AIBU to think this can't go on for a whole year??

[cola2019]

AIBU in thinking that this cannot go on for a year?? My husband seems to think that until there is a vaccine available life cannot go back to normal. I can't envisage not seeing my parents for a year (my dad has cancer so is currently in the sheilding group). He keeps telling me that I need to face up to the fact that we can't see our parents until they have been vaccinated. No shops, no bars, no events, no schools. Surely economically life will have to resume slowly we can't wait till 2021 surely. But as soon as lockdown is lifted and people start mixing then it will spike again.

@Lifeisgenerallyfun The genetic factors is at the moment a theory. I hope decisions are not going to be made based on an unproven theory? I had assumed the shielded group would be okay. Are they really going to make some of them go back to work in crowded offices, shops and factories?

Sturgeon has confirmed Scottish schools won’t return until August at the earliest

After the 3 month mortgage holiday, unless we get back to work my house will be for sale and assuming there aren't many buyers then either it will be sold in a negative equity situation or reposed. So yeah it IS ABOUT THE ECONOMY for a lot of us without work / government support.

I just don't understand if you are that ill - the shielded lot that is - why were you going out before ? Surely it's no different as you are more at risk of catching anything.

My mums a hypochondriac, so I doubt I'll see her anytime soon as my toddlers a walking germ bless him. But if there isn't a successful vaccine then what will people do stay in forever ?

Oh me too @cantory my old boss would have had us still working in the office despite definitely not having any reason to and very easily being able to work from home (but then he also didn't pay us for months and only paid up when we left en masse and took him to tribunal so that's pretty indicative of what sort of boss he was...)

I don't disagree at all that some people are being forced to work in unsafe conditions.

@ishouldtryabiteachday I am in the shielded group. I work and have kids. No most of us are not on deaths door. People at work before this did not even know I had an illness.
We are shielded because of how this illness would affect us. I get an annual flu jab and have had a pneumonia jab as both are a risk to me. But no I am at no more risk of normal viruses or other illnesses than anyone. This virus operates in a particular way, and it is the way it operates that makes it risky for me.

@TheGinGenie Yes it is vulnerable people working for those bosses I worry about.
And jobs you cant socially distance in such as nursery workers.

Nicola Sturgeon’s master plan for the socialist state of Scotland is just playing right into her hands... next up, universal basic income.

@sadie That is just childish.

I think a lot of people have totally missed the purpose of the lockdown - it isn't too prevent us all from catching it, it is to slow the rate at which it spreads through the population so all 66 million of us in the UK don't bombard the NHS at the same time. Believing you will be sitting within the same 4 walls, no human contact other than your household and having to live your life 2m apart from anybody else (which will be impossible once all the shops are back up and running) for the next year or more is crazy thinking. A vaccine won't make it disappear. Tens of thousands of people die each year despite having the flu vaccine - due to underlying health reasons. Everyone who has ever had chickenpox is susceptible to shingles, which can be fatal, to some people with underlying health conditons. Anyone with underlying health conditions is susceptible to complications from any virus/illness yet we don't hide ourselves away for any of those.

YANBU
Your husband is.
Can't be good for his MH to keep thinking that way. Don't get sucked in to that fatalistic mindset.

And the hospitals? - where are we supposed to go, how am I to see my son who I have not seen for 5 weeks? My outpatient appointments your scans, colonoscopies, endoscopies, and breast lumps and numerous other life-threatening chronic conditions? I have cancer and cannot get checked for a worrying symptom. How can this go on? Mental health services too?

Why does this seem not to get mentioned? This is all collateral damage. It seems impossible to me how we exit safely. All the above cannot wait until a vaccine is ready.

@pennylane83 Yes as someone in the shielded group I will wait until there is a vaccine. And yes flu kills some people every year. But the vaccine protects most people who are vulnerable to it.
This is not about waiting until there is no risk, but until it is low risk.
I should live another 30 years. So if covid 19 kills me in spite of a vaccine in 28 years time fine. But with a vaccine I should live many more years.

@cantory

Is it?

www.thenational.scot/news/18411999.nicola-sturgeon-press-boris-johnson-universal-basic-income/

I can assure you @Paper7i that's now top of the NHS agenda and there's clear direction for all hospitals to resume as much of normal diagnostics/outpatients/electives ASAP. However it won't be back to normal, it'll be a new normal, dealing with Covid alongside normal NHS processes for at least a year if not longer.

@pennylane83 And you have zero understanding of some of the reasons why people are in the shielded group. Other viruses will not kill me, covid 19 could. Honestly I find your comment incredibly offensive because it is from a total position of ignorance.

There haven't been coronavirus vaccines for humans because most coronaviruses that have affected humans until SARS/MERS/this are really mild so it wasn't worth developing a vaccine, and then SARS and MERS were stopped fast so there wasn't much investment in vaccine delivery. The team at Oxford working on a Covid-19 vaccine could go as fast as they have because they were previously working on a MERS vaccine though.

There were vaccines developed for SARS but they failed at animal testing phase as they triggered lung inflammation and hepatitis. As you observe work has been ongoing since.

It difficult to produce vaccines for respiratory illness due to the nature of the immune system in the lungs. And it’s difficult to produce vaccines for rna viruses as they have a much higher mutation rate than dna viruses. Although covid is more stable than flu.

@Sadie789 A universal basic income is not a socialist state. It is cheaper to administer than having a welfare state without some of the negatives of a welfare state.

@TatianaBis And yet we have a vaccine for pneumonia. So yes totally possible

@cantory we’re not going to agree on that one.

The government will run out of money by the end of the year. They have to be seen to be taking the virus seriously but as the public's patience with the lockdown falls, I think the economics will count more than the death rate.

@Sadie789 I am not even sure if a basic universal income would be a good idea. But it is not a socialist state.

@Winebottle So yes you are saying just let lots of people die.
You do know some Prime Ministers and governments believe in leadership?

Anyway I don't even know why I am arguing. I am not naive. I know our government are just going to let lots more people in the UK die. We will have the highest death rate in the UK, but we will be told it was inevitable, in spite of it not happening in other countries.
Because our government does not give a shit about old and disabled people. Not one shit. They are expendable.

This virus isn't going to go away, is it? We can't stay in lockdown forever. Society and the modern world as we know it would disintegrate, not only here but the rest of the world as well. Something has to give.

@cantory it’s a modern socialist’s dream and there’s plenty to read on the matter if you’re so inclined.