Just hit me everything has changed.

[Iwannatellyouastory]

At home in UK, self isolating as I have been in close contact with someone now showing symptoms.
Listening to local radio and adverts, obviously planned/ paid for a while ago coming on in between the records.

Win tickets for a music festival in the summer, promoting test drives special deal if you book before end of March, special finance package for start up businesses, some electrical firm promoting it’s services etc

It’s like a glimpse into the past, festivals are going to be cancelled, nobody is going to book a test drive are they? Start up businesses are likely to go to the wall, unless they sell hand gel or toilet paper. Will anyone want to book electrical work unless it’s essential of course.
Big job losses already announced at airlines, mobile phone companies etc, the company that both my sons work at is unlikely to survive a downturn in business.
Me and my DH are in our sixties so not so worried for our future, healthy so unlikely to be too ill if we do get the virus. What about our kids, grandchildren and the rest of society though.

I agree OP.
My mum nearly cried in Tesco's yesterday. Not because of anything specific to now as such, more that she has always believed it will be a pandemic that kills off humanity in the end and this is what that will look like. Not this time, but this is what the beginning of the end, when it does happen, will look like
I guess it will be very split into the before and after, kind of like 9/11.

@lookcloser I think your mum may be right, I hope you and her stay well.

It’s true unfortunately that life is likely to look very different, I wonder can cinemas and restaurants survive, how people will cope if they’re suddenly out of work. There must be many couples who work for the same company/ airline and that’s it, gone.

So many people will be affected in so many ways, physically, mentally and practically too. The virus will eventually go but it will take so much with it - lives and livelihoods. The high street has been struggling for years, people have struggled by on low pay for years and this is an extra smack in the chops.

I don't think the world will be the same. I think there will be more travel restrictions, health checks...possibly more expensive travel as the aviation industry recovers.

The environment will be cleaner though. What was that Jeff Goldblum said? Nature finds a way?

My sister cried in the supermarket yesterday. She’s in Australia, pregnant with a toddler and cannot buy nappies or toilet roll because it’s all gone. Apparently most places have also run out of ventolin where she is.

It is not going to be as apocalyptic as that. Festivals will run again and car test drives will happen again!

It’s a sad situation but it brings the reality of the kindness of humans and also the worst of humanity e.g the toilet roll grabbing brigade

@FFSFFSFFS I’m not confident that these non essential things will come back, because so many people will have lost their jobs, no prospect of getting new jobs in the same industry, or trying to restrict spending to build a financial cushion in case something like this happens again.

I don’t know how many of the most vulnerable people in society are even going to get through in the short term. I work in an essential service for the local council, the plan for that service is being redrawn as we speak to focus on extreme cases only. I volunteer for a charity working with vulnerable families which has today instructed us all to not visit our clients for the foreseeable future. I also donate to a different local charity working with vulnerable families who are desperately appealing for baby milk, soap, cleaning stuff etc for the families.
Goodness only knows what homeless people are going to do if they get ill.

I agree op. The world as we know it has changed.

I feel the same. I heard the latest update in the car and almost burst into tears. I hardly ever go to church but banning it seems such a big thing. My son in law is working abroad and my daughter has an as autoimmune condition. I'm staying with her until he gets back, if he can get back. I'm 65 and retired so at least I don't have to worry about work but it is so strange and overwhelming.

I had a meltdown last night.

Our wedding is in 3.5 weeks. I know it is only a wedding but we've had the worst 4 years (4 dead babies, most recent one in Jan) and 2020 was going to be the one where something good happens. The wedding was so much more than a marriage and a party - it was our chance for some joy at long long last. I only started getting excited about 2 weeks before the virus hit as I refused to believe that nothing would go wrong. But now it has, as I predicted.

I know there are worse things happening but this was our only chance at some joy of life. I am trying to put things into perspective, there are people who have nothing and who are dying which is truly awful, but we could really do with a fucking break. Just one.

Frazzle

@Frazzlerock I’m sorry for your loss.

Frazzlerock

Just wanted to say that one day all this will be over, and you will get the joy and happiness you deserve. Fuck this disease - it’s going to mess a lot of things up, but it isn’t going to beat us!

Well I’m not sure how we won two world wars. Honestly, it’s bad but it’s not the end of all civilisation. How would you have managed in the blitz if your home to bombed to the ground? Come on all this is not helping anyone. When humans are not fucking up the planet they are clever & resilient & innovative and things will recover. Amazing scientists are working on cures and vaccines and I’m incredibly grateful that someone was into science at school because I’m shit at it. Medical staff are at the front line and all the emergency services turning out and our brilliant teachers holding on so they have a chance of getting to work. All this human sweat & tears at work will be wasted if people mope around weeping about the end of the world. It’s bad but we all need to buck up.

@Frazzlerock sorry for your many losses

God sake 🙄 things will be different....for a bit.
It’s not mad max.

How would you have managed in the blitz if your home to bombed to the ground?

The comparisons with the war just don't add up. I would have been out and about actually doing something during the war like both my Grandmothers were. Given my maternal grandmother's stories (and her giant box of military cap badges), she definitely did a lot of "socialising".

Instead I'm on day 5 of self isolation with my nearest and dearest (no underlying health conditions, I just have a horrendous cough/temperature). I have pstd and gad. The 100 plus paracetamol I have as a result of having a stupidly high pain threshold (2 x emergency sections with zero need for pain relief) are looking increasingly tempting.

Same.

It hit me the other day and then today i heard a few of the same adverts you're talking about.

Had to turn the radio off.

It's like the past was all a dream.

Or we're in a bad one now.

It's nothing compared to what some people have to endure. But it's still very hard when that realisation hits.

I've had a knot of anxiety in my stomach since it hit me.

And I'm not even too concerned for the illness. Just the uncertainty of how we'll live now. And when it'll be over.

It's scary. Big hugs to you. X

Imagine what the survivors of the spanish flu felt like. They survived 2 world wars, a seismic technological change, and the biggest financial depressions and pandemics. To be quite frank if society bounced back after that it will again - people need to get a grip. Follow all the guidance, keep yourselves and your communities safe, and things will return to normal eventually.

Like somebody else said, it’s not Mad Max. It’s not the end of the world.

My 91 year old neighbour - ok, she was only 10 when the war started but 16 at the end - says she's never seen anything like this and when I mentioned the war she said - it wasn't like this. Implying that this is worse/more extreme.

Best to limit what media you are looking at. It can become overwhelming. I tend to find comfort in seeing what the scientists are doing. There's a lot of hopeful stories in the news. Yes, a vaccine will be a long while off but the medical scientific community share their research and work for the common good of humanity. Even sharing best practice of how to treat the worst cases. We have technology and that sharing can happen at a fast rate. Things get done.

It's hard not to feel a sense of doom with our current government. My thoughts are that people can no longer live in their own bubble and pretend that we are not all interconnected in helping the world function on a day to day basis. There will be short-term distress for many people, but things will get better and whilst the world might not be the same again, for quite some time, some elements of it will be better. I say all that as a person who has fallen apart today. I've not been able to concentrate on work and have felt that sense of doom weighing down on me as all future plans are uncertain. It is hard.

Frazzle - so sorry to hear of your loss and that your wedding can't go ahead as planned.

@pudds11 that makes me feel way more normal!
I was holding back the tears in the supermarket and cried on the way home with my toddler and 4 mo. I thought was losing it! I can't even tell.you what I'm upset about... No nappies no toilet roll... not the end of the world but just the feeling, the completely bare shelves, the old couples wandering around with their lists looking for stuff that isn't there! I was so overwhelmed. These are strange times. Makes you feel lonely I think. Hope all here are ok, so sorry for your losses and about your wedding @frazzle

@Divebar thanks for the kick up the bum message, I am getting on with getting on and channelling war time spirit but I am sad for the future and what it’s going to look like.
Once I have served out my isolation time I will get back to my council job supporting our clients and I will donate to my local charity to help out. In the meantime I have an aged parent, my mum has medical problems that make her at severe risk if she gets it, and other relatives to support, unfortunately I may not see my MIL again as she is in a lock-downed nursing home and as she has a DNR she will definitely not get ventilator treatment if it comes to that.
My life is just a small snapshot and will change immeasurably as a result of the virus and I believe wider society will be changed as well.
I used to be a scientist a long time ago and have great hopes that better treatment or a vaccine will be developed.