Is Covid over? To what extent have you gone back to 'normal'?

[chainsawjob]

During August I worked at 2 festivals, and although I didn't dance in any indoor venues, it was very crowded, up close and sweaty in the outdoor late night areas at the first one. Not a single person wearing a mask at either festival. I decided by the second one that dancing that close to people, even outdoors, was more risk than I wanted to take, so didn't do it again. I LFT'd lots, during and after both.

At home I've started going to pubs again, only in the last couple of weeks, mostly sitting outside and just going in to order. I sat inside for a short while with everyone watching the tennis Saturday, and felt uncomfortable about it. A friend there had just had Covid & just finished isolating. Cos it's my local I illogically didn't wear a mask inside, or when going to the bar, should have done really. I would have done somewhere I didn't know people, weirdly.

I'm still wearing a mask and hand sanitising no different to before, I'm in the minority though. I went to a meeting last week and out of 40 of us I was the only one masked. A meeting in a school. Supermarkets round here vary on masking percentages, depending on age and 'poshness' (more masks in Sainsbury's than Asda). Less than 50% in Asda, more than 50% Sainsbury's. I'm still wearing a mask in all shops atm.

I'm working next week in a public facing role, and plan to wear a mask. Will be interesting to see how many customers do.

I've got tickets for a small gig at an indoor venue at the weekend, I sort of forgot it was indoors when I booked, I'll prob go along and leave if it seems too rammed or not well ventilated. Don't think it will be.

 

[platinumsage]

Well at least we consistently disagree about that, and it sounds like neither of our stances have changed since we last butted heads over this months ago.

As far as Im concerned there is still a rather broad spectrum of plausible possibilities for this autumn and winter. And pessimism is not a dirty word in this pandemic, optimism is. Because it leads to reckless stances and invites disaster. My stance on that cannot change until we have gotten through winter. I will be delighted if we get nowhere close to any worst-case scenerios, but worst-case planning is still vitally important.

My point is that the modellers know at some level that they're better off being pessimistic than optimistic, perhaps they're taking into account the government's previous failaure to follow their advice, who knows. The result of this though, is that if you want to be pessimistic to a reasonable extent, don't assume the SAGE modellers present a neutral, centralised starting point from which to add your dose of pessimism - they've already done that, so adding further pessimism leads to a distorted view of where we might end up, which isn't helpful to people following your advice.

 

[girasol]

I'd say pretty much back to normal but with mask wearing when I go in shops/public transport. But I'm kinda old and I wasn't exactly a social butterfly prior to covid-19 - those days were gone before it hit.

 

[krtek a houby]

Where's that mind me asking

Sorry, Japan. The vaccine roll out has been somewhat slow, it will be a while yet before a return to "normal".

 

[elbows]

My point is that the modellers know at some level that they're better off being pessimistic than optimistic, perhaps they're taking into account the government's previous failaure to follow their advice, who knows. The result of this though, is that if you want to be pessimistic to a reasonable extent, don't assume the SAGE modellers present a neutral, centralised starting point from which to add your dose of pessimism - they've already done that, so adding further pessimism leads to a distorted view of where we might end up, which isn't helpful to people following your advice.

Here is the latest summary of more recent modelling so we can at least talk about their latest views rather than old stuff:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1017129/S1376_SPI-M-O_Consensus_Statement.pdf

I've given a few thoughts on it in the main UK thread.

I dont think I add additional pessimism on top of the models at all, I've usually presented possibilities that fall well within the range offered by modelling. And I'm very much not afraid of adding the implications of fresh real world data to my expectations, which is why I was able to tell people not to be surprised if the peak in England came much earlier than people were being led to expect. I came out with that stuff during the summer because unlike many commentators, I simply paid attention to the pattern seen in Scotland when their school holidays began. And then England indeed ended up having a July peak. However I am not able to apply the exact same logic this time, I couldnt use the new spike and peak in Scotland that has hammered them recently to make confident predictions about what would happen in England as soon as schools returned. Partly because I think there are some missing aspects to the picture which arent being considered properly (I dont know what they are exactly), partly because Scotland eased some other restrictions not long before their schools went back.

 

[elbows]

Also lets not forget the paradox where people expecting things to be bad leads to behaviours that make it less likely that things will actually get quite that bad. Self-defeating prophecies etc.

 

[l'Otters]

Interesting reading on the rate protection from vaccines is waning at:

Thread by @chrischirp on Thread Reader App

Thread by @chrischirp: THREAD on latest PHE report on vaccine waning (and need for boosters): Important new report from @PHE_uk on vaccine waning by age and at risk status - basically yes there's waning, but still ...…

threadreaderapp.com

 

[hitmouse]

Still wfh - did a bit of working outside home last week and on Monday, but now I'm back home for the forseeable, official guidance from my employer is we should be starting to come in at least once a week but my line manager's told me there's no minimum expectation for my role so I'll be sticking with that. Outside of work, still wearing a mask on buses/in shops. But have been to a few indoor events and plan on going to more, and since getting vaccinated this summer have made a few train/coach trips, which I wasn't doing previously.

 

[Voley]

I don't do loads anyway, but I'm still socialising outdoors if I can. Cornwall had the highest rates of Covid in all of the UK up until very recently so that has kept me being very careful.

I didn't feel happy with being indoors with a few thousand others at a gig recently so decided against it. Hope it wasn't my last chance to see The Specials but it was just too much of a risk with the infection rates as they were.

I've been out to a couple of restaurants. Two were good - tables well-spaced, masks when you were moving about etc; another pub in Dartmoor where we ate was a bit iffy. They had the QR code on the door but that was it.

I'm really lucky that I got a job that's almost 100% working from home during the pandemic. I felt okay in our offices when people were wearing masks but I don't like it now everyone's ditched them.

I'm still masked up in shops and on public transport etc. It'll be a (pleasant) surprise to me if we get through the Winter without going back to some form of restrictions that the government have as their Plan B. I wish masks/social distancing/wfh were still mandatory.

 

[Voley]

Also I don't think you're overreacting at all lazythursday. Having seen how ill my Mum was with Covid (even after being double jabbed) I'm still really wary of catching it/passing it in to someone more vulnerable than myself.

 

[lazythursday]

Also I don't think you're overreacting at all lazythursday. Having seen how ill my Mum was with Covid (even after being double jabbed) I'm still really wary of catching it/passing it in to someone more vulnerable than myself.

I've known a couple of people (double jabbed) who have had a very unpleasant time.

This week I have noticed masks in local supermarkets drop well below 50%, and I've been on a couple of public transport trips where I have been the only person masked up. I get the strong feeling that for a large portion of the population there is no longer even a thought of covid. Had a blazing row with someone trying to shut the windows on a bus the other day who thought I was proper crazy. And some of my friends have clearly abandoned all thought of it too - these are mainly people who are quite exposed in their working life anyway, which has made me wonder if I am just being a bit soft in a privileged position. And if that is a bit unhealthy, that the benefit of greater normality for mental health etc more than cancels out the minimal risk of severe illness.

But I still can't sit inside without feeling deeply anxious - this is an emotional response now as much as a logical weighing up of risk factors.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

I'd say pretty much back to normal but with mask wearing when I go in shops/public transport. But I'm kinda old and I wasn't exactly a social butterfly prior to covid-19 - those days were gone before it hit.

Pretty much this - will be working from home for the foreseeable, and still wearing a mask when I go into shops. Don't really feel comfortable booking restaurants or holidays yet, but I have visited family indoors a couple of times since I know we're all doing regular tests.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Pretty much back to normal. Still wear masks in shops and on trains/tube, but going swimming , cinema, pubs and on Saturday a small house party in Woking (went to Pizza Express first, alibis are important!). Kids back at school, so they may well spread it, and even though I understand that double jabbed can still catch it and so on, in my mind it has to end somewhere, and here is that place. That said, still keeping my distance, from people, except when cunted.

 

[Poot]

I've known a couple of people (double jabbed) who have had a very unpleasant time.

This week I have noticed masks in local supermarkets drop well below 50%, and I've been on a couple of public transport trips where I have been the only person masked up. I get the strong feeling that for a large portion of the population there is no longer even a thought of covid. Had a blazing row with someone trying to shut the windows on a bus the other day who thought I was proper crazy. And some of my friends have clearly abandoned all thought of it too - these are mainly people who are quite exposed in their working life anyway, which has made me wonder if I am just being a bit soft in a privileged position. And if that is a bit unhealthy, that the benefit of greater normality for mental health etc more than cancels out the minimal risk of severe illness.

But I still can't sit inside without feeling deeply anxious - this is an emotional response now as much as a logical weighing up of risk factors.

I think you're right, there's been a cultural shift since restrictions were lifted. For example, on hearing my son coughing recently, we made him do a lft. I commented to my husband, 'oh well, if this comes back positive that puts the brakes on my supermarket run this evening,' to which he responded (uncharacteristically) 'no, it's fine now, you're still allowed to go even if someone tests positive.' I had to explain that I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. Just coz this government says you can do something definitely doesn't mean that you should! I mean, look at them...

 

[MickiQ]

In a lot of ways things have gone back to normal(ish) especially since Freedom Day. Been to the pub with friends, visited family, been out for meals and day trips with Mrs Q. No foreign holiday this year or last (and probably not next year either) Prior to the lurgy we would have three or four weekends away within the UK each year, so far we've managed one which was visiting Pollyanna's parents in Southampton last month and involved stopping away for 2 nights for the first time since Feb 2020.
Back to the gym this month for the first time in 18 months (Jesus I thought I was going to die)
I take a mask with me whenever I go out, for the first three or four weeks I wore it indoors all the time nowadays I make a snap judgement about crowd size and sometimes wear it and sometimes don't bother.
There are some changes which I think are permanent I was back in the office last week and the week before for the first time in 18 months but now back working from home which apart from maybe the odd trip in once in a while is going to be permanent for me until I retire (probably next year).
We've pretty much abandoned going into supermarkets for grocery shopping, get stuff online delivered or Click+Collect with far more frequent visits to the corner shop, even order fish and chips online for pickup now.
Bought loads of stuff online, Evil Overlord has made a fortune out of me this last year and a half but he's not the only one, had a couple of day trips to shopping centres though.
We went Meadowhall on Saturday mostly to kit out Youngest for Uni but I bought a bodywarmer and Mrs Q bought a new strap for her Apple watch, It wasn't as crowded as it has been in the past but nary a mask in sight.
The last time I used public transport of ANY kind was the tourist bus in Oxford in Feb 2020 but I was never a big user of it anyway.

 

[wayward bob]

I didn't feel happy with being indoors with a few thousand others at a gig recently so decided against it. Hope it wasn't my last chance to see The Specials but it was just too much of a risk with the infection rates as they were.

we just swerved the specials too some family visits coming up we're not prepared to risk for a gig. school is another thing, but that's on the essential list for us.

 

[Voley]

we just swerved the specials too some family visits coming up we're not prepared to risk for a gig. school is another thing, but that's on the essential list for us.

I don't it's unusual atm bob. It didn't sell out so I think there's quite a few of us still wary. I noticed that Idles and Royal Blood both still had tickets at the Eden Project too. I would've expected both of them to sell out under normal circumstances.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Yeah good question. I've been to pubs and restaurants etc but have still mostly given bigger more crowded events a swerve. I've been to the football but stayed outside and didn't go into the bar and haven't been to any gigs etc. But then like a lot of others have mentioned that sort of thing is less part of my life these days anyway. Still wearing masks in shops etc. The big one I suppose is work - I still haven't set foot in the office but they want me in in a couple of weeks so I'll have to start getting used to it, I'll see how that goes.

As far as normal goes, given how much that changes over time anyway the current situation seems like A version of 'normal' that I'm more or less OK with. Obviously things would be different if Covid hadn't happened but it doesn't feel profoundly weird like most of last year did.

 

[The39thStep]

In Portugal wearing a mask on the street is no longer compulsory but the health recommendation is to do so when it is crowded. Masks on public transport, in taxis, in shops, health centres and moving about in bars is still compulsory.

 

[chainsawjob]

I've known a couple of people (double jabbed) who have had a very unpleasant time.

Exactly, I've a friend who's double jabbed and just been in hospital with covid, very worrying.

And if that is a bit unhealthy, that the benefit of greater normality for mental health etc more than cancels out the minimal risk of severe illness.

This is the question isn't it, but I have felt all along that safety from covid has to come first, but I guess recently mental health considerations have come into it more. Yet I didn't want to say/feel I needed to do the things I've done (or deserved to be able to do them) for the sake of my mh, but at the same time some normality has helped. It's a balance that I guess everyone has their own take on, and need to decide for themselves (whilst not putting others at risk). Risk is going to be very differently assessed for people who've worked normally all the way through, and not been able to wfh.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I've been behaving like it's still lockdown pretty much. Lockdown suited me anyway, so I'm happy with that.

 

[weepiper]

Still wearing a mask in shops or on public transport here - it's still mandatory in Scotland and most people are still doing it, I was just in a supermarket just now and saw only one or two people not wearing a mask. The kids report that quite a few kids don't bother on the bus to/from school. I and all my colleagues wear a mask 8 hours a day at work (a shop). The kids wear a mask all day at school (again still mandatory here for high school kids). We are not going to pubs or restaurants or anything like that, my middle son goes to a practice studio to play music with his three friends and my youngest has been to a couple of friends' houses recently, that's probably about the riskiest we get. I had my brother, sister in law and a nephew here to visit for a few hours last week and that felt quite risky tbh, we only did it because my eldest was going to university in a couple of days and she and her cousin hadn't seen each other in a year so we collectively decided to take the risk. The kids' school is absolutely riddled with Covid despite the measures and it seems very present here to me and my family.

 

[weltweit]

My camera club starts again F2F meetings now, I won't be going, an average sized room with 40 often elderly people mingling, many without masks, it just seems a perfect delta spreading scenario.

 

[thismoment]

I’ve been to a friend’s house, go out to the pub and toddler play groups. I do get the train and tube everyday and work in a school so my level of “normal” feel it was enforced initially. The only thing that gives me the shivers is oddly buses. I think this is because I rarely get on buses.

Yesterday afternoon, I went to the shop a minute away from work, got a sandwich, got to the till and realised that I wasn’t wearing a mask so promptly panicked, apologised and ran out! My only excuse is that I was just so absent minded (and hungry!) that I left the school (no mask wearing there) with just my bank card that for a moment I was “just” going to the shop. Instead of going to the shop during a pandemic.

 

[rubbershoes]

I'm still WFH.

Mrs Shoes is still working at the vaccination centre.

We're still masked in shops and public transport, but do go to the pub sometimes.

Most of our socialising at friends' houses has been outside but that will be less possible as the season changes. I'm expecting another winter largely at home.

Our aged relatives probably won't come for Christmas again

 

[Orang Utan]

Minimal socialising - have only visited one friend in two years, but that’s mainly cos i don’t have any friends where I live, as they’re all in other cities.
Have been going to work for nearly the whole time, with daily face-to-face contact with customers, some of them very vulnerable and not particularly COVID aware, so high risk I guess.
Have gone to the shops as often as I did before.
Have still gone outside regularly for exercise.
Wear masks everywhere outside the house
Wash my hands after the toilet and sometimes after a ride but not constantly and certainly not for 22 seconds, though I do hand sanitise at work after contact with things others have touched (out of habit though rather than anything else).
Getting COVID is never really a worry. it’s just the fuss around it and the way some people have gone absolutely insane with antivaxxing and anti mask/lockdown nonsense, which despairs me more than the risk of contracting the virus. i can’t see a virus but i can see idiots marching and yelling, so I get more worried about the long term effects of that than I do about COVID

 

[Clair De Lune]

Still wearing masks in shops and crowded places/public transport here. Back to work in two colleges and the office for potential face to face. But most of my clients have been over the phone or video so I've not had an awful lot of close contact with people tbh. The college's made mask wearing optional for a week but have now done a hefty U turn as our numbers are rising to that of last December apparently. I felt quite weird, sweaty and anxious going into the college the first time.

Personally I've had one friend round frequently, been to an outdoor gig and had a meal out with my boys.

Doesn't feel like life's back to normal at all. But I think this is becoming my new normal.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

I'm pretty much back to normal except for masks on public transport and in shops.

I went to work through the whole thing so that's been normal for me throughout.

We've had a couple of friends to stay over, been out on an overnight hotel stay ourselves and been to pubs and restaurants.

I did get a pretty strong anxiety attack when we went to a small gig on Friday though. So many people all milling around and a hot, sweaty atmosphere in the room. I had to stand in a corner for a while as I felt unsafe. Alcohol took that away.

But on Sunday, I started with cold symptoms. I did a LFT which was negative but work insisted I stay away until I got a negative PCR test which came back yesterday. I'm fully recovered now so it was just a cold but given I have not had any kind of sickness in over a year, it would seem to show that proximity to others is how we get sick. Pretty sure whatever I had I caught at that gig.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

I feel absolutely gobsmacked that I haven't caught it, btw, after doing all of the above. Was fully expecting to be infected at at least one of those events.

I'm absolutely gobsmacked that I haven't caught it at all! I normally get lots of colds and I've been going to work the whole time. I was out and about last summer when the restrictions got lifted a bit and have been out a fair bit in the last couple of months.

I don't really know how I haven't caught it...unless social distancing, increased handwashing and mask wearing really do work....hmm...

 

[Spymaster]

Pretty much back to normal except on London public transport but don’t use that much anyway. We’re coming to the end of the cricket season but we’ve been using the showers, changing rooms, and bar at the club as normal since the beginning of August, which felt a bit weird at first. We’ve just been up in Scotland for a couple of weeks and had to wear masks in shops, restaurants and hotels when walking around inside. I drove back on Tuesday and stopped at Tebay services, put my mask on out of habit then realised that very few others were wearing them so I took it off.