"Covid will be here forever"

[Frozenintime]

On Sky news online. Sorry, I couldn't work out how to post the link.
AIBU to think WTF?!

If it helps, the take-up in the UK is actually estimated at over 70%, which is one of the highest take-up rates in the world.

I had heard higher than that actually, more than 80%. Given the average age of the people being vaccinated now I would expect it to be high because:

a) they can probably remember people from their childhood dying from diseases nobody gets now due to vaccines.

b) they are less likely to have spent hours on social media reading conspiracy theories.

The Spanish flu is still around as a ‘regular’ flu.

Covid will probably mutate eventually to be like other Coronaviruses, like the common cold ones

whereismormonjesus

The Spanish flu is still around as a ‘regular’ flu.

“Covid will probably mutate eventually to be like other Coronaviruses, like the common cold ones“

Exactly

or the next new virus comes along
Were you thinking of this one by any chance?
www.bbc.com/future/article/20210106-nipah-virus-how-bats-could-cause-the-next-pandemic

It's very very unlikely to be eradicated- that would take a global effort of vaccination programs.

Slightly more likely in the 'developed' world, I would say "especially now the US isn't run by a toddler in a toupee", but I think the conspiracy theory damage has been done - MMR misinformation, Bill Gates' microchips, etc, etc.

It'll be around, and there'll be resurgences of new variants, like H1N1 variants that caused Spanish Flu, Swine Flu, etc.

The reason their were so many deaths during the Spanish Flu, was the lack of antiviral drugs, and no antibiotics to treat secondary infections.

It may mutate into a milder form, or not - problem with mutations is they're random and could go either way.

Makes sense for it to have milder symptoms in healthier people - to make it easier for it to transmit unnoticed to the more vulnerable.

It’ll become endemic and see off some old and vulnerable in future winters, like the flu.

Makes sense for it to have milder symptoms in healthier people - to make it easier for it to transmit unnoticed to the more vulnerable.

Ohh, so that's why we need proper social-distancing, proper face masks, basic hygiene lessons and (safe, by the way) vaccines? To stop it reaching the vulnerable in society! Who new?

Measles is still with us. It has an R rate of 12 - 18. About 25% of people who get measles are hospitalised and I believe the death rate is around 3%, and life-changing complications are fairly common. It's most deadly for small children. This is something that exists now in our society, but we don't spend time thinking about it and worrying about it and mitigating for it. Why? Because we have a vaccine.

Covid will be the same, except much less serious for most people who do happen to get it. Keep things in context, OP and keep the faith in science.

Well they let it become endemic in the population so of course it’s never going to disappear.
PPs are right, the plague is still here, we just know how to treat it now (antibiotics) so it doesn’t cause outbreaks.
Hopefully advances in medicine in the future will create antivirals which are as useful as antibiotics.

I just want say.

Great work everyone on being rational. I think it's quite shitty to put just quote like this with no link (copy and paste only🤷🏻 I am sure under that quote whoever said it explained what many did here) on a website with such a high number of anxiety sufferers.

Great to see the discussion actually went the right way.

@LucyLockdown

Measles is still with us. It has an R rate of 12 - 18. About 25% of people who get measles are hospitalised and I believe the death rate is around 3%, and life-changing complications are fairly common. It's most deadly for small children. This is something that exists now in our society, but we don't spend time thinking about it and worrying about it and mitigating for it. Why? Because we have a vaccine.

Covid will be the same, except much less serious for most people who do happen to get it. Keep things in context, OP and keep the faith in science.

Excellent post. 👏👏👏

Of course it will be, surely.
Was there ever a plan to eradicate entirely?
Isn't the idea to get in top of it, and then it gradually becomes another illness which we can vaccinate against to hopefully reduce severity and transmission, keep numbers low and live our lives?

Isn't there only one disease we've ever managed eradicate in the world? Smallpox is it?

The rest all still exist, but in smaller numbers.

Yes it likely will be :)
Just like measles etc still is
But this is the media choosing one part of what sir Patrick vallance said yesterday and using it to make headlines people will click on
He did not mean we will be living with these type of restrictions forever
But yes it's going nowhere

Were you thinking of this one by any chance?

Just read the article.. it's to be hoped we don't have a Nipah pandemic.

Even NZ are expecting it to be dealt with like flu going forward. Ardern said:

Our goal has to be though, to get the management of Covid-19 to a similar place as we do seasonally, with the flu. It won’t be a disease that we will see simply disappear after one round of vaccine across our population

@higglepiggley

Yes it likely will be :) Just like measles etc still is But this is the media choosing one part of what sir Patrick vallance said yesterday and using it to make headlines people will click on He did not mean we will be living with these type of restrictions forever But yes it's going nowhere

He said the other day it will become more like flu and people will chose to wear masks

Yep.
Whitty also said the other day there will become a point where the amount of deaths from covid-19 will become acceptable and not something to have lockdowns over like pneumonia and flu etc
Even whitty has spoke of optimism for the future and he is a expert in this field

We've eliminated one single virus in the entirety of human history and that took 200 years (smallpox)... covid was never going to be 'eliminated'. Did people really think that?!

@covetingthepreciousthings

Were you thinking of this one by any chance?

Just read the article.. it's to be hoped we don't have a Nipah pandemic.

sure we'll be fine now that we have the benefit of the covid dress rehearsal😳

Even whitty has spoke of optimism
Yeah but he looks terrified

Whitty does not look "terrified". He looks the same as he always looks. Personally I find him calm, measured and reassuring without sugar coating.

I don't think he looks terrified.

@Yohoheaveho

Even whitty has spoke of optimism Yeah but he looks terrified

Funny but no

No. He looks normal.

I guess that the original government rhetoric is largely responsible for why so many people now seem to think we will eradicate Covid 19. I do seem to remember them blustering "together we will beat this" or some such crap.

We won't eradicate it, but like Spanish flu, bubonic plague and others (swine flu etc.) it will become manageable with the combination of a vaccination programme, some building herd immunity and a more developed understanding of the best antiviral drugs and treatments for it.

I mean, Whitty looks normal, not terrified. My quote seemed to disappear then for some reason.

I don't think Whitty does terrified. He always seems steady and placid to me