The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

euronorris

Don't go MrsLW. Different opinions are healthy, and useful. Without them, we would never learn of different (and sometimes better) ways to approach things. Or gain a better understanding of the different challenges people face.

Hugs xx

pandamonium

For a radically different view of the progress of COVID-19, Professor Karol Sikora posts some interesting stuff. 

pineapple

MrsLurcherwalker said:

Would it be better if I didn't post here? I feel as though I've bruised very many toes with my opinions? 

All some are saying is that no one has to live life in a certain way. Circumstances differ, personalities differ and what's right for one person isn't right for another. Pretty sure no one's toes are bruised (mine are ok anyway). It sounds like we all agree anyway . A bit boring - I might have to head over to a politics forum for a bit of controversy....  

[Deleted User]

pineapple said:

MrsLurcherwalker said:

Would it be better if I didn't post here? I feel as though I've bruised very many toes with my opinions? 

All some are saying is that no one has to live life in a certain way. Circumstances differ, personalities differ and what's right for one person isn't right for another. Pretty sure no one's toes are bruised (mine are ok anyway). It sounds like we all agree anyway . A bit boring - I might have to head over to a politics forum for a bit of controversy....  

I have to agree with pineapple - I don't think anyone's toes are being bruised! The reality is that if opinions are forwarded, they will likely be challenged - that's the beauty of discussion! 

GreyQueen

The thing is, Lyn, in the first of the two long posts you have chosen to delete, the one immediately preceding my first one this morning, you clearly stated your opinion that you thought 1st July is too early for some businesses to re-open, and that people were acting as if C-19 had gone away. It was to that (now deleted) post that my post responded. That's a bit different from exercising your free will to not visit shops or certain other places for the preservation of your own health, isn't it?

What a person chooses to do is her own business, of course. Working age people mostly do not have the luxury of such a choice, nor do some of the retired or those otherwise not committed to earning a living but with different responsibilites, but we're all different, and it would be a boring old world if we were all the same. Even if you never enter a shop again, you will be getting food shopping done somehow. Even online shopping involves other people working as order-pickers and delivery drivers. And the bin crews will have been to empty your bins, of course.

One thing I would wonder about is, what will you do when you gas boiler (if you have one) needs its annual safety check? Or it breaks? If you have some household repair need which cannot be resolved by either of you, such as certain plumbing or electrical jobs? Would you refuse to have a tradesman in your home because they might.just.be.contaigous? Or will you permanantly manage without whatever-it-is? Even unto total loss of electrical power or a catastrophic water leak which leave you paddling indoors?

Will you refuse to ever darken the door of an optician or a dentist, and decline to ever seek medical help in person, if you need it?

I simply think one cannot opt out of all risk.

greenbee

squirrelgirl said:

pineapple said:

MrsLurcherwalker said:

Would it be better if I didn't post here? I feel as though I've bruised very many toes with my opinions? 

All some are saying is that no one has to live life in a certain way. Circumstances differ, personalities differ and what's right for one person isn't right for another. Pretty sure no one's toes are bruised (mine are ok anyway). It sounds like we all agree anyway . A bit boring - I might have to head over to a politics forum for a bit of controversy....  

I have to agree with pineapple - I don't think anyone's toes are being bruised! The reality is that if opinions are forwarded, they will likely be challenged - that's the beauty of discussion! 

Precisely. We're all trying to work out how we're going to manage in a changed world. My advice (which is based on research I'm actually paid to do!) is not to plan too far ahead. We don't know what's going to happen, and the uncertainty is the cause of a lot of the emotional and mental pressure we're under. While we talk to businesses and other employers about doing scenario planning based on a variety of outcomes (some more realistic than others), we also advise them not to make any concrete plans more than about 6 weeks ahead - which is frankly all most people can cope with at the moment. Most of these scenarios are revised and updated regularly, as information changes.

The best thing we can do to prepare is be flexible. Everyone is going to have to make decisions about quality of life, and what the balance they want is. Some people are going to be very afraid, some may come across as too relaxed. My 94-year-old neighbour who has congestive heart failure seemed to think she wouldn't get it and if she did she was DNR anyway - it was only pointing out firmly to her that it wasn't about her, it was about the impact on the people she might spread it to and the key workers she would put at risk that stopped her going out and about as normal. However, she is really suffering from lack of a social life - she sits in her front garden when it is nice and chats to anyone passing but we're on a fairly busy road so there aren't that many people walking past. I have noticed that recently her curtains are opening later and closing earlier. There are significant mental and emotional issues developing amongst all sorts of groups, but particularly those who live alone.

My brother is a GP - he grounded me when I landed back from my work trip (and made me call my own GP) and my mum a couple of days later. All a couple of weeks before lockdown. Although my mum's inside help was stopped, we were happy for her to carry on having help in the garden, and as when the weather was OK to have a cup of coffee and a chat in the garden with friends dropping off shopping or walking - they bring their own flask and sit several metres away. Now she can go for walks with other people which is hugely helpful, and her cleaner is coming again while she shuts herself in her studio and paints. This is really important, as she simply can't cope with the housework and if she had to do it longterm she'd either have to take more pain relief or live in squalor, neither of which are ideal.

I've had some outside work done, which hasn't required any contact and has helped keep small, local businesses going. Now that we're allowed to meet up with one other person for exercise I'm seeing my brother and his family - one of them at a time for a walk every few days. The kids' first argument since the start of lockdown was about who got to come with me first... I'm restricting my permitted 'public meetings' to family and not adding friends into the mix because my brother is a GP and is therefore more likely to have been in contact with germs than most. We're assuming I've had the virus, although I haven't yet sent off for an antibody test. 

As society works out how we're going to change, we will all have to work out what it is we want to do. I won't miss supermarket shopping and hope I can continue to manage without it. I'd like to get back to doing some of my shopping in person in local shops, but not much. I'm also hoping for much more working from home, and a bit more social interaction with friends based around exercise rather than eating out/being inside. But I don't want to go back to being as frantically busy and stressed as I was. 

[Deleted User]

Covid is not fun, we're not in from choice and I don't suppose anyone else is either.  I don't expect you all to see things the way I do, you're individuals and see things from your own point of view as is only right.  Keep on doing just what YOU feel is the right thing for you and yours in the way you want to. I shall do the same but I shan't be sharing it here.  I'm not leaving but I won't be putting my opinions in print as it really does seem to cause controversy and get some of you ruffled.

maryb

There's so much we don't know about this virus, I think you are absolutely right Greenbee to say we should be flexible and not try to look too far ahead.  It's interesting that a number of scientists are now thinking that the virus has its own dynamic and there's only a limited effect we can have on it through lockdowns etc.  I'm not just thinking of Prof Karol Sikora, there was another one in the press this morning - Professor Michael Levitt, a Nobel prizewinner so not exactly a nobody even if he's not an epidemiologist. And the JP Morgan quants crunched the numbers, as you would expect, and came to the same conclusion, that lockdown had not altered the course of the epidemic.  
It will become clearer in due course.  But I have no reason to suspect the SAGE committee are abandoning caution so if they say things can open/people can do a wider range of activities I'm happy to go along with each successive step

VJsmum

HOpefully as time goes on 'we' are getting more knowledgeable - we know how it is spread, how to avoid coming into contact without isolation, treatments are improving, the most vulnerable are easier to identify and therefore shield.  it's all about the education isn't it?  It isn't going away, the vaccine is still probably a long way off, but life and society can and will change - a paradigm shift, i think. 

maryb

One prep I am doing before lurgy season returns in the autumn is trying to lose some weight.  Looks like you don't have to have diabetes or pre-diabetes for excess weight to be a risk factor.  At least I can try and avoid the 'quarantine 15'