Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Original poster

If this takes five years

153 replies

alfieum · 10/02/2021 12:43

I keep seeing people saying they are happy to wait as long as it takes. Are there really people on here who would live like this for two, five, ten years?

OP posts:
Delatron · 10/02/2021 13:39

Well yes. Every pandemic is the history of the world (with or without lockdowns and vaccines) has ended. But this one will go on forever...

IcedPurple · 10/02/2021 13:39

@Delatron

Why will the hospitals be overwhelmed when all the vaccines have shown to stop serious illness and hospitalisation? Even against variants.

This will then become a mild illness, moderate at worst for all people who have had the vaccine.

For the small percentage that can’t or won’t and then become seriously ill we won’t be in the same situation as we have been. Because we have vaccines. We have many vaccines. And new treatments are being developed too.
All the time.

I know! You'd swear the succesful development and implementation of vaccines never happened.

And yes yes I know, 'mutant strains' and 'new variants'. But it's always been known that these would happen, as they do with every other virus. The scientists are on top of this. Why do people act as though the virus will be 'rampant' in a few months time? It won't be.

Sobeyondthehills · 10/02/2021 13:40

A few days ago I would have said no, but I have just finished sorting the lego and now about to start on my cross stitching which has been left in a corner for a while now. 5 years should mean I should just about finish all the charts I have

Home learning has gone well today compared to the last 5 weeks. So I am in a happy mood.

Who knows what I will think tomorrow

Who knows what I am going to think

OliveTree75 · 10/02/2021 13:41

Susie and Valerie sound fun

Linearpark · 10/02/2021 13:42

Yes it would be awful, lots of deaths and cripple nhs. But then it would be over
When you say 'then it would be over' are you sure?
what makes you think that?

Herd immunity is a fact of science, an equilibrium between transmission, immunity, birth, death and infection will occur as surely as perfume diffuses through a room.

Delatron · 10/02/2021 13:42

We tweak vaccines every year for all the MUTANT variants of flu.

But we can’t possible do it for COVID. Despite all the scientists and vaccine makers saying they can.
Mumsnet knows better though!

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 10/02/2021 13:42

Well yes. Every pandemic is the history of the world (with or without lockdowns and vaccines) has ended. But this one will go on forever...

I do wonder what some people will do when it is over. How will they manage without restrictions and the government telling them what they can and can't do. What will they do when they can't report their neighbours for imagined wrongdoing?

Linearpark · 10/02/2021 13:43

And regardless of our pathway to that equilibrium, it will be the same equilibrium when it is reached.

DianaT1969 · 10/02/2021 13:44

"Why will the hospitals be overwhelmed when all the vaccines have shown to stop serious illness and hospitalisation? Even against variants."

That's the point. It is getting better every day. Next month will be much better I'm terms of hospital admissions and transmission rate. The UK had one of the best vaccine rollouts. Yet, we get these endless moaning threads pop up daily.
Why? Who does it help? Wait to find out if there are any restrictions before talking about breaking them.

Linearpark · 10/02/2021 13:45

Delatron you make the rooky error of assuming that there are no scientists or vaccine experts on mumsnet Hmm

LucilleTheVampireBat · 10/02/2021 13:48

[quote DianaT1969]@Lucille - yes, it is mild for most. But for every person you mentioned, there will be people who know others who died, are seriously ill, or have long Covid. Someone knows the 1,000 people reported dead yesterday. Someone knows the 100,000 people who died from or with Covid.
You pop round your cousin Valerie's, but don't negate the seriousness of a novel virus in a pandemic.[/quote]
Someone knows the people who die all over the world every single day of various other diseases and preventable causes. Why is this different?

I don't really understand your last sentence. Is it supposed to indicate your superiority? You don't intend to 'pop' round to see cousin Valerie so you're a better person? Also, you don't need to tell me off. As things stand, there are no rules or fines for "negating the seriousness of a novel virus" and you don't win extra virtuous points for pretending that there are.

StrawberryLipstickStateOfMind · 10/02/2021 13:48

@LookToTreblesGoingTreblesGone

Historically, pandemics take about 2 years to run their course.
I think there is a danger that this will last longer, people will accept restrictions for longer than they would have in previous pandemics because as a society we seem obsessed with preventing death at all costs, compared to one hundred years ago and the Spanish flu pandemic.

It's not healthy and it's having massive consequences, directly relating to the pandemic but this was the case prior to the pandemic.

My grandparent who is 92, has just had the vaccine. Their health is absolutely awful, they are in agony every day, currently in hospital due to yet another new issue (which may prove to be terminal). It's heartbreaking to see the pain they are in. Please tell me the sense in giving them the vaccine, in protecting them from death, instead of my parent, who is higher risk being mid 60s but who should hopefully have plenty of years of life yet anyway.

And don't say it's to protect the NHS, apparently it's not the 90 yr olds in ICU anyway, it's people in their 60s like my parent.

The levels we go to to stop death at all costs in the extreme elderly are causing all kinds of societal problems (and is cruel on the elderly themselves) which have been highlighted a lot in the pandemic and I fear it's making this last longer.

LucilleTheVampireBat · 10/02/2021 13:49

@OliveTree75

Susie and Valerie sound fun
Don't they. I can't wait to 'pop' round and open the prosecco with these two mad bitches.
OohThatCat · 10/02/2021 13:50

If this is still a thing in five years time, I really think the govt need to divert cash into creating NHS Covid only specialist centres, hospitals etc. Half the reason we're doing all this is too not overwhelm the NHS, if covid is sticking around it should be more of a separate healthcare issue so that we can also focus on getting all other healthcare currently backlogged and shunted aside back on track.

Of course that means the government both giving a shit about the NHS and finding a money tree so probably won't happen.

My parents are pretty elderly and I'm not going to not see them for five years, once jabs are done, that's it.

MarshaBradyo · 10/02/2021 13:50

@LookToTreblesGoingTreblesGone

Historically, pandemics take about 2 years to run their course.
What happens when you suppress as we are. Does it change this statement?

Presumably they can last a long time if you let it spread slowly.

Not that I want that just out of interest.

Pyewhacket · 10/02/2021 13:51

There are many diseases I don't want to get (and who does want to get sick?) but Covid would be some way down the list. I'm much more unhappy about society and the economy locked down indefinitely for fear of what would very likely be a mild illness for me

The youngest patient I've treated was 18. No previous medical history. He didn't make it. I spent all last night looking after 6 patients, we normally look after just 1. Just before I left I was with a 36 old mother of 3. She was bleeding from just about everywhere. We couldn't stop it. She arrested and died. She was admitted on Friday. Fit, with no previous medical history. I've been doing this day after day since last April. I haven't taken a day's holiday and I worked all of Christmas. I've lost count of the number of people I've seen die a long long time ago. Just before I left this morning, I found a junior nurse on the floor of our locker room shaking uncontrollably. She'd wet herself too. We picked her up and put her under a hot shower. She was OK..ish after that but she'll be back again this evening. I've been an ITU/Critical Care nurse for 20 years, and not just in this country either, and I've never seen death on this scale. Last year was bad but this is twice as worse. Our Raspatory consultant said that taking your chances with Covid is like playing Russian Roulette with your health. Let's hope you are lucky then.

Comefromaway · 10/02/2021 13:51

No, I'm giving it until Easter and then I've had enough.

LaMarschallin · 10/02/2021 13:53

What's the alternative?

Well, it might be that things aren't lawful and can't happen.

Yes, you can run out of your house and hug family and friends and have parties in your garden and then... what?

If the law is that you can't eat/drink out, or go to theaters/cinemas/festivals, there's nothing like that.

You can hug your nan until her eyes bulge....
And chat for an hour.

But you can't take her out somewhere nice for tea.

ChocOrange1 · 10/02/2021 13:55

@o8O8O8o

you can start seeing family and friends I have no desire to see family or friends ...I'm glad of the opportunity to dump them all 🤭 I want to get back into the gym, I want everyone else to go back to doing the things they like doing so that my running and cycling routes are free of people!!
You sound pleasant
Pyewhacket · 10/02/2021 13:55

Respiratory. Sorry, typo

rogueantimatter · 10/02/2021 13:56

I was all for drastic measures this time last year. I stopped seeing my clients in person before I had to, wore a mask before it was compulsory, hunkered down before the lockdown. But now I am sympathetic to young people who have suffered and will go on shouldering the financial and emotional costs of protecting older people. I wish more people would be angry about the fact that the incompetence of our government has meant we have to live under these draconian restrictions.

Delatron · 10/02/2021 13:57

Nobody is denying the death rate is horrific @Pyewhacket. Or what the staff have to deal with day in day out is horrific. Because right now we are just coming out of the second wave.

But surely you have faith this will end? Or don’t you think the vaccines will work?

My ICU doctor friend is hopeful that they’re through the worst and things are improving every day.

o8O8O8o · 10/02/2021 14:00

@LookToTreblesGoingTreblesGone

Historically, pandemics take about 2 years to run their course.
Can you be more specific? presume you are talking about flu pandemics, what about the aids pandemic? I don't think there ARE any comparable pandemics 😳
sarie2468 · 10/02/2021 14:02

My mum has terminal cancer, diagnosed before lockdown. In the year when she should have been making every second count, making memories with her family that will need to last a lifetime she has had to spend it indoors on her own.
I'm sure there is many others the same. It should have been a year to spend as much time together as possible, holidays, dinners, breaks away, not isolation and loneliness. I'm not prepared to spend any more of the time we have left like this

tinylittleyou · 10/02/2021 14:03

I’m sure if furlough ends that will change a lot of people’s minds 😬