Covid Predictions for 2021

[Thewiseoneincognito]

Behold! A New Year cometh! What do you think will come our way in 2021? Intrigued to hear people’s opinions, I’ll go first...

1. Possible full UK lockdown with school closures once the devastation from Christmas mixing becomes apparent early January. We may see harsher restrictions come in to play too.

2. Vaccine successes and failures. With so many companies coming forward with various concoctions it is a given that there will be issues with at least some of them. I have a feeling the virus may well adapt too. Vaxxed people letting their guard down only to find themselves not as immune as first hoped.

3. More mutations particularly as people who have already had it get reinfected and pass it on. The odds seem stacked against us so I’m expecting a nastier mutation in 2021.

4. A fourth National Lockdown possibly around May/ June depending how long the third lasts for.

5. Furlough scheme extended indefinitely perhaps morphed into a universal basic income once it becomes evident certain industries will not be returning for a very long time (theatres, clubs, live music venues etc)

6. High street catastrophe following another longer hard lockdown.

7. Unrest as people split into believers and non believer camps. I expect more prolific calling out those who refuse to wear masks or comply with restrictions.

8. A breakthrough or realisation that may shift everyone’s perception and understanding significantly.

9. Widespread NHS recruitment drive to deal with new reality of constant covid patients. The key to future lockdowns being less drastic is a more robust NHS.

I think 2021 will be more lockdowns, vaccination on a large scale, yet another year of little education for children and widespread economic misery. All this to protect the NHS which will still be overwhelmed!

With the Oxford vaccine now in place, we will be through this by April at the latest.

22 days of lockdown so far for 2021....

No-one likes a smartarse

I think if the last 12 months has taught us anything it's that you can't predict this virus or its havoc.

I just want to get to the point where my parents have received both doses of vaccination (over 65 catagory) and they are both a lot safer!

@Thewiseoneincognito
Is this something you're happy to be right about though OP?!

My prediction was that I'd watch everything on netflix. Coming true so far...

@Thewiseoneincognito

22 days of lockdown so far for 2021....

Jesus what a weirdo

@starfro

OP - Stop winding people up.

My prediction - tens of millions vaccinated by early Spring. Weekly excess deaths down to very low levels by then.

And yet, back in November you said confidently, three times, "The pandemic is over."

@MiaMarshmallows

With the Oxford vaccine now in place, we will be through this by April at the latest.

Three weeks later do you still think the same?

The one thing I've concluded after a covid year is that those of us who are often called negative and pessimistic have a better success rate at predicting how things will go than those who have been confident that covid was either not coming here, nothing to worry about, or imminently about to be over.

The notable exception is those nay-sayers who were against zero covid or making schools safer. They were just wrong.

There's nothing in your list OP that I think is particularly outlandish.

It's self-evident that if we come out of lockdown too soon we'll have to go back in quite quickly. This is literally what just happened to us. Out on Dec 2nd. even though we had 100,000 new cases a week and 3000 deaths a week) Back in January 5th. 30, 000 British people dead of covid in January because of it. More in February.

Funnily enough all my Covid predictions have come true also!

What about the pessimists who went on about how there had never been a vaccine for a coronavirus? ("Sorry") That they take years to develop and ready for use? ("I'm afraid") And the first ones were likely to be not very good and have low efficacy?

These things have been conveniently forgotten by the doom sayers.

@tobee

What about the pessimists who went on about how there had never been a vaccine for a coronavirus? ("Sorry") That they take years to develop and ready for use? ("I'm afraid") And the first ones were likely to be not very good and have low efficacy?

These things have been conveniently forgotten by the doom sayers.

Well it doesn’t actually prevent the virus from spreading, just reduces the severity if you do get it. I think most people originally thought that it would stop people from getting Covid (and some still seem to think it does). Not sure it’s the magic bullet but it’s all we’ve got I guess.

Well it doesn’t actually prevent the virus from spreading

You don't know that because nobody knows that yet. Don't whip your opinion into fact.

Having a vaccine which prevents you from getting severe covid is a huge leap forward, unless you think dying and being hospitalised is a trivial matter?

@FourTeaFallOut

Well it doesn’t actually prevent the virus from spreading

You don't know that because nobody knows that yet. Don't whip your opinion into fact.

Having a vaccine which prevents you from getting severe covid is a huge leap forward, unless you think dying and being hospitalised is a trivial matter?

No, obviously I don’t think it’s trivial but I have seen so many people who aren’t at risk of serious complications saying that they can’t wait until they’ve had the vaccine, which makes me think that they think it’s going to completely stop them getting the virus. For elderly and vulnerable people, the vaccine is a great thing obviously.

"Well it doesn’t actually prevent the virus from spreading"

Can't believe people are saying this still as if it's a definite fact!

Honestly people just can't help themselves can they? It's like they truly believe only doom and gloom can be fact and the rest of us who see that there's good and bad and middling news are village idiots.

Well done op

Do you have any more predictions now, to add to the list?

I'm afraid those people's opinions have no bearing on the matter. A reduction in mortality and morbidity of the disease achieved through the mass vaccination of the adult population will transform the covid landscape in this country. We won't all be sat indoors worrying about catching a mild illness, will we? We will step back -as Whitty said - in increments and while some restrictions may carry on for some time the vaccine will be the key to better days.

In my experience, you have two types of pessimists, those who support and those against lockdown. Those against lockdown tend to be the ones saying “what if we never have a vaccine/ what if the virus mutates/governments are going to use this to keep us in lockdown forever”. Those who think lockdown is necessary tend to be more “If we release lockdown too soon, rates will surge/ the nhs will be overwhelmed/we will have more avoidable deaths/the alternative would be even worse”.
It’s rare you have pessimists that exist in both groups.

@tobee those who said coronavirus vaccines won’t happen for a long time meant ones that actually work 😐

This jab is not as effective as people are made to believe and is absolutely not the key to this situation. We can revisit this comment in a few months though just to be certain....

This jab is not as effective as people are made to believe and is absolutely not the key to this situation.

Firstly we do not know how effective the vaccine is yet. We don't yet know to what degree it affords sterilising immunity - it may well afford a reduction in forward transmission. But that is regardless, once there are low levels of illness and death - achieved via vaccine- we will assume a closer proximity to the normal running of life and it is the key to the situation. Sorry.

I'm in the app and can't see when the OP first posted

Seems a pretty realistic list to me...but I think this lockdown will last a while, so there won't be another in May/June.

Three and a half weeks ago.

OP, you were right on most points. Like you, I could see 2021 unfolding like this a long time ago.

8) A breakthrough or realisation that may shift everyone’s perception and understanding significantly.
I am hoping there is a great awakening when the penny finally drops and people see:

a) The PCR tests' high rate of false positives makes them unfit for purpose.
b) There is no proof of asymptomatic trramsmission.
c) Dying with covid is very different to dying from covid.