We need to be given an end date

[Billie18]

Vaccinations being rolled out and there will be a date when the elderly and/or vulnerable will have been vaccinated. It should be possible to announce a date now when this will have happened. On this date all restrictions should be lifted. Why has no date been given?

I agree with you @Billie18
This may not be going away but at some point the strategies have to change. We need to know that they're going to aim to have vaccinations rolled out by xx/xx and that by then, spring/summer and a certain amount of immunity will mean that restaurants and pubs and hairdressers will be able to reopen.

so many snarky posters.

Nobody wants this indefinitely and in time, the priorities will change. the situation will be managed as far as possible and businesses will re-open.

There could be a virus with a 40% survival rate next. This was a warning pandemic.

news.sky.com/story/covid-19-peak-demand-on-hospitals-might-not-come-until-next-month-warns-nhs-providers-chief-chris-hopson-12185711

We’ve a long way to go yet. The hospitals are full of Covid patients and other planned surgery, including cancer is now being cancelled.

I've asked the virus and it said it'll try and head off around August 2022.

Thanks meglet!

I thought Hancock (or was it Boris?) had given some sort of date; didn't he say that the top 4 priority groups would be vaccinated by mid-February and that these represent over 90% of severe illness and deaths?

I admit to surprise that they've made themselves a hostage to fortune by using a date only 5 weeks away, and goodness knows what they'll produce it if doesn't happen ... another new strain perhaps?

September... that when Hancock says they will vaccinate everyone over 16.

Before then will be next to impossible with this new strain. You only have to look at what’s happening in Liverpool and the Isle of Wight which both have gone from tier two to tier four in a matter of weeks to realise we can’t be let
out any time soon unfortunately...

People are being too quick to criticise the OP here.

An end date is a bit unrealistic. But "end conditionals"? They need to be given.

"Once X, Y and Z groups are vaccinated, we will be able to start doing ABC" "Once the R rate is (insert value), we can stop doing XYZ."

As PPs have noted, compliance would be a lot higher if there was an end in sight. Some PH professionals (Devi Sridhar, I'm talking about you) are really poor at communicating this.

@Kokeshi123

People are being too quick to criticise the OP here.

An end date is a bit unrealistic. But "end conditionals"? They need to be given.

"Once X, Y and Z groups are vaccinated, we will be able to start doing ABC" "Once the R rate is (insert value), we can stop doing XYZ."

As PPs have noted, compliance would be a lot higher if there was an end in sight. Some PH professionals (Devi Sridhar, I'm talking about you) are really poor at communicating this.

Totally agree with this and said something similar a couple of pages back. But mostly people just want to have a go/scoff at each other not have an actual conversation about this.

September ... that when Hancock says they will vaccinate everyone over 16

I know, but I was referring to those most at risk who are rightly in the higher priority groups

Isn't the point supposed to be reducing the strain on the NHS so that more normality can return? Unless it's being suggested that the same devastation should continue until everyone's vaccinated of course, and that's really not going to fly

We had low summer rates last year without the vaccine. With the vulnerable population vaccinated by the spring it's very unlikely that they'll wait for every young, fit adult to be vaccinated.

Get your tin hat on, cathyandclare - you'll probably be told we can't possibly hope for a summer reduction in cases with the "new strain"

@Randomrebel

I have been shielding and WFH since March as have many others. They can’t give an end date because it depends on new strains, and more importantly how people keep exploiting and bending the rules, how quickly things start to slow down improve. Please just give it a rest.

This.

God some people are just stupid.

Not an end date, but a progress tracker?

At the moment, the progress feels invisible, whilst the restrictions are very visible and feel permanent.

So, "we expect to vaccinate everyone over xx age, plus front-line workers by March". We would expect the pressures on the hospital to fall to , at which point we will review the lockdown guidance.

Half of the stress from this pandemic is due to inconsistent and last-minute messaging. FGS, pick a yardstick and plan ahead!

I overheard someone explain it like this.

You discover your house is on fire. You call the Fire Brigade, they arrive, assess the situation, tell you what they are going to do and say they think the fire will be out in an hour. After the hour is up, the house is still on fire - are you just going to walk back in and say, well you said it would be out in an hour? Or are you going to wait until it is safe to do so?

Everyone in the world wants to see the back of these restrictions.

Shall I contact our local Seer and ask her to look into her crystal ball?

It's all going to be over on the Tweftyfifth of Fucktember

How about putting 199 dates into a hat and pulling one out? Or have a word with Corona and asker her what plans she has for the future?

So many sarcastic remarks. I don't think the OP meant she wanted a date of the exact time this virus is over with...

I understand what your saying OP. They have to give us something to keep us going.
Even if they said when all the over 60s are vaccinated, we can drop down to Tier 2. Etc.
It will keep compliance and spirits up.
When theres no end in sight, mental health rates will go up and they will just flaunt the rules.

We can't live like forever. By June (fingers crossed) the over 50s should be vaccinated and they can not justify this lockdowns anymore. Restrictions will always be in place but they will have to loosen up come June or I honestly reckon they will be a civil war.

@LeaveMyDamnJam

You do understand that the vaccine isn’t 100% effective. Covid isn’t going anywhere. Only a fool would start putting a definitive date on a release from lockdown.

Then we're going to have to live with it. If the vaccine doesn't stop transmission but makes Covid a mild illness then we're going to have to accept that we might catch it in the same way we do with flu. The flu jab isn't 100% effective but life still goes on.

Disclaimer - I know it's not the same as flu and I'm not saying that we should go back to normal right now!

@PastMyBestBeforeDate

You do realise that if the virus mutated to be resistant to the vaccine we could be back to square one?

We wouldn't be back to square one, as the Mrna vaccines are designed to be tweaked a lot quicker than they are now to protect against emerging strains (I got this from listening to professor John Bell, regius professor of medicine at oxford, he was also pretty confident that the current vaccine will work against the SA and British variants they have discovered) It wouldn't be great that is for sure, but we definitely wouldn't be back to square one.

We all just need to hang in there now, the end is in sight and it just needs the majority to keep doing what they're doing.

I would also love to get the date when my toddler will finally start sleeping but I'm not likely to get that either 🤷‍♀️.

We will get through this. Working yourself up and demanding dates for things isn't likely to make the time go faster or more easily.

@megletthesecond

I've asked the virus and it said it'll try and head off around August 2022.

The end date is a human decision. Don't want to panic people but coronavirus will not be eradicated any time soon. The balance is between protecting the vulnerable from coronavirus and protecting the vulnerable and everyone else from the impact of restrictions. The tipping point will come when enough people who are elderly and/or vulnerable have been protected to the best of our ability with a vaccine and more people are dying and suffering from the effects of the restrictions. The tipping point should be the end date.

@ConcernedAuntie

I overheard someone explain it like this.

You discover your house is on fire. You call the Fire Brigade, they arrive, assess the situation, tell you what they are going to do and say they think the fire will be out in an hour. After the hour is up, the house is still on fire - are you just going to walk back in and say, well you said it would be out in an hour? Or are you going to wait until it is safe to do so?

Everyone in the world wants to see the back of these restrictions.

That is a rubbish analogy. The people outside the house are on fire too and there are far more of them. If that fire doesn't get put out with an end date the damage to the whole of society will be devastating.