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.

@lightand

I read somewhere today that 165 countries have total covid deaths over the whole pandemic that are lower than ours for the last two weeks

Alarming.

I had a look. It's spot on.

@tobee

I feel some posters will be absolutely delighted if the government role out of the vaccine is a shit show!

That’s a nasty thing to say just because you don’t like people being realistic. OK, shall we pretend the virus will just vanish magically and we will be totally fine by Easter? What will we do when that doesn’t happen?

@AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii

I disagree with it becoming nastier, I see it continuing to mutate to something less deadly

If a variant spreads faster then even if they are less virulent they kill just as many people because it gets to more people it can kill. And overwhelms health services leading to more deaths.

Are any of the new variants less virulent? I didn't think they were.

I don't think that the virus will magically disappear by Easter.

What I said about posters still stands.

The two things aren't mutually exclusive.

Why do you take that from my post? Why are people either optimistic or pessimistic? Why is pessimism seen to be the only reality?

I am pretty pessimistic now. The scientists have busted a gut... but it’s now whack-a-mole - whatever virus is damped down, along will come another variant

Btw, I do agree that some political posters would rather the vaccine failed and we all perished than the govt could be credited with the tiniest smidgeon of success. If Jeremy Corbyn made a triumphant coup with the very same vaccine in his hand, all would be wonderful.

Well it could be said that the flu virus is whack a mole in that we adjust it for different strains every year. That's done with a reasonable amount of success.

Flu virus and the vaccines for it that should say

@IrmaFayLear

I am pretty pessimistic now. The scientists have busted a gut... but it’s now whack-a-mole - whatever virus is damped down, along will come another variant

Btw, I do agree that some political posters would rather the vaccine failed and we all perished than the govt could be credited with the tiniest smidgeon of success. If Jeremy Corbyn made a triumphant coup with the very same vaccine in his hand, all would be wonderful.

Hopefully science is now so advanced, that it will allow us to keep on top of this.

spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/devices/ai-predicts-most-potent-covid-19-mutations

That it will evolve, it's now "more deadly", I bet it won't be long before a strain comes along that gets round the vaccine...

It might be more deadly. There are several vaccines now. They are "tweakable". There over a hundred more vaccines in development. A few will be approved. There is more known about treatment options. There are more trials going on about treatments. There will be more questions and more answers. We will learn more. We still have just a tiny amount of data.

@SeldomFollowedIt I think aside from point 4 everything else still stands. I think we may still be in this lockdown by May or have just come out of it in some form or another with lots of restrictions still in place.

Considering this evenings announcement about the UK strain being more lethal I suspect the next few weeks will be spent gathering and analysing as much data as possible on the vaccine roll outs and efficacy. Something has them spooked though and tonight’s admission was a big step.

In a world connected through social media and instant news it’s very easy to think the grass is greener in other country’s. Pictures of partying and no social distancing, streets full of maskless faces almost rubbing our noses in to it, I’m looking at China and NZ and just thinking tick tock because these new strains aren’t playing games.

I almost added the cancellation of the Olympics to my original list but at the time Japan seemed adamant they were going ahead and I partly suspected they may try to pull it off. Today’s leak about said cancellation says a lot about how they anticipate the situation to be come the summer.

Also it's been evolving all along. Many, many mutations have occurred. Some of greater significance than others. This is a known fact about viruses. Scientists expect this. And account for this in their calculations for treatments and vaccines.

Saying it will evolve, not really a prediction I would suggest

I think the virus will mutate so that it infects people's broadband routers and no one will be able to shop online or work from home so the death stats will be dropped from the news and we will go back to normal.

Just to show I'm not all optimism I agree with op re Olympics. Just too expensive, too difficult and not really satisfactory.

If it goes ahead behind closed doors, hopefully it will be enough of an event to be worthwhile.

@Thewiseoneincognito

Interesting!!

They looked spooked for sure.
What are they hiding I wonder 🤔

Op do you really think NZ and China are rubbing our nose in it? What a strange way to think!

I find it very strange to add your tick toc sentence. This is why I think it appears almost gleeful, as I said upthread. And yet, according to a pp, I'm the nasty one.

Surely most people would say "I really hope NZ and China will stay safe" ?

@tobee I really do hope they stay safe but the reality is that they can not stay covid free forever whilst the outside world is in this dire situation. i
The nature of this virus means it is literally only a matter of time until one of the variants finds its way into their population. There is no glee on that, it’s a simple sobering fact.

@Lifeinaonesie

I think the virus will mutate so that it infects people's broadband routers and no one will be able to shop online or work from home so the death stats will be dropped from the news and we will go back to normal.

That wouldn't be such a bad thing. I truly believe if this was the 90s, the response would be very different.

Interesting. You were called a pessimist in your OP @Thewiseoneincognitobut a lot of what you said last month is happening.

After the news of the increased lethality of the UK strain and decreased efficacy of the vaccine against the SA strain, I just don't know what to think. I really thought things were getting better globally last November and then everything changed.

i thought things were improving too,'m shocked to hear they aren't. i'm scared now

[quote Thewiseoneincognito]@tobee I really do hope they stay safe but the reality is that they can not stay covid free forever whilst the outside world is in this dire situation. i
The nature of this virus means it is literally only a matter of time until one of the variants finds its way into their population. There is no glee on that, it’s a simple sobering fact.[/quote]

Well let's hope they do see it coming. I daresay that they are not being complacent.

Fucks sake OP, we’d be best all committing suicide now by your reckoning.

Tokyo Olympics are fucked though I agree.