WHO expect pandemic to be over in 2 years

[mummabear1967]

www.itv.com/news/2020-08-21/world-health-organization-chief-hopes-coronavirus-pandemic-will-be-over-in-two-years

Even if this pandemic does run into 2022, we won’t be stuck with restrictions until then, right? We will be back to normality to some extent? Not sure I could deal with another two years of this crap.

If the worst thing that happens to your daughter is missing out on a year of socialising you have a lot to be thankful for. You both need to work on your resilience.

And you need to work on your human decency, or lack thereof.

University should be a wonderful time for a young adult. It's a time when you make lifelong friends, perhaps meet your future husband/wife, learn to be independent etc. I feel really sorry for those who instead are going to be cooped up in a small student room 'interacting' via a computer screen and missing out on so much of what university has to offer. It's not a trivial thing.

The smugness of some posts here is obnoxious. And I highly doubt that you're so stoic and 'resilient' when it comes to your own problems.

[quote MrsWooster]@bingbong1970
“ It sadly killed the weakest in society. People who want to live a full and free life should just put up with damaging restrictions? Using the grief of others to shame the healthy is a truly awful thing to do.”
This is chilling. It’s the language of eugenics. What has our so-called society become??[/quote]
What do you suggest then? Because lots of communicable things kill the weakest in society, and actually, what kills the weakest in society the most in the world is poverty. Poverty is a great eugenicist, if only poverty were treated the same way Covid is, the world might be a much better place.

@IcedPurple

*

Well, maybe that's all you have to do, hence your smug attitude.
So dramatic!

Other generations went to war. Other countries are still at war.

All we have to do is stay at home when needed and social distance and people can’t even do that.*
However, many people are being asked to give up their livelihoods, risk depression though lack of social interaction, be 'educated' via a computer screen, have important medical care postponed and much else besides.

And the 'other generations lived through war FFS' nonsense is getting tiresome. It's not like they chose to live in these conditions. If they could have avoided it the vast majority would have jumped at the chance. Living in times of war doesn't make you noble - it just makes you unlucky.

Besides, just because this isn't the worst situation ever - far from it - doesn't mean we're not allowed to say that it's totally shit.

Spot on! Let's also stop and examine the root cause of most wars: money (resources are money, you can sell them, use them, trade them). That's right. The last one ultimately ended the Great Depression.

As for 'the government will need to subsidise and people will need to go on UC', how do you suppose all this is paid for? Magic money tree? '

UC is already well known to be behind a sharp increase in homelessness and this was before the pandemic. Homelessness causes disease. And that ol' poverty. The greatest killer in the world is poverty.

I really don't know how a highly infectious virus can be compared with accidents. The former can be controlled to some degree in order to prevent thousands of deaths, that why we had lockdown.

If preventative measures had been implemented sooner, my Dad (and thousands of others) might still be alive.

Yes it's frustrating that young people can't go to festivals or have a normal uni experience for the time being, but it is by far the lesser of two evils for society. I think most young people understand that.

InDeoEstMeaFiducia I am so sorry about your DD.

You are right, UC is bollocks. Will barely cover our mortgage so I'm not sure how people imagine that we'll actually pay the rest of the bills and eat. I suppose by taking one of the many jobs so freely available during a recession.

@MaxNormal

InDeoEstMeaFiducia I am so sorry about your DD.

You are right, UC is bollocks. Will barely cover our mortgage so I'm not sure how people imagine that we'll actually pay the rest of the bills and eat. I suppose by taking one of the many jobs so freely available during a recession.

UC is a HUGE cause of homelessness, especially among private renters . And yy, massive unemployment means . . . hello? Not a lot of jobs. Some people are very naive when it comes to what happens in a truly bad economy.

@Sakura7

I really don't know how a highly infectious virus can be compared with accidents. The former can be controlled to some degree in order to prevent thousands of deaths, that why we had lockdown.

If preventative measures had been implemented sooner, my Dad (and thousands of others) might still be alive.

Yes it's frustrating that young people can't go to festivals or have a normal uni experience for the time being, but it is by far the lesser of two evils for society. I think most young people understand that.

I wasn't comparing . The accident was caused by a drunk driver. But thanks for the facetious comment.

The measures imposed are not just frustrating, they are already causing a large increase in unemployment, which then leads to a large increase in poverty, which brings about a number of ills and is, factually, the driver of the greatest killer of people in the world (things like dirty water, for example, are 99% of the time caused by poverty).

@InDeoEstMeaFiducia I'm sorry for your loss, truly.

You weren't exactly sympathetic to me, basically telling me to suck it up. If the virus is left uncontrolled many thousands more people will needlessly die and their families will suffer like I have. You are advocating for this because 'everyone dies of something'. That is heartless to me.

The economic argument is moot, does anyone really believe the economy will prosper if millions of people become infected and many thousands more die? Consumer confidence will be in the toilet. The gradual reopening of the economy, with safety measures in place, and monitoring of the virus is the best we can reasonably do. Which is why its the approach taken by the vast majority of governments innthe world.

As for 'the government will need to subsidise and people will need to go on UC', how do you suppose all this is paid for? Magic money tree?

If hospitality/events/live music industry is not subsidised then it will collapse which will mean millions more on UC/destitute in the longer run. That's the choice.

These places can't just close for two years and then reopen again back to normal without help.

You weren't exactly sympathetic to me, basically telling me to suck it up.

Eh?

The economic point is moot? Yeah, right. Sure as hell isn't to all those who lost their jobs and who are on UC or waiting for it.

I'm advocating for opening things back up because the alternative looks like even more serious poverty. But we shall soon find this out the hard way.

I guess the families of those who died as a result of lockdown measures probably also feel they've been told to suck it up by hearltess people. We'll probably not know because no one seems very interested in tabulating up all those. The people who've been failed medically because of lockdown thread is an eye-opener.

@annabel85

As for 'the government will need to subsidise and people will need to go on UC', how do you suppose all this is paid for? Magic money tree?

If hospitality/events/live music industry is not subsidised then it will collapse which will mean millions more on UC/destitute in the longer run. That's the choice.

These places can't just close for two years and then reopen again back to normal without help.

Well, guess what? The government is not going to subsidise them any past the end of the furlough scheme.

There's no magic money tree.

UC is paid for by taxes. You have fewer taxpayers, you can't afford to pay out UC, subsidies, or, quite scarily, the nation's debt.

Those who catastrophise about Covid are like trees walking into a fire. Wait till you see how life looks in the UK on WTO terms on 1 January 2021.

It's very naive to believe the government can continue to throw money at everything because of covid. It's unsustainable. Very, very soon this will become apparent.

Waste of time asking. Nobody knows. Least of all the people on here, no matter how sure if there own opinions they sound.

How will the economy function in the midst of an uncontrolled pandemic? That would be a disaster situation which would result in even more job losses. How are people not seeing this?

I was reading an article (for work) about critical illness insurance claims, and during lockdown there has been a significant decrease in claims.
Because people in the early stages of cancer etc have not been able to get doctors appointments and therefore diagnoses.
There is a potential wave of deaths coming our way from untreated serious illnesses, and quite frankly, it’s appalling.

In Jersey, they cancelled a load of routine hospital appointments, and built a £££ nightingale hospital. Which has not had one fucking patient.

It’s a travesty and the non-COVID deaths as a result of lockdown/social distancing, including suicide, poverty and untreated illness are going to far far outweigh the number of COVID deaths by the time this is all over.

So if I lost my house would I be unreasonable to complain about that because some people don't have houses?! I'm sorry, but people are allowed to be upset about what they've lost, no matter what it is. You don't get to decide what's acceptable.

If you can't see the difference between having a house and going to V Festival, then I'm not sure what to say to that really. I think pretty much anybody would feel qualified to decide what's acceptable between those two examples tbh.

Like many people, I missed out on the foreign holiday I'd booked. I'd also class that as something about which I would be unreasonable to say "Oh god - think how much we've lost!" Losing loved ones, homes, livelihoods - yes, tragic. Losing leisure opportunities that the majority of people in the world don't get to have anyway... not so tragic.

Like many people, I missed out on the foreign holiday I'd booked. I'd also class that as something about which I would be unreasonable to say "Oh god - think how much we've lost!" Losing loved ones, homes, livelihoods - yes, tragic. Losing leisure opportunities that the majority of people in the world don't get to have anyway... not so tragic.

If your holiday was so irrelevant to you, and definitely not something to be upset over losing, why did you book it in the first place? Why didn't you give the money away to all those other people in the world who don't have such chances?

Probably because, like almost everyone, you consider your own happiness way more important than 'the majority of people in the world'. The £500 - or whatever - that you spent on a week in the sun - or wherever - would go a long way towards all those 'other people'. But you preferred to spend it on what you yourself have said is a frivolity.

People are allowed to be upset about missing out on things which are important to them. They don't need your approval. I'm willing to bet the cost of your holiday that you regularly get annoyed and upset about things which might seem trivial to others, and that you don't get go around saying 'Oh I can't be annoyed by this because millions of people are worse off'. That's not actually how people think, unless they're smugging it up on MN.

It is not a luxury to meet and mingle with people, enjoy music, dancing etc

It is definitely not something that only the wealthy do. For many people around the world these are the things that make a shit life somewhat better.

Human beings were never meant to live in glorious isolation. It's not natural and it's not good for us.

I find it amazing that so many people can't see this. I suspect those people are not young/ living alone etc. If you are in a decent house with a family to talk to and not wanting to go out to pubs and clubs and bars and dance and have fun and maybe meet a partner etc then sure you're not going to miss it. But for lots of people the hiatus on normal life and the things that bring them joy is non trivial. Most will soldier on but there's no question that metal health issues have massively increased (doubled I read the other day) and that is a really bad thing.

*Human beings were never meant to live in glorious isolation. It's not natural and it's not good for us.

I find it amazing that so many people can't see this.*

People can see it. We can also see that a pandemic where infection numbers double every couple of days in the case of no suppression measures being taken is just not conducive to society carrying on as normal. I hate it every bit as much as most people and would dearly love to go back to normal tomorrow. But - we can’t!

There’s just no solution that’s going to enable us to have normal lives just now where the virus doesn’t go out of control which is incredibly damaging not just to the unfortunate people who die but to the whole country. It’s completely fucking shit. But it won’t be any less shit if we just try and go back to normal and pretend it isn’t happening. What’s going to happen to people’s mental health when there are thousands of people dying every day and numbers going up and up?

People are allowed to be upset about missing out on things which are important to them.

Sure, but a sense of perspective is important.

We are in a crisis period right now and we have had to adapt to manage through it. It won't last forever, we will get through it and life will go back to normal in time.

From the boomer generation onwards, we have lived in generally safe and stable times. Having lived in privilege for most of our lives (compared to other generations races, nationalities, etc), we're now asked to make some small sacrifices for the good of society. I genuinely can't understand all the complaining, we should be doing all we can to fight this virus together.

Generations before us have had to endure far worse hardships than social distancing.

That cuts both ways, though. Generations before us would not have permitted a lockdown for a virus with a FR of around 1%---they routinely were faced with far worse plagues.

Human beings were never meant to live in glorious isolation. It's not natural and it's not good for us. I find it amazing that so many people can't see this.

People can see this. We are now allowed to see family, go to pubs, restaurants, shops and lots of other places. If you go out, does it look to you as though people are in 'glorious isolation'? I think we can probably cope for a while longer without going to see live music or go to nightclubs, whatever age we are.

Well, guess what? The government is not going to subsidise them any past the end of the furlough scheme.

Then all the live music and events businesses will go under.