Dreading the winter without garden visits.

It was reported in the news that a man from Hong Kong has contracted two different strains of covid. As it is a corona virus like colds and flu, it will presumably mutate, so we will never be free of it and no doubt, as with flu, a new vaccine will have to be developed each year. This news will surely help people decide how they wish to live their lives.

I think you are doing the right thing being careful at your age. I'm 65 ,but have an autoimmune disease so have to.be extremely careful. I think we just have to wait for a vaccine. From what I'm told its a horrible virus to.catch from someone who survived it and she was young. If you put it in perspective are we as badly off as those who went through the 1918 flu epidemic or two world wars. We can do this. We are protecting our loved ones and front line staff by staying safe. That's a pretty amazing thing to.do.

There’s an old Scottish saying “what’s for ye will no go by ye”. So just get on with living your life as best you can.

My heart breaks for care home residents who are currently only allowed garden visits under a waterproof canopy. That’s if they are fit to leave the building. How is that going to work if we don’t get to move to the next phase and indoor visits allowed?
The weather is already too wet and cold for frail elderly folk to sit outdoors. I currently visit a loved one several times a week in a care home. I only do window visits as a socially distanced garden visit is too upsetting for him.

Well said Haweral We can do this. We are protecting our loved ones and front line staff by staying safe. That's a pretty amazing thing to.do.

Yes, I agree with lots of comments, however my family WONT come in our house, and not keen for us to go in theirs, we had amity visiting at the weekend which was wonderful but only for outdoor meet up in a park and then all went home.???, dreading cold dark days.

At last I'm having a Covid antibodies test on Friday! My husband and I are both convinced we had Covid19 very early on in the year as it really wasn't recognised at that stage in this country. He was ill first, along with other members, after some Chinese players direct from China visited his table-tennis club and I caught it off him), but have been unable to check the antibody situation. We both had all the symptoms and I was so ill we had to call the paramedics, but nobody realised what it could be that early on. I had a chest x-ray and scan which revealed a patch of infection on my lung, which has now completely cleared up, following a second scan a couple of weeks ago and yesterday I asked a new GP if I could be tested and he agreed instantly. If I have antibodies, then my husband will too as I caught it from him, so we can both feel a bit more relaxed about going out, which is great! If we don't have antibodies, at least we don't have that uncertainty any more! I'm not looking forward to winter, because I never do!

Totally agree with Bluebell.

Well said, growstuff

Being unable to do online food shopping at the beginning due to lack of slots, I have been going to my local supermarket since the beginning. My DHis 82 and a diabetic, and I am 72. The supermarket was brilliant, ine way system, in at the back, out at the front. We have practised good hygiene, and are now starting to go out and about more, been to restaurants, had family round for meals and have had a short break in the Cotswolds. I think everyone has to make up their own minds.

i agree totally with Oopsminty, do what makes YOU happy and safe

For the lSt five years the only time I left the house was to go to the doctors or the hospital or for a once a year haircut. I have no friends and have panic attacks on going out so I don’t go out. I have close family with young grandchildren who go to nursery or school. My children all work in public environments. Whenever they visited I would come down with a cold or some sort of virus. They were always careful not to come around when they were displaying any symptoms so I am now very wary of visits. I’m 61 and I really would like a few more years of life so I will continue to isolate as much as possible. Perhaps this has all been a huge overreaction and we should have done the same as Sweden, who knows, but the thought of being in hospital on a ventilator because I didn’t take care chills me to the bone.

OK so let me pose this question, did you have any worries or fears about visiting with someone indoors before CV19 hit town? If the answer is no and you had visitors over or you went to see them in their home then you actually ran quite a risk of contracting something that could have had a detrimental effect on your health each and every time you met. Common colds, one of the many other corona viruses, one of the many other strains of influenza, gastric bugs, the herpes zooster virus that causes shingles for example were all floating around ready to be passed on and absolutely nobody ever gave this a thought when considering meeting up. All of the above have always had the potential to make certain people very very ill, sometimes gravely, and not always people with underlying health issues either. What should be happening now is to get things into perspective and stop being terrified out of our minds because we have always lived in a petrie dish of germs, bugs and viruses. Living in fear is no life at all, and as I said in the beginning would you have questioned a trip or visitors coming over pre CV19?

No I wouldn't - but previously we were not in the middle of a pandemic of a highly infectious new virus. We are now, so the two situations are not comparable at all. None of these usual winter bugs That you mention above have overwhelmed our health service and caused so many deaths among front line staff in the NHS and care professions.

Talking about it as if it is just a normal run-of-the-mill bug is misleading and had no foundation in fact.

If you choose to live your life as though this is the case, then you are taking risks with others' lives. I do not think you have the right to do that.

Phoebes, don't be too disheartened if your antibody tests come back negative, it doesn't mean that you haven't had it, just that your T cells probably fought it off before your antibodies to it could be made. This was the case with my daughter, GP is certain she had it, and still loss of taste and smell after 7 months, but antibody test negative. Her husband tested positive after she gave it to him! We need a new test to detect T cells with the ability to remove it too.

I think you have to weigh up the pros and cons here and decide for yourself what your happy with. My parents are 81 & 83 and have decided to have us in their homes and they've started going out and about. they say they haven't got many years left and don't want to spend what they do have stuck in doors. They're taking sensible precautions and making the best of things.

I am not living in fear, but have found life to be distinctly lacking nowadays because of the many things which are not now available or have been cancelled. I no longer go out for a wander along the high street with visits to charity and local small shops, and a visit to a coffee shop as part of the outing. Have been to a garden centre once, and now the weekly food shop is done as quickly as possible. Not out of fear but just because the necessary face covering I find just too hot and uncomfortable and make outings involving anything indoor something I just don't do now. I was invited to a friend's house a few weeks back, and she had sensibly sorted ventilation for the room and we sat at opposite ends of the room, and she was at great pains to handle my tea cup from the bottom when making me a drink. I think we are all now left with making whatever compromises we can to reintroduce previously 'normal' life activities where we are able.

I get slightly annoyed when those of us who choose to safeguard are referred to as if we are neurotic or lacking in courage. We have looked at the risks, assessed our situation and made our decision. So, presumably, have the people who are mixing more in the community.

The virus is still active and we don't know whether there will be a surge in cases as schools open and more people return to work. Hopefully not, but we don't know. I don't feel that it's safe enough to venture out yet.

I know that if I get the virus, it will almost certainly affect my heart condition and, judging by the damage that the virus does to the heart and other organs, I am quite likely to die. I also don't want to lose my husband, who has some risk factors as well. Leicester, where we live, has topped the charts for infection rates. I think it makes sense to be cautious. If people are more afraid in Britain than elsewhere, that's probably due to us having the highest death toll in Europe and our realisation that we are being governed by a pack of incompetent nincompoops. Hardly likely to instill confidence, is it?

As for courage... In a pandemic, playing a key role in healing the sick or providing vital services are acts of courage, because they are needed. Anything else is a personal choice. People who go out may consider themselves brave, people who stay in may consider themselves wise. None of us know if we are making the right decisions.

We all have to decide what we want to do. I am of the same mind as Bluebelle above. I am living my life fairly normally but with more care. I am not going to be attending huge gatherings of people but I am going to restaurants, meeting friends, going to pubs and my family are visiting regularly. I have decided that at 70 years old, I do not want to waste any of the years I have left because of the minute chance that I could catch this.

Bluecat - good post. Lots of common sense.

Today's Guardian has a cartoon showing Boris addressing a party of 5 adults...'Our science says that for this party to be safe, you'll need to move it to a school building'.
We all know the risks. Make your choice.

We last saw family back in March. They all live too far away in Dorset, Surrey, Kent and Australia. We have no friends here in Shropshire, we have seen the Asda delivery drivers and the gas man who came to sort a problem last week. I have just been to the hairdresser's for the first time all good but my husband wasn't overjoyed at me venturing forth and is not going out himself. He takes steroids and is worried about what would happen if he caught Covid, I take a BP tablet so am also cautious. We were not told to sheild but chose to do so. The longer we leave it the harder it becomes to venture forth and yes, I do think it is affecting us both. No chance of seeing anyone though as I have no friends here and my husband only sees aquaintances from a folk club occasionally and they have stopped all meetings. On we go!

I agree. It's one thing being alive but you need to live as well.

We are going out and about but like to think- in a sensible way.
I work and come into contact with clients but we are all masked, I take temperatures and we sanitise.

My sister is finding the very situation extremely difficult because she and her DH have very different opinions where it comes to risk. Hopefully, in their case, it doesn’t cause a deep rift.

At a time of my life when I have lived more years than I have left to live, I have decided not to be a recluse. I will do things I feel comfortable with and take all sensible safety precautions and hope for the best. It really is a personal decision. There is no right or wrong answer and people shouldn't be criticised for what they decide.