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Original poster

On scale of 1-5 - where are your views on COVID?

777 replies

SonicBroom · 08/12/2021 22:48

So it’s nearly two years and none of us want things to be the way they are. However, it still feels like people are pretty polarised in their views looking across threads and conversations, so I was wondering quite HOW polarised people are?

Please therefore indulge my highly unscientific mini-survey to see roughly where people sit. If I have nothing better to do then I might even add up all the numbers at the end and make a pretty graph Grin.

Please just reply with 1 to 5 in respect of how you feel about what we know at the moment (which is largely that omicron is more transmissible, no certainty over severity yet but even if less severe could result in higher impact due to greater numbers).

1 - I’m worried about what COVID will mean for me / my / family / society and willing to take any precautions necessary including full lockdown with school closures

2 - I’m worried about what it will mean and I’m willing to take precautions including restrictions on social gatherings but want to be able to mix between households and prefer schools to stay open, although I know transmission among kids will be high.

3 - I’m on the fence, I don’t mind a few restrictions but I’m not that worried and really don’t want anything that curtails my life too much. I’ll go along with whatever I’m asked to do though.

4 - I’ve had enough, I don’t think we’re at much risk and don’t want any major restrictions or disruption to my life / social life. I’ll do what I absolutely have to on the face of things but otherwise will quietly get on with doing things my own way.

5 - I’m completely over it, it’s utterly ridiculous how worked up everyone is getting we just need to get on with our lives and accept that some people just won’t make it. I’m not going to bother paying any attention if I’m asked to do something I don’t want to.

OP posts:
Mistymountain · 09/12/2021 16:20

I'm a 4

SoFuckingTired · 09/12/2021 16:31

4

LumosSolem · 09/12/2021 16:43

People who actually know the reality - or who have close colleagues badly affected with Long Covid - won't be voting 4 or 5 imho...*

You could apply this to all kinds of deaths/illnesses. You may as well say 'people wouldn't drive cars if they'd lost a loved one in a car accident'. Yet most would.

'People wouldn't visit tick hotspots if they'd seen a friend struggling with Lyme disease'. Yet they do.

People die/suffer with horrible accidents/illnesses all the time- most of us wouldn't choose to live the kind of miserable existence it would be to try and avoid every illness or unfortunate accident.

And we do know now, that for the vast vast majority of people, especially when vaccinated, the risk of dying of covid is tiny. Hence people voting 4-5, and perfectly reasonably so.

LifeInAHamsterWheel · 09/12/2021 16:48

3

Waxonwaxoff0 · 09/12/2021 16:50

@alexbury except everyone's reality is different. I've had Covid, my mum has had Covid, my DS has had Covid, loads of my work colleagues have had Covid. No one has died, or been hospitalised, or has long Covid. That is my Covid reality.

firstimemamma · 09/12/2021 16:55

I'm 5 and have been for ages.

dephlogisticated · 09/12/2021 16:57

3, a big shift for me from being 1 for a long time!

alexbury · 09/12/2021 16:58

Lumos - I would say the difference is that those are finite individual losses and not connected to worldwide pandemic with exponential growth. And a new variant which we currently know so little about. And the problem that if you let it get out of control again, it leads not only to those direct deaths but a whole host of others from cancer etc because the NHS can't cope and can't treat all the other needs. So it isn't about the individual deaths - terrible though they are - it is more about the societal impact I guess.

And the hope that a short sharp pain of a couple of weeks lockdown might buy enough time to get it under control again.

Starcaller · 09/12/2021 16:59

2 for me

alexbury · 09/12/2021 17:00

[quote Waxonwaxoff0]@alexbury except everyone's reality is different. I've had Covid, my mum has had Covid, my DS has had Covid, loads of my work colleagues have had Covid. No one has died, or been hospitalised, or has long Covid. That is my Covid reality.[/quote]
Yes I totally get that. It is so weird how everyone can feel so differently and have such different perspectives on the same event that we're all living through.

I have had a couple of close friends who have had long Covid since contracting it in March 2020, and on a personal level it is more the long-term illness rather than death that actually worries me.

NinetyNineRedBalloonsGoBy · 09/12/2021 17:02

4

I've had covid so have my kids. The impact of lockdowns on their mental health is FAR worse than covid.

Delatron · 09/12/2021 17:04

4.5.

I’ll wear a mask when it’s mandated (doubt it does much in shops).

Not moderating any other behaviour and I don’t believe you can indefinitely ‘control’ a virus. Or if we all behave it will disappear...

LumosSolem · 09/12/2021 17:06

Honestly @alexbury - some people have had their fill of thinking about the 'societal impact'. Particularly if they feel marginalised by society in other ways, when their own needs and concerns are completely ignored.

People will increasingly make their decisions on an individual basis. If someone is young, well, no medical conditions, they know their chances of dying of covid or of needing the NHS for other things is small. I'm early 30s- other than maternity care I have barely used the NHS as an adult. A lot of people will consider their odds and make decisions accordingly. And for a tiny number, they will be unlucky. Personally, I'd take the risk. Because the effects of lockdowns/wfh etc have been horrendous for me.

I don't really care if anyone wants to call me selfish for it either. I don't care about wearing a mask in a shop, I'm delighted not to have to wear them in a pub. But other than things like that, I don't support any restrictions and I won't ever stop seeing my friends and family again. Except if they felt uncomfortable to do so- which I would understand and respect. Knowing my lot, they think the same as I do.

The only way I would ever comply with all restrictions again is it there ever is a variant that affects children badly.

Nuffaluff · 09/12/2021 17:07

4

LumosSolem · 09/12/2021 17:07

@Waxonwaxoff0 I'm the same- everyone I know who has had it has been fine. My mid 60s dad had it recently and me and my mum were honestly more unwell when we had a cold recently. And we didn't catch covid from him either.

Walkingthedog46 · 09/12/2021 17:09

4

FlorenceWintle · 09/12/2021 17:11

4

Pleasedontpassmeby · 09/12/2021 17:14

4

GreenPumpkins · 09/12/2021 17:22

5

changingstages · 09/12/2021 17:24

2 for me.

This is an interesting idea for a thread - a very mixed picture which is kind of a relief. In the midst of all the shouting it's hard to see the nuance sometimes.

If I hadn't seen the absolutely horrific fall out from a couple of young (ish - early 40s, one no underlying conditions and one just a little overweight) deaths and a friend with debilitating long covid, then I think I'd be a 3.

DesireAs · 09/12/2021 17:24

4

billycorn · 09/12/2021 17:25

4

augustusglupe · 09/12/2021 17:26

4

frazzledali · 09/12/2021 17:27

@LumosSolem

* People who actually know the reality - or who have close colleagues badly affected with Long Covid - won't be voting 4 or 5 imho...*

You could apply this to all kinds of deaths/illnesses. You may as well say 'people wouldn't drive cars if they'd lost a loved one in a car accident'. Yet most would.

'People wouldn't visit tick hotspots if they'd seen a friend struggling with Lyme disease'. Yet they do.

People die/suffer with horrible accidents/illnesses all the time- most of us wouldn't choose to live the kind of miserable existence it would be to try and avoid every illness or unfortunate accident.

And we do know now, that for the vast vast majority of people, especially when vaccinated, the risk of dying of covid is tiny. Hence people voting 4-5, and perfectly reasonably so.

I realise the car/seatbelt analogy is getting a bit old but it does apply here: if you'd seen someone die horrifically in a car accident without wearing a seatbelt, then you'd be much more likely to put on a seatbelt, and insist your loved ones did too, would you not?

I don't think that makes for a miserable existence.

HermioneWeasley · 09/12/2021 17:27

4