Life is a hideous nightmare

[Scaredshitlessagain]

Can't cope with anymore of it. I know there's a vaccine but it's going to be months before it starts to have an effect. My kids schooling is crap, our lives are crap. The government is useless. I'm done.

This has indeed been a fucking nightmare for MANY people, and if you don't know any of them then that is likely a reflection of your privilege

@OverTheRubicon - WTAF? Of course I know for some people coping with the issues I described in my first post and subsequent post, this is a nightmare as I just described! Thanks for the link but there are loads of articles, indices of deprivation etc which you can look at from before COVID and of course things will be worse. But my privilege is that I am alive and relatively healthy and so are my kids - I suspect that is the same for most posting on here.

So why is it a nightmare for the OP - who now hasn't come back?

@DianaT1969 🤣😂🤣😂🤣 it’s hideous isn’t it

We queued outside M&S this evening in the rain and had the same feeling of I hope there’s food in there. Wtf whoever is dreaming this nightmare please wake the fuck up!! 😆

It’s like living in a dystopian novel! I was shielding first lockdown and actually enjoyed it, but I don’t want it to be endless.
Can’t see mum in a care home, can’t see my adult kids and gc, can’t see extended family, not knowing what’s next, uncertainty over Brexit, worrying if I’ll be able to get my insulin and medication...on and on it goes

Having just learnt that DH (in the vulnerable category) has Covid, I struggle to sympathise, to be honest.

[quote bendmeoverbackwards]**@HmmSureJan whats this professor guys name please?[/quote]
Dr Nicholas Christakis.

It’s crap but I’m reckoning not as bleak a picture as they’re currently painting.
After playing down people’s fears and getting them to spend and take risks they now need to get people back on board with stricter measures and are therefore scaring the crap out of everyone.
I just wish they would be transparent and honest but they seem to get a kick out of manipulation and lies.
It is going to get better this year OP. Promise! We are closer than it seems to big improvements 💐

It’s truly horrible. I’m finding it hard keeping my teenage DCs motivated and happy. They’ve got so much uncertainty about their young lives and jobs will be scarce as the economy plummets. I try to limit the news being on but they see it on their phones. I can’t believe what’s happening and I’m really scared of getting ill as I have co-morbidities. All I can offer is a handhold to others and to say I feel exactly the same. As one pp said, we just have to take things one step at a time. I try to do this otherwise I get so overwhelmed. Just typing this has brought on palpitations (no joke) so that’s how stressed I feel.

I remember in March standing in my office, gathering my things to work from home "for 2 weeks" and then, after that, all will be well. Ha!

We are living history in real time. It's mind blowing.

And depressing, Very depressing.

If I thought it would definitely be over by August it wouldn’t be so depressing. I’ve just read an article by virologists who think that the virus will mutate to evade the vaccine after mass vaccinations, and we will be stuck in a continuous cycle, new strain, lockdown, new vaccine rollout repeat.

It made me realise how cocooned we are as a Nation, bumbling along, and much worse things happen to others...
Syria, a friend went there before it was a War zone, and said how beautiful and friendly it was...Then Isil invaded.

Poor Refugees, elderly , lame, and pregnant women staggering in the heat, no homes, no food to speak of...It happened in Afghanistan too.

We have been lucky. Yes, it's crap, but it could be a lot crapper.

@thewiseoneicognito - snap! 😂.
In M&S there were two tills open. One cashier had no mask on, was talking a lot and had a short queue. The other one had a mask on, but a longer queue. I hesitated and weighed up the probability of catching the mutant virus from a customer in the slow queue versus taking my chances with the cashier without a mask. This is my new normal. 😃

@Cleebope2

Yes it is all so crap. I think we need to vent more honestly about how awful this is to each other instead of pretending to be positive. It’s a disaster especially for young adults and older teenagers trying to start out in life.

This.

I am all for being positive and yes, we do have to just get through each day, etc. BUT I also think it’s important to acknowledge how terrible the situation is and the impact it’s having on so many people. And I think it has been especially hard for the young and the old.

Hang in there OP. Yes, it’s all rather shit for most of us.

mRNA vaccines (like the Pfizer one) are easily adapted to the mutation in theory. You simply change the sequence of the mRNA in the vaccine to match the genetic change in the new strain of covid. I’m not saying it won’t take time of course, but just to ease anyone who was worried about that in particular.

There's already a suggestion that lock downs have led to the new strain - my understanding is that the old one couldn't survive with us all locked up and so it adapted to become more successful at infecting everyone.

If it helps, this is absolutely not true and not possible, in any way. Viruses are not sentient. They can’t think, plan or adapt themselves. Their mutations are random errors when they replicate. They can’t “plan” how to infect more people.

It just happens that the mutations that are good at infecting people stick around, as they have plenty of bodies to replicate in. (Also: successful mutations don’t kill people too fast, as if your host is too ill and weak, they won’t go near as many other people, and the virus will have nowhere to go.)

What caused the mutation was cases rising so the virus was replicating more, therefore having more replications and therefore more “errors”.

@YouokHun
Brilliant post
Sorry to hear about your father

Weirdly, I was talking to Ds about whether it was harder growing up Generation X (me) or Generation Z (him).

Gen X had the Cold War/threat of nuclear devastation/Chernobyl/IRA/AIDS, and Gen Z have climate change and a pandemic.

I personally thought now is harder, as nuclear war seemed quite abstract (though Threads and Children of the Dust probably damaged a lot of us!), whereas Covid is very close and real and we can see the effects (whether of the virus or the lockdown) firsthand.

He worked out I was the loser as I’ve had to live through both. Thanks kid!

Hardship is relative, those comparing simply living through these times against having other things on top, we need to remember that everyone's experience is different and not necessarily lining up with what we expect as onlookers onto one another's lives.
I have found this year difficult in some ways as I'm usually quite a spontaneous and adventurous person who loves to look around new places and meet new people etc, all of which has been pretty much impossible. I also had the virus during the first wave, I was studying my final year at uni while also working part time and they hadn't put any restrictions in place, so I had to isolate in a tiny room with hardly any food in and no decent support network nearby, I waas fine but it was still scary. I also have ongoing health problems and don't really ahev anyone at all who I;m very close to so it has been difficult. But one thing I always remind myself of is that you can only worry about things which you can help. It's OK to be upset about things, things have been pretty crazy as a whole this year, but do remember that you can only do what is within your control and the rest of things beyond that point we will all just have to ride out. At least no one is alone in having to go through this, I can't imagine anyone is completely unaffected.

It definitely sucks. Schools are looking likely to close too so I'll probably lose my job and end up on benefits because I can't work from home.

There's no joy in things any more.

I saw a council job ad yesterday looking for people to administer lateral flow tests. It was a minimum one year contact but may be extended. That depressed me.

@Kjc39

It won’t be over soon. Just heard on the bbc news that herd immunity won’t be achieved until August and will take until April to vaccinate all elderly and vulnerable. I feel like crying.

But that's good. If you think back to this summer, we won't be even thinking we can achieve herd immunity by summer 2021.

I get fed up with people saying they can't do this. Of course you can. Because there is no alternative. Do you not think those living in war zones in the middle east or African think life is amazing and are not fed up? Or those who lived through the world wars in this country? What we are asked to do is so little in comparison to them.

Interesting list about GenX.

I remember well the onset of AIDS. I was terrified as a child. We didn’t know how it was spread and I remember dropping my Wham bar on the seat of the bus and eating it and worrying I would get HIV. And of course the HIV victims. The IRA bombings felt relentless. A fair few recessions that personally affected my family. Chernobyl - horrific and so scary for kids. Also Lockerbie near where I grew up.

I think the impact of covid on my kids has been less miserable than some of the stuff I worried about but it’s highly objective I appreciate.

@DishingOutDone

I didn't know people felt like this, truly? I know its pretty crap with a pandemic, Brexit etc - but surely unless you are on the breadline, or sick, or have lost relatives, then life isn't a nightmare for you personally?

Have I missed something?

Yes you’ve apparently missed a lot. Do you not have family and friends that you can’t see? Christmas Day snatched from you less than a week in advance? Worries about job security?

yup if the Oxford vaccine is not effective against this mutated virus, we are well and truly fucked. I am just spending Christmas getting smashed, I just cannot bear any more of this nightmare

@stairway

If I thought it would definitely be over by August it wouldn’t be so depressing. I’ve just read an article by virologists who think that the virus will mutate to evade the vaccine after mass vaccinations, and we will be stuck in a continuous cycle, new strain, lockdown, new vaccine rollout repeat.

If that happens surely we just have to abandon lockdowns and restrictions and get on with life? No one will stick to not seeing family and friends for many years. Most people will be done by next year.

@stairway

If I thought it would definitely be over by August it wouldn’t be so depressing. I’ve just read an article by virologists who think that the virus will mutate to evade the vaccine after mass vaccinations, and we will be stuck in a continuous cycle, new strain, lockdown, new vaccine rollout repeat.

Have you a link to the article by these 'virologists'? Do they know better than the scientists behind the Pfizer vaccine, who have said their vaccine will be effective against the new strain?

Viruses are constantly mutating. It's what they do. Just that this mutation was significant. The flu vaccine is revamped every year to adapt to the latest strains, so no reason why the Covid ones can't be too. These 'virologists' need to go back to uni.