12 Grumps and this B**ch aint one - the Covid edition

 As you know if you have regularly frequented this blog, I'm grumpy. And it's not getting better. Maybe being largely stuck in the house is making it worse - Nah. I'm just grumpy. 

So her is today's not exhaustive list of grumps related to Covid-19.

1. All the new names for things - Lockdown used to happen in prisons (and is now a film being made with Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor), a circuit break was something you needed to stop electricity and a fire break - well it speaks for itself.

2. The delays and the dithering - had we locked down sooner, had we done this, had we done that - we have just been terribly British about the whole blooming thing. 'Oh no, you go first, no you, you lockdown first, we'll wait and see how it goes for you, then we'll think about it, no no you.' AHHHHHHH! Bloody idiots. Make a decision and just do it. 

3. Masks - First of all see above - there should have been a quicker decision about the wearing of masks. Then there are the people who complain about wearing masks...all I hear is a toddler wining. '...it makes my glasses steam up...wah!... it gives me spots...wah! I can't breathe...wah!' (trust me these things won't matter if you get Covid). Then there is the inability to wear them properly, how hard is it to understand that a mask only works if it covers your mouth AND YOUR NOSE! They do not belong on chins, around your neck or anywhere but over your mouth and nose. Simple. 

4. QAnon people - a) Trump is not fighting satanist paedophiles, he is too busy tweeting nonsense to do that. b) Coronavirus exists, why would ALL the governments join forces to make this up? c) Vaccinations are good - without them we would not have completely got rid of Small pox and improved so many other lives as they haven't had various hideous diseases. d) The world is round e) we definitely went to the moon.  Science is good, knowledge is good, made up theories on the internet ARE BAD. 

5. Protesting mask wearing and the existence of Covid-19 - You are super-spreaders. I wonder how many of you attended these protests and then got Covid - strangely, you have decided not to advertise that.

6. Support for people Shielding - OK, I am biased on this one as I am shielding but this was far from a perfect system. I know many people like me who didn't get their letters at the outset as promised by the Government (I am sure this promise was made without consulting the local GPs to see if they had the capacity to do this - they clearly didn't). Misinformation about where the letters were coming from, seemed to be a common theme. When shielding officially ended, Covid wasn't too bad the R number was under 1. But the people who had been shielding would be no less effected if they got it when the Government decided shielding was over and the guidance on the Government Website remained the same - stay at home, try not to mix with people outside your home. But what about those people who had to work? What if they worked in a service industry and couldn't work from home - how long do their employers keep them on (after the furlough scheme ended), smaller businesses can't sustain that, so lots of people with long term illnesses/disabilities are now jobless and basically unemployable until the pandemic is over - what of them?

7. People in Care Homes - I have been quietly counting my lucky stars that my Dad passed away before the pandemic. He was in a care home for the last couple of years of his life with Dementia. If I had suddenly stopped visiting, he wouldn't have understood why I wasn't there. Some people have not been able to see their relatives for the last six months. There must be something that people can do to make it safer to see their loved one - there must be subsidies available for plastic screens or something. I am devastated and angry that this is not a priority - yet again the elderly (who built this country) are forgotten. GRRRR.

8. Mental Health - This is a challenging time for people with mental health conditions, even the sanest of the sane have struggled with this situation. Since the easing I have become more anxious that my children and husband may by accident bring Covid in to the house. Then I worry that if I did become very ill and die, they would feel terrible - I have told them it could have come in on an Amazon package or the food shopping but it scares me that they would blame themselves. Now I am alone more, it is easy to let the mind spin out of control. We know talking to others keeps our mental health in better shape - so phone someone, (I know it's not the way of things now but hey ho) or Zoom or something or go talk to your doctor - please don't suffer in silence.

9. Panic Buying - Who are you? Those people who brought too much toilet paper and food at the beginning of all this? Everyone denied it but someone did it. Then the food had to be thrown away as there is a limit to how much a person can eat in any given time. Don't do it this time around when the second wave hits. Even rats learn by their mistakes.

10. Negative People - Alright, I know the irony is not lost on me - However in my grumpy view, grumpy and negative are two different things - I don't believe the pandemic is the end of days, or that the sky is falling and that nothing we will do will fix it - please see my previous blog with suggestions for how to fix it if I were the boss of the world. But the people who just put their hands in the air and go we're f**ked aren't exactly helpful. Grow a pair, get on with it and help out. 

 

11. Stats - Stats are funny old things, you can make a stat say one thing and you can make it say another. You can say loads of people died of Covid then you can change it say less people died of Covid who caught it after 28 days. You can say, XX number of people who died today were really old or had a pre-existing condition so they don't really count - Em, I have a pre-existing condition, and until this never thought of myself as extremely vulnerable and I'm only 53 and have plans - thanks. You could say only this many people under this age have died of Covid. You can twist them and turn them and say pretty much what you like depending on what information you share. For facts and loads of stats - the Office of National Statistics have loads of information and you can find ALL the information rather than the juicy headlines here 

12. Headlines - As you know from my previous grumpy posts I am not a lover of the red tops. The same applies to Covid - Don't believe everything you read/hear. Today at The Sun online in the Covid section they are busy panic mongering - I am not going to repeat it. Please fact check. 

OK - well I think that's it for today. Not so much grumpy as just a bit annoyed about stuff. 

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