When will people be happy to start living with the risk of catching Coronavirus?

[wakeupitsabeautifulmorning]

Considering there possibly won't be a vaccination for quite some time, if at all, but things are going to have to start returning to normal for the sake of everything else - economy, education, other health issues etc. There is currently so much opposition to easing out of lockdown, people will have to get back to work and schools cannot be part time for years (childcare issues plus the massive impact on disadvantaged dc, plus the dc not engaging in home learning). Spoke to a few people today who are horrified at the thought of a return to normal as they are frightened of catching the virus. I was a bit surprised a they were under 35 with dc (no known health problems). It's like they think it's just going to miraculously vanish.

I agree but this isn’t the fault of “lockdown”.... lockdown is just an obvious scapegoat that doesn’t stand up to any scrutiny. It makes as much sense as blaming the bogeyman!

OK, it is the fault of the government and the NHS's shitty response to covid then.

No, Covid is stopping people accessing these services. Why people think treatment would be continuing as normal if we carried on as normal and let Covid rip through is beyond me.

Absolutely! Or how these people think you can protect the vulnerable, and let everyone else do whatever they want, when high levels of Coronavirus in the community increase the risk involved in any hospital treatments - it's been well-documented that hospitals are prime areas for Coronavirus infection - and many of the vulnerable have to access hospital services/clinics etc...on a regular basis.

OK, it is the fault of the government and the NHS's shitty response to covid then.

Yes, the Government has a lot to answer for.

I don't know when we'll be ready to go back to normal. DH is wfh until DS goes back to, but whenever that is. I'm trying to home school him and stop 5 month old twins from screaming. It feels endless.
But the country needs to go back to normal so the rest of it will carry on and those of us who aww shielding will just be kicked away and forgotten

Locked not kicked

Now. Right now.

In the last week of May, there were 9 identified cases in my city. 5 picked up through contact tracing of a 6th person, so probably mildly ill or not even symptomatic. That's a rate of 3.5 cases per 100,000 people. The odds of being in contact indoors for a prolonged period in close proximity to any of those 3.5 per 100,000 people is very, very low and I am happy to rusume normal functions with those odds. Concessions on foreign travel and mass events I can accept for now, but we can get much closer to normal function safely as other European countries have already demonstrated.

The risks of harm from social isolation, lack of education and lack of access to healthcare now outweigh the current virus threat to the majority of the population. Many of those most susceptible to Covid 19 will be negatively impacted by lack of access to NHS services anyway.

We are a far cry from the peak at Easter. We know much more about how the virus spreads through the UK and risk factors. We need to normalise society while the season is in our favour and make sure our immune systems are healthy ready for the next winter of respiritory illnesses. 5 weeks on from VE Day and 3 weeks on from beauty spots and beaches and there hasn't even been a blip on the outcomes of testing despite more of the cases being identified through tracing that would have passed unnoticed.

Lockdown is social distancing, shops, workplaces etc.

The prioritising of healthcare within the NHS is not part of lockdown. I agree there are major problems but that part of managing this crisis does not come under 'lockdown'.

If anything, lockdown reducing community cases and transmission rates should create a favourable environment for hospitals to get non Covid treatment back on track.

Inkpaperstars but that sounds as though you think these services wouldn't be overwhelmed if Covid magically disappeared overnight.

Sorry tobee I am not sure what you mean,

If it's not lockdown but Covid alone that's causing medical conditions to be delayed/cancelled or otherwise comprised why are other wards etc in hospitals lying empty?

What I mean Inkpaperstars is that the nhs is going to be overwhelmed by people needing treatments that have been delayed due to lockdown of non Covid services, as lockdown eases.

Mental health, for eg, is already overwhelmed before Covid came along. Especially for young people.

but you left out the fact that in the countries where it was a major problem

That virus is still present in the population, though. I got it in 1979.

Every time you get up you might die. Every time you go to sleep you might die.

If you're high risk, I can understand why you should be careful.
Let the rest of us get on with it.

Majority of people have forgotten the lockdown was only about slowing Covid down, not stop it.

I am now

It's subjective. I'm 8 months pregnant. I took our toddler out of nursery 2 weeks before it shut down and have barely been out.

And I'll probably be keeping him at home until September too with a newborn and having a c section.

I think (apart from idiots swamping beaches without a hair's breadth between them) it's up to you what your comfortable doing. I wouldn't meet 5 people from separate houses for all the tea in China, but if someone else wants to, that's up to them.

Now
For those posters saying only 7% have had it - this isn't fact. Many professors believe that if you have it to a very mild degree your body doesn't mount an immune response as it doesn't need to and there are therefore no antibodies (which is what they test for to test if someone has had it). In addition a proportion of colds and flu are coronaviruses and the belief is that people who have had these in years past will also not have current coronavirus antibodies nor need them. Prof Gupta of oxford uni goes into detail about this and there are others.

If it's not lockdown but Covid alone that's causing medical conditions to be delayed/cancelled or otherwise comprised why are other wards etc in hospitals lying empty?

I don't know. I worry about that and about the planning of how and when things will get closer to normal in that respect without a high risk of infection from going into the hospital.

What I mean Inkpaperstars is that the nhs is going to be overwhelmed by people needing treatments that have been delayed due to lockdown of non Covid services, as lockdown eases.

Yes, totally agree. Really worrying, esp since as you say things were back logged before.

Majority of people have forgotten the lockdown was only about slowing Covid down, not stop it.

I have not got the impression people have forgotten that, but you may well be right that many have.

It’s nothing new that previous strains of corona are still around. That’s where all the original info came from back in January.

Has the issue been resolved yet with if a vaccine is found, building works start or finish September next year and that’s where it will be made.

Iirc the hope of a vaccine is simply because this doesn’t work in similar patterns to previous strains.

Once they get a vaccine for any of the previous strains or this one, then theory is it should work the same way as the flu vaccine. Flu mutates yet the original vaccine still works because the original markers stay the same.

Flu is not a coronavirus, it's an influenza virus. Yes, many (50% ish, I think I read) cold are coronaviruses.

My husband is in the very high risk group, so I don't know how our sons or I will be able to return to normal when our normal could result in his death.

It's very easy to be blase when you're not the one taking the risks.

When there is treatment if you get severely ill or a vaccine.

If I have to go to work before that then I will because I need to keep my job and pay the bills. If I have to return to office and covid still isn't treatable for those that get a bad case then I won't see my family and will avoid all social activities and being in environments with other people e.g. shops until its safe to do so. Worst case I'd have to use my annual leave to go into "self isolation" so I could see my family.

I'd like us to maintain the social distancing (for social "activities" e.g. shopping, eating out, mass gatherings, public transport) so the R number gets lower, stays low and then the NHS can confidentally resume the healthcare services that were paused (e.g. screenings, treatments, elective ops etc).

I just think that it's an awful sort of Russian roulette. Because we don't know if we've had it, or if not, then if we hit it whether we'd be fine, or have a terrible time and maybe die.

For me, that feels an unacceptable risk.

I meant if we get it not hit it

Unpeufatiguee

You don't know if you'd have a terrible time and die with any number of other diseases too though