To ask what the plan is for covid this winter?

[TreeHouse8]

Winter will soon be upon us and for many, the worry is understandably how they'll heat their homes. However, covid has not gone away with hundreds dying every week and many more getting long covid.

Not that you would know it from the media, who have moved onto their best story. Am I the only one concerned that there has been no mention of what protections will be in place to protect the nhs when we inevitably have a winter covid wave? Is the message still "let the bodies like high"?

Surely the government should be setting out a plan now for common sense, light touch protections that will help the NHS get through winter? I.e. boosters offered to all, a return to testing and isolating if positive, work from home, high-quality masks indoors, social distancing in hospitality, ventilation in public spaces.

They should also list further protections that may need to be imposed depending on numbers and criteria for these, such as limits on large events, the rule of 6, ban on indoor mixing, blended learning up to full lockdown if unfortunately necessary.

Are the vulnerable and the NHS just going to be fed to the wolves this winter?

I was a believer in the lock down..we didn't know what COVID was, we saw horrific scene's from Italy, and at that time the lock down was correct.
However there is no way on earth I would have stopped seeing my parents had they been alive!
No bloody way!
I would have quarantine myself and gone and it would be their descion not mine.

It seems to me that there are a few people on MN who yearn for lockdowns, masks and general restrictions. It’s most odd.

This is, of course what I meant. If there is another lockdown I would unfortunately probably not be able to see my Dad in his care home, but I would not be leaving my 91 year old Mother alone.

Ah ok, apologies. That's tough. My parents are in their 80s with some health issues but they want to live their life. It's also been hard supporting their widowed friends in lockdown.

Even then I don't see much beyond masks and maybe a bit of pissing about with hospitality. The money, political will and public buy in have gone.

I won't be SD, avoiding crowds or wearing a silly paper mask. I will however continue socialising, traveling and enjoying my life.

Only a select few seem to enjoy the misery of lockdowns and wearing a paper mask! Lord knows why, but op feel free to crack on while the rest of us get on with life

I got married last winter (no restrictions, no one caught covid and it was a big wedding). One poster told me I should look to reschedule to summer 2023, ‘preferably outside’ and 30 people predicting we’d be locked down every November to March from now on and needed to get used to it.

I think some people genuinely hoped for that way of life.

I doubt there will be any restrictions, covid is now just another illness. However, it is still causing a lot of issues and no doubt will contribute to the sheer mess the NHS is in this winter. Vaccines have thankfully made it liveable with and that programme will continue.

I have long covid. I'm only just getting back to work, I've been shockingly ill and hospitalised with it. It's not nothing for me, but I still don't think we should go back into restrictions etc because we just can't live like that long term with effects on the economy, MH etc. One of my DC had a breakdown during lockdown. But I also lost people to covid and supported lockdown so I find some of these posts a bit insensitive tbh

No I do not believe that hundreds are dying in this country every week from Covid. I believe people are seriously unwell and dying as a result of not getting to see a GP or getting an appointment for medical issues due to the back log of patients during restrictions. And you think putting restrictions back in place will help the NHS? No. No chance in hell.

You might not believe it, but it's still true, just look on the ONS link above. There are hundreds still with it as primary/main factor on the death certificate and they should be the ones counted and they are. So yeah it is still happening. The backlog is awful and I'm experiencing that myself in terms of surgery but I then think about how much worse it would've been without lockdowns and especially vaccines. The NHS was in a dreadful state during the worst of it and the restrictions were the only thing that kept it from going completely under and more people dying. Sometimes we forget how awful it was at first.

So I'm mixed I guess. I don't want to go back at all but some of these posts piss me off with their insensitivity, when I am sitting here with cardiac issues due to covid. Also there's a lot of research now saying many of the excess deaths are likely due to previous covid infections, and their strain on the heart, so lots of these deaths from heart disease, stroke etc are as a result of this. So we can't just discount it, what we need is more research into it.

Weirdly I've JUST been thinking about this and googling to see if there's any plans. I, otoh, was hoping to hear that we're not doing all that shit again. We can't afford it, plain and simple, covid is here to stay. We can't shut down every winter, people need to bloody work.

Because social distancing is boring and unsociable, and wearing a mask is toss.

You might not have any friends, but I do and have a very active social life.

Some on here are saying they wouldn't comply with another lockdown. If the government brings in overnight a partial or full lockdown (as they've done before) that imposes many restrictions you can't get around. The OP does seem to be relishing the idea that this should happen again. For some the only way to spend time in a social environment is public places being open. If you're someone with no family left and perhaps no friends in your locality it can be a lifesaver to go to your local cafe, etc and just sit and spend time amongst other people. My assumption is that the Government would never feel able to impose the type of restrictions on us that they did in 2020/2021, but it's this government.

I hope I’m not going to sound glib or stupid or anything but I genuinely don’t think about covid from one week to the next.

and, as someone who followed every rule to the letter, I think anything other than the full lock down was just a tinkering around the edges that had no real effect. All that tier 3, rule of 6, go to the pub with a substantial meal nonsense. It made marginal / no difference imo

Yeah, not only that but mask and social distancing had a huge impact on a lot of services.

For example, right now, I am attending a mental health crisis cafe. It is all good now.... but I also went there during the height of Covid.

During Covid, the staff member that was assigned to me had to stay 2m away, and wear a mask and shield. They could not serve us any drinks, and we were not allowed to talk to anyone else in the building. Pre-Covid, we could attend for 4 hours. During Covid, it was a strict 2 hour window that was booked. Normally, we had 14 evenings to attend. During Covid, no more than 2.
We had a "guest box" of some pens, a colouring book and a puzzle book. All got binned after our time there.
Imagine sitting there, and trying to engage with someone about your mental health crisis, and all you can see is their eyes behind a shield. It was ridiculous.

I don't see anyone arguing that all measures could be opted out of, or that everyone can refuse to comply. But there are lots of people who could and did evade various restrictions. I agree though it's moot as clearly not going to happen again.

Sorry, I wasn't being snippy with you, it was directed at the person that said that I would have no choice but to comply with a lockdown.

I just think that having seen the effects of the last lockdown on mental health and livelihoods, people would rebel in their millions.

Of course they would. There was a fair amount of it going on last time, and that was before Partygate changed everything. It's so glaringly obvious that this would happen, in fact, that it's one of the main reasons mitigating against further significant restrictions.

The plan for the winter is to get my vaccination booster and my flu vaccine. Both booked for mid October. Nothing else.

Anyone who wants to live a half life of perpetual lockdowns and masks can go ahead and do it by themselves. I won't be participating. Life has thankfully returned to normal and that stupid shit is in the past.

There are clearly some lockdown lovers still around.

We will go about out business as usual. Booster shots will be available for those who feel the need. You can take whatever measures you want, wear a mask if you want. Stay indoors if you want. Do what you feel you need to do for your health. But allow others to make their own choices too.

It wasn't complicated. Which part of 'Don't be dim' do you not understand?

As someone who lives in the Southern Hemisphere - ie. we are just emerging from our winter - I would take common-sense precautions to prepare. Have your Covid and flu boosters if you do take them and take care in crowded spaces. Given that the trend usually is whatever occurs in the SH winter then is a pattern in the NH, it is more than likely you could have a rough winter.

We had record amounts of Covid, influenza and RSV circulating, putting strain on our health services and closing businesses. PCR testing sites here also test for flu and RSV (perhaps accounting for the high levels of positive RSV/flu tests), and even though LFTs are a personal cost and always have been, most people simply test that way. The Government did make some murmurings at one stage about a potential lockdown, but I think they recognised there was no public appetite - and no real advantage - for it and abandoned the thought. I'd hope yours would do the same except in dire circumstances.

Not sure where you are getting your facts from, but lockdown saved approximately 0.02% of lives. How many more have died because of lockdown?!

Its here to stay, learn to live with it. Wear the mask if it makes you feel better. I did whilst travelling this summer.

OP so you want businesses, who are not protected by any utilities price cap, to further have their profit margins diminished by social distancing?

Please could you link where this figure comes from?

Made-up figure alert

I think a government plan would provide a bit of certainty. Put in place baseline measures like isolating, masking and social distancing now.

Then provide a roadmap of further protective measures that may be required to help the NHS- e.g. the rule of 6 at x number of cases, school closures right up to full lockdown if needed.

This would give our poor NHS staff confidence that they will be supported if necessary this winter. The NHS cannot get through the backlog if it is full of covid patients.

There may also be a new variant, which the government would need to react quickly to by imposing additional protections.

Lolz