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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:
Delatron · 11/12/2021 18:47

Thanks for that perspective @orangeautumnleaves

I remember at the beginning of the pandemic we would have a breakdown of age/whether there were underlying health issues etc then that’s stopped. Not to lessen any death before anyone jumps on me. But it would help to understand the demographic of those seriously ill in hospital.

Also the dying with or dying of Covid. Which are two very different things but get linked together as the same stat.

orangeautumnleaves · 11/12/2021 19:03

@Delatron

Thanks for that perspective *@orangeautumnleaves*

I remember at the beginning of the pandemic we would have a breakdown of age/whether there were underlying health issues etc then that’s stopped. Not to lessen any death before anyone jumps on me. But it would help to understand the demographic of those seriously ill in hospital.

Also the dying with or dying of Covid. Which are two very different things but get linked together as the same stat.

Yes the statistics of deaths are way more complicated than just throwing numbers out there. Most of the vaccinated patients we have found to have Covid on admission are purely as we have to test all admissions. So yes there are many patients who will die of other causes but happen to have Covid albeit with no symptoms.
Derbee · 11/12/2021 19:07

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

I think this is unacceptable, when they are risking crippling a system that we all pay for. I’d have no problem with people choosing not to be vaccinated, if it went hand in hand with giving up their rights to hospital treatment for Covid

userperuser · 11/12/2021 19:15

@Derbee

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

I think this is unacceptable, when they are risking crippling a system that we all pay for. I’d have no problem with people choosing not to be vaccinated, if it went hand in hand with giving up their rights to hospital treatment for Covid

There are far more people crippling the health system with preventable conditions and never before has there ever been any suggestion of denying them treatment on the NHS, it’s also those same people that are more susceptible to covid.
Rainartist · 11/12/2021 19:25

@orangeautumnleaves

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!

Absolutely agree. I googled normal number of deaths a day in the early pandemic.

I think it was roughly around a thousand so an extra 1000 a day of covid deaths back in the early pandemic was a worrying figure being approximately double.

Now the numbers have dropped and they are deaths of people WITH covid not OF covid. People don't look further into the statistics than the headlines and those are generally scaremongering. I remember reassuring an older family member when she was fussing about the infection numbers over the summer. A lot of people hadn't clocked the change in reporting in the media from deaths a day to cases a day so I had to calm panicked family members stressing over numbers that a thousand cases a day in a population of 60+ million really isn't that many when the deaths are not comparable.

FutureHope · 11/12/2021 19:32

If The bulk of people in hospital are unvaccinated then the cost to my family and others is too high.

Economic, social, mental health- the costs are too great.

shouldistop · 11/12/2021 19:38

4/5

puppeteer · 11/12/2021 19:44

@Derbee

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

I think this is unacceptable, when they are risking crippling a system that we all pay for. I’d have no problem with people choosing not to be vaccinated, if it went hand in hand with giving up their rights to hospital treatment for Covid

It's seems almost a fair trade on the face of it. Especially for the young or those that feel vaccination is an imposition.

But if the objective is to reduce transmission through near universal vaccination, then it's a shot in the foot.

And it leaves open the door for people to argue that they should pay less for a lesser service, and/or to normalise people taking up alternative private health provision. It's not necessarily bad, but it takes us down quite a new path.

Benjispruce5 · 11/12/2021 19:55

2/3

Lifebegins21 · 11/12/2021 20:04

4

Derbee · 11/12/2021 20:08

There are far more people crippling the health system with preventable conditions and never before has there ever been any suggestion of denying them treatment on the NHS, it’s also those same people that are more susceptible to covid

@userperuser I don’t think that’s quite true. Lots of people are refused operations etc if they are overweight. A lot of people are refused operations or services if they smoke. People are refused IVF if they have high BMIs etc

userperuser · 11/12/2021 20:14

@Derbee

There are far more people crippling the health system with preventable conditions and never before has there ever been any suggestion of denying them treatment on the NHS, it’s also those same people that are more susceptible to covid

@userperuser I don’t think that’s quite true. Lots of people are refused operations etc if they are overweight. A lot of people are refused operations or services if they smoke. People are refused IVF if they have high BMIs etc

IVF if overweight maybe as it affects the success of the treatment but for any other condition no. If we were to get selective about treatment that could have very bad consequences for a large number of people. The problem is people who pose a risk to the NHS if contracting covid of which those CV through BMI make up a large proportion. Selective treatment should never even enter the mind of anybody as it’s wrong on so many levels.
Derbee · 11/12/2021 20:16

@userperuser but it happens already. People are refused operations if they are too overweight. And alot of people are being refused routine AND life saving operations because the system is so stretched. A large reason for the stretch is the number of people in hospitals who don’t need to be there, because they could have been vaccinated. It’s ridiculous and infuriating

userperuser · 11/12/2021 20:19

[quote Derbee]@userperuser but it happens already. People are refused operations if they are too overweight. And alot of people are being refused routine AND life saving operations because the system is so stretched. A large reason for the stretch is the number of people in hospitals who don’t need to be there, because they could have been vaccinated. It’s ridiculous and infuriating[/quote]
People are only refused surgery if it poses a grater risk to the patient not as some sort of punishment for being overweight, 80% of those in hospital due to covid both vaccinated and unvaccinated are obese.

Lovemusic33 · 11/12/2021 20:20

4

JesusSufferingFuck22 · 11/12/2021 20:23

2/3

mightbeyesmightbeno · 11/12/2021 20:26

4

I've seen so many patients not getting treatment over the last 2 years that they should have and now are very very sick with other conditions.,

Panacotta · 11/12/2021 20:27

3/4

girljulian · 11/12/2021 20:29

4

Dangermouse80 · 11/12/2021 20:30

2

orangeautumnleaves · 11/12/2021 20:45

@Derbee

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

I think this is unacceptable, when they are risking crippling a system that we all pay for. I’d have no problem with people choosing not to be vaccinated, if it went hand in hand with giving up their rights to hospital treatment for Covid

I cannot speak for all HCPs but myself and my colleagues have very little sympathy for those admitted with Covid who have chosen not to have the vaccine. There is usually a lot of eye rolling when we look into their vaccine status.

However I will never support withholding healthcare from anyone as that is just wholly unethical and absolutely not the premise of the NHS at all.

It would become a very slippery slope... Would you then withhold treatment for all smokers with COPD? Liver disease from alcoholics, treatment for diabetes for those who have not managed their obesity? None of those would happen and nor should they, so the same is true of vaccine status.

Bizawit · 11/12/2021 20:46

[quote Derbee]@userperuser but it happens already. People are refused operations if they are too overweight. And alot of people are being refused routine AND life saving operations because the system is so stretched. A large reason for the stretch is the number of people in hospitals who don’t need to be there, because they could have been vaccinated. It’s ridiculous and infuriating[/quote]
Because they might not benefit from the surgery , not because they don’t deserve the operation because it’s their own fault that they are fat!! Do we deny smokers treatment for lung cancer? Of course not.

doggydaft · 11/12/2021 20:47

2

PrincessNutNuts · 12/12/2021 18:13

@mightbeyesmightbeno

4

I've seen so many patients not getting treatment over the last 2 years that they should have and now are very very sick with other conditions.,

That's one of my reasons for wanting covid to be under control, so that the NHS can do its normal work.

My mum is supposed to have 4 monthly appointments. She's had two since 2019. Her next one is in a couple of weeks so is about to be cancelled I expect.

TheShadoutCrepes · 12/12/2021 18:15

2