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?

This is an interesting review of the evidence around the effectiveness of different ways of reducing Covid-19 infection.

I subcontract within nhs , they are meeting heavy and some of my colleagues have to sit through a three hour meeting of things that are irrelevant to their job to give their five minutes.

A 12 hour meeting is pointless and overkill.

Thank you @Cloudflare

When I lived in my house share my housemate would email with a breakdown of how much pointless meetings had cost them every week (she was a contractor). Soon cut down on the amount of meaningless meetings she was invited to!

The thing about conspiracy theorists is that they throw out all sorts of predictions, and just like the stopped clock, they are occasionally right. It doesn't mean that they are a reliable source of info.

My BIL used to spout all kinds about Covid passports being permanent in order to bully people into accepting forced vaccination and us never getting our freedom back.

But you didn’t die.

Bygone There is more to living than just not dying!!!

The study conclusions are that it is uncertain whether or not they make a difference so further research is needed.

Ok but it's a relatively small portion of the population who will be offered Covid boosters, and unlike flu shots, there is no option to go private and buy a Covid booster.

I don't agree with the attitude of 'well people can just pay for flu shots then'. Many of the people least able to afford this are those working in public-facing positions who will be most exposed to flu.

It really is mind-boggling, it's like the government is just happy for flu and covid to rip through the population this winter.

Perhaps the most interesting part is the difference between what they say about the evidence as they examine it and then the strength of the conclusions they draw...

I saw one of the authors make a great point on twitter the other day, that one of the things he found most striking was the paucity of evidence, and how he wanted that to change next pandemic. People don't seem to have picked that part up much yet, unfortunately.

I must admit we're a bit worried about the current bird flu outbreak. Now that it has crossed over into cats it's only a matter of time before it jumps to humans.

It’s threads like this that made me deregister from here back in 2020. A load of ill informed, frothing nonsense that achieves nothing but winding people up to no purpose.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this thread was created by a mod for clicks.

Stranger things have happened, but the pandemic experience really did do a number on a lot of people's mental health.

Yes, the recommendations of the report include having standardised protocols for data collection to improve the quality of studies in future pandemics.

And other mammals.

However, we know how to make flu vaccines and (thanks to Covid) have experience of switching manufacture to create millions of doses of vaccinations for emerging strains.

So if bird flu does start to spread between people and is serious, at least we have something of a head start, compared to Covid, which was a completely new virus.

Which seems like a really good idea.

Thank you

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You can't guarantee there won't be another pandemic for a long time. It could be here tomorrow. But it might not be for years and years. As ordinary citizens we can't do anything really to plan for the next pandemic, just hope that governments are planning.

In the mean time we've got enough to worry about with the new endemic disease we've still got from the last pandemic.

Some people cope by adapting to new circumstances and reducing risks even when they know they can't remove them completely.

Some people can only cope by pretending everything's fine and there's no risk at all. They're the ones who have got what they want at the moment.

Unfortunately that attitude comes with a price that's more illness generally, both for themselves and for other people. It's really short-sighted but those people (and business interests) don't want it any other way at the moment.

Could easily be another US led lockdown attempt prior to the US election to justify shutting the polling stations and forcing postal / electronic voting.

if it happened over there, I think they’d try to make us follow over here, and I think most people would comply again.

• invest in research towards a fully sterilising future vaccine

I’m assuming that’s a joke??

I wore one of those N95 masks once, it was suddenly produced by a member of a community group I was volunteering for and I was told I had to wear it. I was in bed for two hours after with a horrific headache and quit before the next session. I thought it was just me with a chemical sensitivity and was too anxious to request not to wear it.