Do you think there will be yearly boosters and restrictions for those who don't comply?

[Jobseeker19]

I feel like the goal posts are constantly being moved and that we are being asked to do more and more.

Will people who have had 2 vaccines be classed as not fully vaccinated anymore?

Yearly boosters for sure, and boosters required to keep your vaccine passports up to date. If you’ll need a vaccine passport for anything is a whole different question.

I think we’ll end up with yearly boosters and no restrictions, like flu

I think this too.

These are early generation vaccines and this is the first no restriction winter so is a bit of a trial and error period. As the vaccines are developed further it'll reach a stage, possibly as soon as next winter, where your vaccine immunity lasts longer than six months. It'll also reach a stage where you go for your flu jab in one arm and get your covid jab in the other arm at the same time, all those eligible can get it free on the NHS and everyone else who wants one can pay for it from the pharmacy/get it via their employer as they do now with the flu jab.

If they do go down this route they will have to put an exemption so that people who have experienced side effects from previous vaccinations aren't required to have boosters and GPs need to start believing all patients when they report their side effects (including women with menstrual side effects), and this will need to be a fairly low threshold for side effect severity.

A society that expects to be able to inflict suffering on individuals every year, for the greater good, (or every 6 months as it had been so far) is not a society I want to live in.

It's an evolving situation so I don't think it's appropriate to talk in terms of changing the goalposts.

No idea about potential restrictions but I'd hope and expect that anyone without a clinical exemption would need to be up to date with boosters if they want to travel to another country.

I have the flu jab every year, I don’t see the difference

No restrictions imposed on those that don't have it. That's quite a big difference.

There are 2 related issues, the changing nature of the pandemic and the political response to the pandemic.

If you look at pandemics historically, they typically lasted 2-5 years. They mostly ended because the way the disease circulated in population changed, not because the pathogen became less virulent. The prediction that makes the most sense to me is that we end up with covid in general circulation with periodic outbreaks in different places.

The political response to the pandemic has been mostly knee-jerk authoritarianism. Compulsory medical treatment of any kind is wrong. Travel restrictions and closing borders are political measures, not public health interventions.

I am very pro-vaccination and think everyone should have the jab. I still believe that forcing people to be vaccinated in order to keep their jobs is completely wrong.

It’s is becoming apparent that it is not a one and done type of virus so the approach to dealing with it has to evolve. I imagine it will be like flu where you aren’t ever fully vaccinated as you have an annual flu jab, in fact I think in time it will be an all in one flu and covid jab. Really don’t see the big deal if that is the case.

I’m not sure it will be in ‘different places’ though . It was in the past because no one travelled. But now we live in a global world.

It was in the past because no one travelled.

I completely disagree with this. People have always travelled, starting with the first human beings who came out of Africa. It is a normal part of human life.

Yes, but not flying like now. Of course it spread. But it’s the speed of global spread which is an issue. Caused by flying.

I reacted badly to the booster but will have it yearly if I have to.