#thevirus

With the virus, the world is now different and as someone still high risk I am having to continue to navigate my life around a virus that's ready to pounce. I have always gone with if something helps then go with it, but in this case, it was made too difficult for me to make decisions about whether it was safe for me to take the vaccine.

There was merit to the vaccine

I am not anti-vaccine, but the UK government has made it impossible for me and thousands like me to make that decision. There was merit to the vaccine, in that you wouldn't be as poorly catching the virus if you had it, but the scaremongery surrounding its very existence, with autism and with the slogan of the UK government of roll-up your sleeves, meant I was mentally and permanently stuck, unable to make the decision on taking it.

Two and a half months of illness I did eventually catch Covid. It wasn't something I was able to shrug off quickly and my digestion survived, which I was grateful for, but it did take me 7 weeks to recover, then I went straight into the flu virus that I caught from people coughing in John Lewis failing to put their hands to their mouths, the same day I took my mask off to give myself a mask break. It took me around two and a half months to recover from both.

The virus will come back Now four years in, and into the summer months of 2023 and the virus isn't so much pouncing, but to coin Arnie's phrase, and according to the experts it will be back later on in the winter months. Ignoring the virus will simply perpetuate it. Governments don't care.

There will be more pandemics The scientists are also telling us there will be more pandemics. It is staggering that governments are choosing to ignore the infirm, the disabled, the mentally challenged, the older generation and people who have more to lose and who still need the support, to keep them safe. Lifting all restrictions is keeping people are keeping people stuck in their homes. Over on social media, it is the topic of conversation. With lifting restrictions around the world, whether you are high risk or not, shouldn't we all be asking, what kind of governments do this?

According to current news, 'Covid has not gone away and we will rue our actions.' The headlines on BelfastTelegraph.co.uk.

Covid doesn't care

Covid-19 doesn’t care whose lives it touches, how poorly you get, it doesn’t care what you choose or you choose not do, what you believe, of if you think it’s finished, or it’s gone on for too long, it’s a virus, it’s an anchor.

Covid has divided opinions

Not everyone agrees and the virus has divided opinions, but for those who have a life, or for those who are putting their lives first before the virus, please have a heart for those who are having to put their lives on hold because they are high risk, because they can’t afford to catch and deal with countless reinfections, because in doing so they become critically ill, and because they might die.

For those kind people reading my individual blogs, you will know I caught Covid in December days before my twin died. You will also know there was an overlap of about two weeks, when I caught a cough and flu virus, which has been slow to go.

Protect the vulnerable

Taking precautionary measures is watching out for the vulnerable. For those who are house-bound, they want to be able to safely go shopping, to go on holiday and to go out into safe public environments. Masking up saves lives and chronic illness. We should want to protect each other. Hands, face, space or at least mask up. Covid has not gone away.

My writing isn't always an enjoyable experience, but it's one I find necessary. Some of the subject topics I write about continue to affect me mentally, so I feel I have no choice. The alternative would be to carry the issue and get sick.

Just because we're not talking about the virus, doesn’t mean the virus is no longer here, or it’s no longer harmful. Ignoring the fact we’re still in the pandemic, doesn’t mean the virus is gone. The virus is not gone.  

Catching the virus repeatedly, becoming chronically ill and struggling to function in our every day, should be our wake-up call. Continuing to keep safe is my wake-up call. That the life I had, is the life I no longer have.

The independent scientists we're telling us in the early days, there will be more viruses. I work on the assumption if there is something obvious that I need to deal with, I deal with it, then the worry goes... and if I can’t find a way through and the worry is still there, I look to find a resolve.

I don’t talk about the fact that I am home all the time, because you'd probably stop listening, but it is very much a concern for those who are high risk and vulnerable, and who care about not catching the virus, and who know they have a lot to lose if they catch it. The virus isn’t done with us, even if we’re done with talking about the virus.

The lack of initiatives isn't an initiative at all. All government initiatives stopped and with a 'get on with your life' attitude with a virus that is still airborne and out there, means there is no 'getting on with life.'

It’s not clever to ignore something that can cost us our health, even more so when we have been told there will be more viruses to come. The world may be ‘finished’ with talking about or dealing with the virus, seeking to ignore its very existence, but it’s not done with us.

When you deal with a disability which includes respiratory disease, you have no choice but to self-isolate, even with lifted restrictions, whether you are vaccinated or you're not.

Seeing the photos, following Her Majesty’s passing, with crowds of people lining the streets with not a mask in sight, I realise what my life has become, that with no one wearing masks, the virus can continue to cost. It's why I am home.

Covid breeding grounds

The virus isn’t gone, and demonstrations are breeding grounds for the virus to grow again. It also makes it harder for people like me who are high risk to get back into our lives, because the more people mix, the less likely we are going to be able to get ourselves out, to mix.

It’s also going to make it harder to deal with, in the coming winter months. Also, with the winter fuel crisis. But it is important to continue to protect the vulnerable, those who have more to lose if they were to catch the virus.

For those who have already caught the virus, just going about their business, getting into their 'normal' lives is difficult. I go back to social media, which is a hive of activity, with parents talking about their children having to go to school with no mitigating circumstances in place for their children, they worry about the virus.

People still have concerns on Covid-19

What happened to a fairer society? What about schools? It’s difficult to comprehend just how many parents are having to continue to question the lack of mitigations against an airborne virus in schools, for those parents who are genuinely worried about their children, without the UK government acting to continue to keep them safe.

This is a virus that comes at a psychological cost, because you’re never the same psychologically with it. It’s a virus that you can catch multiple times and reinfect multiple times, unless you keep yourself safe. Also, the vaccines don’t work in the way they should because with, the virus still continues to spread and reinfect.  

Children, Covid and Long Covid

When it comes to children, they don’t just get Covid, they get long-covid too. The virus isn’t just discriminating on certain groups. The government could have chosen to keep us all safe. For those like myself with a disability, we’re not keeping us home, the government are keeping us home. We have no choice with all restrictions lifted.

So, there are plenty of people who continue to have concerns about the lack of mitigating measures to offset the impact of the virus. Also, for the vulnerable, while no one is masking up, they are home.

I once wrote a blog entitled ‘My life after Covid.’ A little premature perhaps, two and a half years in, I am ‘four walled,’ confined to my home, and confined within my mental and emotional disability, and the virus isn’t finished.

The virus the world thinks has gone, hasn’t gone. Not talking about and addressing something doesn’t means it’s gone, it just means they’re not talking about.

It is important the world learns its valuable lessons, through a global crisis, and act accordingly. The pandemic isn’t finished, and unless the world conforms to what it knows it is dealing with, this can come back to bite. In 2022, we are seeing cases in the UK increase again.

Aristotle, Greek philosopher, once said, “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” The light is accepting it happened and finding a way through that works for all of us, not just a select few.

Given some of the decisions and undertakings by Governments around the world, you would have thought it was finished, but the UK is recording new cases of Covid, therefore it would be prudent for us to live with more caution and continue to wear masks.