To have changed my mind on isolation

[JunoLunar]

I remember arguing with people about the decision to make it guidance not to go out with covid rather than legislative. Now I'm down with Covid for the second time in two months. The kids are missing more school, people at work who are already stretched are now having to cover me (nhs so can't go in).
It all just feels so endless. The worry is that to just carry on as normal feels wrong. I have cinema tickets and I just could not go and enjoy it knowing I could potentially infect someone. Yet the idea of having to put my life on hold for five days every month or so also seems ridiculous.
What is the long term plan now?

@Jansobieski

Anyone seen the numbers climbing dramatically ? I was surprised to see how many are in hospital with it - almost 14000. Nearly 110,000 +ve cases and 200 deaths yesterday. People are obviously still testing. The long term effects of covid are still not known. Even in mild illness a high proportion of sufferers had some degree of myocarditis. Fair enough this was a small study early on in the pandemic but it suggests that the virus is not as benign as people like to portray.

^this

On the news last week it said half those in hospital WITH Covid were actually admitted to hospital for other reasons. It stands to figure that if in general case numbers are increasing across the board then some of those going into hospital will have it. But I only heard that once then they stopped reporting it like that, coz hey, not dramatic enough is it!!! I’m so fucking done with it now. We need to move on.

Fair enough this was a small study early on in the pandemic

And it’s mutated a lot since then, becoming milder. Everything moves at pace and that study is almost 2 years old now…

Anyway, my view on anything is irrelevant. The government is lifting testing and isolation requirements. Effectively, it’s now to be treated as a cold by the population so that’s what will happen … until/unless something changes again.

Even in mild illness a high proportion of sufferers had some degree of myocarditis. Fair enough this was a small study early on in the pandemic

Given the many millions who've had it in the meantime, I'm sure it would be clear by now if it's a major long term problem.

Ultimately, this degree of disruption for what is for most a mild illness was never going to be sustainable. Attempting to stop the spread of omicron looks like a fools game anyway. Bolstering the protection of the most vulnerable as best we can and cracking on is really the only viable option.

@OnceuponaRainbow18

My kids nursery send a ridic email saying those with covid who feel well can go in… they’ve now had to close down for the week as 90% of staff and 80% of kids have covid. Such idiots

Covid ripped through my DS's primary in late Jan, it closed for a week, now everyone has had it and they haven't had any further disruption. So while I can see why you're pissed off, actually it's not a bad strategy for getting it all over and done with in one go.

@WhoWants2Know I think it depends on what you describe as "mild". Does it mean able to carry on business as usual? Or does it mean not requiring hospital treatment? As I said in my post, for me it was no worse than a mild cold, I was a bit fatigued, congested, had a couple of headaches for no longer than an hour at a time - so when I say 'mild' I mean I could've easily continued to go about my normal, daily business if isolation hadn't, at the time, been a legal requirement.

the problem with the 'letting it rip through the class' approach is that this is what happened in my daughter's school before Christmas/January (she got it twice, probably Delta then Omicron given the timing) is that they are now going down with it again. There are nine off in her class at the moment - two no symptoms, five mild cold, two really unwell.

My DD was very unwell when she had it (both times - worse the second time) and has been left really suffering - so now we're in a long, long, long waiting list to be seen at hospital and she's missed quite a lot of school along the way. While I know this is unusual and most bounce back, not everyone does. God knows, we're all really fed up with Covid at this point but not all of CAN just move on, we've been left in absolute shit.

The problem I have is that there always just seems to be another variant around the corner so we are never in a stable, controlled state.

I’m struggling to get any kind of treatment from my doctors and that many people have covid that businesses near me are actually more affected than at any other time.

It just feels endless and grim