Am I out of step with other pensioners?

Both my son and DiL are young but at risk so I think we have been protecting each other. Turn the question round - what would your DC and GC have said I’d they had been told they could carry on as usual but probably at the expense of your life?

I disagree repat. We're all protecting each other, surely? Being 'fairly healthy' is scant protection when T cells are low. Younger people sometimes die from Covid too.

It's not just a case of a shorter or longer life either. Long Covid can bring disability for years, maybe for life. Care and support could be needed too.

We're making sure that the NHS isn't overwhelmed, society can function - reducing the chances of severe disruption, public disorder, perhaps chaos. Of course it's worth it!

It's really good that you are protecting each other.
At the start of the pandemic, nobody knew how it was transmitted or who was most at risk, so it was sensible to shut things down until we understood.
I have protected myself and others by obeying all the rules from the start. I have been vaccinated and wear my mask religiously, avoid contact with other people and wash my hands any time I have been away from the house.
Surely it's now up to me to protect myself if I feel unsafe? If shops and cafes reopen, none of us have to use them if we feel unsafe (I never ate out to help out for example as I thought it was asking for trouble). As a retired person, I am not forced to commute or work alongside potentially infected people.
By all means protect vulnerable younger people, financially as well as practically.
I haven't got any answers, I just don't want other people to suffer for my safety when I can protect myself so easily

I worry too for the future of my family repat I don't want the next generation to feel they have to protect me at their expense.
I think though as previous posters said we are all helping each other, guilt seems to be a mother's default setting.

I’m not likely to have a very long life but I’m just happy to be alive every day. TBH this thought would never occur to me, I know from experience that anybody could die at any moment for one of a billion reasons. If you turn this question around, do you think your loved ones would want you to die so they could go shopping and have a holiday?

am I out of step with other pensioners
I am on GN, but not in real life. That’s because I’ve never been worried, frightened, anxious.

We're all protecting each other..
Young, old, frail or vigorous; exactly how it should be.

It is not just about old people. My daughter who has a learning disability is in her 20s but 30 times more likely to die from covid than people her own age without a learning disability. Plus unfortunately lots of young people can be ill with various things that make them susceptible to covid and complications from it. I suppose I am saying, don't feel guilty!

your choices don't just involve you and your children so your premise is unrealistic.

I thought we were protecting the NHS.
I think young people and children have suffered terribly because of lockdown. The lives of older people have been valued more highly than the those of younger people. It may be unpalatable to many, but it’s true.

At 69 I have been fit and healthy - lots of am dram playing women years younger than myself. I took all precautions and still picked up Covid. Now I've been told it's Long Covid. It's pretty horrible. If you had hidden yourself away so your children and grandchildren would be safe, there would still have been no guarantees. And younger adults and children can have mild coronovirus and it become Long Covid. Even if all old people had been locked away to give younger people freedom, there would have been no guarantees they would have escaped this virus.

I’m a parent of two young school aged children

My friends and I (all in late thirties and early forties) have all agreed that we would be mortified if we were thirty years older and understood what children were missing out on in order to protect us

I do worry about the future of my children and especially grandchildren but like others I believe we’re all in this to protect each other in the widest sense, not only family and friends. I also think about how any of us would feel if unknowingly - perhaps with the asymptomatic virus - we infected someone who then died. I think they’ve done the right thing - those of us who have stuck to the rules - and I applaud them.

I agree entirely I am so sad how much my precious grandson is missing, I feel very angry a lot of the time. I do not enjoy staying in or missing my family. We are not even given a choice, I know loads of people disagree with me but still it is my opinion

For months now I have been more worried about the long term effects of the lockdown in terms of people's mental health, and in terms of health issues other than covid not being dealt with in the time and manner they should, rather than the worry of catching Covid.
And that's quite apart from serious concerns about the economy, and what kind of a world our children and grandchildren will inherit.
I think we are protecting one part of the population by harming another.
It does not seem right or fair to me, but I don't know what the solution is.

The NHS has been chronically underfunded for decades, and is at crisis point almost every winter. No wonder we need to 'protect the NHS', we can't risk the health system collapsing. There was a report on the readiness of the NHS for a pandemic (the findings suggested it was not), with recommendations for action, some three or four years ago, which dissappeared into a drawer and was not acted on (partly because the government obsessed about Brexit all these years?)

I agree. In the beginning we did not understand this virus, and it was acceptable to lock everything down. However, once we got the hospital treatments. under control and insisted on mask wearing, the protocols should have been eased. It is sad that we have put the economy (future of our children/grandchildren) at risk for many years to come, many have missed the touch of family and friends (many died alone) and now babies only see people with masks.

I do not see the situation quite as you do.

To me the various lockdowns and other restrictions are not a matter of protecting the older generation from the younger, but an attempt to avoid the horrendous mortality rates we saw in Italy and Spain last year at this time.

They are also an attempt to ensure that the hospitals are still able to provide care both for Covid19 sufferers and for patients with all the diseases and conditions they normally treat.

I don't feel that my age-group is being protected at the expense of my son's. We are all in the same boat,surely, attempting to minimize the number of cases and fatalities due to Covid19.

Unfortunately, there will be economic effects making themselves felt for a long time, and children whose schooling has been affected, but these things are necessary evils in this situation and preferable to a vastly increased death-rate due to Covid19.

Would you though Bbbface?

What would those advocating older people not being protected suggest as an alternative, or is this a generalised non-specific call to martyrdom?

How would it work, if not? Euthanasia? Instead of vaccine hubs, have centres where on your Xth birthday you go to die? Which birthday would people like to see instead of the X? Or if not direct euthanasia, are you advocating an indirect version, where people are not treated for Covid, or Covid-related conditions? Aside from the fact that this would just spread infection, what about the fact that it is older people who have paid to fund the NHS all their lives, which by definition have been longer than the lives of younger ones? Is there a moral case for saying that their contributions are disregarded now that they are more likely to need care?

Do you think that older people should be kept under house arrest, whilst younger ones go about their business? If so, what about people who still work, volunteer or help with childcare? Should they be exempt from being grounded, or be forced to give up their way of life?

In a similar vein, what about the fact that many younger people are saving, and in other ways working towards the time in their lives when they can enjoy the 'fruits of their labours'? Remove that incentive by suggesting that older people's lives (or lifestyles) matter less, and you would also disrupt the lives and mental health of young people. It is important for many people that they have something to look forward to, or to work towards.

With reference to the OP - in this rather strange pact with the government, are you suggesting that the deal also be offered to those with no grandchildren, with the expectation that they would sacrifice their lives to allow yours to have a more 'normal' life for a couple of years? I can't say that I would be happy with that - the sacrifices I would make for my own loved ones are one thing, but I wouldn't expect others to do the same (for mine) any more than I would do it for theirs - particularly when they are total strangers. I also think that had I been offered this deal when I was young, I would have hated to vote for my grandparents to be sacrificed to protect my way of life and future financial wellbeing.

I suppose I don't see any of this in terms of one 'group' sacrificing more in order that others are protected. Societies are interdependent, and there are very many 'useful' members who are in later life, just as there are younger ones who make no obvious contribution, as well as those who are a negative force.

Everybody is making concessions for everybody else. Younger working adults are risking their lives to help protect us all on a daily basis, before and during Covid - prison officers being one regularly forgotten group. Police, Covid Care nurses, Care Home Staff, Social Workers etc - another group, less forgotten.
Teachers in schools risking their safety to educate young people.

I must admit I for one would have preferred to see these key workers vaccinated before older people living in their own homes as the older retired generation don't need to go out to work, while the key workers do.

It’s quite simply about protecting the NHS. Older people are more likely to become seriously ill with Covid-19 and need hospital treatment. If they are protected and vaccinated first there’s more capacity to treat others.
On a more personal note my younger family members have been willing to do anything to protect the older generation.

I agree about the vaccination priority. Supermarket workers in particular have worked throughout , often with very little protection.

I'm not sure that I would necessarily put older people at the back of the queue though - the retired may not have to go out to work, but nor do the furloughed or those working from home. I know it would be complicated, but if it could be done it would be better to it in order of risk, based on how much people have no choice but to mix with the general public.

Doodledog

What would those advocating older people not being protected suggest as an alternative, or is this a generalised non-specific call to martyrdom?

How would it work, if not? Euthanasia? Instead of vaccine hubs, have centres where on your Xth birthday you go to die? Which birthday would people like to see instead of the X? Or if not direct euthanasia, are you advocating an indirect version, where people are not treated for Covid, or Covid-related conditions? Aside from the fact that this would just spread infection, what about the fact that it is older people who have paid to fund the NHS all their lives, which by definition have been longer than the lives of younger ones? Is there a moral case for saying that their contributions are disregarded now that they are more likely to need care?

Do you think that older people should be kept under house arrest, whilst younger ones go about their business? If so, what about people who still work, volunteer or help with childcare? Should they be exempt from being grounded, or be forced to give up their way of life?

In a similar vein, what about the fact that many younger people are saving, and in other ways working towards the time in their lives when they can enjoy the 'fruits of their labours'? Remove that incentive by suggesting that older people's lives (or lifestyles) matter less, and you would also disrupt the lives and mental health of young people. It is important for many people that they have something to look forward to, or to work towards.

With reference to the OP - in this rather strange pact with the government, are you suggesting that the deal also be offered to those with no grandchildren, with the expectation that they would sacrifice their lives to allow yours to have a more 'normal' life for a couple of years? I can't say that I would be happy with that - the sacrifices I would make for my own loved ones are one thing, but I wouldn't expect others to do the same (for mine) any more than I would do it for theirs - particularly when they are total strangers. I also think that had I been offered this deal when I was young, I would have hated to vote for my grandparents to be sacrificed to protect my way of life and future financial wellbeing.

I suppose I don't see any of this in terms of one 'group' sacrificing more in order that others are protected. Societies are interdependent, and there are very many 'useful' members who are in later life, just as there are younger ones who make no obvious contribution, as well as those who are a negative force.

So far none of my children have suggested that we, or their in laws, are expendable.

I agree with Doodledog 100% and fortunately my children are intelligent and caring enough to make sacrifices to keep as many people safe as possible.