Your thoughts on when life will be normal-ish

[charcb]

I realise this is purely speculative but what are people's thoughts on when we will be back to a semi-normal reality? Knowing what you know on vaccinations, when, according to you, can we expect the most simple of things to be back up and running again? I am referring to the simplest of things such as getting people back to their offices/places of work, having shops/gyms/entertainment venues permanently open, and the like?

I know we are a long way away from normal as we know it and that it may take several years to go back to it so I am not talking to getting back to total normality - ie no masks, no social distance, no restrictions.

I found throughout this that people don’t have a clue about how the economy works and how an economic decline could impact on them.

When offices were empty everyone was cheering that greedy commercial landlords wouldn’t be getting their rent. What they fail to realise is that large offices and apartment blocks are often owned by pension funds in order to make money - the same pension funds who they save with.

Same as all of the people lapping up the fact that overpaid football prima donnas are having to take pay cuts...... failing completely to understand that football supports a whole network of ancillary businesses. Similar to the theatres - it’s not just well off actors on the dole.

BlueBaubles12 You mean someone like Marcus Rashford the footballer who keeps on about free school meals while he pays himself through his Ltd company min wage then takes at millions in Div’s and dir loans to avoid NI and income tax and the great Racing driver whos based in Monaco to avoid U.K. tax

@Yohoheaveho

The government's focus is on getting the economy open so they can carry on helping their rich friends to get richer

Do you...do you actually know what "the economy" means?

Summer 2022

I honestly don't know
Vaccine calculator says I'm expected to have both doses of vaccine by May (ECV) but to shield still afterwards so I'm guessing it could be a while 🤷🏽‍♀️

End of March for most people. Once full lockdown is lifted, schools are open and the vulnerable/elderly are vaccinated. Should be able to pooter about as usual. Might not have restaurants open (but I think they will be by then) or advisable to hang out too much with our peers (who also won't be vaccinated) but kids should be back to enough school and activities and hospitals should be back well within capacity.

Not sure if the vaccine rate is correct but that's what I get on the calculator. Can't believe I'll have been shielding for over a year

@QueenPawPaws

I honestly don't know Vaccine calculator says I'm expected to have both doses of vaccine by May (ECV) but to shield still afterwards so I'm guessing it could be a while 🤷🏽‍♀️

Have you changed the daily rate to the latest vaccine rate. It was 200000 but going up again next week hopefully. You should get a better prediction if you adjust it.

@Truelymadlydeeplysomeonesmum ah adjusted and it says second dose between end of April, beginning of may

Do you...do you actually know what "the economy" means?
nope, no idea at all!!!
would you...would you like to explain it all to me?

Tier 2 was little more than a month ago, and life was fairly normal with a few restrictions that didn't really inconvenience me.

True. Mid December we ate out at a restaurant for DS1 birthday. I was eating outside in groups of 6 with friends with outdoor heaters. Kids at school, all their sports teams running.

Couldn’t see my parents though. Saw them lots in the summer though.

[quote PuzzledObserver]**@Annamaywong25* I don't know how much more we are expected to take.....this isn't living*

You sound anxious. Expected by whom? No-one is going out and creating new variants to make life more difficult. It’s just what viruses do.

Most of the variants make no material difference. A few do. It’s unfortunate that the UK variant has come along just before we got going with vaccination, it’s set us back significantly. But we will get through this.[/quote]
I mean expected by the government. All this news about fining people if they leave their house without a valid reason. (I don't but feel like a prisioner). All the scaremongering on line and on the news/tv/media.

Yes, I'm becoming very anxious, and I wasn't at all before all this. It's getting to me....I live alone and feel so lonely. I work in a customer facing environment that at the moment is still operating. I feel panic when customer's don't keep their distance properly, although on the whole I'm glad to have work to get me out of the four walls. I can't watch the news at the moment as the doom and gloom attitude makes me feel even worse. I really, really want to believe we will get through this.

@Annamaywong25 it sounds like you might need a little bit of help? Would it be worth talking to your GP? In any case, stay away from the news, try make a schedule including nice things and regular phone or online contact with a family member or friend. And maybe see if you can find a CBT course online or with a therapist to help how you are processing your situation and anxiety.

For all those saying summer will be like last year that makes me so sad. We haven’t been able to have my parents inside with us since this whole shitshow began.

It will have to end at some point- these are our lives, not the government’s.

Thanks all for contributing. It's very interesting to hear everyone's views.

Im unsure about what to expect but the fact that the economy has been paralysed for so long is something that can't go on forever so I'm guessing government will want some normality by summer, with a small spike in cases next autumn/winter which slows things down - and probably a slow return to more normality early 2022.

I guess "normal" could be defined as being able to see elderly relatives with few precautions (masks or other minor things would be fine) and people going back to their place of work some days a week at least. Thinking that would mean people have lost some of the fear and that the economy is running again in some capacity.

charcb People are going to review their idea of normal, Yes the economy is suffering greatly and will do and somehow we will all have to pay for it, with more countries on a fly ban list, travel will probably only go back to normal with vaccine passports or a mass vaccine program worldwide, Hopefully we don’t have a massive change in the virus renders the vaccine ineffective, Unfortunately it is going to take along time to get back to pre pandemic normal

@CaughtInTheCovid

For all those saying summer will be like last year that makes me so sad. We haven’t been able to have my parents inside with us since this whole shitshow began.

Agreed, if last summer is the best we can hope for we're screwed. It was crap- most people still WFH, SD with anyone you don't live with, rule of 6, table service in pubs etc.

I'm hoping for a return to Feb 2019 sort of normal (obviously without the impending doom of a pandemic being declared) by April 2022. There will be more vaccines and treatments available by then. Not sure what state the economy will be in by that point though.

[quote WishingHopingThinkingPraying]@Annamaywong25 it sounds like you might need a little bit of help? Would it be worth talking to your GP? In any case, stay away from the news, try make a schedule including nice things and regular phone or online contact with a family member or friend. And maybe see if you can find a CBT course online or with a therapist to help how you are processing your situation and anxiety.[/quote]
I did attempt to contact my doctor on Monday as I realised I'm struggling. I do tend to hide it from friends and family as I'm usually the strong one and don't want them to feel they can't talk to me if they're struggling, if that makes sense. I had to do an econsult, took me about 20 mins to answer all the questions. It said a doctor would call me on Tuesday by 6.30 but never got a call. I realise they're busy so don't like to bother them again. Thank you so much for your interest, I will definitely keep away from the news and try to look after myself until I can access some help.

I think this summer will be the closest to normal since February 2020. We'll have a double whammy of vaccines and warm weather! I wouldn't be surprised if the only restrictions remaining (at least for a while) were on mass gatherings and international travel.

@Annamaywong25 keep trying. It will be worth it to feel better. When I became unwell (diagnosed with GAD in May after a lifetime of perfect mental health) it felt like everything had emptied the cup of happiness in my head. There was so little in it that any small knock put me in a really bad place. I got better, with drugs too, but hugely by finding little moments of joy (pleasure of a tidy bedroom with fresh bedding, cup of tea and chat with sister, cuddle with one of the kids watching a movie in my bed etc.) to fill my cup back up again. So now when I get a knock, just a splash falls out of the cup and there's plenty still left that it has no effect. Honestly at first all the 'nice' things felt like nothing but as I repeated them and kept a schedule I started to look forward to the little things and actually the good feeling got longer and longer.

Didn't Chris Whitty say in the briefing today

"Oh I don't think anybody thinks we're going to be back to normal in a couple of months!"

But then I spoke to my parents immediately afterwards and they're planning a family get-together at Easter exactly 10 weeks from today.

None of the over 80s, over 70s, over 60s, extremely clinically vulnerable people or clinically vulnerable people in our family have had their first vaccine yet, let alone their second after 12 weeks.

We all want a life back but maybe if we were realistic we wouldn't get disappointed so often?

waits for someone to tell me I've pissed in their chips again

I think Johnson is a twat for promising Easter when he would have been told it was not possible, and I simply can't understand why people believed it, when he is a giant liar.

We will never return to pre-covid "normal". Covid is here to stay, we will get on top of it ro a degree and i think the summers will have a sense of normality but it is pretty clear to me that sooner or later a variant that isnt affected by the vaccines will come along and we'll be back to square one. All very well to say that the mRNA vaccines are easily tweaked, we only have to look at how quickly the kent variant took hold before they realised.

We eventually will accept the risks and adapt but normal? Sadly not. We will also be facing a monumental mental health crisis among young people.

Its about as shit as it gets really