Low risk people getting on with things as normal

[PaperLaperRock]

Why is it that low risk cannot go out and go to work as normal if they are ONLY mixing with low risk?

Of course some from that group will need treatment. But less than 1% will. I think more from the low risk group are suffering and using the NHS for metal health reasons than they ever would be if they could go about as normal.

I’d happily not see those at risk until the vaccine is sorted. Which, newsflash, it certainly won’t be anytime soon. Bet good money we will all be living like this in autumn at least. I’m not inclined to follow this further, my career has nearly been destroyed from all this and I doubt the government will be picking up the bill when I can’t afford my mortgage.

@Porcupineintherough

Very few of us only come into contact with other low risk people in the (ordinary) course of their daily lives.

Me. I don't see any old people or people with special conditions. However, one of my friends did work experience in an old people's homes and some of the friends I see outside only see their parents so I think it's more a case of being a few degrees' separation away for many of us.

More like one degree but yes.

The OP is clearly inclined to think the whole thing could be a hoax through and there's no talking to someone like that.

@PaperLaperRock

I’d happily not see those at risk until the vaccine is sorted

How do you know for sure that you are low risk?

I know three people close to me who caught Covid (all three under 50 and without pre-existing health conditions or risk factors), one of those is suffering from long Covid and another one very sadly died recently

@Gwenhwyfar fair enough but most of us go into shops and supermarkets or use the NHS so we do.

@Gwenhwyfar so no supermarkets? No school runs? No general stores or coffee shops?

Not all people with 'special conditions' advertise the fact to everyone. Some of my friends and family don't know of my health issues, let alone my medication. Very few of my work colleagues know.

How do we know for sure who is low risk?

Our neighbour, a young icu nurse, called an ambulance out in April due to being so unwell with Covid.
My teen son's friend's dad was hospitalised with Covid in September - he narrowly escaped being put on a ventilator.
A teenage girl we know was in icu for 2 nights due to being so ill with Covid.

None of these people would have been considered high risk, but still became ill enough to require hospital treatment. I would consider myself to be low risk, but I still don't know how my body will react to the virus.

Not all people with 'special conditions' advertise the fact to everyone. Some of my friends and family don't know of my health issues, let alone my medication.

Yes, that's the case for three of my family, all under 45. People getting on with life wouldn't know not to include them in the 'normal'.

@Gwenhwyfar

I don't see any old people or people with special conditions

Do you live in a cocoon? What you're saying is ridiculous.

FWIW you could even have a special condition and not even be aware of it

I would consider myself to be low risk, but I still don't know how my body will react to the virus

Exactly @TweeVi

@Gwenhwyfar you could have a special condition yourself and not even be aware of it.

[quote PlumsAreNotTheOnlyFruit]@umpteennamechanges
Risk goes up massively with age. But for everyone that really is younger and high risk I would suggest the following.

Option of a proper online school for the children, with guaranteed return to current school once the parents have been vaccinated.

Emergency pay. I think it will be much cheaper for the government to pay you and other vulnerable people, if you can't work from home, than keep the shops and bars and restaurants and gyms etc closed and pay all their staff.

Medical staff, and at at least some dentists for emergencies, need to be among the first vaccinated, maybe even before the elderly.

I think we should keep going with all the general mitigation measures as well like masks and reintroduce 2m distancing in shops.

I just don't think we will get numbers down enough now without keeping everything closed.[/quote]

Can our supply chains keep going with all of the 'vulnerable' and their partners (and any adult children living with them) at home?

Not this again.

You do realise 'underlying conditions' includes people with mild asthma, diabetes and psoriasis? Not all people sitting waiting to die who will just sit aside while the young and the fit 'get on' with things. Over 20 million are counted in 'the vulnerable'. Do you want the government to pay the wages of them and those who live with them too? What about our mental health?

If this strategy was used the blinking virus would simply spread further and keep the whole thing going a whole lot longer, so sending more healthy people into long covid and even death, and hundreds of thousands more with health conditions that do not, contrary to this narrative, mean they are at death's door. If you want to stretch this whole thing out even longer this would be a good way of doing that. While also meaning more people die of cancer having delayed treatment, and a hundred other conditions because hospitals will get overwhelmed even if 'the vulnerable' are locked away. They tried that in march for almost 5 months. In that time about 45,000 people still died and hundreds of thousands more got long covid. So it didn't work then, why would it now?

The only solution is to suppress it as much as we can and get these vaccines out as quickly as possible. And that hurts society, but the alternative doesn't bear thinking about.

If I just shielded from the world who would care for the people I care for in my family, how would i get to my medical appointments, how would I work in the nhs and provide a professional service, what about my dp who also works in a hospital, what about my needs for exercise or the minimal social interaction we are currently allowed. It's a great idea until its picked apart but if covid rates are high amongst low risk folk, they are high everywhere. The CV/CEV don't exist on a separate planet.

The only solution is to suppress it as much as we can and get these vaccines out as quickly as possible

Yes I agree with most of this.

[quote trulydelicious]@Gwenhwyfar

I don't see any old people or people with special conditions

Do you live in a cocoon? What you're saying is ridiculous.

FWIW you could even have a special condition and not even be aware of it[/quote]
OK. Apart from the possibility of myself having a special condition or other people I know having a special condition and not being aware of it I don't spend time with old or vulnerable people or people with special conditions.

I did explain that I understand that I may see someone who then sees a vulnerable person, but I don't have direct contact with them. Why is that hard to believe?

"Not all people with 'special conditions' advertise the fact to everyone."

If they don't say anything they presumably want to be treated like everyone else. I'm pretty sure this is not the case for the people I spend time with as we have discussed it.

[quote SleepingStandingUp]@Gwenhwyfar so no supermarkets? No school runs? No general stores or coffee shops?[/quote]
Supermarkets, yes, but the risk of transmission in a supermarket is extremely low.

While I don’t think endless lockdowns and restrictions are the answer, neither is locking up ‘the vulnerable’. I am CEV (clinically extremely vulnerable) and happy to protect myself more than others. I am working from home. My husband is a teacher in a primary school for children with SEN so no social distancing. My children attend school. Should my husband be paid to stay at home? Should we just stay at home indefinitely? I regularly attend a major city centre hospital where there is no parking and heavy traffic. Public transport is the only option or an expensive taxi.

The ridiculous scenario suggested just doesn’t work!

@PlumsAreNotTheOnlyFruit
SleepingStandingUp
*@SilentlyLaughingthey are moved into a special home for people like them, where we don't have to think of them
State funded, meals provided, clothes provided. They won't really need any money.
Literally nobody has suggested that is a good idea.

Actually, they have! I was pretty stunned...but it was definitely suggested on a thread on Mumsnet!! I asked whether they'd move my whole family there, and whether we could have a butler.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

I’m not sure the economy is being totally destroyed.

Online shopping is booming
Gaming is through the roof
Food and DIY are booming.
Amongst others

The businesses like Arcadia and similar were dying anyway. The High street is going to go at some point whether people like it or not. Covid has just changed and speeded things up.

I work for a company that deals with financial transactions and digital banking. We had a noticeable drop in March/April, shops, restaurants, travel and tourism etc but by end of year overall did not have a worse year compared to 2019. People are spending money, but differently. This doesn't help all the sectors currently badly affected though. It's killed off the dying businesses already. I hope as and when things get back to normal people will support particularly smaller businesses. I'm an optimistic so like to imagine some creative ideas and entrepreneurship coming out of it all, different business models etc. It's totally shit for people who have lost their jobs though.

@rollinggreenhills

If I could be arsed to actually get up out of this chair, I'd go and bang my head against the nearest brick wall.

I often feel like this when reading Mumsnet!

@stuffedforchristmas

More like one degree but yes.

The OP is clearly inclined to think the whole thing could be a hoax through and there's no talking to someone like that.

know how she feels lol, i do believe i just suddenly stopped believing in this bullshit right around the time vast swathes of the county got put into tier 4 before christmas and the usual death charts and graphs started appearing with the horror stories of the new terribly infectious strain from kent , followed a day or so later by the even more terribly infectious strain from south africa . you only have to read the comments on any covid article on the daily mail online and it would seem loads of people are now thinking its a hoax , it would also go some way towards why there were so many people in our store today knocking themselves out buying the halfpriced gift items when they should have been indoors and only going out for essentials

I just did a bit of reading and it looks like in the UK about 1 in 10 of the covid deaths are in the working age group.

I still think a lot of deaths could be avoided by greater attempts to help the vulnerable to shield until they can be vaccinated.

I don't think our current measures are working. We have had shops in London only open for a few weeks since November and rates are still really high.

I think we should shield vulnerable people for 2-3 months and encourage socializing of everyone else. We need around 60% to go through covid to get the immunity. This is not going to happen through vaccine. After 2 months, we can start vaccinate all the vulnerable people.