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.

@userperuser I don't think we know that for sure. Yes 80% in ICU with COVID have a BMI over 25 but so does over 60% of the population. We don't actually know whether the overweight or obese in ICU are vaccinated or not as the data is separate for that. Although a high proportion probably are as over ver 70% in ICU are unvaccinated out of about 20% of the population.

4

2-3

4 - 5. I had Covid in July, was on a ventilator for 2 weeks, but I'm sick of all this now

4

Closest to 1, but it's not actually me and my immediate family I'm worried for, it's people in general (especially older and vulnerable people) and the possibility of constantly bouncing between lockdowns and looser restrictions if we don't get it fully under control.

3

1
If it gets to the stage where COVID patients won’t be treated in hospital because all the beds and ICUs are full.

@Rainbowsandstorms

1 / 2 I’d like to see the schools remain open though unless absolutely necessary.

This.

2

1. I don't trust the government when they are saying it's not mild. Why would South Africa lie about something like this, meanwhile our government has a proven track record of lying to us lately.

4

3

4

I'm between 3 - 5, depending on the day and the issue.

I think covid can be a real concern for overwhelming health care, but I don't think preventing that by restrictions is a viable long term strategy. We need to have a real strategy for living with covid and it will have to deal with the reality that people will continue to catch it and there will be mutations. This is going to have to include beefing up healthcare, discussions about what healthcare we offer (something that has needed to be discussed for years but no one in politics is willing to do it,) and looking at dealing with problems like obesity which our current approach is making much worse.

And on the other side I have serious concerns about the blinders people have had with regards to other types of illness, including ones that typically affect much younger people than covid, mental health including a kind of almost ritualistic fear of germs in many people, effects on children, and also the increasing authoritarianism, degradation of the fundamentals of liberal democracy, and media control of messaging.

Which in many ways are a more long term concern than covid. I the end we all die one way or another and 90% of the time it's not very nice, but if we lose our political institutions our children and grandchildren are in serious trouble. I am very upset that more people are not shocked with the lockdowns of unvaccinated or placing them in in places like Australia.

So while I would like the authorities to take precautions around health at this point I am far more worried about other things we are losing and the way people continue to gaslight themselves about total eradication, or that things will be fine when everyone is vaccinated.

4 - We can't go on like this, need more restrictions on people who refuse vaccines for no good reason, why should the rest of us be fucked because of them.

1/2- I'm very worried about NHS capacity and what could happen with a large increase in hospitalisations. Will there be a criteria for whether or not you get treated for any type of illness (I appreciate this already happens e.g. you only get into ICU if they think your body can handle it and have a decent chance of surviving) but how blunt will it have to be if the NHS is overwhelmed?

Great post @LobsterNapkin - sums up how I feel about everything too. I’m far more worried about creeping authoritarianism and an existential threat to our liberal democracy than I am about Covid. As far as I’m concerned we seem to be sleepwalking into something quite scary.

Oh - just a note about the number options.

They seem to assume that wanting fewer restrictions equates in some linear way to thinking covid isn't serious. I think that's a false assumption.

4/5

3

4

4

4- I'm much more worried about the general picture in health and social care and any focus on addressing this is being repeatedly eroded by this blind obsession with covid.

1ish.

Essentially, I don’t care what you and yours do. But I’m highly likely to be one of those who doesn’t make it. As is my DH and my DM. So if everyone else wants to go out partying and licking each other’s faces, then crack on. But I’ll be keeping to myself and staying away from everyone.