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Original poster

To think we soon won’t be isolating even when we have covid.

535 replies

Grida · 16/12/2021 17:58

If covid is spreading as rapidly as it seems to be, surely people who have tested positive but who don’t have symptoms/aren’t feeling ill will have to carry on working. The country will stop functioning otherwise.

OP posts:
CoffeeMuggins · 20/12/2021 19:56

@JaneTheVirgin

The flu doesn't kill anywhere near as many people as covid, and doesn't require anywhere near as many hospital stays. I have no idea why people still keep pedaling this 'its just a flu!' lie.
Yeah, I don't know why I even try any more. Nearly 2 years of trying to reason with, well, unreasonable people. I'm just gonna log off and enjoy my time off with my husband instead!
HailAdrian · 20/12/2021 19:58

Erm, you don't know that flu pandemics have killed thousands? Do you think those strains of flu just disappeared, never to be seen again?

AnyFucker · 20/12/2021 19:58

Wow. So the answer is 'fuck them!' Great, you're all wonderful

Give us an alternative then

VikingOnTheFridge · 20/12/2021 19:59

@CoffeeMuggins

What do we expect the vulnerable to do when this happens? Stay inside forever or gamble with their lives every time they need to go to work or pop to the shops?
Which 'vulnerable' are you referring to? Because they aren't a monolith bloc, they don't all have the same interests, and some of them will be a great deal safer when not forced to stay at home.
aliceca · 20/12/2021 19:59

An average of 17,000 people a year die of flu in Britain.

Bagelsandbrie · 20/12/2021 19:59

@Elphame

Sooner the better

In practice, I'm sure this is already happening

I hope so. I wish people would hurry up and cotton on to this.
NothingIsWrong · 20/12/2021 20:00

@RoomOfRequirement

Wow. So the answer is 'fuck them!' Great, you're all wonderful.
What would you suggest? Rolling lockdowns indefinitely? Flipping in and out of levels, destroying swathes of the economy?

It's not "fuck them" but if we have no consumer confidence, or arts and hospitality sector, or the ability for people to develop lives and relationships and careers and skills, the vulnerable will have no safety net either. No funding for the NHS or benefits.

You can't turn sections of society and the economy off and on at will, it's a giant living breathing interconnected whole, and the vulnerable need it functioning as much as the rest of us do.

amylou8 · 20/12/2021 20:01

You only legally have to isolate if you test positive...and there's a simple solution to that.

ThisissoSHIT · 20/12/2021 20:01

@aliceca

An average of 17,000 people a year die of flu in Britain.
Which is probably what will happen with Covid too now.
RoomOfRequirement · 20/12/2021 20:01

@Bagelsandbrie and you're not scared of the effect of hospitals being overrun with covid patients meaning your appointments are also canceled or delayed or your nurse giving you covid and killing you?

I'm all for overhauling and properly funding the NHS more where it actually needs it - and that would help much more - but I don't understand why you think allowing staff to work with covid is good for CEV patients either.

MrsCremuel · 20/12/2021 20:03

But isn’t isolating predominately to stop the spread overwhelming the NHS? Peole would still get ill and need hospital care so how would your idea work OP?

I’m over it all totally but can’t see how we’d manage it.

RoomOfRequirement · 20/12/2021 20:03

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

HailAdrian · 20/12/2021 20:04

I dread to think how many people spent the last years of their lives hardly seeing anyone or going anywhere because of Covid. What a waste of time.

Bagelsandbrie · 20/12/2021 20:04

[quote RoomOfRequirement]@Bagelsandbrie and you're not scared of the effect of hospitals being overrun with covid patients meaning your appointments are also canceled or delayed or your nurse giving you covid and killing you?

I'm all for overhauling and properly funding the NHS more where it actually needs it - and that would help much more - but I don't understand why you think allowing staff to work with covid is good for CEV patients either.[/quote]
Because there is no alternative. Covid isn’t going away. We either have vaccines that work or we don’t - we’re being told they work so we need to trust that. As someone who takes 22 different medications a day I trust the science. We all need to. It’s the only way out of this mess. For the vast, vast majority of people - even people like me, triple jabbed clinically vulnerable types- covid will be a mild illness.

Hellotoallmyfans · 20/12/2021 20:04

Yep. It's ridiculous. They need to stop testing now, it's the only way to stop this circus.

But whether/when they will be brave enough to do it remains to be seen.

MyDcAreMarvel · 20/12/2021 20:05

As for the vulnerable, it would be the same as it is for any other illness.
No it isn’t what a vile nasty thread this is.

ElectraBlue · 20/12/2021 20:08

@CoffeeMuggins 'What do we expect the vulnerable to do when this happens? Stay inside forever or gamble with their lives every time they need to go to work or pop to the shops?'

I am afraid in the end you have to look at what will prevent bringing the entire country/economy/services to a halt, not just the needs of specific groups of people.

helpfulperson · 20/12/2021 20:08

Which is probably what will happen with Covid too now.

Probably - but it also might kill 50000. With Omicron right now we don't know. In a couple of weeks we'll have a better idea.

What do you feel is an acceptable attrition rate to disrupt your life for the greater good, how many people should we let die so you can go to your Christmas. Or if we decide 20000 people dying from a cause is ok we could just do away with all regulation of driving like drink driving rules and speed limits.

Bagelsandbrie · 20/12/2021 20:08

@MyDcAreMarvel

As for the vulnerable, it would be the same as it is for any other illness. No it isn’t what a vile nasty thread this is.
It’s really not.

Living like this is horrific and vile and nasty for everyone, including the most vulnerable. It is no life for anyone.

BlackCatz · 20/12/2021 20:08

Hopefully!

monsterflake · 20/12/2021 20:08

I don't think it is that people don't care about the vulnerable. It's just that society has become so fixated on covid, cases, death rates etc that they aren't seeing a bigger picture.

There is so much pressure on everyone to get vaccinated so understandably people who get them do it for a reason, so normal life can resume whilst protecting the vulnerable. For all these vaccinations, that can come with risks and side effects just to spend most of life isolating anyway is disheartening for people and completely unsustainable for the economy, health care workers will consistently be "close contacts" and unable to work, there will be shortages in shops again, essential treatment delayed, it would be never ending.

Protecting the extremely vulnerable so everyone is existing rather than living or taking measures so everyone is protected from all viruses, handwashing, vaccinations etc whilst allowing the world to start turning again and realising that things like mental health, consistancy and family support for people with learning disabilities and debilitating illnesses or pain that don't make someone extremely vulnerable to covid but still affects their life hugely actually are important as well as covid.

Sorry to go off on a ranty one!just If I never heard the word covid again it would be too soon!

VikingOnTheFridge · 20/12/2021 20:09

We need to challenge the idea that vulnerable people must be CV. That's evidently an assumption being made by some posters on this thread.

TeacupDrama · 20/12/2021 20:11

i'm 50 every winter as far back as I can remeber we have an annual bed shortage due tpo respiratory infections from december to february every single year some years it is worse than others
there is more to live than not being dead
my DF is 98 he was actually involved in WWII ( no one under 94 was) he doesn't want to stay in for the rest of his life he wants to see his grandchildren go to church, visit cafes, garden centres etc with my Mum; he doesn't want to go to be in a crowd at the boxing day sales or go night clubbing neither does he want to slowly vegetate in a chair just to be safe
for the past 6 months death rates have been very close to normal
The problems with NHS are with staff off isolating with mostly very mild symptoms, 3 years ago most NHS staff would have been told to come into work with a cold however vulnerable the patients ( or risk discipline)
maybe the real question is why does the NHS encourage/ demand staff work with the vulnerable when sick no wonder some people acquire infection in hospital. In fact most of the cases of covid flu colds and D&V bugs would be less if people could genuinely stay home when sick and rely on being paid and not displined for being sensible

DeepaBeesKit · 20/12/2021 20:11

My grandfather got the really bad flu in the late 50s and almost died. Over 30,000 people in the uk died then and that was with far less travel and a smaller British population. That flu hasnt vanished. We now live with it, just as we do with the Spanish flu and similar.

Pedalpushers · 20/12/2021 20:11

We will all be a lot more vulnerable to every damn infection on earth if we insist that noone who is ill can ever be near other people.