Do people realise Coronavirus won't be eliminated

[Shockhorrorno]

And they'll always be lots of Coronavirus deaths every year? I get the feeling people think it's going to magically disappear when a vaccine appears, but at best we'll still have Coronavirus deaths similar to flu and pneumonia. And people will still catch it and be left with long covid. Is it time for a reality check on what we're actually going to be able to achieve?

[quote mrshoho]Staffing is a big issue. Staff either ill or isolating is putting pressure on many countries.

I posted this on another thread. It is our health system's ability to deal with the virus that is driving the restrictions.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54712003[/quote]
Exactly....and some people still seem to think that if the DVDs are taped off in Welsh Tesco stores, or women being forbidden to selfishly take their baby to baby singing (for example), it will help "stop the spread and save lives".

Such bullshit!

What will help "save lives" (though not eliminate death as many people seem to want), is for better NHS management, increased capacity, more trained staff and better more proactive public health. These things are an investment, not a a drain. But the Tory press has brainwashed the idiot electorate into thinking that any kind of public spending is Bad.

@Thingybob

I don't think the majority do realise. People I talk to are still speaking about "when we get back to normal"

So we're just meant to live like this forever? Really? I don't think so. We have to get back to normal at some point.

How many people on here have had measles? It's not eradicated, but it's not something I worry about, because everyone I know has had the vaccine.

62, never had flu but am mildly asthmatic. Otherwise slim fit and healthy. You have to die sometime of something. Its how you live that's important. With kindness and not in fear as much as possible.

Shortly - no, they don’t. Sooner they understand, more comfortable their life will be. Sometimes you need to accept the truth and live with the risk. We do it everyday without thinking but somehow novel coronavirus is different (not)

@Nellodee
How many people on here have had measles? It's not eradicated, but it's not something I worry about, because everyone I know has had the vaccine
But it's going to be years until we get to this state (if ever).

@Shockhorrorno

What about people not wanting to catch it because of long covid. What are they hoping for?

A vaccine that at the very least reduces severity. That will do.

Alternatively a hospital bed should you need one.

We are never going to eradicate or lessen its spread like New Zealand’s managed.

Once NZ opens up/vaccinates etc, they will surely live with it at similar rates to us? NZ will never 'eradicate' Covid any more than any other country.

I try and avoid catching colds, stomach bugs, norovirus etc, This will be no different, I will try and avoid COVID too, using the same sense and in the hope that people who are knowingly unwell will keep their distance from others, stay home from work, not fly etc like they do with other bugs. I hope the vaccine will offer protection but if this does turn out to be endemic, I will still hope to avoid it.

@joystir59

62, never had flu but am mildly asthmatic. Otherwise slim fit and healthy. You have to die sometime of something. Its how you live that's important. With kindness and not in fear as much as possible.

Prefer the kids were adults before we shuffle off this mortal coil!

A reality check is needed. The government need to listen to people and experts and give correct information and agency.
There are much cleverer ways to live with this than flicking between lockdown and denial.

How many people on here have had measles? It's not eradicated, but it's not something I worry about, because everyone I know has had the vaccine.

I did as a child (pre MMR) - I’m fine. I never thought of measles as something to worry about, because most people had it, and I don’t personally know of any who died or had long-term effects. But they did exist, and still do.

I also had chicken pox, as did most kids my age. But a friend of my parents got chicken pox in her fifties, and was really, really ill.

Maybe Covid will eventually be like that. Most people will catch it in childhood/early adulthood, and be fine. Until then - a third to a half of the population is of an age or medical state such that they face a significant risk of either long Covid or death if they catch it. Only when we can vaccinate them can we realistically remove the limits on large gatherings, IMO.

If it turns that immunity only lasts a year or two, then I envisage routine vaccination offered to everyone over a certain age as a permanent feature of life. We will adjust.

Yes, I do think that a lot of people seem to think that this virus can be eliminated if only everyone would follow all of the ridiculous and arbitrary rules.

That won't happen. It is endemic. A good vaccine is our hope of controlling it and keeping it at manageable levels, much as the flu vaccine already does, or tries to do.

I think that this continual lockdown and open up cycle on which we have embarked is very damaging to the economy and people's livelihoods, and to their mental health too.

New Zealand may have cut the virus out for now, but in order to keep it out what will they do? Keep their borders closed permanently to visitors, emigration and immigration, so becoming an island race who try to exist long term in splendid isolation? That would mean a continually decimated foreign tourist industry, and many people never being able to see family who don't live there.

@IloveJKRowling

The restrictions are to prevent the health system collapsing

This, a million times. It's been said over and over and over.

No-one I speak to thinks it will be eliminated, but that we'll be able to manage it. That's why we've got restrictions, to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and the catastrophic loss of life from that happening (from covid and non covid - if there aren't enough staff or ambulances or beds, there's really not a lot that can be done). The problem with coronavirus is that it's a novel infection in a population with no immunity at all and so can overwhelm the health system.

That's the lie we were sold back in March (and the more gullible among the population still actually believe it). We shifted quite subtly from that position to saving every life possible because politically, the Government dare not face having so many deaths on its hands. That's the top and bottom of this. The health system has never come remotely close to collapsing, yet people keep on peddling this bullshit with absolutely nothing to substantiate it apart from limited anecdotal evidence.

What is your knowledge of running a hospital @toxtethOgradyUSA? What makes you think that the UK hospitals have capacity to cope with hospital admissions if there are no restrictions to limit numbers? We are talking about hospitals being able to operate safely. Hospitals require a % of beds free to deal with emergencies.

Measles was still about in my childhood - I had it and was fine, but in rare cases it could be a serious illness.

We are going to have to learn to live with Covid19.

I've never had flu and I'm 33, presumably for no reason other than luck because I've also never had a flu jab. I have had pneumonia though.

I might never get covid, again out of luck (although I might have the vaccine), but I might get cancer which might kill me. Or I might never get cancer and covid might kill me. Or not.

I think it's patently obvious to anyone with any amount of common sense that it's not going to magically vanish but we manage to live in a society where many illnesses have vaccines and many avoid catching them and dying so presumably that's how this will go once we start to get more of a handle on it.

It's going to become part of life and we need to find a way of living with it. There's no way of putting it in a box and pretending it's not happening. People aren't used to facing up to death.

We need to learn to live with it, especially children and teenagers, as they're lowest on the list for a potential vaccine.

People calling for schools to close but that will just prolong the time it takes for the virus to circulate. We cannot eliminate it.

[buscuit]

@Badbadbunny you don’t think people will cram onto tubes or into football stadia/theatres again? That Glastonbury won’t happen? I disagree, I definitely think these things will return.

news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-liverpool-hospitals-treating-more-patients-than-in-the-peak-of-the-first-wave-12110900

Liverpool hospitals already under strain

Also

www.theguardian.com/society/2020/oct/15/liverpool-covid-admissions-will-devastate-other-hospital-care

"Unless the surge in coronavirus admissions slowed down it would “have a devastating effect on planned care, such as operations”, he said.

Cope is the medical director of Liverpool university hospitals NHS trust, where almost all critical care beds are already full because the city’s high infection rate has placed intense pressure on the trust’s three hospitals: the Royal Liverpool, Broadgreen and Aintree.

“Liverpool hospitals are under enormous pressure with admissions of sick Covid patients. We are used to pressure, but this is over and above that,” Cope tweeted on Wednesday night.

No one is calling for schools to close. People are calling for schools to be safer and for vulnerable children, teachers and parents to have online learning / work instead.

The more I hear and read on social media it’s clear most of us do realise this isn’t going away, lockdowns do not work, Social distancing and masks hasn’t reduced this second wave, a vaccine may become available but no guarantee and how effective it will be is unknown. But still Sage and the government do not seem able to agree or clarify anything let alone come up with a plan to learn to live with this. Saying that France, Spain, Germany are all struggling to come up with a clear plan too.