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.

Also, none of these, mine included, are predictions. They are guesses, and generally pretty uninformed ones at that.

yes so is London Marathon

if i get a place there is no way i'm running the virtual

its the real deal or nothing

That's a lovely comment

@MadameBlobby I wish I could have predicted for it to simply disappear and be cured by fairies and unicorns and we’d all be skipping in the streets. Sadly that’s not how pandemics work.

It’s better to be realistic and face the facts instead of copious amounts of hopium that gets dashed every few days. There are plenty of other threads on MN, I strongly advise you to stay away from the coronavirus threads if you dislike the news.

Your “predictions” are nothing but your own ill educated guesses and not backed up by the news.

I’m in particular all ears at how we recruit for the NHS with an uneducated population, as we will have if this crap continues much longer.

@MadameBlobby lol have you actually read my original post? Did you see the news this evening about the UK variant being more lethal than first thought?

As I said, perhaps take a look at some of the more gentle threads if this one is causing you discomfort.

hewiseoneincognito

Is it pessimism or realism? Surely this list isn’t too much of a stretch to envision happening? If someone had told you exactly 1 year ago that this would be our reality would you have believed them? We’ve had a wild ride for 2020 and the unbelievable is now believable.“

Yes, would absolutely have believed them.

However, we now have more than one effective vaccine which completely changes the outlook.

As a woman with a CEV husband and a CV youngest child, in feeling more optimistic now than I have for a very long time.

So, sod off you miserable git 😬

I can’t believe a year on we are in the same position

There is doubt over the vaccines now. Feel very square oneish and that scares me

@DenisetheMenace I appreciate your optimism and fully understand why you want to see the good in this perilous situation. I’ve always been cautious and there’s nothing wrong with that at all either.

Unfortunately the nature of this virus means that all bets are off, literally like footsteps in the darkness as we learn and try to adapt to our new world. I hope for all our sakes that the vaccines perform as good as we expect them too and that when needed they can be quickly adapted and completely redistributed again once the mutations reduce their efficacy.

It’s going to be a never ending cat and mouse game.

Well we play a kind of cat and mouse game with the flu every year with vaccines. Obviously not the same as this. But it once was quite similar with Spanish Flu pandemic and others.

Or as someone described it on another thread as whack a mole.

Op I think you post better when you're thoughtful in your tone rather than sensationalist with, what could be perceived as, overtones of triumphalism? People take calm people more seriously ime. Just my impression.

@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.

I don't know why you bring up politics, or a politician who has nothing to do with government, or any pandemic response anywhere, but if Im the poster you are calling "political" then read on.

We know that almost any government on earth would do a better job of keeping its citizens alive in the time of covid because almost every government has.

I judge our government on what they do - and the results of those actions.

After a year of covid the results of their actions are 105,000 British people dead^.

Of ^ a preventable disease.

One of the biggest death tolls on earth any way you count it.

Only 18 countries have a bigger covid death toll for the whole pandemic than we have this month.

At this point I'd happily take any of the 190 governments on earth who have done a better job of keeping their people alive than ours has.
^
We have a more transmissible, more virulent new strain than March combined with a less stringent lockdown^ than March.

The results of this will be more deaths and a longer time before we can reopen.

Another 10,000 British people are going to die next week.

And 20,000 in February.

To be honest, I think it's those people glossing over all the death and not judging our government harshly who might be the political ones.

It's a weird world where if you're not all pollyanna it'll be over imminently in the face of a pandemic killing well over 1000 people a day in the uk then you're a pessimist.

We were saying schools should do blended learning with pupils in on rotas or it will be constant bubbles bursting or closing due to staffing until eventually schools will be forced to close completely when people are forced to admit the bloody obvious that they can't be open as normal without massive levels of community spread. We were ridiculous scaremongering hysterical irresponsible etc yet here we are.

If people had listened to us we'd not be in this mess.

Anything less than it's fine and will all be over by Tuesday pisses some people off despite the fact that pandering to that need for blind optimism has cost so many lives and seen us with horrendous levels of infection and deaths.

Furlough is only going to be able to last so long, more and more people I know who were still furloughed are now being made redundant, surely being on universal credit is going to slowly start replacing furlough as the norm as lockdown drags on :(

It's a weird world if you're not all pessimistic then you're a Pollyanna @TheHoneyBadger.

I don't think the children will be going back after the Easter holidays. I was hopeful that they would. Until this week.

Just want to add why on earth are people still allowed to fly out of the country and back again. Look at the pictures of Heathrow recently, it's appauling. My prediction is more people will become infected and spread the virus causing further strain on the NHS. Things will be crap this year.

Also vaccinating 80 year old will not prevent stupid. Stupid are those flyng , stupid are the 400 guests at the recent wedding. I hope although it won't happen that those involved are refused treatment on the NHS whilst we are in a pandemic and yes, it is very different from treating others.

@TheHoneyBadger

"If people had listened to us we'd not be in this mess"

I don't think Boris reads Mumsnet. If only he'd seen your posts, it would all be so different.

We didn't need boris to read it. Boris only reads public opinion and what will make him popular and listens to massively funded and connected campaign groups like us4them.

If parents hadn't been shrieking schools must open in full as normal and you better not even suggest muzzling my child then he'd have taken a different tack. If parents had been shouting fund schools properly and make them actually safe instead of just spending a fortune on a propaganda campaign he'd have taken a different tack.

Notice also that those calling others pessimistic are underneath it all full of catastrophic thinking about how we will have a lost generation, children's lives will be literally destroyed etc if they have to stay at home for a couple of months. Or that people will lose their freedom forever and they can't possibly think positive and cope with juggling work and childcare for a few months.

They are raging pessimists when faced with anything other than everything being instantly normal. The so called pessimists are actually often the ones saying yeah it's going to be tough for a while but I've prepared myself mentally and we can get through this if we pull together.

And if you don't think the government has paid employees reading, and perhaps even steering, public opinion on social media and a forum as large as this geared at parents you are seriously out of touch with the times.

@TheHoneyBadger I think you're giving the Government too much credit.