Do people really think this is the road to the end...?! Surely NOT!

[Violetsarered]

Do you honestly think we’re on the road to the end of all this...?!

Here’s how I see things...

New variants will emerge - back into lockdown
Vaccines won’t be as effective as thought - back into lockdown

I’m not sure why people believe that life will be normal by June.

I would bet my house on the fact that it won’t.
We are such a long long LONG way from normality.

Don’t mean to be a doom monger but people really need to keep things in perspective

I actually side and agree with your view more so than thinking life will return to normal by 21st June believe it or not, but the title of this thread and the way in which you express your opinion comes across as rude and patronising. You’re free to believe what you like but don’t put others down for their differing view.

I've accepted that we're going to need occasional booster shots for the variants. Meh, I can live with that. Otherwise what do you want from us? All to be sitting at home in our tin hats shouting "it will never beeee over". Fuck that. I'm looking forward to a restriction free future and I can't wait. Even with the variants, the vaccines do seriously reduce the risks and in a matter of months everyone with an IQ of over 30 will be vaccinated.

Parties must be super-fun in your social circle 🙄

@user1493494961

I bet you're fun to be around OP.

@user1493494961

I am

@GrapefruitGin

I actually side and agree with your view more so than thinking life will return to normal by 21st June believe it or not, but the title of this thread and the way in which you express your opinion comes across as rude and patronising. You’re free to believe what you like but don’t put others down for their differing view.

@GrapefruitGin

Ah. Apologies. I didn’t mean for it to come across that way.

Because smarter people than me like sage have said this could work. Are you smarter than those scientists op? What's your career path and qualifications ? I'm assuming very experienced in virology to know more than the experts about vaccines

A new variant will obviously take lives but as long as it doesn’t take them all at the same time, over welming the NHS then life will continue as he said we can no longer protect the few at the cost of many.

So I don’t think there would be another lockdown although some restrictions come winter time

No and here’s why I don’t agree with you: the lockdown is at a cost. It’s costing the government money and it’s costing many people money, it’s making businesses fold and people lose their homes. It’s making children, teenagers and young people (and some adults) cut off from their friends and support networks and profoundly depressed.

So far, the government (and I think most people) have decided this is an acceptable cost in order to help protect a) those at risk from the virus and b) people who might need other medical treatment that couldn’t get it if the NHS was overwhelmed.

But as time goes on, this balance shifts, especially as we head out of winter. EVEN IF the vaccines were useless, this balance would be shifting. It’s not worth it in the long term and especially not in the summer months. Also, the vaccines ARE working, even against he new variants, and tweaking them is much easier and quicker than making the first vaccine was.

This makes me fairly confident you are wrong (but I’m still not betting my house!).

I don’t think we’ll have normality as we k we it by June but I’m cautiously optimistic that this may be the beginning of the end. We can’t live with restrictions forever as much as some people seem to want to.

The new booster vaccine which will be here by the Autumn should be very effective

My own worry was that they'd string this out until the autumn, with the assurance that the tweaks/boosters would solve everything - a ridiculous position anyway since they can't know what other variants might emerge by then

However that's not what's happened, and Boris's remark that more will still die no matter when we release lockdown suggests that he just might be starting to get it

I do 🥳 I know for people with little in their lives that love the drama and melancholy of it all will miss their daily kick doom mongering others into misery, but I do think that normality will return a lot quicker than people thought possible even yesterday.

The thing about pessimistic people is that never really enjoy the good times

I’ve enjoyed lots of holidays
I cry with laughter with my friends
My kids are my favourite people. I love being with them.
I enjoy trips out
I enjoy lots of things
I laugh a lot.

I don’t think we’ll be out of lockdown by June in any way. In fact I’m psyching myself up for a new one April/May time. But l enjoy lots and lots of good times.

I’m somewhere in the middle. I think there’s lots of hope. The vaccinations seem to be working well and reducing transmission and as someone else has said it seems to seems to be mutating in the same ways. My concern is that cases are still very high and the opening of schools will cause them to spike again. Personally I wish they’d waited until after Easter to reopen schools allowing cases to drop more and for more people to be vaccinated. I worry it’s too much too soon but am also hoping I’m wrong. I so want to get back to some proper normality.

You're not a realist.
You're a pessimist who wants to share your pessimism.

It won't work with me. I'm confident in the route map out and whilst I wouldn't be so stupid as to bet my house on it I think come June my life will be pretty much back to normal.

I feel sorry for those who are not so confident though and who get brought down by all the doommongering.

If you plan any sort of timeline you know that the further away you get, the more variances there are going to be - so it's possible to be very accurate about the closer dates, and much less accurate about the further ones. So, no, I don't believe that everything on the roadmap is going to happen exactly when it currently says it might (and do remember that all these dates are down as "no earlier than"), but I do believe we're moving in the right direction, and the slow process of the roadmap - although very frustrating - gives opportunities to review and pause if necessary. Also every bit of evidence that is emerging about the vaccines is positive, both the study that came out yesterday and the news from Israel. I'm very much looking forward to the summer, and I really don't think that's unreasonable in the face of the evidence that is currently out there.

I think I'm being realistic in believing in the vaccines because evidence so far suggests they ARE effective. I actually think in a few months time when the kids have gone back to school, and the sky hasn't fallen in, and with millions more vaccinated that this board will become obsolete because there's nowt to talk (obsess) about any more. Hope so anyway

There are some people who believe this will end on the 21st June, that life will be normal. Not quite. There will still be some, possibly intermitent, inhibitions to totally mnormal libing. That's what was said, quite clearly, yesterday!

Between sensible preacustions and the vaccine rolll out worldwide, we should be able to live more normally. But only if we, as a whole, don't fuck it up and ignore what few restrictions will remain and take notice of the vaccine schedule that will be put in place.

As for the fear of variants! Again that is mainly fuelled by journalists like the ever egregious Mr Bobby Fucking Peston! Twat of the first water! Epidemiology is hardly a new science. Let them and the virologists deal with the realities of the science. Ignore anything any journalist interprets for a wider audience. Inevitably they will be wrong. Some do it on purpose others are just lacking in self knowledge and think they have the right of it!

@AlecTrevelyan006

The thing about pessimistic people is that never really enjoy the good times. They often say stuff like ‘don’t get your hopes up too high otherwise you’ll end up being disappointed’ but it just means they carry on being miserable.

What pessimists don’t realise is that optimists never remain disappointed for long so it doesn’t matter anyway.

Roll on summer.

I used to subscribe to the 'don't get your hopes up' philosophy, until eventually I realised that preparing yourself for the bad thing doesn't make it any easier when it does come, and only causes you to spend several extra months worrying about something you can't change and that might not happen anyway. Strangely enough, I've been much happier and less anxious since I stopped convincing myself to expect the worst possible outcome of every single event... I'm sure there's no connection though

I suppose someone will be along in a minute to tell me that the next ten years will be a living nightmare and they're just looking out for my mental health by informing me in advance, though!

Some people on this website just really do have a half empty glass dont they🥴

People who are strongly pessimistic about the future are at greater risk of dying on average two years earlier than those who are not pessimists

No one has any idea what will happen, but modern medicine is quite good (!) so i am cautiously optimistic.

I totally understand managing expectations and not daring to hope (about anything !) but the OP is on the extreme side of misery and if things are going to be crap forever more with a tide of early deaths then, well, we’d better go in for mass suicide.

I agree with pp that this has been the finest hour for some. They have loved every minute of it. Far from being “scared” they are revelling in other people’s unhappiness.

There are some people who believe this will end on the 21st June, that life will be normal.

Who actually believes that we will be as normal on the 21/06? Seeing a light at the end of the tunnel or celebrating small changes eg UK holidays doesn't mean you think everything is as it was pre covid.

I'm very cautious and try to be realistic and have been right about everything pandemic wise so far - but even I think this plan isn't too far off the mark and stands a decent chance of working

The rate we are doing vaccinations is brilliant

The results so far from the vaccinations is very positive

The daily numbers are really dropping now and still have another 2 weeks to keep dropping before schools go back - another 3 million vaccinations will be done in that time too

The red list countries and quarantines while not perfect will at least lessen the foreign variants

it's all cutting it very fine and I wish full lockdown was another month, but it does have a chance of being decently ok. In my plebian, layman opinion.

@FrangipaniBlue

Depends what you mean by "the end" though really doesn't it?

Do I think things will be back to how they were in 2019 pre-Covid? Absolutely not and I don't believe they ever will be.

Can I see light at the end of the tunnel that means I can see friends, participate in sporting events and go on holiday (all of which with some differences to how we've done these things in the past)? You're damn right I can.

Yes, why does it have to be all or nothing?

The mere fact that there is a scientifically backed plan that has mostly normal as an option is fantastic. I don't need absolutely normal and in fact wouldn't want it - remote working will enable my husband and I to relocate near my family.

But nobody has even considered night clubs and large events before now. I don't mind that being postponed, and I don't even mind small returns of measures next winter.

But where we are is pretty great, and if I'm sad in the future, well, that's for future me to deal with.

People hope. Even in during wars, famine, torture, natural disaster. They hope. Hope will be the last thing to die, no matter what. It shines through even in the darkest times.

That's why. People hope.