Whitty saying we'll still have restrictions next winter

[bathsh3ba]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-55542393

Fan-fucking-tastic. And I don't swear. Honestly don't know how I'm going to get through this.

@RaspberryCoulis

Chris Witty, dementor in Chief, the man who never smiles in case his face cracks.

He's the most miserable man on the planet.

If he was smiling giving us this news, people would say he was enjoying our pain.

I don't think he can win.

Not his fault the government didn't follow his advice in a timely way.

[quote StatisticalSense]@bluntness100
Chris Whitty has quite clearly said that even if things get much better for the rest of this year it is likely that some restrictions will be needed this time next year. Given that schools are only open 38 weeks a year it makes sense to move this to the times of year that are lower risk as this could well reduce the need to close other venues without impacting on the education recieved (which would be just as good in August as it would in January).[/quote]
No he did not say it was “likely” . I watched it.

Do you think they might shift the longer “summer” holiday to winter? And try and get as much educating done as possible in July august?

@DarceyDashwood I agree.

The title of this thread is going to alarm some people unneccessarily. Talk about twisting something out of context.

@Londt the aim is to vaccinate every adult in the population that will have it. The JCIV list is the priority list (albeit 30million).

I think schools will be closed until Easter. That would be 12 weeks, like the first lockdown.

@Dementedswan

Wait what?! Schools could be closed for rest of academic year?

I very much doubt it, but they'll be very wary of promising things at the moment. They don't know anything for sure, nor do any of us, so they're never going to give a date. One day at a time is the only way we can deal with this.

Do you think they might shift the longer “summer” holiday to winter? And try and get as much educating done as possible in July august?

@Bluegot that would be such a sensible thing to do. In fact they could shift some of the other holidays too. Just have a week at Easter, drop the whit holiday. Extend the Christmas holiday to the end of Jan. That would see off the worst time.

Whitty can fuck himself

Thank you @madroid

@ArtemisBean
Cynical me wonders if there's an element of self-interest with Whitty. Presumably he's getting paid for all this advice. Will he be losing out when things are 'normal' again

What utter nonsense. Just because you may have never heard of him prior to the pandemic, he actually has a very eminent career in medicine and when I see him speak I sometimes wonder if he’d prefer to go back to it than have to deal with all the nonsense of people not liking him because he doesn’t tell them what they want to hear, as though this was some sort of popularity contest.

The medics and scientists obviously have to be cautious in their statements, and to be honest I prefer that to Boris continually trying to give inappropriate good news and then having to backtrack.

It seems a shame when I look back to summer when we were just having day trips to parks and local cafes etc. It was nice obviously but all that low risk time the kids could have had in school - maybe they need to rethink the school holiday timetable if this will go on for years

Christopher John MacRae Whitty CB FRCP FFPH FMedSci (born 21 April 1966)

OMG - he is younger than me! As is Boris. I have wasted my life.

@MadameBlobby

Whitty can fuck himself

QED

@lunalulu

Personally I think I may do my best to emigrate as soon as possible!

This is not really good enough. I wish we'd had Keir S. Or Tony B. Or both.

Tony Blair the war criminal? The man (and the media) who lied about the weapons of mass destruction to go to war with Iraq? That weasel?

The NHS is always overwhelmed every single winter (check out the headlines from previous years). Unfortunately, those with health conditions may die or end up seriously ill from c19. Many of which catch the virus in hospital whilst being treated for something else. It’s not worth locking the country up for, destroying our mental health and economy (which go hand in hand). The vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission of the virus and doesn’t prevent people from catching it. Only the vulnerable will benefit from the vaccine.

i believe him!

@ineedaholidaynow

Maybe things like no large gatherings, wearing masks on public transport, encouraging WFH during the winter months. I could live with that

You can't do that indefinitely.. no mass gatherings over winter they didn't comply this year we had loads of illegal raves !!! They need to invest more into the nhs !!!! I think people will voluntarily wear masks though

@suggestionsplease1

I think that a kind of 'opposition' should be set up to keep the government under pressure on this (I know we already have political party opposition, but I mean an opposition set up with the explicit intention of questioning restrictions decided upon.)

These restrictions are so monumental and so life-changing; they deserve forceful and vigorous scrutiny. You wouldn't have a court process where punishments were handed out without a defence for the suspect, no matter how obvious guilt is. The political process in this country depends on opposition - it's necessary to have the highest quality debate and challenge in order to hold people and decisions to account.

Why is that not happening with this? Why has a committee not been proposed to deliberately challenge government policy and represent all the other interests that are at stake here?

I'm not even saying that the government aren't making the right decisions - I really don't know about that, but I think there should be a formalised adversarial process really aimed at looking at alternative ways forward, and holding the government to account.

Isn't there a "shadow" SAGE already? With very celebrated experts too.

The only quote I found on OP's link was that Whittysaid

"Hopefully we’ll have spring, summer, autumn, possibly winter as well, with almost nothing in place, once the full vaccination programme is through. But we just need to be aware of the fact this is not a problem that just disappears.”

How do you get from that to this hysterical thread.

Honestly it's like March again on here with all the fear and doom mongering nonsense. Get a grip!

You can't be slagging off prof Whitty

I love how calm he always is, he always seems honest and reminds me of most older consultants I've worked with
I love that he did his rounds in hospital over Xmas

And here he is greeting me most mornings 😂

Enough now. Let’s just stop these panic ridden misleading posts please

Just follow the ducking rules, don’t use Mumsnet common sense or anything else

It was stated last year that even with the vaccine we would still require SD and possibly other measures until enough have been vaccinated, and in fact they are still not sure if the vaccine is enough to stop people transmitting it. Also don’t forget the vaccine wont necessarily stop you getting it, just give you milder symptoms like flu jabs don’t always work

We are in this for the long haul.

Way back in March of last year I recall seeing a scientist on tv who advised that we might never return to fully normal life as we know it.
He was never seen again .
I wondered if he didn't fit the party line.
In the 1950s that we lived with outbreaks of polio and TB.

@Everleigh2021

i believe him!

He didn’t say what the op said, or some folks are trying to say he did.

This has to stop.

I’d rather Chris whitty being realistic than politicians taking shite. It was obvious in February last year that this would be huge globally and not over quickly so we need people to be honest about that and not politicians who are more bothered about their careers.

@FleetwoodRaincoat

This government has fucked everything up. They've been an absolute disgrace. We're now the laughing stock of the entire world due to their inability to tackle this virus properly. I hate them for all the people they've let die through their lack of care for their people. They've ruined everything.

WTF? Get a grip of yourself.

Everyone I know who knows Whitty personally from his medical practice days, is also of an extremely high opinion of the man - both from the intellectual and caring / "bedside manner" point of view.