British self-hating thing is... interesting!

Also, Europe is not one country and it doesn't all have the same rules!

"Well, it is becoming clear that vaccinations on their own will not do it.

We can start wearing masks, using vaccination passes, washing hands, and keeping our distance"

So vaccinations wont do it but a piece of paper saying you have had the vaccine will Righty ho!

@Sunset999 You would hum a different tune if ppl in working class jobs like delivery drivers had locked down as well and didnt bring you stuff.

Surely this is going to happen every autumn/winter? Fund the NHS properly and stop curtailing our basic human rights.

I don't mean wearing masks in shops, I mean things like not seeing family, having to stay at home, having your holidays cancelled over and over again. Surely no countries can economically sustain proper lockdowns repeatedly?

Its because this shite government is so incompetent.what is really depressing,that this clown still leads in the poll.How fucking bad has it to be in this country( and I dont just talk about Covid handling) until people realise,Boris Johnson and Co. are all sharlatans and hold us for absolute fools!

My fear is that people just not giving a shit about covid or pretending like it doesn't exist are pushing up cases and the NHS is under so much pressure, I'm more concerned about that than anything else. God help anyone that needs medical treatment over the winter, I think people focus on covid as being 'no risk' to them rather than realising they'll be fucked if them or their loved ones need medical treatment for anything else.

[quote MercyBooth]@Sunset999 You would hum a different tune if ppl in working class jobs like delivery drivers had locked down as well and didnt bring you stuff.[/quote]
Not sure how exposing e.g. delivery drivers to Increasingly high circulating rates of covid is good for them, but people do like to pretend they speak for the frontline workers, when they do nothing of the sort.