Do you think the government/scientists must be confident about the Oxford vaccine to keep mentioning it?

[Whatsthis1515]

Just that really. Don't know how to expand on my question

I have to say we haven’t done anything different at all since the slight changes came into effect except that yesterday we took a picnic blanket on our walk and sat down in the park for a drink and a snack for half an hour or so. Obviously we were well away from anyone else. I can’t imagine we are alone?

@Drivingdownthe101

From what i ve seen, by allowing driving to exercise, garden centres, outdoor water sports AND go back to work... he has given the green light to pretty much do as you like, even if on paper, the restrictions remain.
My local village yesterday had bikers, boats up from Plymouth, walkers, locals meeting up for picnics with anyone they fancied, no one keeping apart.

So if we Stay Alert we can do as we please!

Same here Sunshinegirl82. Still working from home, still home schooling, still not seeing family or friends, DC still not seeing theirs, still can’t eat out etc. Not sure what other people are doing massively different as everything is still shut.

Interesting jasjas1973, doesn’t seem to be like that here at all.
Then again I didn’t spend my weekends at garden centres or doing water sports anyway so not much changed for me!

So if we Stay Alert we can do as we please!

Do as you please, other than.... go to a restaurant, cafe or pub, watch a film in the cinema or a play at the theatre, work out in your local gym, shop in non-essential stores, travel outside of England, send your children to school, have your hair cut, get your nails done, borrow a book from the library, go for a dental appointment.... and so much else besides.

People must have a very narrow idea of life if they consider we can 'do as we please' in current circumstances.

I did find it a bit of a turnaround suddenly talking about 30 million doses by September. I was literally like where the hell is this coming from and googling to see if there was some massive breakthrough I’d missed. In reality massively misleading positive headlines with lots of “ifs” and incredibly unlikely’s in the small print.

People must have a very narrow idea of life if they consider we can 'do as we please' in current circumstances.

Yup! I can’t do anything as I please & neither can my children or husband or parents. I guess we could walk around the local park for the billionth time or queue for Lidl ... but neither is remotely normal or pleasing!

All the things we would usually be doing - going to work, lunch with colleagues, dentist, opticians, hair dressers, day out in London with parents, cinema with daughter, driving over to take MIL to hospital appointment, music lessons, art classes, swimming lessons, theatre, visiting the library, holidays, gigs, exhibitions, drinks with friends, family parties, getting the roofers in, clearing the garden (tip isn’t open), speech therapy for ds ... the list goes on on and on ... in what ways can we do what we please?

@Laniakea

The whole 'Well, in my town everyone seems to be back to normal' nonsense has been an MN regular for at least 5 weeks now. Their towns must be incredibly dull if life with no cafes, restaurants, cinemas, gyms etc is 'normal' for them. Maybe that's why they spend so much time worrying about people having a simple walk in the park?

Back on topic, I don't get that the govt 'keep' going on about the Oxford vaccine. As far as I can tell, other than the cautious optimism - echoed by the team involved in the vaccine trials - of yesterday's presser they haven't much discussed it at all.

Meanwhile, in the US, early trials on the Moderna vaccine have been positive and have boosted the markets, with the CEO saying initial results 'could not have been any better'.

Hence thinking it’s spin personally as I couldn’t find anything to back up such sudden high optimism unless it was entirely based on building infrastructure to mass produce “if” it proves to be effective

My take from the announcement is that

1. The UK is developing 2 Credible vaccine options. The Oxford vaccine is in the human and animal testing stage.
2. In the meantime plans are being made for mass production to produce vaccines as early as September and full population coverage within 3 months of then.
3. It might not work at all

In other words we are planning in parallel. This is expensive and possibly a waste of money.

I interpret ‘Do as you please’ as people increasingly saying ‘we can make our own risk assessments about visiting family’.

Very confident. Like the time they promised that supply of PPE from Turkey or the 100000 tests a day. Just a headline grabbing sound bite to defect the attention somewhere to buy themselves some time so they can make things up as they go along.

Gutted about the Oxford monkey results. However, if it stops people getting pneumonia does that mean NHS won’t be overwhelmed? So it won’t be revolutionary but it’ll help getting people back out there as lockdown was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed?

They're whistling in the dark as usual. The vaccine may be effective or it may not but, whichever it is, the government's confidence has no bearing either way. It won't be ready by September either, whatever the tabloids (or the government) are saying.

It was pretty obvious that there was never any real intention to start sending children back to school in June 1st. They just said it to get people through the month

So they ar giving some people false hopes, getting other people stressed and making school leaders and teachers run around like blue arsed flies in half term preparing schools for something which isn't going to happen and also stopping provision for key worker children in half term (at my DCs school) so staff are available to work through their holiday preparing classrooms for children coming in who aren't actually going to be coming?

Sure people have still some severe restrictions but in the context of a so called Lockdown, designed to limit infection and lower/eliminate death rates, it certainly is Do as you please! or as i call it... Herd Immunity.

The whole Vaccine nonsense (the UK couldn't develop a cold) is all designed to distract us from what is really happening.

well if that's the case I'm okay with it - new cases are falling despite increased testing, hospital beds are emptying, ITUs are being freed up, fewer people are dying.