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.

I get it.

But I'm choosing to feel differently about it in comparison to how I used to.

Plus we now know things like it's unlikely to pass by touching surfaces and there's no need to glare at people for failing to walk in single file on the pavement anymore. And treble jabbed people are much less likely to die. So the fear is not the same.

I'm also more concerned about the effect on mental health, other illness and children.

And I'm pissed off that the Scottish government are spending £300 million on preparing for their independence campaign whilst failing to support all the businesses they've screwed.

If it was about the health infrastructure the government would have kept the nightingale hospitals and built more toallow a parallel covid treatment system. The government would have trained legions of covid nurses over the last 2 years.

They did none of this even though they knew this is a seasonal illness. This is all by design, they want you scared, they want the NHS on its knees.

Makes you think.

So first I was meant to be terrified of Covid killing me.
Then of Long Covid.
Now that I might - might - need the NHS for something else and it be overwhelmed. Honestly, since most people barely use the NHS and when they need to can’t get any service, this is gonna be a tough one to fly.

I do wonder when we will stop testing for Covid. Is it when there are treatments available that work? So it turns into any other virus where people use their judgement about whether they are ill enough to need a sick day and we don’t test for travel?

@CovidCorvid

18 months ago someone on a local fb group said we should all stop testing. At the time I thought he was a moron but now people are vaccinated maybe it’s worth considering. No testing and no isolating. If you feel too poorly to go to work ring in sick otherwise carry on.

Excellent idea

YANBU. Unfortunately the pandemic has highlighted just how selfish people are (and by selfish I mean unable to see beyond their own lives) and how much they need to feel cleverer than they actually are and think they're better informed than the experts. When in fact they're really not.

To the people saying it’s not their job to protect services like the NHS, they do realise these services are run by people?
And that if all those people are off sick at once, the service ceases to work properly.
It’s not about beds or the Government, it’s about the people.
Are you going to step in and become an intensive care consultant overnight?

I'm not scared and haven't been since the third week of lockdown... When I started to wonder why people were shouting at each other for having picnics in parks, why playgrounds were taped off, why people were jumping into roads to avoid each other, why the police were threatening to check baskets for none essential shopping.

I can only control what I do and so I'm making the best of it. Losing weight and ensuring I'm as metabolically healthy as possible. Taking my vitamin d, c and zinc and getting lots of fresh air and exercise. Feeding my spirit with music and connection and nature.

Part of the problem is that a positive test protects you from being forced to work when really not up to it - and from spreading it to others working when full of cold.

Given that the lowest paid workers are most likely to be public facing and under the most financial and employer pressure to carry on regardless of how crap they feel I can't see how stopping testing would help.

My anecdotal review of what covid is like for people in their 20s to 40s is that it would be fairly likely keep you off work for a week in most cases, often more, which would be far more of an issue for society if allowed to spread without any isolation/testing ... Especially in winter when most of us with kids have been suffering from some degree of respiratory virus since September so more vulnerable to spending a chunk of time feeling really very crap and definitely unfit to work!

@Buzzinwithbez

I'm not scared and haven't been since the third week of lockdown... When I started to wonder why people were shouting at each other for having picnics in parks, why playgrounds were taped off, why people were jumping into roads to avoid each other, why the police were threatening to check baskets for none essential shopping.

I can only control what I do and so I'm making the best of it. Losing weight and ensuring I'm as metabolically healthy as possible. Taking my vitamin d, c and zinc and getting lots of fresh air and exercise. Feeding my spirit with music and connection and nature.

It seems ridiculous when we look back on it now, doesn’t it? But that’s how the government wanted us to act at the time. How do you think we’ll look back at this time? Everyone terrified of a pretty mild variant.

[quote Beadebaser]@bumbleymummy - but the point is not to base decision making on exceptions, particularly in dissimilar countries - it’s to look at what the consensus of medical opinion is worldwide - or in Europe where countries have a similar climate/population density etc.[/quote]
The other countries don’t have that data yet so they’re all just going on pessimistic predictive models which have not been accurate to date. And SA had similar peaks to the rest of the world, despite seasons and their younger average age.

@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?

Perfectly said.

I have worried that the NHS could be so overwhelmed treating Covid patients that other people (not suffering from Covid but) with very treatable emergency conditions would die or be badly harmed (maybe permanently disabled) instead, like from a car accident / stroke / broken limb / raging infection.

Meltdown like that doesn't seem to have happened like that anywhere, though. Not even in India or Peru which were truly the worst affected. Maybe Iran -- but not clear, and could be mostly due to sanctions.

I do follow the rules, mind, just not because I agree with them. Isolation of positive cases just because someone is +covid positive, this will need reconsidering. It's causing as much harm as it helps.

100% agree. It is not my job as the service user to protect the service, it is the responsibility of government to provide a service that is fit for purpose and provides the services the users want and need. Sadly, successive governments have failed to adequately fund the nhs and have not taken into account that science now allows our population to live longer meaning that ultimately there are more service users than it can cope with. Time for a massive overhaul.

This in a nutshell.

Unfortunately the pandemic has highlighted just how selfish people are

People have done a huge amount over the last two years, made sacrifices, I’m always surprised it’s not acknowledged

Op I get the numbers will be huge

Personally not worried about getting it but think next few weeks will be tough

I’m astounded that folk are still peddling the ‘selfish’ line.
Most people have sacrificed huge amounts.
But it’s just never ever enough, is it?
They’re like spoiled kids expecting more more more.

Just go to a hospital in London and see who are the majority in hospitals.

Not really the topic of the thread but I don't think it's that easy to get free NHS treatment as a non-citizen.

But that’s how the government wanted us to act at the time. How do you think we’ll look back at this time?
Everyone terrified of a pretty mild variant.

I think it was more understandable the first time around but surely now the majority have been vaccinated it's just a case of being sensible? I'm concerned about Omicron but it seems it's so transmissible there's not an awful lot we can do without tanking the economy and destroying more lives. Nobody I know is terrified of Omicron, although I accept that people who are clinically extremely vulnerable are in a different situation. But that must be the case with other illnesses too, sadly.

I'm not scared of getting it. I know that I probably will at some point but I don't worry about it.

Unfortunately the pandemic has highlighted just how selfish people are (and by selfish I mean unable to see beyond their own lives)

See I agree with you but for completely different reasons. The pandemic has 100% shown how selfish people have always been, and how they've been completely fine about that up until the point their own privilege can't save them anymore.

I'm betting you're one of those really selfless ones though. Did you sell your house before the pandemic to solve Ebola? No? But you are quite happy for other people to lose their homes so you don't have to catch covid? Because that's what we're talking about here. There is no furlough and even if there is, millions of people got absolutely fuck all last time.

The above is a very common selfless attitude that's rife in this country, often by people who cannot get it into their naice middle class heads that this country has been selfish for a loooooong time and now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Can you seriously not understand why people would choose a 2 day headache over being stuck in a high-rise with 3 children for the next six months? Seriously?

Unfortunately the pandemic has highlighted just how selfish people are (and by selfish I mean unable to see beyond their own lives)“

Couldn’t disagree more in respect of younger people. They have sacrificed so much, very much for other, older people they don’t know and this continues.
Give them the bloody credit they deserve, please!

@rarityroast

Unfortunately the pandemic has highlighted just how selfish people are (and by selfish I mean unable to see beyond their own lives)

See I agree with you but for completely different reasons. The pandemic has 100% shown how selfish people have always been, and how they've been completely fine about that up until the point their own privilege can't save them anymore.

I'm betting you're one of those really selfless ones though. Did you sell your house before the pandemic to solve Ebola? No? But you are quite happy for other people to lose their homes so you don't have to catch covid? Because that's what we're talking about here. There is no furlough and even if there is, millions of people got absolutely fuck all last time.

The above is a very common selfless attitude that's rife in this country, often by people who cannot get it into their naice middle class heads that this country has been selfish for a loooooong time and now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Can you seriously not understand why people would choose a 2 day headache over being stuck in a high-rise with 3 children for the next six months? Seriously?

Agree with all of this 100%.

I enjoy all the 'selfish' comments tbh. My god, wasn't the comment about being unable to see beyond their own lives ironic 😂

Couldn’t disagree more in respect of younger people. They have sacrificed so much, very much for other, older people they don’t know and this continues.
Give them the bloody credit they deserve, please!

And they shouldn't sacrifice any more IMO. Not after vaccines, boosters.

Not just the young but the elderly have sacrificed everything too. I see elderly people becoming former shadows of themselves.
They’ve given up seeing grandchildren, given up their volunteer roles, their social lives and their health deteriorates more and more while they suffer with loneliness and isolation and struggle walking back from shops with their bags and masks on.
They don’t have many years left and it’s sad to see.
As for the children, we need to decide what kind of future we want for them.