Under 50's won't receive the vaccination

[starfro]

Although this is entirely reasonable given that for this age group risks are similar to flu (in under 25s flu is actually more deadly, the slight reverse is true over 25), it does raise a number of points:

1. Herd immunity will not be achieved by vaccination alone, and will be achieved by a combination of vaccination and infection.

1. Anyone under 50 who has been negatively impacted by lockdowns (job loss etc) has done this entirely to protect the vulnerable/elderly.

1. Is it therefore reasonable as a compromise to isolate the over 50's and reopen the economy for under 50s? Most under 50's are going to get it anyway in the next few years, and this won't overload the NHS as the bulk of admissions come from the elderly.

1. There seems to be this ridiculous idea that we will re-emerge from restrictions next year all "safe" and vaccinated. This isn't the case. Any healthy under 50 that is worried is going to have to learn to live with the tiny risk the virus presents, in the same way they have to deal with other small risks (younger people aren't screened for certain cancers due to much lower risks for example).

I agree there's a lot of contradictions in people's heads.

Would you also like to lock away the over weight? No matter what their age they are considerably more at risk

You seem to think there are only 2 options; lockdown for everyone or lockdown for over 50s and the medically vulnerable.

You also don’t seem to understand how businesses function. Businesses are not folding purely due to lockdown but low footfall. Locking up 50+ year olds won’t magically make them afford to stay open!

I work in a GP surgery and all admin staff are over 50 apart from 2 or 3, so not really a viable option for us all to stay at home.

I’m early 50’s, single mum, youngest is 9, so I’m doing school run twice a day still. Work full time. I can’t stay home.

DH and I are 50. Is the OP going to take our 8 year old to school? At least we are both able to WFH but the local cafes who are currently doing quite well out of all the middle class WFH are going to suffer if the over 50s are not allowed out.

The reality is that the average age of death was 81 and so by vaccinating everyone over 50 we're building in a large margin of error.