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

I'm very unhappy about it! My 32 year old DD's mental health has been badly affected by the stresses of Covid. She didn't use public transport for nearly 2 years, choosing instead to either make the journey to work on foot, taking an hour each way, or driving to the nearest free parking then walking the remaining half hour each way. Thankfully she could work from home much of the time but the isolation affected her badly too. She now has a new job in London and has moved home to live with me. When she can't work from home she has to use train and tube. We both test whenever we go anywhere but she doesn't trust the lateral flow tests completely. In the last 2 weeks we have both been contacts so have been daily testing, though my testing days are over today and hers were at the weekend. Now we go back to testing whenever we are seeing people, which for me is 5 or 6 days a week. Many of my friends are over 75 so I'm conscious of the need to protect them. A few are extremely vulnerable.

I can't afford to pay for regular tests so we've been stockpiling a bit as we knew this would eventually happen. I dread to think how DD will cope when it is impossible to know if we are ok. She's far less worried about getting it herself than giving it to someone vulnerable. Last night she said "Does that mean I can no longer see my 90 year old grandma?" She actually hasn't seen her properly face to face since before the pandemic due to living too far away, but we were planning to see her in a week and a half. At least we can still test beforehand for now!

I agree we need to have the freedom to make our own decisions and decide how best to protect ourselves, but making pcr tests difficult or impossible to obtain will cause great anxiety for many and lateral flow tests should not be used if one has symptoms. The idea that people will go back to the old ways of battling through illness and going to work horrifies me now we know how dangerous that can be. At least I'm retired!

I sincerely hope DD can get the help she needs with her anxiety. Living with me seems to have helped a bit but it is only a temporary arrangement and she will eventually live alone again when she finds the right place. Unfortunately one person's freedom can become another person's prison!

Of course stockpiling will be a thing. Some people don’t want to spread covid.

I think the situation regarding clinically vulnerable and immunocompromised people is an absolute disgrace!

I'm disgusted in a government that is doing it and a disgrace that people seem to be just going along with it.

I find it stunning that so many went on about vaccine passports and a two tier society but this....this is ok?
Fellow human beings are being marginalised and that's more 'worthy' in terms of freedoms?

I still can’t work out what the freedom is from. Wearing a mask in a crowded place and taking a lateral flow before seeing someone vulnerable? Boogaloo.

My husband has a lot of elderly clients (many the age of people on this site). He lateral flow tests any day he has a meeting with clients. I guess he won’t be able to do that from April.

MaggsMcG

Stop making this political its not. Lots of other countries have come to similar conclusions. Its the reasonable thing to do. Lots of elderly people I know have had Omicron and been fine. Those that are not might just have easily caught flu or pneumonia. I'm not a Tory but I'm sick of everyone blaming politics for things they dobt agree with. Not everything is.

Not everything is political.

But it's very naïve to believe that decisions made by governments are not 'political'. They nearly always are - whether we agree with them or not.

Hooray free at last it's up to the individual to look after themselves let's start to live again before Putin drops a bomb on are heads

Bad news for anybody classed as extremely clinically vulnerable.

Boris needs something in the old arsenal to deflect away from himself and his political troubles. This is it, and, I suppose that after nearly 2 years people are getting fed up but a good example of the fact that Covid is still lurking is Windsor Castle staff clear for almost 2 years, restrictions are lifted and who catches Covid, The Queen. A lesson to us all that we need to live with this virus just like we live with flu.

katy1950

Hooray free at last it's up to the individual to look after themselves let's start to live again before Putin drops a bomb on are heads

How can people look after themselves? They rely on others not to spread it to them?

How does wearing a mask, taking lateral flow tests and isolating when infectious stop you ‘living’

I shall be pleased. We should remember that not everyone obeyed the rules, even when mandated and some will continue to observe them even when not mandated so the effect will not be as extreme as some might imagine.
My concerns are around the removal of financial support for employees and the fact that policies are to be decided by individual businesses who will also be unsupported financially.
The removal of free mass testing will mean that mass testing will no longer happen.

I for one will carry on wearing a mask and sanitise before entering a supermarket or any busy enclosed space. That is my decision. The thing that frightens me is not knowing if the person standing next to me has covid or doesn’t know they have covid because they can’t get or afford a kit. Or they choose to be out and about knowing they are contagious because Boris said it’s ok or they can’t afford to isolate and lose pay.
I’m sure waiting another month would have seen the warmer weather and less chance of covid spreading.

Woodmouse

I'm very pleased. It's been two years and at some point we have to emerge from our bunkers and start to live normally again.

So you want to live normally with an abnormal disease, where we can’t identify new, potentially more deadly variants because we’ve dispensed with testing. It’s because there are many other voters as naive as you that we have this dangerous government and our country is in a mess ?

I am quite dismayed by the insensitive attitudes of the posters who either haven't read the whole thread or are of an I'm all right Jack mindset.
The lack of empathy and compassion is quite an eye opener.

No-one is being asked to change their lifestyle for those of us, who are at the highest risk of death from Covid, but a little understanding wouldnt go amiss. You have absolutely no conception of what it is like for us.

The lifting of all restrictions is too much, too soon. I shall continue to wear a mask even though I absolutely hate them. They get caught up with my specs and my hearing aids and I curse them every time I go out, but rightly or wrongly they reassure me. I heard last night that the over 75s will be offered another vaccination in the spring. DH and I feel this is good news as a long time has elapsed since we had our booster.

Marydoll

I am quite dismayed by the insensitive attitudes of the posters who either haven't read the whole thread or are of an I'm all right Jack mindset.
The lack of empathy and compassion is quite an eye opener.

No-one is being asked to change their lifestyle for those of us, who are at the highest risk of death from Covid, but a little understanding wouldnt go amiss. You have absolutely no conception of what it is like for us.

Thanks Marydoll. Sad but this needs repeating.

The thought of relying on others' common sense is just terrifying when I witness a huge number of people not having any on a daily basis!

bobbydog24

I for one will carry on wearing a mask and sanitise before entering a supermarket or any busy enclosed space. That is my decision. The thing that frightens me is not knowing if the person standing next to me has covid or doesn’t know they have covid because they can’t get or afford a kit. Or they choose to be out and about knowing they are contagious because Boris said it’s ok or they can’t afford to isolate and lose pay.
I’m sure waiting another month would have seen the warmer weather and less chance of covid spreading.

Last year a friend tested positive for Covid, rang his work, was told to go in or there would be no pay. H&S had a different view. My DS colleague, had symptoms but went in to work anyway, last year again. These are only two I know about, how many more all over the country. Some people are asymptomatic, so no symptoms, yet can still spread Covid. Friend went to a party, one lady stated she thought she had Covid, as was coughing all over. This won’t magically start once restrictions are lifted, it’s been going on all the way through. So you never knew who was standing next to you with Covid. Naive to think all who tested positive didn’t go out at all, not all would have recorded test results, not all registered with track and trace.

I still can’t work out what the freedom is from

I'm having a problem with this, too, Nezumi65.

I rather think that this 'freedom' is on a par with all those 'EU regulations' that people were so keen to escape from, though they can't actually give an example of one when asked to...

Iam64

Marydoll

I am quite dismayed by the insensitive attitudes of the posters who either haven't read the whole thread or are of an I'm all right Jack mindset.
The lack of empathy and compassion is quite an eye opener.

No-one is being asked to change their lifestyle for those of us, who are at the highest risk of death from Covid, but a little understanding wouldnt go amiss. You have absolutely no conception of what it is like for us.

Thanks Marydoll. Sad but this needs repeating.

I think it's because it is in the daily email GNHQ send out tbh Mary, so people just follow the link, don't read the thread and then just post in answer to the original post what they want heard!

Dee1012

I think the situation regarding clinically vulnerable and immunocompromised people is an absolute disgrace!

I'm disgusted in a government that is doing it and a disgrace that people seem to be just going along with it.

I find it stunning that so many went on about vaccine passports and a two tier society but this....this is ok?
Fellow human beings are being marginalised and that's more 'worthy' in terms of freedoms?

Surely these people were just as much at risk pre covid? We could carry on forever because Covid is here for good.

What should we do? My youngest DC did his last two years of university almost entirely from his bedroom online. Children have suffered educationally and socially. The young are the future tax payers who will be paying for the NHS and repaying the cost of lockdown for their entire working lives. They need to have a normal life.

The CEV deserve the best the NHS can provide, secure warm homes etc.. We can't provide these things unless everyone else is allowed to live normally.

No one is saying the CEV are less worthy. It is illness that restricts their freedom not everyone else living normal lives.

I certainly don’t feel as if wearing a mask has ever restricted my personal freedom, though others seem to think differently. I want to protect others as well as myself.

Well said, marmadroit.

sorry for misspelling

Yep mazieD it’s just culture war nonsense stoked up by the right. It should never have been about personal freedom - mitigations have always been about protecting others

‘I’m a selfish bastard and don’t mind infecting others’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. But is far closer to the truth than masks or tests impinging on any civil liberty.

Marydoll

I am quite dismayed by the insensitive attitudes of the posters who either haven't read the whole thread or are of an I'm all right Jack mindset.
The lack of empathy and compassion is quite an eye opener.

No-one is being asked to change their lifestyle for those of us, who are at the highest risk of death from Covid, but a little understanding wouldnt go amiss. You have absolutely no conception of what it is like for us.

Absolutely
My DH is CEV and I am so sad to read such insensitive posts