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Original poster

Do we all just need to get it?

180 replies

friedeggandsauce · 26/12/2021 22:13

So this new variant is really virulent, we went out just over a week ago and more than half our party of 12 have now got covid.

Thankfully no one is really ill with it, people have got a sore throat, bit of a headache, slight temp but nothing else.

So with that in mind (and I know there may be a few who get it bad) why are we isolating? Do we just need to all get it?

This isn't goady, we're all isolating and have taken the correct tests, just trying to see if this could just end (in an optimistic way!)

OP posts:
rrhuth · 26/12/2021 23:06

@TheKeatingFive

If we are going to have endemic covid at high levels, we are going to either have invest a lot in healthcare or accept we do far less surgery etc than we used to do?

Yeah, true.

But that was coming anyway. Covid has brought it forward and made it more acute.

This is major though. We have a government who will not want to invest more so we are potentially going to watch our relatives suffer and die much earlier from all sorts of things?
KrispyBrussels · 26/12/2021 23:08

Politics will have to evolve.

KrispyBrussels · 26/12/2021 23:09

Parties that want to get elected will.

Wizzbangfizz · 26/12/2021 23:09

Yes it is a cold for the majority.

rrhuth · 26/12/2021 23:12

@Wizzbangfizz

Yes it is a cold for the majority.
This is false reassurance, also known as covid minimisation/denial.

Covid has always been mild for most but the issue is the small % for whom it is serious.

Wizzbangfizz · 26/12/2021 23:12

Frankly I was relieved to get it and have confirmed antibodies - DC had it at the same time - zero symptoms. A life half lived is no life.

Wizzbangfizz · 26/12/2021 23:14

@rrhuth I'm not minimising - I know people who've been seriously ill, but we have the vaccines - this is as good as it is ever going to get! And the reality is it IS a mild illness for the majority, when do you think we can live normally?

rrhuth · 26/12/2021 23:15

@Wizzbangfizz

Frankly I was relieved to get it and have confirmed antibodies - DC had it at the same time - zero symptoms. A life half lived is no life.
Good for you.

Your case is irrelevant, what matters as it always has is the small percentage who get seriously unwell. The number and tiing of those cases are what matters.

TheKeatingFive · 26/12/2021 23:15

We have a government who will not want to invest more so we are potentially going to watch our relatives suffer and die much earlier from all sorts of things?

Healthcare is in a dire mess, that's true. But lockdown was never viable as anything other than a short term, it doesn't solve anything, just kicks cans down roads.

We need all parties to come together to urgently address the future of nhs provision, but none of them seem even slightly interested in proper reform.

PastMyBestBeforeDate · 26/12/2021 23:16

Do you mind if me and my funked immune system hang on until the treatments are proven and readily available?

Chessie678 · 26/12/2021 23:18

@Dghgcotcitc
I think it's exactly this. "Lockdown to delay catching covid by a couple of months" isn't a persuasive message. So far as I can see it has been accepted by most scientists for a long time that almost everyone will get covid eventually probably multiple times. Many have said as much. Obviously better for vulnerable people to get it having had three jabs than it was before they were vaccinated but unless people are going to shield forever they will catch it eventually. I don't think a lot of people have really grasped this.

A lot of my friends and relatives still talk as if catching covid is a very unusual thing and only happens to people who either engage in "risky" behaviour or who work in a hospital / as a teacher etc and still expect that it might go away if we are all "sensible" such that they never catch it. If they get a cold they will say something like "I have no idea where I caught it. I went to a cafe/ shopping etc but I wore a mask (while walking to my table)". The latest study I read (pre omicron) suggested that 50% of people have already had covid.

I get that people may want to avoid getting it pre-vaccine / before an important event etc. but unless you are very vulnerable and have made a long-term decision to shield I don't understand the logic of severely limiting your life to avoid covid every time the rates go up.

My parents, for example, live a relatively normal life while rates are low (going to cafes, shops etc) but if rates spike a bit they almost go back to shielding. They don't seem to grasp that if they spend ten weeks going about life basically as normal but spend a week or so indoors if rates go up, they are still likely to catch covid eventually. Clearly, it's their decision as to the level of risk they want to take and I don't put any pressure on but it makes them incredibly stressed to live like this and I almost think it would be better for them if they caught it and had done with it, given that they are not particularly vulnerable and are recently triple jabbed. I have other relatives who are living a very limited life, avoiding almost everything they used to enjoy, "until covid is over". Again, their choice but it's sad to see as they have lost two years of their life and will probably get covid eventually anyway if they ever go back to normality.

rrhuth · 26/12/2021 23:19

[quote Wizzbangfizz]@rrhuth I'm not minimising - I know people who've been seriously ill, but we have the vaccines - this is as good as it is ever going to get! And the reality is it IS a mild illness for the majority, when do you think we can live normally? [/quote]
Talking about the irrelevant mild cases as opposed to the problem % of serious cases is minimising.

What matters is the small percentage of cases who get seriously ill. If that number is large enough to use up too much of our healthcare capacity, we have to limit the spread.

It isn't a 'when' question in terms of date, is it? It is a question of numbers. If we get a low enough number of serious cases, we are fine, if we get too many, we are not. We might go a couple of years without a bad variant, then we might have an issue again. A lot depends on vaccine and antiviral developments.

Wizzbangfizz · 26/12/2021 23:20

@rrhuth you haven't answered the question - what do you propose? Lockdown in perpetuity until all the "vulnerable" are forever protected which they never can be because a large proportion of those are equally at risk of other illnesses like the flu etc

Wizzbangfizz · 26/12/2021 23:23

@rrhuth that's a lot of "might" and "if" and is it worth taking that risk when so many more
People are losing jobs, livelihoods and businesses and addictions are spiralling for covid?

vickyc90 · 26/12/2021 23:23

You will get flamed for this I've been saying it for nearly two years!!! I think unless you work in the fields around medicine or science no one really expected a infectious disease that can kill millions so assumed science would stop it. The reality is Darwin is as right today as he was in 1859 survival of the fittest. What makes it more interesting is a lot of the disease that make people more vulnerable to COVID have a genetic element.

Personally I think COVID has redefined how we live with chronic illness and potentially for the UK how we fund healthcare. I would love to see our response put out to an online public vote with scientist explaining the options to the general public. The most popular strategy is the one we stick with. But to do that we need the general public to be more rational about how long they can realistically expect to live and what quality of life they want.

rrhuth · 26/12/2021 23:24

[quote Wizzbangfizz]@rrhuth you haven't answered the question - what do you propose? Lockdown in perpetuity until all the "vulnerable" are forever protected which they never can be because a large proportion of those are equally at risk of other illnesses like the flu etc[/quote]
Yes, I definitely propose 'lockdown in perpetuity' Hmm

They are not 'equally' at risk from flu. Flu deaths are c. 1/3 of covid per day? Covid has a bigger impact on healthcare.

Lifeisnteasy · 26/12/2021 23:24

@Bellabelloo

The problem is all of us getting it at the same time. Everything would grind to a halt let alone if the majority of doctors, nurses, surgeons, etc couldn't work.
Only because they would have to isolate. If we let people work if they felt able, like with a cold, it wouldn’t grind to a halt 🤷🏼‍♀️
Original poster
friedeggandsauce · 26/12/2021 23:25

@PastMyBestBeforeDate

Do you mind if me and my funked immune system hang on until the treatments are proven and readily available?
Of course, this is why although only one member of our household has it we've not been and done any of the things we could have over Christmas- we want to keep our vulnerable elderly family members safe.
OP posts:
rrhuth · 26/12/2021 23:26

@Lifeisnteasy healthcare would have to shut down. Does that not concern you?

JesusMaryAndJosephAndTheWeeDon · 26/12/2021 23:27

Or convince our politicians that the only way to get elected is to increase investment and capacity within the NHS

Lifeisnteasy · 26/12/2021 23:30

[quote rrhuth]@Lifeisnteasy healthcare would have to shut down. Does that not concern you?[/quote]
Why? Can’t people work with cold like symptoms?

vickyc90 · 26/12/2021 23:30

[quote rrhuth]@Lifeisnteasy healthcare would have to shut down. Does that not concern you?[/quote]
No it wouldn't if we accepted COVID and asked the staff to work if able. Yes COVID would become like one the hospital acquired infections that can kill the vulnerable but it would stop health care grounding to a hault.

If you can get PCR capacity up you could even test the staff working with the vulnerable daily. Like I'm going private for surgery in the coming months hopefully, having waited nearly 6 years, if the surgeon has COVID I would be happy for him to operate even if he infects me the surgery I'm having doesn't make me more vulnerable so I can spend 7 days at home with COVID and a surgical wound. The husband might even bring me dinner in bed!

Chessie678 · 26/12/2021 23:31

@rrhuth
I’m not sure that’s still the case post vaccines. There have been around 18k covid deaths since July. That’s comparable to a bad flu season. Covid pre vaccines had an ifr of 0.5-1% but vaccines have reduced that to 0.1-0.2%. That is similar to flu in some years. Of course there is a difference in terms of how infectious they are but for the vaccinated individual I don’t think the argument that covid is a much more dangerous illness than flu really holds any more.

Wizzbangfizz · 26/12/2021 23:31

@Lifeisnteasy exactly and that is where we need to get too. Stop
Testing ffs

SpindleSpangle · 26/12/2021 23:40

@AnyFucker

Yes. But shield the vulnerable as much as possible.
It's so tough, @AnyFucker. I'm in the 'critically vulnerable' group and I know you know from your job what you're talking about.

I'm so tired of shielding.

It meant DP, in order to see his own family and grandchildren, had to spend Christmas apart from me and my adult DS again. I know he's thinking what the OP is thinking - catch it and get this done - except he wants to protect me because how it will affect me is an Unknown.

I've got to the point where I'm thinking about stopping taking my immune-suppressants.

I can't live like this for much longer. But then again, the state I was in before I was approved for Adalimumab was a total mess ...

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