Normal life will not resume by May

[LemonadeFromLemons]

The article below is brilliant at explaining what the vaccine will and will not do. Unfortunately, it also makes clear that it is going to be years not months until we are able to go back to normal. I would strongly encourage every person to read it to get the clear facts in an easy format:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-b6360f40-84f9-469b-b6a3-a4568e161c4f

I've already decided I'm not wearing a mask after Feb and if it's required for entry to access essentials (food) I'll join the nose-out brigade. There are increasingly too many bare faces for enforcement in malls and general shops.

1st March, I'm done.

New Normal,us a ghastly soundbite.Things cant 'go back ',they never do.We must guard against negativity and depression.

Thing is though some people may want restrictions to stay, but the reality is the general population won’t adhere to them. Now it’s been said we’re going back to normal after Easter that is what we will do. People are fed up of it now, they definitely will be by then. Unfortunately there will be some people who can’t have the vaccine but they will just have to take precautions themselves like for example people who can’t have the flu injection that need it do now. People need to get used to the idea that the virus isn’t going away and people won’t social distance next year and get on with it. Once most of the vulnerable are vaccinated there is no need for restrictions as the NHS won’t be overwhelmed. That’s what this has all been about, after all, not individual people.

This article? Again?

It's been doing the rounds for a week now.

You'd swear it was some official policy document, when in fact it's just a few people's opinions.

I would strongly encourage every person to read it to get the clear facts in an easy format

It's not 'clear facts' though, is it? It's speculation. Educated guesswork really.

No, I’m not trying to scaremonger or look for the negative. I was looking for good news. However, a lot of articles I’ve read didn’t distinguish between functional and sterilising immunity. This is a rather important distinction.

I was hoping that all front line workers being vaccinated would make hospitals a safer place for patients (having lost a relative to Covid who contracted covid whilst at hospital). This however does not appear to be a certain thing at all.

I think the social distancing in shops and restaurants should continue. Controversial I know, but actually it’s been more blissful not having people in my face all the time!

Not too 'blissful' or businesses who can't afford to run at half capacity long-term.

I guess if you find it 'blissful' to be distanced from your fellow humans you could always pay extra for the seats around you?

Regarding people saying the BBC piece it’s just “some” persons view. There are actually quotes from scientists. The piece is written by a senior BBC journalist so will have been well researched.

And although from September I hope a Lancet journal will have enough credibility to bolster the BBC article assertions regarding sterilising immunity:
www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(20)31976-0.pdf

I will take the point about the two years being more about the World than the UK specifically.

Regarding people saying the BBC piece it’s just “some” persons view. There are actually quotes from scientists. The piece is written by a senior BBC journalist so will have been well researched.

Right. But there are lots of scientists. And lots of 'senior journalists'. These are just a few among them. Also, the BBC has been notably doom and gloomish from the start.

So yes, this article is just people's opinions. Nobody really knows what the world will look a year or even 3 months from now, so this is simply informed speculation. People have been enthusiastically sharing this article for the past week and you'd have to wondery why.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Schools aren't going to be back to normal until next academic year in my opinion. That feels right, not optimistic or pessimistic, just about right.

Sounds realistic to me. I think by the summer term, normal seasonal cycles of illness plus the benefits of vaccination progress might mean that they are less necessary, but it simply won't be worth the effort of structural changes of classes/ bubbles or staggered times for the last part of the school year.

Less structured changes such as face coverings or being able to relax about school events and activities are easier to adjust and are more likely to change sooner.

I work in a centre for some of the sickest people with covid, on the highest levels of life support. We serve a predominantly tier 2 area, but are still currently at 3 times our maximum capacity (at peak we were 5 times normal maximum). Obviously this has an ongoing impact on our ability to do elective work. Every single one of our patients is under 65 and none of them would be considered CEV. This means that they are all considered relatively low risk for the purposes of vaccine allocation. However, even if only a very small percentage of low risk people ends up being seriously ill, as long as large numbers are still getting sick, we are going to stay very busy.

I say this with no pleasure at all, but I expect the impact of covid on the health service to be with us for years.

@picsinred such a disgustingly selfish attitude. What about those vunerable shop workers, who have no choice but to serve you when you're "done" with wearing a mask? Putting them at risk because you don't want to mask up for half an hour is such a selfish attitude. I work 12 hour shifts in a supermarket, wearing masks, which rub the backs of my ears raw and irritate my skin no end. I'll be putting my mask back on in an hour to go back to work, despite my ears still being tremendously sore from my 12 hour shift yesterday. I have severe asthma so could pull the exempt card, but I mask up, to protect my colleagues, customers and myself. Have a little damn respect for others around you. Refusing to wear a mask for the hour at most you'll be in the supermarket when the staff around you spend more time wearing them than not it just pathetic.

Bajalaluna

If you want to wear a mask indefinitely, crack on, I won't stop you. Oh to be so lovely and selfless.

@onedayinthefuture

We'll have to start accepting that death is part of life, it comes to us all and then wake up and realise we might as will live our lives in the meantime.

Basically this..

There’s elderly who have been locked up and died away from family (who would have died anyway because as many have forgotten - people do die from things other than Covid).

So as much as i agree to some extent with ‘protect the vulnerable’ Give them a bloody choice. Some of them don't want to be protected, they want to spend their last days around people they love.

@PicsInRed

Bajalaluna

If you want to wear a mask indefinitely, crack on, I won't stop you. Oh to be so lovely and selfless.

So putting a piece of cloth with a filter across your face is such a hardship for you (you can't be exempt because you already wear one) that you can't be bothered to do it even in order to keep others safer?

Nice.

@picsinred, I will wear one as long as is deemed necessary. Not with enjoyment, but out of respect for others around me, and for the NHS trying to slow the spread of this disease. If someone you knew and loved, who wasn't CEV and didn't fall into the at risk categories lost their life to Covid19, then maybe you'd show a little more compassion and care to everyone else around you. Let's pray life does start to go back to normal asap, but if data suggests otherwise and people are still losing their lives, then carrying on with precautions is unfortunately necessary.

[quote Bajalaluna]@picsinred such a disgustingly selfish attitude. What about those vunerable shop workers, who have no choice but to serve you when you're "done" with wearing a mask? Putting them at risk because you don't want to mask up for half an hour is such a selfish attitude. I work 12 hour shifts in a supermarket, wearing masks, which rub the backs of my ears raw and irritate my skin no end. I'll be putting my mask back on in an hour to go back to work, despite my ears still being tremendously sore from my 12 hour shift yesterday. I have severe asthma so could pull the exempt card, but I mask up, to protect my colleagues, customers and myself. Have a little damn respect for others around you. Refusing to wear a mask for the hour at most you'll be in the supermarket when the staff around you spend more time wearing them than not it just pathetic. [/quote]
You wear your mask forever and follow the sheep, however (as frontline ambulance staff who also has to wear a mask for 12-14 hour shifts) I couldn't care less if people don't wear a mask around me. I know they’re awful, and i I only wear one in direct contact with patients as its ‘professional’, and i have never and will never wear one outside of work. This could go on for years.. are you going to wear a mask indefinitely?

I can count on one hand the amount of times in 5 years we’ve had to wear PPE (other than gloves) before COVID.

Also, a lot of the followers don’t actually realise that pulling a sweaty potentially contaminated mask off their face, screwing it up in their bag or throwing it in their car until its next use, touching their face, the trolley, their car door, shop door etc with the freshly contaminated mask germs is probably worse than not actually wearing a mask. Unless of course you dispose of your mask immediately in clinical waste, use a new mask each time and wash your hands immediately before you touch anything, which I’m sure doesnt happen.

I'm wearing a mask. On my nose. Consistently.

There's an end date to it. As there bloody well should be.

you can't be exempt because you already wear on

I could be "exempted", but I've chosen to just wear the mask. I won't continue to do so indefinitely.

"I've already decided I'm not wearing a mask after Feb and if it's required for entry to access essentials (food) I'll join the nose-out brigade"

Well at least you'll look a right knob. Awful attitude

"probably worse than not actually wearing a mask."

"Probably worse"? As ambulance staff you should know that is incorrect

Unfortunately, it also makes clear that it is going to be years not months until we are able to go back to normal.

It really doesn’t, though.

I see the "more lockdown" people are now the "long term mask" people. They love it.

The little bit of moral compliance I had left went out the window when another thread made me aware that strip clubs are open in tier 2, and men down the road from me can pay for fully nude women to grind all over them. So I'll be meeting friends indoors for coffee or drinks with no shame, we are all in this together right?