A State of Fear: How the UK government weaponised fear during the Covid-19 pandemic by Laura Dodsworth

Author:Laura Dodsworth [Dodsworth, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Pinter & Martin
Published: 2021-05-16T22:00:00+00:00

EMILY, 45, NURSE

A colleague who does the bookings emailed me to say, ‘You’ve got a patient coming in for an overdue blood test this afternoon, she’s really nervous and she’s been shielding since March. Can you meet her from the car to make sure she attends?’

It’s not unusual to have a nervous patient – needle phobia is certainly not uncommon! The appointment time came, but I was busy finishing off with another patient so I hadn’t made it out to the car park. As I completed some forms I suddenly heard shouting and screaming coming from the reception area. I rushed out and saw a lady, obviously very distressed, walking with two sticks and wearing a mask and visor, supported by a man. She was incomprehensibly sobbing, shaking and flushed, as she staggered down the corridor.

I rushed over (obviously in standard mask and apron) and tried to calm her down and ascertain what was wrong, encouraging her to come into the blood test room to sit down.

She continued to cry and hyperventilate. It was difficult to comprehend anything that she was saying. I was worried that she was becoming increasingly short of breath, so I encouraged her to remove her mask but her husband said she wouldn’t take it off because she was ‘too scared of the virus’.

I asked her if she was nervous about the blood test but she continued to cry in a distressed manner, saying over again, ‘I don’t want to die, I’m so frightened, I don’t want to die, I’ll die of anything but not that virus.’ I managed to get her to slow her breathing and stop moving long enough to get the sample. Her husband told me that this was only the second time she’d left the house since March.

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