Where do you think we’ll be with this this time next year?

[mummabear1967]

What do you think the situation will be like this time next year?

Do you think we will have a successful vaccine?

Do you think lockdown will be over?

Do you think social distancing / face mask wearing will be over?

Do you think we will be back to our “old normal”

I certainly hope things are much better!

It’s so weird. It must be some kind of coping mechanism, complete denial.
I wish I had that mechanism. It would have made the last few months way less stressful!

I think about this a lot. I’d say:

Economic situation will be much worse than now, exacerbated by Brexit. Divisions between rich and poor will be much greater.

A Winter of COVID in circulation will mean a lot more people will have been exposed to the virus by spring and the summer will see a drop in new infection (I hope).

However other illnesses not treated early enough will lead to increasing death rate. Also poverty and mental health related illnesses will rise.

Mr Johnson will be out of office

I think we’ll have some economic measures put into place that shock us - we’d never heard of furlough before March and I’m thinking there will be something equivalent to that. Probably social care budget slashed, changes to state pension or something.

Masks will be normal

If I’m still in a job I think I’ll be working from home the majority of the time.

Oh and I think holidays will not be back to normal. The travel industry will be decimated and lots of countries will be strictly enforcing COVID precautions.

Hoping lockdown/social distancing will be done and dusted. I really can't cope much longer, I need to perform on stage again, I'm going mad without it.

Someone recently observed that there is no ‘finishing line’ with Covid. I think that at some point in two or three or five years time we’ll realise that it is to all intents and purposes over, with a few permanent changes which we’ll have accepted by then - such as rarely seeing a GP unless invited in to the surgery. The economic impact will be long lasting though.

@Darker

Someone recently observed that there is no ‘finishing line’ with Covid. I think that at some point in two or three or five years time we’ll realise that it is to all intents and purposes over, with a few permanent changes which we’ll have accepted by then - such as rarely seeing a GP unless invited in to the surgery. The economic impact will be long lasting though.

The think this is it. There will be no “yay! It’s over!” moment, it will all be gradual changes and less and less cases and deaths (hopefully!) and life will just creep into a semblance of normality more and more.

There will be the moment WHO declare the pandemic over but it will probably be “over” here before that happens

Hopefully back to normal, well aside from mass unemployment which will be truly dire.

Hopefully in a years time GP surgeries will be open to patients again and the doctors will have stopped hiding in the corner crying! Or is that just my local practice?

Increasing sense of a generation “war” between young people whose primary concerns are the economic situation, their lost education and the sense their lives remain on hold and the older generation who feel a continued risk to their health down to young people “not taking it seriously enough”

Sadly, I feel this is a real possibility.

To be honest, most people I know are just living life fairly normally now! The only difference being mask wearing & queuing for everything. Traffic is mostly back to normal in my town, chokka at teatime and I imagine in the morning once schools are back! Going out & about you could forget anything was going on!

All hinges on a vaccine for me. I think there’ll be a couple & we’ll be in the process of getting it rolled out. Those who choose to not have it, well that’s their choice & risk. Same as those who refuse the flu jab cos it gives them a headache 🙄 or ‘its only 50% effective’.. no idea why anyone thinks that’s a bad thing. 50% less chance of catching flu which is grim!

In my opinion, if the deaths remain low we cannot justify not starting to open up properly and dropping distancing etc. We’ve accepted flu kills 20,000 people a year, sometimes way more.. that’s about 55 people a day minimum. We don’t change the way we live for that. So why should we for COVID? Once theirs a vaccine & successful treatment ..

No pandemic has ever lasted forever. This one won’t either.

I think the impact on mental health will be huge. If you look at people taking about washing their shopping etc I think stopping that will be mentally hard for a lot of people. There needs to be better information on stuff like that - can you get it from touching cardboard that someone else touched etc.

Lots of people in my office very reluctant to go back to the office. So much more home working.

@osprey24

Hopefully in a years time GP surgeries will be open to patients again and the doctors will have stopped hiding in the corner crying! Or is that just my local practice?

Not just your local practice. I had to take my young child to A&E on my surgery's request as she hurt her toe. The surgery wouldn't even accept an emailed photo of it. Complete waste of time and A&E resources. The nurse I saw there couldn't believe the surgery wouldn't see us. I then tried to get an appointment for a minor issue and the surgery said they wouldn't deal with it and gave me the number of somewhere to go that would deal with it, for cost.

I think it will change the way people interact with each other. I think people will try and distance themselves a bit and places and events will still be capping numbers.
I think people will be more careful about spreading their germs when they have a cold and more will stay at home. I hope this is reflected in sick pay.
I don't know if there will be a vaccine.
I don't know how much Brexit will have affected the economy.
I hope Johnson is not PM.

I just don't think we can keep up the anxiety for that long. The bbc news page has a tool for finding out how many cases per 100 000 people in your area. 2 in mine apparently. Yet we have to wear masks and the rest of it. The library still isn't open.
By this time next year CV will just be another illness, like flu. Aim to avoid it, but hopefully the panic will have subsided.

My concern is that it will increasingly be an illness that affects people who can't socially-distance because of their work or living conditions, i.e. mostly poorer people.

"Hopefully in a years time GP surgeries will be open to patients again and the doctors will have stopped hiding in the corner crying! Or is that just my local practice?"

Its the same here, DH has been suffering worrying symtoms for months now and they won't see him. Just keep fobbing him off with useless prescriptions. Its getting increasingly stressful.

I think life feels a lot more normal now apart from the masks so hopefully by next year it will be even more so.

I think that there will be a vaccine but lots of people will refuse to take it because it is too 'new' and will continue to insist that we all stay home forever and keep schools closed.

I agree with Bol87. Everything feels pretty normal right now - shops are busy, the office is full, rush hour traffic almost back to normal, socialising with friends and family, etc. It's just the masks that are standing out for me, which I expect to be gone this time next year. And everything will seem pretty much back to normal.

I'm sad to hear it's not just my surgery (but not realy surprised) I think they should have their NHS contract payment stopped and be sued for breach of contract.

Best case scenario: vaccine/better treatments available = no more restrictions

Worst case scenario: no vaccine and we get the fabled second wave next summer when things are opened back up properly

That's why they want a vaccine oven ready before opening everything back up.

I think we’ll have some economic measures put into place that shock us - we’d never heard of furlough before March and I’m thinking there will be something equivalent to that. Probably social care budget slashed, changes to state pension or something

Pension triple-lock now being reviewed according to DM.