I thought vaccines were our way out??

[user2021]

Why are we introducing travel restrictions now? And why are we being told things won't be back to normal by the summer/not to book any holidays abroad?

I thought the vaccines were our way out of this mess?

What needs to happen to get us back to normal? I thought once hospitalisation numbers are greatly reduce and the NHS can cope then that's that?!! We were never perusing a zero transmission policy, we were pursuing a don't-overwhelm-the-NHS-policy, or am I missing something?

@TrustTheGeneGenie

Apparently they've said don't even book anything in the UK this morning so it's not a borders / variant issue is it?

It's a "we are locking you up until the end of the year" issue.

Perhaps when half the population has commuted suicide corona will no longer be an issue.

I agree the 'no UK holidays' comment this morning is going way too far. Power over the lives of the little people really is going to some politicians' heads. We cannot stop variants emerging and we should be expanding the capacity of the NHS long term rather than ruining lives for another year.

Bozo is releasing a series of dates as to when things will be unlocked. It’s on the news. You will not get the answer from mumsnetters because none of them know.

@Delatron

The Astra Zeneca jab is still effective against severe disease and hospitalisation for the S.Africa variant. It has shown to be less effective at preventing mild to moderate disease. It’s unhelpful to quote inaccurate info about vaccines. Shouldn’t be allowed actually. Though the media don’t help.

If people aren’t getting seriously ill and being hospitalised then the NHS can cope. That was supposed to be the aim.

Will we keep locking down for a mild/moderate disease? I guess we’ll see.

There was a great (calm) interview on the BBC yesterday about the vaccines and all the panic with a scientist. The fact that the Kent strain is dominant here is actually a good thing. She wasn’t panicked about the S.African variant. So much media spin at the moment.

Exactly - I would be interested to see sources stating that the AZ vaccine is ineffective at preventing hospitalisations/deaths for the SA variant, because as far as I know that isn't the case. As long as contracting Covid won't put you in hospital or kill you, then really that's all that matters. Case numbers will become less and less relevant.

"goalposts moving" is the new "thrown under a bus".

And they say change is as good as a rest.

@TheKeatingFive

The vaccines are like a bunch of 🥕 dangling to keep you moving forward that’s all, they don’t stop you getting covid and they don’t stop lockdowns or restrictions.

Well what do you think is the point of them then?

The point is ultimately to stop people getting sick but Current vaccines are in place to literally restart the economies and get people travelling again with a sense of normalcy.

The problem is not much is known about how this impacts you long term, or what reinfection does after getting it say 3, 4 or 5 times. What do future mutations look like, what is it capable of mutating to?

Vaccines were formulated with the knowledge we had 6 months ago and so as things progress we must learn in the job. It’s not like curing a disease that has been studied for the last thirty or forty years like MS for example, these vaccines are an initial reaction to something completely new.

A bit like making a cake without the proper ingredients list or any idea of how it should taste, but you know the method to make it and how it should look. If that makes sense?

You will not get the answer from mumsnetters because none of them know

We could save a lot of time in the Coronavirus forum by posting that on every thread

They havent said it's effective!
They dont know because the group tested were young
. So status = unknown for serious illness

Working parents especially of younger kids are trapped in a hellhole of gloom (well most of us) right now and they know people will be looking ahead to the summer and trying to book holidays as something to look forwards too. This happens at this time of year normally anyway, but especially for many now- we want that holiday booked as something to focus on.
To prevent mass holiday bookings and potentially even more cancellations and people trying to get refunds as an absolute worst case- this is their way of trying to calm the stampede to book down. I'm still very confident that by summer, those who want to, will be jetting off for a foreign holiday (to Europe at least) and definitely for a UK break.

Of course the goalposts are constantly moving, this virus is mutating in ways no one can predict. Is that really news to you @user2021?

Much as I utterly detest this government and know they've made a real balls up of the whole thing, even I know nothing is set in stone right now.

@Cloudsurfing

I think we’ll open up everything here and it will be more like normal but the travel restrictions will stay a bit longer. People will be able to go on holiday abroad but will have to quarantine after.

This is what I think

It seems sensible to keep new variants squashed but it is awful for the travel industry of course

It is awful for the travel industry, I can't imagine what will happen there.

Overseas travel should have been banned 12 months ago.

The government have just realised this and are implementing measures they should have introduced 12 months ago.

We're quite a whiny nation, aren't we?

@WineInTheWillows

We're quite a whiny nation, aren't we?

Yes it's completely unacceptable to whinge when all your freedoms been removed

This is a genuine and quite possibly stupid question but on new variants, why are we not constantly in fear of e.g. new chickenpox strains?

So have most other countries too. It's possible they're all going on about it on other forums, of course, but from what I've seen they do seem to bang on about it less. Australia live life much as they always have, because they locked down early enough. Ban on travel, but local freedoms as they always were. We didn't do that- cue whining. Now we're doing it- cue whining. 🤷

@WineInTheWillows

So have most other countries too. It's possible they're all going on about it on other forums, of course, but from what I've seen they do seem to bang on about it less. Australia live life much as they always have, because they locked down early enough. Ban on travel, but local freedoms as they always were. We didn't do that- cue whining. Now we're doing it- cue whining. 🤷

We're doing that but it's far too late! The difference is they have a normal life more or less while we remain locked up.

I didn’t ever think the vaccines would be a quick way out so the fact nothing looks like it’s going to change in the near future isn’t any real shock.

The way I see it is that this is currently our new way of life I don’t think things will be returning to normal for some time yet.

I can’t wait until they do though!!

The vaccines are like a bunch of 🥕 dangling to keep you moving forward that’s all, they don’t stop you getting covid and they don’t stop lockdowns or restrictions

And based on this ^^, people are understandably questioning things, and sinking even deeper into despair. It would be great if we could be allowed to feel this way without the sarcastic patronising posts from the superior ones. You can't police feelings, at least not yet.

We're quite a whiny nation, aren't we?

How patronising are you?!

I don't think it's whiny to remark upon lockdown restrictions and the fact it's illegal for people to meet up with their own family etc. People are concerned about how long it's gone on for and that there's doesn't appear to be an end in sight to it.

We're quite a whiny nation, aren't we

No, we aren't. People in countries all over the world are feeling and saying the same things. Calling people whiners is vile.

@LucilleTheVampireBat

The vaccines are like a bunch of 🥕 dangling to keep you moving forward that’s all, they don’t stop you getting covid and they don’t stop lockdowns or restrictions

And based on this ^^, people are understandably questioning things, and sinking even deeper into despair. It would be great if we could be allowed to feel this way without the sarcastic patronising posts from the superior ones. You can't police feelings, at least not yet.

Well, if you feel wallowing in your misery and pulling others down with you (by pushing conspiracy theories like this one that makes everything feel hopeless and neverending) is helpful in any way, have at it. I'm just making an observation.

@AvocadosBeforeMortgages

You're not missing anything. They're changing the goalposts.

If this is how they behave, I don't think things will EVER go back to normal. There will come a point where, even if they remove restrictions, the vast majority of the pubs, restaurants, shops, festival organisers, wedding businesses and so on will have gone bust. They won't be there to visit even if we're allowed to go.

This!

To be honest, while I've always been on the side of preferring fewer restrictions, I look now at Australia and New Zealand and wish we'd gone all out on travel restrictions from March last year. Even at the time I remember being astonished there wasn't any quarantine requirement introduced for months, not even for China, Italy etc. - my siblings both came home from abroad and didn't have to quarantine (although they did voluntarily). I'd rather be having a normal time and not able to go abroad and anyone coming in having to do hotel quarantine than be in the situation we are in now. I read a statistic that last year Australia had something like 7000 people enter the country vs. hundreds of thousands or millions normally.

Having said that, I 100% agree that this is all about hospitalisations - I don't care at all about the risk of someone catching it if there is no hospitalisation involved. And yes, long Covid for those who are not hospitalised is somewhat concerning but it seems very unclear how serious or widespread it is, and I don't think it's worth the tradeoff of going on like this indefinitely. I just hope they get better data on the variants soon - but they're not going to stop, after the South African one there will be another, and another, and another, so we need to find a way to live with this thing...

@Keyperfect

This is a genuine and quite possibly stupid question but on new variants, why are we not constantly in fear of e.g. new chickenpox strains?

Because both are completely different viruses. Chicken pox you only get once usually and tends not to kill you (25-ish people per year) so unless it mutated into a maniacal Rooster pox it’s not much to fear relative to covid mutations when you factor in transmissibility and risk to vulnerable.