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!

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss

I hope face masks sty until it really is under control. Handwashing only applies to surface contact, most cases are through particles in the air.

What makes you think they actually work though? We have 100k+ deaths, a viscious second wave , three lockdowns needed despite face coverings...I mean to me... What are they doing?

Makes sense. Get the vaccine into everyone over 50 and then sensibly come out of lockdown. Those over 50s who have refused the vaccine will presumably catch it at some point and get some immunity themselves

Face masks weren't being worn in many schools, which is where the greatest increases in transmission were occurring before the end of term. Social distancing and face masks might help to keep case numbers down.

@Shelovesamystery

I think you're right. I'm also pleased that it looks like we'll be opening up again once the most vulnerable have been vaccinated and I'm saying that as a Long Covid sufferer. I'm also a mum to two DDs of 11 and 8 and lockdown is no kind of life for them.

Those of us who are vulnerable will take annual boosters when recommended, as we already do with flu.

Vaccines and treatments could mean that - by the end of the year - Covid-19 is an illness we can live with "like we do flu", Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said on BBC news.

I think this is telling us 2021 is going to be tricky, but hopefully, with the vaccine rollout and better understanding and treatment of the disease, 2022 will be a whole lot better.

Of course we need to go back as normal as possible after the over 50s and vulnerable have been vaccinated, so hopefully by April /May. That is very different to having thought this was a good idea in the summer before the vaccines were ready and being deployed.

@Wildswim

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

Wildswim - I'm not happy about the face coverings, but can't wait to be "spaced out". Pass the weed, man.........

@ShanghaiDiva

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

This.

Yes this isn’t new or news.

Hancock says it will become a virus we live with, like flu.

If I have the correct quote you're referring to in your OP, he didn't actually say that.
He said "if" covid ends up being like flu

Quote MH
“If Covid-19 ends up being like flu, so we live our normal lives and we mitigate through vaccines and treatments, then we can get on with everything again.”

Zero covid is obviously not possible but letting the virus circulate in high numbers will lead to new variants so some kind of a middle ground seems most likely in the short term anyway... Opening up as much as possible but maintaining some social distancing in place for the foreseeable at least when we mix with strangers (packed public transport etc).

@Orangeblossom1977 They are saying everyone will have the vaccine by September as well..

Offered it, he said apparently.

The big risk is a new variant developing overseas and making its way back to the UK

Of course it is. Because there is no possibility of a new variant developing in the UK and making its way overseas, is there. Damned foreigners, developing new variants and giving them to us....

You do realise, don't you, that viruses of this type mutate all the time, and they do it anywhere and everywhere?

I read this as good news. We will have to live with it sooner or later

@Chosennone

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

Why will we need restrictions when it’s just endemic like flu? We don’t have restrictions for flu, rightly so

I read a Twitter thread earlier where Prof Devi Sridhar was saying she seems covid more like measles than flu. Something we can't eradicate but will definitely want to suppress as much as possible and not let it spread.

Of course we will 🤷‍♀️

@Flaxmeadow

so I cant say lockdown lovers but you can say a 'pile of deniers'. Seriously, get off your high horse

I didn't say that. Please stop misquoting me. But the OP was being piled on and people are denying lockdown works and my comment wasn't aimed at any particular poster

I enjoy discussion with you but would appreciate it if you could please stop directing personal abuse at me

Direct abuse at you? Can you show me where I'm sending direct abuse at you I said lockdown lovers so I wasnt aiming it at one particular poster either. The mind boggles.

I'm just trying understand the science, like everyone else. The vaccine programme is amazing though. Shows just what can be done !

So then have more faith in what scientists can do. There have produced vaccines with such high efficiency rates for a new virus is less than a year.
They are working hard now for the booster jabs for mutations. Trust them to do their job.

So then have more faith in what scientists can do. There have produced vaccines with such high efficiency rates for a new virus is less than a year.
They are working hard now for the booster jabs for mutations. Trust them to do their job.

I do have faith in them and trust them, that's my whole point, and i always have. What makes you think I don't?

Yes I think this is the only way forwards. Our best hope is that the vaccines and treatments will prevent hospitalisation and death and hopefully long covid too. There is a worry about new variants popping up though and with the natural R number of Covid being much higher than Flu (4 for CV and around 1.5 for Flu I think?) we are always at risk of these new variants growing exponentially.

I think older/vulnerable people and those close to them will always be more cautious now and this makes me incredibly sad about how life has changed. Just a small example- I can't imagine my 70 year old mother ever getting on a tube train again- she used to do lots of stuff like theatre/museums before this. A minor thing in the grand scheme of things but I can't help feeling devastated about it.

@santanddec

That's true. OTOH, my DM (81) has just had her second jab and is now really looking forward to coming over here for DD2's 9th birthday in a few weeks. So the vaccine is giving us hope that things will get back to something like normal again.

Not news. Just need it not to be a fatal illness. What I don't want to have to live with long term is an incompetent government.

@nordica

I read a Twitter thread earlier where Prof Devi Sridhar was saying she seems covid more like measles than flu. Something we can't eradicate but will definitely want to suppress as much as possible and not let it spread.

The big difference between Measles and Covid is that the Measles virus is very stable so doesn’t need regular boosters for new variants while Covid is evolving and mutating all the time so we may need tailor made jabs every year for the most prevalent variants just like we do for flu.

Learning to live with it could mean increasing NHS capacity so it doesn't get overwhelmed by a break out in those who can't/won't have the vaccine.

Learning to live with it could just be vaccinating those over 50 /at risk every year and everyone else just accepting you might catch it.

The bad thing with knowing it will always be around is that when patients go into hospital for something else, they might catch it there and succumb because they are already poorly.
It seems more dangerous than other hospital acquired illnesses.