Can someone make me feel better about the latest news ?

[reallyexhausted]

It just seems so bad right now. Virus more deadly, vaccines might not work against new strains etc.

I am starting to lose all hope this will end.

I was feeling better because of the vaccinations. Now I'm struggling again. How's everyone else feeling ?

It will end though OP as all pandemics have before. They usually last around 2 years - the Spanish Flu had a second wave mutated to be deadlier than the first. Countries go at different rates.

This was always going to be the worst time - its just the way these things work.

@RedToothBrush

Government have switched from over optimistic over promising and under delivering messaging to a more realistic one where they are managing expectations more accurately. Its likely they will want to under promise and over deliver.

Johnson was criticised on this point.

Also the target date of 15th Feb is gradually slipping. They know how much vaccine they have incoming and we know there are production issues going on. I think we are maybe 2 weeks past 15th Feb for the first 4 priority groups now.

Things are going well. But i think they got carried awaya with optimistic targets too.

This is very true. This government needs to do more managing of expectations rather than over promising . Hopefully they are starting to do more of that now.

I think thr governmenr is trying to scare people into complying with lock down. Clearly many are not.

I’m not sure saying it may be more deadly was wise though, particularly as the who also did a conference and said they don’t think it is. Three deaths more in men over sixty, in a group of a thousand they think is more likely to be due to the make up of the group and their health conditions. You simply can’t get the exact same amount of people dying in each group of one thousand because there are so many factors that impact in each group.

The scientists involved were shocked rhe government announced what rhey did. And it scared a lot of people. Who heard it as it “is” more deadly and not what was actually said.

From what I can gather, the government are worried as the vaccine program is rolled out, people will stop complying with lock down, going and seeing granny for example.

The stat announced last night was available a few weeks ago, as I read the report on it, it was like theee weeks ago or something. So I was also really surprised when I heard it had been announced,

The one I read had the exact same numbers, ten v thirteen, men over sixty, groups of one thousand, and the scientists stated it was evidence it was not more deadly as you’d expect that sort of shift. Just like they’d not think it was less deadly if seven died instead of ten, becayse the health conditions of the thousand men infected has a huge impact

So for example if in the second group. Three more men, had cancer, or a heart condition, or diabetes, than in thr firsr group, you’d expect three more to die.

Government are also starting to switch from short term fire fighting to medium to long term planning....

Even vallance said the evidence was weak in the press conf. The fact the who were also holding a conf and saying it wasn’t more deadly wasn’t ideal,

The problem they have is everyone is sick to thr back teeth of lock down. With cases dropping and the vaccine rollout gathering pace, there a high chance more and more people are going to say fuck it, and of course so few have had the second dose.and there are still millions of vulnerable people with no dose at all. And if peoooe stop complying this is just going to go on and on.

So increasing fines and finding some bad news to spread is the way to scare people into complying, becayse just announcing cases are dropping, the r number is below one, and x millions have been vaccinated looks like good news. And as we all know people don’t listen properly. Even though they said “may” even though they said the “evidence was weak” we are still seeing threads saying it “is more deadly” . So if you give anything that sounds like good news, some folks will be thinking great, I can go off and see everyone now.

What keeps me going is the thought of all those poor nurses and doctors who are at absolute breaking point trying to save lives whilst also dealing with the awful emotions they must face as they see many of their patients die everyday.

They’re the ones having to cope with the true reality of what Covid is doing to people - and to be fair I doubt a lot of them are coping.

Thinking of them is what makes me follow the rules - not because of Government threats.