Three people have liked my reply to Billblue. I think they are actually liking this bit
"I am waiting until the rate of Covid goes right back down again before I go out to the shops. I am not excessively nervous but I just don't need to go out for anything, so I don't."
Are many of you also not going out?
Apart from the first panic reaction it has hardly affected our lives here. Having two adult and working sons living here with partners who are a care worker and a nurse has meant that we are probably better protected than most as they have regular testing for their jobs and all were vaccinated at the first opportunity.
About the only change has been that Sam does the Tesco run early morning alone rather than with me (spends less money too) and we have not been out for lunch in forever!
Covid is never going away so we better get used to it. Blame Pandora I say. lol 😁
In spite of being double vaccinated, I feel almost like I did in March 2020. I don't think I will be badly affected but, because of my age, I don't want to risk getting it and taking up a hospital bed. I haven't done all the distancing etc with my neighbours when I see them or tradesmen purely because I've completely forgotten about it. It's just the buses and shops I am avoiding.
Covid has certainly affected my social life Physalis. I now meet with a very small circle of friends, always drive where I need to go, whereas before I'd get on a bus or take the train. Generally, shop fairly local and eat outside if out for lunch. Have done lots of countryside walks, which I've always done anyway. Wouldn't dream of going away on holiday, especially by plane.
Unfortunately the SW of England was hit badly by the latest surge. My grandson and granddaughter have had it, as has the little family that live opposite me and a friend's son was in hospital for 3 weeks. About 3 months ago I knew of no one who'd had covid. This last spate has made me feel very nervous. I live in a small fishing town and we've had more visitors here than ever before. I go food shopping once a week and have lost my love of going shopping for anything else.
The only good thing I can say, is I've managed to save some money. I guess we all have?
Jean
Well said, jeanjeannie50. Avoid crowds but still try to enjoy your freedoms as much as possible.
My hubby and I are in Pennsylvanian-in the US,,,,ages 74 & 78,,hubby is immune compromised from infusion meds,,,we are both vaccinated and still choose to live very quietly for now,,,,once a week food shopping,library,maybe a stop for lawn products,,,masked if we go out among the public,,,,no one else inside our home,,,,nor visits to others,,,,we see neighbors and chat some 6 feet away,,,,knowing how recklessly some are still living,,,some family members included,,,,we choose to avoid them for now,,,,it is up to everyone to judge their own situation,,,but I do wish more in the US would become vaccinated,,,so many just plain refuse for whatever reason,,,I have a cousin age 69 who works,eats out,,shops etc with no mask and no vaccine,,,her work place has had 6 closures due to COVID this year,,,so far,,she has escaped the virus,,,,this illness can have disastrous health consequences even if you survive,,,,never thought my golden years would be like this,,,but I also never would risk my husbands’ life or mine just to be out and about,,,a football game or a birthday party,,,,maybe some day it will be a bit better,,,hoping so,for all of us
The pandemic has. totally changed my life. No longer do I go out to eat, see theatre productions, have unvaccinated friends at our house or socialize at someone else's place. All our food is either over the web or ordered and picked up in the parking lot. I started to ease my restrictions after being vaccinated with 3 Pfizer jabs as far as eating outside (totally sick of cooking), but need to fly across country because of my sick 94yo dad and son's wedding. Certainly dreading it.
If you eat out outside there is very little risk of catching covid especially in summer. I got totally sick of cooking during the last lockdown here. The restaurants were closed for over 7 months and we live in a very rural area - no takeaway deliveries and a 25 min journey to the nearest decent restaurant that did takeaway. It was wonderful to go to a restaurant and choose off a menu and not have to cook !
I have had my grocery shopping delivered for many years, so nothing has changed there. I also shop online a lot for clothes etc. My social life is not good at the moment. I was just trying to make a new life after losing my husband when covid hit.
Life at the moment is pretty dull for me. I just hope this isn’t how the rest of my life will be. If so I hope it isn’t too long.
I think, as is the case for a lot of people, we were locked in for so long, that it is now a confidence issue that we have to deal with.
I'm very sorry to hear you have lost your husband, and then had to deal with covid alone. That's not something no one ever thought we'd have to deal with. I hope you find your situation improves as time goes on. Best wishes.
So sorry for your loss. Things will get worse before they get better, but they will get better...sooner than later 🙂
I only go out for medical reasons. Food, etc is ordered online. Today it's a face to face/foot appointment with a leg/foot specialist.I have 3 ways of getting there. 1. Bus to City, bus from city to Hospital driveway. Walk 150 yards. 2. Bus towards city but getting off in the suburbs, cross road and then bus in a different direction to hospital driveway and walk. 3. taxi for 5 miles.
My sisters who live 80miles away want me to take the taxi. I don't want to be in a confined space like a car with someone so close for five miles
I will do option 2.
Apart from asymptomatic permanent AF and other ailments I have Foot drop. The nerve that innervates a muscle to raise the foot off the ground when I walk is damaged. What we all take for granted, walking, I have to concentrate, raising my foot by lifting my leg from the knee. Last week while walking to the pharmacy a wheelie bin was blocking the pavement and as I went on the road I didn't concentrate enough and fell, all 6'7" of me. Some teenagers saw me fall and helped me get up. I shall have to concentrate all the time today.
Being super cautious and avoiding crowds. And wearing a mask in indoor settings. No desire to have a dose of Covid in top of two years of in and out of hospital for everything else....😀
Testing positive does not mean a person is symptomatic. It means they carry the virus. A person can test positive but never develop into anything more. Other variables also come into play...were they coughing, shouting? Was that person and the others fully vaccinated?
Just as l was thinking l could go out again as covid numbers had gone down to zero in my area.; the number of cases have gone up to 300 now . Back to square one. It's like snakes and ladders.
1500 in our area. During wave 2 highest was 500 even though we live in semi rural area.
I still wear a mask if l have to go out, but most people don't. Wearing a mask protects other people more than oneself, so l don't really feel safe when l am out.
Ditto, although most locals do seem to wear masks here.
Exactly...being double vaccinated doesn't mean you can't get it or pass it on, it just means you most likely, if you are otherwise healthy, won't die from it. One will typically feel "under the weather" with cold and mild flu-like symptoms...but not require a hospital bed. Also, be aware, back to school is here, hence, colds are back...grandkids with colds are back *sigh*, and where I live in "the colonies" ragweed, goldenrod and other irritants are in the air, so coughing, sneezing and red eyes are on the uptick.
I too live in a place which has ragweed and every year at this tiime I get a runny nose ,itchy eyes and on and off scratchy throat. My asthma gets worse and I cough. We moved here 20 years ago at the beginning of Sept and I remember thinking after a couple of days that I had caught a cold. Now I'm pretty sure it's ragweed allergy .
I’m reacting to that now & living next to a field definitely has its down sides! It’s been dreadful the last few days - I have an App which alerts me & for the first time ever pollutants levels went into orange zone last w/e - probably all the grockles returning to the cities👍
Now we know due to transmissibility C19 Delta is pretty certain to sweep through the UK this winter and most people (vaccinated or otherwise) will catch it, I would still like to try to avoid it if at all possible and will be sticking to hygiene measures/a mask/ avoiding crowds and staying home when possible . I haven't spent over a year in isolation to throw it all away now.
I understand unless a more transmissible variant than Delta emerges it will remain dominant and once almost everyone has had it things could improve with cases decreasing .
Since the return to school my sisters daughter and her two children have caught C19, the children are fine my niece a sever asthmatic is poorly at home.
I know someone who is elderly (70s) very fit who refused the vaccination. He and his partner having stayed isolate most of the time but both caught the virus in the last 2 weeks and after '10 days in hell' are recovering . One of them went for a coffee with their daughter indoors but behind screens and it is thought having been nowhere else must have caught the virus from a waitress.
I fear we are in for a tough few months but I think there is light appearing down the tunnel 
During our first confinement here in France I never left the house for nearly 3 months. My husband normally does the food shopping on his motorbike and we could not go out together in the car as it was only allowed for medical visits where the patient could not drive themselves. During the 2nd confinement which lasted much longer I only went out for my physio appointments after my hip op. Apart for my pre op at the clinic or my next hip op I have not left the house now since my vaccination as the two weeks following a jab are the most vulnerable for catching anything. But in between lockdowns I have been out for restaurant meals and have even eaten inside a few times if they did not have a terrace or the weather was too bad. But this has not been much different from my normal life. I hate shopping and shops. I have not been to the cinema for 30 years because of my bad back. We used to go to our local city once a year when they put on an opera we wanted to see. I haven't been to Paris for 9 years though I went a few times a year when I was working as it was the only place I could see top dancers from India perform. I believe whether you catch covid or not is a function of your personal immune system, not the virus, as is the outcome . Lots of people catch it and have virtually no symptoms or a mild attack. Even old people. We have a nun who was in a care home here. She was well over 100 and hardly touched by it. There has been a lot of fearmongering in the media I think. The statistics both national and international show an infection fatality rate very much lower than what most people would imagine. This is not a case fatality rate as it takes account of those infected who never get tested. Though higher than most years of flu it is still for all ages less than 1% . Even for the most vulnerable people - men in their late seventies and eighties with comorbidities it is still only about 12%. And those percentages are for people who actually catch it.
The worst thing has been the restrictions on international travel which has meant that I have not seen my daughter for over two years. Her planned visit last November was aborted at the last minute with our 2nd lockdown . But she is coming on Monday and we get to meet her husband for the first time!
That’s absolutely contrary to everything I have read recently and although this virus is very unpredictable & seems to be doing the opposite of many scientists’ forecasts, I don’t think the danger has passed. Not looking forward to this winter at all.
The death rate latest figures 0.03% of those who contract COVID.
Enjoy your daughter’s visit.
I'm not sure what is contrary. You seem to be quoting an even lower overall mortality rate. The table I saw for death rates at various ages is maybe a couple of months out of date but it ranged from virtually nil for children and young adults to about 10 % for the most elderly - with marked differences for men and women. I do not think the danger has passed either particularly as the vaccines are not performing as expected with regard to transmission. I think this should be far more widely bruited about and people encouraged more to socially distance. Indoor mask mandates should never have been dropped ( they weren't here) . It seems logical to me that if you have a virus that has no effect on some people who catch it but kills others then it is the terrain not the virus that counts. I look at Worldometer's figures every day for cases and deaths and there are things that do not make sense to me given what is said in the media.. Even before the roll out of the vaccination program here the deaths from the winter waves of 2020/2021 never reached a fraction of those in Spring 2020 and the advent of Delta has not changed that in any way so far. Cases too are dropping here also ( unlike in UK). Given that you cannot even have a coffee on the terrace of a bar without producing your passe sanitaire there should be far more tests being done as completely asymptomatic people will go for tests especially as till October 15 th they are free. More cases should be being picked up not less.
The hospitalisation and death rate for children is climbing in US & UK it’s no longer the just older age group who carry risk, much of that is put down to return to school although paradoxically Scotland’s rates have soared whilst England’s remain static. I don’t think anyone can predict what will happen this winter.
The lower stats for deaths of late seem to be put down to earlier & better treatments in hospital.
Something to be thankful for.
I agree that UK is far too complacent about masks & vaccines and that is purely political IMHO. The Brits just don’t like compulsion but there is talk about vaccine passports for large events but a lot of push back from hospitality industry in UK for bars & restaurants.
Tim Specter talks about how COVID cases aren’t increasing despite the return of all UK schools and the bank holiday weekend of busy festivals.
It is odd that different things seem to be happening in different countries. There is so far little sign here of children and adolescents having serious illness though many adolescents have now had at least one dose of vaccine as they too must produce a passe sanitaire from the age of 12 years 2 months by 30th Sept. The Australians and Israelis also have said that they do not see any significant increase of serious disease in children so far and the Israelis are only vaccinating children under 12 who have serious comorbidities. Perhaps the poor diets of US and UK children might have something to do with it? High calorie malnutrition is a problem with many kids these days. I don't recall any signals from India when Delta first took off there that children were being more affected.
I’m not going out except for essentials but do meet friends for coffe morning 1 or 2 times a week as I think physical social contact an essential for good mental health.
Am also about to travel to see family which will be my first trip for nearly 2 years now. I am able to stay Independantly in an annexe they recently completed.
I haven’t developed any immunity after 2 vaccines so have stayed away from crowded places as we live in a ‘staycation’ town and the rates of infection now x3 what they were at the height of the 2nd wave here!
I think getting the balance between getting back to living a life in protective way rather than either being hermit or abandoning all precautions is very difficult. Many are living in fear whilst others behave with abandonment of how their actions impact on others & don’t get how vulnerable many of us are.
I do go to some local small shops but choose my times when it will be quiet & not been back to our large supermarket round the corner since Feb 2020 & to be honest can’t see me ever returning there!
My husband has withdrawn from all his social activities which concerns me greatly as I can see a decline but whilst I’m with my family in Sussex he’s travelling to Ireland for a wedding but will be taking tests regularly.
Nearly all his family either have or have had COVID as have mine in the last few months but all mildly.
If I wasn’t immune suppressed I wouldn’t be nearly as cautious having been vaccinated.
Here we go again!!
Here we go again!
Here we go again!
Here we go again……..!!
Here we go again!
