Lifting all Covid resrictions- how do you feel about it?

GrannyGravy13

Kali2

''so thick and impressionable' hey Mummer! Wow.

What shall I say to my friend, 43, with 3 young children, who has recently been diagnosed with cancer and will have to chemo on a very regular basis, and has no car. She will have to go by tube. Shall I just tell her not to be so impressionable and thick, from you?

Kali2 if your friend is in the U.K. please suggest she asks about hospital transport most hospitals have volunteers who drive vulnerable patients to and from appointments.

She is British but does not live in the UK.

In November 2020, my DH had bypass surgery. He should have been in hospital for 10 days. He was there for 8 weeks because he got what is known as a 'hospital acquired infection. This infection was antibiotic resistant and for several days it was doubted he would survive.

He did but came out of hospital with one damaged lung, which is a vulnerability where respiratory infections are concerned. He also cannot wear a mask because it inhibits his limited breathing.

Far from making him worried and afraid of going out, this infection had the opposite effect. It showed him that one is constantly at risk from one threat or another. His infection was one that is not normally serious nor antibiotic resistant, so, since he is fully vaccinated, he decided he would try to lead as normal a life as possible.

When we go out we know that the majority of people around us are vaccinated. We do not go in very crowded places, but we have gone on holiday, go shopping and last weekend went to the cinema. As expected there were less than 20 people in the cinema as we chose to go to a late afternoon show, not an evening or afternoon one that may well have been well attended.

We need to get a sense of proportion back about what risk we are at compared with what we faced before the vaccination programme. And what our risk profile was before COVID.

Regarding hospital transport, our local hospitals have volunteers who transfer people to and from appointments. It’s run from a local health centre hub.

It’s worthwhile asking.

No restrictions on my life pre l covid, either.
I couldn't have been pushed back out to work any quicker, in fact, after a few weeks off when my girl died.
I had my life made an absolute and utter misery to put me off the 'luxury' of mourning.

I don't think people needing chemo generally get hospital transport. Ironically they may have qualified if on a shielding list previously. But now there's no shielding list so they're on their own.

Surgical masks protect those around you more than yourself.

A well fitting FFP2 gives more protection to the wearer. That's what I wear now. They're expensive but this government doesn't really care about poor people.

we've never got hospital transport either

Nope, my son does not lead his life with any restrictions. There are no medical reasons why he cannot be vaccinated, it is just that he cannot have one without a GA and no-one will administer a GA for a vaccination. People with learning disabilities have a much higher death rate from covid, partly because of difficulties proving treatment and partly due to inequalities in the health system/inappropriate DNRs etc

I'm not asking him to 'dictate' what others do. Just pointing out that wearing a mask in indoor public spaces protects him and others and reducing spread does the same.

As I said earlier I know plenty of young healthy people left with long term effects from mild covid, so it would protect more people than are mentioned.

But then I don't see wearing a mask as an infringement on civil liberties. I see it as a courtesy.

it's crackers!

FlexibleFriend

They have the right to do as they please as long as they don't put others in danger.

This is the point though isn't it?

If, for example, a group of people want to party the night away - sans masks - in an overcrowded and badly ventilated environment, that's their choice. They may (or may not obviously) become infected.

Those same people are then quite free to travel on public transport the next day among others - without masks - among others who have no choice but to use the same transport. If any of those 'others' are immunosuppressed, have underlying health problems, etc, then they are at risk. Plenty of people who have health issues go to work. And even if they are healthy, they can still catch the virus.

So those who say "wear a mask if you are worried" are missing the point that the mask is as much to protect others as it is yourself.

Is it really too much to ask people to wear a mask for a journey on public transport or in a crowded supermarket? The obvious answer, judging by many of the comments on here and elsewhere is "yes". Because... "I'm fed up with wearing a mask"... "you wear one if you want to^... "I want to get back to normal". And our PM knows that he's flicking the right switch for such individuals because, basically, the elderly and health-compromised are an expendable minority to the libertarian mind. Ayn Rand lives on.

My daughter didn't get hospital transport.

So what’s the “normal” that some are aspiring to? This virus will likely hang around with various mutations for some time, some harmless, some not so.Let’s hope the Government will sufficiently fund testing and sequencing so that variants will be detected at an early stage.
There is no guarantee that we will not have future surges and restrictions, but hope that our brilliant scientists will be ahead of the curve.

While I understand the concerns of those with special vulnerabilities, you need to remember that as the risk of catching and being very ill with COVID for those without medical problems has declined so has the risk for those with special vulnerabilities. Their risk still remains higher than for most of us, but it has gone down.

The other thing to remember is that even if you catch the disease, if you are vaccinated you have only a 12% probability of being hospitalised. www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o5 and an even lower chance of ending on a ventilator.

I again appreciate the problem for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons but the problem is that the number of people who have these extreme vulnerabilities are a very small proportion of the total population and we have to ask whether their needs should be allowed to dictate what the other 99% of the population do? And while there will be times and places where they do get special consideration, the majority of the population should generally have the largest say.

If you are that vulnerable then surely, even before the pandemic you must have been leading your life with a lot of limitations because of the danger of picking up flu and a host of other infections that can be of little danger to most but very dangerous to a few vulnerable people.

GrannyGravy13

Kali2

''so thick and impressionable' hey Mummer! Wow.

What shall I say to my friend, 43, with 3 young children, who has recently been diagnosed with cancer and will have to chemo on a very regular basis, and has no car. She will have to go by tube. Shall I just tell her not to be so impressionable and thick, from you?

Kali2 if your friend is in the U.K. please suggest she asks about hospital transport most hospitals have volunteers who drive vulnerable patients to and from appointments.

Yes I would suggest she asks about this too. Our old neigbour retired in his mid 50s and did this for many years. Also ask MacMillan. They usually have an office near the Oncology Dept. They can sometimes arrange transport or even help to pay for a taxi if funds are a problem.

Yes but at least my son’s team were provided with lateral flows. That prevented it spreading to him when we had an outbreak.

Now he’ll just get it I suppose (not vaccinated, not able to be, in a higher risk group).

If people didn’t see wearing a mask as some sort of infringement on their human rights (my eyes can’t roll far enough back in my head) the government removing free testing would be less of an issue.

Nezumi65

It's not personal choice though is it. I'd prefer people near me not to have covid. Now if they feel well enough they can sit next to me at work and not even have to tell me. That's not my choice.

They were possibly doing that anyway. Asymptomatic carriers can still pass it on. Not everyone used track and trace, in fact use dropped off dramatically. So you never knew who had it next to you, and who didn’t. Like Russian roulette unfortunately.

Chemo doesn't generally qualify you for patient transport. It might have when shielding was in place but not now.

Kali2

''so thick and impressionable' hey Mummer! Wow.

What shall I say to my friend, 43, with 3 young children, who has recently been diagnosed with cancer and will have to chemo on a very regular basis, and has no car. She will have to go by tube. Shall I just tell her not to be so impressionable and thick, from you?

Kali2 if your friend is in the U.K. please suggest she asks about hospital transport most hospitals have volunteers who drive vulnerable patients to and from appointments.

I don’t like your phrase , but it’s actually the ‘thick and impressionable’ who believe everything they are told from one source Mummer, not those who use all the available forms of media, read widely and then form their own impression.

''so thick and impressionable' hey Mummer! Wow.

What shall I say to my friend, 43, with 3 young children, who has recently been diagnosed with cancer and will have to chemo on a very regular basis, and has no car. She will have to go by tube. Shall I just tell her not to be so impressionable and thick, from you?

Actually they do report it on Twitter. I follow a lot of scientists and medics on Twitter and they share a lot of information including preprints.

Patrick Vallance posted this a few days ago. It's worth a read though. www.gov.uk/government/collections/sage-meetings-february-2022

I'm amazed tha,t anyone would trust the crap on social media!?! If there a new /dangerous variant, I doubt that the scientists who know of it would bung it on twitter! Not everyone uses FB/insta/Twitter/etc etc! That's why we have national news....ya? Stop being so hysterical! All the "ooh I saw it online...... somewhere......from someone....".they say" who the blue blazes are "they" that eejits always quote anyway?!? Why is everyone so thick nowadays and impressionable?

It's not personal choice though is it. I'd prefer people near me not to have covid. Now if they feel well enough they can sit next to me at work and not even have to tell me. That's not my choice.

Delighted is a strong word. What will you be doing now that you couldn't do last week?

You'll probably find that hospitals still require you to wear masks while there. It's common sense and hopefully those who are flinging there masks off in freedom will take a moment to think about the more vulnerable.

Supermarkets are also still erring on the side of caution.

It's a personal choice now which is what most people prefer.

But in caution the rule changes now are political and not health driven.