Do you think people are just desensitised and feel far removed from NHS situation and that’s why they aren’t worried

[CaughtInTheCovid]

I feel like one of the reasons for lack of compliance/taking the rules and covid seriously is that after almost a year of the news basically being a horror film and having hideous statistics about death thrown at us we are just so desensitised to it that it doesn’t affect us. I was watching the news earlier and it had horrific scenes of hospitals, staff in tears just awful. But I felt a sense of detachment, like it was a film or happening in a different country that didn’t affect me. Like when you watch children in need and cry and think how awful it is and donate money and then the next day you just forget about it when you’re back to business. I don’t think I connect that if I were to have a heart attack or get hit by a car and need medical care with the absolute crisis and as we all do think ‘it’ll never happen to me’.

Do you think that’s why people aren’t complying or are pushing the rules to the limits? They just can’t keep up to the level of fear so are desensitised or think it doesn’t affect them? FWIW I have followed all the rules and am currently struggling home schooling and wfh but understand the need for it all.

Yes, I have fear fatigue. Tbf, if I was still as anxious as I was back in March, I’d have had a nervous breakdown ages ago. There’s only so much fear one can take. I think a kind of self-preservation instinct has kicked in now, and I just let it all wash over me. It’s not great, but the alternative is worse.

@DenisetheMenace I do agree that the message isn’t sinking in though (with some people) .

I don't think humans can live in a state of high fear and panic for that long. I was really anxious and fearful in March, but there's no way to keep that up without breaking. We have to protect ourselves (block out the news) and get on with daily living.

There's no advantage to panic and fear - keep to the rules but try and look after yourself. The NHS will make it through, or not, but there's little we can do aside from sticking to the rules.

The situation in December was already really bad in December, but it didn't suit the government to report it because economically they wanted us to spend.
They even allowed people to mix households inside (political image reasons) and now that mixing has 2 weeks later led to a large increase in hospitalisations.
Now they have decided on lockdown, they are allowing media to report on the bad situation inside hospitals. If the government/media had been reporting on this like they should in December it would be easier for the general public to assimilate and take on board, rather than as a sudden situation in January.

I feel the opposite.

I live in an area (Kent) where our numbers in Nov and Dec kept climbing. DS’s and another local secondary school closed for a couple of weeks each as the teachers were dropping like flies.

I’d been hearing reports both in local and National media about the local hospitals struggling, most over 100% capacity, ambulances waiting and patients being treated in the ambulances and transferring patients (covid and non covid) 200 miles away.
Last week I was driving past a row of shops, a fire engine was pulled up and they were dealing with an elderly man who was sat on a chair with a foil wrap around him. To me that man probably needed an ambulance but there was one in sight and it really brought home to me just how in the shitter we are.

On Sunday morning I went to Tesco. Normally it would be rammed, on Sunday it was really quiet, the road between us and Tesco is busy A road, again that was quiet. My local park isn’t busy, the play area has been quiet for a few days. A lot of people are wearing masks just walking around the streets. More people are walking in the middle of the road it someone is on the pavement.

Numbers are now coming down here but I know people are scared, whereas before Christmas people seemed a lot more not bothered by it.

*wasn’t an ambulance in sight.

I’m more worried now than back in March.

You could play a 30 minute video every day showing patients in a Covid ward. You could have nurses describe what it's like to die of Covid. You could even film someone dying.

Some ppl would watch it and still not follow the rules, as they dont think ppl should tell them what to do.

@Torvean32

You could play a 30 minute video every day showing patients in a Covid ward. You could have nurses describe what it's like to die of Covid. You could even film someone dying.

Some ppl would watch it and still not follow the rules, as they dont think ppl should tell them what to do.

This.

Perfectly put.

@DenisetheMenace

Sadly, I think it’s more a case of a lot of people just not caring.They were initially told that it only affects the elderly, which is a group many people in this country don’t care a great deal about.

Everyone should listen to today’s PM on radio 4. Hugh Pymm reported that in the past month, 40% of ICU admissions were in the range of 18-64 years, including many people with no underlying health conditions whatsoever. He spoke to a 32 year old, previously fit sportsman who has been left with heart failure by this. He required ventilation and believes he is lucky to be alive.
I don’t understand why this message isn’t being shouted from the rooftops. The demographic affected by this new strain has changed massively. The consultant in respiratory medicine said they had many very sick patients in their 30s and 40s

Until people understand that this can impact them personally, they’ll continue not caring very much.

I do feel very moved when I read accounts of people who have died. the Guardian had until recently been doing features on people who had died, not sure if it was mainly NHS workers but the articles talked about their lives, their achievements, their families talking about them. I think accounts like this really brought it home to me the awfulness behind each statistic. I think when that is multiplied tens of thousands of times though you have to preserve your own mental health and not dwell on it too much. I am used to death, I worked in a hospice until a couple of years ago and it was a daily part of my job to sometimes take 3 or 4 corpses to the hospice mortuary, but this covid is different. Seeing people dying gasping for breath unable to see their families is really hard.

personally I am very worried, don't want to leave house, certainly don't want to walk around the crowded streets with narrow pavements all around me thronging with households chatting and joggers and cyclists puffing past in close proximity. The only place I would feel safe is in the countryside where I know a walk 6 miles away where I rarely see more than 5 people in an hour, but the police want to intimidate and harass me into not taking this much safer exercise, despite it being allowed.
So now my fear will make me stay inside, just like lockdown one where I didn't leave my house for several months, for exactly the same reasons.

I think we need some news clips of what it's actually like inside the UK hospitals. Everyone was so horrified at the films coming from Italy right at the beginning. I think we need to shock people to be honest.

@Torvean32

You could play a 30 minute video every day showing patients in a Covid ward. You could have nurses describe what it's like to die of Covid. You could even film someone dying.

Some ppl would watch it and still not follow the rules, as they dont think ppl should tell them what to do.

I totally agree.

I think its overexposure tbh.

I think of it like treatment for a phobia. Something you're super terrified of that just takes over your whole mind. The treatment for that can often be exposure. Just each day with a bit of exposure, then a bit more, and a bit more until eventually the phobia is gone (or at least fairly diminished).

Now, we have 24/7, we have scientists and politicians who cant all agree. We had threats of 500k deaths and 50,000 cases by october.

All that's done is ramp up the fear, then it didnt happen and you relax. So then the next PANIC STATIONS warning you hear, you maybe dont worry about as much because it turned out to be "nothing" before.

This is why scare mongering, yelling at people for doing perfectly fine things, and the general hysteria of MN especially becomes counter productive. The more you hear it, the less you care about it. It becomes white noise and you just worry about you, and you're own family around you.

Lockdown fatigue is very real, this is why the government didnt want to lock down too early and why piling more and more restrictions wont breed compliance. It'll breed frustration, discourse and mistrust.

I think many lack the imagination to understand that dying is not the worst thing that can happen to you.

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I think many lack the imagination to understand that dying is not the worst thing that can happen to you.

This is a weird take. Obviously dying is not the worst thing that can happen to me, but I still can’t maintain a fever pitch panic response for months and months. I don’t really get your point here.

Often it’s sheer stupidity and the inability to understand both logical argument and basic maths.

@FOJN

I think many lack the imagination to understand that dying is not the worst thing that can happen to you.

Or indeed the distress of the impact of lockdown is so much higher for some than the risk of severe illness or death from covid that they they break the rules in some type of self preservation.

I was very careful for nine months.... Then my youngest child brought covid home from school. We all had it. We apparently have three months of antibodies. I don't see we should infect anyone, as we've recently already had it. I'd like to see family and be carefree, not strictly follow any lockdown. I'm sure there must be others like me.

I think quite a few people who have had it think they are immune and can bend the rules.

Saw an influencer on Instagram who has openly admitted she has tested positive, post stories out with her child, grandparents, and another couple and their child. Whilst preaching about mental health. The hypocrisy is infuriating but I’m sure she is just one of many people behaving this way

On an earlier thread today someone said they thought the whole virus thing was a load of old cobblers, they didn't give a crap and weren't going to be shamed into following the guidance. They never wore a mask because they weren't prepared to breath stale air. All about their 'rights', zilch about moral responsibilty to society as a whole. That's the mentality we are dealing with.
Just to add I work on ICU, I've had covid, an experience I never want to repeat.
I understand people are depressed and frustrated. I can see both sides but it's frustrating to see people blatantly denying.

I'm more scared than at any point in this shit show. I stayed relatively calm and positive until recently because the data indicated the situation was manageable, now I'm struggling to find any logic or data that convinces me my fears are unwarranted. I'm just hoping that the numbers come down soon.

IDK. I thought I didn't care anymore. Then I saw this news article today about how they've just redefined the amount of oxygen the human body needs because of the oxygen pipeline issue, and it really upset me.

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-55615591

To clarify I'm following the rules, I just thought I'd stopped caring about the situation in general.