I'm DONE with Covid, omicron and want to get on with my life - is anyone else with me?

[coatilove]

Honestly at this point I'm done with it, I'm surprised people are complying so much with mask wearing and everything else - I thought the vaccine was freedom. Turns out I was wrong.

I've had enough - I'm not wearing my mask indoors and hope if there's a lockdown every business keeps its doors open and boycotts the decision.

I'm really surprised people are being so compliant, even if they have natural immunity and have been jagged (I have now had Covid and both jabs)

I can't be selfless anymore and keep getting boosters to protect others and stopping life, constant anxiety, life I feel should be going on now. Enough sacrifices have been made.

Aware I'll get flamed, but at the end of my tether with all of this now.

There are plenty of diseases that kill people, we have to accept the death rate now enough is enough.

If you've been vaccinated then what else do you intend to do? If you haven't then more fool you.

@Mamiamamia

I think we need to look at the fact that the NHS is not coping has little to do with covid and everything to do with the enormous cut in funding and beds that has occurred over the last 20 years. If the nhs was receiving the same level of funding as back in early 2000’s it would not be crippled by covid. The real issue is the government playing the long game to privatise health care.

I don’t know many who would disagree with that but how does that help anything now and over the next few weeks?

If we agree with your statement (and I do) then I don’t follow the logic that we should ignore advice on restrictions because what we have is already shit so what does it matter if it’s shitter? Is that not giving a government that wishes to privatise healthcare exactly what they want? Ambivalence (at best) towards the NHS and each other.

There’s no alternative healthcare infrastructure here really, even private is struggling and likely to be commandeered in the event the NHS is overrun. Rejecting any attempts to preserve the healthcare we do have isn’t going to benefit anyone.

@milkyaqua

a phobia is a phobia

it isn't as simple as saying some can endure it for brief time, in the same way someone with a phobia of spiders may not be able to be look at/be near/hold a spider for a brief time.

I hope everyone who wants to get vaccination but is struggling with this are able to find options that work for them - we need more clinics targeted to this demographic, it's more people than you'd think

*vaccinated

Yanbu although I like masks if they help you avoid catching colds. I also like them if I want to go a bit incognito or look minging. Had my jabs and have had Covid despite the jabs.
Not doing asymptomatic testing. Going to party number 3 tonight, number 4 tomorrow. Family all vaxxed.

Considering you allegedly have 'a bit of experience' you don't have much empathy. Travel phobia = OK, needle phobia = not OK.

"Allegedly". Charming. Not big on reading the actual words you are responding to, either.

If you have a fear of flying, catching a plane is awful, obviously; but at least you don't have to fly the plane - that's all I meant. Most people with phobias don't actually have to do anything while they are panicking. Driving phobia - you could kill someone whilst panicking. Needle phobia - as I said is a simple phobia, and quite treatable; it feels terrible, but there is no operator error involved when facing it. You may feel as if you might die, the fear feels real in your body, but it is probable you won't actually die, and you most likely won't cause anyone else any harm; you just panic.

So I work in a covid pulse oximetry clinic. Spoke to a patient who despite being positive has been out and about, mixing with others, shopping. She may well have had contact with a relative of yours, an elderly frail relative or ecv. She didn’t see a problem with it as she wore a mask. She wanted to get on with her life, go shopping etc

a phobia is a phobia

Fucking hell! Ask me how I know.

Jesus! @DerTrotzkopf 🤦‍♀️

@riveted1, I think it's difficult to understand because comparing with the spider phobia some people like spiders but absolutely nobody likes having a needle stuck in their arm.

But if the phobia is to a point where someone cannot possibly have the vaccine rather than just saying they are 'needle phobic' like people who are 'a bit OCD' then that's a problem I guess.

@DerTrotzkopf

So I work in a covid pulse oximetry clinic. Spoke to a patient who despite being positive has been out and about, mixing with others, shopping. She may well have had contact with a relative of yours, an elderly frail relative or ecv. She didn’t see a problem with it as she wore a mask. She wanted to get on with her life, go shopping etc

Yep where I work in the 2nd wave I had a patient who had tested positive and carried on working as a bus driver for days until he became so unwell he came to hospital! Selfish or dumb, most likely both!

Needle phobia - as I said is a simple phobia, and quite treatable; it feels terrible, but there is no operator error involved when facing it. You may feel as if you might die, the fear feels real in your body, but it is probable you won't actually die, and you most likely won't cause anyone else any harm; you just panic.

That makes it OK then does it?

Yes, I said allegedly because considering you are hinting that you have a phobia you really are short on empathy.

Yes, I said allegedly because considering you are hinting that you have a phobia you really are short on empathy.

I am not "hinting" that I have a phobia. I am preferring to not divulge my personal life on a forum.

My initial response was merely practical advice - and I stand by it. Complex phobias (like agoraphobia) are trickier to treat. Simple or specific phobias are more treatable. But midpandemic makes seeking treatment options almost impossible, as it is all time-sensitive. None of this was meant to personally offend you.

But if the phobia is to a point where someone cannot possibly have the vaccine rather than just saying they are 'needle phobic' like people who are 'a bit OCD' then that's a problem I guess.

I hate 'a bit OCD' or 'I have a phobia' when it's actually a dislike. I dislike spiders but, if someone said to me 'if you cuddle this tarantula you won't need an injection' the tarantula would be my new best mate!

I believe there are different levels of phobias. Some can't physically have it and I managed it but only because DH took me and was able to go in with me. If he'd had to wait outside there is no way I would have gone through the door, he had to lead me in.

Had there been a queue I'd decided that, if I could, I would wait 15 minutes and then decide if I'd stay another 15 and so on. As it happens there was a queue but I was taken straight in as I was crying and hyperventilating.

I'd also worked out how long it would take me to walk home if I couldn't go through with it - my irrational brain couldn't see that DH would have taken me home!

I was also going to leave if I had to have the vaccine in front of everyone, but I was taken to a screened off area and allowed to lie down.

@coatilove - what if everyone behaved like you? How difficult is it to wear a mask really?

Wearing a mask and getting a vaccine every three months isn't a lot to 'save the people' imo.

School are having a nightmare - understaffed, trying to manage Covid levels. The NHS is struggling with its everyday workload and hasn't a hope in hell of accommodating extra hospital admissions.

We are so lucky to have vaccines and a hospital bed if Covid really takes hold.

Imagine being a migrant travelling across the channel in a sodding dingy or like a piece of meat in a lorry. That is an undeserved living hell and is happening to people every day.

We need to try not to complain, pull together and try and be grateful.

@Puzzledandpissedoff

I wonder if we are creating a) a climate of fear for young people and b) an expectation that people can and should live to the longest age they can, even if quality of life is compromised?

I certainly agree with "a" ... "b" too, come to that, except the tense is a bit skewed when we've spent decades with the inceasing belief that hardly any deaths are acceptable

Granted some deaths appear worse than others (children, those who weren't already ill, etc.) but we all know perfectly well that every single one is a sadness to loved ones

Doesn't mean it's not coming to us all though ...

I agree, but I think we need to think about how people die to, it's inevitable it's going to happen to everyone, but I believe that we've all got the right to die as pain and anxiety free as possible. Unfortunately that's not always been my experience (I work in elderly care) and certainly not with covid because the numbers have been almost overwhelming, some of the things I've seen have made me frightened, not of death itself but of how it happens and with high numbers of medical and care staff unavailable due to their own sickness or because they are caring for those with a chance of recovery, I feel the way we die and being concerned about that and how we can address doing it better is lumped in with wanting to save everyone at any cost.

I find it odd people are blithely downplaying what to me is a particularly horrible style of death.

I find it odd people are blithely downplaying what to me is a particularly horrible style of death.

How many deaths are pleasant?

I've watched relatives die of cancer and heart failure. Both were atrocious ways to die.

"What do you think would happen to society if for a couple of months 30-50 per cent of the population was stuck in bed?"

But the point is a huge amount of people are not stuck in bed, they are mildly unwell or asymptomatic.
The kind of unwell that if it wasn't covid they'd take a paracetamol and get on with it, going to work or school etc. They may spread their winter virus, but others would be mostly mildly ill and get better too..
We wouldn't have the country grinding to a halt for what is a mild illness for many

Oh, and why are the death rates up for cancer etc?
Because doctors and nurses are on their fucking knees treating covid patients and hospitals full of elderly “well” patients who can’t go to nursing homes or home as there are no carers.
Patient coming in dying of lack of oxygen from covid needs seeing. Person with cancer “well” at home always out back. Then a car accident comes in but there’s no ambulances. This is what people need it see. Doctors aren’t bloody choosing not to see people, it’s fucking battle triage. And you’ll soon complain when your child’s ambulance CD-ROM falling off their bike doesn’t arrive, or it’s a 8 N’s wait and there’s no overnight operating as the surgeons are now on medical wards or off sick themselves.

You know, it's flu season...It's covid season,,, wear masks, get a booster, protect the NHS.. - how about the government protect the NHS? After decades of NHS funding being slashed to the bone, after 20 months of spending 190Million on Nightingales that were never STAFFED, USED or USABLE, untold millions on Dido's 'world-beating' App (yeah, world-beating in that no one in the world would touch it) and how many ££££s on the millions of LFTs done daily?

Where do we put the cancer patients, RTA victims, knee operations and everything that is being cancelled and pushed back due to Covid numbers?

How about they put some money into funding new hospitals? How many beds would £190million from the Nightingales fund? How many new nurses and doctors could be enticed back into UK with that money?

This government has relied on the goodwill and work ethic of our NHS for far too long, thinking that they will be happy with a Thursday clap, and a totally derisory 1% pay rise offer.

ISN'T IT TIME THE GOVERNMENT STOOD UP AND PROTECTED THE NHS?

This problem is not going away.. Even if covid eases off in summer, it'll be back every winter, along with flu. NOW we need more/better/bigger hospitals.
NOW.

Not lockdowns. Not masks. Not restrictions.

How many deaths are pleasant?

Most are able to be palliated nowadays.

Covid deaths, when services are overwhelmed, are horrifying.

*we have to accept the death rate now enough is enough.. people die"

Just one question. Would you accept your child's death from a treatable illness because there the NHS is understaffed and underfunded sure to haemorrhaging money trying to treat Covid?

Would you accept no mental health resources for your child because staff and funding are spent on ICU beds?

Would you accept your dad's death from Covid without a murmur that there's no bed available due to the Covid surge? Or simply because they're rationing care and he's not deserving enough?

Would you accept schools closed because actually have Covid as opposed to schools closed so everyone doesn't get it at the same time? Does that nuance make any difference to your child's life?

Or if it just other people who die?

To add to the criminalisation of socialising and the virtue-signalling nonsense about kids learning "resilience" (do bog off all you yummy mummies who come up with that claptrap) is criminalising people crossing devolved nation borders (just reading about a poster on the Wales thread going to see her parents this weekend in case they can't travel out of Wales for Christmas).

I wonder if we are creating a) a climate of fear for young people and b) an expectation that people can and should live to the longest age they can, even if quality of life is compromised?

I agree with both of these points.

It has surprised me that so many healthy young people have been made fearful to the degree they are. I understand why the government did that and there is no doubt it was effective in driving support for restrictions. It is extremely morally dubious though. And it will come back to bite the government in multiple ways.

I totally agree with the second point. We've had a very lucky run of it and our expectations now are unrealistic. I also wonder how many covid deaths would have been dementia deaths in the next few years and how much better we think that would be for both individuals and society?

I appreciate this is a tough topic to raise and no doubt many will find that thought an appalling one to voice, but I do think we need to ask ourselves more complex questions about how people die and end of life care.

Would you accept no mental health resources for your child because staff and funding are spent on ICU beds?

Plenty of people are actually in this position right now and have no choice but to accept it.