In the German media, the slow pace of vaccination is increasingly the main criticism of the government, together with the fact that Merkel’s only strategy seems to be perpetual lockdown. This week, the lockdown that began on Dec 16 was extended until March 7, except that hairdressers may open again from March 1.
Meanwhile, most of the front line medical staff in my hospital has received two shots of the BioNTech vaccine or will do so this month.
I admit that having received two shots of the vaccine dramatically changed my own perception of risk. I do no longer feel at risk of a serious infection. I intubated a Covid-19 positive patient on Monday, with only a standard FFP2 mask and protective glasses on. It felt routine.
I predict the majority of the population will change their individual perception of risk once vaccinated.
I predict the majority of the population will change their individual perception of risk once vaccinated.
That’s certainly true in my case. Now that all of the “at risk” population of Scotland has been vaccinated and that they’ve even got as far as jabbing youngsters like me, I feel that we need to get everybody back to productive work- not that we, the lucky ones, ever stopped.
MedEwok wrote:
I predict the majority of the population will change their individual perception of risk once vaccinated.
I have never felt “at risk” once from this virus 
I guess working at a hospital is different though.
I have never felt “at risk” once from this virus I guess working at a hospital is different though.
I think that’s true of most people who are fit enough to fly an airplane. But I think MedEwok and I are rather referring to the risk of us acquiring and carrying infection to others who are less fortunate.
Anecdotal evidence of spread in shops (obviously people cost be going lots of places that they don’t want to admit to, but I don’t see any need for that explanation)
Meanwhile, a GP has revealed up to 30pc of patients who recently tested positive claimed they had visited only grocery shops in the days before they became ill.
Dr Angela Parvu, based in Coolock, north Dublin, said more than 50pc of patients informed her they had visited only the supermarket before becoming ill. Up to 30pc were actually diagnosed as Covid positive, she said.
“I have definitely found most people with symptoms are saying the same thing, that they don’t go anywhere except the shops,” she told the Irish Independent:
LeSving wrote:
I have never felt “at risk” once from this virus I guess working at a hospital is different though.
So have a lot of other people who got it or worse, were infected, never knew and thus infected countless others.
That is part of the problem. We, as pilots, should know darn well that invincibility is a concept we should never ever subscribe to. If the Ju Air Crash has not taught that lesson, not much else will. So like avoiding risky behaviour in mountainflying with 20 trusting passengers, it is our holy duty to make darn sure we do the best not to infect others with this plague. And the best way to do that is not get infected in the first place.
But what needs to be said at this point, we all owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to those who walk into harm’s way every day, who deal with this disease on a very up and close level and who take the risk because of the oath they made with themselves when becoming medical professionals. They are the real heroes in this fight.
And of course, your contribution to this discussion in this forum is of tremendous value. You know who you are. Thank you all.
Both of you are right, LeSving and Jacko.
Especially early in the pandemic, I did feel personally at risk after reading reports of colleagues in countries such as Italy or China dying (IIRC the “whistle-blower” who first reported about human-to-human infection in China and was punished for it was roughly my age).
How much of the virus you inhale was realised to be important for your risk of severe infection early on. As an anaesthetist I’m closer to other people’s airway than almost any other profession. So I did personally feel at risk.
Later on in the pandemic, as our PPE improved (I’m basically wearing FFP2 masks whenever I leave the house, and never paid for these as I just leave them on after work and use them privately until my next shift), I felt better protected, so my focus shifted to my parents and grandparents, who are naturally more at risk due to their age (I always worried about them from the beginning, but the more I felt protectedml myself, the more “spare worries” I had for them).
At least my father and grandparents have already been vaccinated too, only my mother and mother in law are still at an elevated risk. It is still unclear when they will get their turn in the vaccination campaign.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
We, as pilots, should know darn well that invincibility is a concept we should never ever subscribe to
Well, I don’t believe in such concepts either way. I believe in cause and effect, and if the cause is a random, freaky thing outside my deliberate influence, there is nothing I can do about it in any case. My time will come when it comes I don’t perceive that as a risk, but as a fact of life. I follow the suggested practice. keep distance, clean my hands in shops. Lately I also work from home, mostly to keep my wife with company, as her employer has practiced work from home all from the start, and she gets lonely. Lately I even wear masks at shops, because I have to, it’s the bloody law (local one, unnecessary bull). At work we have no problems keeping distance.
Looking at the numbers for Norway, the risk of getting infected is severely low. The pure statistical risk for me to become sick from this is practically zero. Today, the risk for me is to move the half a meter of snow from my yard that fell last night. That is severely risky business statistically speaking, and kills middle aged men almost every day (cardiac arrest). I can only hope I’m in OK physical shape Tonight we are going to the cinema to see Wonder Woman 1984 The associated risk with that is zero IMO. But how to eat popcorn with a mask? hmm.
Norway… sure. Lots of land, very few people, high income, low poverty, compliant population, few or no non-integrated ethnic groups who don’t understand / don’t care. The virus has very few targets in Norway.
The rest of the world is very different.
