Topic: Corona Virus Panic/Discussion Thread

@CurryPowderKeg79 Oh goodness that's horrible! I'm glad you've recovered! So you were sick for about a total of 10 days?

@CurryPowderKeg79 that's horrible...wish you a quick and smooth recovery!

@CurryPowderKeg79 Dayum - hope you are on the mend and recovering well.

Things not looking so bright workwise. Will have to see what the next few weeks bring. On the plus side my kids made me a pancake with chocolate sauce so I will take what I can get.

@Rudy_Manchego sounds delicious, what's your work situation? (Sorry if I've missed you say it before). I thought I was going to be left out in the cold by the government plans. Not eligible for UC, earn more from Paye then I do self employment and normally greedy and non receptive bosses that I thought wouldn't furlough me. But on some excellent advice from Martin Lewis, I ended up asking them and they said yes but there is still a level of anxiety until it's officially in writing though :/

I think because it affects people differently that it makes the anxiety of catching it worse :/ you could be lucky prince Chucky recovering well in Balmoral (so they say) or you could be one of the unlucky ones. I think at first I just wanted to get it and get it out the way so I could have immunity but even people younger than me seem to be getting serious issues. And I can't imagine having pneumonia from this will help anyone's chances when the next pandemic comes up. I just hope there is a reasonable plan to keep people going financially until a vaccine is made.

@CurryPowderKeg79 I hope things are feeling better for you now. People I know have said it’s how breathless/tired you get doing little things like eating that was so weird/scary.

And welcome to the forums!

@ralphdibny Cheers!

I'm fairly senior at a small(ish) business in the tech industry but we are reliant on clients and people are tightening belts etc. We are ok but the future is looking a little dry at the moment. All depends on when this is over. Uncertainty is going to kill us.

Glad that things are looking better for you - there is some good help out there which is why I probably won't lose the house but there you go.

I am torn between whether we have had it or not - all the family were exposed to someone with it and we have had the barest minimum of symptoms but I believe we would know if we had it. But then we don't know how many people are asymptomatic. Weird.

@Rudy_Manchego yeah you hear some stories about how bad some people have it, then I see people like Prince Charles who just seem to shrug it off, even at his age?

I wonder if Boris is suffering? Has he been seen in the past couple of days?

Sorry to hear about the work situation. It does suck balls. I have friends on lower income work who are loving getting 80% of their salaries and kicking back. I hope there is enough support for now, all we can really do is get through April and see where we are at I think.

Weirdly enough I’m working more than ever right now. I’ve got a pay increase coming starting next Monday.

Social distancing is really taking its toll though.
Can’t see my fiancé, friends or family. It’s actually driving me insane🤣.

@Rudy_Manchego you've probably been through all the info but you can furlough yourself if you get paid through Paye rather than dividends (and even just the Paye amount if you get paid through a combo of the two). All this can be backdated. I haven't looked but supposedly there are business loans with preferential rates which personally I don't like the idea of because it still costs the company money.

But the government Job retention scheme grant (furlough) is supposed to help pay wages when the company can't because of lost or postponed contracts as well as other things.

The place I work for is kind of similar and we have clients from all industries. At first they classed our work as "essential" because some of our clients are banks and financial institutions but there simply isn't enough of that work to go around which is why I think they're looking into furloughing now. To be honest, some of the banks are going ahead with non essential work it seems just because they can because they are a bank. I'd argue that the only "essential" work is supporting the current employees and not going ahead with long standing projects just so they don't lose time on the schedule they've booked for the next couple of years.

@kyleforrester87 I know - people seem to be mildly poorly for a few days or seriously seriously ill and since we aren't testing widespread, we don't know the asymptomatic numbers. Saw a picture of Boris doing a zoom call which was great despite it being an insecure app and him showing the meeting ID.

Yeah, to be honest furlough wont be too bad for me but more worried about having a job to get back to.

@Fight_Teza_Fight My wife is really really struggling wih not seeing her family (I'm quite miserable and dont mind not seeing them). I feel bad because there is nothing I can do.

@ralphdibny Yeah its the holding off of projects that are affecting us, even if they have the cash etc. Still we shall see I guess. As just said, Furlough won't kill me but just the future of the business worries me.

@Fight_Teza_Fight yes I’m also really busy, I’ve not even considered getting ill to be honest, trying to keep the money coming in for everyone while looking after individual needs is already exhausting. Hoping things calm down a bit in a week.

Weekly shop this afternoon. Might try and get 2 weeks worth, actually.

@Rudy_Manchego Yeah I can imagine it’s though. My cousins a doctor & he’s decided to move out of his own home. Madness.

@kyleforrester87 Being busy definitely helps. I do feel social distancing is working. I’m hoping we see the number of cases drop by the end of the month.

@Rudy_Manchego hopefully they will extend the job retention scheme longer. If the things they've put in place outlive the pandemic then it might just save a lot of businesses.

The not seeing people sucks, as miserable of a git that I can be. As soon as Boris announced the lockdown, my girlfriend and I went back to my parents to wait it out here. I think I'd just be too depressed being more or less alone for 3 weeks. At least here we still have our own space but can enjoy additional company if we need it. The downside is that the family home can get heated but I think everyone has chilled their beans a bit seeing as they know that we are probably going to be locked up here for a while.

@Fight_Teza_Fight “you feel social distancing is working” see that’s interesting because that’s what a lot of the battle will be against this virus once we’re out of lockdown, it will be how people feel about the risk of exposure, not necessarily the reality of the situation. I feel much less anxious about it this week than I did the past 2 weeks, but in reality the cases are at their highest right now, more people are dying and we are heading toward the peak.

Like I said before I think ultimately we’ll all just get used to living with with the idea that we might pick up this potentially deadly bug, in the same way you get used to living with certain chronic illnesses.

you know what i'm a retail worker that works nights/really early mornings so the lockdown hasn't actually affected me at all because my hours were unsociable anyway

either that or i'm just a miserable git

@FullbringIchigo probably a bit of both 😉

@FullbringIchigo To be honest, once I got over that totally-not-coronavirus and stopped worrying, I've actually started to enjoy the situation. My day-to-day life hasn't changed, except not being able to watch telly with my partner at the weekends (and I do miss him). If anything, I've got less time and I'm more busy because isolated family and friends keep calling me up out of boredom, which really annoys me. The other day, at the end of an hour-long chat, I said to one "anyway, best be going, I've got a ton of stuff I wanna get done today" and they replied with "That's impossible, it's a lockdown, there's nothing to do, so I'll call you again tomorrow!" Nearly threw my phone out the window.

That being said, given my prior career history with similar situations, I've got huge sympathy for everybody affected, either directly or indirectly. Which is why I'll keep answering every call.

@kyleforrester87 Yep that’s probably the case. I’ve accepted the fact that there is a high chance of me getting it.
I think the majority will get it, but the NHS isn’t equipped with dealing with everyone at once, so in that case social distancing is helping.
A lot of people won’t even realise they have it, unless they get checked. Idris Elba has very mild symptoms, but he’s still able to pass it on.
I’m just hoping we get to some level of normality soon- although I enjoy the traffic of late😁.

@kyleforrester87 probably

@RogerRoger, that's true, i have had more contact with my sister this past few weeks than i had over the past few months