Paul Z

Age at interview: 73

Brief Outline:

Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White British
Background: Paul is 73 years old and is White British. He is married with three children and is a retired publisher. Paul suspected he had Covid after he lost his appetite and developed flu-like symptoms. A test confirmed that he had Covid, though he considered his case mild. Paul said that his mental health was generally quite good during the pandemic.

 

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Paul says he enjoyed the first lockdown in the UK. He says that the weather was nice and he was suddenly motivated to go out for long-walks. He says this had a positive effect on his mental health. As he explains, “I’m somebody who suffers from fear of missing out. And the fact that there was nothing was on and there was nowhere to go, I suddenly felt quite relaxed.” On the other hand, Paul also felt bad that he could not participate in his choir.
 
Paul was following all the government guidance on Covid. He stayed at home, wore masks, and was cautious when he developed Covid symptoms. At a few points, Paul and his wife thought they had Covid, and were tested at a testing centre. When Paul contracted Covid, he first noticed that he felt shivery and lost his appetite. After reporting his symptoms in the Zoe app, Paul was invited to take a PCR test. This came back a few days later and confirmed that Paul was infected with Covid. While he was sick, Paul didn’t feel particularly frightened as he considered his case to be mild. He thinks that “because I didn’t have difficulty breathing, the fear factor didn’t really kick in much”.
 
Paul took advantage of when the first lockdown lifted. He went to a few restaurants and spent more time outside. However, he still felt like he was being careful. For example, he still wore a mask and tried to stay away from huge crowds.
 
Paul said he felt quite lucky to not have extra burdens during the pandemic such as having to home-school children. He said he generally felt like his mental health was quite stable because of this. He missed his children during lockdowns and felt grateful that he could talk to them via Zoom.

 

Paul Z says that seeing the news of people dying caused a lot of worry.

And you know, what we were aware was the awful things that were happening to other people really at that point, you know, the disease, the hospitalisations, the, people in ICU and the news was very full of individual stories of people either suffering a lot or having lost loved ones or people dying, you know, there was an awful lot of that during that and that was very difficult and hard to take.

Paul Z is optimistic, but still takes precautions.

Well, after I’d had, after I’d had the two jabs I felt more protected than most people. I thought well that’s probably got antibodies from having it. I had that and I must be quite well protected at the moment. I’m quite aware I can get it again, you know. And if the efficacy of the, the vaccinations wears off, you know, yeah, it’s possible that one might get it again. I’m certainly sort of, at the moment, I’m the sort of person who would go shopping with a mask, you know, in the shops going into a bar, you know, wear it until I’m sitting down, that sort of thing. So, it’s still taking precautions and it’s not everybody is now, of course. It’s a bit of a mixed picture [laughs]. But yes, I’m aware of it. But I, I suppose I think oh if it was, if it was mild first time round then I don’t have to worry too much perhaps, you know, if I get it again, maybe it’ll be similar again, you know. Perhaps it’s just head in the sand or just optimistic, I don’t know [laughs].