Has 'Good morning' acquired a new meaning in these pandemic times?

I, too, am going out and not wearing a mask unless requested to, which some places, like hairdressers do.n Apart from that, we have been away for weekends, met up with family and friends and gone to outdoor performances.

I have friends who were shielding and in the beginning washed shopping and changed clothes, but as the evidence became clear that COVID was only spread by aerosol spray they stopped doing all these things and are now starting to go out into the world to shop for themselves. I have twice supported a friend as she ventured into the outside world and visited a supermarket. Now she has the confidence to go out on her own.

Hiding away in your house does not protect you from disaster, you could fall down the stairs, scald yourself, trip over anywhere, even tasks as trivial as putting your socks or trousers on have caused serious accidents. Locked away in you castle seeing no one, who will help you then? If you are seen about, neighbours will probably miss you if they do not see you and enquire after your welfare or inform someone able to deal with it.

If you are vaccinated, if you catch COVID, it is unlikely to be severe. 75 % of the population are now double dosed. The majority of people in hospital with COVID are under 40 and, regardless of age, the one thing have in common is that they are not vaccinated.

You are probably safer out of your house than in.

EP I fear for your sanity if you carry on like this. Your behaviour is not by any stretch of the imagination normal and would not have been at the height of the pandemic before vaccinations were available. It really is not normal to run away from people, not open the door in the presence of a delivery person, quarantine your shopping or change your clothes after you have handled it. I’m not advocating getting up close to strangers indoors without a mask, and goodness knows I’ve been cautious and continue to be, but when is this behaviour, which completely isolates you, going to change? As others have suggested, I think you need to see your GP about this extraordinary level of anxiety. If you were on the pavement looking at your hedge and I gave you a friendly greeting, or I was delivering a letter to you, and in either case you ran away from me, I would think you rude or deranged. Sorry but that’s how your behaviour appears. And indeed you are frightened of people, your groceries, your post - this really needs to be addressed or you will be a prisoner in your own home until you breathe your last.

A very good post Monica. If an elderly neighbour living alone as a recluse suffers an accident or illness in the home they may not be found for many months, unlike the neighbour one is used to seeing around. We have I’m sure all read accounts of such tragic things.

EP

You have not been vaccinated!

Your second post refers to an phone call from NHS in January but nothing after that.

You state that you did not refuse vaccination.

From my recollection, the NHS were making repeat phone calls to all those that did not take up to vaccination.

As a matter of urgency you should call your surgery and tell them your situation. They will be pleased to hear from you and get your vaccinations arranged.

Once that is done you can rejoin us all - doing our best to return to normal.

Best wishes.

I think the words you used were full of meaning, ElderlyPerson

You said the best way of surviving which is different to living.

I do understand as I had to shield and we were more fearful last year but have relaxed more since having been double vaccinated.
I wonder if you could get on to your surgery because you should be able to get someone to visit you at home and give you the vaccination - it may depend on how many other home visits they have to do so that they can co-ordinate them.

I'm not saying the double vaccination gives complete protection in all cases but, in the main, it does.

What was your life like pre-Covid? Did you always shy away from other people or did you have a social life?
Isolation is a hurdle quite a number people will need to get over as we have to learn to live rather differently in future.

But a friendly Good Morning in return might be a good start.

EP, why don’t you phone your GP surgery tomorrow and see what they have to say.
There is a continued drive to get everyone vaccinated, so I would like to think they would be able to help you.

Then come back on here and let us know what they suggested.

Once you are fully vaccinated your life will be immeasurably better.

EP I hadn't noticed. Did you say you had not been vaccinated? I didn't see that, but I have only been dipping in and out of this thread.

If you have chosen not to be vaccinated, I am sorry, but I have very little sympathy for you.

I am perplexed, ElderlyPerson, as what you are seeking to achieve when you continue your Coronavirus posts?

It is clearly not seeking advice (tho' plenty has been offered over the months).

It is not seeking approval for your modus vivendi, as you appear to have no desire to change anything.

It seems only to be telling us what you do to survive (sic).

How are we supposed to help, please?

Monica

Read EP’s second post not to be so quick to judge.

Monica

Try to not be so quick to judge

MrsEggy

From an even more elderly person - I am 83 and DH 85. Yesterday we went by taxi (no masks) to Railway Station, on the train (not too busy) into Birmingham, coffee, on bus to historic house and garden, met Gdaughter, where we had lunch and walk round gardens, then hugs and journey, bus, train, bus home. All happy, and I think, safe. We've both had 2 jabs and it was lovely to be out and about again. Are we being foolhardy? Or making the most of the maybe limited time we have left to enjoy life

Thinking about this, and your two questions, I am reminded of when, back in 1987, the UK government sold off its shares in BP in a privatisation.

Many BP shares were already on the stock market, and had a price, so this made the BP privatisation different from the other privatisations of those times.

The shares were offered to the public at £3.30 each, minimum 100 shares I think.

After the offer was made, but before it closed, the shate price dropped, below £3.00 per share I think.

Well, the comment writers all advised not to buy, one even deemed people foolish if they did.

But I bought 100.

The reasons. Well the comment makers all seemed to assume that everybody would buy shares in any privatisation and immediately sell them on the market for a quick profit.

However, I had no intention of selling them. I bought them so as to provide a bit of income in retirement if I lived to retirement. Also, if people bought them and kept them for a number of years, they got an extra 10% of shares, so, for me, the effective price was £3.00 per share.

As I wanted the shares, if I had bought them on the open market I would have had to pay stockbroker fee and stamp duty. I might have saved a very few pounds doing it that way, and have the extra paperwork.

The thing is, it was my money, so no come back if I had made what could be judged a wrong decision.

Had I had to make that decision with someone else's money I might well have not bought them.

So I consider that your questions are like that in a way. I can make a decision for what I do, and if in hindsight I made a wrong decision, then I must live with what happens as a result.

Yet I cannot comment on what you do, nor advise you, as it is not my life that I would be advising about.

The fact of the matter is that our situations are very different from each other.

You have someone to go with.

You are able to use public transport.

You have someone you are going to meet who is there to rendezvous with you.

So was there no risk at all or were you just lucky with which part of the train you were in, with which bus you were on, I just don't know.

The news reports most (all?) days of how many new cases, how many new deaths, but nothing about the circumstances as far as I can tell.

Where are people catching it?

Is it asymptomatic in schools and the pupils go home and their parents catch it from them?

Is it people mixing in pubs and so on?

Is it that there is some transmission method being not realised as existing, such as passing in the street being more risky than is being realised?

Is socially distanced queueing not very effective because as people move in the queue they walk into a cloud of droplets?

But 16000 or so every day even while many people are being cautious does seem a lot. Why is it happening?

M0nica

EP I hadn't noticed. Did you say you had not been vaccinated? I didn't see that, but I have only been dipping in and out of this thread.

If you have chosen not to be vaccinated, I am sorry, but I have very little sympathy for you.

Ah, "if".

JaneJudge

I always find people's responses to ElderlyPerson really neurotypical and mainstream. HE doesn't care about what he does and how he does it, he's quite happy with how he lives his life from what I can gander. Correct me if I am wrong EP

Therein lies the key. This is probably the most insightful post on the thread.

EP If you do want the vaccine, will you ring the doctor tomorrow?

Your doctor obviously knows you are housebound as you get your prescriptions delivered. That being the case they will do a house call for the vaccine.

I made appointments for vaccinations one and two through the NHS online service. It is very simple to do. You enter your name, date of birth and NHS number, choose a venue and two dates.

I live alone. I went to a vaccination hub alone. It is an out-of-town location with no public transport.

I took a taxi there and back - a round trip of an hour. I sat in the back of the taxi with a mask on and kept the windows open.

The hub is well-managed. Socially-distanced queues, everyone wearing masks both outside and inside the building. I was inside for less than five minutes and back home in just over an hour.

For people who need help with mobility, they had buggies like they do in airports where you can sit on the back (facing away from the driver) and be driven from the entrance to the vaccination building.

IF you want to be vaccinated, I don’t see a problem particulary if a phone call to your surgery could eliminate step one.

Key question. If a doctor of nurse came to your house, would you let them in to vaccinate you?

muse

EP If you do want the vaccine, will you ring the doctor tomorrow?

Your doctor obviously knows you are housebound as you get your prescriptions delivered. That being the case they will do a house call for the vaccine.

The prescription delivery is not about being housebound.

A particular pharmacy offers free delivery as a business decision because, even though they get no extra money from the NHS for delivering, the benefit to them of thereby getting lots of business for repeat prescriptions from patients of several GP surgeries not close to their location is worth the cost of the van and employing the drivers.

Anyone in the town and many surrounding villages can have their free service.

ixion

I am perplexed, ElderlyPerson, as what you are seeking to achieve when you continue your Coronavirus posts?

It is clearly not seeking advice (tho' plenty has been offered over the months).

It is not seeking approval for your modus vivendi, as you appear to have no desire to change anything.

It seems only to be telling us what you do to survive (sic).

How are we supposed to help, please?

Thinking about it, I suppose that the truth of it is that I post for human interaction. Oh dear. Perhaps best not to in that case.

Well, I did move quickly, I did close the door, but I doubt the door was closed close up in front of her face as I had a five metre start

Sounds like a race, between OP and the post lady.

EP, as I wrote earlier, I’m wondering what you think about the prospect of an emergency admission to hospital, given that you’re not vaccinated. Would you refuse to go?

Delivery folk who come to us are always respectful and stand well back. Some wear masks. If we get a supermarket delivery we also wear masks as sometimes they hand things directly to us. We no longer wear gloves or wipe down our shopping with disinfectant as we did last year as we are both double jabbed.

EP, it beggars belief that with your level of phobia about covid you haven’t been vaccinated. I’m astounded. You say you’re not housebound so I’m not surprised the doctor won’t visit to vaccinate you. If there is no public transport in your area (but how did you manage, pre-covid, to shop, take your cat to the vet, visit the GP for the flu jabs I hope you had etc etc?) and it takes a 25 minutes each way taxi ride to get the vaccine, for heaven’s sake put your mask on (I hope you have at least one?) and do it. Isn’t your life worth that? Or have you actually become afraid to go out - agoraphobia - in which case please speak to your doctor about that, and vaccination, Tomorrow Morning. Without fail. And let us know the outcome. As has already been said, if you have to go into hospital you are very much at risk of catching covid and dying without being vaccinated. Won’t you at least do that for your cat’s sake? What would he/she do without you?

I suppose the truth of it is that I post for human interaction

Please EP, make your first step to human interaction by going to your GP or a vaccination centre to get your jabs, that would be so much better for you than chatting on GN.

Once you are vaccinated, you can make baby steps to integrating a bit more.

Good luck.

I know others have already given you this advice, *ElderlyPerson" but I will reiterate.

The best thing you should do to protect yourself is to get vaccinated.

Check out where the vaccination centres are near you. Make an appointment for your first jab.

Go by taxi, taking every precaution - masks (which will be required at the vaccination centre), copious amounts of hand sanitiser, etc.

Then repeat so many weeks later as advised.

After that you can start living like most of us elderly folk do, which is less restriced.

ElderlyPerson
So you want social interaction but only through online forums, yes? I get that.
So why not join in some of the other threads. Are politics, climate change, brexit, the royle family, Afghanistan, travel, tv, books etc etc your thing.
Life doesn’t just have to be about covid. You might find that if you joined in some of these threads it might, just might, take your mind off covid.
Give it a try.

EP
in your second post you say that it was not possible to arrange a home visit to provide your vaccination.

That was in January at a time when the local surgery’s and the NHS generally were stretched. I had all sorts of problems arranging a home visit for that purpose for my very elderly mum.

Home visits have now returned to normal and so your surgery ought now be able to accommodate you at your own convenience.

Best wishes