For the first time since this started, I feel quite frightened

[FreeBettyBoop]

Just this really.

I am concerned that there is something they’re not telling us. Is the new strain worse? I know there is chat about easier/faster spread but is it more deadly? Affecting children?

I’m in Scotland and all of a sudden we are looking at lockdown and school closure. Why now?

In a bit of a pit of despair today. I can live with the Christmas restrictions and will comply. But the thought of going back to school closures while trying to hold down a job...😩 gutted for the kids too.

I felt last week that it was all rather convenient and that they were using it as an excuse to dial back on Christmas easing.

But yesterday’s moves have worried me.

I think if it was more deadly they'd rather tell us which would likely make people think twice about breaking the new festive rules.

With the school situation in Scotland I think they recognise spread is high risk in schools but with the faster spreading strain it's too big a risk to keep them open.

I don't think there's a hidden agenda.

There is no one to staff the Nightingales. Sigh. Why do people not know this still? That's why there is no one in them.

The nightingale in Exeter is being used for COVID patients.

Yeah that’s true. But then they want to avoid mass panic/hysteria too I guess.

I don’t know.

Take it seriously enough to lay low. A quiet Christmas. Good books, films, nice food (with lots of vegetables and fruit). Look after yourself.

Relish the contacts that you are able to have and write to people that you love. Send them flowers and goodies / notecards / emails as is affordable or suits you.

Get out for walks and cycles if you can.

Take vitamin D if you can.

Its not clear, certainly in England, what is happening with schools. I'm hoping they will put funding both into testing and into making them safer and that will put them on a better footing to stay open (and be good for the kids).

The evidence so far has suggested that, while this virus needs to be taken seriously, it doesn't particularly affect children, and there is no clear indication that this has changed. So put that worry to one side for now .

Staying in and laying low, as much as you can, for the time being is the best way to keep safe and if you are doing that you are doing all thatyou can do.

Giving people space is the right thing to do.

And take 1 day at a time. I day at a time, the winter will come to an end and the hope of a summer remission (or a vaccination) will approach.

Take care x

@herecomestheSon

Brilliant advice. Thank you

I think it's important to keep some perspective. As of the current stats on Worldometer, 97% of Covid cases have recovered. Yes this is a new strain, but all medical professionals have said that viruses mutate, that's what they do, that's why there's a new flu vaccine every year. There is no evidence to date this strain is any more serious, it's just spreading faster which is why the new Tiers. I do believe that these measures are more about the NHS than anything else.

I’m 40 and had covid end of October. I can assure you that I’ve had worse hangovers, wasn’t bed bound. Yes felt a bit tired, had a headache for about 3 days and the cough and did lose my smell and taste. However, if I had never heard of covid I would have thought “ooh that was a bit of a strong cold bug” and moved on. No long lasting effects, no breathing difficulties and even the headache was weakened by standard paracetamol. This strain has adapted to spread more easily (probably had to because of all the steps we’ve been made to take to avoid natural human contact) but is widely reported to be no more virulent. I’m going to keep posting my story on here because there is a massive lack of accounts from people who’ve had the mild version and fully recovered. We are only fed the scary stories and it’s not a fair representation.
They are only worried about hospital capacity which is always stretched at this time of year. Add a fast spreading respiratory virus to the standard respiratory illness season and that’s a problem for hospitals, hence the accelerated reaction.
Quite frankly it’s appalling the government have installed such fear into this country. Be angry not scared.

@baublesbaubleseverywhere

I think we know all we need to know at the moment. The new strain spreads faster, but is not more deadly / more dangerous for children etc.

I kind of agree with some posters above regarding the government using it as an excuse to "cancel Christmas". They needed to cancel Christmas, anybody with half a brain could see that. But as always they faffed and fumbled until the last minute, so being to say "it's because the virus has changed!" has helped them out of an embarrassing hole.

I think this^^ too really, but there is no doubt, people are worried about this one, as a number of countries have banned travel from the UK.

I was chatting to a relative earlier who is a doctor and he was hopeful that maybe it would be less deadly, as all the media have said is that there is no evidence it is more deadly. It is also the way viruses would normally behave, I believe. They tend to mutate so as not to kill their hosts I think? Nor a scientist or HCP I hasten to add! But this is what we were talking about earlier.

@cardibach

There are lots of strains. They are being tracked and studied by scientists all over the world. The government might try to pull the wool, but scientists won’t comply. I don’t think there’s anything more dangerous about this strain (scientists - lots of them - have said so) it just transmits itself more efficiently to new hosts. Track down The Andrew Marr show from this morning - interviews with a WHO scientist and a PHE scientist who speak clearly and candidly. I found it very reassuring. The thing I am wondering, though, is kind of the opposite - are the government using this as a cover for changes to Tiers and Christmas which they should have done anyway so they can just shrug and go ‘new science, sorry’? They’ve known about this strain since September.

Agree with this, the new strain has been known about since September but all of a sudden, when the government need a scapegoat, it’s a massive problem...

If the new strain is vaccine resistant we are fucked. No hope of normality in 2021. They say there is no evidence it is resistant but surely they can’t know either way yet?!

@loulouljh

Project Fear....ramp it up so people have the vaccine...I think its a ore-determined script here.

This graph is why - published by John Hopkins in Baltimore incidentally, so presumably they are also in on the conspiracy, in your view?

@CrispySeaweedIsReallyCabbage yep that makes sense, I'm also thinking along those lines. Helps keep me positive!

Re countries cancelling flights, I don't think it's a big surprise. It's just the world wide version of the tier system, and other countries won't want to risk having something that will spread more quickly slowing down their recovery from this crisis.

Re.Nightingales, a nurse acquaintance helpfully pointed out to me that even if staff were available, the only people who could go to them would be otherwise healthy patients. Nobody with any kind of co-morbidity could use them as they’d clearly need their other specialty doctors etc. I guess that would include the elderly needing Geriatrics.

I’m concerned for the first time too.

The contagiousness of this new strain has only just come to light. No conspiracy there, the scientific papers are only just out. It was one strain of many until recently.

What concerns me is that it was growing even under lockdown in Kent. That means we may need a stronger lockdown to control it.

If it increases R significantly then we also need to vaccinate more of the population before it’s under control.

I was mentally prepared for being able to see family at Easter, now I reckon we’d be lucky to get the summer.

I'd read that some scientists are theorising that it's more easily transmitted but less deadly. That's the result of the mutation. So the worry is about being overwhelmed with cases but not that it will be a worse illness or will be able to overcome the vaccine.

I am concerned that there is something they’re not telling us. Is the new strain worse? I know there is chat about easier/faster spread but is it more deadly? Affecting children?

It was stated multiple times yesterday in the 4pm briefing and beforehand that the new strain is not more serious or more deadly, nor will the vaccine be any less effective.

I don't mean to be unsympathetic, but it's silly to sit there working yourself up into a state when this information is freely available.

www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4857
I read this today and it made me feel a bit better. Still got an underlying anxiety which feels like being back in March

@loulouljh

Project Fear....ramp it up so people have the vaccine...I think its a ore-determined script here.

How can you call it Project Fear when the numbers are so high?

@RMRM

There is no one to staff the Nightingales. Sigh. Why do people not know this still? That's why there is no one in them.

Why did they build them then? I said that at the time, all very well building new hospitals but who is going to staff them. But they did, so I assumed there was some sort of plan.

@Remmy123

There are new strains of the flu evey year - the flu kills. Same with all viruses. This is no more deadly.

They are scaring people into staying home. Like March.

Why do they want us to stay home then?

Two people I know in the South East recently caught the virus in a very high case area. Both are older and vulnerable and were absolutely fine.

I didn’t watch the 4pm briefing. In any event I take what they say with a pinch of salt these days. All I’m saying is that the sudden u-turn has made me a bit concerned that there is something going on that they haven’t told us. Maybe it’s just that they don’t yet know enough. I don’t know.

I’m not in any sort of state. I’m just a bit more concerned than I was previously.

Apparently the latest nervtag minutes indicate this particular strain could involve increase of up to 0.9 in R rate. If so we are just in unchartered territory here, and we need to reassess everything we thought we knew about how to keep case numbers down . Which is scary.

I am scared about what hospitals will be like in Jan and Feb. Especially as many of the people already covid positive won’t hit the hospital stage until a week or two weeks from now. I have to go into hospital this week and again after Xmas re high risk pregnancy, it is frightening.