To think freedom from lockdown will be cancelled before Monday

[Viviennemary]

I think there will be backpedalling on the lockdown lifting. Really pessimistic news today. We are being prepared. IMHO.

@FourTeaFallOut

No. The move towards fewer restrictions will go ahead but the grave tones about personal responsibility is an arse covering deflection shield.

I agree. I wouldn't be surprised if there's even some kind of "personal responsibility" ad campaign over the summer.

Then if deaths increase a lot or they have to introduce measures again in the future, the government can say "it's because you didn't take personal responsibility!" to deflect the blame again.

No I don't think that will happen. But other things are happening...like mandatory vaccines for care home workers. Very dark times indeed.

Why would they cancel, nothing new has happened. Most cases are in teens and unvaccinated adults. After the scenes at the football why shouldn't I see my family and friends???

They will say there is freedom, but will encourage us to behave pretty much the same way as before, given that cases and deaths are rising.

It is what it is, unfortunately.

@MrsArchchancellorRidcully

We all accept at least 25k deaths from flu annually. Why should covid be any different?

It is going to be a bad flu year AND covid. So could well be higher than that. And it will be very tough on the NHS after the past 18 months.

Oh really. Can you predict the lottery numbers with that crystal ball too?

Well, I assume there’ll be a rise in infections after the football on Sunday meant that any vaguely sensible precautions were thrown to the wind. The aim is not to stop people getting sick; it’s to stop them ending up in hospital. If the vaccines do that then fair enough but I’ll be gutted to see deaths rise. I know far too many families who have suffered enough. I just hope this doesn’t mean they balls up yet another year for students and pupils. That utter fiasco at Christmas knocked schools out for another three months and wrecked Uni students chances of at least partial return to campus.

The government cannot legislate to remove all risks though. People die on the roads everyday so should they ban cars? We are now at the stage where most people who are vaccinated and catch COVID get it mildly and many of the people going into hospital with it are younger and have shorter stays.

We've been locked down for far too long and need to learn to live with COVID now. Personally, if anything should be stopped it should be big sports fixtures and holidays abroad.

The news is scaremongering. Has been all the long. Fear sells, sex sells, tragedy sells.
Look at the actual figures.
Look at the charts and graphs on direct gov.
It's not all that alarming at the moment.
We just need to be sensible. Can we do that?

They won’t last long from the Gov.uk website

The Government will maintain contingency plans for reimposing economic and social restrictions at a local, regional or national level if evidence suggests they are necessary to suppress or manage a dangerous variant. Such measures would only be re-introduced as a last resort to prevent unsustainable pressure on the NHS. The Government will also maintain the current regulations until 28 September that enable local authorities to respond to serious and imminent public health threats

So let’s see what happens in the next few weeks

Nope, it won't
There is very clear data that vaccinations break the link between severe illness and death.
Better to have this wave now than in the winter.

@Getyourarseofffthequattro

What do people actually want? If vaccines don't prevent it and people still die what's the alternative? Be restricted forever?

This. Surely we have to start living with Covid at some point.

What I want is no foreign travel for holidays this summer (and continuing support for the industry) and everyone else to carry on social distancing, wearing their masks, washing their hands and to limit their social interactions to small groups. I was appalled to be on public transport recently where the table in the middle of a group of seats felt sticky like it hadn't been cleaned in days let alone between passengers who would have changed every 2 hours.

I'm in the South and I don't know anyone who currently has it either.

I'm also a governor at my grandchild's school and we haven't had a single bubble burst at the school throughout the whole time it has been open.

Also, none of my family or friends have had to do any periods of isolation due to contacts or actually having the virus

I think it will go ahead. One thing I picked up from Chris witty is that all the modelling for various opening up dates (now or in the autumn) leads to the same conclusion. The advantage of doing it now I guess is that the nhs doesn't have other winter bugs to deal with. And I guess ‘politically’ people need a break and there is so much pressure from the ‘but so many people have been double jabbed’ camp. At the end of the day we have to open at some point.
I’m guessing another lockdown come winter though…

They can cancel all they like, and while yes I may be restricted on places open, I will be cracking on seeing my friends and family and having gatherings. If other people want to stay in more you do you, I'll do me.

Where can't you go currently that you would like to go ? Most people I know have been seeing family and friends who live in the UK, so why can't you ? Who we can see outside the Uk isn't just up to the UK Government, other countries can impose whatever rules they see fit.

Nope, Boris is very much a fan of populism. He’s going to give the public exactly what they want then possibly remove it again later down the line if it all gets too much again. But look, we can’t remain in lockdown forever so they did have to come a point where we all just went back to some level of normality and I guess this is it.

I think the big problem is that this variant affects teens and children, so we can all talk about ourselves and our personal responsibility etc, but then at some stage it comes back to if your child ends up in hospital and it was preventable ... (I've no answers and this helps nobody but we do have to remember this is actually a thing)

I agree with PP that it will go ahead but probably shouldn’t. With the way things are going at the moment, more restrictions are needed for a while , not less.

NEWS FLASH - common sense u turn trumps Covidiotic mixed messaging confusion!

Face masks must be worn on London tube, buses and trains after Freedom Day

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/face-masks-london-tube-buses-and-trains-b945612.html

I’m in W Yorks and it’s not good here at all. So many school and nursery kids isolating. Same with school staff. The chemists locally are massively behind in making up repeat prescriptions due to staff absences. Buses late or cancelled because drivers are off sick or isolating. Post late or none at all for days. More items out of stock in the supermarket I go to. Longer waiting times for the hospital treatment I have every 3 months. Am now way behind and in a lot of pain as a result. It’s really noticeably having an impact here. Also there seem to be lots of cases of viruses that are more usual in winter such as really nasty vomiting viruses and colds with fevers (negative covid tests) .

I’m for keeping masks mandatory.

@stayathomer

I think the big problem is that this variant affects teens and children, so we can all talk about ourselves and our personal responsibility etc, but then at some stage it comes back to if your child ends up in hospital and it was preventable ... (I've no answers and this helps nobody but we do have to remember this is actually a thing)

It does seem that aspect gets overlooked in a lot of the debate, possibly because of the early (but now largely outdated) understanding that children don't get affected, or not seriously. The risks seem to vary from short-term hospitalisation to 'Long Covid' and MIS-C, and then given what Prof. Semple from SAGE has said about long-term organ damage in children, I can't help feeling this should be getting a bit more attention (and meanwhile it makes each schoolday feel a bit like Russian roulette).

I know we need to keep it all in perspective and don't really know what how all the statistics look proportionately, but when ultimately someone has to be that statistic (e.g. 1 in 20) and my child's long term health is at stake, I'm all for a bit of caution.

I'm in the South and until this week only knew a small handful of people who have had Covid, and I have a huge number of friends, family, colleagues and contacts - I also work in an allied healthcare profession and would expect to be surrounded by cases but not so.
My son and his partner are currently infected but it has been fairly mild - a nephew tested positive months ago but was asymptomatic. I'm mindful this seems to be the exception rather than the norm.

Come on, of course it won't be cancelled. Boris has repeatedly called this "roadmap" "Irreversible", hasn't he? That word means no going back, once a thing is done it cannot ever be undone. Remember that word! So if there was another lockdown, then you would know beyond all doubt that Boris and his team are liars and that you cannot trust them - wouldn't you?

I'm not a covid denier in the slightest, I'm jabbed, wear masks, don't break the rules etc. I'm just bewildered by the fact that nobody in our family or social groups have had it. It's weird, some people know whole families that have had it.
But that is exactly how epidemic spread works, through social contact and clusters. The observations you are making are not independent - if you and two of your closest friends have not had covid, chances that your third best friend hasn't had it either are much higher.