What's your attitude to COVID and risk now?

[xenon]

All the jabs, very low level concern about catching corona and developing long covid. But only if I think about it or read too much. I'm in reality more likely to get seriously injured or die crossing the road. Mask in shops and transport.

Similar to others. Permanent working from home, which I like aspects of but it also does my head in a bit. Especially on days where I'm on the phones. I don't go out for walks on my own, it's not relaxing. The whole going for walks during lock down thing made me quietly furious actually. Live on my own and need to go out. The pub, gym and occasionally the cinema. Not been to a gig yet but that's not really to do with covid.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Similar to quite a few on here.

All the jabs, very low level concern about catching corona and developing long covid. But only if I think about it or read too much. I'm in reality more likely to get seriously injured or die crossing the road. Mask in shops and transport.

Similar to others. Permanent working from home, which I like aspects of but it also does my head in a bit. Especially on days where I'm on the phones. I don't go out for walks on my own, it's not relaxing. The whole going for walks during lock down thing made me quietly furious actually. Live on my own and need to go out. The pub, gym and occasionally the cinema. Not been to a gig yet but that's not really to do with covid.

Walks on my own have lost their allure, that's for sure. During lockdown I did a few epic city walks - longest was 30 kilometres. In the very first lockdown there was something a bit magical about them, but I really am sick of that now. No magic left.

Living on your own makes a big difference imo. Lots of us have been quietly going mad.

 

[Sue]

Walks on my own have lost their allure, that's for sure. During lockdown I did a few epic city walks - longest was 30 kilometres. In the very first lockdown there was something a bit magical about them, but I really am sick of that now. No magic left.

Living on your own makes a big difference imo. Lots of us have been quietly going mad.

Likewise. I mean in normal times, I walk a lot but that's more for a purpose (like getting to/from work or whatever) but now there isn't really a purpose and I've walked round my area so much in the last couple of years that I'm really bored of it. (I was going for longish walks with some local friends but they've just had a baby so aren't really about.)

I'm forcing myself to go for walks now because otherwise, I'd never leave my flat and would get no exercise. So I'm inventing reasons like 'I need to go to Boots but instead of going to the one really close to my flat, I'm going to go to that branch a couple of miles away.' Meh.

And yes, I suspect I am going a bit mad and have forgotten how to be around people.

 

[xenon]

Walks on my own have lost their allure, that's for sure. During lockdown I did a few epic city walks - longest was 30 kilometres. In the very first lockdown there was something a bit magical about them, but I really am sick of that now. No magic left.

Living on your own makes a big difference imo. Lots of us have been quietly going mad.

Yep. I mean part of the dislike of walking for leisure is cos I use a long cane and there's always road works, signs or some other shit in the way. The lack of traffic was nice sure. But also I resented the constant dictats to get your government mandated daily walk, stay at home, don't socialise etc.

 

[hitmouse]

This morning my wife woke up with all the symptoms of Covid. She’s been tested and is clear, thank god it’s only a cold.

Not so long ago this would not have been something that cheered us up. She’s a little bit disappointed because she will have to go to work though.

People with colds can still ring in sick, and people with covid symptoms should probably still be self-isolating anyway? I think guidance is still to self-isolate until you've had a negative PCR (rather than just LFT)? (ETA: oh, forgot you weren't in the UK, but the point still stands I think?)

 

[cybershot]

I try to be sensible.

I wear masks in public places except for when sitting down at a table. I LFT (while I can, not sure I'll pay for LFT testing kits, depends how much they are) every few days and always before going into someone's house. The person I'm visiting (or is visiting me) does the same.

I want to get on with my life, so I make the assumption most people that go to the places I go too do the same, rather than assuming everyone is an idiot. The places I think I'll be more at risk by idiots (such as supermarkets/wetherspoons type pubs) I will find a workaround. Such as going shops really early in morning or doing click and collect orders/going more expensive gastro pubs.

It might mean I pay more for a meal out for example but my spending in comparison to previous years is so much less that I don't mind (E.g. I haven't eaten out since early November) and it helps keeps local business going rather than chains.

Due to building I work in and the services it provides I've been in work pretty much everyday since August 2020. I used to get the train pre covid. I now drive. When I have days of full on meetings that are pretty much all Teams/Zoom based. I will work from home. When we did the original lockdown being stuck in the house was not good for my mental health (I live alone.) When I start a new job in 3 months I'll probably go into the office 2/3 days a week even though I'll be able to WFH as much as I like.

 

[klang]

Still very careful. I'm scared of having to do child care when ill, and I'm also very scared of long covid.
Partner and I both work with highly vulnerable people. I should be running a face to face service, but in my sector there are no official government guidelines in place, so everything is on my head. I'd be devastated if one of my clients caught a nasty version of it due to me implementing the wrong strategy.

With the toddler we do mainly outdoors stuff. Most of of our playground buddies seem to have gotten a lot less cautious since xmas. It feels a bit like people were super careful in the run up to xmas but just can't be asked anymore, which I get. A lot of people are talking about how mild Omicron is and that they wouldn't mind catching it for the sake of immunity. Taking one for the team, like.

I feel more and more like a kill joy when I'm around other parents. I hate having to explain myself as to why I don't want to go to crowded indoor play thingies. Or to indoors cafes. We usually go to a caff with a large outdoors play area, which is great, but when it was shut the other day I was persuaded to go to an indoors caff down the rode. It was so busy in there with high noise levels, so everybody was shouting at each other. It didn't feel safe at all, I'd hate it to catch Covid for such a small benefit, considering how careful we've been.

Reading this thread, maybe I am being to uptight and cautious. But maybe it's good to stick things out a bit longer, at least till the end of the winter to see how Omicron will actually pan out?
Also, a year ago I had to spend a couple of weeks on the kids' covid ward at GOSH, and it wasn't pretty. Maybe I'm still scarred?

 

[klang]

Changing 'very careful 'to careful'.

The toddler needs to be with other kids, and loves being indoors with them, playing with toys. It's too cold to always meet outside. He has a handful of friends who come by with their parents, or we visit them. He loves it and it's good for the adults too. But, because we're allowing this, we are very careful with other things, like restaurants or gigs are not happening for us adults, just to minimise the risks a bit. Toddler comes first, like.

I wear ffp2 masks anywhere indoors that isn't my or a mate's house.

 

[Voley]

Doesn't sound over cautious to me klang - it sounds perfectly reasonable.

If I worked with vulnerable people I'd be taking similar precautions.

 

[klang]

Doesn't sound over cautious to me klang - it sounds perfectly reasonable.

If I worked with vulnerable people I'd be taking similar precautions.

I hate how, because of government policy (or the lack of), people who work with vulnerable people and who do so because they care about their community, must now hold back on their lives and can't go back to normal. It's so much easier for somebody wfh without dependents to say 'so what if I catch it'.
Community workers get shit pay and even shittier work/life provisions since all this started. I don't like it.

 

[elbows]

I'm probably going to be stuck in a slower lane than I want to be in for some part of 2022, due to living with a relative aged over 70 with very cautious attitudes that I have to respect. It doesnt matter yet because I was cautious in the Omicron wave too, but at some point in the coming months it will probably become an issue.

In the past it didnt help that the timing of my vaccine doses was out of step with the rest of the family, so by the time I was protected their protection was waning, but the ramped up booster schedule brought me somewhat closer into line with them. And hopefully there will be plenty more reassuring data about protection from severe disease after 3 doses which will make vaccine timing less of an issue going forwards anyway.

I'm not close to running out of resolve, but it might wane quite quickly this year, depends on various data and my state of mind.

 

[MickiQ]

Still working from home (apart from a couple of weeks when I went into a near empty office) almost 2 years since the 1st Lockdown begun, Visiting friends and family regularly and going to the pub/restaurants ocasionally. Going the gym three times a week now but in the mornings when there aren't a great many there. I don't tend to go places where there are large crowds but tbh I wouldn't much even if there was no CoVID.
I'm not fond of wearing a mask but dutifully wear one everywhere and whenever that I am expected too.
Triple jabbed like pretty much everyone I have anything to do with. Don't personally know any rabid anti-vaxxers. The nearest to one I have encountered is my wife's aunt who didn't want to take the vaccine since it would show God that her faith wasn't strong. She never denied that CoVID was real or that the vaccine was effective though. Funnily enough after she caught it and was really ill for a week or so, she decided that God wanted her to have a vaccine anyway.
I don't personally know anyone who has died from CoVID though I know loads that have had it some of them very badly including two of my kids. Not had it personally unless I am asymptomatic.

 

[contadino]

Obviously circumstances differ, but there have been silver linings to the lifestyle changes that have been forced on us.

I doubt I'll ever return to a gym as I'm now into a routine of using an online exercise class and I much prefer it. No peer pressure or people gawping at you, no fretting about sanitary issues, etc.. I'm probably in better shape than I have been for many years.

Also the number of arts events that were streamed was excellent. I think some organisations may have cancelled their streamed events a little bit too quickly - compared to 2020, the ROH had next to nothing to watch over Xmas but the Met did so they got my money. Instead of being focused on local concerts, I'm now regularly watching performances from all around the world.

I can't imagine actually going to a supermarket again. It was never a pleasure.

So in some ways it's no longer about Covid caution but more about breaking the previous routine.

 

[RubyToogood]

I had become less cautious than previously as the threat to my mental health was starting to massively outweigh the risks of getting ill. Now I've actually had it I'm like where's the party? Obviously there isn't one but yunno.

 

[komodo]

I was really worried wave when we had 93 year old Dad good-for-his age living with us. Still went out for a walk with him each day and also excercised by myself outdoors. Have never felt at risk outdoors. Have followed rules re masks and kept using them on public transport, in shops even when a lot of people weren’t. Fully faxed as are our friends and family lots of whom work in NHS.
Dad went into a care home last year which has fortunately been more generous than some in allowing visits and us taking him out. There have been 2 covid outbreaks in the home. In the latest, presumably omnicrom, five residents tested positive with no ill-effects. After a short lock-down everything went back to normal. My Dad tested positive for Covid in the previous lock-down in the home (?delta) but only had flu like symptoms.
Had to attend Kings A and E last week in ambulance - staff shortages are the issue and general state of NHS.
Living in inner I know loads of people who’ve had COVID recently. It’s very clear to me that omnicrom is super-infectious but mild for most people. I think it may well be intrinsically mild so that it doesn’t generally have such bad effects on the non-vaccinated, otherwise
So right now not worried about Covid but always worried about the NHS and what could happen in future with changes to the virus.
Just trying to give a picture of why I feel the way I do at the moment.

 

[elbows]

It causes less hospitalisations than Delta, but Delta came with a higher risk of hospitalisation than the original version of the virus that caused the first wave. It isnt really right to describe it as mild, a great big chunk of the effect we've seen in practice has been due to the protection offered by vaccines, very much including the boosters. This is why some countries are still in deep shit with the current wave. Certain attributes of Omicron make it understandable that people use the term mild, and we'll learn even more about that in future, but in other ways its really not that appropriate.

 

[miss direct]

I'm so amazed that I've managed to go this far without getting it. I am always careful with masks and distancing, and don't go to places like clubs/concerts, but have taken multiple flights/trains. I would actually like to go to the cinema soon and might just go for it. People don't actually wear masks once the lights have gone down, do they?

 

[scifisam]

I've been a bit more cautious since the new variants started coming around, esp because they seem to have actually affected some people I know quite badly. And I'm still CEV, on immunosuppressants, utterly utterly shit lungs that will never get any better, single parent of an autistic adult who'd be fucked if I died and wouldn't be able to look after me if I lived but was worse than now. Until a few months ago it was relatively easy because, when I did go out, a lot of other people were taking preventative measures that could help me.

And then I got covid - before any vaccines were made - and was fine, actually. Or, rather, my everyday symptoms might have blended into covid symptoms, or maybe covid didn't add anything extra. It can happen that way if you're on immunosuppressants - you don't have enough of an immune system to fight back, so you don't cough, sneeze, etc. I've never been able to find out what's happening to my body if I have a virus but my body doesn't fight back against it. I mean, apart from me harbouring the virus and potentially spreading it around, what does it actually do to me and other immunocompromised people?

Anyway... now I'm accepting that, at some point, I will get covid again, and I'll just have to try to be careful. Obvs I mean that I'll be careful about what I do as well as expecting other people to be careful.

 

[Sue]

I'm so amazed that I've managed to go this far without getting it. I am always careful with masks and distancing, and don't go to places like clubs/concerts, but have taken multiple flights/trains. I would actually like to go to the cinema soon and might just go for it. People don't actually wear masks once the lights have gone down, do they?

They're meant to if they're not eating or drinking. So might be better going to a less eating and drinking kind of cinema?

 

[miss direct]

They're meant to if they're not eating or drinking. So might be better going to a less eating and drinking kind of cinema?

Yeah, or just go at a really unpopular time! I do miss the cinema.

 

[RubyToogood]

Yeah, or just go at a really unpopular time! I do miss the cinema.

I went to a matinee a while back. Nice and empty.

 

[girasol]

It causes less hospitalisations than Delta, but Delta came with a higher risk of hospitalisation than the original version of the virus that caused the first wave. It isnt really right to describe it as mild, a great big chunk of the effect we've seen in practice has been due to the protection offered by vaccines, very much including the boosters. This is why some countries are still in deep shit with the current wave. Certain attributes of Omicron make it understandable that people use the term mild, and we'll learn even more about that in future, but in other ways its really not that appropriate.

I think it is actually milder, i.e. doesn't go deep into the lungs, even for unvaccinated - but shitloads more transmissible?

edit: found this, but not sure how reliable that site is... Scientists spot clues to why Omicron infections are milder

 

[8ball]

I think it is actually milder, i.e. doesn't go deep into the lungs, even for unvaccinated...

You're just not inhaling properly.

 

[NoXion]

I visited family this Christmas, and one of my IRL friends will occasionally visit me. I feel safe about those things because I'm lucky enough that none of my friends and family are tinfoil twats or have conspiracunts in their immediate social circles. Anything else? Fuck that. Too many dicknoses out and about. I'm happy to wait and see how this and the next wave plays out, before I begin re-evaluating my behaviour.

I've been permanently WFH as of mid-December, and I get my shopping delivered as a matter of course now. Being something of an introvert, I welcome these changes on a permanent basis. Even when the pandemic ends (oh glorious day!), I'll still get things delivered, since it's awkward as fuck to lug a whole week's worth of shopping home even at the best of times.

It would be nice to be able to go out to eat and do other things, but I don't feel like we're out of the woods just yet.

 

[hitmouse]

Also the number of arts events that were streamed was excellent. I think some organisations may have cancelled their streamed events a little bit too quickly - compared to 2020, the ROH had next to nothing to watch over Xmas but the Met did so they got my money. Instead of being focused on local concerts, I'm now regularly watching performances from all around the world.

Yeah, I tend to agree with this - I like going to real live events much better than I like sitting in my bedroom paying attention to streamed things, but on the other hand I tend to think that the 2020/early 2021 set-up of "there's only streamed things to do, that's all there is, that's what everyone's doing" was easier to navigate than the late 2021/early 2022 set-up of "there's live events now, but it might be a bad idea to go to them, and anyway there's a good chance everything will be cancelled because all the performers are having to self-isolate now".

 

[elbows]

I think it is actually milder, i.e. doesn't go deep into the lungs, even for unvaccinated - but shitloads more transmissible?

edit: found this, but not sure how reliable that site is... Scientists spot clues to why Omicron infections are milder

There are loads of different ways milder and mild can be used, some are appropriate and some are not. I will not for example describe Omicron as intrinsically mild, which was what was said in the post I responded to, because it is still killing plenty of people. I could use milder in some contexts, but not mild, not with current levels of scientific understanding.

Ultimately many peoples perceptions of a disease will be based on overall numbers and national news, and personal experiences. Plenty of people who are experiencing Omicron for themselves will perceive it as milder, because it is for them. This will be down to a combination of prior infection, vaccination, and some Omicron specifics, and unknowns about what their experience would have been like with any previous version of the virus. I suspect all the Omicron news that used the words mild or milder means that people may not attribute as much of their mild experience to vaccines as should really be the case. But certainly Omicron has some differences too, not all of the changed ICU picture is likely to be down to vaccines.

Part of the reason I go on about this sort of thing is that Omicrons severity is often compared to Delta, and Delta had a higher hospitalisation risk than previous variants. However because of vaccines in this country people did not really get to see the full inherent potential of Delta to cause severe disease, fortunately, so perceptions of that variant were also mixed in with vaccine effects, perceptions of variants in the vaccine age wont be the same as perceptions of the pre-vaccine strains.

 

[komodo]

I noticed that someone called omnicron “less lethal” presumably in response to the ”don’t call it ‘milder’” messaging from WHO etc.
I totally agree it’s not good to be complacent about it or to forget the power of vaccines and science generally in terms of developments in treatments which have created the circumstances which make the effect of omicron less-lethal/milder.

 

[Griff]

I'm so amazed that I've managed to go this far without getting it. I am always careful with masks and distancing, and don't go to places like clubs/concerts, but have taken multiple flights/trains. I would actually like to go to the cinema soon and might just go for it. People don't actually wear masks once the lights have gone down, do they?

Must admit flights are the only thing we haven't done in the last two years.

Apart from not being able to go into pubs and restaurants due to them being closed down, we've been trying to live as normally as possible. Out and about everyday in London to shops, supermarkets, pubs, restaurants, gigs, on public transports etc.

Not had it either (me or my wife who is ten years older), both zero jabbed and tested usually twice now if not more each week.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

It causes less hospitalisations than Delta, but Delta came with a higher risk of hospitalisation than the original version of the virus that caused the first wave. It isnt really right to describe it as mild, a great big chunk of the effect we've seen in practice has been due to the protection offered by vaccines, very much including the boosters. This is why some countries are still in deep shit with the current wave. Certain attributes of Omicron make it understandable that people use the term mild, and we'll learn even more about that in future, but in other ways its really not that appropriate.

There are lots of reasons why we're in a better place than we were, including vaccination, past infection and the fact of many of the most vulnerable to a serious reaction to covid are now dead.

But omicron is different. It multiplies in a different part of the body, mostly causing something like bronchitis rather than something like pneumonia. Hence the hospital numbers are going up but the numbers in ICU are not. That's different from every strain before it, including the original strain. Whether or not you choose to call that 'milder' is a matter of taste, I guess, but it isn't an incorrect term. More transmissible, but different and less serious symptoms on average. That was the message from South Africa right from the start, and it's only been confirmed by what's happened since.

I'm not sure where you're thinking of wrt countries that are still in deep shit with the current wave. The places that have been horror shows in the past few months have been those with an undervaccinated population that have been swept by delta. So far, none of the countries that have seen an explosion of omicron has seen an associated explosion of deaths in the same way.

The advent of omicron could end up saving lives by knocking out the much more lethal delta. That's something few people seem prepared to speak about, but if omicron had happened a few months earlier, it could very well have saved many lives in places like Bulgaria or Romania that have been devastated by delta.

 

[LDC]

Not had it either (me or my wife who is ten years older), both zero jabbed and tested usually twice now if not more each week.

Why have you not had the vaccine Griff? And if it's not due to a medical exemption will either of you be one of those crying out for it just before you get pumped full of drugs and intubated in ICU, or will you stick to your position?