Is anyone else more scared now than they were in March?

[Swearlikemalcolmtucker]

Everything just seems so dark, and even with the vaccines it’s got to get worse before it gets better.
I don’t recall feeling like this in March but I’m genuinely scared now. I’m hoping my health anxiety is at the root of most of it as I’ve been able to stay pretty upbeat and positive until now, I kept thinking vaccine, warmer weather, things will get better but now it seems harder to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Seeing the celebrations in NZ is like looking into another world

I am, yes.

In March I didn't know anyone who'd had it. Now I know lots and 2 of those were work colleagues (I'm a teacher) who were seriously ill. Both recovering but still very weak and long term illness is likely.

We're online next week then supposedly back in - exam year with mainly adult students. 23 adults in the same room for 3 hours without PPE... recipe for disaster and fear.

No not really

I thought it was going to be like Ebola back in Jan so nothing has been as bad as that fear.

Having a taste of my mum.waiting in a ambulance for five hours was pretty bloody real. But no. I'm no more scared of death than normal right now.

Also pretty resigned that life in 2021 will be pretty shit. Low expectations and all that. It's not more fatal now. But it does feel like its constantly just starting. This new variant I think is going to be hard to dodge

Yes

I work in a hospice and the beginning was the most stressed I've ever been but I was not as worried about actually catching it as I am now.

The kids and schools and the amount of COVID in schools really worried me.
But dd tested positive before Xmas and none of us caught it - not even my 80+mum so that's helped my worry's dampen down a bit.

I had no idea of the scale of things in March. Waved goodbye to my relatives, texted my friends, and set my shoulders against the anticipated three months alone.

Now - so many dead, so much grief, careers and futures overturned ... Aside from the immediate medical and financial implications I wonder how, or if, young people in particular will ever bounce back from such a hideous period of stress, anxiety and social disruption.

And I worry about how sad and angry people are going to be, for years ...

@Lemoncheesecake31

No, I’m less scared. I’m February I was reading up about wuhan and the virus and I was terrified. I thought people would be dropping dead in the street. I thought babies and children would be dying or getting severely ill so I was worried about my DS but I’m not as panicky now. We are in Yorkshire and our infection rate was scarily high last month. My exDP works in a school and practically the whole senior staff team, most of the teachers and support staff, along with most of years 9, 10 and 11 had it. All staff had to have a test as it was running riot. I also came to know many more people with the virus and in hospital/on oxygen. Now it’s in the South and things have calmed right down here, we’ve gone from 500+ cases to around 150. Still following rules as we ever were though.

That's quite reassuring. I am in the south and our cases are insane, although dropping very slightly over the last few days (I hope it's not some kind of delay in reporting over all the bank holidays).

I'm not scared although I have gone back to behaving how we did in March by going to the supermarket as little as I can (on my own) and out for a walk every day.

I'm changing jobs shortly (NHS) and now wondering if I have made a mistake as the new job is back on a ward.

Yes but in the first wave we were comparatively lightly hit whereas our cases have tripled in a week this time:(

The hospitals are filling up. It doesn’t matter if they know how to treat it better....if there’s no beds for you.

Yes I’m more afraid as the new strain is far more transmissible. I’m scared if something happened (not COVID related) and we needed hospital treatment we either wouldn’t get it or we’d catch COVID and be very ill and possibly die, never leaving hospital.

Yes. And angry.

Cases are rising and the government is not taking necessary action.

Short of getting the army involved (sake of argument, I'm not serious) we will be like this for years. People thinking they can 'make their own risk assessment' rather than following advice i.e. I want a party.

I'm fed up. I follow social distancing etc not because I'm told to, but because it's sensible.

Had enough of this incompetent government and selfish nature of people.

I feel the same level of awful I have for 10 months but my resilience is wearing thin. However, tomorrow is the year that things get better. We’ve just got to hang tough for a bit longer.

Extremely apprehensive about what horrors 2021 has up its sleeve. We’re in for a very dark period of history, I can only hope the light comes soon.

I'm not in the least bit scared of covid, but I can understand why some people are.

I think the wider implications are a lot more worrying. Late stage cancer diagnoses are expected to be up in 2021 for one thing. There are other non-covid health impacts where people have suffered because everything has been so focused on a largely survivable disease. Not to mention the economic impact. I can't believe the world has been brought to its knees by something that almost everyone survives.

Once the most vulnerable have been vaccinated, we all need to get on with living (remember that?).

I've always been worried about it but when I saw the announcement that schools would be remaining open I became scared. This government is making the same mistakes over and over again, I don't feel safe whatsoever

Not scared but very angry as others are saying..

This time yes. Because our nhs didn't get overwhelmed. Within the next two weeks we'll be really in the mire.
The first lockdown feels pointless when we're now letting the virus run freely. I think the announcement of the vaccine have meant people have thrown caution to the wind thinking it's a cure.

The overwhelming of the NHS is why I'm scared.

Covid kills, we know that.

But doctors saying publicly that they are having to make decisions about who gets a bed, who to treat, terrifies me.

Be a covid denier and the fact it kills people all you like. It doesn't stop you from being unable to claim a bed for other reasons when needed.

Covid deniers and people who say 'it's only flu' make me as angry as the government.

I'm scared now! Scared that if I do catch it and need some help the NHS will be too busy to help me.
In my 50's lucky enough to be working from home!
I've been to the supermarket all the way through this but thinking will shop on line or click & collect from now on!

I

@HibernatingTill2030

No. In March there were a lot of unknowns. Now, we have effective treatments, a vaccine is being rolled out and the majority of people (generally) are still complying- even if there are a lot of idiots holding gatherings etc, most are not. Numbers are starting to drop very slightly in some of the worst hit areas. Too soon to tell, but hoping they continue.

Can you link to a chart/stats that show the numbers are dropping slightly? Sounds like that could be a chunk of light and hope for us to concentrate on x

I’m more worried too as have a vulnerable family member at home and our local hospital is already full of Covid patients- it could get so hard if people who need it can’t be cared for .
I didn’t go into a supermarket as it was so busy today while until now this hasn’t bothered me

I’m worried about the nhs not being able to cope. I would be very worried about having an accident or emergency at the moment because hospitals are on the edge.

I am very happy that we have vaccinations though because they will give us a chance to move out (slowly) from this shitstorm.

I am much more scared than I was in March. It might sound naive, but back in March the government shut down almost everything to protect us and the NHS and I felt a certain amount of trust in them (even though there were frustrations and I felt lockdown and school closures came a bit too late). Now, they seem so determined to keep schools open at almost any cost, I just don't feel that same trust anymore. I'm afraid that they will keep primary schools open in most areas and cases will go up and up and by the time they come to their senses the NHS will be beyond the point of being able to cope. The situation is worse than it was in March, and we have a more transmissible strain - we need more measures, not less.

Also, back in March we didn't really know about things like Long Covid, and just how awful this disease is. I took the disease seriously even then, but I think I still thought of it as a very bad flu that might take a few weeks to recover from. Now we know so much more about its short term and long term implications. People are still suffering who had it back in February.

Yes.
In March I could be very careful and keep myself safe in the work that I do by following guidelines and being rigorous with sanitising.
Now I'm having to go back into work without a clear idea of whether I can keep myself safe from this new strain. I'm in my late 50s. I'll be in unventilated areas with hundreds of teenagers at least half of them weren't wearing masks last term and social distancing is a joke. (I can't stay 2m away from my particular learners and do my job anyway).
The lateral flow tests are not reliable. I have an underlying autoimmune condition that isn't covered by shielding. I am the wage earner so if I don't go to work I'll lose my home and if I die, my teenager won't have any parents. I know people who have died of covid (one younger than me) and several with long covid who can't work and don't know if or when they ever will be fit for work again.
So yes I'm more cared than I was in March when I was quite gung ho about it IIRC.

@Bluegrass

I’m scared that people still don’t seem to know that the NHS is getting utterly fucked by this. This is the thing we spent all that time trying to prevent and clapping about. This is what we saw footage of in Italy and were horrified about.

Now it is here and we seem ... indifferent.

It's what was foreseen, and feared, by the CMO and Patrick Vallance themselves. From the outset they saw this coming.

It's lockdown fatigue.

From here, compliance collapses, not because people are "bad" or "thick" but for very normal human psychological reasons.

Another I forgot to mention was that I feel back in March there was a lot of resilience. This was the greatest challenge the country has faced since the war and given how we tend to romanticise the war and the "Blitz spirit", a lot of people had some degree of excitement to live up to that challenge (even mixed with the horror and fear at the situation). I remember how many people volunteered to help the shielding and self isolating people (phone calls, food deliveries) etc. When was the last time we heard about that? Social media pages were covered in offers of help. We got leaflets through the door with offers of help. People came out every Thursday to clap (and yes admittedly that became a bit of a farce but at least people felt like doing it) I think people are just fed up now, and most of that resilience is gone.