If you don't care about catching covid, why?

[yarncakes]

Im asking for my own sanity really. I keep telling myself time and time again that if I get coronavirus then that's the way it is. But then during the night I wake up in a sweat, panicking that I've got it. I've tested negative so I know I haven't but it doesn't help with my health anxiety. I'm more worried about my DS and DH, who are both BAME, with a husband who has a health condition as well. Me on the other hand, touch wood I have no health conditions and I'm fairly fit, in my late 20s. Please tell me why you're not worried and is there anything to worry about?!

What @ButterMeCrumpets said.

I'm enjoying things like going to the pub and the cinema now, but according to some people that is too risky and I shouldn't be doing it.

I am following guidelines regarding social distancing and mask wearing. But I am not going to be berated for doing things that we are allowed to do.

Not remotely anxious here.
I'm 60, healthy, not overweight.
I wear a mask in shops to protect others...have eaten out half a dozen times since the 4th, been to hairdressers and have favials/ nails/ waxing booked.
I'm not planning going abroad till next year but will be booking 3 breaks then. We are going away in this country in the autumn. London in 2 weeks.

In response to those who are worried about teachers. Bottom line is if they are to vulnerable to do that job now since we have entered the covid era they will have to find another profession which is not working with the public. It's crazy to expect 30 kids to have their life on hold to protect an older teacher. Why can't there be younger teachers in the class room or older ones who are willing to take the risks. It's not going to sustainable for us all to hide away to protect older people who want to do public facing jobs yet don't want to encounter any risk of covid.

Because I need to go out to work to earn money. I cannot afford to stay inside, and I refuse to claim benefits just to stay inside.

@Spinakker

In response to those who are worried about teachers. Bottom line is if they are to vulnerable to do that job now since we have entered the covid era they will have to find another profession which is not working with the public. It's crazy to expect 30 kids to have their life on hold to protect an older teacher. Why can't there be younger teachers in the class room or older ones who are willing to take the risks. It's not going to sustainable for us all to hide away to protect older people who want to do public facing jobs yet don't want to encounter any risk of covid.

The reason why is that there aren't enough alternative teachers, or other types of workers, to simply retire out all the ones who are more vulnerable. As a method of allowing life to get back to normal, simply won't work.

I'm late 40s. The statistics still make me less worried than when the govt and media released statements "you will all lose somebody you love" etc.

In April I was ill for 5 days or so, could have been CV could have been something else, who knows? I isolated for 14 days in total, 7 away from my family, in a room, passed through drinks etc. It was so miserable. It was at the time the PM was in hospital and I was a little scared to be honest. I followed every rule, didn't see my children and husband let alone family for months (which is why I was pissed off with the whole Dominic Cummings debacle).

When we finally stepped out for a walk in that sunshine as a family after 14 days, I was so grateful to be out. I vowed that I would not be locked away, living in fear and misery for a small percentage of risk.

I've seen older relatives lately who are all very pragmatic. They are aware they are at risk and what a death from this would entail, but what makes them vulnerable (age) also makes them less scared.

The best hope for schools to have a chance of providing education is low local infection rates. We can only get that from everyone being careful, and really good testing, tracing and so on. There's no shortcut.

I don’t worry at all for myself because though late fifties I’m extremely robust. I think I’d be one of the lucky ones and have a mild version.
Unfortunately it’s not that simple though is it so I’m extremely cautious in order to protect my vulnerable loved ones. I’ll be sticking to social distancing, seeing only family I live with (I’m very fortunate because we are multi generational in our house and we’re all being just as cautious to protect one member), working from home and mask wearing until this situation is over - which it will be. Great strides are being made and a vaccine is a matter of time.

@Spinakker

In response to those who are worried about teachers. Bottom line is if they are to vulnerable to do that job now since we have entered the covid era they will have to find another profession which is not working with the public. It's crazy to expect 30 kids to have their life on hold to protect an older teacher. Why can't there be younger teachers in the class room or older ones who are willing to take the risks. It's not going to sustainable for us all to hide away to protect older people who want to do public facing jobs yet don't want to encounter any risk of covid.

We applaud NHS staff and quite literally don't give a damn about teachers. Throw 'em under a bus, why not? That'll 'learn them' with all their holidays. Actually, can't they just use their holidays to recover from Covid?

I feel I have a healthy respect for the virus in that I know some people feel very ill with it and some might have long term complications, so I am not hugging people I'd like to hug right now, I'm wearing a mask when indoors around others and am washing my hands regularly.

I'd prefer not to get it, too, if I haven't already had an asymptomatic case of it (or I don't have natural immunity which I think many do). That's just because I'm a terrible patient though. I HATE feeling ill. The fuss I make if I even get a cold!

But no, otherwise I'm not worried. I think even if you are elderly and have several health conditions, you are still FAR more likely to survive than die. The numbers that have succumbed have sounded scary but then we aren't good at analysing risk and you've got to remember how huge the world's population is. The tiniest fraction of people have actually died when you look at how many people are alive and even when the pandemic comes to a close it will still amount to a small number. That is no consolation for anyone who has lost someone precious but life involves death. If we made all cars drive at a maximum of 20mph, countless lives around the world would be saved each year but we don't do that. Likewise, if we banned all alcohol and all junk food, a serious number of people would live far longer. There are reasons why we don't do things like that though.

I sympathise with anyone feeling frightened. It has been such a scary few months. Particularly for anyone who is BAME and maybe has additional health problems, it must have felt so worrying. But you are likely low risk of anything serious happening if you get it, thankfully. I can recommend mindfulness as something which really helps with anxiety generally. It's helped me a lot because you learn to spot how much fear is just a story your own brain is creating. It's not real. Even with this virus, it's not real. This virus is just not that deadly overall, as viruses go. I'm much more scared by the danger antibiotic resistance poses us as a society.

I’m no more worried about it than I am about many other infectious diseases

My husband is an asthmatic teacher, we have a toddler and a baby born in lockdown. The consequences of lockdown have been far greater for us in terms of risks than those related to catching Covid 19. I worry In a low-level way about any infectious disease that could harm my loved ones or make it hard for me to care for my children for a period of time, especially my baby who relies on breastfeeding

However, my father has a health condition that has meant that for a number of years we haven’t been able to see him if we have a mild cold, and as a family we have always been strict on handwashing etc, so for us protecting someone who is in vulnerable health from viruses that are mild for us is normal. And I’m following the rules with distancing from adults though not with my toddler and other toddlers, and will wear a mask when mandated (I am fortunate to live somewhere where it is easy to be far apart in shops and on the streets and I have had no difficulty getting deliveries too luckily)

The world is full of risks that we all manage to live with on a daily basis without even thinking about it. Every time we get in a car we take a risk - we do things to try to reduce that risk, like wearing a seatbelt, not driving drunk, using child-seats, getting the car serviced regularly - but otherwise we just get on with it.

The risk of catching Covid - or passing it on - is small. Even more so if you take sensible precautions. We have to learn to live with it as just one more little risk in day to day life. We’d be stupid not to take precautions, we can’t let it dominate our lives and decision making.

I am not scared of death to start with. That is my own as well as relatives', friends' and family. We will all die of something anyway. You can die from all sorts of things: regular flu, cancer, getting run over by a car, choking, you name it. I don't worry about any of those so why worry more about COVID.

Because this isn't living. I cannot continue to lock myself and my my family away indefinitely. When we are out we distance, wear masks, use sanitizer and stay with in our guidelines but ultimately we need to live. Covid isn't going anywhere until we have a vaccine. It's here and the world cannot continue to be on pause until that happens.

I manage our personal risk and minimise as much as we can for others (mask distancing etc) but this level of fear is unsustainable. Plus I need to work, we are self employed and not eligible for any financial aid. Becoming homeless is more of an issue to me than catching the virus.

Spinakker
In response to those who are worried about teachers. Bottom line is if they are to vulnerable to do that job now since we have entered the covid era they will have to find another profession which is not working with the public. It's crazy to expect 30 kids to have their life on hold to protect an older teacher. Why can't there be younger teachers in the class room or older ones who are willing to take the risks. It's not going to sustainable for us all to hide away to protect older people who want to do public facing jobs yet don't want to encounter any risk of covid.

I don’t know where to start with this!

I don't want to get it, I don't want to get flu either. I have asthma which means either could knock me off my feet. I'm actually still suffering from the after effects of flu/covid/whichever I had in march.

I follow the guidance, I'm not hiding in my house scared to go out.

What does worry me though is passing it on to people who are at a higher risk than me, many of who are people I love dearly.

I'm also concerned about people who aren't following the guidance and the effect that will have on infection rates and the chances of more localised lockdowns, buisnesses and jobs.

Some good points here.
Why is the risk of covid19 seen as so great that all cancer treatments have been stopped?
Why has the responsibility for the illness been placed on us, the people?
Why are people so easily sucked in and turned against each other by lies'and propaganda?

“ You can die from all sorts of things: regular flu, cancer, getting run over by a car, choking, you name it. I don't worry about any of those so why worry more about COVID.”

Well I do worry about some of those things - not endlessly or even frequently but I do try to do some of those (limited) things we can do to minimise the risks. However, I am realistic that risks cannot be eliminated, and sometimes the cost/benefit of risk minimisation vs actual risk isn’t worth it, I trust that other people are doing their best, and crucially I am not out to blame anyone else for eg giving me flu

Maybe the govt thought that a cull of ill and expensive cancer patients would be good for the NHS...I don't know...

I'm pleased to be getting back to a kind of normal, cautiously. However, I would like to see some of the measures we have taken with this virus be applied to other viruses like Norovirus (I don't find it acceptable for it to be allowed to run through a school with no mitigation) and other localised viruses. Chicken pox vaccination should be more widely available on the NHS too.

@Destroyedpeople

Maybe the govt thought that a cull of ill and expensive cancer patients would be good for the NHS...I don't know...

3 million have missed cancer screening or treatment. The implications of that are massive. Decades of work on prompt screening and early treatment undone in months.

Because life is for living. I am not worried in the least. We accept risks every day and one on two of us will get cancer. I don't worry about that either. I just want to live my life and deal with any illnesses as and when they arrive.

And just reading above the risks now of real poverty, losing jobs, cancer being undetected, our kids having mental breakdowns. These are the big worries for me . No the risk that I may or may not get covid.

But surely if the people who are really worried about getting it comply with the rules themselves their risk is lowered anyway?

To some extent, but now there are suggestions that it could be airborne so there's potential to catch it by being in the same place as an infected person even with social distancing.

There's also potential to spread it say by a grandmother hugging her grandson because she's not that bothered but unknowingly infects the grandchild who then passes it on to a classmate who then infects his parents. So it's possible to set up a chain of infection that starts with the one person who thinks "I'm not bothered if I catch it".

Then there's the effect of multiple people not caring pushing up the R rate and sending an area back into lockdown. The Zoe app is reporting that the decline in cases has stopped and is actually showing a rise, though this number is within tolerances so they aren't drawing conclusions about numbers rising but they have definitely stopped dropping.

@Spinakker

In response to those who are worried about teachers. Bottom line is if they are to vulnerable to do that job now since we have entered the covid era they will have to find another profession which is not working with the public. It's crazy to expect 30 kids to have their life on hold to protect an older teacher. Why can't there be younger teachers in the class room or older ones who are willing to take the risks. It's not going to sustainable for us all to hide away to protect older people who want to do public facing jobs yet don't want to encounter any risk of covid.

There are measures that could be put in place to afford more protection to teachers but the government won't pay for it. How dare you suggest that someone who just wants to be afforded their legal right of safety at work should find another job if they aren't prepared to sacrifice themselves? Other at risk workers have PPE. Every other worker has a Covid secure workplace or social distancing measures in place. Teachers have literally nothing come September apart form handwashing and vague guidance about bubbles (which in some cases is whole year groups so exposure to hundreds of children and their families) Your attitude is disgusting. No other worker is just being told to do their job as normal so why the hell should teachers be expected to? The sad thing is teachers just will get on with it- as they've been doing all along because of attitudes just like this. Thank goodness there are some people who do have sympathy for exactly what is being asked of them. Other countries have seen rates rise due to schools opening - our own outbreak figures here are now higher in Educational settings than cafe homes or hospitals - check the PHE figures. There are also now studies showing that children do transmit the disease. Other countries have proper measures in place for schools. But no- if you are worried then just leave your job. Is it any wonder we have a recruitment and retention crisis when this is the kind of attitude teachers face?