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!

@IAmOldNow I think isn't saying it shouldn't happen. But don't you all have moments where as she says your experience cognitive dissonance. I know I do, despite being part of the back to normal brigade there are moments where it just causes my brain to spin. It's really hard to hold the truth of the last few years and the reality of now sometimes I think. And yes it does feel quick to me too (and I don't mean too quick) just that we'd all become conditioned into certain behaviours that began to feel normal and now would feel alien again.

I agree many of us are dealing with trauma because of the events of the past two years. It's interesting though that neither you nor anyone else around you in that work meeting appeared to consider that once covid was out, the ways we had to actually try and meaningfully control it were also going to mean some of the weak ones dying and being cost their sanity, because that was an inherent part of serious restrictions. And that's the missing part of your analysis here. 'So what about everyone else' has to include the people who were and will be vulnerable to harm from our attempts to protect those most vulnerable to covid. It isn't in your post.

But in answer to your question about whether humans are too social to be good at pandemic management, yes. We wouldn't have got to the position we're in now if we weren't very social, and pandemics have been with us since we started living at concentration because we simply aren't able to do what it takes to eradicate all of them.

Agreed - not to mention lots of single people had jobs where they still had to go to work duting lockdown - supermarket staff, delivery staff, NHS staff, school staff, care staff etc etc. And funnily enough the supermarkets, hospitals & schools were still full of people mixing.
Complete self isolation was a luxury not afforded to everyone because society did still have to work. But now it's time everyone returned to normal (unless CEV)

Being told others' deaths lay on your little shoulders and you had to "get jabbed" to save them. Not seeing faces in the street, no smiles, just wild eyes behind surgical masks. Deprived of touch and sights that literally aid early brain function. In fight or flight and surrounded by fear and the prospect of death. Solidified in the belief that only the big loving embrace of pharmaceutical preparations can help us all while eradicating our own natural microbiome by scrubbing in to dinner.

So what about everyone else' has to include the people who were and will be vulnerable to harm from our attempts to protect those most vulnerable to covid. It isn't in your post.

Yes, I agree absolutely.

As a teacher I've seen first hand the impact of lockdowns on children and teenagers
And it has been devastating for some of them, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, whose parents didn't take them to the beach most days like a previous PP .

Surely the time to “question it hard” ugh was before the party, not after?

Also, how you can say you had a great time after being groped three times is beyond me.

But that aside, it’s surely not a surprise to you that humans, essentially social animals, have missed being social and want to go out and do stuff again.

@orangeisthenewpuce I think it's extrapolated from things like wastewater analysis, hospital admissions and so on.

Cases will continue to rise and fall, but vaccines were a game changer, I'm fully vaccinated and caught covid for the first time a few weeks ago ,it wasn't pleasant and I felt really grim for about four days ,but it wasn't the worst virus I have ever had either.

I don't know anyone who has had it and it's been just like a cold even though this is said all the time.

I think we're all profoundly affected by the last 2 years, it's been a really horrible time

I've landed in a place where I only want to be fully free or totally locked down - I'm NOT saying that's right, it's stupid

No one I know talks about covid, everyone’s accepted it’s here to stay like any other virus. But you seem more concerned with people’s attitude towards a virus than the fact you were groped three times. I would say having a great time at a party and being groped seems dissonant to me.

I have seen several company conferences become super spreader events in the last month or so, and they were much smaller.

We have lived without any restrictions for over a year now, yes 2020 and the first few months of 2021 were extremely rocky but that doesnt equate to a person's whole childhood.

I agree about the feeling of dissonance - you suddenly remember that two years ago it felt unimaginable that we could ever go back to socialising again, or you think - did that really happen? Shouldn’t this feel wrong?

Thr first time I went to a premier league football match post-covid I cried - to hear all the singing and chanting and the stadium full, compared to when it was all silent and empty (and I don’t even like football!). The next time I went I forgot it had all ever stopped.

(Oh and we all caught covid from that first football match).

I caught covid in February, I was really ill for 8 weeks, narrowly missed hospital as I begged doctor to give antibiotics a chance to improve the pneumonia (the first lot hadn't worked so got stronger ones) So here I am six months later, still too exhausted to do much, still not breathing well. I'm worried about catching a cold this winter as my breathing is already so bad. The mild arthritis in my hands flared up while I was ill and has steadily got worse.

The funny thing is when I had it the first time I didn't even notice it, found out by a random test so even if you've had it mildly you can't expect it to be the same the next time.

I'm my husband's carer so just have to get on with it, doctor thinks that is probably part of my problem as I couldn't rest enough when I was really ill. I'm off to the shops this morning and life goes on but I think I've aged ten years in the last six months and don't want to get it again.

I wouldn't blame you resenting it at all.

Tonight, I have been called "darling" and "love" more times than I care to remember, groped (bum x2, breasts x1),

Not the point of this thread, I know, but how depressing that you get low lifes who grope women at events like this, or at any event.

Are men bolder these days? I can honestly say that I have only once in my life been groped, and that was on a very crowded underground train in the late 1970s. Why do men think they have a right to do this?

Back to your question. It feels like there are more people getting it at the moment. I know several people who have succumbed to covid recently and felt grim for a few days, but made a complete recovery. All were vaccinated.

Australia fielded a covid positive player in the T20 Commonwealth Games Cricket game.

That for me was it - if Australia have accepted it to that point

On the other hand off to the Caribbean at the weekend and will still have to wear masks indoors

For monitoring, we still have a protocol in place at work whereby staff are required to report they have covid to their line manager. Loads of people in my organisation had it about a month ago, me included.

Did it see anyone ‘out cold’? No. Not one of us went off sick.

I work in a school so we have had loads of staff absence through people having it and nearly everyone comes back to work saying it was like a bad cold or mild flu, including myself. Same with the pupils.
I'm not saying some people don't get it worse, of course they do but that is unusual in my experience. It's said all the time that it's just like a cold because that is the experience of most people, no other reason.

I'm recovering from my first bout of Covid at the moment. I attended a funeral and unknowingly passed it around before I tested positive and it has taken 5 others out that I know of so I feel terrible but I tested before I went (negative) so I don't know what else we are supposed to do, other than lock ourselves away if we absolutely don't want to get it from anyone else.

Fortunately, everyone who got it was vaccinated (2 elderly and one going through cancer treatment) so hopefully they won't suffer much more than I have. I had become quite complacent to be honest about Covid but this has mad me realise how rife it still is.

Will it stop me going about my life though? No...I have already had to cancel my birthday plans due to having it and I am really looking forward to the next few weeks (although granted most of my pans are outdoors).

But yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of your party comes down with it!

That's.a bit over the top ,i don't disagree we had it rough in 2020 and the first couple of months of 2021 ,but things have pretty much got back to normal, with no restrictions for over a year.

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor ·I had it in April and I have had far WORSE colds. For the majority, it does only present some rough cold-like symptoms. Out of 5 of us, nobody felt that bad, and 2 wouldn't have even thought they had it if they hadn't tested.

I don't think about it anymore, if I get it, I get it, and I won't be testing anyhow so it would be a few days at home until I felt better just like I would with any other illness.

Does anyone think covid is going to disappear in the next 150 years?

@gotelltheoldmandowntheroad 🤣🤣🤣

@orangeisthenewpuce I had to talk to my GP because my fibromyalgia was very impacted and I needed a higher level of pain killers than were available over the counter. Just one reason out of many for it being reported officially I imagine.