- This topic is empty.
-
While many people board packed trains to see loved ones or shuffle into busy pubs to catch up with friends during the festive period, Sally Holt is facing her sixth Christmas shielding.
The 57-year-old is still shielding from Covid with her husband. Their life is a shadow of the one they enjoyed before the pandemic.
“Neither of us have been in a shop or a pub or a restaurant or any kind of public space at all since March [2020]. Well, I think it was actually late February when we started shielding.”
It is a stark contrast to the days when Holt, who works for an international human rights charity, used to commute from her home in Colchester to London each day, socialise with friends, and go shopping.
Holt, who has the autoimmune disease lupus, and her husband, 68-year-old Steve, who has blood cancer, were categorised as clinically extremely vulnerable people and advised by the Government to shield during the outbreak of the pandemic.
While the official shielding guidance, initially issued to 2.2 million people, ended in 2021, Holt and her husband are still scared of catching Covid and flu, which could further compromise their health.
Sally and Steve Holt (right) worry about the impact of shielding on their daughter Flo (left) ‘We don’t go anywhere’
Holt feels she is living a “half-life”. “It means we don’t go anywhere apart from vital medical or hospital appointments.”
But it is the impact on her daughter that worries her most. She fears she might miss her graduation next year.
“It’s just devastating. Basically, there’s just so much that she’s missed out on.”
When her daughter, Flo, was at school, they would social distance at home and wear masks when in the same room.
Now, when she comes home from living away at university, she takes a Covid test as soon as she arrives using the family’s Pluslife machine, which also produces the result, bought from Germany for £350.
“You get a result in about half an hour,” Holt said. “If it’s clear, then that’s fine and we can have a hug and whatever – but for years basically we couldn’t go near each other hardly.”
Years after the Government’s shielding guidance was withdrawn, it is estimated hundreds of thousands of people are still only leaving home for essential medical appointments, if at all.
“It didn’t change our behaviour because nothing had really changed for us. We were still vulnerable,” Holt said. “We’re vulnerable because we’re ill, but we’re also vulnerable because we’re immunosuppressed.”
She said she felt that “the situation’s become more dangerous because everybody else was getting their vaccines and there was the ‘Oh we’re all going back to normal’ thing, so nobody was actually taking precautions like they had done before.”
The previous government said shielding was no longer necessary due to more information available on the virus, including what makes individuals more or less vulnerable, the success of the Covid-19 vaccination programme, and the emergence of proven treatments.
But the NHS and the Government acknowledge that individuals with immunosuppression may not respond as well to vaccines as other people, which means they can remain at higher risk.
Holt said continuous shielding has meant neither her nor her husband have caught Covid. She can see no end to shielding in sight.
Sally Holt’s husband, Steve, and daughter, Flo. The family will spend their sixth Christmas shielding (Photo: supplied) ‘I keep contact with people to a minimum’
Glyn Huskisson, 72, was taking more precautions than most before she caught Covid for the first time in October this year.
As well as being fully vaccinated, she practiced shielding at the height of the pandemic after receiving a kidney transplant in September 2020.
“You take immunosuppressants so that your kidney doesn’t reject, and that basically really lowers your immune system, so you’re actually far more likely to catch viruses, and they’re far more likely to have a really bad effect on you.
“So since my transplant, basically, if I go anywhere where there are people, even to the petrol station, I will have a high spec mask on – FFP3.”
Glyn Huskisson said she feels like a hermit due to long-term shielding Huskisson lives with her son and uses HEPA filters in their home, has her groceries delivered instead of shopping in-store, and “keeps contact with people indoors to a minimum”.
But after a staycation with a friend, who had tested negative for the virus before they met, she caught Covid in October.
“I became very breathless and really quite ill. I could feel my heart racing, and eventually I was hospitalised on 7 October.”
She said consultants told her she had an arrhythmia, which could have been caused by Covid.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence states that complications of Covid infection may include heart rhythm problem.
‘I’ve basically become a hermit’
Huskisson, who led an active lifestyle before falling ill with Covid – regularly walking two miles and exercising at the gym – now has to “rest as much as possible”.
“Otherwise my heart rate goes flying and I become very breathless. I can’t go out now anywhere. I can’t really do much at all. In fact, we’re ordering takeaway tonight because I haven’t got the energy to cook.”
She is waiting to have a heart ablation, a minimally invasive procedure used to treat irregular heart rhythms.
Your next read
Huskisson now takes shielding even more seriously, avoiding meeting with friends because “it’s just too risky”. She no longer volunteers at a local hospice.
This year she will spend Christmas at home with her son, missing the village party and other festive gatherings.
“I’ve basically become very much a hermit,” she said.
“It’s a very much smaller life than I used to live,” Huskisson added. “It’s a pretty dismal picture.”
Better access to treatments needed
Nikola Brigden, a campaigner for Forgotten Lives UK, which represents immunocompromised people, is appealing to the Health Secretary to meet to work on solutions.
A 2023 survey by the group found 85 per cent of the 802 respondents said they were still shielding.
Brigden is calling for pre-exposure medication and treatments available in other countries such as the US to be made accessible for UK patients.
Her husband, who was diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma – a rare, aggressive type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma – in 2021, received three doses of Evusheld, medicine used before potential exposure to Covid to prevent disease.
He subsequently travelled to the US to obtain the antibody drug after it was later withdrawn by maker AstraZeneca for commercial reasons in 2023.
“It has absolutely transformed our life,” said Brigden. “He is back at work, he travels all over the place, he’s able to integrate into society.”
Dr Jo Daniels, a senior lecturer in clinical psychology at the University of Bath, said her research found individuals who shielded were significantly more likely to display clinical levels of anxiety and health anxiety compared to the general population during the pandemic.
She called for “better provision of care for those who are struggling with their mental health because they feel like they’re forgotten”.
Lara Wong, from the Clinically Vulnerable Families group, said it feels as though responsibility for managing ongoing risk has been pushed almost entirely onto those at higher risk.
“For many that still means that, particularly when risks increase, the only genuinely safe option is partial or full isolation at home.”
She added: “This month I’ve heard from many clinically vulnerable people, the majority who say they are still fully or mostly shielding, while many others say they are taking strong precautions such as masking and avoiding poorly ventilated spaces. Only a very small minority said they weren’t taking precautions at all. This is a strong signal that many people are still significantly restricting their lives this winter because, for them, the risks are too high.”
The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
