Once a week at about 5.30am, Hayley Ashton pulls two masks over her face, sanitises a shopping trolley with her handbag disinfectant then takes a deep breath before stepping into the fluorescent glare of her local supermarket in Leicester.
These grocery trips feel for Ashton, a 33-year-old project manager who is immunocompromised and has severe asthma, like treacherous expeditions where she risks serious illness or death. “It’s the one area you just can’t control,” she said.
In previous waves of Covid-19, Ashton was part of the government’s shielding schemes, which meant she had access to measures like statutory sick pay, medicine deliveries and priority shopping. Now, as the Omicron variant pushes cases to record levels, there is no such protection.
“A pint of milk could well cost me my life,” Ashton said. “And at the minute I’ve got no support from the government to get those essentials.”
Ashton is one of almost 4 million clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) people in England who were advised to shield by the government during previous Covid waves. She said her clinician told her she would probably become seriously ill or die if she caught the virus, making the surge of Omicron a time of high anxiety and fear – made worse, she said, by ministers’ unwillingness to impose extra measures.
In these circumstances, many CEV people are choosing to shield themselves – retreating into their homes, cancelling social engagements, avoiding public transport and sometimes even leaving frontline jobs to protect themselves.
“Our world has shrunk back a lot,” said Sue Hardman, a retired 60-year-old in Suffolk with severe asthma. “You just feel forgotten … It’s almost as if there’s a group that doesn’t matter.”
Ashton said she “felt supported” by the shielding programme earlier in the pandemic. But now she feels there is significant risk for those with underlying conditions. “What people are forgetting is for those in these vulnerable categories, even if [Omicron is] mild, the likelihood [or risk] is, despite vaccines, you are still going to become seriously ill.”
For Zoe Pettigrew, a solicitor previously living in a flat-share in Bristol, the pandemic has meant isolating from friends since March 2020 with her family in Cornwall. Pettigrew, 33, who has Crohn’s disease, which means taking immunosuppressive medication, feels “completely forgotten about” by the government. “It makes me so sad, but also angry,” she said. Pettigrew is yet to meet her three-month-old nephew.
Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, said last Wednesday the government was trying to avoid returning to the shielding programme given vaccines and new drugs – such as molnupiravir or Ronapreve – and the detrimental impact on mental health. “Shielding came with some very obvious downsides for the people involved in the shielding – including loneliness and mental health issues,” he said.
A 2020 study found shielding led to a deterioration in mental health for about 35% of CEV people. “So it’s not an area we want to go down if there’s any way of avoiding doing so,” Whitty said.
But for Pettigrew, this ignores the toll of feeling forced to shield but without the official acknowledgment of ministers. “It makes you feel like you’ve lost the plot,” she said.
Without government support, “it’s like being under house arrest”, said Colin Talbot, 69, an emeritus professor at the University of Manchester who is immunocompromised.
Some families, like Hardman’s, are cancelling Christmas plans. Her 28-year-old son is no longer visiting after being exposed to friends who tested positive.
For others, it means leaving jobs they love. In Berwick-upon-Tweed, Rosie Purves, 36, has rheumatoid arthritis and is immunocompromised. Tests show she has a lack of Covid antibodies despite three vaccine doses.
This autumn, Purves left her job as a reception teacher over the risks posed by classroom infection and has received no financial or other support from the government. She urged ministers: “Please don’t forget about us.”
Others have pulled their at-risk children out of schools, such as Laura Baines, a 44-year-old full-time carer to her CEV son, Louie, 15. “I’m struggling financially buying school supplies,” she said, urging safer measures in classrooms.
National charities including Crohn’s and Colitis UK, the National Aids Trust and Kidney Care UK said the government must provide greater clarity and support for shielders.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said it had published “a range of guidance for those previously considered clinically extremely vulnerable” and urged people to discuss “necessary precautions with their specialist” and to get the booster vaccine.
Ashton is weighing up whether to spend Christmas alone or risk it with family. “It’s a really scary time,” she said.
