My dh is planning on going to a reunion from his old workplace in October at a pub or bar in central London, I'm CV and it's the first time he's done anything like this since the pandemic started, first due to me shielding and since that ended just because of the risk where I'm CV and in rubbish health (different chronic conditions, a physical disability and poor immunity leave me mostly housebound, sometimes bedbound).
I'm getting pretty anxious about it the closer it gets, he'll obviously be in a public, likely busy place being a Friday night, with a large group of people (about 25) all evening, and he also needs to get on the train up to London for an hour then the tube and back again.
What's it like in London now? Have people pretty much gone back to how it was pre Covid with socialising? Do places get packed again and are people wearing masks on public transport? Clearly people in the pub won't be wearing masks if they're drinking and chatting, so that's worrying me with the risk of him catching Covid going up in that environment. We've both had our 2 AZ jabs but tbh I'm feeling less confident about protection with more and more double jabbed people catching Covid and still getting pretty ill.
We have a 9 year old dd with ASD and every day is unpredictable and a challenge, I worry about how we'd cope if either of us caught Covid because she's so dependent on me in every sense, but I do need help from my dh with her for certain things. When I'm unwell enough to be bedbound he has to step in and help her with things like showers and all hell breaks loose, so I dread the idea of not being able to care for her, or him being unwell with Covid and not being able to step in and help when I can't function properly. We have zero support from my toxic family, and his family live hours away and are elderly anyway with their own health problems. There's also the fear of how I'd end up long term if I got Covid, I already have a pretty tough time functioning to do the basics like showering, cooking, cleaning etc, every scrap of energy I have goes on caring for our dd due to her needs, because of my health there's nothing left over for myself after that. The thought of Covid and long Covid on top of everything else fills me with dread.
He's worked freelance from home since being made redundant literally a month before the first lockdown, work has been sporadic and money is tight, I'm unable to work and get disability benefits and feel utterly useless in that sense to our family. He sees this reunion as a chance to network and try to make some contacts for work, he said if it wasn't for that he wouldn't go and take the risk. Well that and what he's not saying - that he's been stuck with no "going out out" social life for over 18 months now because of me.
Any advice would be appreciated, is it really busy again now out in London and on public transport? What could we do to reduce the risks of him catching Covid going to this night out? He can't really wear a mask if they're drinking or social distance now can he?