Victoria B on 13 February 2021
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Q. First up, are you a lone parent?
Yes
Q. Have you had any problems in getting tested or self-isolating?
I'd like to get tested. There is a few sites in out neighbouring towns specifically for testing people without symptoms. But I see it as too risky to go, cos I'd have to drag my kids onto a bus or taxi, travel to a busy town and hope they don't catch anything while I'm tested. I imagine it'll be a similar barrier to accessing a vaccine. One of my neighbours is high risk, she went out at 9pm in a snow storm the other day, her partner drove and they had all of their younger children (6 out of eight) with them, all cos she got a call an hour before telling her to come get her vaccine. She was able to do that on short notice, leave her kids in the car with her partner and get her vaccine safely. I wouldn't be able to do that. I'm asthmatic, so I'm sure I'll get a call within a few months, but I'd not be able to drop everything to get the vaccine. Travel has to be timed around paydays, for example, and last minute sudden trips are stressful for me and my children. The same barrier to testing would affect receiving a vaccine also. Self isolating is extremely easy when you have no money to do anything more than watch TV or play games anyway. We've a neighbour whom we play in the garden with as a bubble but other than that we haven't gone beyond our street since last autumn. Lockdown or no I'm not sure how different that'll be, public transport isn't cheap and it is likely to go up this year also after all this, so outings will be limited anyway by income. Plus as the saying goes, if a crime is punishable by fine than its a crime for the poor alone. Richer folks can party, get fined, pay fine and brush it off. Those in higher income brackets can buy food in comfort and safety, they can travel without worry of fines and they can pay for the best healthcare should they get ill, the odds are stacked in their favour. I'm happy for them but it should be the same for all. The hardest part of self isolation is the boredom, the lack of stimuli. Crafting used to be a popular pastime for me and my kids, for example, but as we've done so often nowadays it's less exciting now, more mundane. I wish I could afford better stimuli for the kids during isolation. Thank goodness for the internet, imagine trying to survive (mentally) lockdown without access to a globally connected network of entertainment and distractions.
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