Refusing to go out until zero covid

[IrmaFayLear]

Bil and sil have not been out since March 2020. They wfh, in 50s with no health conditions at all. They have both been fully vaccinated - two doses (sil’s best friend is a GP ). Dh was speaking to bil yesterday and he said it’s not safe until cases are zero worldwide, and that because they care so much about each other (!) they have decided that they cannot take any risk.

Are there many people like this? I was in the shielding category and although I have been ultra cautious, I have still gone for walks, dashed into the chemist in a hazmat suit etc etc. I wonder if they are extreme outliers or whether there will be more recluses now, feeling fully justified.

[xyzandabc]

How did they get vaccinated without leaving the house? Can't imagine any gp/nurse doing home visits for perfectly healthy 50 something's.

Or do you mean they have been out of the house for essential things, just not social things or exercise?

[gnushoes]

Surely the GP friend will be gently telling them they're nuts/suggesting professional help?

[Bluntness100]

I also think this is very rare but they will not be alone, it’s very sad and I’d classify it as a form of acrophobia. Clearly zero cases globally will not be achieved any time soon, if ever. The overwhelming majority of people are just cracking on. You need to remember millions worked throughout lockdown,.

Maybe they will adjust with time, but right now they are just too scared.

[Moomoolandmoomooland]

My mum is like this, but she has had well documented mental health issues for my entire life. So I'm not surprised really. She won't see the grandkids and that's her choice.

[IrmaFayLear]

They went to the GP for their vaccinations - after hours as GP is sil’s friend. They were practically the first people to be jabbed. Bil said he felt a bit guilty but a contact is a contact.

[Miljea]

I have a friend like this. She's 60, lives alone but has bubbled with her sister's family (tho I don't think they've been shielding...) across her street.

I am worried about her. She has no income, and is increasingly refusing to go outdoors. Her sister shops for her as she 'cannot stand seeing people in face masks'. She tells me she's 'happy in her own little world'... but she appears angry and paranoid to me.

She lives too far away for me to arrange to meet her outdoors, sadly. If, indeed, she would!

I have a local friend who asks me out for walks but it's too much like hard work. She hasn't been inside a shop for a year, so she's leaping off the pavement into bushes, into the path of cyclists, veering off up footpaths if anyone hoves into distant view. It's exhausting!

[MarshaBradyo]

That is strange but do they go outside for other stuff?

[thebillyotea]

I am using that "not until Covid is over" excuse too, but just to avoid people I don't like

If we didn't miss someone during the lockdown, I am not wasting my time with them for now. I am not saying your BIL is doing the same at all, just that you might hear that excuse around...

[milveycrohn]

I think it is an extremely unhealthy attitude to take, and the more one stays inside, the harder it will be to go outside.
I know people who are more frightened than myself, but they still go out, and take walks early in the morning, to avoid the 'crowds'. (one is 'shielding', though I think this has recently ended).
So, it is possible to go out and avoid people, and keep a distance if you wish

[GabsAlot]

sad really theyre'll never be zero covid cases like there will never be zero flu

[RedcurrantPuff]

@Finfintytint

Unlikely to ever have zero cases worldwide. Are they going to stay put forever? What a miserable self inflicted existence.

Exactly

[Bagelsandbrie]

I think that’s really sad. They’re just wasting their lives away. It may never be zero Covid.

I am in the clinically extremely vulnerable group. I’ve had one jab. I’m careful - go out when it’s quiet, live rurally so don’t have to see lots of people really, but I’ll be absolutely damned if I’m going to spend my life shut indoors all the bloody time. Life is for living.

[GabsAlot]

Do they have dc op-are they planning on never just going out again

what was the point of having the jab then refusing to go out

[Cornettoninja]

@CrazyNeighbour so my assumption of mental health issues is less valid than your assumption of control issues because...?

My point has clearly been lost on you but this couple (presuming this is a real scenario) haven’t invited criticism and judgement from a bunch of strangers on the internet but a relative has chosen to discuss them behind their backs. It’s not a high bar to refrain from being rude about them is it? That’s kind of bare minimum compassion surely..

[MyDcAreMarvel]

@CarrieCat That's extreme. If they caught it while fully vaccinated the symptoms would only be mild like a normal virus you could have got pre covid.
That’s a myth unfortunately, many CEV people won’t have a good enough immune response to a vaccine.

[Radio4Rocks]

I know a few elderly people who feel this way. They have the underlying health conditions that lead to hospitalisation and that's what keeps them in.

Our neighbour said it was the fear of dying alone in hospital that keeps him inside. Not the fear of dying - the fear of what he's seen on TV.

[faerin]

Seems ridiculous to me. If you never go out, you're guarunteed to get very sick.. Tbf it kind of sounds like they ARE already ill - just mentally rather than (the now very small chance of getting covid) physically.

[Roonerspismed]

I feel sorry for people who are caught up this. The government and media have done a marvellous job of terrifying people into submission and we will need to be empathetic to these people however nuts it seems.

[Eesha]

My ex partner has Aspergers and was a bit like this, said we shouldn't see each other till Covid was eradicated completely.

[Terracotta9]

In the OP’s description I read a couple have been badly affected mentally by this pandemic and have a completely disproportionate view of the risk yet people still feel it’s fit to stick the boot in because mental health issues manifesting in any way other than a desperation for this all to end isn’t worthy of compassion?

I agree.

I have a friend who is mid-thirties, healthy, at low risk of covid complications. She removed herself from London at the beginning of the pandemic to wait it out somewhere remote and will only leave the house to hike on isolated trails, wears gloves if she has to touch anything outside etc. It’s such a disproportionate response to her actual risk and I worry about her mental health. She has been waiting all this time for the vaccine, so I expect she’ll be back in the summer. But I wonder, how does someone go back to normality after living like there is Ebola lurking on their doorstep for more than a year? Even when she is vaccinated she will worry about new variants.

This kind of extreme anxiety is so damaging, and I think there many, many people who will continue to live with it even as cases continue to fall.

[CarrieCat]

@MyDcAreMarvel
That’s a myth unfortunately, many CEV people won’t have a good enough immune response to a vaccine
They are not CEV

[IrmaFayLear]

I didn’t start this thread for a row, just to wonder really if there were many others like this. CHEEK! of Cornettoninja questioning the veracity of the scenario and it is not about mental health. If anything bil was undermining dh’s by implying that dh was being reckless.

[RosesAndHellebores]

I wonder if they need so.e help understanding probability. It's rather sad.

[beginningoftheend]

@Cornettoninja

Overall I think this is an incredibly divisive and toxic thread.

In the OP’s description I read a couple have been badly affected mentally by this pandemic and have a completely disproportionate view of the risk yet people still feel it’s fit to stick the boot in because mental health issues manifesting in any way other than a desperation for this all to end isn’t worthy of compassion?

Fwiw I don’t think this will be common but there will be people who either struggle with some degree of agoraphobia along with those who are still vulnerable because for whatever reason they can’t make use of the tools we have for mitigation who will really struggle. These groups will need support and understanding.

Agree very much with this - an awful lot of mental health bashing going on. Covid has been an awful time.

Expect there were some unusual responses after the war too. People are complicated.