AIBU to be sick of people who think it's all back to normal?

[JanusTheFirst]

Woke to the news that my cousin died early this morning of Covid. No underlying conditions and she was vaccinated. But she was elderly. She hardly ever went out but must have picked it up on a rare outing to the local shop.

People are still dying and we should still be looking out for those vulnerable to this awful disease. It isn't all back to normal. My cousin is dead and she wouldn't be but for Covid.

I was shielded during the first lockdown, and I'd like to shout out a thanks to all those who did go into work, and provide us with services.👏

Without food and goods deliveries etc. I would have really struggled.

My DD works in a large London hospital and her place is packed with flu patients, but a relatively small number of Covid patients.

Lockdown caused a lot of harm, socially and economically. Children often struggled, as did parents.

We do need to get back to normal.

It's a virus we have to live with. As someone health vulnerable, I will always be at risk of harm with a variety of infections.

But, life needs to go on.😉

It’s not odd. A really bad variant of covid was detected in china again. Many countries are shutting them out and people are considering locking down again but I don’t see the masses cooperating well this time.

Some of us found lockdown incredibly hard.

I was privileged to be able to work from home. I have never worked so hard in my life. Not only managing a large team and keeping up their morale but also rolling out covid procedures and furlough at short notice. The furlough legislation was pretty complex. The adaptations to get an organisation working remotely on the turn of a sixpence were tough, especially in a unionised environment.

My dd's uni experience was seriously spoilt. Fortunately she was fine. Similarly ds's post graduate experience was hard hit.

I detested lockdown and believe it went far too far. However, I think we have alsongone too far the other way.

I don't want to see the return of known but I would like to see everyone provided with five free lft's a month. Those lft's shoukd link to their QR code and if people test positive they should have full sick pay for the first 5 to 9 days until they test -ve.

Having avoided Covid since March 2020 I have just had it. I am fully vaccinated. The first symptoms appeared on Boxing Day and I put them down to a cold. We had to travel home by car on 27th and I was quite Coldy. On 28th I tested and to my great surprise it was +ve. On 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st I was quite unwell - I could not have gone to work. Coughing, exhaustion, aching, wheezing and breathlessness. Many of us have become blaze. It was a wake up call for me and I certainly wouldn't want it again. Tested -ve today. I am genuinely surprised at how ill it made me feel.

I don't want lockdowns back but I do think caution has flown too far to the wind.

Why are you taking a specific example and acting like I said anyone can or should do this?

The point is that drastic measures like lockdowns could be avoided if people GENERALLY used their brains and their common sense. It's pure common sense that you don't take a load of elderly and ill people out to the pub in the midst of a devastating winter flu/covid season when the NHS is on the brink of collapse. Yes, it's possible nothing bad will happen and they'll all be fine, but WHY take that risk when there are alternatives? In this particular situation, another relative is happy to cook in their home, but apparently the birthday girl would rather put herself and other people at risk in case she changes her mind about what she fancies eating on the day. This to me is extremely skewed priorities. Raise everyone's covid/flu/other winter virus risk by quite a bit and exclude CEV family members so you can have scampi if you don't fancy the chicken.

I've got an important hospital appointment coming up and so I'm trying not to catch covid before it. That for me means choosing to run outside rather than go to the gym and postponing social engagements until after the appointment. It's not rocket science. It's just acknowledging that I can't always have everything exactly the way I want it, a concept many people here seem to really struggle with. It's not some great hardship that I can't have and do everything I want - I'm glad I can do 90% of what I want.

And by the way, I live in a one-bed flat, alone, far from any family and with few friends locally. I'm not posting from a position of privilege in the slightest. I barely have a support network. The pandemic has absolutely wrecked dating opportunities for me and the chance of expanding my social network. It is what it is. I do, however, have a lot of common sense and an understanding of how viruses spread.

I think it's a shame that public health measures have become so politicised. Personally I would like to see NHS doctors and nurses put in charge of deciding what protections are necessary in their areas.

I.e. I remember in March 2020, a lot of nurses near me were getting concerned about lots of people driving about in their cars. So it may be that we need driving restrictions in some areas to help the NHS.

In Leicester my understanding is that there is a big issue with household visits- perhaps they need to be banned in this area.

I'm 72. I didn't want lockdowns then and I don't now. The elderly and vulnerable can be protected. The young have suffered enough imo. I remember the Hong Kong Flu pandemic of 1968. We all just carried on as normal.

There isn’t a new variant detected in China. Get your facts straight.

I'm fed up of people who think those who aren't affected by the virus haven't done enough.

I complied with rules for months on end, had to watch my newborn baby go through surgery on my own, watched my 7 year old miss out on an education and social life, got vaccinated, still complied with the rules during the third lockdown even though my mental health suffered for it and not one person I know has been affected by covid more than any other mild illness (including some elderly and vulnerable).

I will not test and isolate forever. I've done more than enough.

It's now something we have to live. Like flu deaths. Long Covid will become an issue as we haven't seen the results 5/10/20 years along. More people die in road accidents and thats something we accept sadly

The common sense approach is to behave as if anyone around you could have that variant and react appropriately - trying to ventilate spaces (if you have control over that), wearing a mask in enclosed spaces, etc. You can still go out, go on holiday, go to the cinema, enjoy your life, just taking precautions during bad covid waves.

But no. People have decided that these easy, common sense measures are an assault on their 'freedoms' and so they'll continue to insist on burying their heads in the sand and keep living 'normally' until we get more lockdowns and travel bans and endlessly changing rules.

There won’t be more lockdowns, much as that disappoints you.

If only people could cough and sneeze into their arm rather than out or onto their hand. Versus transmission would be reduced for all viruses. It’s like washing the hands after the loo cuts down on gastrointestinal sickness. Basic hygiene helps everyone.

I work in a Victorian building. Impossible to keep clean, impossible to keep everyone safe it's a bloody nightmare. Rats amongst the wildlife and they are not the worst to deal with!

Covid on top of that was just horrible. Have zero sympathy for those moaning about furlough or WFH ending

What is this visceral reaction? I’m not advocating for lockdowns here but it’s literally airborne. Of course it’s going to mutate constantly. The same way the cold and flu do. Yes there is a new variant. So what? Don’t get your panties in a bunch over it dear.

Be lucky if just one of the hundreds I deal with daily ever did one of those things!

Nothing you have listed qualifies as either light touch or common sense. They're all terrible ideas, most of them having already failed in the UK anyway.

To add - I am sorry that your cousin died from covid.

OP, I am sorry for your loss, but if your relative had no particular underlying conditions, why was she staying at home almost all the time, and hardly ever going out (to the point that even a trip to a local shop was ‘rare’), and do you honestly think that this is a sensible way for the elderly to live?

The fact that even the People’s Republic of “Weld people into their homes and superglue masks on everyone 24/7” China has given up the fight on zero COVID and is seeing massive spread in spite of all the bloody masks should probably be telling us something.

In terms of Covid, my life is back to normal. But normal for me includes family dying with cancer, some issues with alcoholism and another with dementia. People can move on from Covid and still be dealing with their own difficult version of normal. Sorry for your loss

It is funny, that nobody who liked their lockdown gave a thought to all the rubbishly paid people who went out to work to make their experience so wonderful.

It won't be your choice, especially when it comes to what other countries choose to do. I personally find being unable to go to or come from certain countries a far greater assault on my freedom than wearing a mask and cracking open a window, but your idea of common sense might be different to mine.

I know!

All those delivery drivers for example!

Sorry for your loss.I think it would be perfectly reasonable to ask people to wear masks again. People in Japan and China do this but in the UK people seem to be very selfish about it.

If she had died of flu would you have made this post or had such strong opinions about making people restrict their lives? I have sympathy for you, a close family member of mine was rushed into hospital last night so I can totally relate - but it does seem we 'accept' more if people die from other causes yet covid there are views from some that we must shut everything down.

That's not the way to go. The mental health ramifications have already been huge and that would get worse and become even more of a burden on the NHS and cost more lives unfortunately.

This is the issue- people won’t do it if they can’t afford to and not mandatory.
the government are now even trying to get the statistics for covid stopped. They want to brush it under the carpet

but the levels of long covid the impact on labour market of thousands of people being off work for extensive periods should make them take action. At any one time huge numbers of precious medical staff are off sick with flu or covid just now.

covid is not flu. Flu kills 1000s every year. Covid kills but it also has higher rates of these post infection disabilities that drag on for months or years. That is going to put an increasing burden on welfare system if we continue to let infection go unchecked. Yes, vaccines work in helping prevent it. But the sheer numbers of infection, and the vastly bigger infection rate of covid vs flu, mean that even a small % of people getting a complication of post viral illness, is still a very large, and a very increasing number constantly.

there are things that the government could do. Air filtration in public buildings - they’ve had 3 years to do that now. Nope. Even though hospitals are bust with the twin epidemics of flu and covid now they still see this as a waste of money - don’t seem to be bothered by pictures of sick people lying on floors in A&E .

mask are not perfect. But they’d help with both covid and flu . We know it did work as rates of flu were down even last year. A lot of countries saw masks as socially required long before covid for all manner of infection form colds to flus. It is the western world that seems to think it is a personal imposition (ok, I exclude people who have justified reasons for no masks).