SAGE are sooo depressing

[RosieLemonade]

They would love lockdown to last forever I am sure. Every glimmer of hope they dash.

I wish l could find the bloody article!!!

Some of them don’t die out, and some last for a lot longer than 2 years.

@MaxNormal

Their advice is based on the science. Suck it up buttercup.

Why the rudeness? If you spoke to people like that in real life you'd get a smack.

Honestly could not agree more.

I don’t think it’s so much that all pandemics end. It’s more that, at the beginning with a new disease, EVERYONE is susceptible, so the disease is growing rapidly and large numbers are ill all at once.

As time goes on, a large proportion of the population become immune (or dead), so the numbers being ill at once will eventually decrease. Post infection immunity does not need to be either complete or permanent for this to happen, but the stronger it is and the longer it lasts, the quicker it will happen. The virus will continue to circulate at low levels, possibly permanently. If the level is low enough, society will tolerate it and stop taking special measure to limit the spread. The disease is then endemic rather than pandemic.

Effective vaccines bring forward the point at which this happens. They also massively reduce the amount of sickness and death that would occur if it were to happen solely through infection.

yeah, a government's scientific advisory group's remit should be to tell people what they want to hear....

@PuzzledObserver yes by ending I guess I mean that ' restrictions ' are likely to end at some point.

@justwanttoknow21 I get that. Some people might think “ending” means the virus no longer exists. That’s is unlikely to happen - but it won’t be constraining our lives like this forever.

@PuzzledObserver I really hope so this will be the case eventually.

@justwanttoknow21

Quick question. The Spanish flu pandemic ended eventually after a couple of years. How did they deal with variants then ? Surely it's just going to end eventually - variants or not ? Also why are all the variants suddenly popping up and being spoken about ? I thought it's normal for viruses to mutate ? Does it take a certain amount of time for them to become prominent variants like they have ? Never heard much about variants in March to November.

The first wave mostly affected the elderly and infirm mostly like seasonal flu did. The variant on the second wave was the real killer. That's the one that killed the younger, healthier people.

Spanish flu is definitely something we don't want to emulate here.

@frozendaisy

Are SAGE depressing? Or is it gutter press articles spinning it that way because their offshore non-tax paying owners have commercial property portfolios and want everyone back in city centres earning them more and more and more money?

I think this is a very, very salient point.

@justwanttoknow21

Quick question. The Spanish flu pandemic ended eventually after a couple of years. How did they deal with variants then ? Surely it's just going to end eventually - variants or not ? Also why are all the variants suddenly popping up and being spoken about ? I thought it's normal for viruses to mutate ? Does it take a certain amount of time for them to become prominent variants like they have ? Never heard much about variants in March to November.

www.wired.com/story/worrisome-new-coronavirus-strains-are-emerging-why-now/

This was it.

theconversation.com/will-coronavirus-really-evolve-to-become-less-deadly-153817

@justwanttoknow21

Quick question. The Spanish flu pandemic ended eventually after a couple of years. How did they deal with variants then ? Surely it's just going to end eventually - variants or not ? Also why are all the variants suddenly popping up and being spoken about ? I thought it's normal for viruses to mutate ? Does it take a certain amount of time for them to become prominent variants like they have ? Never heard much about variants in March to November.

I had a long talk with a relative who is a consultant. She is very upset with the public health communication from the government and media. She asked how often were people two years ago asking: which manufacturer made this flu vaccine, which strains are in it, how many variants of flu developed in the past 12 months, etc? Virtually none! Viruses mutate, they always have and always will.

She is very concerned that the emphasis on the downside and an overload of information that the average person can’t understand is going to discourage vaccine take up among younger cohorts, and lead many to simply tune out important info because they can’t handle the negativity.

Who is benefitting from this constant talk of variants and why as you say is it all being pushed so hard right now? In my view it’s done the opposite of making people more vigilant, if anything it’s turned many quite nihilist.

@turnitonagain absolutely this ! I have consultant friends who are experts in this field and they say the same.

@MaxNormal

Their advice is based on the science. Suck it up buttercup.

Why the rudeness? If you spoke to people like that in real life you'd get a smack.

Okay, apologies if it seemed rude but to be honest, it's incredibly frustrating that so many people think that the big bad scientists want to ruin their lives when they are just acting on the data. Denial and minimisation of the reality of the situation has contributed to the state we find ourselves in now. So yes, I have little time for people who think SAGE should try and be more upbeat and positive

But we need to know about variants. This government isn’t very transparent, but this is one area where they are open.

We need to be kept informed.

Fuck no. Posts like yours are far more depressing. We'd all like things to be different, op, but they aren't. For things to get better we need to listen to people who know what they are talking about and act accordingly, not take a childish, sulky view that because SAGE are telling us that the risks remain high and we are not out of the woods yet that "they would love lockdown to last forever".

On the subject of variants, I heard an interview on Radio 4 with a prominent scientist (it may have been Andrew Pollard, but I’m not sure). He said the genome of the virus has proved less stable than they had thought and hoped at the start of this, and new variants have developed sooner and more widely than they thought. It’s a new virus so it’s still a bit of a guessing game unfortunately.

It's their job to be realistic based on research and data, not to care about your 'feelings'.

If you can't handle facts and you just want to be fed nicey-nicey bullshit listen to the Archers instead of the news.

‘Would love lockdown to last forever’

Why do people think this? Everyone bloody hates lockdown. Hates hates hates it. But because they follow the science or show the slightest degree of caution, they would like lockdown to last forever! Why do people think this?

Better a lockdown than lots more deaths.

i'm all confused about the conflicting information coming in. on the one hand vaccinations are rolling out well, cases are going down. Hospitalisations and deaths will soon follow. But then there are these new variants. Surely the lockdown at this point will help keep those numbers down and in a couple of months enough people will have been vaccinated that we won't have an unmanageable rise in hospital cases and deaths?? regardless of how many variants there are??

@Kljnmw3459

i'm all confused about the conflicting information coming in. on the one hand vaccinations are rolling out well, cases are going down. Hospitalisations and deaths will soon follow. But then there are these new variants. Surely the lockdown at this point will help keep those numbers down and in a couple of months enough people will have been vaccinated that we won't have an unmanageable rise in hospital cases and deaths?? regardless of how many variants there are??

That’s the hope. The risk is that reinfections could increase with new variants and vaccines might offer less protection, so there could be a further rise in cases. Hopefully not, but it’s a possibility with the SA and Brazil variants.

Maybe if Boris and co listened to SAGE more carefully we wouldn't be in this shit show now

@RMRM

I don't understand posts like this. You're upset by reality, you'd like them to pretend things are better, is that what you're saying? You don't want to face reality, you'd rather live in denial? Don't listen to them then.

I feel the same way as you RMRM.

I'm finding it a bit of an emotional rollercoaster ride at the moment. It's the depressing January effect. If I'm ok then I watch the news and it is what it is. When I'm a bit fragile I get the basics from places like MN and avoid tv news like the plague.

You can't moan at the people in charge and the media that report it when they tell us things which are a bit hard to hear. Pandemics are depressing, by their very nature.

Who should we listen to if not the experts that have studied for years and who are constantly researching covid and gaining new knowledge

@ballsdeep

Maybe if Boris and co listened to SAGE more carefully we wouldn't be in this shit show now

100% this.

Bozo & co. fucked us over by listening to public opinion (in the hope of maintaining popularity) rather than doing what was necessary FOR the good of the public.

The very definition of shit leadership.

And now we all get to pay for it in long, multiple lockdowns.