To think there's still that teeny weeny bit of a pandemic thing happening?

[IAmOldNow]

Not complaining, just observing:

Figures say: cases rising, hospitalisiations rising, fatalities: flat at best but if anything that'll be thanks to large scale immunisation, largely due to vaccines that may not prevent infection altogether but are, largely, proving to be pretty good at making sure the vast majority of us don't end up on a ventilator and/or: dead!

Currenrt reality says: huge client party tonight. Cue some 3k people crammed into a mostly indoors space, free alcohol, hugging, air kissing, any old thing you'd imagine from people who, literally, know and do not actively hate each other and haven't met in the flesh for two years.

AIBU to think that this is a) human and understandable but also b) bound to see 1/3 of the organisation out cold with COVID within a week?

For the record: I don't know the right answer! I went, too!

In England we recently blamed outdoor festivals.

As soon as pubs and restaurants were open I went had to go into office through out and had DC in school. I caught it not long ago of a friend who's barely left the house just me and her. We don't all catch it in mass gatherings.

Imuno-compromised people have always been around, with all the problems and risks that their lives carry.

In fact, I recently watched a pre-Covid episode of Grand Designs where a young couple were moving to rural surroundings to avoid the risks associated with living in densely populated areas (he had an imuno-compromised status).
I was wondering how their lives turned during the pandemic.

It's unfortunate for those who fall into vulnerable categories (as unfortunate as it always has been ) but no, I'm not compromising my own life just to equalise us all in misery. My misery won't un-vulnerable anyone. It literally won't.

Lightening speed?? This crap started at the beginning of 2020 and we are now almost 2/3rds of the way through 2022.

Meh. It's endemic, we have to live our lives. CV/CEV people have always had to be more careful (which includes me technically atm).

Lightening speed????! It's been over two years!!

I go into a building with 1500 adolescents every day so your party doesn't seem like a big deal tbh.

3,000 people and free alcohol. Sure fire way for your hospitality budget holder to re-establish their financial allocation after a couple of years’ hiatus.

I'm not saying it's wrong to go back to "normal". I'm saying it feels ... dissonant!

I think a lot of people don't have enough of the cognitive going on to experience the dissonance!

If the NHS would buy and distribute decent quantities of Evusheld in the UK it would be a huge step forward. And ultimately cost-saving, but the government don't seem able to understand this. For the CEV people I know, this is the single most important issue right now. I have a colleague who is still shielding and will effectively be doing so until this happens, if it ever does. He is a leading professor in his subject who used to travel the world doing conferences etc.I don't think I can link here but Google it and 'petitions'. Its a way to inject antibodies directly into the blood of people who cannot produce them in response to vaccines. I mean I'm sure its more complicated than that, but that's my layman's understanding.

Still, it struck me just how "back to normal, at lightning speed" people were. It's as though none of it had ever happened. Was still happening.

We were driving past a local hotel last might and DD made a comment about travellers returning home had to be quarantined there at the start of the pandemic. We'd totally forgotten how things were at the start, it was such a dramatic time, yet we'd forgotten until our memories were jogged.

I'm not convinced that we should be so blasé about covid now, my DD has had horrendous trouble with her periods ever since she caught it and it took her months to get over it. I was flat on my back for a week and still haven't reached the same fitness levels that I had pre-covid. DH ironically is CV and was barely ill.
But what the hell can you do, most of us are expected to go back to normal life.

Supposing 1000 did go home freshly infected though - how much of a problem is that? A certain number will be asymptomatic or won't actually develop it despite exposure due to vaccination. Another proportion will experience it as a mild cold. Some as a more severe, flu-like illness. The chance of very severe illness/death is now extremely low and (presumably for those attending a big party) that is a risk worth taking to live life!

We are all going to die sometime.
You can’t cheat death by not living, get out there and party I say.

My DF - age 82 - caught Covid two weeks ago for the first time. He’s fully vaccinated and boosted.

His response? If he’d known how minor Covid would be he wouldn’t have wasted so much of the last year being so cautious. Time is also precious for people.

I would still avoid a mass social event in the 2 weeks before going on holiday or having something important to do, just to avoid being ill.

Humans are social creatures. My view is that for most people the dangers of social isolation outweigh the dangers of covid. But we need to balance our needs with that of others. So if it’s not compulsory and hospitals are not at capacity then I think parties are great.

I think cases will rise soon due to people being crammed together on planes, then going back to work/school. Then we’re into flu season, along with windows being shut due to the colder weather.
Next round of Covid jabs due around October time.
It will be an interesting winter.

That wasn't children's experience at all. Had two in nursery at the start of this. We were lucky they kept their places their (NHS) but nothing changed. Staff wore clear face shields but otherwise didn't stop vuddling and comforting them as normal, no attempt to stop children playing together as normal.

Older one had a few weeks of homeschool later on, but other than those first weeks of the the first full lockdown we were out in the park and the beach and never had an adult try to stop children playing together there.

School was otherwise normal apart from us not being able to go to the nativity play.

Must have been horrendous for a lot of teenagers and tiny babies missed out on some early socialising and baby groups but for those who were nursery/primary age it wasn't that big a deal in my experience.

It's time to stop over thinking it & get back to normal now, unless you want the economy to get even more trashed than it currently is

That's for that.

I know someone who had it this week and it suddenly dawned on me that's the only person I know with it whereas 5/6 weeks ago I knew about 15 who all had it over a 2 week period.

(And before anyone says how - i was waiting for a major op so needed to not get or have contact with covid so everyone was telling me!)

@Ace56 A cold that even when mild, still causes lasting lung damage...

This!
can’t believe people are so desperate to recreate panic and paranoia

I had covid last month. I pretty much know I got it from being on the tube as I don’t go on it much and the timeline fits (work mainly from home etc).
The people I know who’ve been exceptionally careful, haven’t got it, but their lives are more awkward/curtailed.
I’ve been to functions and no-one I know there has got it, I saw a friend before I tested positive (outside but for 2 hours and w hugs) and she didn’t get it.
it’s all so random you may as well live your life

But what's the alternative OP? No large parties ever again? Or for how long?

As for the dissonance point, the measures taken were for public health reasons and to protect hospital capacity. Most healthy young (ish) people were never at very high risk from covid and always knew that.

Cases will likely spike again in a few weeks after millions of kids return to school but whatyagonna do? Not reopen schools in September? We just have to accept that the new normal will be cases peaking and falling throughout the year depending on things like school/university terms/Christmas get togethers etc.

If, like me, you lived alone and don't have a partner or children, it was thirteen whole weeks before you were legally allowed to see, speak to or touch another human being after lockdown started in 2020.

What? I live alone, but I was still able to see and speak to the staff in the Co-op, people in the street I might strike up a conversation with, my neighbour over the fence.... All human beings, and all perfectly legally.

I’d rather get it now in the summer than in the winter when no doubt the NHS will be under even more strain (though it’s not holding up just now either).

Anyway I and about a third of my colleagues have had Covid in the last 3 months and I hope I am still in the unlikely-to-catch it again period. Likely the case for a large number of the people there too.

I don't understand how they know about cases other than those who are admitted to hospital. If I got Covid I wouldn't report to anyone I had it.