Voicelessness and Emotional Survival > Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board
Coronavirus
Hopalong:
I liked it too.
A lot more colorful than "glass half empty."
:)
Hops
Twoapenny:
I like the maggots in cupcakes as well :)
I've been reading on the 'Dear Pandemic' website, which I find very helpful (they're a group of all female scientists who are very good at explaining what it's all about in easy to read ways, but with links to all the science stuff so that boffins can read the difficult bits :) ). They were talking about transmission and saying that the possible bump in the road is that, if people still keep catching it and passing it on to others, whether they're vaccinated or not, there's more chance of further mutations. And apparently the more mutations there are, the greater the chances that the current vaccines won't work against them and then we're back to square one again. It made more sense to me than some of the other stuff I've read; I think they just contextualise it in a way that I understand more.
Things are opening up again here; non essential shops and services reopened today so we went into town to go to the library. It was busy but that's to be expected when everything's been shut for so long. There were long queues outside the barber shops; I'm not the only one with enormous hair! It was nice to go and get some new books; I picked up one that has ideas for short walks in the area and thought I'd use that as a guide for son and I to venture a bit further afield now. But we're still going to be very careful; I still think not catching it is the best way to deal with the situation and I'm sticking to that aim for the time being.
Twoapenny:
I thought I'd cut and paste Hopsie's group discussion topic from her 'On A Break' thread and put it here as it was Pandemic related. I've been pondering the questions over the last few days:
TOPIC: What Does it Mean to Me? Personal Lessons from the Pandemic
This is about glimpses of meaning that have arisen for us (individually) as a result of all this time alone and/or with changed lives, due to the pandemic.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER
1) What have I learned from this experience that has surprised me?
2) What has been the "gift within the problem"? Discoveries, nuances large or small.
3) What has been the hardest part, and what will I ask for now in my life to help me heal from it?
My own thoughts at the moment are:
1) I've learnt that I don't actually crave lots of friends, business, places to go and people to see. I'd always thought I felt so very lonely because I didn't have enough in my life. Now I think it was because I had too much, but not of the right kind of thing. I've realised that one of the main things I struggle with is endless boredom. I find my own life boring (because so much of it has to revolve around son)
and I rarely get time to do anything that I enjoy doing (and don't find boring). So I don't often feel I have much to offer in a conversation, and I don't tend to find other people talking about their lives terribly interesting when that revolves around shopping, booking holidays and arguing with their husbands (and I'm not knocking that, I just don't find it all that interesting).
I've also been surprised by a lot of the people I know. A lot of them are left wing/New Age/bohemian/hippy types (pick whichever suits best but you get the gist), and generally all very love, peace and equality kind of people. I've been astonished how quickly the love, peace and unity went out of the window when keeping the elderly and disabled safe meant they couldn't go out and how many of them felt their needs should be prioritised over anyone who was at risk. I've heard some truly awful comments from some of them (not everyone, of course, but some really shocked me), and I think I became a bit disillusioned by the whole thing. That surprised me, I thought they'd all be reaching out to help and organising love ins on Facebook but the opposite's been true.
Son has surprised me with how quickly he adapted, how patient he's been with the whole situation and how well he got into the science of it all and wanted to learn more about viruses and vaccines in general.
2) The gift, I think, has been realising that I want a lot less of what I had before, not a lot more. Realising that son doesn't need dozens of groups to go to has been a help, as has seeing how much healthier and happier I feel when I'm not out all day and am not rushing about all the time. Having time to think, read, watch entire films/shows/box sets without falling asleep has been nice. I like that I've learnt more about science and feel like I understand my own health better now.
3) The hardest part - hmm. I think maybe realising how many years I've spent putting other people first instead of prioritising myself. That's become apparent with all of this staying in (and none of the people I've run round after calling to ask how we are). I think I've realised how many decisions I've made that haven't been about what I want or need, and I think I realised how little I value myself and what I do. That's been hard to acknowledge - I guess all the time at home means the usual distractions aren't there and I can't hide behind things. I guess the lesson to learn from that is to try really hard now to keep this sense of space and stillness and not get sucked back in to doing all the things I used to do. I think I need to try really hard not to expect things from people or events - just try more to take it as it comes and not read too much into things or dwell too much (I find not dwelling really hard but it's not healthy so I'm really trying to refocus my mind on other things). I'll add more if I can think of anything else! xx
Twoapenny:
Well restrictions are starting to ease here and case numbers are going up, as are the number of deaths. It does worry me, even with vaccines being rolled out. What I've read (and this is decent quality scientific stuff, as far as I know) is that (1) the vaccines were tested on fit and healthy people, for obvious reasons, so there won't be clear indications of how effective they are for people with pre existing conditions (like my son) for some time - which could mean they aren't as effective in some people as they are in others. (2) as I understand it long Covid isn't linked to getting a severe bout (I read of a study in California where 35% of people with long Covid hadn't even known they'd had Covid) - so catching it at all could still mean ending up with longer term health problems, even if you don't get seriously ill with it initially. And (3), apparently the more it transmits back and forth, particularly across different countries, the more chances there are for it to continue to mutate - which could mean we get to a point where the current vaccines are less effective, or even completely ineffective. It does worry me, mostly because it just means that I don't feel the risk to myself and son personally has gone away. It's less risky than it was, but still more risky than the usual day to day things that can happen. I'd really love to see the numbers staying low. Just hoping that they don't go through the roof again as the have on each of the previous occasions we've come out of lockdown.
Meh:
Hiya, Two,
The Coronavirus burnout effect worries me a lot too. Also, here in U.S. it's such a politicized issue. Very smart people are poo-pooing it on the right of politics & it has become sort of a right politics identity thing to act like Covid is harmless.
keep thinking of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86on_Flux_(film)
Agreed, I don't feel the risk to myself or the people I know has really gone down in a long-term sort of way. As time goes on more people don't give a shit it seems just another thing to normalize.
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