I can now see a way out of covid!

[Icanseegreenshoots]

I can see the route out this spring and summer.

Those in the vulnerable groups and the elderly will be vaccinated soon, and whilst the rest of the country is being vaccinated - which will take some time the following could happen -

Schools will introduce bi weekly mass testing to stay open. Teachers will be vaccinated which means they will never close again.

Restaurants will ask for on the spot 15 minute tests before seating people, ditto all public venues. Mass testing will become part and parcel of our lives everything from music festivals to theatre shows will include a test regardless if you have had a vaccine or not.

The testing will become so common place we will not blink as we wait in careful lines to be admitted into places. Every company that works away from home will adopt their own policies.

Travel will be replicated by many tests and careful procedures allowing people to travel once again.

Masks will eventually be replaced with testing and vaccines, but they will still be used on public transport and other areas. We will largely be in control of all infection by this point, and drive it down to very very low numbers allowing for society to hug, dance and enjoy life once again.

This is the best case scenario in my view - and one I hope will be our reality soon enough.

Testing will be phased out

Instead - get the vaccine and certificate and be required to show this when going to restaurants, attend school etc

If you don’t vaccine - then you take the risk or you become a hermit. Either way - I don’t give a hoot!

Bring on the vaccine to all!

Admire your optimism op

I like your optimism, I definitely needed to read some positivity after feeling a bit deflated for the last few days! I really hope you’re right 🤞🏼

cant see thousands of people queing up to be tested at festivals-logistically i mean

@zigaziga

Yes the event industry is on it knees and many companies have gone under and many many people are unemployed (including me) in this sector HOWEVER the whole industry is on stand by to come back and it will. Bigger, better, stronger and SAFELY. We are desperate to get back to work and we are all very very broke!!! When this shit show is over everyone will want to be out out!!
Weddings/parties/concerts/festivals/exhibitions/races
IMO they should ask the event industry to oversea the vaccination deployment (not administer them) We are the best at logistics, ticketing, crowd control and know the large venues inside out.

I think you're basically right OP. I'm sure it won't be as smooth as they'd have you believe. But even if they fumble the vaccination programme and they almost certainly will we are now getting to a point where within six months the most vulnerable people in our society should have been derisked.

That's huge.

I'm as cynical as they come and have 0 faith in this government and things feel pretty fucking scary now. But we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that there is now a way out of this nightmare.

They’ve had 9 months to get testing sorted. Why do you think they will do it now?

There is absolutely a way out. I would love there to be widespread access to lateral flow tests but i don’t know how realistic it would be. For venues to test before admittance people would have to be convinced of the benefit of attending with the chance of being refused. People need access in their own homes.

I don’t agree that testing will completely disappear. Even if the vaccines are successful (no reason to think they wouldn’t be) there is still going to be a lot of work behind the scenes monitoring the situation because we still don’t really know how long the vaccines will last or how the virus will mutate next. We can’t afford (quite literally) to be caught off guard again so I would be surprised if the slightest hint of an outbreak was jumped on. At least I hope it is and they’ve learnt their lesson that dithering helps no one,

I don't think people would actually want to go for meals if they had to have a test before. Gagging on a stick isn't conducive to looking forward to a nice meal.

Testing on that scale will ensure that we are never out of this.

Chipsahoy

Fuck no, not a normality I want. Instead maybe government starts dumping money into nhs so we don’t have this shit show again and we get on with life

Once again Planet Socialism where there is a huge pit of money in other peoples purses.
Tell us please; how much tax would be needed and how much are you and your family willing to pay each year?

That will give us an idea about how we all contribute.
To state the obvious: I am not saying that nurses don't deserve a rise.

I can't believe the amount of people who are saying this way of living is optimistic and positive! Sounds bloody awful! No thanks.

Sorry op but anyone calling for all shite needs their fucking head seen to. Along with all those shouting for lockdown and harder lockdown. Clearly not affecting their income is it. Fucking tossers.
The hysteria is strong in here. Fucking ridiculous quite frankly. As is the total judginess ive seen.

"Schools will introduce bi weekly mass testing to stay open. Teachers will be vaccinated which means they will never close again"
But what about the parents?
My personal stance is that I won't be getting back to normal until I've had the vaccine. No unnecessary spending or trips until then. If the government can do 2-3 million vaccines a week, that might only be a couple of months. If they carry on at current rate, it might be next year.

then we can move to treating Covid like every other cold and flu - and we will

The problem with the confidence that people say this is ignoring the amount of investment in "long covid", in a way that has never been applied to other post-viral situations, there is a real believe that long covid itself is something that individuals need to be protected from (rather than providing them the freedom to choose their own risk profile as have done previously where interventions are only considered for "protecting the NHS")

Because of the fear of long covid encouraged by public health and the pretence that isolation doesn't cause similar health problems there's a real risk that opening up despite no pressure on the NHS will not be anything like as easy as you suggest.

The testing would only be for this spring and summer - or until we have reached herd immunity. It will not be an indefinite way of life.

At the moment there is no plan to vaccinate children or teenagers, but Chris Whitty did say they are now actively considering vaccinating children, so we may eliminate to some degree in the future.

For now I would settle for mass testing, the cost would easily be offset by the reopening of the economy.

And the lateral tests are already used by NHS staff in hospitals up and down the country. All of my medic friends use them all the time.

I have attached the link if you would like to see how they are used.

www.roh.nhs.uk/lateral-flow-testing

I have felt such dread to this point, but now there IS a way forward.
I don't believe we will stay in this position for too much longer. So with this in mind I am now actually exercising, because I do think I will be wearing a summer dress with my friends this summer. I do honestly believe there is genuine light at the end of the tunnel (and not of the hopeful kind we felt last year with no vaccine, and testing was so patchy)

Even the lateral tests will improve constantly, and have done already in terms of accuracy, cost and accuracy.

No one could envisage a moment when we would have a vaccine and mass testing capacity in the spring of last year, but look at where we are! We are almost there. So use the lockdown wisely, it might actually be your last one.

I agree with @feelingverylazytoday. I was a nurse and the pay wasn't a particular issue.

*accuracy, cost and availability

Maybe just maybe we can review and reform the NHS. It is not fit for purpose and throwing money at it is just not going to work. Arent they the 5th largest employer in the world... that doesnt sound right.

Look at some other EU countries, some self pay, share cost etc. Making it free for EVERYTHING regardless of whether you have paid in is not sustainable. Certain exemptions for people based on their ability to pay perhaps.

[quote Icanseegreenshoots]The testing would only be for this spring and summer - or until we have reached herd immunity. It will not be an indefinite way of life.

At the moment there is no plan to vaccinate children or teenagers, but Chris Whitty did say they are now actively considering vaccinating children, so we may eliminate to some degree in the future.

For now I would settle for mass testing, the cost would easily be offset by the reopening of the economy.

And the lateral tests are already used by NHS staff in hospitals up and down the country. All of my medic friends use them all the time.

I have attached the link if you would like to see how they are used.

www.roh.nhs.uk/lateral-flow-testing[/quote]
Yep, I am NHS and using the lateral flow tests twice a week. As are my colleagues. I therefore sadly have first hand experience of how unreliable they are. Useful in mass testing maybe to pick up a small percentage of asymptomatic cases but not really that useful overall and certainly not a good use of the massive amounts of money they cost.

@Sup1979

Testing will be phased out

Instead - get the vaccine and certificate and be required to show this when going to restaurants, attend school etc

If you don’t vaccine - then you take the risk or you become a hermit. Either way - I don’t give a hoot!

Bring on the vaccine to all!

They will need an exemption certificate too then, for people who can’t get it for legitimate reasons

We simply can’t stay locked in for a year + to protect the vulnerable to simply cast them aside with no regard now

jungle The accuracy will improve, the availability will increase, and people can pay for their own if they are going to a show/gig etc so the cost can be covered by the ticket price. It does not need to be bankrolled by the state, but by us the desperate public.

A good friend of mine ICU consultant uses lateral tests constantly up to now, he has since been vaccinated. They will be a short term sticking plaster until we can reopen properly. Only the vaccine roll out can offer us true freedom, but we may be able to reopen parts of society in the meantime using ideas such as this.

I agree that there is a fear of long covid. However this is a personal fear within people. For the government the pressure on the NHS is the key factor. If that has gone they cannot keep restrictions in place due to a low risk of long Covid. Whether people like that or not.

Long Covid sounds debilitating and I’m not denying that. But many other illnesses are debilitating and long lasting. MS, glandular fever,
Long term cancer etc. We can not keep society closed up due to these fears. The economy is more important.

Are you imagining an easier test? Because no way would I let restaurant staff put that thing so high up my nose. The testing process is pretty horrible, not something you can do many times a day plus it doesn't catch people who are incubating it.
Our best bet is the vaccine so let's hope the virus doesn't mutate enough that we have to tweak it/get a new one, or the terrible suggestion I read the other day that giving one dose of the vaccine could actually help the virus learn to avoid it (similar to starting but not finishing a pack on antibiotics). Others on Twitter did say that was unlikely though.