Older people booking holidays

[Doffodils]

I've been away from MN for a few days so apologies if this was done.

Following the news that the vaccination programme is in full swing, apparently travel companies have had a rush of older people booking holidays for this summer.

We're being told that behaviour will need to carry on with social distancing, restricting travel etc despite some people having the vaccine.

Young people have been disproportionately affected by the restrictions and been reminded often of their duty to protect the more vulnerable, but apparently those vulnerable people aren't going to give a second thought for the youngsters once they've had the vaccine.

Is this a common view among the, say, 60+ people you know?

Or is it OK, or even good, that some people can start getting back to normal/supporting the economy etc?

How will this kind of 2 tier society operate?

It’s a pandemic. Nothing is fair. The reason the elderly and vulnerable are being vaccinated first is because they were at highest risk of dying. It’s not going to have been a barrel of laughs living with that over the past year.

@MadameBlobby

I’m not really bothered. Once I’ve had the vaccine I’ll be going back to normal as much as I can. What’s the point in having the vaccine if you’re not able to enjoy the benefits of having had it.

Covid almost certainly wouldn’t kill me, what’s the point of me not enjoying that fact and continuing to do as I please.

Your logic is warped.

I'll be going back to normal, vaccine or not, as soon as we are allowed to do so. Why would anyone who isn't vulnerable not? Covid is a mild illness for most.

The report I saw suggested it was mostly UK coach holidays (within the UK) which were being booked.

I suspect the vaccination will provide some reduction in transmission, even if that hasn't been proved, so infection rates will probably be coming down.

However I think it's stories like this that remind people that all the measures were never about protecting each individual from catching covid, but preventing the NHS from being overwhelmed by those who are most ill from it and at risk of death.

DH and I suspect that we will be some of the last to be vaccinated as the healthy young middle-aged. I predict that there will be a surge in key worker status for all sorts of jobs which will shunt us forever further back in priority. And yet my personal risk, if I catch it, stays the same - not high, but still significant.

Some of the over-eighties I saw during the week while helping at a vaccination clinic were leaving their homes for pretty well the first time in months.

If they can book one of their (probably) last-ever holidays and manage to actually get away and have some light relief, good for them. They were so grateful for the vaccine and (with a few exceptions) lovely people.

This pattern will be wider than just holidays. Over the next few months the old will begin returning to normal life while the young will stay in limbo.

Are you sure? Surely, given how very dangerous Covid is to older people and how much less dangerous it is to younger people, all that the vaccination will do is to make older people at similar risk to younger ones? Not at much lower risk?

In which case either we'll all be safe to lead a normal life and travel once the older people are vaccinated, or none of us will til everyone is vaccinated.

Happy to be told I'm wrong by someone who knows what the figures really are!

Last summer when numbers were lower and restrictions were lifted loads of people went on holiday and socialised pretty much as normal. Did you complain about that or are you only concerned now because ‘older people’ potentially might have a bit more freedom than you do? Personally I felt that all of the people flying around the world and going out to pubs etc. when it was ‘in accordance with the rules’ reduced my freedom quite significantly but that was a highly unpopular view. On here most were advocating people like me hiding away whilst ‘the rest of us get on with life’. Now there are daily threads expressing outrage that those vaccinated first might feel that their risk is at a manageable level post vaccine, in the way that younger fitter people have done all along. It’s actually repulsive.

Is that really happening? Is entry to the other countries become easier by the summer, re 2 week self isolation etc? It's hard to believe with so much unknown and uncertainty.

This news made me quite angry.

What we've sacrificed...and they'll take action to ensure continued spread and our lives - and those of the kids and young adults - being fucked longer and worse.

Quite angry.

But....but....but..... I was told that the exit from COVID-19 would lead us all into a mysterious New Normal, where nobody owns anything or goes anywhere and where we all decide to spend our lives sitting contentedly in our houses having mindfulness sessions via Zoom paid for in Bitcoin or something....

Ha. Jealous though I am, it's actually kind of reassuring to see that a) people actually do want to do normal things again, and b) that at least SOMEONE is going to be propping up the poor ailing tourist industry.

( @oneglassandpuzzled - can I ask, if you help at a vaccination centre do you get vaccinated yourself? I wanted to volunteer at ours, but am a bit concerned I might catch the virus myself whilst there!)

Are Ryanair still running their tone-deaf dumbed-down advert 'Jab and Go'?

I’ve seen a few posts recently on local forums where people are talking about discarding their masks once their second jab becomes effective. Others are trying to explain that it doesn’t guarantee immunity and no transmission but yet they are still determined to ditch the masks. I believe when you go for your jab you are told to carry on wearing masks and practice social distancing so I don’t know why they’re talking of ditching masks.
On the subject of holidays my main concern is a traveller bringing new strains back into the country and spreading it through unvaccinated.

My PIL usually go abroad 3-4 times a year. They’ve both just had their first jabs but there are no plans to start booking more holidays (although they did have a couple transferred from last year) but I think they’re happy to wait until the autumn at least.
We have no idea when the travel ban will be lifted so they’ve decided to sit tight for now.

Don't worry folks - they are simply wasting their time and money because nothing is certain.

Your immunity after having covid is 5 months. No one kows how long the vaccine makes you immune for. No one knows when the variant that is not touched by the vaccine will make an appearance.

I don't think that anyone booking a holiday right now is someone to be jealous of. Really.

My parents have been following all rules and more, they don't go to supermarket, wash delivery, brief doorstep visit only. They have been worried if they catch it then it will be very serious. I have had much more freedom (supermarket, takeaway coffees, meals out when allowed) and less fear.

There is no way older people have been less effected.

Older people are more likely to be retired and on pension and mortgage free so less worried about recession and more able to take a risk on a holiday. I expect this is the reason they may book of vaccinated.

*new more virulent strains back into the country.

Not sure how older people going on holiday if and when they can when restrictions lift, would have any impact on younger people waiting for the vaccine. How do you feel the older ones can best support younger ones, OP? It would not be doing the unvaccinated any harm if the older generation are free to go on holiday (provided the vaccine stops someone being able to transmit the virus,that is) would it?

I wouldn't do it personally and I think alot of it is coach trips which I would hate at the best of times. It is probably a lifesaver for travel companies though so if younger people want to travel in future maybe it is a good thing?

On the television after having the vaccination an elderly woman said she'd be going to hug her grandchildren. The reporter pointed out that it wasn't allowed, to which she replied that she'd be doing it anyway. What is the obsession with hugging? If you listen to the media you'd think once you are a grandparent the only thing you have in life is hugging people. Personally I like my space, love my GC (snotty noses and all) but it is perfectly possible to love and enjoy them without hugging them.

Maybe all the holidays for old people are for hugging marathons?

I've thought about this a fair bit over the past couple of days because my first reaction was fury... and I think that's wrong

What we need is everyone to stick to the guidelines... social distancing, not going out, eventually going out more but in smaller numbers etc.

We will all be then able to do the same things at the same time, and we will all benefit from there being less risk at the same time

Are you sure? Surely, given how very dangerous Covid is to older people and how much less dangerous it is to younger people, all that the vaccination will do is to make older people at similar risk to younger ones? Not at much lower risk?

Yes, exactly. I guess what we might see is some more elderly people who've up to now been rule followers adopt the "I don't care if I get it" attitude that some younger people currently have and start doing whatever they want. I would imagine, in a similar way to other age groups, that the majority of elderly people will continue to comply with whatever restrictions are in force.

@OnlyTeaForMe

( *@oneglassandpuzzled* - can I ask, if you help at a vaccination centre do you get vaccinated yourself? I wanted to volunteer at ours, but am a bit concerned I might catch the virus myself whilst there!)

We don't receive a vaccine as volunteers.

Our role as marshals is all out of doors, though, (vaccination happens inside a marquee but we don't enter) and masks are mandatory at all times for volunteers and for people coming for vaccination.

@PicsInRed

This news made me quite angry.

What we've sacrificed...and they'll take action to ensure continued spread and our lives - and those of the kids and young adults - being fucked longer and worse.

Quite angry.

Again, what do you think you’ve sacrificed over and above what ‘they’ have? Did you feel so angry about young adults and families going away last summer?

So much othering. Depressing.

Totally agree and it's those poor young kids that are going to have to pay for it financially and need their education!

@ottermadness you, me or anyone else is only complying with measures because you have no choice. Once I do, I won’t be.

We undertook lockdowns to protect them, we will suffer for decades rebuilding the economy and the addressing the mental health and educational impact, meanwhile they will return to normal more quickly and put pressure on us to provide services like normal for them. It makes me angry and yet I expect our generation would do the same in their shoes, it’s human nature.

This is what interests me more than the holidays thing, which I think is fairly inconsequential really - can’t blame people for wanting a holiday after all this! There was already growing intergenerational inequality prior to Covid, but the pandemic has put it on steroids. As you say, younger people have been asked to make huge sacrifices in order to protect older generations during this period, and will then be asked to foot the bill for lockdown. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes down, and to what extent older generations will be willing to reciprocate through measures like higher taxes, an end to triple lock pensions, restructuring of council tax, some kind of insurance scheme for social care (resurrection of the ‘Dementia Tax’? etc.

Post-pandemic will resources be thrown at the young to help them her back on their feet, make up gaps in skills and education, fund some kind of Sure Start-style scheme to mitigate developmental damage done to toddlers/preschoolers (inadequate socialisation, language delay etc), find suitable low-cost housing etc? Will schools and further education be given lots of additional funding? Will women whose careers were torpedoed by homeschooling be helped back into the workplace? Personally I’m not holding my breath...