Is Covid here to stay and will we keep needing boosters?

[Wbfa]

Just that really. First they said get vaccinated. Then they said oops, get a booster. Then oops again, second booster for extremely vulnerable folks. Some countries are already doing multiple boosters. AIBU in feeling like nobody really knows what is going on or what to do next?

@Wbfa

I think what I said is being misunderstood. Its not about vaccines good/bad. Its the way people were made to feel that things would slowly go back to normal once we got vaccines/followed rules and then told well actually you still cant get your treatments/surgeries on time, you still cant travel, restrictions etc until you get your booster. Fair enough we go get the booster. Then another and another. Whose to say things will change? Probably won’t. It’s all a-bit dismal to me.

They are going slowly back to normal! This time last year, in the UK, we were locked inside with no vaccines and there were 101,000 hospital admissions, in England, in January alone.

@Wbfa

Also its not an “annual booster” where I am some people have already received 2 boosters within the same year.

Where are you when some people have had two boosters so far?

As far as I'm aware every adult in the U.K. is eligible for two main doses and one booster.
A small number of adults with immune issues are eligible for three main doses and a booster. This isn't two boosters. The three initial ones are all the primary dose.

It isn't unusual for some vaccines to need a series of primary doses and then a booster done every so often.

Hopefully we will be able to go to it being an annual booster, similar to the flu vaccine.

[quote RampantIvy]@Mickarooni some cancer patients have had them. One of my friends has.[/quote]
That is not two boosters iirr.
It's three primary doses and a booster

Yes agreed. Government keep moving the goalposts. Soon it will be a booster every 3 months.

I think it will just become another seasonal thing like flu. Those vulnerable or that choose to will have a winter booster and we'll just treat it like getting the flu

@Beautiful3

Yes agreed. Government keep moving the goalposts. Soon it will be a booster every 3 months.

The government isn't running the course of the pandemic. That would be the virus.

Nobody is moving any goalposts. It's too early for there to be any goalposts. Nobody said you will only ever need 2 doses. The vaccines were only released this time last year. And then people whined about it being 'too soon!". Now it's "too many doses!". Honestly, the priveledged western whining is really starting to get on my nerves. Don't have the boosters if you don't want them! Let all the people that see their value have them though, I'm beyond grateful to have had a third shot, especially as it allowed me to access the Pfizer vaccine when I'd previously had AZ for the primary course. I'd happily have a 4th shot of any vaccine. I don't want covid and I don't want long covid.

Thinking that it’s “oops” rather than responding to changing information makes you seem somewhat hard of thinking.

Oops' WTF. I am so sick of these dumb goady posts. I can't be arsed to read the thread but let me guess 'goalposts moved''vaccines don't work anyway' 'mild cold'?

Why are people being so aggressive towards OP? I hate that you can't hdbe any sort of debate about Covid on Mumsnet without anyone who shows any concerns about the vaccine being ridiculed and called names. I think being concerned about potentially having four vaccines for the same illness in just one year is reasonable.

What would you prefer op?

Because they're deliberate. And repetitive. And tedious. And factualy incorrect. Normal people are fed up of the anti vax bullshit now

I have no concerns about having 4 jabs in one year (the first year) for one illness (a new, potentially nasty one with possible long term effects on the brain), because I understand how vaccines and the human immune system works. If you don't or feel uncomfortable ir some nebulous, unspeciified reason, Too soon! Too much! needle phobia! Whatever, don't have them! Donate your dose to someone in India or Africa. Just don't post endless, pathetically transparent, repetitive post on MN, desperately trying to influence people not to have a vaccine. Why does anyone care whether other people have the vaccine or not!

It will be like flu/other coronavirus, rhinoviruses and adenoviruses. The vulnerable will get regular boosters. For the rest of us it will be circulating constantly, we will get regularly exposed and get mildly ill from time to time as with other viruses and that will be it. I was due my booster but got it instead, it was mild, but for isolation requirements in any other time it would have been 2-3 days sick and the rest of the week wfh. I'd expect to get it or comparable viruses 2-3 times each winter anyway.

If past infection doesn’t provide much immunity then it will still be more difficult for public health to manage it as it has a much much higher r number than flu. We would get much bigger waves of infection every year which would impact services everywhere when lots of people are sick.

For those saying that there's the annual flu jab : It's a guess each year what they put it in, and still people die of the flu.

We've never locked the vulnerable away because of flu.

Yes, that's right, they just take a random guess as to which flu strain to put in and Chuck it in!

I love how now we've moved from "it's juts the flu" to "well people die if the flu every year!" Yes, that's right, thats why we have vaccination programs!

@Wbfa

Also its not an “annual booster” where I am some people have already received 2 boosters within the same year.

Because this is the first year, an emerging situation. It won't be like this forever you have to assume.

@Wbfa

I think what I said is being misunderstood. Its not about vaccines good/bad. Its the way people were made to feel that things would slowly go back to normal once we got vaccines/followed rules and then told well actually you still cant get your treatments/surgeries on time, you still cant travel, restrictions etc until you get your booster. Fair enough we go get the booster. Then another and another. Whose to say things will change? Probably won’t. It’s all a-bit dismal to me.

Such a shame it's all a bit dismissal to you. Try being grateful you live in an age with such good scientists.

There’s an actual Covid board for this kind of crap

@Sonex thank you for speaking such good sense! Honestly, I've never seen such breathtaking lack of awareness of privilege (and yes, access to vaccines is a fucking privilege) as I have during this pandemic.