Am I wrong to think people who say they aren't scared of Covid just aren't getting it?

[youhadmeatjello]

I know we've all had enough, I've really had enough. We travel in a few days and am just desperately trying not to catch covid so we can actually go forward with our plans.

But I'm so sick of friends and others saying 'oh I'm not scared of Covid anymore so I'm just living my life and not following the rules anymore'

Why can't people see that it's not about being scared of Covid, it's about the fragility of our infrastructure if lots of people are off sick? Do they not realise how many essential services could be impacted?

I'm not calling for a lockdown at all, I don't think it's the right course of action but I do think we should individually take a bit of responsibility and follow mask wearing etc at least.

And people who are saying 'the government have never been bothered about viruses etc before' - sure they have, they panic every time they think there's going to be a bad flu season. But people have forgotten that!

I'm just so frustrated that so many people can't see the bigger picture here, but maybe it's because I have many loved ones who work in essential services and I can already see the strain on them.

If you do truly know people who work in essential front line services, then you will know that the NHS and public sector have been on the bones of their arse for at least the last decade. It's been a shower of shit and people just kept it running on good will and unpaid overtime. We were only ever one crisis away from everything going tits up and now we have it.

If the money the government have had to spend on furlough was invested into the NHS and other public services, we would be in a stronger position. Probably not by much though.

@Bagelsandbrie

They need to stop making people isolate and people need to stop testing. That’s the only way any of this will stop. (And I say that as someone in the clinically extremely vulnerable group who also has a disabled child- I think people like myself need to shield as much as possible until it all calms down but otherwise people just need to get out there and get on with it). For the vast majority of people - even more so with the vaccines- covid is a mild illness and we seem to be forgetting this.

Isolation and testing is here to protect people such as yourself and your child. How would you know it’s calmed down if we didn’t have case numbers? I appreciate your sentiment but your logic is nonsensical and frankly dangerous.

Covid rife in society would severely impact you and your child’s access to medical help as and when you need it, are you really willing to accept that?

Even with the vaccines we can not live with Covid without restrictions, it’s simply impossible unless we are happy to sacrifice the elderly and vulnerable, which I am not.

People are getting sore throats and coughs not the plague. We're not turning into zombies or piling up our dead in the streets. The rules were always nonsense and now everyone I know is sick of them.
If people want to hide away, hide away forever but I wish they would stop hyping stuff up because they want to lounge around at home in their pj's and get paid again. Everyone I know is partying all Christmas while we can.

@puppeteer

People aren’t off sick — they’re forced to isolate because of a positive test. It’s not the same thing!

Yeah this. My friend just had 10 days off work because she had a positive lateral flow test while asymptomatic, followed by a positive PCR. She wouldn't have even known she was ill. If omicron is even milder, there will be even more people isolating while perfectly well.

But our infrastructure isn't under strain because of Covid. It's because the rules state that if you have Covid you need to isolate for 10 days.
In the overwhelming majority of people it produces cold-like symptoms.
Do away with the whole thing and people will do what they did in 2019 - crack on and go to work with a 'cold'. No more strain on the NHS. 🤷‍♀️
The hysteria is the problem.

@Thewiseoneincognito I understand what you’re saying but the truth of it is that if there are more and more restrictions people like myself and my child will suffer either way - GPs won’t see us face to face, schools will shut, the activities that keep my son sane will stop. Covid is a threat but the restrictions to control covid are also a threat to people like us, but people generally don’t understand that.

I wonder what the case number graph would look like for a common rhinovirus cold at this time of year, and what sort of state business and health care would be in if we had to isolate for 10 days every time.

So I am front line and I have had Covid and personally I feel that the restrictions on freedom / isolation have caused so much harm to so many people that in my opinion the cure is worse than disease.

To start with I was scared i'd get covid and be seriously unwell, and that I'd pass it to my family who would also be seriously unwell. At the beginning of the year when schools closed but I still had to work (no distancing, no masks, no extra ventilation, at times no proper hand washing facilities) I was very scared.

Now I feel like it's inevitable that I'll catch it, and I just have to hope I don't get it too badly. I've had my vaccines and booster, that's the best I can do. I'm more worried about the loss in wages and my children missing even more school. I'm worried that if my Mum has to shield again, alone for months, her mental health will suffer even worse than last time.

I don't think it's natural or sustainable to live in a constant state of fear. Eventually you just adjust. At the beginning of the pandemic I was too scared to leave my house and actually thought covid particles might be floating outside my front door. Being vaccinated has helped a lot with that, and learning more about how transmission happens, but it's also just the fact that we're two years in now and we're never getting that time back, my son is never getting back the time and experiences he would have been having, and there have just been so many disappointments. So I'm very reluctant to keep letting the fear of this virus get in the way of living life and spending time with the people I care about.

I'm happy to wear a mask and I'm religious about opening all the windows, and I want to do what I can to slow the spread, but I think my risk assessment is now skewed towards: everyone I'm in close contact with has been vaccinated and had or having the booster shot, so while we won't be going around recklessly licking each other, I think we're about as safe as we ever will be.

Maybe you also can't see the bigger picture?

People won't follow rules if:

• the ones making the rules (politicians) have not been following them throughout the pandemic
• the rules don't lead to any results (the virus hasn't gone away in spite of everything that has been tried)
• there are doubts about the accuracy of media reporting (hysterical headlines rather than the reporting of facts) and experts' warnings (Sage has constantly got things wrong with their modelling).

It is understandable that at this stage people just want to get on with life and take their chances rather than being treated like children that need to be frightened.

The NHS has been underfunded for decades. Maybe we need to stop voting for the Tories...It is not my job to protect the NHS.

I would say it is you who is "not getting it", we need to accept that life with so many restrictions is not life for many. It is close to two years of lockdowns, partial lockdowns, restrictions, disrupted education, impacts on socialisation (and humans are social animals), economic damage etc. People have had enough, I know it is a cliche but we need to learn to live with Covid, that means accepting people will die, whilst understanding that most will only get a cold. We need to stop the singular focus on preventing Covid deaths and refocus with a wider view. We also need to stop pandering to the unvaccinated, those who refuse the vaccine should go to the back of the queue.

I am taking responsibility I am wearing a mask etc doesn’t mean I’m scared of covid . I’ve had covid so has my family we were fine , we’ve all been vaccinated apart from dc . What I don’t get is unless your constantly going on about how concerned you are your not taking responsibility your being selfish etc when the truth is we are just bloody sick of this and trying to live life because the truth is spending 2 years plus being scared of catching a illness that’s a bit like a cold for the majority of people is insane. I’ve pro vaccine but anti lockdown. I’m living my life but I’m careful I test etc but I’m not freaking out every minute.

At this point, the policies are more of an issue than the virus itself.

People will 'get it' when the Xmas presents aren't delivered by Royal Mail, DPD or Amazon in time because they have no staff in the sorting offices or to drive the vans, when their Xmas food order doesn't arrive because half the delivery drivers are off isolating, when their local pharmacy closes because the staff are isolating and there's no locus available..........

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

If I keep watching the same horror film over and over again it no longer affects me….it’s been 2years, after a while inevitably we all get fed up and complacent

This is fab response

@Ritasueandbobtoo9

So I am front line and I have had Covid and personally I feel that the restrictions on freedom / isolation have caused so much harm to so many people that in my opinion the cure is worse than disease.

the cure is worse than disease.

This x 1000

Yanbu. I am sick of people saying covid is being prioritised in health care. Yes some routine appointments are being cancelled for boosters. But the Emergency NHS treats patients as and when they present themselves. They are NOT choosing to only treat covid patients they are overwhelmed by them.

We are reaching a point where we are going to have probably 100k confirmed cases in the next day or two. Just by numbers probability even the vaccinated are going to start needing hospitalisation.

I have seen thread after thread, one where France banned us and blames testing even if we didn’t test our inpatient numbers would speak for themselves and we would still be on many travel bans.

My DS is a close contact (picked up at school, no track and trace just the parent telling other parents) so Christmas is likely cancelled if it’s the bee variant. My relatives from abroad have just cancelled coming as they will likely need to hotel quarantine on return if they can even get a flight.

I predict lots of disruption to refuse services, supply chain, shops and leisure being open in the next few weeks - you can’t run things when everyone is off sick

Caasgate on so glad you mentioned successive governments because it ways scary around here at the end of a long labour tenure our hospital was dire.
Bagels, I don't think right now is the time to do it when we are still very much in information gathering time and working out how the virus moves and what vaccines do etc.
Hopefully by this Xmas and maybe next they will have enough knowledge to do the "universal" covid vaccine, anti virals and understand how it moves. But... Right now I think we need to help the scientists get as much information as possible.

You know, if they'd spent even half the money they've blown on test and trace and given backhanders to their mates on the NHS- maybe they wouldn't have had to bring ub the restrictions.

@Receptionclass

Part of the problem is that we still have to isolate, not that people are actually too ill to go to work. And if masks worked, why would COVID still be so rampant?

Who is being forced to isolate? At present it’s only those who are close contacts if confirmed new variant, that’s a fraction of the daily total of new infections. (In reality note but still)

DS has been a close contact this week and is still expected to go to school but just lateral everyday

I get it, but I dont fear covid because I choose to not live in fear. Just as I don't fear cars on the road, and instead I use common sense and risk assess.
I dont fear cancer, but I have just a high chance of getting that as I do covid and chances are it will be worse than covid.

The same shit applies with not being seen, because my GP hasn't seen people face to face since they first stopped face to face appointments! Even when cases were at their lowest they still wouldn't see you, so that can't be blamed on anti masking, anti vaxxing rule breakers.

They wouldn't even see my son when he was poorly (it wasn't covid), but the vet seen my dog instantly when he was poorly. How does that work? Dogs coming before humans?

The most simple solution that could take a huge weight off all of the complaints, would be for them to throw their money at building up the NHS. Those hospitals they built for nothing. If all of that funding went into strengthening the hospitals we already had, on top of furlough funds and on top of the ££££ wasted on track and trace. We would be carrying on as normal now, I believe. Especially since not only are there numerous vaccines, they also have that drug.

It seems to me that they are allowing us to remain in this mess, all the while blaming us for it when we are in no real position to improve anything. Where as they are, and they are doing nothing but lining their own pockets.

I have no fear of covid, I live in an area which has had low cases throughout. I only know 6 people who've had covid since the start, all mild except 1 person hospitalised but now home. To be truthful I wouldn't even have known there's a pandemic unless I switched on the news. I understand others have had vastly different experiences but this is mine.

@bumbleymummy

At this point, the policies are more of an issue than the virus itself.

Yep and I'm thinking of:

Mental health impact
Disrupted education
Creating a climate of fear in the population
Missed cancers
Jobs lost
£500 billion of Gov debt on the shoulders of our children and their children etc
Social division- eg, vaccine passports, who did and didn't clap for the NHS, old v young etc
A growing anger towards the Government and view that it's one rule for them and another for us.

All of this is going to take a very long time to fix, in fact we will be dealing with the fallout for tens of years after Covid ceased being a concern.

I disagree, and I think people who ARE worried about covid are the ones who don't get it.
Covid is everywhere, so you can't really guarantee that you will avoid it without taking quite drastic steps to isolate yourself from the outside world.
The vast majority of people who catch covid are only mildly ill and recover fully. The chances of dying or even being hospitalised are miniscule.
The rates today were 88,376 cases but only 146 deaths. That's a death rate of 0.001%. So I am really not worried at all and cant understand why people are suggesting things like closing schools.

It's like going swimming on the sea, or driving a car, or crossing a road. Of course there's a small risk, but the price of eliminating that risk is too high.
Tomorrow I am meeting an old friend for lunch in an indoor restaurant. We will travel to the restaurant by road. I don't perceive the busy restaurant as being any more risky than the road I use to get there.