When are things going to start improving?

[Blanketyblankblankety]

I'm so fed up I could cry and I can only see things getting worse not better. The Christmas bubbles are bound to cause a massive surge in cases and schools are going to be a disaster next term because of this. I've got DS self isolating again for the 3rd time this term and due to do GCSES next summer. He's spent so long sat down starring at his screen doing home learning this term he's morphed into an antisocial [redacted]. When DS has actually been in school I've had DD off self isolating. Dh has been WFH since March, I can't remember the last time I was alone. I know people have got things so much worse than me but when is this light at the end of the tunnel going to appear?

When the most vulnerable groups have been vaccinated and hospitalisations/deaths go down dramatically, things will improve and begin to get back to normal. I don't know how long that will take.

Things will start to improve in spring I feel. January and February will not be good though.

The government have just extended the furlough scheme to the end of April, which is probably the best indication we have of when they are currently thinking is the first possible point that things could be normal enough to allow businesses to recover

Easter time.

But I do think some of the current restrictions will get inherently more liveable if we get a nice spring - meeting outside is grim and impractical for a lot of people in winter but could be better in spring if we're lucky with the spring we get

Please don't use the term "mong" it is extremely offensive.

I sympathise with the "not getting any better feeling". I think I just want to get this year over and see the back of it and hopefully things will seem brighter in the New Year. God knows what will happen with exams though. It's a real worry.

I'm feeling quite angry today. I feel annoyed that DCs education has been so disrupted since March especially because Ds is doing GCSES in 2021. He didn't even get to finish his mocks before being sent home to self isolate again. Can't help worrying about it all. What tipped me over the edge was hearing about MILs plans for Christmas which are nothing short of reckless. She's off touring the country to mix with multiple families whose DCs who've been at multiple schools. If she's doing it, thousands of others will be too. These are the generation we've been trying to protect all this time. The complete stupidity and selfishness is staggering.

Thanks for pulling me up on my use of that word. I'd not even thought about it, I sincerely apologise.

I can't see much improvement until the over 45s are vaccinated (although the government has this set at over 50s incorrectly IMHO).
That could be months.
It is over 45s who are at risk of hospitalisation (although not so much death) and are contributing to the hundreds of patients in each hospital with Covid-19. Once everyone over this age is vaccinated, we will see a big improvement.

coronavirus Act ends March 2022. I hope we will have a summer like the one we’ve just had but I’d not bet on it.

The other option is mass riots which are not remotely on the cards.

Remember we’re 4 days away from the darkest day of the year, op.
In a month or so as we see the vaccine numbers ramp up it will look more optimistic even though there won’t be any actual changes. Then all being well with vaccine supply, by spring a such a high proportion of the most vulnerable people will have been vaccinated that there will be actual improvements to numbers of deaths and hospitalisations.
The fact that so many of the vaccines have succeeded with more to come means we really can look forward to things getting better x

I don't think anyone has the energy for riots, that is just media rubbish. Most people who disagree with the rules will just ignore them.

Since furlough has just been extended another month (end Feb?) we have another 2 months of crap to come (after a Christmas of mass transmission).

Things will be better in spring/summer 2021. I don’t think things will be normal in the U.K. until September 2022. Worldwide normal not until 2023.

@gebruiker

I don't think anyone has the energy for riots, that is just media rubbish. Most people who disagree with the rules will just ignore them.

Since furlough has just been extended another month (end Feb?) we have another 2 months of crap to come (after a Christmas of mass transmission).

I didn’t know the media were talking about it?

I’m just saying it because i don’t think people would do it but it would be a way out. I’m nit brave enough to do it though I might if I didn’t have an elderly mother to care for.

Furlough extended to end April.

Since furlough has just been extended another month (end Feb?) we have another 2 months of crap to come (after a Christmas of mass transmission).

End of April, and March budget already announced as being about 'the next round of tackling the virus', rather than, say, 'recovery'. I actually think it's really surprising they've made this announcement now as it's so demoralising. And for those on MN who say it was 'obvious' that this would go on for so long, I don't think they'd ever have set up the furlough scheme in the way they did, with such broad eligibility, if they'd realised that some people would be on it for at least 13 months.

I’m in the group who thought it was obvious by the duration of the act and the way other countries have done furlough

I prefer to know the long term plan than to be fed it bit by bit. Look what happened to theatres who believed in tiers!

My theme tune for all this has been Hooverville by the Christians!

In what sense would riots be a way out though? If we had riots we’d still have a pandemic, we would just also have some burnt out shops, streets full of broken glass and a few more businesses that were on their knees going under.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

In what sense would riots be a way out though? If we had riots we’d still have a pandemic, we would just also have some burnt out shops, streets full of broken glass and a few more businesses that were on their knees going under.

They might realise that proper infection control is a good idea.

They might realise that virus going to virus no matter what you close down.

They might realise what the public will put up with...but that’s the problem, the public have proved they will put up with anything for the myth of safety. No one can argue now that lockdowns work.

One brave MP has asked for Covid deaths to be redefined from “deaths within 28 days of a positive test” to “died of covid”. Big difference.

Businesses don’t have to be targeted. Peaceful mass demonstrations would be better. But it’s all a bit suffragette now - what is the language politicians will understand?

I know I’m a minority, I’ll go away now.

I think it's a difficult balancing act because more long-term information is much better for businesses but it's terrible for public morale and so compliance. The 'if you're spending Christmas with family you're a murderer' threads on MN are FULL of people saying that they can easily slip Christmas because they'll be having big family parties 'in a couple of months' or 'at Easter'; people would be even more likely to take the chance to meet now if you tell them upfront that we're likely to still be living like this long past Easter.

When either sufficient vaccinations have been given out or when the virus wears itself out. Most pandemics last roughly 2 years, so we should, hopefully, be at least half way through.

They can't roll out the vaccine programme fast enough for me. I am frustrated by the fact that each town has one hub and they are working their way slowly steadily through the over 80s. What happened to setting up vaccine hubs all over the place and getting as many vaccinated as possible? I think the government should have organised much more widespread vaccination sites so they could whizz through the over 80s and move onto the next priority levels. They have had months to organise and plan for this. And we have one hub per large town only in my county.

@gebruiker

They can't roll out the vaccine programme fast enough for me. I am frustrated by the fact that each town has one hub and they are working their way slowly steadily through the over 80s. What happened to setting up vaccine hubs all over the place and getting as many vaccinated as possible? I think the government should have organised much more widespread vaccination sites so they could whizz through the over 80s and move onto the next priority levels. They have had months to organise and plan for this. And we have one hub per large town only in my county.

They've only got enough vaccine for 400k people now and won't have more until the new year, so it doesn't really matter how fast they move. They'v already vaccinated 100K people.By contrast, the EU hasn't even appoved the vaccine yet.

If and when the Oxford vaccine gets approved - which many believe will be by Xmas - then I'd expect things to move quicker. This govt can be criticised for many things, but not the vaccine roll-out.

There are no guarantees, but millions more of the Pfizer vaccine are scheduled to arrive by the end of the month.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/16/138000-people-in-uk-have-received-covid-vaccine

I know we have to be grateful there is any approved vaccine but apparently we now have 2.5 million doses in the country, not the original 400000 (x2 doses).