Has your risk appetite towards Covid changed?

[Daisys and Diamonds]

i think i want to go buy some tinsle this week
i have to go to the jewler to pick up a repair and a resize
and i want to buy a calander for a gift
do i get brave and venture into the $2 shop in the mall oppsoite the book shop where ill buy the calander ???

our small provincal city now has a covid case
the first since last April when the 7 cases were all on farms up country (after attending a herriford bull confernce )
but they say its a low risk case as the person recently visited Auckland he or she was doing everything right

 

[mom2dolls]

Ours has changed just recently. Today we went to an NFL football game at the new Sofi stadium in LA to watch the Rams play. My husband was gifted excellent seats brought a vendor he buys metal from. This was a humongous step for me. As I have said in previous posts, I have PTSD from DH having Covid and almost dying. You had to be masked going in and show vaccination cards. We are fully vaccinated and boosted. I used lots of hand sanitizer. I think we are at the point where it becomes a mental health issue to stay inside and not get out in the world safely. I still work from home, do grocery pick up, all the things. I guess one day at a time.

 

[Austina]

@mellowyellowgirl my DIL’s niece & nephew are 5, and they had their second shot of the vaccine on Saturday (here in Tx)

 

[doberman]

I've become more relaxed. I have had both immunizations plus booster. I wear masks when entering large shopping areas, but I am more fatalistic - I have done what I can.

 

[mellowyellowgirl]

I've become more relaxed. I have had both immunizations plus booster. I wear masks when entering large shopping areas, but I am more fatalistic - I have done what I can.

I wear masks in crowded/indoor places too and I think I will continue even when it's not compulsory anymore. I've just grown comfortable with it!!!

Hehe I still eat in and do a dozen other random things... like buffets... but I like the mask wearing. It doesn't bother me and I want to see if it'll work against colds too since I hate catching the common cold.

 

[starbrite]

Unfortunately, no, my risk aversion hasn't lessened.

We live in an area with high COVID spread and no mask or vaccine mandates. It is extremely rare to see someone wearing a mask: even indoors. It's like people here hasn't heard that there is a pandemic going on. Vaccination rates are also low. Positivity rates are high.

So, despite our being fully vaccinated and now boostered, I don't feel safe.

Even if the vaccines may protect from severe disease, they don't protect from Long COVID. Plus, there have been too many "breakthrough" cases locally (with even those who have gotten a booster shot) to ease my personal risk aversion level.

Prior to COVID, I had a relatively high-risk tolerance to life in general. I was a frequent solo world traveler to places that weren't always the safest. I've been within inches of wild grizzly bears (multiple grizzlies in fact), yadda, yadda, yadda. All part of my job, which I loved. I was always on the go & did a lot of stuff that the average people might not. But I felt that I could see and understand potential danger, I could then handle whatever came my way. Although I probably too often found myself in some scary situations, nothing bad never happened to me. I felt like I had a little angel sitting on my shoulder.

However, COVID now really scares me. Although I'm basically a very healthy person, respiratory infections have been my Achilles Heel. I very, very seldom got ill, when I did, I got really ill & had a hard time fully recovering afterwards. (As a side note, during my pre COVID, active lifestyle, I physically actually tore my Achilles Heel but just kept going anyhow.) Before the pandemic, very little stopped me from living my life.

Currently, my best friend and her daughter now have COVID. I'm very worried about her. She took every precaution possible; yet she still caught the virus. At the moment, her teenage daughter is extremely ill with really bad respiratory symptoms. At the beginning of the pandemic, we personally didn't know anyone who caught the virus. Now, we know a lot of people who are close to us. Their experiences have been sobering & have doubled my risk aversion.

My husband is in the higher "high risk" category. So, we're continuing on with our early pandemic "safety measures" (no travel, no crowds, no restaurants, work from home, grocery deliveries, a lot of "Amazon", curb side deliveries, social distancing, washing & disinfecting hands about 10x the normal rate, etc); with now the addition of an KN95 mask when we must go out.

Before the pandemic, I was an extremely social and active person. That makes this total change in lifestyle extremely difficult emotionally. I really miss my old life. I miss being constantly active and usually out & about; with a lot of world travel. I miss being able to hug friends and even acquaintances. I miss having a routine massage by a massage therapist who gets so close that you can feel her breath when on the table. I miss all kinds of close contacts with new people. I miss being part of a crowd celebrating something. I just miss so much.

However, I want to have a healthy future life when the pandemic is someday really over. So, my high-risk aversion level to COVID (especially where we live, and the way things are here) currently outweighs the things I miss.

COVID hospitalizations here are once again going way up. Many of them have been vaccinated. Too many.

 

[MRBXXXFVVS1]

@starbrite You captured my thoughts/situation 100%. Hang in there, it's been a tough almost 2 years now. I'm cautiously optimistic things will improve in 2022, although, that's what I thought about 2021!

 

[Missy]

Unfortunately, no, my risk aversion hasn't lessened.

We live in an area with high COVID spread and no mask or vaccine mandates. It is extremely rare to see someone wearing a mask: even indoors. It's like people here hasn't heard that there is a pandemic going on. Vaccination rates are also low. Positivity rates are high.

So, despite our being fully vaccinated and now boostered, I don't feel safe.

Even if the vaccines may protect from severe disease, they don't protect from Long COVID. Plus, there have been too many "breakthrough" cases locally (with even those who have gotten a booster shot) to ease my personal risk aversion level.

Same. It boggles my mind how the people in this state and so many others refuse to wear masks indoors.
I do not think they are behaving wisely and I question their intelligence on many levels.
This pandemic has really showed me who some people are and has confirmed on another level this accuracy of the title of this song.

However, I want to have a healthy future life when the pandemic is someday really over. So, my high-risk aversion level to COVID (especially where we live, and the way things are here) currently outweighs the things I miss.

COVID hospitalizations here are once again going way up. Many of them have been vaccinated. Too many.

Same. Same.
Hospitals are filled.
Elective surgeries canceled.
Again.

Our sacrifices now are necessary.
So we have a happy and healthy future.

 

[TooPatient]

A gentle correction. Many essentials did die. My friend and ICU chief was among them. I still miss him.

I'm sorry for your loss. I haven't seen a specific number, but I am sure a lot of medical workers and other essential employees died.

A respect for those who had to work in person and for those who can't have items delivered was my original reason for having everything delivered to us. My logic went that of I could stay out of the grocery store and the pet food store and wherever, I would be one fewer person each of those workers had to see in a day. If everyone who could have their items delivered did, then it would make the stores (and other places) safer for those who had to work there. Plus reduce the number of people spreading it so as to keep the hospitals less swamped. I still have most of our stuff delivered but have needed to shift to a grocery trip every week or two as delivery is more challenging since the move. I'm also working at shifting away from grocery stores and more to local items as directly from the farmers and butchers as I can get.

 

[lilmosun]

As we get closer to the holidays with rates increasing and the % of vaccine breakthrough cases with Omicron, I am getting more nervous about getting our Christmas plans.

Last year it was just my mom. my brother and I. This year, my husband, our children and nephew are joining us. As they haven't seen my mom before Covid (and her stroke), I do not want to call it off.

So I've taken the extra step of asking everyone to get tested before coming, even if it's a rapid home test for convenience. (I already get a PCR test every time I go to stay with my mom as an extra precaution).

Much to my relief, everyone readily all agreed.

I know the rapid tests are not failproof but we are all vaccinated so it's more an added precaution.

 

[Lookinagain]

So I've taken the extra step of asking everyone to get tested before coming, even if it's a rapid home test for convenience. (I already get a PCR test every time I go to stay with my mom as an extra precaution).

I know the rapid tests are not failproof but we are all vaccinated so it's more an added precaution.

I think what you are doing is really smart and I wish more people who gather for the holidays would do the same. Might help prevent, or at least reduce, a post holiday surge, like we are seeing in my area after Thanksgiving. Thank you for doing your part.

 

[Austina]

We’ve just returned from 8 days in Nassau. We had to have a PCR test before going, and the Bahamian Govt has imposed mask wearing for everybody whilst indoors. Anyone arriving at the hotel unvaccinated, was immediately taken to the medical centre for a test before being allowed to register.

I can’t tell you how many times we saw morons walking about with their masks under their noses, or no mask at all.

One particular time, we were waiting for the lift (elevator) when a couple with a young child, unmasked, tried to get in with us. I put up my hand and said “NO, you’re not masked, you’re not getting in“.

Why can’t these selfish idiots think of the staff who are masked the whole time they’re on duty?

We had to have a test before leaving, so we could get back in to the country. Honestly, we went because of the Covid safe measures they had in place, if we’d known how many people wouldn’t comply, we might have thought seriously about not going.