After Covid

Just sitting in a Ryanair "chat" queue with 60 poor souls ahead of me. Just to ask a simple question.

The "BOT" was useless and so was the first person who made contact with me from their chat room......just passed me on to someone else.
 
Just sitting in a Ryanair "chat" queue with 60 poor souls ahead of me. Just to ask a simple question.

The "BOT" was useless and so was the first person who made contact with me from their chat room......just passed me on to someone else.
Well after being dumped by the first Ryanair chat person I got on to a second person after waiting an hour.


My Query.

I was given replacement Gift Cards for used Gift Cards in respect of cancelled flights. They only issued these with a life of one year.

They needed to be used this week. I contacted Ryanair to ask them if they would extend the life of them by 3 months. They just refused.

They have not loaded a lot of their Spring 2022 flights on to their system yet. My choice of destinations is limited.

They are advertising sale after sale at the moment, they want our business.......they have people out there with these "replacement" vouchers for flights that Ryanair cancelled.......why don't they just extend the lives of these vouchers and create a bit of goodwill. They will all be used up over time....
 
They will all be used up over time....
I would say that there are many people who were given these vouchers and lost them or didn't bother to use them.

Ryanair were happy to "refund" you with a Gift Card if you originally paid by Gift Card......they would not refund you cash.......they said "like for like" to me when I queried this.

However, when I look at the price I paid for my cancelled flights and the new price to the same destination next year....they are not charging "like for like". In my case the cost of the flights has nearly doubled. When you add in the ridiculous new price for your priority boarding and carry on suitcase, they are certainly going to make all their money back.

They should extend the lifetime of the Gift Card replacements that they re-issued for flights that they cancelled.
 
Somehow, I get the feeling with people becoming more complacent the Covid virus will re-visit with dreadful consequences. I hope I'm wrong; it's just that gut feeling.
I agree . It is way too soon to be letting down our guard against Covid. If we go back in to lock-down in a few months time , which I hope we don't, the people who have let down their guard will be the same people who will be complaining the most about lock-down and restrictions.
I read an article lately somewhere about Italy not allowing non-vaccinated people back to work without pay. Will this happen here I wonder.
 
So I'm out with my bike mechanic yesterday morning and when I arrive there is him, his business partner and another fellow chatting about their Covid experiences in particular how their feeling after they have recovered and the problems their having with breathing and tiredness
and as soon as they see me with my mask on, their questioning me "why sure we've all had Covid now so there's no point"

I'm outside the shop removing sealant from my wheel when a couple arrive with their child and have started a conversation with my mechanic
and of course it's about Covid and again in particular the problems that they are having and what they hear of other peoples recovery
And a joke is made about how I'm making them all feel bad about not wearing masks to which I respond that after hearing what they have all been saying I can't believe that they are not wearing masks especially given that one of them is a doctor

About half an hour later a non mask wearing woman arrives in to the shop with her bike to get serviced and precedes to tell us all that she's just come from a PCR test and is now awaiting her result because she's not feeling well

We went up to Stillorgan post office yesterday afternoon and as I'm walking by McDonalds a man beside me with both his hands in his pockets starts to have a good healthy prolonged cough and I say "you'd think after what we've all been through for the last two years you'd have the bleeping decency to cover your mouth with your hand". He just looks at me as if I've two heads

Am I losing it, have we forgotten that there still is a pandemic here or am I been over cautious about it all ??
 
I think a certain fatigue has set in about the precautions after 2 years ... especially if someone doesnt see themselves or close contacts as vulnerable or had had it before.
Even if you have had it before, you can still get a bad dose from it, maybe not hospitalisation bad but a mini flu.
 
Just thinking would be helpful if we could have home (or GP surgery or pharmacy) quick antigen tests for say strep throat, flu, RSV... or maybe the latter viruses mutate too quickly.
 
So I'm out with my bike mechanic yesterday morning and when I arrive there is him, his business partner and another fellow chatting about their Covid experiences in particular how their feeling after they have recovered and the problems their having with breathing and tiredness
and as soon as they see me with my mask on, their questioning me "why sure we've all had Covid now so there's no point"

I'm outside the shop removing sealant from my wheel when a couple arrive with their child and have started a conversation with my mechanic
and of course it's about Covid and again in particular the problems that they are having and what they hear of other peoples recovery
And a joke is made about how I'm making them all feel bad about not wearing masks to which I respond that after hearing what they have all been saying I can't believe that they are not wearing masks especially given that one of them is a doctor

About half an hour later a non mask wearing woman arrives in to the shop with her bike to get serviced and precedes to tell us all that she's just come from a PCR test and is now awaiting her result because she's not feeling well

We went up to Stillorgan post office yesterday afternoon and as I'm walking by McDonalds a man beside me with both his hands in his pockets starts to have a good healthy prolonged cough and I say "you'd think after what we've all been through for the last two years you'd have the bleeping decency to cover your mouth with your hand". He just looks at me as if I've two heads

Am I losing it, have we forgotten that there still is a pandemic here or am I been over cautious about it all ??
No your not losing it , I witnessed similar yesterday both on public transport and in a shopping centre . I just cannot fathom these actions.
 

This is a very large study and the results might be shocking to some. I think over the coming years the long term effects of Covid-19 on people will be known and some are not going to be pretty.
It's funny you referenced this (Not) but the business partner mentioned that he's booked a full cardiac check up because he feels something is not right in that department since he got Covid, his appointment is end of June and as far as I can see doesn't wear a mask when dealing with his customers :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
I think people equate post-covid with pre-pandemic times.

It's not.

It's about living with endless covid variants, doing as much prevention and reduction of transmission as possible.

Not that anyone here in the HSE or government seems to recognise that. Or there'd be grants available to enable businesses and the HSE to install air filtration. There'd be encouragement to wear masks on public transport, to have windows open as much as possible.

Just like in the energy sector, we're sliding towards foreseeable problems: an increase in Long Covid (the liklihood of Long Covid rises with each successive infection); the longer term effects of having had a Covid infection - heart attacks, rising especially in the over 40s; "brain fog" i.e. cognitive decline; and so on.

This is well known in the scientific/medical community, but the governments just don't want to hear it. I had a boss one time (working in the HSE), who kept saying to me, "Don't come to me with problems! Come to me with solutions!" Had to tell him that I *was* coming with solutions, but he kept brushing them off - too expensive, too difficult etc.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00403-0

https://www.heart.org/en/news/2020/09/03/what-covid-19-is-doing-to-the-heart-even-after-recovery

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases...th/coronavirus-long-term-effects/art-20490351

https://www.theguardian.com/society...long-covid-two-years-after-infection-says-ons
 
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