To think that not everyone is scared

[loveisagirlnameddaisy]

Of catching Covid....?

I'm sure I'll be flamed to within an inch of my life but never mind. And yes, this thread may have been done to death before but hey ho.

Having read countless threads today about schools closing/not closing and cases rocketing/going down, can I get a sense check of who is terrified about catching Covid (and why) and who is not?

For balance, I also read a thread the other day from a person who is clinically vulnerable and whose DH had just tested positive and she was terrified. Almost the entire thread was filled by other clinically vulnerable people who had had Covid and told her not to worry.

So, while we can all agree that yes, this is a novel virus and yes, people will die because that happens with any virus, is this the virus which we should all be terrified of?

The only people I've come across who are scared of it are on here.

Even my parents, who normally tends towards mild hypochondria, aren't scared. In fact, they're not in the least bothered by it, because they're late seventies and believe they should be enjoying their last few good years. They refuse to stick to rules on social distancing and bubbles. They're really annoyed they cant have their usual exotic holidays abroad, and are becoming tempted by Dubai.

@Ragwort

I am not scared at all, I am much more scared about what's happening to the state of the economy.

I am continuing to work (non essential retail - allowed to stay open on Tier 3), I volunteer with street homeless and other vulnerable people - none of whom have caught it.

I have very elderly parents who aren't scared either, they just want to get on with their lives rather than be cooped up for their remaining years.

But agree with others, you have to be very careful how you voice your options with people who are very scared - neither of my two 'best' friends will meet up, I really miss their company but recognise that is my problem.

We have friends whose marriage has seriously deteriorated. There are a few issues at play but their opposing views on how to deal with this situation is causing a huge amount of tension and arguments.

I'm scared of losing my self employed business altogether, I'm terrified my husband will be made redundant, I'm frightened about our mounting bills.
Catching the virus is very low down on my list of things to be scared of.

@CoolNoMore

I wouldn't say I'm scared exactly, but I've had fairly bad prolapse after the birth of DS2, so I really don't want any disease that might cause me to cough

Oh no! Completely valid reason not to want to catch it!

I’m not scared. Three family members have had it and had various degrees of symptoms, one of them was in the vulnerable category and they are all completely fine now

No fear here. I want to catch it as much as I want flu. Neither is likely to do me significant harn, but there's no guarentee of not being an outlier with post-viral fatigue or worse consequences.

My attitide to life and death was set when I was 11 and that nice policeman came to the door to inform us that my early 50s dad had dropped dead in the street a few hour earlier. I learned that life is short and you have to get out there and make the most of it while the going is good.

In the past 10 years, I've had two pregnancies/ births that heavily compromised my life for a year each. I went into the second one knowing that I was likely to be compromised by months of unrelenting nausea and constant pain and other complications. The nausea was better, the pain longer less of the other complications but the birth injury buggered up the SPD and sent the pain through the roof and took months post-natally to ease off. But I went through it, with a reasonable inkling of the possibilities because we have to live. Not exist in fear, but actual living.

I've tried to live within the fullest that restrictions allow including an adapted British holiday and lots of day trips last summer to ease the tedium of groundhog day. If I get long covid, I get long covid and have to live around that, but I'm not wasting precious life before that point existing in fear.

None of us get off this planet alive at the end of it anyway

@SmileyClare

I'm scared of losing my self employed business altogether, I'm terrified my husband will be made redundant, I'm frightened about our mounting bills. Catching the virus is very low down on my list of things to be scared of.

Same here. If my business goes down I’ll have to make people redundant and they really do t need that - and neither do I !

I'm wary of catching any illness that would lead to my developing a cough, because I have a weak spine and coughing could fracture my vertebrae. So, for myself, I'm no more worried about Covid than I am a common cold.

However, what DOES scare me is the potential for hospitals to be flooded with patients presenting with severe Covid, to the extent that there are insufficient beds available for other emergency admissions, such as heart attacks, strokes, peritonitis, serious accidents etc. In those circumstances, many people without Covid who under normal circumstances would have recovered, will die.

If you add to that the numbers of people who will have cancer tests and diagnoses delayed and treatment postponed, potentially for many months, then the non-Covid death toll will rise still further.

In addition, there is a huge and growing backlog of "non-urgent" treatments and operations that have been indefinitely postponed. Many of those conditions will worsen to the extent that the treatment becomes urgent. The long delays in treatment will mean the outcomes will be less favourable and some of those patients will die while awaiting treatment.

Those are the things that worry me about Covid.

We need to do everything we can to control its spread, to prevent too many people catching it at the same time. This is why it's so important that we avoid contact with other people as much as possible.

Agree with above. Not particularly scared of the virus (had it in March) but very powerless to help my colleagues who are working so hard looking after patients and now is really not there time to need treatment for anything else.

I am not in the least bit terrified of getting it. I'd be concerned if my elderly relatives did but even then wouldn't worry too much as they are far more likely to have a mild case than not. In fact my aunt in her 80s did recently test positive and was mildly unwell but not enough to stop her doing stuff around the house and is absolutely fine now. I am much more worried about the longer term effects of lockdown and in particular school closures. I do not feel the situation justifies the damage this will cause at all.

With regards to the actual virus, yes I am scared for ds - I have seen him struggling to breathe too many times and know how difficult things are when he gets ill in normal times - so yes, I guess I'm scared. Although 'scared' sounds slightly irrational and I believe I'm also acting like a rational person - listening to the professionals involved in our lives when it comes to things like school, having a plan for what i can plan for - making sure hospital passport is current and relevant, having an overnight case packed (which we do anyway) etc.

I'm scared about work, dh's work and where we will live if we lose our house. Again these are not things I am being irrationally scared of, we are trying to plan, I've had to give up my job, we need to think about the future. We have had very difficult times in the past, and we have managed.

I am also scared about the way this government has got things so wrong, seeing how much worse it has been made by indecision, delay, poor decision making and cronyism.
I think I am also scared when I hear so many people nonchalantly saying things about underlying conditions and age with an unspoken, 'phew its not me...' in their voice. Also those who champion things like the Great Barrington Declaration and herd immunity. I geel like I am seeing how this crisis has given voice to something in society which has always been there but which now seems to be given legitimacy about the value of a life, and yes, that also scares me.

we need to do everything we can to control its spread

Absolutely. However don't assume that people who are rational about the virus and aren't living in fear of catching it themselves are non compliant and socially irresponsible.

Not personally scared as low risk and for whatever reason long covid doesn’t scare me. I had post viral fatigue years ago and sorted out my health and I suspect the same things would work

Very scared for vulnerable friends though and the economy and kids mental health. I feel really upset today

I am also wondering if natural herd immunity is the only way given the various mutations. I don’t mean this to sound harsh as I have many people I’m worried about. But I do feel nature is outsmarting us

Neither I, nor DP were afraid of catching it, right from the start. Then my hyper fit, relatively young DP got it and is now pretty much severely disabled. It's been hell on a stick since May. Then my DFriend got it and it left her with a lifelong condition too that will have to be managed forever, no chance of complete recovery. Another woman I know is a firefighter (mid 20s) and now has lung damage and it looks like she may have to give up her career. Another woman mid 30s has long covid and has struggled since April. An ex colleague has had major ongoing issues and was hospitalised with it in October, ventilator, the lot. He is 45. Still nto back in work. I got it in November and was poorly but nothing I couldn't handle, but it did leave me exhausted for weeks and the types of symptoms I got (night after night of scary heart rhythms etc) has all left me very very afraid for other people. Now whenever I hear of someone getting it I'm scared. Really scared for them. It feels like a game of roulette. Personally, it's decimated my life. No part of it resembles my life and the way it was heading this time last year. I think of suicide daily. Sorry to be a doom monger but it's how I feel.

I'm not scared so much for myself however know many people who have had it (colleagues, NHS) and some have been fine, some are still absolutely knackered from it weeks/months on and still struggling with the after effects so I'd rather not take the risk of that being me.
I am however terrified of my son, my dad, my brother or my grandparents getting it though as they all have underlying health issues.

I'm not sure what your point is OP or what you are trying to say.

Personally, no, I'm not terrified of catching Covid, although I would certainly rather not. I have fit and healthy friends who have been extremely ill with it and have had lasting symptoms.

But what are you implying? That those who aren't scared should be able to just go about their business normally? Because that I would hugely disagree with.

@Callcat That's a lot of people with unfortunate experiences, given the majority will only have it mild or no symptoms. Sounds like they have been very unlucky.

I haven't known a single person to have COVID with symptoms or be treated (as yet), anyone who I've known to get a positive test result have been asymptomatic and even then I've only known 2-3 since the pandemic started. I appreciate maybe my friends, family and colleagues have been very lucky.

@wildraisins

I'm not sure what your point is OP or what you are trying to say.

Personally, no, I'm not terrified of catching Covid, although I would certainly rather not. I have fit and healthy friends who have been extremely ill with it and have had lasting symptoms.

But what are you implying? That those who aren't scared should be able to just go about their business normally? Because that I would hugely disagree with.

My post was written based on 48 hours worth of reading both MN threads and media headlines. A quagmire of doom with no possible hope of anything better than this, for months ahead. Based on a 'killer virus' we should all be terrified of.

I think most people aren't afraid of catching it, but are worried about the wider implications - passing it on to vulnerable people, clogging up hospitals so that they can't deal with other emergencies, job losses etc.

What worries me is those people who refuse to see the wider issues, as long as they are "all right Jack" (for now).

I always understood the very vulnerable were in the minority of the population but that isn't mirrored on here or at work... (Just had meeting, 6 of us, only me who stated not vulnerable, that doesn't fit with the rhetoric I do suspect a lot of vulnerable are self diagnosed though).

In my social circle and amongst acquaintances very very low, a few either asymptomatic or mild, multiple health professionals who've been doing "front line". I live in a big city and work in healthcare, MN at the moment is full of fear, dread and scare mongering. Advocating stricter lockdowns and longer restrictions is a privilege... And MN reeks of it with its disproportionate number of SAHPs and flexible workers. Try being in a role where you only get paid the days you work, DH does this 1 day off sick in over 20 years.

I also think CAMHS, children's social care and health visitors need to come out from behind their screens and start doing proper face to face again and provide the service they're being commissioned and paid to do. I appreciate some are but it's certainly not across the board.

I’m pragmatic.
I don’t want to get ill - who does - but I’m pretty sure it’s only a matter of time.
The data tells me I should be fine as does watching a lot of friends and family fully recover from it (including some over 70s).

Yanbu. Of the one person I know who has had it, they were asymptomatic. Average age of death mid 80’s, c.40 people under age 40 who have died from it, c. 400 under age 60 who have died with no co-morbitities... it’s not exactly petrifying - this is a good thing for the vast majority and yet scared people seem to hate those facts.

I also don’t get posts wanting lockdown all the time. People upset Scotland is but we’re not.

Don’t get it. I’ll follow the rules and understand why we have to but dread them.

@MarshaBradyo

I also don’t get posts wanting lockdown all the time. People upset Scotland is but we’re not.

Don’t get it. I’ll follow the rules and understand why we have to but dread them.

Because I genuinely think some people will be gutted when all this is over to be quite frank. It's like they actually can't wait for the next miserable set of restrictions or the next big dramatic twist in the whole saga so they can jump on here and scold everyone else for not doing as well as they have been at not leaving the house since March or quarantining post for 6 days before opening it with gloves and burning the envelope after.

Like competitive misery on here at the moment.

The fear of losing my job/having home repossessed as a result of the pandemic far outweighs any concerns I have about the virus. Getting Covid COULD have awful long-lasting effects for me and my kids. Losing my income WILL have awful long-lasting effects for me and my kids.