Is anyone vulnerable still isolating? Covid

[KindredPoodle]

My father was told to isolate years ago during the first wave of covid, because some immune suppressant medication he had to take every few years made him temporarily clinically vulnerable.

Years later, he is still following this advice and claims that he still had to isolate for safety . He sees nobody, insists on washing the food delivery in bleach solution, quarantines the post and doesn’t allow my mum to go into anyone’s houses or get close to them. It suits him because he’s naturally antisocial and quite controlling, but it’s destroying her life.

So my question is, is ANYONE else who was told to isolate (back when covid was a big scary unknown threat, and we had no vaccines or knowledge of how to treat it) still isolating? My sense is that very few are, and my dad is doing it out of some combination of fear, mental health and habit

I only know one household still properly "shielding" and they may be able to stop now as the person they were protecting- friends father with end stage heart failure- passed away at the weekend. They'd had very few trips out since 2020, all used masks and were very careful about crowded places and meeting up in open air settings if possible. Friend has quite serious asthma herself so I would expect her/ them to still be careful to a degree -dad aside - anyway .

However, I would say my friend also had mild, undiagnosed agoraphobia before the pandemic- she retreated hugely in her early 20s after a bad situation with an ex boyfriend and has subsequently always expected us to come to her etc - would change plans not to go out and have us visit her last minute - but it will be interesting to see how she mentally and socially rebuilds now.

Otherwise, we still take some precautions if we think or know we've been exposed to avoid spreading it - especially to our own more vulnerable relatives- but we now live normally I'd say 98-99% of the time. I will pay for tests if I need a kit asap as I want to know if I have covid or not as I want to keep track of how often I have it. I'm terrified of getting long covid. I had the flu aged 16 and then had fatigue I couldn't shake for months til the reason was found. It was awful and frightening- I don't want such a thing again or to pass it on. We mask up if we've got it and need to go out and we tell people if we have it. My friends advise if they think or know they have it too and we all avoid for a few days.

People tend to stay off work if they're sick enough with it, then wfh or mask up if they must come in where I am. If it's actually known to be around in the office, everyone's careful. Otherwise we try to carry on. DHs office had it spread like wildfire after someone brought that very rapid variant to their Christmas party. A party DH was pressured into attending. Having both had chest infections that kicked in hard on Christmas Eve the year before, I was livid when we got Covid for Christmas 23 and his colleagues were surprised how angry I got! They were very good about letting people wfh 100% until they felt safe to come back in though. Probably helped after DH pointed out that I hadn't been at their party but was currently in bed shivering and in a cold sweat, having my own booked holiday ruined because of one of their employees. I will be spending Christmas with my parents this year- we've just discovered my 89yo DF has heart failure- and I probably will be a bit extra careful when sniffle season starts.

Exactly this.

Moaning about sick pay doesn’t really cut it when you don’t have a job because of LC.

So you want others to lose their jobs because they keep taking time off for a mild for them illness?
It's just not going to happen people have to work .

Yeah, it does.

There isn't a mechanism by which some people being unable to work due to long covid makes the rest of the population able to survive on SSP if eligible for it, and no sick pay if not.

What if you already have a serious chronic illness and you’re desperately battling to keep your job and minimise time off sick so you don’t lose the roof over your head as you have a mortgage? Do those people not matter? It’s a bit unfair to say it’s “moaning about sick pay”. It’s a constant state of anxiety and worry for some of us. Surely you can empathise with that if you’re sick and unable to work? I am single - if not me, nobody can support me financially. UC wouldn’t cover my costs, I’d have to give up my home as well as be devastated due to the loss of the career I love.

My niece shielded and stopped. She has be hospitalised 3 times this year one of which we nearly lost her. Scary stuff.

She chooses to take the risk and live her life, probably partly to do with being younger and feeling you can fight anything with pure will. Your dad and anyone with immune issues are adults and should be allowed to and supported in his own choices too.

But that was part of it. The worry and stress about money.

Woman in 'despair' after shielding from Covid for years www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-67754668

Impact of Covid-19 on vulnerable to be studied at Bath University www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-66255050

www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/report-into-ongoing-impact-of-covid-19-on-immunocompromised-people-launched-in-parliament/

Covid is going to spread anyway, regardless of what people do.

If you are long-term sick and need government benefits to survive, those benefits are only being paid because other people are working and keeping the economy ticking over.

I was up until 8 weeks ago as both OH and I have serious lung conditions. His worse than mine.

Then someone broke our rules around no visiting us until 3 days clear of symptoms because they thought we were overreacting and making a big deal out of nothing as it's just a cold.

i ended getting emergency treatment after getting very sick and my O2 saturation plummeted. My partner died.

I don't see the point in isolation anymore. At least if I die next time we'll be together again.

@DoAWheelie

I’m so so sorry. That must be so hard.

Thanks for the compassion.

As l spend yet another day lying in bed looking out of the window, wasting my life away unable to do anything at all.

Knowing I’m ‘spending’ your money makes me feel so much better.

I have compassion for both sides. For people like you but also for people who have no choice but to go about their lives even with potential Covid.

I spent my whole life without compassion from society due to being immunodeficient. I do get it, why should they care about such a tiny minority? You learn to be pragmatic. It’s selfish to take an actively infectious chicken poxy child to soft play because it’s boring at home and raining. It’s not selfish for a low income, zero hours worker to attend their place of work with a cold if they have no sick pay and significant financial worries.

I’m not trying to be nasty, I’m pointing out the basic fact that money to help the long-term sick support themselves needs to be found from somewhere. That’s just a basic reality.

In only four years, it's already one in thirty directly affected just with long covid. How are we planning to fund that as that figure increases?

The current policy seems to be bury our head in the sand and not think about that question. Even though institutions are warning about the economic costs of covid.

Where is that number from? According to this approx 17000 people in the UK have long COVID. That's less than 0.03% of the population. 1 in 30 would be 3% of the population.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1257373/long-covid-sufferers-in-the-uk-by-region-country/

I’ve read somewhere it’s 1 in 38

1.9 m have long Covid in UK. Office have national statistics published in April l think

Here

https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2024/04/25/exploring-findings-from-the-winter-covid-19-infection-study/

I think it depends on what definition of 'long covid' you use. The ONS one is pretty wide.

I’d say the ONS one is a conservative estimate.

17000 versus 1.9 million - they must be using very different criteria!

Can you say more about that? It defines long covid as anyone with any symptoms after 29 days.

https://x.com/catinthehat/status/1785973194970542251?s=46&t=G9BWOZlYGPa11_pR7aKkbHQ

I'd agree they should specify how many people haven't given a time period for their symptoms. Can't see the full article, but that seems a significant omission.

The assumption by the tweeter that people who haven't cited it are more likely to have had longer term symptoms is utter guesswork, though. Better to simply set out the numbers who didn't give a time frame. It's an assumption to say that the numbers are significantly understated, as the tweeter did. We do not know.