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.

@TheHoneyBadger

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.

@TheHoneyBadger 💯 agree with all of that.

No I'm afraid that oh he's just a bumbling buffoon with floppy hair bullshit won't wash.

They spend a fortune on behavioural scientists and media manipulators and pr consultancy.

An example of my realism not being pessimism.

I have booked flights for the summer holidays because I hope to spend the summer in my other homeland.

However I have paid over the odds and picked direct flights from a British company rather than the 2 leg journey I usually make with a Middle Eastern airline because if one leg of the journey was disallowed due to Covid rules I'd lose money and the flights.

I'm sensibly optimistic whilst being cautious in case.

I certainly don't revel in disaster or lockdowns. It will be two years since I've been able to visit because we couldn't fly there last year. I miss friends and swimming in the sea and I have a shit load of business to take care of to keep hold of property.

True optimism involves being able to accept and roll with some restrictions and hard work now with optimism that we can cope with it and it will be worth it and the world won't fucking end if we have to suck up some difficult truths and there consequences.

That's mature optimism if you like. It's like the positive thinking business-the immature magical thinker stands in their window chanting the grass is short the grass is short and expecting it to magically get mown. Mature positive thinking would be more like right yes it's a total ball ache of a task but I can summon the energy to get the mower out and crack on to get it back in shape.

A bit of deferred gratification and hard graft to get to the other side.

I think there will be new technology. Something along the lines of inventing a virtual concert experience that is affordable to have on an individual basis. Something which allows you to be at the live event whilst in your house/garden. In the future someone will invent a device which brings other environments to you. So instead of you having to travel to say Barbados, Barbados comes to you. The warmth, the souds, the scenery etc.

@Onlinedilema

I think there will be new technology. Something along the lines of inventing a virtual concert experience that is affordable to have on an individual basis. Something which allows you to be at the live event whilst in your house/garden. In the future someone will invent a device which brings other environments to you. So instead of you having to travel to say Barbados, Barbados comes to you. The warmth, the souds, the scenery etc.

'Virtual experiences' will never be the same as the real thing. Not near.

Fuck that. Life is in the senses not a simulation.

@TheHoneyBadger

Fuck that. Life is in the senses not a simulation.

Yes. Sounds like something from a dystopian science fiction film.

That's no way to live.

@Onlinedilema

I think there will be new technology. Something along the lines of inventing a virtual concert experience that is affordable to have on an individual basis. Something which allows you to be at the live event whilst in your house/garden. In the future someone will invent a device which brings other environments to you. So instead of you having to travel to say Barbados, Barbados comes to you. The warmth, the souds, the scenery etc.

God no

Bad enough with bloody zoom / teams offered as replacement to education and work / socialising

The worst part of all this is how much people want to gloss over real interaction v virtual

Utter bollocks

Agree the virtual reality tourism sounds horribly dystopian, but it is already starting to happen- www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54658147

I think at some point the country will need to decide that going back to our old normal is not compatible with living with Covid and so to keep schools open and to let people see their families indoors e.t.c.. we'll need to give up other things e.g. holidays, pubs, restaurants, leisure. It's awful and I hope this doesn't happen but I'm trying to prepare myself for what might happen.

Agree the virtual reality tourism sounds horribly dystopian, but it is already starting to happen- www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54658147

The article doesn't really say that it's happening, just that the manager of a 'virtual' tourism company very much wants it to.

I think at some point the country will need to decide that going back to our old normal is not compatible with living with Covid and so to keep schools open and to let people see their families indoors e.t.c.. we'll need to give up other things e.g. holidays, pubs, restaurants, leisure.

All of these industries employ millions of people and put billions of pounds into the economy. Why would such a radical step be required when there's a very high likeliehood the vaccination programme will be a success?

@IcedPurple

*Agree the virtual reality tourism sounds horribly dystopian, but it is already starting to happen- www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54658147*

The article doesn't really say that it's happening, just that the manager of a 'virtual' tourism company very much wants it to.

I think at some point the country will need to decide that going back to our old normal is not compatible with living with Covid and so to keep schools open and to let people see their families indoors e.t.c.. we'll need to give up other things e.g. holidays, pubs, restaurants, leisure.

All of these industries employ millions of people and put billions of pounds into the economy. Why would such a radical step be required when there's a very high likeliehood the vaccination programme will be a success?

I feel this decision about returning to normal will be a global shift, perhaps later this year or next year depending on the success of vaccines and any further mutations. Watch NZ and SK, if they can maintain a very low covid threshold whilst the outside world continues on its trajectory, we will no doubt adopt their methodology without question.

IF the vaccines work then we have a feasible way out of our new world back to some semblance of the old way of life.

IF they aren’t effective and the mutations start to evade them to a point when a new vaccination would need to be created and rolled out every few months then the acceptance of our new reality will have to kick in.

In all honesty I think a lot have already started to accept this may not have the happy ending we hope for. The caveat being acceptance that it MAY have to change not that it will.

• 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. *

This is SO true.

news.sky.com/story/covid-19-halve-the-gap-between-vaccine-doses-senior-doctors-urge-12196068

It’s not just me that’s getting a sick thrill that the way the vaccination is being administered is not ideal, seems that some doctors are enjoying the shit show too!

@4cats2kids

news.sky.com/story/covid-19-halve-the-gap-between-vaccine-doses-senior-doctors-urge-12196068

It’s not just me that’s getting a sick thrill that the way the vaccination is being administered is not ideal, seems that some doctors are enjoying the shit show too!

It's a window into the way some people think isn't it? The motives they ascribe to others.

The whole world thinks doing the vaccine rollout this way is risky and dangerous.

All you need is a supply issue, and our parents and grandparents won't get their second dose at an appropriate time.

@PrincessNutNuts

* 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. *

This is SO true.

Well put.

I think we also need to prepare for some winter lock downs and school shut becoming the norm. Hopefully now school is slicker on line it can simply be smooth transitions on line and back in again without fuss.

@LickEmbysmiling they can obviously shut things but people won't put up with not seeing their friends and family inside every winter. Each lockdown will get less and less compliance.

Same with schools - online learning is not the same. To shut them each winter would be severely disruptive and ruin children's education, not to mention parents who are trying to work and home school.

Sorry, I don't think I mentioned others measures but unless hospital capacity is drastically increased and extra staff then I can't see another way around it.

I think everyone should mentally prepare for the possibility of smooth transition to on line teaching as and when needed without huge build ups.. Depending on local hospital.

As for people who won't comply to smaller lock downs... Stop and start then I guess they could sign something to give up their right to hospital care?

I also meant shut them as and when needed, eg a few weeks here and there.

Rather than for entire winters.

@LickEmbysmiling to me 'winter lockdown' means lockdown like the one we are in now.

Might happen winter 21/22 but I can't see it working after that. To live life as we are now permanently or as the 'norm' is not living. It's existing.

Furlough will probably stop as there will be plenty of jobs picking veg in the fields or Amazon

Stamp duty holiday will end and house prices will drop

Things will open up in the summer same as last year

There will be another eat out to help out

House prices can't drop till we have decent interest rates back. Those of us trying to save in the last decade have realistically been losing money or at best standing still though I appreciate it's been a good decade to be a mortgage payer banks want our money for nothing whilst they earn interest from those they lend to.

Everything is bank based now (pensions, benefits etc that could once be accessed without a bank account). So people are forced to let banks have their money and get nothing back. If you want a pessimistic prediction look out for the end of free bank accounts and paying for the privilege of them taking and making money on your wages and savings.

That's a tad off topic but I note my banks have taken the Covid opportunity to further slash interest rates recently despite already being less than 1%. I'm in the midst of bank switching again. Virgin money will at least give you a case of wine for giving them your money.

@TheHoneyBadger

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.

What utter tripe!

All bets are off in my book