How’s everyone feeling about Happy Monday?

[Wingingit15]

I’m not feeling all that happy actually and just feel will have to hide away more in a week or two when there has been so much mixing. Not saying that’s not right, just don’t feel confident at all particularly when schools
return post a fortnight of it!
I suspect it might be different if you’re vaccinated etc though.

I think I'm ambivalent. I know it has made a lot of people happy so that's good, and it is the way things need to move.

But my family are abroad, my friendships have drifted this past year so I have no one to invite into my garden immediately. And I'm in my 40s, no vaccine, 3dc in secondary. I worry it will be a green light to some people to do as they please. I have enjoyed the sunshine and warm weather today though.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/adhocs/12788updatedestimatesoftheprevalenceoflongcovidsymptoms

Female > male
35 to 49 most likely group at 5 weeks still showjng symptom

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56509340
Middle-aged women 'worst affected by long Covid', studies find

www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n829
Covid-19: Middle aged women face greater risk of debilitating long term symptoms

From BMJ paper

'Before hospital admission 68% of patients had worked full time, but 18% of these had not returned to work and 19% had had to change their way of working because of longlasting effects'

@MaxRiemelt

Infection levels are plummeting. If you've not had the vaccine then you're obviously not vulnerable. It's fine. You're over thinking the situation.

Levels are going up in my area. Now twice the national average. It’s not filling me with joy and hope, I can tell you. Especially when I went past a house in my village yesterday with about ten cars parked outside and the noise of a children’s birthday party coming from within (despite the windows being closed).

I think it’s an anti-climax. I’ll wait until everything is opened up again.

Its made me feel depressed tbh as I don't have any family to see, and no friends either. Easter weekend will be just the same as last weekend, just with the opportunity to drive to go for a walk and I can go for a swim in a lake rather than the riiver

Turned out I am much more of a grumpy arse than I thought...feel thoroughly miserable and feeling sorry for self after today.

Meh, been at work all day. Was a manic day and I'm still getting over the side effects of my vaccine on saturday and the side effects were 1000 times worse than when I had covid over xmas, so not a very happy filled day.

But I'm glad everything is opening up and the government are finally giving us permission to see our friends and family

I wish everyone would stop panicking about long covid ffs, the numbers getting long covid, or by its other name, post viral syndrome is minimal!! Get a fucking grip! I say this as someone who was bedridden for 5 months with glandular fever which took a further 18 months before I go back to work. I dont remember everyone having to go into lockdown back in the 90s when GF "ripped" through my friends and I after all.

Doesn't really make any difference. Still can't see my family.

At least I'll be able to take DD to an Easter Egg Hunt at our nearest English Heritage site without worrying about being stopped for not being "local".

I'm excited. Been to bootcamp tonight (which is outdoor in non covid times too) and running club tomorrow night. Meeting a friend for a picnic with her DCs on Friday. Going to visit my parents in their garden on Saturday. Looking forward to the summer. I'm 42 with no health conditions so not vaccinated, but covid never really has bothered me personally so I've never been worried for myself (totally understand why it would be worrying for CV and elderly though) even a year ago when we were a lot less certain of what it was and how bad it could get I never worried about it.

@SpnBaby1967

Meh, been at work all day. Was a manic day and I'm still getting over the side effects of my vaccine on saturday and the side effects were 1000 times worse than when I had covid over xmas, so not a very happy filled day.

But I'm glad everything is opening up and the government are finally giving us permission to see our friends and family

I wish everyone would stop panicking about long covid ffs, the numbers getting long covid, or by its other name, post viral syndrome is minimal!! Get a fucking grip! I say this as someone who was bedridden for 5 months with glandular fever which took a further 18 months before I go back to work. I dont remember everyone having to go into lockdown back in the 90s when GF "ripped" through my friends and I after all.

I agree, I had post viral fatigue (now fashionably dubbed "long covid") after a particularly nasty bout of glandular fever in my teens. It was horrible, knocked me off my feet for about 12 months and really affected my life options (A level time). But, I don't recall at any point expecting the world to stop turning on its axis, or the rest of the country to pause their lives for me! Shit happens unfortunately.

Seeing 6 of my closed friends over the weekend and can't wait.

DS's football training started up again tonight- it was so lovely to see how happy him and the other lads were to be out playing again and seeing each other- they all go to different schools so haven't seen each other for ages.

Long may it continue as football club is DS's favourite thing in the world.

Just made plans for the next few weeks. Feels so good to have things in the calendar.

Update: sat in my garden with a lovely combination of friends, cold white wine, fancy olives, twinkly lights and cherry blossom. I think we were doing what my 17 yo DD would call “chatting shit” - ie nothing life or death, just catch up, plans, likes, discoveries, news, hair woes etc.

Same old same old and it feels good!

Asthma is a massive postcode lottery. I know people with very mild asthma who have been vaccinated and people with more severe asthma (like myself) who have had a previous hospital admission but have been refused a vaccination. It’s a crazy situation especially now that there are under 50’s with no underlying conditions already being vaccinated. A GP friend whose husband is in the same position as me said that she believes we are sitting ducks if a third wave hits before we are vaccinated.

Not seeing it as happy currently as vaccines aren’t yet fully done and the relaxations and more rule breaking that likely follows will mean more cases as can’t see how they will continue to go down.

Agree that there is so much catastrophising around Long Covid. Yes, it's scary and unknown and some are suffering after the virus but looking at the numbers around people who've come out of hospital - you've got to realise a lot of them have been very poorly indeed or are elderly and are more vulnerable. It really doesn't translate to Long Covid being a risk for most people. The vast majority of people will not get Long Covid, and of those who have symptoms which are ongoing, most will still be ok a few months on. The body has huge capacity to heal. I know someone who had several months of severe breathlessness and lethargy last summer after getting Covid - about 4 months on she was running up hills again.

It's really, really important to keep things in proportion. Spreading fear about Long Covid affects how your nervous system responds to threats and actually increases your likelihood of you developing some kind of post-viral something. It affects your immune system in subtle ways too.

There was a long thread on asthma which I followed, and the conclusion seemed to be
that asthma increases the risk of serious illness and long covid, but not actually of death. For this reason asthma is not included in the vaccine priority group, but asthmatics are still regarded as clinically vulnerable and advised to socially distance as much as possible. In practice, vaccination is a postcode lottery with some parts of the country vaccinating all asthmatics and others being much more strict with the criteria.

I'm pleased that restrictions are being lifted but I will personally be cautious, as an unvaccinated woman in my 40s with a level of asthma that just missed the cut off point for a vaccine. I think being indoors is the biggest risk, so I plan to enjoy seeing family and friends outdoors. I will walk or drive everywhere instead of taking public transport, and we'll continue to shop online as much as possible.

Don't care. Didn't eat out to help out either.

I met for a cup of tea with two friends in one of their gardens, it was lovely.

I've noticed several people on my Facebook posting about finally being able to see a friend today, how they've had coffee together in town or met for a picnic lunch in the park- I'm wondering if they realise that they've actually been able to meet one other person 'recreationally' (so not just for exercise as previously) from 8th March.

It doesn’t make much difference to me - we’ve been seeing my DM throughout as she’s in our bubble and I have other relatives living 10 mins away so have had doorstep visits with them. I’ve also been meeting friends for 1-to-1 walks and have actually spoken more to others on the phone/zoom than I have done for ages.
What I really want is:
To be able to travel stress-free
To go to the theatre/a gig/a ballet
To do parkrun
To go to a restaurant

I’ve been wfh for a year, sat in the dining room staring out at my garden. I don’t want to bloody sit in it now I want to go somewhere different!

[quote Dowser]@Newnamefor2021i can’t see how they can get away with that
What about the union[/quote]
They can. Apparently fire and rehire is legal. I can see why it may be used in some circumstances but this was out in place on day 3 of negotiations. It's been condemned by everyone but it's happened, they will lose their jobs on the 14th (they were to,d it could be from Thursday but their official notice late this afternoon is 14th)

@Carycy

I’m mostly angry they haven’t opened up more. I have two weeks of Easter holidays to entertain my kids and there is very little we can do. Things open up more the week after so private school kids can take advantage of that. It feels extremely unfair. I have had enough of taking them on sodding walks and to the playground. We had cabin holiday booked that we had to cancel and missed out by one week. I don’t see how staying in a sodding cabin in the forest with my family could have harmed anyone. That’s our chance to have a family holiday gone now till the end of may. It is ridiculous that half the population has been vaccinated and we still can’t do anything.

Too right Makes no sense at all.I can’t see how us sitting in our caravan in a field harms anyone either but I don’t think we can go. If it was on my own land, I bloody would though.