If the vaccines don’t stop the spread....

[TwilightSkies]

And just make symptoms less severe...why do we have to stay locked up until EVERYONE is vaccinated?
Surely the vast, vast majority of under 60’s will only get the virus very mildly so keeping us in lockdown when there is no evidence that vaccines actually curb the spread, doesnt make much sense?

Sorry, my post should say 1.6%, not 1.2.

@Mittens030869

Even “mild” cases can be very nasty and disruptive to society if it sweeps through a population of forty somethings.

^This. Some of these cases develop into Long Covid, which has impacted upon some people for many months (I'm one of these). It's obviously a minority of cases, but there's no way of knowing who is at risk; a lot of sufferers were young and fit (30s and 40s) before catching Covid.

It really isn't just about deaths.

But you can say that about all kinds of different diseases and medical conditions. We're all, always, at risk of catching something from normal day to day life. It's a fact of life that there are always viruses etc circulating. We can't eradicate Covid, we've just got to get it down to manageable/acceptable levels, like all the other viruses. Some people catch Norovirus and die or are seriously impacted by it - there really isn't any difference. Same with the usual flu season. There will always be collateral damage to some people - yes that's sad, but it's inevitable unless you want to have draconian restrictions as a part of normal life forever.

The more seriously ill someone is with Covid, the more likely they are to develop long Covid. By vaccinating everyone we reduce the risk of serious disease, and therefore reduce the risk of long Covid.

And yes, as others have said - currently lockdowns have reduced the number of people under 50 who've been infected. If everyone of working age went back to normal now, unvaccinated, there would be a hell of a lot of people in hospital again. A small percentage of the entire working population of the UK is still a lot of people, especially in an already exhausted and overstretched workforce.

@user1497207191, whilst nothing you posted is wrong it fails to recognise the fact there is no innate natural immunity in the population. There’s no cross immunity from previous similar bugs, there’s no existing vaccine for a similar virus.

Covid has been so dangerous precisely because it’s a novel virus. We can only work on the assumption that everyone (without vaccination or previous infection) will become infected. We’ve only had approximately 4 million cases and look what that has done to our infrastructure. We’ve still got 66 million odd people (I haven’t accounted for vaccinated people) to go. It’s a problem.

People are so impatient. We won’t be in lockdown all year. That is 100 % fact. The economy would collapse. Restrictions will be eased gradually as we work through the vaccine groups. Large gatherings etc are 2022 at the earliest, expect that. Travel abroad is likely to be disrupted for a while as well. But we will not be stuck doing one walk a day in Spring/Summer. Life will return to some degree of enjoyment & socialisation.

Just hang fire. Stop reading silly forums online saying it’ll go on forever. It won’t. Just be patient, spring is round the corner & so is seeing our families & friends at least outdoors. We are doing extremely well with vaccines & deaths were significantly down yesterday. Let’s hope we are starting to see a good effect.

Well said @MoirasRoses.

@MoirasRoses I dont think after pretty much a year of being in lockdown is impatience.

People want to know when this will end and it's like every time theres a light at the end of the tunnel, its pushed further back.

They do though...

I don't know OP
Tbh not getting why we are vaccinating at all. It's not getting our lives back is it

I’ve no idea anymore what to make of any of this. All I know is a generation of young people’s education has been damaged severely, some beyond repair.
Sister in law has three boys who struggled with school before anyway, they’ve been off alimony a year. She’s not realistic and told us that there’s no hope of then catching up. Three young people’s future tarnished.
And these young people are our future, paying taxes and leading the country, looking after my generation when I’m old.
My mother has lost her job, was in the process of separating from her partner anyway, but lost so much financially as a result of covid. She’s lucky she may able to afford a flat by the coast.
Life will never fully return to normal as before, if we’re lucky we’ll get something close but it won’t be better. How can things be better post covid than before? Surely it can’t?
There’s going to be less jobs and opportunity for most people for a long time to come.
There will probably be tax rises in 2022, a generation of people will find it harder to get on the property ladder.

Sorry meant sister in law is realistic and said her boys won’t ever catch up on schooling.

I think the NHS will be at breaking point even if the Covid cases reduce- this time it’ll be the waiting lists -

There is so much we don't know about the virus as it is so new to us. There are studies looking at male fertility after Covid-19 (because cells in the testis are particularly susceptible) and at the moment a significant number of men who have had it have for at least short term got impaired fertility - the studies are still ongoing to see how long that lasts. At least one expert is recommending delaying conception with men who have had Covid-19 in the recent past until they know if there is any implication for any resulting children.

Thankfully it does look like the vaccine is going to reduce the spread by a reasonable amount.

Regarding the NHS, I don’t see how sustainable it is long term. Economically and practically. Waiting lists as a knock on effect one factor. Staff will leave or won’t cope with work loads.

I don't understand what the other short-comings of the NHS have to do with this. The fact that it's on it's knees at the best of times means that hospitals full of covid patients are ok?

@Beaniecats Tbh not getting why we are vaccinating at all. It's not getting our lives back is it

It will do, it just hasn’t got far enough yet to do that. Do you go and look at your new house when they’ve laid the foundations and built the block work up to ground floor ceiling level and say “this is rubbish, I can’t live in this”? No, of course you don’t - you understand that it takes a certain amount of time to reach the point at which you can move in. And once you’ve moved in it won’t be complete - there will be loo roll holders and towel rails to put up, carpets, curtains and furniture to buy, the garden to landscape and so on.

Vaccines will give us our lives back. Can’t give you a precise date (or point in the vaccination programme) because we need to see the real world impact. Not as soon as when groups 1-4 are done, but a long way before all adults are done.

No one can know the long term effects of the coronavirus jabs. Surely it’ll take years before any real results are discovered, that are reliable anyway.
The only way of life going back to some kind of normality is to have the jab though, so people need to have it to reduce short term immunity.
Older people have the least to lose without sounding nasty.