We are going to have to live with covid

[Cloudsurfing]

Thank goodness the government have acknowledged this. Hancock says it will become a virus we live with, like flu. Once the vaccine and treatments have done their job of bringing down hospitalisation, and cases are under control, we will get on with everything again this year.

We aren’t going for zero covid, and all the doomers who say we will be like this for years are most likely wrong!

What is being said now is not really anything new. Back in March and April, at the daily briefings, we were told that we would probably be in rolling lockdowns for at least 18 months.

It is a new virus. Science is still learning how to best deal with it, but the vaccine programme is going well and lockdown has worked in preventing services being completely overwhelmed.

This is learning to live with it isn't it?
Getting used to rolling lockdown and restrictions on and off? The new normal.

Hopefully we will see much more of the old normal in 2022 🤞as in concerts, gigs, theatre, travel etc

I just read the bbc article and I am not seeing this as good news

Once we’ve all been vaccinated and there are effective treatments for those who do happen to get sick, we can ignore it. The big risk is a new variant developing overseas and making its way back to the UK.

This is learning to live with it isn't it?
Getting used to rolling lockdown and restrictions on and off? The new normal

No. No way. There should never be another lockdown again.

Yes, of course. But once we have all had a brush with it and possibly vaccination, it will be like flu where normally it's just something you shake off after a week if you are well but occasionally it affects a younger person badly, there's post viral syndromes too. Annual vaccination helps protect those more vulnerable.

I've thought this all along but until the vaccination was developed it was too risky to let people know that they just had to live with it. Have had covid myself and had far worse colds - willing to take my chances without vaccination myself

@Bluebeeee

I just read the bbc article and I am not seeing this as good news

Why not? Zero covid isn't an option and we can't lock down forever. If the vaccines mean it becomes a mild illness then surely that's a good thing.

I know that zero Covid isn’t possible any more. But it still isn’t great news. The nhs will struggle in the face of it forever, even with vaccines and treatments. We will probably have various restrictions imposed for a long time yet. And as the virologist says in the article Covid is a much nastier virus than flu. And the new variants are getting more deadly not less.

Basically Matt Hancock isn’t telling us all we have to learn to live with it so let’s go back to normal. There will be a new normal which I feel kind of sad about

This has been clear from the beginning: the virus is endemic.

Umm, they've said this all along, haven't they?

What we are doing by lockdowns is to prevent healthcare being overwhelmed - the same approach as across all of mainland Europe (Sweden abandoned laissez faire when their case numbers really started rising).

Once the risk of that has passed, and the expected bed occupancy and death rate is similar to other winter viruses, then, as Vallance said a few weeks ago the rates will be tolerable/acceptable and need for restrictions will be over.

Not that everyone must be completely safe. Nor that new variants might not completely stuff up the path to that end state.

@Bluebeeee

Basically Matt Hancock isn’t telling us all we have to learn to live with it so let’s go back to normal. There will be a new normal which I feel kind of sad about

Where did you read that? The BBC article I read said that there will be restrictions this year until the vaccines and treatments work (not full lockdown restrictions though), then we get on with everything’s again and treat covid like we treat the flu.

Depends what you think living with it means doesn't it.
This isn't living with it imo
Once all the over 50's are vaxxed I can not see why we need to carry on like this in and out business of lockdowns.
We can't stop all people dying.
Vaccine is a lot more effective than the flu one and we don't try and mitigate catching flu in a ordinary winter.
There will come a point that more damage is done by lockdowns than what it saves
I've supported every lockdown until now but I won't be after this one

Govt has messed us around to much and left everything to late so we all have to suffer through another national lockdown

How is this even news?
It is much like 'the economy fell' news .... No shit sherlock! no one could go out and spend what did they expect.

Of course we are going to have to live with it. Eradication is; if not impossible, many years off.

Restrictions have primarily been about protecting the NHS, not the population!

Vaccines aren’t 100% and not everyone will have one. I suspect face coverings and some degree of being spaced out more will be with some people permanently. Wfh will be more common and some will maintain reduced physical contact.

Some people just won’t want to catch it. It seems to be a bit worse than flu and there’s the long COVID thing. So there will be a new normal to some extent.

We are living with it. We have been living with it for the past 12 months.
Our strategy of living with it has been restrictions while we try to get numbers under control.
Presumably our future strategy will involve fewer restrictions as hospitalizations decrease.
What is new in this?

Where did you read that? The BBC article I read said that there will be restrictions this year until the vaccines and treatments work (not full lockdown restrictions though), then we get on with everything’s again and treat covid like we treat the flu.

That's what I read but unfortunately some people don't want to see that. If the vaccines reduce covid to a mild illness then once the vulnerable are vaccinated we need to get in with life again. Unfortunately I don't think some people will be able to.

@Cloudsurfing So hope this is the case 🙏 tired of reading this will never end and we’ll be locked down and using masks etc forever.

I suspect face coverings and some degree of being spaced out more will be with some people permanently

You've got to be kidding. Face coverings permanently? Why all the doom and gloom on this thread? It's almost as if some people want to stay in permanent lockdown

I won't be wearing a face covering permanently! As soon as they are no longer mandatory they are going in the bin. I won't be social distancing either, especially in my own home!

Not gloom and doom, it will be voluntary. Just like in some Asian countries where it is seen as polite to wear face masks so as not to give people your colds or flu.

It’s become part of the culture in some advanced populations for decades.

<a class="break-all" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22443378/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22443378/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22443378/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22443378/

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/14/in-japan-wearing-a-mask-is-habitual-can-the-uk-follow-suit

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54228649

Thank god but for some realising they have to return to normal life and live with covid is going be a shocker

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4088771-Move-towards-more-personal-responsibility?msgid=102054710#102054710

Move to personal responsibility after Easter, says Hancock
Matt Hancock, who's faced two hours of questioning by MPs from the health and science committees, said there would be a shift to an emphasis on "personal responsibility" rather than social distancing restrictions after Easter - once the vaccine has reached the most vulnerable people.

He said the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) had recommended that once all those aged 50 years and over had been vaccinated - group 10 on their priority list - social distancing restrictions that "damage" society were likely to be lifted.

"I think that, should we manage to get the number of deaths, the number of hospitalisations, down sharply because of the vaccination programme then essentially I think we will get to the point where we are protecting the most vulnerable and there [is)] the argument for more personal responsibility, he said.

This has been known from the start no?