Social distancing to last all year

[Santastealer]

The media this morning are reporting on a report given to government saying social distancing will need to be in place all year and rules remain until December.

But what then? What do they expect to be different by September?

Last August I was able to go on holiday with my family as a group of 8, are thy suggesting this year this won’t be possible? If not why was it ok last year when we didn’t have vaccines but this year it’s not ok when we do?

I’m thoroughly fed up of not being able to see my family and I need to feel an end point is in sight.

[quote DumplingsAndStew]@FourTeaFallOut

I'm assuming its not just the CEV who end up in hospital and die.[/quote]
But we'll see a huge drop in hospitalisations once the first priority groups have amassed protection to illness and a fucking huge drop with all 10. Yes, there will be some deaths among the health but if you scale up the number of deaths among the remaining healthy adults to the standard r you would see in normal times and assuming there was no effect on transmission at all -( 4 Ish maybe with the Kent strain or 5 for the sake of argument), it still doesn't look like 1000 per day.

We will bend over daily for our anal swabs. Humiliation and degradation all for the greater good.

Nobody is swabbing my arse thanks very much.

Do you think that we will just keep up with semi social distancing out of habit? I can imagine that it will be a long time before I will be comfortable to stand in a crowd or directly next to someone in a queue.

@Mif4

I'm guessing this will go on until all independent businesses are gone, we are all reliant on benefits or a 'universal income', and cant do sweet f a with out a permission slip from boris due to a social credit system.

You think this government want a society where we all live on benefit handouts? What on earth in their previous behaviour makes you think that?

The Telegraph article suggests that it would surge because some people won’t take the vaccine, and the vaccine won’t prevent death in 100% of people. So even if that’s only a tiny percentage, a tiny percentage of everyone all hitting the hospitals at once would be a lot.

But it doesn’t say what modelling assumptions the modellers are using for the vaccines - at one point they say ‘even if it’s 90% effective against serious illness’ but all the vaccines were using now are promising much higher than that. Plenty of age groups are more than 90% likely to not get seriously ill and die if they get it even without the vaccine.

Thanks to people who didn't suck it up and stay home last year, the virus is beating us. If you think a few more months of distancing is bad, brace yourself: This will be raging for the next several years. Get used to it.

There's already riots in countries where governmnents didn't have our deep coffers to bribe people to stay at home.
If you think anyone is going to give a shiny shit about this virus when feeding, clothing and housing their children starts to become an issue then you're in for a rude awakening.

I'm done now anyway. I obviously can't go anywhere that's not open but I'm not avoiding seeing friends any more.

I am expecting this sunmer to be the same as last summer. We will be able to go away on holiday (probably more likely in the UK than abroad) and we will (probably subject to a number limit) be able to see friends and family who we do not live with, but we must keep social distancing from anyone not in our household (by "household" I'm including support bubbles for those eligible to form one, extended households in Wales and whatever the similar arrangements are in Scotland and NI). Those were the rules last summer, it was not ok to go on holiday with people not in your household with no social distancing.

The important words in all of this are if and could. So If the vaccine doesn't bring cases down enough to avoid a third spike then social distancing could be with us for the rest of the year.

So nothing is definite they still need to look at all the data, but of course the newspapers want a grabbing headline.

I think they mean no big events with everyone crammed in together and probably that working from home needs to continue. Not that you’ll need to social distance from family & friends! But I expect the rule of 6 or something like it will make a reappearance.

People are not going to give up seeing family for another entire year. Those of us who aren’t allowed a support bubble have been unable to see anyone properly for months and months. Last summer was bearable as we were allowed to visit family and get some support. If we can’t do that this year then many people won’t survive the year at all. People can’t be separated from family for another year.

@Mif4

Because its going to go on and on and on. There is no end in sight. They are always moving the goal posts and keep dangling the carrot 'if we do x,y,z then we can get a,b,c' . But it doesnt happen. It just gets worse. As a pp said your looking at another 4-5 years of this. Yes we have a vaccine now. But we dont even know if it actually works properly (with the chance of still spreading it and catching it, hence the need to continue to social distance,) they are also telling us about these new variants which may not work with the vaccine. So...

We will bend over daily for our anal swabs. Humiliation and degradation all for the greater good.

I'm guessing this will go on until all independent businesses are gone, we are all reliant on benefits or a 'universal income', and cant do sweet f a with out a permission slip from boris due to a social credit system.
By this point the majority of people will be on anti depressants and be even more compliant than they are now.
We will be like China.
People are giving up everything we have fought for.
We will own nothing and be led to believe its in our best interests.
We will also be told it's all fault and they are doing x,y,z because they care about us.

When it's to late we will see we have been in an emotionally abusive relationship, coerced into 'doing the right thing', when all we've done really is given up everything that makes us human.

This absolutely

I'm done now anyway. I obviously can't go anywhere that's not open but I'm not avoiding seeing friends any more.

I'm at this point to. The vaccinations are well under way for the higher risk groups, that's what we were waiting for wasn't it so the hospitals didn't get overwhelmed, that was the only reason for all of this. The virus is going nowhere, it's never been the intention to eradicate it so it's time to start living again.

I think it's likely we'll stay at a 'rule of 6' with some hospitality and entertainment open for small well-spaced groups for quite some time.

That might include going through the next winter virus season - but f it's going OK, that'll still mean a lot more available than last autumn/this winter.

That'll include stadium sports - reduced capacity, with spaces between households. But I was wondering what it might mean for mass participation events. When would parkrun return? Is it realistic for the London Marathon to take place in full form in October?

Wasn't that if not enough people have the Vaccine? That's what I read past the sensational headline.

Honestly, it's like asking how long is a piece of string at this point. We may not be as good as Israel on vaccines but we are getting there, now with the Novavax and Johnson and Johnson one, plus Moderna, we have a lot coming. There was talk last week of a drug that cuts deaths and serious illness in people who have already caught it. A nasal spray that will go on sale soon that kills the virus if you've been out.

It's hard but positive stuff is out there.

Sorry but if we aren’t going to be released from restrictions once we have been offered vaccines then there is going to be a really low compliance from the public. I’m already going to be seeing family from March. I don’t think it’s morally right for it to be illegal to see family and friends in private homes for this long. Very temporarily for emergency measures was fine but not when it’s gone on this long. There has to come a point when we waive with the virus. Unfortunately some people will die but that’s the same with all disease.

Thanks to people who didn't suck it up and stay home last year, the virus is beating us. If you think a few more months of distancing is bad, brace yourself: This will be raging for the next several years. Get used to it

@PerveenMistry it's not thanks to the people who didn't suck it up and stay home. What a ridiculous thing to say. Millions upon millions of people had no choice to go to work and school, or live in care homes, or need hospital treatment for non covid conditions. Millions of people didn't have the option to stay home, as opposed to the minority who flouted the rules.

The virus is doing what viruses do. Stop apportioning blame. And while you're at it, stop it with the groundless doom mongering - you have no idea how long this will be 'raging' for. We have vaccines, we have better treatments and understanding of the disease every day. Those are facts; plucking an arbitrary timeframe out of the air and saying it'll be shit for that long is not.

Social distancing and restrictions are different things. I for one won't be complying past the summer and will be meeting a small group of family. I won't flout all the other rules but I will refuse to stay inside for another year and not spend anytime with my mum/sisters. We lost my Dad last year and its been so tough not being able to spend time together.

Reading this thread I'm not the only one.

@Mousehole10 will you expect your family to get hospital treatment if they get ill once you start meeting up? Meeting in the home is one of the reasons rates rise rapidly

I think it's best just to ignore all this for a week. Usually these articles are whipped up to narrate some worst case scenario strategising. Perhaps this kind of work is useful as a retort to organisations like the WHO who would have us stop vaccinating once the vulnerable populations have been jabbed - but it's doesn't seem to be based on likely outcomes.

We should find out more information about how the vaccine over the next few weeks and in the meantime it's better not to fill the known unknowns with dramatic doom mongering.

@Angel2702

People are not going to give up seeing family for another entire year. Those of us who aren’t allowed a support bubble have been unable to see anyone properly for months and months. Last summer was bearable as we were allowed to visit family and get some support. If we can’t do that this year then many people won’t survive the year at all. People can’t be separated from family for another year.

What are the circumstances (other than shielding) where someone isn't able to see anyone, yet isn't eligible for support reasons?

@Mif4

Because its going to go on and on and on. There is no end in sight. They are always moving the goal posts and keep dangling the carrot 'if we do x,y,z then we can get a,b,c' . But it doesnt happen. It just gets worse. As a pp said your looking at another 4-5 years of this. Yes we have a vaccine now. But we dont even know if it actually works properly (with the chance of still spreading it and catching it, hence the need to continue to social distance,) they are also telling us about these new variants which may not work with the vaccine. So...

We will bend over daily for our anal swabs. Humiliation and degradation all for the greater good.

I'm guessing this will go on until all independent businesses are gone, we are all reliant on benefits or a 'universal income', and cant do sweet f a with out a permission slip from boris due to a social credit system.
By this point the majority of people will be on anti depressants and be even more compliant than they are now.
We will be like China.
People are giving up everything we have fought for.
We will own nothing and be led to believe its in our best interests.
We will also be told it's all fault and they are doing x,y,z because they care about us.

When it's to late we will see we have been in an emotionally abusive relationship, coerced into 'doing the right thing', when all we've done really is given up everything that makes us human.

Don't be so ridiculous.

A Tory government? Being free and easy with benefits? You lost all credibility right there.

Oh, and we don't just have 'a' vaccine,we have several. And the ones which aren't reliably efficient against mutations can be tweaked, just as the flu vaccine is every year.

Your post reads like ones by the Great Reset whackos on Twitter.

[quote ineedaholidaynow]@Mousehole10 will you expect your family to get hospital treatment if they get ill once you start meeting up? Meeting in the home is one of the reasons rates rise rapidly[/quote]

Good point.

[quote ineedaholidaynow]@Mousehole10 will you expect your family to get hospital treatment if they get ill once you start meeting up? Meeting in the home is one of the reasons rates rise rapidly[/quote]
Do you expect people not to see family indefinitely? It’s cruel and unfair. Those who want to can stay locked up but the rest of us should be able to see family. I don’t care about going on holiday, pubs, shops by I am going to see family. All my older/more vulnerable family will have been vaccinated by then.

[quote ineedaholidaynow]@Mousehole10 will you expect your family to get hospital treatment if they get ill once you start meeting up? Meeting in the home is one of the reasons rates rise rapidly[/quote]
Everyone deserves hospital treatment, that’s one reason the NHS exists.

@TrustTheGeneGenie

Thanks to people who didn't suck it up and stay home last year, the virus is beating us. If you think a few more months of distancing is bad, brace yourself: This will be raging for the next several years. Get used to it

We may as well all kill ourselves now then.

Is it really that difficult to stay home with books, phone, internet, tv, yoga mat, perhaps a garden?