I’m a cleaner in a hospital and I’m really scared

[Reallynotok]

My children’s school is closing.
My partner will be asked to stay at home.

Meanwhile I’m expected to keep going to work where I could easily pick up this virus and bring it home to my family, every day.

I’m shit scared of getting it myself because I don’t want to die and leave them and I’m shit scared of passing it to my family in case they die.

At work we’re all ‘keep calm and carry on’ of course. And I really want to do my job and do it well, I love my job.

But I’m sat here in tears scared out of my mind by all the uncertainty and the worry that we won’t be safe.

I’m fucking terrified and just need to share it somewhere because I can’t say this to anyone in real life.

Gloves and aprons, that is all.
Only the deep cleaners get extra PPE, and only in ‘at risk’ areas.
I thought everywhere was at risk?!

I think many of those working in the NHS are scared. My neighbour's a consultant working in acute medicine - in other words the early stages of managing all sorts of illnesses.

His wife will have to stop working. She's barely seen him for days as he wont come home until he has been tested in case he infects her or the children. She said has absolutely run off his feet.

I'm not surprised you're worried OP Thank you for what you're doing you're saving lives just as much as the medics by keeping the place clean even if it's not as immediately obvious

You're not being silly or foolish at all. It's scary.

The good news is that even if you did pass it to your family, you don't sound like you have any high-risk people in your household.

But I think you're enormously brave. Thank you so much for what you do.

I do think we have to bear in mind that there are 66,000,000 people in the UK. If 500,000 catch this, that's 500,000/66,000,000 × 100 = 0.76%. Take up of flu vaccine is hideously low and the risks from measles and whooping cough are much higher and a swathe of people don't vaccinate their children.

Where do you get 500,000 from?

Government itself was talking about figures of anywhere between 65 -85% of the UK public contracting this at some point over the coming months. That's 43,000,000 to 57,000,000 cases.

I hope to high heaven the change of tack in the last few days means that only 500,000 cases emerge in time. That would be a miracle given how intransigent the Govt's approach to this has been over the past few weeks

Rafa it's an example to show a little perspective. At present there are less than 3000 confirmed cases and an estimate that 25,000 to 50,000 may have had it and be undetected.

XDown those figures relate to the numbers required for herd immunity.

I honestly think this needs to be kept in perspective.

Xdown is right. 81% of the population were predicted to contract the virus if no measures were taken. This will have come down somewhat with suppression measures but certainly not as low as 500,000.
It’s estimated that roughly 1000 people have this for every death so currently around 104000 people have it.

Hi OP, nurse in a hospital here. I have felt scared too, as have been working all over the hospital whilst pregnant. Now having to self isolate, but just want to say I understand where you are coming from. It sounds like you and your family are pretty ‘low risk,’ but it’s still scary.

Thank you for all you do, we couldn’t do our jobs without you doing yours.

Op what you do is brilliant (and I'd say that all the time not just in the current circumstances). Thank you.

Pack it in @Flaxmeadow no one wants to get ill with this. Just because you'll be ok doesn't mean you aren't bothered for many people.

OP thank you so much for the work you do. It’s perfectly legitimate to feel scared. I would too.

My friend suggested a trick for calming anxious thoughts that I quite like - 1. Have a mantra “I can handle this. I will handle this.” and repeat it over and over to calm yourself. 2. Think of all the other people in the world who have felt those same thoughts. I don’t know why but feeling connected to others in that way is helpful, I think.

Thank you all for your understanding.
I’m feeling a bit brighter today, thankfully.

Just had a wobble there.

Does anyone know if I’ll be paid still if I do get sick? Considering I’m not allowed to choose to stay home to avoid catching it?

Are you in a union? Might be a good idea to speak to the rep.

Best of luck with everything. You are doing vital work for all of us.

Just wanted to say a thank you. You and your colleagues are bloody heroes. And you are low risk.