What’s the point of vaccinations when still nothing is deemed ‘safe’?

[katieloves]

Just really struggling with this. We’re doing an amazing job and have so far vaccinated the people most likely to succumb to coronavirus and are cracking on with the people less vulnerable. But still it seems all news is bad and no end in sight. Looks likely that we’ll be lucky if only the youngest get back to school from the 8th and not much chance of secondary schools back until after Easter. It just doesn’t make sense to me at all. Most DC are struggling now - their lives are on hold (I appreciate some dc are thriving with home learning but this is not true for any of the dc I know). Motivation for is on a fine line and who can blame them? But apparently school’s not ‘safe’ even though the most vulnerable are vaccinated. People saying we’ll be back to where we were before lockdown if schools go back in full and hospitals will be overwhelmed. Why??? We’ve vaccinated the most vulnerable. I’m honestly loosing the will.

@RedcurrantPuff

It doesn’t make any sense, they are full of shit. If the vaccine doesn’t get us back to normal without delay what’s the point.

It will get us almost back to normal but not until people have been vaccinated.

We are on the right path.

@GoldenOmber

Sure. But it's an understandable policy.

I don't think it is, long term. It requires authoritarian public health measures (even if they're described as 'short, sharp, local lockdowns rather than long national lockdowns', they're still lockdowns) continued indefinitely, severe restrictions on international travel, a lot of money put into a continued mass testing system.

When we're dealing with a pandemic that we don't have vaccines for, I think all that is warranted, but when we're dealing with an endemic disease that we do have vaccines for, why would this be appropriate? We don't treat TB, measles, polio, HIV, anything else like this, even though we don't want any cases of those in the country either, and we don't have a massively effective vaccine for TB and we don't have any vaccine for HIV. Would the argument be that covid has a higher fatality rate than any of them? Surely not? Or that mutations are more worrying from covid than from the others, in a world where antibiotic-resistant TB is already a worry?

Agree with all of this

I feel much the same way.

If vaccinations don't allow us to return to normal soon, will there be much of a 'normal' to return to?

I should add...of course it is wonderful if the vaccine can prevent death or long covid, however there is more to life than simply not dying, and at 31 years of age, I would quite like to be able to live my life.

@annabellacomestotea

I feel much the same way.

If vaccinations don't allow us to return to normal soon, will there be much of a 'normal' to return to?

They have told us from the start that this is the new normal. When, and if this all settles, we will never go back to how things were.

Today 21:33 RedcurrantPuff

It doesn’t make any sense, they are full of shit. If the vaccine doesn’t get us back to normal without delay what’s the point“

What do you mean by “without delay”?

Once all adults are fully vaccinated?

If restrictions staying why even bother with vaccinations

That's the risk isn't it - if they go in too hard with "nobody can relax for ages" many will think "what's the point?", but they also need to offer hope because they urgently need people to get jabbed

Careful, Puzzled; I almost caught myself being sorry for their dilemma there - not a wise thing to do in light of Cock's illegality: www.politicshome.com/news/article/good-law-project-high-court-ruling-government-contracts-transparency

It's clear that there's light at the end of the tunnel. We will be relaxing restrictions in April and May and this is a seasonal virus. Remember last summer? We will have a lot more freedom. Be brave, be resilient!

They have told us from the start that this is the new normal. When, and if this all settles, we will never go back to how things were.

No this isn’t correct. Chris Whitty

“I am confident we will go back to life as it was before at some point, that’s not in doubt,” he told BBC Breakfast.

@TheChip I am not really sure what is meant by this being the new normal. I mean...people not going into work again? Or seeing big groups of friends? Or holidays? Are people really happy to accept that this is just how things will be? I still can't understand why. Surely if we have vaccines and so many mechanisms in place, we can slowly but surely go back to leading a more recognisable life, even if not exactly the same.

Haven't most of those people only had 1 vaccine?

I didn't think just the one would give enough to put things back to normal at all!

Never. You can save lives every winter by social distancing, wearing masks and closing pubs. Look at the flu rates with these new normals in place.

@Tryingtryingandtrying

Never. You can save lives every winter by social distancing, wearing masks and closing pubs. Look at the flu rates with these new normals in place.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha h

That's what we are doing, saving lives.

@PracticingPerson that would make sense except that we’ve had lockdown/restrictions for months and we’re still getting variants. It’s pretty clear that they’re unavoidable (which isn’t surprising really given that all viruses mutate). It’s just getting a bit silly now. One excuse after another.

@Tryingtryingandtrying

Never. You can save lives every winter by social distancing, wearing masks and closing pubs. Look at the flu rates with these new normals in place.

And this has always been the case. Also we could reduce road traffic accidents and pollution related deaths by vastly restricting journeys. We could reduce children having accidents by shutting playgrounds. We could reduce accidents in the home by banning small electrical appliances Etc etc

And yet... we don’t. Because we recognise that minimising deaths is not the be all and end all.

Can you look insert a professional in the eye and say that?

Tbf the most likely place for accidents is in the home.

@Tryingtryingandtrying

Can you look insert a professional in the eye and say that?

Sorry don’t understand.

I could look anyone in the eye and say minimising deaths is not the be all and end all. And I expect most would agree.

I’m not saying minimising deaths isn’t important. I’m saying it doesn’t automatically outweigh everything else.

Trying - the most likely place to catch covid is in a healthcare setting.

Travelling no doubt that is true.

Because it’s political theatre. Yet again.

This government came under so much criticism last year for their handling of the pandemic (late to lockdown, sing ‘happy birthday’ as you wash your hands, PPE shortages and unsuitable PPE, their inability to protect care home residents etc etc) that they’ve now done a U-turn on their approach so that we can all say how well they handled everything in 2021 and how wonderful they are. How well they did with vaccines. How seriously they took everything.

Everyone forgets that at the forefront of their policies and decisions is not our welfare but their votes.

@crazyontheweekend Like the new Hard Hitting Adverts. Blame each other not us.

@Tryingtryingandtrying

Yes, you’re very right. And you’ve just got to read threads on here to see how easily people do blame each other.

Pure politics. They don’t give a shit really about us, just votes.

... if the nhs collapses or is pushed to its limits - which is why we are having lockdowns! - how much of a normal life can you afford if we don’t have a national health system?

I know that if we didn’t have a health care system that is providing me a free birth (yes, I pay for it in taxes !) that you could open everything you like but I wouldn’t be able to enjoy any of it because I would be saving. I know when I lived in places without a health care system and couldn’t afford my medication or a surgery I needed at the time, that had as profound an impact on my life as lockdown has . I know families that declared bankruptcy multiple times to cover medical bills- they weren’t out enjoying trips to the theatre or overseas holidays.

The reality is we underpin our ‘normal’ with the services that support us to do so, and if that goes - it will have as profound an impact as lockdown for many of us.

I agree it doesn’t make ‘now’ any easier but I worry if we rush in, we may find ourselves in an equally difficult situation.