Good News Thread Number 4. Because that positivity just keeps on coming!

[FuzzyPuffling]

Here it is....number four thread of science and positivity!

@DobbyTheHouseElk that’s very similar. I have joined the FB group of my parents local town to stay a bit updated. It seems just slow overall where they are - Suffolk.

Israel is at 19.5% now. That's amazing.

This thread is a godsend, I can't bear the 'this will last forever, our lives are over, the world is ending' hysteria everywhere else on this site. It's absolutely depressing.

I appreciate things are dire and have been the past year but I absolutely believe we'll be in a much better position (and soon!), without this thread I'd have thought I was the only bloody one on MN who felt that way!

I come away sometimes from BoJo's announcements (like last night's - 15th Feb not too long away eek!) feeling really positive only to come on here and see how negative everyone still is about absolutely everything.

I understand it's dependant on some ifs and buts, but I just can't fathom the 'this will be going on for the next 5 years' type of posters.

So thank you! I thought I was losing my marbles until I came on here :)

It'll be really interesting to see what their covid landscape looks like in three weeks time.

I honestly can't abide the rest of the board. Sometimes I get sucked in by a thread that pops up on trending and I only ever feel worse for it. I'm sure that some of the same posters that are complaining that they aren't moving fast enough are the from the same crowd that said we were hopelessly naive to think there would be a safe effective vaccine this side of 2022.

I felt optimistic after watching the briefing last night. I think they are realistic that it won't be plain sailing but it's an ambitious plan and if they hit these targets then I think it will be fantastic.

I agree that vaccinating the over 50s should be achieved as soon as possible. What I do have issue with (perhaps controversially) is anyone in groups 7 and below claiming it’s still not safe to work (eg teachers, sorry). We can’t put the rest of the country on hold until everyone is vaccinated when the contribution of these groups to hospitalisation and mortality figures is so minute. And these are people who haven’t been shielding so actually have probably contributed proportionally more than they might have done had everyone else been circulating as normal. I think the general public has been whipped into a frenzy of fear that does not align with the actual threat of this virus to them.

Sorry I mean group 10, not 7 and below

@FourTeaFallOut

I honestly can't abide the rest of the board. Sometimes I get sucked in by a thread that pops up on trending and I only ever feel worse for it. I'm sure that some of the same posters that are complaining that they aren't moving fast enough are the from the same crowd that said we were hopelessly naive to think there would be a safe effective vaccine this side of 2022.

I felt optimistic after watching the briefing last night. I think they are realistic that it won't be plain sailing but it's an ambitious plan and if they hit these targets then I think it will be fantastic.

I know. It's like you're not allowed to feel positive about anything whatsoever on here at the moment. Any suggestion that things may improve within the next century is shot down. I can't help but eye roll at a lot of stuff on here to be honest.

It just doesn't marry up with what I hear and see from people in RL either.

I'm.inwardly laughing at the MN disconnect...
"Oh it only kills old and sick people. Why can't I carry on partying?"
"WHERE'S MY FRICKING VACCINE?"

@TheChineseChicken

I agree that vaccinating the over 50s should be achieved as soon as possible. What I do have issue with (perhaps controversially) is anyone in groups 7 and below claiming it’s still not safe to work (eg teachers, sorry). We can’t put the rest of the country on hold until everyone is vaccinated when the contribution of these groups to hospitalisation and mortality figures is so minute. And these are people who haven’t been shielding so actually have probably contributed proportionally more than they might have done had everyone else been circulating as normal. I think the general public has been whipped into a frenzy of fear that does not align with the actual threat of this virus to them.

Absolutely

As a tool it was a useful one but when we have the vaccine lowering hospitalisation we won’t need it.

A few half price meals and cheap holidays will get us moving though

I'm hopeful for good news on 15th Feb, as it's also my birthday!

I felt optimistic after watching the briefing last night. I think they are realistic that it won't be plain sailing but it's an ambitious plan and if they hit these targets then I think it will be fantastic.

Yes. I know people are fairly jaded about any predictions Boris Johnson makes after what he’s said previously, and I don’t entirely blame them, BUT predictions about vaccines are very different to predictions about when things will look better without.

The government has much much more information about/control over how many doses of vaccines it’s getting and how fast it thinks it can get those given to people, than it does about what overall case numbers will do. So if they’re happy to make specific predictions then I’m reasonably confident they’ve got a good basis for thinking they can meet those.

Yes I agree GoldenOmber. The fact that they were willing to be both ambitious and specific seemed like a good sign.
I am still prepared for them to miss those targets but it’s clear everything is in place to put us a lot further on by mid February.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

Yes I agree GoldenOmber. The fact that they were willing to be both ambitious and specific seemed like a good sign. I am still prepared for them to miss those targets but it’s clear everything is in place to put us a lot further on by mid February.

They are actually being conservative with their predictions. If everything fell perfectly, and everything worked to plan, and all deliveries arrived on time, and everyone turned up, and PHE and NHS worked seven days a week, 12 hours a day, we could achieve 4m a week. BUT, that would be a bad thing to promise, as we know, overpromising hasn't gone so well in the past.

I’m also really hoping they smash the target, and we have loads more vaccinated by mid Feb than they have said. It would certainly make Boris look good and I don’t even care if he takes the credit- let’s just do this already!!

I’m also soooo nervous that unions will kick off about unvaccinated teachers going back. I think there needs to be a big change in stats, and once hospitals are coping they should stop publishing case rates! Just publish vaccine numbers instead...!

I think the case numbers are helpful for anyone who is vulnerable and hasn’t or can’t be vaccinated to get a sense of how safe it is to be out and about though?
Also we may see them fall as the vaccination programme progresses, if there is some impact on spread as one would hope.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

I think the case numbers are helpful for anyone who is vulnerable and hasn’t or can’t be vaccinated to get a sense of how safe it is to be out and about though? Also we may see them fall as the vaccination programme progresses, if there is some impact on spread as one would hope.

Absolutely

Don't hide information

I'm keen to carry on seeing case rates, partly to assess how safe if is to go out, and because I am so hopeful that rates will fall as vaccines increase, it would be great to have stats about that.
It might persuade people that vaccines are a good thing!

Moderna has just been approved for UK

Just seen a tweet from Coronavirus good news

@chri55ie

Moderna has just been approved for UK

Brilliant

Moderna news is good but I don't think that GB ordered any of that vaccine in advance, so it will take a while for it to have an impact.

Good, hopefully that'll clear the decks for the j&j vaccine when that's up for approval.

The first batch of Moderna is due in April.

Apparently the government has ordered a further 10m doses of it, so a total of 17m Moderna jabs ordered.