People wearing masks means that I (and thousands like me) feel.even more socially isolated than we did anyway. Those that rely on lip reading are unable to effectively communicate (I'm not deaf, but I know of deaf people that are struggling)
Those that have autism (as I do) and struggle to work out social cues with an unmasked face let alone when we only have the eyes (which most of us can't actually look people in) to help us try and decipher the meaning behind the spoken words are stuck not even bothering to attempt to communicate. Those of us with sensory processing issues, who are overwhelmed by the sight of all the masks, who struggle to isolate a single voice in an even slightly noisy situation (for me it's even being outside where cars are going past), are unable to effectively communicate and live our (semi) independent lives.
Those of us that can't wear masks (sensory processing issues again), are regularly subject to abuse, even if its only glares.
There has to come a point where this stops, this is not living with covid, this is still having covid be the be all and end all.
There are some real doom-mongers on this (and other threads) always the same few people. OK, so I guess for you expecting the worse helps you, but for the rest of us we need hope.
Yes cases have risen (but let's be honest, we were told to expect that), admissions have risen slightly, but importantly the number of people actually in hospital is still slowly reducing. Deaths are at a level where really I don't think it helps that we are told how many on a daily basis. We've always been told there will be an "acceptable" number of deaths (and hospitalisation), perhaps now is the time for the daily updates on deaths to move to weekly, or simply to say less than a certain number. Numbers will be bumpy now they are so low, small increases will translate to large percentage increases. Where I live we have had 8 cases in the wider district in the last week, this translates to a 166% increase over last week, but in reality is most likely just one family over a couple households. (And we still have a district wide rate of 4/100000).
Yes I may be one of the worst for.obsessing over numbers (damn autism again), but even I can see we need to move away from the daily updates. Local health authority data is updated weekly, perhaps this needs to be repeated at a higher level now.
This so very, very much.
SALT referals are going up because young children have not had adequate exposure to clear, uninhibited speech and variety of social conract beyond their household.
My friends have been unable to open their micro-pub since March 2020 because two tables inside and one outside is not a viable business model. It was very successful pre-Covid. If SD is not dropped in the near future they will give up and I don't blame them.
Amateur sports people can't learn skills adequately... solo, non-contact martial arts? This will affect development into professional levels in the future. Reduced capacities cutting opportunities for children to learn a range of sports/ activities.
Restrictions on volunteering. School aren't letting parents help, so that's less reading, less interventions to support SEN children.
Can't reliably run a full Guiding/ Scouting programme. We're trying to run them outside. Some activities that are naturally done outside are fairly poor weather resistant, but other traditionally indoor activities are high risk for cancelling at short notice because you can't do them outdoors in the pouring rain or high winds. Many crafts and cooking can't be done at all outside. We "can" go indoors, half a unit at a time with 11+ mumbling through masks, but that's too grim and awkward so we're trying to maximise use of the light evenings.
Social distancing and masks are a death by a thousand cuts and permeate through so much of life. If people want to WFH and live an insular, home based life, crack-on, just stop obstructing the rest of us.
Vaccination reduces Covid to just another cold-flu league illness. We have to live normally with that because the current measures are totally unsustainable. Life is finite. Sometimes unpredictably so, often though where it is sad, but not shocking.
Public mental health took a battering over the winter. We can't sustain squandering another summer and enduring another winter like the one we've just suffered.