To think it has started

[oohmamama]

Live in a beautiful seaside town in the SW.

Yesterday, in the 5 minutes of getting out of my car I saw the second home owners from Oxford in their holiday home opposite our house had arrived and a whole family get out of their car with their suitcases arrive at their gran's house two doors down.

Just...bloody...WAIT!!!

@MarshaBradyo

Insightful advice grin

As is your pointless remark on how deluded people are. So bloody irritating.

Sorry if you feel personally offended, but it has hardly been good has it.

Because Johnson said so

And he’s always so truthful and well informed

I believe in the vaccination programme. Over HALF the adults have now been vaccinated in the UK. The rate increases very day. Even the first vaccine alone offers protection after 2 weeks. Many of the elderly and very vulnerable have had the second vaccine.

I understand that despite a population of 67 million the UK cases are low in the majority of the country.

The death rate from covid is now low. The average death rate from all causes is now in line with normal years.

Businesses need to reopen. People need to go back to work that have been furloughed for 12 months in some cases.

The weather is getting better.

Time to unlock society again and treat this virus as another disease that comes along like many others

Sorry if you feel personally offended, but it has hardly been good has it.

I doubt anyone would say it has been good. It doesn’t need pointing just how bad though. We know.

So people that so carefully follow the rules and still catch covid, you must realize that blaming ‘selfish people doing what they want’ for ‘giving’ you covid is a load of shite right? You caught it from somewhere. And no, someone brushing past you in a shop for two seconds didn’t give it to you.

@TheOneWithTheBigNose

Because Johnson said so

And he’s always so truthful and well informed

@TheOneWithTheBigNose

Because Johnson said so

And he’s always so truthful and well informed

No, he isn't truthful but neither does he like to give bad news

@MarshaBradyo

Sorry if you feel personally offended, but it has hardly been good has it.

I doubt anyone would say it has been good. It doesn’t need pointing just how bad though. We know.

OK, so now we are not allowed to say things we know to be true? Why not? Because it upsets you?

Marsha But they really are. People are coming on here and demonstrating just how ignorant they are about Covid and just how exceptionally bad the UK’s response to it has been. The information on variants and the future risk is in the media and even being discussed by the government. Just today the vaccine Tzar has publicised that there will need to be another wave of booster vaccinations in the Autumn to prevent another wave of new variants and the currant round isn’t done yet . Yet we have people posting on here that nearly everyone is vaccinated, there is no risk of another wave and trying to throw shade at Australia. It’s bonkers

LMAO at trying to look down on Australia when it comes to Covid

It's not a case of looking down on Australia. We all know there case rate has been exceptionally low and many of the reasons why.
However, the fact of the matter is that if Australia wants to open up to the rest of the world again then they will have to get a vaccination programme rolled out just like every other country.

*their (bloody autocorrect again)

Its only 54 % of the adult population and 43% of the total population vaccinated with their first dose so why people on here are saying two thirds of the country are vaccinated. That's patently bollocks.
Plus the AZ vaccine is pretty ineffective against the SA and Brazillian variants which is accounting for at least 5% of cases in France and France isn't on the red travel list.
So if people think this is over now and they can go spreading their germs willy nilly in beautiful seaside towns they are idiots.

@MiddlesexGirl

LMAO at trying to look down on Australia when it comes to Covid

It's not a case of looking down on Australia. We all know there case rate has been exceptionally low and many of the reasons why.
However, the fact of the matter is that if Australia wants to open up to the rest of the world again then they will have to get a vaccination programme rolled out just like every other country.

But they don't need to rush like we do, because their internal economy is open.

The lucky countries are the ones able to do this all slowly and not in a panic. They can afford to wait as they are not shelling out billions on health costs and testing etc.

I have been arriving at my Mum's with suitcases, kids and husband every three weeks since Christmas. Thankfully her neighbours are aware she is on her own and that we are her support bubble.

@Emilyontmoor

Marsha But they really are. People are coming on here and demonstrating just how ignorant they are about Covid and just how exceptionally bad the UK’s response to it has been. The information on variants and the future risk is in the media and even being discussed by the government. Just today the vaccine Tzar has publicised that there will need to be another wave of booster vaccinations in the Autumn to prevent another wave of new variants and the currant round isn’t done yet . Yet we have people posting on here that nearly everyone is vaccinated, there is no risk of another wave and trying to throw shade at Australia. It’s bonkers

Yes we’ll need booster and we’re due to finish current before then iirc?

Aus is in such a different position it’s not useful as a comparison. Look to Europe first as variables more similar.

@mygenericusername

There will be no 3rd wave here. We got our act together vaccine wise unlike our mainland counterparts.

Well it would be a 4th wave anyway as we've had a 3rd, but I wouldn't get ahead of the game. Cases are falling because we are in lockdown. We don't actually know how effective the vaccine will be until we are all mingling again. For once, government is actually doing the right thing so far, but let's give it a bit of time before we start thinking from July it's back to normal. Hopefully it will be but you never know. Could be shit again.

Time to unlock society again and treat this virus as another disease that comes along like many others

It isn’t another disease that comes along like many others. It’s a novel Corona virus. It is three times as infectious as flu with ten times the mortality in its initial form. They thought it was less prone to mutation but it has proved them wrong and so there is no certainty about whether even more infectious strains will evolve with even higher rates of mortality. Why do you think that the government and scientists have been so alarmed about the South African and Brazilian stains? Why Europe is now battling a wave started by a strain that may have mutated as a result of high case rates here?

You are right we should be opening the economy up as other countries have been able to do. Taiwan’s economy grew 5% in the last quarter but we can’t do that until we get cases right down so we don’t breed another variant and we tighten up borders so a new one doesn’t arrive.

This isn’t from some right or left wing nonsense on the internet, it is scientific consensus.

Could be shit again.

Think this should be the government slogan wrt Covid!

Lots of new faces in our village this weekend. And supermarket delivery vans showing up outside second homes.

I guess people have just had enough of this whole situation but waiting until the rules say domestic travel and overnight stays are allowed would have been the right thing to do.

Travelling early is selfish and just gets locals backs up.

No, he isn't truthful but neither does he like to give bad news

Yes he does!!

How’s there going to be a third wave with more than half the adult population vaccinated? And if there were why would it matter if it was a wave of mild/asymptotic cases?

We have half vaccinated half the adult population. A big chunk of those are older people who are less likely to be freely moving about.

The impact of a big increase in cases even if they don’t lead to hospitalisation or deaths has been well documented. Firstly there is the impact on the economy. Every case leads to quarantine of the infected individual and isolation of their contacts. For every one ill person, that’s another group of maybe half a dozen (or more) people unable to go to work for ten days. Taking that many people out of the working economy for ten days will have an impact. Then there are schools. We’ve been back a fortnight and three of our local schools have at least 1 class already isolating meaning kids education and parents’ work being affected. One school has closed completely.

You may think but why do we need to isolate people if it is just mild/asymptotic. Again, the perils of this are well known. The issue with long Covid is becoming clearer, people who will end up with debilitating health problems will cost workplaces and government money to support for however long.

More importantly, there are mutations. The virus is ever changing as viruses do. So far we’ve seen a number of variants which could potentially render the vaccine useless. The U.K. variant is thought to be responsible for 90% of cases now. If we had properly controlled things before, we probably wouldn’t have that variant and winter wouldn’t have been so out of control. So far the mutations have only affected how virulent the virus is. The next mutation might make it easier for children to be affected, or make it more drug resistant.

The familiar cry of “we’re going to have to live with this now it’s here” assumes we can just vaccinate people and carry on. That is not the case. We have to find a way to balance life with the risk and right now the risk is that if we aren’t cautious, we let it run rampant and it can undo the good work we’ve done to date. We have a choice to go slowly until every adult who can be is fully vaccinated, (or at least enough for herd immunity) and to see out the rest of the year with more restrictions, or go too quickly and find we are still doing this again and again in the coming years. Unfortunately too many people want the good stuff now without a thought for the consequences.

Central london here. Throughout lockdown there’s been coming and going just as there is all year round and so too locals have been priced out of areas due to second home owners, absentee owners, general buying power of some etc etc. Why is it that some of us live with this inequality as a daily fact of life and are open and welcoming to outsiders and tourists every single day of our lives - get really tired of some places thinking it’s ok to say ‘you’re not local unless you’re at least fourth generation’ ‘we’re sick of second home owners’ etc when millions of us live this as a daily reality.
It’s all crap. It’s the society we all live in. It’s the result of policies we are all affected by.

Like shopping on our own, not taking children unnecessarily- that sort of thing?

Perhaps she went shopping alone then picked up the kids from school on the way home. Perhaps she is a single mum and has no choice but to shop with children. There is no suggestion she went shopping with the children unnecessarily.

@sydenhamhiller

I’m a teacher. Have taught in school all through the past 12 months, across various year groups and bubbles. Have followed the law. Caught Covid in October. Was all ready to see family at Xmas, then lockdown happened again and we couldn’t.

This week my mum has been diagnosed with very aggressive leukaemia. She has a year at the most. We have hardly been able to see her over the past year as they live in the NW, which had stricter rules than us in the SE for ages.

I have followed the rules, even when kids in my class talk about uncle so and so’s party at the weekend with all the cousins, and various sleepovers.

No longer. My mum is dying, and I am going to see her when she wants. The consultant spoke to me on the phone last night and said ‘if this was my mother, and there is not much time, this is what I would do’.

But perhaps my mum’s neighbours will see us getting out of the car with our suitcases and want to report us too?

I realise the thread has moved on but we are in a similar position with MIL and like you, have decided that her seeing her children and Grandchildren, along with a much wanted trip to the seaside is what matters.

We will take all reasonable and sensible precautions, but I take a dim view of anyone judging us.

I hope you are able to spend some quality time as a family.