What Risks Are You Taking?

[Scarlett]

I’d really love everyone’s thoughts. Now that it appears we are ‘living with’ covid, it still seems to me that nothing has changed. I still rarely see anyone, don’t go anywhere, it’s as though I’m still in lockdown. Yet, I believe the world is back to normal out there. What are you currently doing? Seeing people outside? Going to pubs inside? Wearing a mask or not? It would be very interesting to know what everyone else is doing right now in the current situation (35k cases per day, immunity from vaccines waning, no gov rules).

[237SJ]

Yes. Ages ago (January) because I was working in a vaccination centre.

[calmck]

Vaccinated. Grocery shopping on line as masks mandatory here. Have been out for meals, masks to arrive and go to loo mandatory..
Grandkids have been seeing friends and doing their activities, golf and horse riding. Daughter working, jabbed compulsory as works in Spa yoga teacher. Mainly family visiting. All delivery drivers and repair service personnel masked and we are asked if anyone is ill before visit arranged. Grandaughter 13 off to Porto this weekend for national and international competition. Masks required in certain situations but all activities outdoors. Staying in private home and we will go up to air b&b for final weekend

[douglas9401]

The only risk I'm a bit wary of is the one to my state of mind as this once entertaining wee corner of t'internet is constantly hijacked by a select few roasters with vivid imaginations and over-inflated egos.

It's starting to do me nut in I'm afraid.

None of the above is aimed at anyone on this particular thread btw.

[dave50]

Back to socialising pre covid, no masks, not bothered how busy it is. Love it, not worried at all. Life is too short to worry about something that probably wont affect us but if it does heyho that's life.

[AuntPG]

Hey ho dave, as long as you are ok the rest of humanity can do one....

[237SJ]

The rest of humanity have a choice - take risks or stay at home and protect yourself. Just like all the other risks in life.

[nailit]

(Personally) Im well aware that Covid exists and can kill. Im well aware that 'experimental' vaccines are available.
Only state the above before I get accused of been a tin foil hat wearing anti-vaxer or Covid denier. Im not any of the former!

Throughout the pandemic I have had no choice but to use public transport, go to work, share confined spaces (a van with a van-mate), shop & use supermarkets etc,
In addition I have had to interact with multiple agencies...hospital staff, doctors, nurses etc...as my mum died during all of this. (of cancer, not Covid)

Absolutely nothing in my life changed except wearing masks when when requested.

I take a risk crossing the street, I take a risk just by virtue of been alive.
I just dont get these people that wont leave their home.
(Unless of course, they are extremely vunerable)

[queen 1954]

I am still wearing my mask on public transport and in shops,we don't have to wear them in the supermarket i work in but most of us do.I have been for the odd meal out but sit outside if i can and have friends over to visit but again we sit outside weather permitting.I am still very anxious about it especially with the new cases and deaths going up again.

[Mamyalynne]

I have not had Covid.

I am double vaccinated.

I don't see myself as taking risks now, just that I am more relaxed in many situations than I was a year ago.

[david small]

Double vaccination, but I don’t fancy the top up.....

[Scarlett]

David small, out of interest, does it worry you that your antibodies may well be depleted by now?

[jourdain2]

Well we are coming back to normal. No-one wears a mask in the village. Choir practice is back on on Thursdays followed by a trip to the pub for a socialise. Very few people step back when you meet when out dog-walking.

Yesterday we held our 2nd village 'Coffee, Cake & a Chat' morning in the Community Centre - very successful and crowded and I'm exhausted from doling out tea & coffee. One table of outsiders was conspicuous by insisting on wearing masks until they sat down.
At the committee meeting on Wed. to sort all this out, just one chap appeared wearing one and sitting virtuously in a corner. When we couldn't hear him I went over and he removed his mask to relay a message!

Probably about 40% of people wearing masks in the supermarket. My hairdresser has abandoned hers. We went for a meal in Scarborough mid-August and a bit of shopping - quite busy and since then we've had a pub meal locally. No problems.

[New Judge]

Conducting our lives as normally as we can. Returned to eating out once or twice a week as soon as we were able to in May (April was too cold for outside hospitality). Went back to meeting with friends in London for regular drinkies. Travelling by train and bus no problem. Shopping as normal. I rarely wore face coverings throughout (for reasons I have explained on here a few times). They are now abandoned entirely though I shall have to wear one when I (hopefully) fly abroad in October. I’m going to an area where the level of infections is far lower than where I live so far from my exacerbating the problem and being selfish, I’m doing people here a favour by spending time in a place where I stand less chance of contracting (and thus spreading) the virus.

We need to move away from the daily reporting of infections and deaths. During July the three highest causes of death (dementia, cancer and heart disease) each claimed more than four times as many victims as Covid. Even “ordinary” ‘flu and pneumonia claimed more. In the last “normal” year there were more than 17 million hospitals admissions in England. That is over 46,000 a day. At its height last winter, when the NHS was in danger of becoming "overwhelmed", the number of daily Covid admissions in England hovered between 3,500 and 4,000 for a week or two. Currently it is around 800.

It is unsurprising that the country is still gripped with fear of this disease. The government’s strategy from the outset involved ensuring compliance with its many restrictions (some of them less than effective) by instilling irrational fear into the population. It continues this even now that its restrictions have been all but ditched. It still “advises and encourages” the use of arguably ineffective face coverings ; It still publishes largely meaningless figures showing infection numbers , hospital admissions and deaths without any context; it refuses to mandate its own employees to return to their offices when there is no reason for them to remain away; it continues to run an unnecessary furlough scheme when all it is doing is meeting the pay of employees of businesses that are clearly not going to resume business.

People need to resume their normal activities. They should assess the “risks” they are taking in a realistic fashion (that is, the likelihood of something happening coupled with the effect it may have). If they did, most people, unless they are particularly vulnerable, will find that resuming most normal activities is not taking too much of a risk at all. The question that is the subject of this thread would then not need to be asked at all.

[nailit]

So glad that I gave my mum the hugs n loves that she deserved in her dying days. No masks, no isolation, no bloody screens...
FGS!
We have lived for millenia with viruses....

[dave50]

Stop testing for infections.

[nailit]

Once has a McMillan Nurse try to tell us to leave a food parcel outside of the door....this to a woman who was bedbound, dying in agony, patient. The same nurse told us to wave 'Hello' through the window. This was to my DYING mother...
Such was the fear.
Unbelievable.

[jno]

I take a risk crossing the street

you could try looking both ways sto see if any traffic's coming. Not so easy to see if any Covid contacts are coming. Some risks are riskier than others.

[Deskdiary]

Living a normal life. Or the ridiculous New Normal that some people call it, a proper normal life.

As soon as masks became optional in shops, I ditched them immediately.

I’m astonished that I still people wearing masks in the open air; I can only assume their weak.

[Pooka1950]

I'm double jabbed but blood tests show that I no longer have Covid antibodies so I'm being very careful. I wear a mask when I'm out and I'm only meeting close family. I never went out to pubs etc. much anyway.

[New Judge]

The difference is that if you are hit by a car you are very likely to be seriously injured or killed. If you "collide" with a "Covid contact" you're not. That's what risk assessment is all about - the likelihood of something happening together with the effect that event will have.