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?

I’m really getting fed up with the whole ‘new variants’ thing. If they’re not causing additional deaths/hospitalisations then new variants are not an issue. We wouldn’t even know about them if we weren’t able to look for them unless there was an increase in virulence.

@Shelovesamystery

I don't like the way on here that if you disagree with restrictions, or are worried about how easily our freedoms have been removed, or point out that the goal posts keep changing then you are labelled a conspiracy theorist. Sarcastic, passive aggressive comments are made with plenty of sniggering, and then others join in. It's vile! You can't blame people for being concerned that questioning the status quo gets you verbally attacked and called a conspiracy theorist. Why is it fine to be worried about covid but not OK to be worried about the restrictions?

I always appreciate the posters that try to explain things clearly and put a positive spin on things. And put their points and opinions across without malice.

I could have written your post! I really don't understand why is it absolutely necessary that if we question lockdown, we are instantly conspiracy theorist. It's like these posters have nothing else to have a plausible discussion about, so they just shriek at their phones while typing madly "Conspiracy theorist! Ahahagaga" I am not conspiracy theorist myself, I even disagreed with an OP on another thread about New World Order but I really dnt fancy being in lockdown once the NHS is back to coping levels. And the comment about no holiday even in the UK deeply bothers me as while I can understand closing borders to the countries where variants are rampant, why can't we look forward to something atleast within the UK? I am also quite at posters who have not read the articles properly about AstraZeneca vaccine and the SA variant. They only come on the thread with the grabby headlines that media purposely put out and spread misinformation like wildfire. It's sad that the need to spread gloom is so important for some that they post link to articles that actually contradict their gloom. Works out well for the rest of us who try to inject some positivity in others.

@bumbleymummy

I’m really getting fed up with the whole ‘new variants’ thing. If they’re not causing additional deaths/hospitalisations then new variants are not an issue. We wouldn’t even know about them if we weren’t able to look for them unless there was an increase in virulence.

Yeah me too. There are all these scary headlines causing panic. Even JVT criticised the media for their handling of the 'variants' news. I guess that's the nature of a pandemic in the era of the internet and round the clock 'news'.

@CoffeeandCroissant

Nearly 60,000 people have died from the flu each year in the past 5 years

That's not accurate.

That's a typo. It was meant to be 30,000.

There was reportedly 58,000 in 2001 however.

Needless to say, thousands dying each year.

But why @CrackOpenTheGin ? That study was done on a small number of people and they used the 4 week instead of the 12 week gap when it's already well known that the AZ vaccine works better with a 12 week gap? Nothing conclusive at all from that study except from massive over reaction like your own.

@myfriendsgivebadadvice

14:16DuchessofHastings1

The government are not your parents and you're not a teenager.

Stop stamping your foot about the goal posts being changed. Sometimes things happen that require an adjustment in the response. Stop the virus spreading here and you're protecting the virus being able to offer us a way out.

A lot of people are 'stamping their feet' as we are being led up the garden path. The scientists would have told the government from the start about new strains and mutants but that didn't stop Boris saying the vaccine was our way back to normality.

Last week I had to go round my friends house (illegally as I'm not part of her bubble ) and get her out of bed. She hadn't left her bed for 3 days and her 12 year old messaged me worried sick about her, shes a single mum he has to look after him and hes younger brother. This lockdown has plunged her into depression. Her hours have been cut due to lack of custom, her kids are stuck in the house with nothing to do, they're withdrawn, shes home schooling etc. And the only light was once the elderly and vulnerable are vaccinated we can lift these restrictions but now that's not going to happen is it?
I guess some people are happy to live like this for years in fear of new strains of a virus that has a minute chance of killing them but some people cant !!!

Nearly 60,000 people have died from the flu each year in the past 5 years, which could have been prevented from lockdowns, but we never have and no one battered an eye lid.

But nearly twice that number have died of covid with lockdowns/restrictions etc. Can you imagine the number of deaths if we'd not bothered with restrictions? Early scientific/medical experts suggested 500-600k deaths of covid without restrictions. That's ten times as many as a normal flu season. Those estimates look pretty realistic when you think it's 110k WITH restrictions/lockdowns etc.

@Followthelarch

Yes, you're totally missing dangerous variants from overseas for which the current vaccines may be less effective for but I think you know that really don't you

It isn't about that either.

It is still, and always has been about, ensuring the NHS isn't overwhelmed, which it still currently is, therefore we are still in lockdown.

It's absolutely nothing to do with variants.

'overwhelmed' or just pushed to the limits as it has been every winter for the last several years?

Yep but let's all live in fear

People who say yep are usually being disingenuous.

I'm not living in fear at all.

I'm really looking forward to numbers being low enough for test and trace to be effective at stamping out local outbreaks, and for the vaccine to get a decent headstart against the virus to minimise the risk of further mutations that could well lower it's efficiency.

I'm perfectly calm.

I'm also dealing with the drop in salary and having to work out fronted adverbials while squeezing in my work in the early hours of the morning. I'm not scared of it. I don't like any of it but there is no point saying my head is about to drop off because I can't dander around TK Max and I miss having childcare.

its

I'm scared of my own OCD though (LIGHT HEARTED)

What does scare me, though, is the thought of how frightened my husband's friend (young) is in ICU today, and how my many HCP friends and family are going to survive if we don't take the measures necessary to let the vaccine win now. I don't think they have many rounds of this left in them.

I'm really looking forward to numbers being low enough for test and trace to be effective

Good luck with that!

It's perfectly possible!

If people aren't complete eejits.

But maybe you don't want it to be achievable because that would mean there was a point to doing something you don't want to do and would rather write off as pointless...

@bumbleymummy

I’m really getting fed up with the whole ‘new variants’ thing. If they’re not causing additional deaths/hospitalisations then new variants are not an issue. We wouldn’t even know about them if we weren’t able to look for them unless there was an increase in virulence.

The Kent variant is apparently 30% more deadly than the original variant we had in the UK...

The SA one is also thought to be nastier.

Surly this is not hard to figure out? The U.K. is far in front with regards to vaccinating it’s people but the rest of the world is not. A virus WITHIN the U.K. mutating will do so from a virus already within the U.K., so like a brother or sister virus, making it easier for us to tweak a vaccine to deter it. A “foreign” mutation of a virus not in the U.K. we won’t be able to deal with as effectively. So travel from abroad and to abroad with different variations is a problem...for obvious reasons.

Do you want to be back at the start of March?

Of course it’s to do with variants, new variants are more likely to over run the NHS again.

Because there are these new mutations in other countries that the vaccinne might not work against so we need to keep them out! Or we're constantly going to be catching up the vaccinne for years! Which is basically what's going to happen anyway as he hasn't even properly closed them and everyone's an idiot.

Don't you want to get on top of it?

A virus WITHIN the U.K. mutating will do so from a virus already within the U.K., so like a brother or sister virus, making it easier for us to tweak a vaccine to deter it.

Actually no. Similat selection pressures often result in the same mutations being present in wildly different places. We just don't want any mutations full stop as we've got so many that we're just clinging onto this good news story by the skin of our teeth.

I suspect by "they" people mean world economic forum

Whats the point of ending normality because someone might get ill. We're not immortal. We're all going to die at some point.

@Shehz21

But why *@CrackOpenTheGin* ? That study was done on a small number of people and they used the 4 week instead of the 12 week gap when it's already well known that the AZ vaccine works better with a 12 week gap? Nothing conclusive at all from that study except from massive over reaction like your own.

Because no one actually knows if the OZ will be effective against the SA strain do they? It’s all just guess work. Whereas the Pfizer one is! I know which one I’d prefer to have at this point.

To someone up thread doubting the Oxford AZ vaccine the World Health Organisation today announces they recommend it..... I rather take their word than Joe blogs from MN or Pete the gardener from social media who has done his own 'research....