If covid policy stays 'as is', how do we tackle the impacts

[NotReadyForAutumnYet]

Inspired by another thread. I think we should be doing more to tackle covid, but that is not for this thread. I'm interested in knowing how if we maintain current policy, we tackle the impacts.

So, impacts on social care,
impacts on healthcare (for everything - not just covid),
access to healthcare (where threat of covid on current health conditions for some means to risky to access healthcare with no infection control), access to healthcare as other issues triggered by covid exacerbate in population, hospital acquired infections leading to longer stays, susceptibility to and impact of other viruses rise post infection,
impacts on mental health and mental health services, impacts on number of people able to donate organs, blood etc (can't if have long covid)
confidence/accountability in/of public health / government messaging (during lockdown, post restrictions, vaccination and current- much can be picked apart on messaging inc. honesty)
impacts on education, impacts on attendance,
impacts on workforce, impacts on businesses
impacts of not being able to exercise, impacts of increasingly sick population (including those sick, but able to work), impacts on finances - increase in poverty, impacts on very vulnerable,
impacts on those in abusive situations, impacts on those wanting insurance policies etc etc.
I know there are many other areas, but hopefully you get drift.
How do we tackle the impacts of current policy?

Had to check this wasn't from 2020 🙄

Can I give you some sort of medal for the longest ever sentence on mn? 🏅

assumed this was a ghost threat from 2020. Obv not. It’s an illness we live with like many others. I don’t see any effects of Covid in society.

We are one of the sickest countries in Europe with one of the highest rates of life limiting disability and this is a big problem that I wished was discussed more because it affects all aspects of life.

But it's not just about Covid, of course. It seems to me that Covid isn't really all that different in terms of impact (not in terms of the disease itself) than flu or other nasty viral illnesses that can cause ongoing disability. When we didn't have a level of population immunity, Covid was a much bigger issue but now that we do, yes it's nasty but there are other illnesses that have as much impact.

I agree. I see no o effects from Covid per se now. Lots of effects from Covid policies in 2020/21. Is that what you mean?

You've lost me with all that word salad.
What I've taken from the post is either you're frightened of covid or loved lockdown.
I'll pick one point. impact on exercise do you mean the impact having covid has re ability to exercise as I don't think we'll ever have 'you can't go for a walk as exercise cos covid.'

Medal appreciated, thank you 🙏

So kind of pretending those impacts aren't happening? This thread is for those with an opinion on how we address the impacts. Doing nothing/deferring is a strategy for a bit I guess, but doesn't make impacts disappear.

I think the only thing we need to take from covid is that we never lock down again. The economic and social impacts of what we did we leave a legacy that long outlasts a disease that was little more than a common virus to the majority.

How do we manage similar impacts from other illnesses? Covid isn’t much different now. I don’t see any others impacts in everyday life.

No. Impact on exercise as in lots of previously active people can no longer exercise with long covid or exercise much.
Impacts of lockdown policies are present in much of what I wrote, yes. This is about current covid policy and impacts.

At this point I don't think you can separate out covid impacts from disease in society in general. Most people aren't testing any more so we don't even know how prevalent it is.

Bit of a shame that people haven't taken away the message that you do actually need to act early if a disease with no population immunity appears because it WILL break your health system and you WILL have people dying in the streets if you don't. And the social and economic impacts WILL be worse and more punitive if you act later rather than sooner. But other than that, we need to treat covid as part of the general approach to protecting the health of the population at this point. Now we have some population level immunity it's no different than any other similarly nasty disease.

Can you give some actual examples of these impacts? Why are people not able to exercise?

🤣

We can’t do anything to “tackle covid”. At best we have to accept it’s something else people will catch, get ill and sometimes die from. About all we can do is increase capacity in hospital beds etc to deal with it.

I’d have thought nearly 4 years after the world lost its shit over this crap people would be over it but seems not.

How about we do stuff to try and decrease NHS pressures by trying to make sure people don’t drink heavily/smoke/become obese. With less of these issues the NHS could better deal with infectious diseases

Leeds and Sheffield-Hallam universities have done studies on patients with long Covid and exercise. A majority of them had found that exercise made their symptoms worse. Obviously they were therefore exercising less.

Do you feel that covid policies/ neglect on policies on issues arising from long term covid are more necessary and important than other diseases?

I personally think that the implications of neglectful policies towards say, diet, will have a wider reach, longer term implications and more damaging to the nation.
For example, if we could invest money into food for schools and nutrition advice, and put exercise for kids as an important activity into the curriculum, we may be able to reduce obesity in later life, and therefore help with heart disease and diabetes, and whatever long list of conditions are blamed on obesity right now.

Do you think policies for covid should be more or less important than this?

Are we in some sort of a time warp and you are still living in 2020?

We live with Covid around now just as we do with many, many other illnesses. That's all there is to it. No need to overanalyse.

I couldn't be bothered to read absolutely all of your wall of words there. From what I did get through though, I don't identify with it and don't see these impacts.

I think tackling lifestyle should be the ultimate priority.
The impact of being overweight, smoking, drinking excessively etc is hugely underestimated by most people and is a massive burden on society. We now also have a generation of people incapable of managing self limiting condition's.
Covid -19 took the focus away from all the other health issues that were/ are causing problems in our society and it should not continue to do so.

So seems like some are saying we invest in trying to address other health issues such as obesity, encouraging healthy lifestyles etc. Yep, think that's great. Is that instead of to try and counter some impacts of covid or as well as?
Some of those issues - impact on heart, diabetes, ability to exercise, cook from scratch (time poor/finance/energy/ability) will be exacerbated by current covid policy obviously. Trade off in traditional 'education' if talking about schools - if more PE, then is that less maths time etc? At my school, kids used to be able to run around playground before school started, since lockdown they go straight in for early morning work.

Op do you think we should only be looking at covid?

There are things we can do to tackle covid, but as said in OP, that's not what I started this thread for.

This thread assumes we will do nothing different to tackle covid than we are already currently doing. I can't think of any other virus that presently has for example 2million people with after effects, along with those who are now more predisposed to other issues. Most people don't get back to baseline health with long covid. What particular impacts are people struggling to acknowledge?

Long covid is a big problem. I suggest that one way we deal with it by not re-electing a government that has spent the last 13 years running the NHS into the ground. That’d be a start.

I know what you are saying OP. I think it's easy to see from the responses so far why the government aren't taking any action - lots of people don't care/think covid is over/haven't seen the studies that have come out more recently showing how likely it is for covid to be a mass disabling event and the longer term effects on the immune system etc etc. It's easier to close your eyes and ears to it than it is to try and face/tackle it, because looking at your list it's a monumental task to try and know where to even start.

Agree with PP about getting rid of the Tories who have decimated health systems.

To focus on anything, I would try and push for cleaner air in public spaces. This benefits both those who are worried about covid, and those who aren't, without anyone having to take individual action such as use a mask. It will likely help with overall health/illness and when we get the next pandemic it will help with that if it is also an airborne spreader.

What is the aim of all this OP?

no one gives a shit about Covid any more. The only place anyone ever seems to have it any worse than a mild cold or have “long covid” is on MN. I can’t remember the last time I even heard of anyone I know having it