Is there going to be another pandemic

[Lookingforwardtoautumnnow]

This winter?

Seen a couple of people posting about it, tbf they are conspiracy types, but I have anxiety after having covid & long covid and can’t go through all that again. Can anyone reassure me?

Could be, but we don’t know. We’ve already got AIDS and Covid going on. If the government had managed better and learnt from SARS 1 like many East and South-East Asian countries, we wouldn’t necessarily have had to have the lockdowns. The Covid pandemic became a culture war issue and then the battle is totally lost really.

I am so sorry to hear of your loss @KingSeokjin

Oh goody, this is taking me back to the whole "my dog's cousin's sister's husband [NB it's always a very important man] has inside knowledge" thing.

Yes < checks date>

Mine was in school as it was the best decision for him. I'd be talking to my boss to try to have him working on his days off of remote learning if his college shut, anything to get him out of the house!

They are providing them, same as flu shots, to the people who most need one
As always you can pay for a flu jab if you don't fall into any of the categories

The international health emergency is over, but the pandemic isn't. It's not background level endemic -transmission remains high (even with reduced testing leading to shonkier evidence base) and in waves, and produces excess deaths. The burden of long covid isn't fully known, nor longer term repercussions of repeat infections. Not least the dysregulation of the immune system (which of course would leave the population more likely to catch other infectious diseases, or have worse illness when they do catch them)

But could we have another pandemic? Yes.

There could be a new strain of flu

Or, as we had SARS in 2003, MERS in 2012 and SARS-2 in 2019, I wouldn't be betting against MERS-2 trotting along at some point.

Or there could be something else

How countries respond will depend on the nature of the disease produced

You can't stay alive if you kill off your hosts - this doesn't apply to covid-19. It transmits before symptoms, so it doesn't actually matter from an evolutionary standpoint how sick or dead it makes the host, it's already moved on

I'd have done exactly the same if I'd had the option.

Something similar was said at work (I work in a medical area) and honestly I couldn’t cope if it did. I really hope the person is highly mistaken. They are saying they expect another lockdown this autumn/winter.

This isn't news though. The government monitor every new strain. The government monitor things that the ordinary person on the street has never heard of. Earlier in the summer there was quite a lot of attention on the numbers of avian influenza in cats in Poland, and whether this posed a risk to humans (either as cat owners in direct contact with infected animals or the potential implications of AI crossing into mammals). I doubt many people were even aware that this was happening.

So what was the outcome then?
I though that Parliament was on summer recess?

Was that bird flu?

The money and time spent on the lockdown for Covid 19 is unlikely to be repeated. Make of that what you will.

Possibly, I do recall whatever illness it was affected children more I think (I had a youngish child at the time).

@Autieangel swine flu

the problem is we don’t know how many cases we have. This strain could be mostly asymptomatic and the unlucky few in hospital are just that.

alternatively, we don’t have many cases and the severity of this strain is much worse.

I think we still monitor covid levels in sewage but I’ve not seen anything in the news about it.

@Namechangerererererer ahh yes I do remember that

Only extreme covid cultists will fall for it again

The way so many people default to assuming it's just what we do in pandemics is really interesting.

What we can do is:

• invest in cleaner air (filtration/ventilation)
• require masks in medical settings
• consider further mask mandates when transmission is high eg on public transport, during peaks
• expand the autumn vaccination programme
• better messaging on the guidance for what to do if you have covid (ie stay at home unless essential you leave it, practice social distancing if you must go out plus keep away from more vulnerable people)
• provide prophylactic MABs (when available) to the critically vulnerable (one of the biggest disgraces of the whole pandemic to date is the failure to do that in 2022)
• invest in research towards a fully sterilising future vaccine
• invest in research for better antivirals, and make them more widely available
• create better long covid care pathways

There will almost certainly be another pandemic at some point in the future. That's just how nature works. However, it's hard to imagine a scenario where there will be a repeat of lockdown and other restrictions in Britain any time soon.

Pink i bet there is a correlation between those who had a great lockdown in their big houses and spacious gardens and those who want another one,

I’m in the US and Covid is ramping up significantly here again. I’m due with a winter baby and so am keeping an eye on the news, but I definitely don’t expect there will be lockdowns. People have to work to survive and many economies haven’t recovered from the 2020-2021 lockdowns. People have Covid fatigue.

OP, I think it will be more up to individual people on what measures they want to take. Some will take none. I’m back to grocery collection and wearing a mask and using antibac for drs appts. Avoiding indoor children’s places because kids here have gone back to school and so the general germs are starting to spread about as they usually do when kids go back. Otherwise we are still going to restaurants and living life because honestly with the lack of restrictions anywhere here we are likely to get it from work even if we do nothing else! I suspect people in the UK feel the same way, that if they have to work and there’s no measures then what is the actual point of removing the fun stuff too? I feel very sorry for those that are clinically vulnerable and may face a lonely winter but hopefully they will have a vaccine choice if they want to and can take it x

"enjoying the quieter pace of life"

"appreciating what's really important"

"idiots flocking to beaches"

"selfish people visiting their families"

Definitely there are some here nostalgic for the chance to say all that and more again, from the comfort of their WFH office where they of course are 'so much more productive'.

Waste water monitoring for Covid has ended in England and Wales. I'm not sure if it is still running in Scotland.