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

[SonicBroom]

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 .

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.

@theemperorhasnoclothes

None of your numbers.

I don't want schools closed, but I want sensible mitigations so we can properly live with covid not teeter on the brink of lockdowns veering wildly between one extreme and another. Plenty of countries have managed this much better than us.

For example, I would like CO2 monitors, proper ventilation,, air filters in every classroom and workplace. Doing this would cut transmission and save money in the long run by the economy not grinding to a halt every time things get out of control (because of lack of proper mitigation).

A study recently came out that showed that properly ventilated classrooms had 6x fewer the number of cases of covid than those without. It's not quite as simple as we'd have 6x lower rates of covid if we had proper ventilation in schools - but you can see the massive onward impact the lack of ventilation will have.

DDs both say no CO2 monitors in their schools visible.

I'm curious, can you link to that study about classrooms, Emperor?

Those people saying 5, how do you square your behaviour with this?

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/11/omicron-covid-variant-could-cause-75000-deaths-in-england-by-end-of-april-say-scientists

[quote theDudesmummy]Those people saying 5, how do you square your behaviour with this?

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/11/omicron-covid-variant-could-cause-75000-deaths-in-england-by-end-of-april-say-scientists[/quote]
Sometimes I'm numb to it but other days, like today, I think we as a country need to accept deaths. But in general we can't and this is what the media tap into. The alternative - trashing the economy and therefore the lives of millions is far, far worse.

2/3

But there needs to be far greater mitigation measures in schools. Money needs to be spent.

[quote theDudesmummy]Those people saying 5, how do you square your behaviour with this?

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/11/omicron-covid-variant-could-cause-75000-deaths-in-england-by-end-of-april-say-scientists[/quote]
Because those predictions are little better than wild guesses , proven time and time again to be wildly inaccurate. For example, these were the models presented to argue against opening up in the summer, compared to what actually happened when the gov took the decision to open up against modellers advise.

I’m so confused as to why nobody is holding these scientists to account for their previous missteps and the media is continuing to present them as meaningful. All it does is whip up fear and hysteria.

We can’t keep making drastic policy choices, with such devastating and widespread impacts on the basis of these kinds of wild predictions.

[quote theDudesmummy]Those people saying 5, how do you square your behaviour with this?

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/11/omicron-covid-variant-could-cause-75000-deaths-in-england-by-end-of-april-say-scientists[/quote]
Because all we are doing is kicking those 75k deaths down the road to later next year. COVID isn't going anywhere the booster is effective it's time to get it over with.

4

I agree @Bizawit these are supposed to be the experts. And time and time again their models are wildly inaccurate. People’s livelihoods depend on them coming up with something more accurate. As it affects all our strategy decisions at the moment.

[quote theDudesmummy]Those people saying 5, how do you square your behaviour with this?

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/11/omicron-covid-variant-could-cause-75000-deaths-in-england-by-end-of-april-say-scientists[/quote]
Because I'm not going to live my life around 'could' and made up numbers that are unlikely considering this variant has so far proven mild and no one has died from it. The hysteria needs to stop.

Also we all die of something sooner or later, I lost a family member due to a complication of the common cold. So by the token we all need to stay inside forever until no more viruses exist ever. If we're confident the vaccines work, why are people still so afraid?

[quote theDudesmummy]Those people saying 5, how do you square your behaviour with this?

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/11/omicron-covid-variant-could-cause-75000-deaths-in-england-by-end-of-april-say-scientists[/quote]
Because I'm a human being and it's not my responsibility to save every life. Also, that is a "COULD", not a guarantee.

What the others said.

We have never in history been made to feel responsible for the age or health conditions of other people.

And certainly children have not. They are now growing up with some very strange ideas.

5

Yep, as above ^^

I had delta, it was no biggie for us, if omicron is even milder why would I be worried?

Also, remember the predictions of 100k cases a day in July?

[quote theDudesmummy]Those people saying 5, how do you square your behaviour with this?

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/11/omicron-covid-variant-could-cause-75000-deaths-in-england-by-end-of-april-say-scientists[/quote]
I am mostly a 4, however there is only so long I can be made to feel guilty for doing something as basic as breathing.

There is only so long I have the energy to keep my children away from absolutely everything they love and is important to them.

I only have so much energy and headspace, and quite frankly my family have to come first now. I can no longer worry about the ‘greater good’ AND also be there for my family. The previous lockdowns almost caused my family to breakdown.

We have vaccines now, and if they are seriously not enough then maybe we just need to face up to the cold harsh honest truth. Especially since Covid is NEVER going anywhere. We will never get rid of it.

2

@theDudesmummy
For me it’s that those 75k lives can’t be saved with lockdown. The consensus amongst scientists now seems to be that everyone will get covid eventually.

My feeling is that more lockdown or even fairly “moderate “ restrictions will take far more quality adjusted life years off people than covid left unchecked. If you lockdown the whole population and just a small percentage of them end up overweight or unemployed or abusing substances you have likely knocked millions of years off peoples lives. It’s just you don’t see that until far into the future and it won’t then be directly blamed on lockdowns.

We have probably spent millions “saving” each life from covid. It is very far out of proportion to what we usually spend.

If you want to save 75k lives there are much easier less damaging ways to do it. Throwing money at a national weight loss / fitness program would probably do it and wouldn’t destroy anyone else’s life in the process.

I only have so much energy and headspace, and quite frankly my family have to come first now. I can no longer worry about the ‘greater good’ AND also be there for my family. The previous lockdowns almost caused my family to breakdown.

100% this.

I am mostly a 4, however there is only so long I can be made to feel guilty for doing something as basic as breathing.

There is only so long I have the energy to keep my children away from absolutely everything they love and is important to them.

I only have so much energy and headspace, and quite frankly my family have to come first now.

This is exactly how I feel.
I am also a 4 but rapidly edging towards 5.

[quote theDudesmummy]Those people saying 5, how do you square your behaviour with this?

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/11/omicron-covid-variant-could-cause-75000-deaths-in-england-by-end-of-april-say-scientists[/quote]
I am nearly a 5, and I no longer have the energy or the inclination to live my life dancing around wild suppositions which are presented in the media and sometimes by the government as fact.

They have been wildly inaccurate time and time again. We have vaccines which can be improved upon and tweaked. Many us have had boosters too and will again when offered.

There will always be mutations and variants. That is what viruses do, including the flu and common cold ones every year. Covid will not be going anywhere.
We can't just keep trashing the economy and people's livelihoods. We need to get on with this now in a sensible way and just stop farting about.

5
I’m so over it now

*I am mostly a 4, however there is only so long I can be made to feel guilty for doing something as basic as breathing.

There is only so long I have the energy to keep my children away from absolutely everything they love and is important to them.

I only have so much energy and headspace, and quite frankly my family have to come first now. I can no longer worry about the ‘greater good’ AND also be there for my family. The previous lockdowns almost caused my family to breakdown.

We have vaccines now, and if they are seriously not enough then maybe we just need to face up to the cold harsh honest truth. Especially since Covid is NEVER going anywhere. We will never get rid of it.*

All of this. So well put 👏

4

4

Excellent post SpringRainbow

Exactly that

I'm clinical staff in A&E and I really don't blame anyone for been a 4 or 5. The vaccines were hailed as the end of the pandemic, but they clearly will not be even when the distribution of vaccines has actually gone to those who mostly need it globally and then the rest! We're some way off that.

The patients that we are admitting to hospital of which there are not a huge amount, are in the main the unvaccinated. So their choice really. If we won't introduce vaccine passports, of which I am not a fan anyway, then we are really letting people take their own risks by not having a vaccine, this now has to extend to behaviour beyond getting jabbed.

The deaths that are presented by the media are and have always had no proportionality to them. We would be better been told what % of average deaths nationally may/ were caused by Covid. At the end of the day the public have no idea what a normal amount of deaths occur in any given day in the year! It's just numbers that are thrown to the masses to scare them and it's been that way since the start!