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Covid Christmas anxiety

A friendly ear
Dod101
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Re: Covid Christmas anxiety

#367332

Postby Dod101 » December 18th, 2020, 11:29 am

I could be that older person! My daughter and I have decided that we will not meet for Christmas Day as she has two student daughters. It is no great hardship for me anyway as I am going to have a meal with my sister and her husband instead. None of the three of us really meet many others so I hope that will work. I have arranged to meet my daughter and son in law in a large airy restaurant on 23 December instead.

Life is full of risks and I think all we can do is try to minimise them, or as they say manage them. But older people are perfectly capable of deciding for themselves and the next generation should not I think be concerned about them too much. sg31, even if he had an older relative, would not need to make the decision. Frankly it would not be his to make. I appreciate he might not quite have meant it that way, but at the very least, it is a shared decision surely?

Dod

Chrysalis
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Re: Covid Christmas anxiety

#367490

Postby Chrysalis » December 18th, 2020, 5:18 pm

Dod101 wrote:I could be that older person! My daughter and I have decided that we will not meet for Christmas Day as she has two student daughters. It is no great hardship for me anyway as I am going to have a meal with my sister and her husband instead. None of the three of us really meet many others so I hope that will work. I have arranged to meet my daughter and son in law in a large airy restaurant on 23 December instead.

Life is full of risks and I think all we can do is try to minimise them, or as they say manage them. But older people are perfectly capable of deciding for themselves and the next generation should not I think be concerned about them too much. sg31, even if he had an older relative, would not need to make the decision. Frankly it would not be his to make. I appreciate he might not quite have meant it that way, but at the very least, it is a shared decision surely?

Dod


It is a shared decision, to an extent, but actually both parties need to decide for themselves. For the older person, they can decide if they want to take the risk. But we may also decide, even if he wanted to see us, that we did not want to pose the risk to him. Who wants to be the person who brought covid to their 85 year old relative? That would be something horrible to live with. (As it is, we can’t rule out a risk, but I think it is much lower than taking the 17 year old.)
But really I’m of the view that it is not terrible to be alone on Christmas Day if that is your usual state of being. It is but a day. And we will be there the next day.

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Re: Covid Christmas anxiety

#367564

Postby AF62 » December 18th, 2020, 10:24 pm

Clitheroekid wrote:Why not just get everyone attending the Christmas gathering to have a test a day or two before they arrive?

That's what we're doing. It's not infallible, but it will certainly give some reassurance to those in the group that are more than usually concerned.

The NHS tests are very efficient, and if you're worrying about using scarce NHS resources there's no need. I've now had two tests at different sites, and on both occasions I had the choice of any time slot I wanted the very next day. When I arrived there were more testers than testees (if such a word exists!) and I got the distinct impression they were glad to have a customer.

I got the test results the next day on both occasions, so it's really a surprisingly efficient system.

You could always go private if you preferred, at about £120 a time, but to my mind an NHS test can easily be justified as a precautionary measure. Obviously, if the test was positive you wouldn't attend the gathering, so it must surely be better to know you're positive and avoid infecting other people than just flying blind and hoping for the best.


But surely you can’t just request an NHS test because you want one? Their website says you must have the symptoms (plus a couple of other reasons which don’t apply in this scenario) - https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test

Of course you could fib, but that isn’t really on.

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Re: Covid Christmas anxiety

#386582

Postby Clariman » February 14th, 2021, 10:17 am

Postlude to all the above:

Christmas Day was one day only, of course, but we did spend about 4 or 5 hours with son's family and his in-laws. All within the rules and in a massive open plan space, with doors and windows open. We even sat socially distanced in couples for dinner. My son's FIL, as predicted, was somewhat more anxious about it all than me.

Unfortunately for us, new grandchild was born late so arrived after Christmas. However, we have our regular zoom lunches with our grandson and number 2.

This morning I stopped watching the news programmes. I am fine to sit tight and keep myself occupied during lockdown. As long as my brain is busy doing constructive things I am OK. Of course, I miss doing lots of things but I know they will return. But Sunday TV news is beginning to really annoy me with all the Sunday newspapers predicting when things will unlock and when. Journalists just have to "move the story on". To be fair they are probably responding to Govt leaks too. Personally I would like to have my vaccine (I'm early 60s) before things unlock much and the talk of unlocking makes me feel less comfortable.

C

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Re: Covid Christmas anxiety

#386595

Postby sg31 » February 14th, 2021, 10:47 am

I'm happy to hear that your Christmas went safely. Congratulations on your new grandchild.

You probably won't have long to wait. I'm 65, my vaccination is tomorrow at 7pm.

My wife is 59, hers may be a while longer.

I get most of my news from BBC online. I find it easier to ignore items I'm not interested in or that I know will either be infuriating or propoganda. TV news broadcasts include a lot of items that hold no interest for me. It seems a waste of time sitting through the whole programme for the little bits that are of interest.

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Re: Covid Christmas anxiety

#386754

Postby Clitheroekid » February 14th, 2021, 10:37 pm

sg31 wrote:You probably won't have long to wait. I'm 65, my vaccination is tomorrow at 7pm.

My wife is 59, hers may be a while longer.

You should take her with you. One of my friends, 66, took his 61 year old wife along (who hadn't yet been invited for vaccination) yesterday, and they agreed to give her the vaccine at the same time.

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Re: Covid Christmas anxiety

#386815

Postby dealtn » February 15th, 2021, 9:16 am

Clitheroekid wrote:
sg31 wrote:You probably won't have long to wait. I'm 65, my vaccination is tomorrow at 7pm.

My wife is 59, hers may be a while longer.

You should take her with you. One of my friends, 66, took his 61 year old wife along (who hadn't yet been invited for vaccination) yesterday, and they agreed to give her the vaccine at the same time.


Yes, I am aware of a "surprise" vaccination in that circumstance.

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Re: Covid Christmas anxiety

#386844

Postby sg31 » February 15th, 2021, 10:34 am

See below.
Last edited by sg31 on February 15th, 2021, 10:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

sg31
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Re: Covid Christmas anxiety

#386846

Postby sg31 » February 15th, 2021, 10:35 am

sg31 wrote:Sadly the vaccination centre were very specific that only the person being vaccinated would be allowed in the building.

Thanks for the heads up tough.
Sadly the vaccination centre were very specific that only the person being vaccinated would be allowed in the building.

Thanks for the heads up though.

dealtn
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Re: Covid Christmas anxiety

#386879

Postby dealtn » February 15th, 2021, 11:43 am

sg31 wrote:
sg31 wrote:Sadly the vaccination centre were very specific that only the person being vaccinated would be allowed in the building.

Thanks for the heads up tough.
Sadly the vaccination centre were very specific that only the person being vaccinated would be allowed in the building.

Thanks for the heads up though.


Don't give up. That is exactly the scenario my neighbour had. He was driven by his wife who was subsequently invited in.

sg31
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Re: Covid Christmas anxiety

#387094

Postby sg31 » February 15th, 2021, 10:27 pm

No such luck for my wife, she wasn't allowed in the building, I'm sad to say.

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Re: Covid Christmas anxiety

#387312

Postby 88V8 » February 16th, 2021, 10:56 pm

When I was telephoned with the offer of a jab, I managed to add my wife who is five months too young.
The booker was willing to bend the rules.

Perhaps it's easier for the booker to bend them on the phone than in person.

V8


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