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 actual virus in me personally I dont give 2 fu*ks about. There are literally hundreds of other more likely causes of death or disability for me over the next 2 years.

I get that there are people who are higher risk though.

I'm classed as vulnerable and dh Is CEV
We have been shielding from people since late February. Haven't been in a shop since March. Haven't been in anyone's house since March and we haven't ever ' bubbled ' with anyone .
Everything has been delivered to the house as we have been conducting our life online, even our prescriptions are delivered.

Im not scared but when you do think you've got it (as I did in April last year) you do sit there wondering if it could get worse and slide into crisis. But with the new strain taking hold where I live I'm more confident that it's as mild if not milder than before.

However this does not mean I'm not concerned for more vulnerable people which is why I got tested at the weekend to protect my Dad. Happily I was pronounced negative.

The ‘Fear’ is perplexing.
I live in London and am a secondary teacher, so by MN standards should be a gibbering wreck. But I know no-one who jas had any serious symptoms, let alone been hospitalised or died.
Lots of people I know (including me) had all the symptoms in Feb, but no tests then.

So no, am not scared!

Ginfordinner I'm so sorry you and your DD are going through it too. I'm afraid I'll meet a long covid denier in real life one of these days because I'd be afraid that I'd knock them out, drag them to our house for 48hrs. The first 24 would be making them watch videos of us doing extreme sports and tobogganing and sea swimming and stuff from this time last year. Then the next 24 I'll let them spend alone with him to see how he is now.

However, I am scared, but it doesn't mean I'm loving the lockdowns either. My mental health is in the drain. My DC are suffering so much. I miss my friends, who all live in different counties so we haven't seen each other since last Christmas. My business is fucked. I'm skint, fat, unhappy, pretty desparate, and no one can help with my DP because COVID. Even getting him treatment FOR the COVID related problems is virtually impossible becuase the hospitals aren't running normal services. Sorry for being such a Debbie downer. My whole life is decimated, and all my coping mechanisms have been taken away. I'm scared for other people. I'm just sad for myself a lot of the time.

Thank you for your kind words @Callcat. As I said in my previous post, until you get it you don't know whether you will get it lightly and completely recover, or end up in hospital and/or develop long covid.

I'm more worried about the knock on effects - the impact on hospitals and employment. Far too many people are burying their heads in the sand about these issues.

Oh, and the impact on education and mental health.

@Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow

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

Herd immunity doesn't work because:

• Immunity to the virus doesn't last- you can catch it, or another variant/mutation of it again.

• When the virus is let to get out of control in its spread then all of the intensive care beds are taken up with it so that means no heart/cancer surgeries that might require an ICU bed can go ahead.

With regard to 'underlying health conditions', these can be anything such as mild asthma or obesity.

No more scared than I am of any other illness that could be mild or could be severe 🤷‍♀️

@EmmanuelleMakro

The ‘Fear’ is perplexing. I live in London and am a secondary teacher, so by MN standards should be a gibbering wreck. But I know no-one who jas had any serious symptoms, let alone been hospitalised or died. Lots of people I know (including me) had all the symptoms in Feb, but no tests then.

Yeah I had that, I caught it from my brother in January; then he caught real Covid in March so that virus wasn't Covid.

post fatigue syndrome is a well known condition

In my post above this statement, I tried to explain a sub group of long CoVid show similarities - not saying identical too soon to know - with ME. ME should not be conflated with post fatigue syndrome. Explained why in the post.

But what about long covid!" Is becoming the screechy mantra of those who advocate this non existence.

@nuitdesetoiles, long CoVid exists, recognised by medical world including WHO, please stop lying that it doesn’t. Incredibly harmful and cruel to deny, even if chance of getting it is hopefully low. So far seems Long CoVid probably 3 subgroups, some recover after a few months, some their symptoms may be from organ damage and third group have some similarities with ME.

As someone who has had ME for 22 years and experienced denial of its existence, I am appalled people with long CoVid are experiencing similar gaslighting by some.

@nuitdesetoiles, sorry I missed you said in a subsequent post that you not denying the existence of long Covid. I misread your sentence.

6 members of my family had it, one had it relatively bad, he developed a pneumonia but thankfully he pulled through! So that made me less panicky however I am still a bit anxious (( I don’t want to get it. I don’t want my OH or my child to get it either. So to answer tote questions - I’m now not terrified but I am anxious.

Not scared about catching covid but very frightened about the effects on economy and society, especially those today who can't get jobs, living on debt, hand to mouth and the education being massively uneven. The rich are getting richer, and the poor poorer.

We are lucky, dh and I work in tech and wealthy enough to ride this through. We can wfh flexibly, we have big house, garden, in jobs where we are in demand. Our kids will have our attention at home now and we can afford to teach them a good syllabus that extends their learning. We have all the tech, home learning, musical tuition be etc etc.. it's all ok for us.

But I think about all those less fortunate than us all the time and I think how it's incredibly unfair on them and I think we will look back on this and wonder whether we reacted proportionately.

I'm scared of it. I have pretty bad asthma and swine flu almost killed me - I've never experienced anything so terrifying in my life. A temp of 42, absolutely sweating so much with the oxygen mask on, pulling it off because I couldn't bear it and then completely unable to breathe without it. Delirious from dehydration and the temperature. Apparently I almost died in the ambulance on the way to hospital. I'm so scared of getting anything that awful again. DH lost a young, fit, healthy friend to covid, no underlying conditions.

@Newdonewhugh

I’m not scared, I think this is utter madness but I feel like I’m living in lonley world. Even my seemingly rational friends have lost the plot. Today is the first day Ive been stressed about covid but not about the deaths, more that I feel like I’m now living in a World that is never going to turn back! Anyone thinking a vaccine will work is m, IMO, mad. If it’s really as they say it is, the vaccine would be no more successful than the useless flu vaccine. As the whole worlds pinned their hopes on this, I now see this going on all year or more.

True.Same here

Most of those I know are more scared about their jobs than of the virus.

The few quite older people I know, have been largely eyerolling at how some of the younger fit people are claiming to be washing tins of beans before putting them in the cupboard, or quarantining post.

Overall, many are not scared. Some are. Anecdotally though, seems people are more scared about jobs/houses than the chance of getting ill. My area/group cold be an outlier though, given polling suggests lockdown is a bit more popular than not doing so.

Immunity to the virus doesn't last- you can catch it, or another variant/mutation of it again.

I would genuinely be interested in reading this, if you saved it or remember. As from what I have read (and can find) it seems the jury is still out on that. Would be concerning to me, if you have no immunity to some mutations. As this would, I presume, be quite bad news for the vaccine also. The absolute last thing we need right now is to discover that the vaccines only treat certain mutations of it, given how quickly it appears the new mutation has take over. In theory we could scramble around sorting anther vaccine, then another mutation comes along and its back to square one. But thats not really good news at all so hoping this is not the case.

Aswell as jury being out, I was of the understanding that there have been tests done in various countries, albeit small ones, which show that people who have not been exposed to covid can be immune becasuse they had previous contact with the SARS virus.

I’m not scared of Covid (I’ve had it) but I’m terrified of what social isolation will do to my mum (70) and kids.

No, I'm not scared of it. Far more scared of the impact of all the COVID measures, to be honest.

I’m not scared but I am trying to do everything I can to avoid it. I am 34 and healthy and I ended up in hospital with flu last winter and had post viral fatigue for 4 months. With a baby and toddler to look after that was really hard.

I’m not scared of the virus at all. Given my age and state of health, I’m at more risk from the flu and I’ve never given that a moments thought, much less got a vaccine or anything.

I don’t want my parents to get it though, but hopefully they’ll have the vaccine soon (in their 70s).

I also understand that an overrun health service is a major problem.

However, my biggest concerns are the economic and social implications of lockdowns, which will be devastating and with us for decades. I wonder how my children’s future will be limited by what’s happened this year? Though tbf, it will be much less privileged children than mine that will suffer the worst effects.