Guilt Free Railing 19

[WouldBeGood]

Rail away!

No judgment, no resilience wankery.

Equal opportunity railing 😃

Could this be the last thread..?!

Just parking my good self. Railing that I'm becoming a good student and doing an assignment 10 days before submission. I'm a day before type of student normally so not sure what's come over me.

I really don't mind if other people want to keep wearing a mask (and have always felt the government should have done more to give out proper FFP2s to people who are particularly vulnerable and want them). But for myself: I was never planning to wear one forever, and once we're at the point where we have vaccines and we have boosters and we have antivirals and hospitals are coping and we have a variant so infectious cloth masks don't do much anyway and they're no longer law... well, that's me done.

Glad vaccine passports are going too. I am too old/boring/busy to go anywhere that demands them , but I know they've been a hassle for a lot of businesses. And don't even seem to have helped very much with omicron anyway!

Thanks @ResilienceWanker

I got looked at as though I was Satan in work for saying oh yay about the end of masks and passports . I want to be able to wear make up and lippy and do my hair and not have it all ruined by a manky cloth which is as thin as toilet paper . Hopefully by the summer the mask zealots have got bored with it all

Im just glad schools will return to 'normal' after two years of shit. The secondary kids especially glad at long last to see them mask free.

Foe many they have become a visual safety blanket regardless of actually offering any protection!
Govt messaging has been very successful in scaring people into it it's going to take time for people to adjust

@Scottishskifun

Foe many they have become a visual safety blanket regardless of actually offering any protection! Govt messaging has been very successful in scaring people into it it's going to take time for people to adjust

Completely agree with this. A friend said to me during a conversation about the (lack of) effectiveness of masks, that they remind people that there's a pandemic and we should give people some space. Fine for them - working from home still, rarely need to use public transport, no children stuck in masks all day long at school.

That is part of the issue they give people a false sense of security, people stand closer to masked than up masked.

I can't remember which poster it was but one of the railers ditched the masks and found the same thing, people keeping their distance.

I'm railing on behalf of DS who is in first year at Uni and has been told that after the 21st March things will continue mostly online because they have already made the plans to. What a joke. And so shortsighted from the lecturers/staff who can't see that by sitting on their arses at home fobbing the kids off with prerecorded videos they're rendering themselves obsolete.

Also railing on behalf of a Welsh friend who is suffering at the hands of Drakeford, a man arguably more puritanical and unhinged than Queen Covid. He announced that masks were no longer a legal requirement - yay! They would however remain a legal requirement in shops, medical settings and indoor public spaces. All that was no longer required was wearing a mask while walking to your table in a restaurant.

Also railing about the COST of the stupid vaccine passport app thing which was introduced in October and scrapped 4 and a bit months later. initial cost was £3.3 million, then they chucked another £600k at it when it didn't work.

And she wants to make all of us pay for LFT and PCR testing ad infinitum? Stupid woman,

More money well spent. To say nothing of the lack of clarity on what extra money promised for education recovery has been used for.

If Fife council is anything to go by there has been no money for educational recovery. Yet more cost cutting measure being introduced (in the east neuk to start with) including getting rid of all head teacher roles in smaller schools to be replaced by one super head! Sounds like a genius plan 😬.
The labour co leader of the council is opposed but I bet they manage to get it through anyway.

That’s my rail of the week

Dr Chris Smith was on the radio this morning discussing lifting of restrictions, and I found it interesting that he was making much the same points as we do on here. He said that clinically vulnerable people had always been so and that they shouldn’t be unduly scared, rather they should use whatever strategies they did before COVID as their risks were now about equivalent. That led into a whole thing about how people have become unduly scared by the focus on the risks (ignoring the fact that risks have always been there) and that as a nation we really needed to get confidence back. Most interestingly he was saying that masks as we tend to use them don’t work to contain spread in any meaningful way and are largely a social sticking plaster to make people feel better, which will come as no surprise to anyone here. I did smile to myself when he was pointing to the different restrictions around the UK and the fact that outcomes were no different (and perhaps slightly worse in ‘certain areas’) as part of a larger point that there should be evidence behind restrictions.

How is it we suddenly can't afford HTs!! Absolute lunacy - and no progression is hardly going to help attract teachers to the profession.

Certain governments and experts have spent the last two years scaring and hectoring people to 'do the right thing'. It'll take years for some people to recover from this level of health anxiety.

I had a dear friend (not unwell, not over 50) try and convince me it was still terribly unsafe to fly this week, was taken aback that there is still so much fear out there.

We've just had covid via kids at school, how could catching it on holiday be worse now? At least I'd have enjoyed the holiday!

I luffs Dr Chris Smith. So calm and sensible. And you know, knowledgeable about viruses, what with him actually being a virologist. Take note NS.

GP friend was saying that in a normal winter there are approx 100 deaths a day from flu, that we know of. But it might be more as it isn't always tested for.

Dr Chris Smith was also saying that the likelihood of another variant of covid isn't only down to high numbers of cases in the communities. It's thought to be more likely to start in a host who either hasn't been vaccinated or is immunocompromised and can't shake the virus giving it more scope to mutate and transmit. This is what's thought to have happened in Southern Africa with omicron.

@mapleleavesreturn it won’t be worse! You’ve just been naturally boosted so are in a better position than people who’ve been avoiding it and purely relying on vaccines. That was another point Chris Smith was making, that immunity from infection makes us stronger not weaker. I agree that the scaremongering has been off the scale - so many not-particularly-at-risk people are absolutely terrified and don’t seem to appreciate that now (Super high immunity and mild dominant variant) the risks are en par with other seasonal viruses.

@mapleleavesreturn It's awful isn't it. I have a friend who still feels she's vulnerable to the virus even after all her vaccinations and hasn't been inside anywhere other than for essential medical appointments or even met up with people outside since March 2020. I don't know how she's managed it tbh.

I still have to remind myself occasionally that it's probably fine if I do get covid? I nearly didn't get on a very busy train recently till I reminded myself that it was a very short journey and even if I did get covid from a passenger it's good timing! Pupils who are close contacts of covid have been for lessons, which I'm really perfectly happy with. But my first reaction when they tell me, is to feel a moment of panic. It's become ingrained after the past 2 years even though I'm not actually afraid of getting covid.

The government and media fear mongering is nasty.

And going on holiday boosts you a bit too!

3 out of 4 parents of dh and I believe with utter certainty they'll die if they catch covid despite this being statistically quite unlikely and they're more scared now restrictions are over than before as they think they're now even more likely to catch it and die.

It's sad, I do recognise in some ways the battle for people who are anxious is getting worse now and needs to be tackled as an anxiety crisis.

The govt should really be doing more to get back to actual facts (not F.A,C.T.S.)

DP's had the 2nd day of negative tests today, so he's free. I'm still testing positive, so I'll be able to return to the outside world on Saturday at the latest. It's a wierd feeling knowing that we won't have the uncertainty of covid hanging over us for a while. We never had important stuff cancelled , like holidays or weddings etc so while the illness isn't something I'd like to have again any time soon, I realise how lucky I was with the timing and symptoms.

@mibbelucieachwell
That's awful for your friend but I bet she isn't the only one. They'll be lots of people suffering some sort of agoraphobia (spelling!) frightened to go out.

Frightened to go back into the office, I bet they'll even be kids who normally view themselves as immortal who'll be frightened of school without masks.

It is horrible what covid has done to people.

I have work colleagues who are having kittens over going back to the office evn though we will now be on only 2 days a week.

@mapleleavesreturn shows tour friends lack of understanding about ventilation systems! Airplanes are the safest form of transport they are the only ones with antiviral filtration systems and refresh every 2 minutes. Main tip would be to keep the blowers on the whole flight. Most people think this will give them covid actually its the opposite if you have someone nearby with it then actually it stops the build up around you

Oooh that's a fascinating and little known fact scottishskifun - off to canaries at easter and can't wait. The weather recently has been so bad!

Can't see how taking multiple buses and trains, and boats is anything other than a crazy alternative! Fun as such a jaunt might be.

Haha yeah I'm a bit of a geek and DH has had 2 years of covid for work including examining ventilation systems and talks from scientists/health officials which go over ventilation and what's best.

Amazing what you don't think about when you don't have to. Attention to ventilation could benefit asthmatics and allergy sufferers too.