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 think you should kindly fuck off, OP.
To be quite frank, you’re talking out of your backside.

The fact is we're going towards summer by the time June rolls by, and summer is when the variants etc. will not have as big an impact anyway, as the virus' impact seems to be less in summer anyway.

Perhaps time to worry in autumn - but by then my guess is there will be way more than enough vaccines, and the current vaccination system will be a well oiled mean vaccination machine (which it looks like it is already!).

Having listened to scientists and read the SAGE modelling I'm optimistic.

Vaccines may be less effective against new variants, but we have the ability to quickly tweak and get out improved vaccines. For the vaccine to become completely ineffective it would have to lose it's spike protein which is how it attaches to human cells, so if the vaccine becomes completely ineffective then so does the virus, this is what the Prof in charge of the Oxford vaccine program said.

Hospital admissions will rise, but the model of the plan the government announced suggests it won't go much higher than it is now. Deaths shouldn't rise significantly because the most at risk groups have been vaccinated.

I would read what scientists are reporting about risks. Most are very optimistic.

I was just offering my insight, up for discussion.

Your "insight"? Are you a qualified epidemiologist? What special insight do you have, exactly?

Based on what research? Which studies? What scientific modelling have you performed to arrive at this conclusion?

To those others saying it will be at least another year yet; why? What analysis has led you to arrive at this timeframe?

I’m a pharmaceutical scientist. I work for one of the vaccine-producing companies (although I don’t personally work on vaccines, but some of my colleagues do). If disease variants appear that the vaccine is no longer effective against (not the case so far), then we will modify the ‘template’ to reflect the different epitopes. Thus new vaccines for the variants will be produced. This can be done pretty quickly as the knowledge & infrastructure are already in place now.

I've just read your OP again and you come across as an armchair know it all who specialises in negativity. Even the title of your post is goady and patronising. Do yourself and the rest of us a favour and find some happiness in that deep pit of despair you seem to be sinking in.

@WeavingWandering

Admittedly I am a bundle of preggie hormones but I have not stopped crying since they announced all children back- it’s just going to be a nationwide petri-dish of variants and new lockdown by the end of the month.

Purely from a selfish level- moved half way across the country so know no-one near by and family are miles away , partner ended up deployed and now stuck overseas , and I’m due in June. The odds of him coming home for the birth are now non-existent thanks to the state the country is likely to be in and the availablity of flights . The odds of any family or friends being able to come up to help- equally unlikely. I just desperately hoped we’d go in slowly to the return to school so we didn’t have to fully lock down again.

From a selfish level - that there might be scope for people who can’t just ‘meet for walk’ to see family but now we’ll be locked down before there even a possibility.

But it’s just going to be plague pit of doom . I’m being incredibly self-pitying and realise lots of people are in shitty situations but I’m allowing myself a couple days of pathetic weeping at it all.

I am sorry you are struggling but this is all made up in your head.

@FloconDeNeige

Based on what research? Which studies? What scientific modelling have you performed to arrive at this conclusion?

To those others saying it will be at least another year yet; why? What analysis has led you to arrive at this timeframe?

I’m a pharmaceutical scientist. I work for one of the vaccine-producing companies (although I don’t personally work on vaccines, but some of my colleagues do). If disease variants appear that the vaccine is no longer effective against (not the case so far), then we will modify the ‘template’ to reflect the different epitopes. Thus new vaccines for the variants will be produced. This can be done pretty quickly as the knowledge & infrastructure are already in place now.

Why would anyone listen to the opinion of a pharmaceutical scientist over an ordinary member of the public though

I'm in Ireland and we are expected to be in lockdown for months yet....
I heard a epidemiologist say yesterday that the virus seems to be reaching its peak mutating stage like it's becoming more stable and that its definitely showing signs of slowing down and vaccines can be tweaked.
At least you have some positivity in the UK in Ireland, we have been told there's no hospitality open July , news here is v negative and we've had no schools open to anyone at all. So take the positive where you can!

Thing is though we are not trying to stop people dying. Just as long as the NHS isn’t overwhelmed they will be accepted.

Some quite reliable data seems to be coming out about who has genetic susceptibility to severe disease. It is not expensive to screen for these. I am hoping this evidence will grow and this will then help to focus reserach on protecting those who are unlucky enough to be susceptible and much guesswork can be removed with budget focussed where it is really needed.
New research from Russia scitechdaily.com/genetic-predisposition-to-severe-covid-19-discovered-by-russian-researchers/

The powerful UK study ongoing genomicc.org/uk/

@RosieLemonade- I desperately hope you are right - but I’m assuming you haven’t tried booking any repatriation flights lately...

And as someone who supports children in school (albeit remotely) I have seen more than my fair share of fingers up the nose and wiped all over desks , had the camera (on a shared laptop!) full on licked more times than I care to count and so forth ... my teenages tell me that in order for the teacher to be two metres apart; all the other desks are squeezed together so they are closer than they were prepandemic (not blaming the teachers for this- I’d do the same!)
Unfortunately all the above is how germs are spread...

I’d love to be wrong but ... I’m not holding my breath!

Nice reassuring post from a pharmaceutical scientist.

What is all this fear and doom mongering based on? We have effective vaccines.

Good to have insight about vaccines and mutations. I had hoped this would be the case about tweaking and what I had been reading suggested as much but good to hear!

There are some people who believe the very best and think it will be perfect by June. There are some who believe we are doomed for a long time. Most people are balanced. They have eyes on both views. Expecting the what ifs while hoping for the good. Just because people are planning for the good doenst mean they have forgotten the what ifs.

I'd hate to be in the fucked for some time category. People seem to feed off each other here. Misery enjoys company and all that.

I don't think any one really thinks this is the end of the road, but as means to an end. And have better tools to keep a better control on Covid with vaccines and treatments.

But we can't keep in this position where only hospitals are being 'looked' after and everything is going to hell in a handbasket.

Why tell others to keep things in perspective when you yourself have none, you no more ‘know’ these things or what will happen than anyone else does.

There'll be setbacks and everything isn't going to go completely back to normal on the dot of 00.01am on 21 June, but things are going to get much, much better in the months ahead. We might have to put up with facemasks for a while, especially in the winter, but I can live with that.

@Bluntness100

I think also people need to look behind posts like the ops and think about what’s motivating it.

Often it’s a very negative thing for the poster. It can be an extreme anxiety, or it can be extreme unhappiness with normal life and a horror at the thought of going back to it, it can be many things, but it’s likely to be nearly always a negative for the poster, ans seldom likely to be as simple as “I don’t want to be disappointed” becayse if it was they’d not be online issuing orders and trying desperately to get people to agree with them, whilst clinging to any random who validates their thoughts.

So for the minority who actively hope it continues, even when they pretend they are not doing that just being “realistic” there is usually something they don’t want to reveal behind it.

@Bluntness100

Coming from the persons who is online trying to be a psychologist .... 🤣

I wonder what’s behind that?

Because people need hope that this is the end.

If there is one thing history has taught us that hoping for the best whilst blindly refusing to face reality often gets people through bad times.

@Bluntness100

I think also people need to look behind posts like the ops and think about what’s motivating it.

Often it’s a very negative thing for the poster. It can be an extreme anxiety, or it can be extreme unhappiness with normal life and a horror at the thought of going back to it, it can be many things, but it’s likely to be nearly always a negative for the poster, ans seldom likely to be as simple as “I don’t want to be disappointed” becayse if it was they’d not be online issuing orders and trying desperately to get people to agree with them, whilst clinging to any random who validates their thoughts.

So for the minority who actively hope it continues, even when they pretend they are not doing that just being “realistic” there is usually something they don’t want to reveal behind it.

Absolute unevidenced nonsense, and given that you've said this on other threads I think you ought to justify it properly.

I love wfh. I don't want that to change. I'm an introvert, a reader, a hiker... All things that have helped through lockdown.

It doesn't mean I don't desperately miss my family and began to make reunion plans immediately last night, or that I can't wait to get blitzed in a club.

It's very sly and negative to make these assertions about people without any proof - almost like you want to "other" the OP into being disagreed with, when most people have simply addressed factual issues with her viewpoint.

Surely everybody knows at least one person working on the frontline so why the ‘my friend who works on the frontline says .....’ comments?

@Wherediditgo
Well, indeed, we seem to be swimming against a tide of post-truth messages these days!

On one hand it’s good that the general public don’t blindly follow what they’re told without reflection these days, but unfortunately that ‘reflection’ often amounts to what Sandra next door said, what they read on FB and a little bit of their own imagination and personal bias mixed in for good measure. Hence we end up miles away from a sensible position!! 🤦🏼‍♀️

@Oysterbabe

The vaccine data so far is amazing. Infection rates, deaths and hospital admissions are all falling. There's every reason to be positive.

🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

Why tell others to keep things in perspective when you yourself have none, you no more ‘know’ these things or what will happen than anyone else does.

Quite

But it’s just going to be plague pit of doom
So OTT 🙄🙄🙄