Will we have to socially distance until there’s a vaccination?

[sunshineanddaffodils]

This horrible thought suddenly occurred to me last night. What do you think?

At the end of the day this social distancing pish has a limited life span. Once people decide they can’t be arsed with it any more, the government are fucked.

I think there will be a quiet revolution as more and more people decide to live their life and risk getting the virus. For my age category with no other risk factors the risk of me dying is low. I might feel differently if I was at higher risk and certainly if shielded. Everyone should be allowed to do their own risk assessment and act accordingly.

soduko I couldn't disagree more. This is not like lots of things. We are learning to live with it, right now. And learning to treat it and defeat it. We're not going to teach any more of our HCPS how to die with it, I hope. You sound an utter delight.

God I hope not. There may never be a vaccine.

This virus will no doubt just become one of the many viruses we can catch in a few years. It is a big deal now because it is new.. I think we just have to learn to live with it. Effective treatments would help

Illnesses happen and people die. That’s the nature of them, sad as it is. The lockdown was the right thing to do to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed but that was the only reason we had it. The government don’t care less about the number of people dying , as long as the NHS isn’t overwhelmed. I think the lockdown and measures were the right thing to do, and I am not proposing they all be lifted tomorrow, but equally the cure can’t be allowed to be worse than the virus which it will be if it goes on much longer.

Things like buses running at a quarter capacity - how can that be sustained for any length of time? People can’t run businesses that are necessary to fuel the economy and pay for the NHS if they have to implement social distancing. It absolutely can’t go on. The damage caused by these measures going on indefinitely will be worse than the virus.

This is an interesting discussion on the mixed prospects for a vaccine and managing future risk. The conclusion is that although we should get a vaccine it is unlikely to be 100% effective and we will be living with this long term.
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/22/why-we-might-not-get-a-coronavirus-vaccine?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Gmail

sodoku

I just don't agree but I can understand why we don't have an understanding of how devastating a pandemic can be because we haven't had one in living memory. I would like to keep it that way. But I would like to see welfare checks immediately in place for children who are unofficially identified as vulnerable by schools.

SARS, MERS, 1968 Flu? I think folks are still alive who have lived through all 3...

But the pandemic is not just devastating in terms of loss of life from the virus, although that’s bad enough. I can’t even imagine what it would have been like if it had been allowed to run uncheck and the impact that would have had on society in all ways. But there have to be steps taken to get our lives largely back to how we lived them before or the economy will collapse and that will screw the NHS and cause it to go under every bit as much as serious illness from the virus would have.

Yes ok. I'm sure you can see how this is different in the reach/potential-longer infection period before symptoms, poor early management etc-not in every aspect necessarily but there are reasons why this is so serious for us as a global community where we are now. If you don't know, read up!

The economy would not sail on if Covid-19 isn't checked, either, that's definitely a myth. There hasn't been a situation quite like this and fingers crossed we'll get a vaccine before some horrific decisions have to be made. It could happen.

I think we’ve just been lucky not to have lived through such a massive pandemic but also been a bit “spoiled” that we’ve never really had the threat of life threatening infectious diseases hanging over is due to vaccination. It’s no more than our predecessors would have lived through with polio/smallpox I guess or what poorer countries without vaccination programmes still have to live with the fear of :(

I think the '68 Flu pandemic killed over £1m worldwide thats pretty devastating. This is an odd virus and yes there are some worrying longer term health indications but how these pan out long term is as yet unknown as its such early days.

We have forgotten how viruses worked and have been lucky enough to live in a time and country where we have access to vaccinations for some of the worst. Unfortunately I am far from optimistic that we will get a vaccine for this virus. If we do it will be a first. There are to my knowledge no other vaccines for the old corona viruses that we have around.

I think there will be a quiet revolution as more and more people decide to live their life and risk getting the virus

Quite possibly, but if the NHS starts struggling I hope these people realise that the government will have no choice but to take drastic action again? Seems to slightly defeat the object.

The way out of this requires a collective effort by a fairly large majority.

I have a feeling we might get a vaccine but it might be like the flu vaccine and need to be administered yearly and also that it might not be 100%. I suppose if it suppresses the virus enough to prevent uncontrolled outbreaks that will be good enough.

There are to my knowledge no other vaccines for the old corona viruses that we have around

There are veterinary ones I believe, but none for humans AFAIK.

There are to my knowledge no other vaccines for the old corona viruses that we have around

Is it worth creating vaccines for these viruses which cause the common cold etc?

I want to know what tests Casino had too!

The government knew social distancing and lock down had a life span... The evern stated this before we went into lock down, saying it had to be done at the right time as people will only put up with it for so long... There won't be and protest etc as once the kickdown has passed its sell by date the government will know and ease restrictions... Boris needs the public on his side.. Although people seem to think mumsnet is a good representative of real life... It really isn't. I don't know of anyone in real life who thinks we should stay like we are!

I didn't know about veterinary ones thats interesting.

And yes there has been research into vaccines for colds. Not successful but it is a very fair point that there is much more at stake and a huge amount is being thrown at the problem.

Maybe I should be more optimistic.

bakewell

I really think you should, not because anonymous people in the internet think so but because it's the consensus of the scientific community-not that there is a guarantee but there is reason not to take past failures as a prediction of what will happen now.

I've read that science gave up on finding vaccines for viruses that were extinguished by other means, partly because the funding dried up when it was no longer a priority. Hence the steady stream of research designed to point out how important it was to keep finding research (the kind of thing the DM used to report on in apocalyptic terms a few times a year). That was scientists saying "We need to work on this" not "It's impossible" or "We've failed". It seems unlikely that this virus will be extinguished by other means so the rubber has hit the road. Everyone has to pitch in and find the money for a scenario that was theoretical before. From that perspective, there's really no reason to assume we've been working feverishly away all these years and have failed because it's too difficult to find a vaccine. There hasn't been the kind of sustained funding for this before.

I hope not!! I can’t see it tbh. Vaccine could be years off and we can’t just keep all the hospitality trade closed. The virus is on the decline have you not been watching the news?