Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Original poster

Is this really it until March 2021?

75 replies

mummabear1967 · 22/09/2020 19:31

So, these new restrictions will last until March next year - 6 months from now.

Is there even a guarantee that things will even be better by March next year?

OP posts:
costco · 22/09/2020 21:21

@GRain5 yes and it drives me insane when people talk about, “just follow the measures”. Yeah and everyone who can’t afford to loses their jobs and then it’s not actually an exaggeration to have a hundred thousand people sleeping in hostels and the streets

islockdownoveryet · 22/09/2020 21:25

There is no point in putting a date on it . Everyone on here was saying September as that the date everything will be back to normal , so to say March is the same .
I could guess and say March 2023 but I have no idea nobody does .

Beebityboo · 22/09/2020 21:40

I just tell myself that every day I get through is another day closer to life going back to the way it used to be. It's the only way I can cope Sad.

HazelE123 · 22/09/2020 21:46

I think it’ll get worse before it gets better. The scientific officer said they’d (hopefully) have some vaccine for particular groups before Christmas but otherwise it wouldn’t be ready till spring. So by this time next year we should be back to more normality. Those vaccinated don’t need to worry about catching it or passing it on so can move around freely. But it is a bit of a long haul. My Dad is also in a nursing home with no visitors and it is so unfair. He’s bedbound as well. Haven’t seen him since February. He was doing ok on his own at home until early summer then just went under. At least he has some company in the nursing home but staff are a bit busy to spend time with them.

BlueBlancmange · 22/09/2020 21:48

@Beebityboo

I just tell myself that every day I get through is another day closer to life going back to the way it used to be. It's the only way I can cope Sad.
Yes that's the way I think of it. Also reminding myself that I am fortunate that at present I do not have to put myself at much risk.
CountessFrog · 22/09/2020 22:13

I think there’s going to be an uphill battle persuading people to get the vaccine.

MadameBlobby · 22/09/2020 22:20

@CountessFrog

I think there’s going to be an uphill battle persuading people to get the vaccine.
Or maybe not after a year or longer of this shite!

OP chin up. It won’t be forever x even NS said that tonight and she’s quite cautious.

BlueBlancmange · 22/09/2020 22:21

@CountessFrog

I think there’s going to be an uphill battle persuading people to get the vaccine.
I think that might change as the virus hits closer to home for more and more people.
onedayinthefuture · 22/09/2020 22:25

It's always been spring hasn't it, Chris Whitty said that a while ago..... it's either because they are pretty confident of a vaccination programme by then or that we will have got through the winter and that another course of action is now in place because such a restricted life is not sustainable. I can do this for another 6 months, not a fan of winter much anyway but if next spring we are still in this situation, I'll go fucking mad.

sally067 · 22/09/2020 22:32

People seem to be putting a lot of hope in the vaccine. From what I've heard they are quite worried about the efficacy of it as it might only be between 20-40% effective which will help but won't be enough.

I think Boris purposely mentioned getting the testing within minutes thing in tonights address because there is a very high chance the vaccine won't help and we might have to rely on testing.

CountessFrog · 23/09/2020 23:53

I do honestly think it will be hard to persuade people. DH is a hospital doctor who worked with covid patients - he won’t have it. Friends who work in pharma wont have it.

PinkJellycat · 24/09/2020 00:00

@CountessFrog

I do honestly think it will be hard to persuade people. DH is a hospital doctor who worked with covid patients - he won’t have it. Friends who work in pharma wont have it.
@CountessFrog just out of curiosity, why wouldn't your husband have the vaccine? What are his concerns about it? (Not being at all goady, just genuinely interested!)
CountessFrog · 24/09/2020 00:42

Good question - because given his experience earlier this year, I was shocked he wouldn’t have it.

He just thinks it’s been rushed. Friends in pharma said ‘I’d want to see lots more people have it before I’d be happy.’

Having said that, he listened to Sarah Gilbert on Radio 4’s ‘The Life Scientific’ (worth a listen) and was slightly swayed - but I think if offered tomorrow he would still refuse it.

Hollyhobbi · 24/09/2020 01:38

I think the scary part is that a vaccine against a Corona Virus has never been successfully produced before.

Inkpaperstars · 24/09/2020 03:37

I think it is too early to say. It looks like things won't improve much till spring, how much worse they might get, I don't know.

Saying people won't put up with it or comply doesn't offer anyone any hope for improvement in circumstances. Restrictions, or raging exponential growth of a virus...they will both mess things up for the economy, society, health, schools etc. My hope is that we don't have government incompetence and a lack of co operation in the public to the extent we end up with both - damage from restrictions and from the virus being wildly out of control.

Motorina · 24/09/2020 04:01

@Hollyhobbi there hasn’t been a human Coronavirus vaccine before because we haven’t needed done. There are successful animal coronavirus vaccines. I find this somewhat reassuring.

Terrace58 · 24/09/2020 04:05

I have never understood why people have talked about this in terms of weeks or even months. March 2021 really only gets us to the one year mark. It will take much longer than that to develop a good vaccine and distribute to billions of people.

zen1 · 24/09/2020 04:19

I think talk of eradicating the virus is pie in the sky and that it will always be present in the community, even if there is a vaccine eventually. We can’t go round wearing masks and social distancing indefinitely. According to the government’s coronavirus lockdown alert levels in the uk, we won’t get to level 1 until ‘Covid 19 is no longer present in the UK’. Can’t see that happening.

maddiemookins16mum · 24/09/2020 04:37

I seem to recall someone in Govt saying this would go on for 18 months minimum back in April, so it’s hardly surprising.

PhilCornwall1 · 24/09/2020 05:15

I’m more frightened of the economic outlook and the prospect of civil unrest and rioting in the streets than I am of any of my family catching Covid.

The state of the economy is the only thing that has concerned me throughout all of this.

I think his next move is going to be no households mixing, possibly announcing this in the next couple of weeks. Scotland and Ireland (don't know about wales) have done this so matey will be under pressure. He's usually a couple of weeks behind Sturgeon.

Civil unrest really is a possibility the longer this goes on. I know people have said this won't happen, it's the wrong time of year, but I'm not so sure. We are fast heading in to the shitty season, where it's dark and cold. If people are losing jobs right, left and centre, with no real hope for the future, it'll reach a point where things boil over, what will they have to lose?

Hollyhead · 24/09/2020 05:26

I think it’s unlikely the vaccine will be offered to everyone anyway, certainly not next year, next year will be key workers and elderly.
The state of the economy is hugely concerning, like desperately so, people don’t seem to put 2+2 together - without tax revenue from business how do you even have an NHS? People have made it the grubbier argument to just care about the economy, but without it we’re nothing.

If it’s spreading with all the restrictions we already have we just have to get on with it. And I realise that means I or a loved one could die, and yes that’s scary because it wasn’t something I previously had to worry about them dying from, but we can’t just stop forever.

Frouby · 24/09/2020 06:49

Chris Witty said a while ago that by Easter time next year things would look a bit better, with either a vaccine or better treatment or a combination of both so I've hunkered down mentally already.

I think what I find useful is stopping looking for an end date and just accepting we are on a bumpy road that will get better, but for now this is the way things are.

I've done some tarting up of the house, got study space for me and the dcs ready plus laptops and am just making the most of what we can do now before we go onto further restrictions.

daytripper28 · 24/09/2020 07:16

We can’t go round wearing masks and social distancing indefinitely

Maybe we will have to

PhilCornwall1 · 24/09/2020 07:29

@daytripper28

We can’t go round wearing masks and social distancing indefinitely

Maybe we will have to

It's not happening in all areas now, so that's failed already.
MummyPop00 · 24/09/2020 07:34

If no vaccine or treatment, and we manage to suppress this thing to average 5,000 cases a day to avoid swamping the NHS it would take 22 years to reach Patrick Vallances 60% herd immunity figure. 22 years of locking / unlocking society. I think I’d rather take my chances with the virus.