Is life never going back to normal?

[JuneMoonstone]

I feel incredibly lucky that I've lived 44 years of a normal life. I am heartbroken at the way life has become. Like so many others, I feel like I am existing, not living. I don't see any point in making plans, I don't feel any hope for the future. I was feeling quite positive about the progress made in the UK with vaccines and seeing the infection rates and death rates lower. However with the news about the rest of Europe going into lockdown due to escalating infection rates, I can't help but feel that we are never going to get out of this bloody mess. I cannot help but believe that we will have to live our lives under constant restrictions forever now because of this virus. Is life really going to be shit from now on? Will I ever be able to, for example, go into a busy pub on a Friday night and watch a live band and have a bloody good time again? Will we have to wear face masks permanently in public places from now on? I get a very strong feeling that this will be the case. It's my daughter I feel for the most. She's just 5 years old. What kind of a life is she going to have?

DH is a firm believer in Vits D3 and K2 so we have been gobbling them down like crazy. We haven't had covid but haven't knowingly been exposed to it, so we can't say that it has worked or not.

When do you guys think the news will stop reporting daily cases and deaths? It's getting ridiculous now.

It was 9 years after WW2 before normal returned.
We still had rationing till 1954
I have a feeling that the timescale for lockdowns snd mask wearing will be similar

How ridiculous! If we had on and off lockdowns for 9 years there would be no NHS. Or anything else much

How ridiculous! If we had on and off lockdowns for 9 years there would be no NHS. Or anything else much

Nobody expected rationing to still be there in the 50s but it was.
When do you think we can be back to normal.
Normal being no masks, no social distancing, being able to go out to a crowded pub and free to travel without vaccine passports without Covid tests.

@Layladylay234

When do you guys think the news will stop reporting daily cases and deaths? It's getting ridiculous now.

When people stop watching

I stopped in March 2020.

Rationing actually became worse after the war. Bread hadn't been rationed during the war, but was afterwards.

However, I just don't think we can go on having lockdown after lockdown - we have to find some sort of way of carrying on.

Me too @ acorn autumn

Oh dear dowser. Have you got a particular health problem that means your mask would be full of snot?

I wear them all day at work, change them regularly and dispose of used ones, observe hundreds of young people using them and have never seen one that looks like a 'snot rag' as you describe it. Perhaps you should see your GP?

They are a simple filter meaning some protection for those of us stuck with 30 people in 4m square rooms whilst the rest of the population socially distances. Why on earth would you resent it? And why on earth would you think it was necessary to wear a filthy snot rag all day? If you don't send your child to school with adequate supply I can give them surgical masks to wear. It's kind of bankrupting us but if you can't be arsed we we'll cover you.

Oh and the 'cowering behind our desks'as you put it is actually to protect students more than us. They're in year group bubbles (silly as they are) and we are across all year groups. We stay away to protect them. If they have masks on they're more protected and I can risk going over and helping them for a minute or two.

No snot rags required and funnily enough we've had zero cases of norovirus or flu in school this year.

@TheHoneyBadger

Oh dear dowser. Have you got a particular health problem that means your mask would be full of snot?

I wear them all day at work, change them regularly and dispose of used ones, observe hundreds of young people using them and have never seen one that looks like a 'snot rag' as you describe it. Perhaps you should see your GP?

They are a simple filter meaning some protection for those of us stuck with 30 people in 4m square rooms whilst the rest of the population socially distances. Why on earth would you resent it? And why on earth would you think it was necessary to wear a filthy snot rag all day? If you don't send your child to school with adequate supply I can give them surgical masks to wear. It's kind of bankrupting us but if you can't be arsed we we'll cover you.

There are many other workplaces that can't socially distance so saying "the rest of the population social distances" is nonsense.

How ridiculous! If we had on and off lockdowns for 9 years there would be no NHS. Or anything else much

Nobody expected rationing to still be there in the 50s but it was.
When do you think we can be back to normal.
Normal being no masks, no social distancing, being able to go out to a crowded pub and free to travel without vaccine passports without Covid tests.

I think we could be back to normal in the summer not including foreign travel without vaccine passports/negative covid tests. The travel is going to take a lot longer.

Rationing is a completely different animal. Lockdowns are costing the country/ Treasury untold amounts of money.

I’m beginning to think that normality is a very, very, very long way off.

Lockdowns are costing the country/ Treasury untold amounts of money this is an incorrect and naive one-sided view.

covid is costing untold amounts of money.

21 June is freedom day remember but I am hoping it might come sooner! Whether the measures continue is pretty much down to labour as they have come down in favour of them and hence those Tories wanting the measures to go failed yesterday. They have instead in terms of over all legislative powers been renewed for another 6 months (although the individual restrictions are being phased out once this third lockdown in England starts to be eased now schools are back, 29 March you can marry, 12 April nmarry with 13 guests but no inside meal etc, do XYZ etc

@RedcurrantPuff

Put another way, I don’t think it’s reasonable to trash the quality and life chances of the many to stop the few from dying. People on here think all that matters is people not dying. It isn’t.

Actually in a human society it is. And it's more than a few. But minimise death and grief, that's shows what you are. And it isn't nice.

@Xenia

21 June is freedom day remember but I am hoping it might come sooner! Whether the measures continue is pretty much down to labour as they have come down in favour of them and hence those Tories wanting the measures to go failed yesterday. They have instead in terms of over all legislative powers been renewed for another 6 months (although the individual restrictions are being phased out once this third lockdown in England starts to be eased now schools are back, 29 March you can marry, 12 April nmarry with 13 guests but no inside meal etc, do XYZ etc

It really won't be. There will be restrictions in place for a lot longer than that.

Don't get your hopes up.

A lot of people are living for 21st June. Planning their outfits and the big events they are going to do.
I'm not sure what to think at this point.

I really don’t understand why they’ve extended it until October? Can someone explain to me please? Wasn’t the vaccine meant to make things better, why does it seem like they are adding more and more on? More testing etc

I thought the reason they’ve extended the covid legislation ‘package’ until October is to allow the financial support ie furlough to continue?

And I suppose to give them the flexibility to extend other measures for longer too, if it becomes necessary. Better to have the ability to do it even if they don’t use it

@Youngatheart00

I thought the reason they’ve extended the covid legislation ‘package’ until October is to allow the financial support ie furlough to continue?

And I suppose to give them the flexibility to extend other measures for longer too, if it becomes necessary. Better to have the ability to do it even if they don’t use it

Yes, I also thought this, also it allows SSP from day 1, whereas before there was a waiting period with no pay

@Helookslikeamuppet

I really don’t understand why they’ve extended it until October? Can someone explain to me please? Wasn’t the vaccine meant to make things better, why does it seem like they are adding more and more on? More testing etc

The U.K. "Kent" variant is both more transmissible and more deadly and as we open up we'll create a new wave or "surge" of cases, hospitalisations and deaths somewhere between May and October. (And of course Brazil and South Africa are waiting in the wings being suppressed by Lockdown.)

I think it will be clear in June that things are going south, the same as it was last October, but what the government chooses to do affects when the peak happens and how big it is, so it's impossible to narrow it down further yet.

As we open up we'll be able to see how much the vaccines are helping.

Vaccines are brilliant, but we need over 70% of the U.K. population fully vaccinated to reach the herd immunity threshold and get the full benefit.

Currently 56.6% of the U.K. population hasn't had a first dose yet, and 95.8% haven't had a second dose.

Also, the coronavirus act gives the government powers to bypass parliamentary scrutiny - and they like that.

@Youngatheart00

I thought the reason they’ve extended the covid legislation ‘package’ until October is to allow the financial support ie furlough to continue?

And I suppose to give them the flexibility to extend other measures for longer too, if it becomes necessary. Better to have the ability to do it even if they don’t use it

They don't need the whole act for continuation of furlough though I don't think. They could just continue furlough.

I'm not fully au fair with the details but I know Liberty drafted an alternative act without the draconian bits to show it could be done, and I saw this:

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/23/tory-mps-hit-out-at-hancock-over-covid-powers-extension?twitterrimpression=true

BonnieDundee

So still not normal.

So still not normal.

Normal enough for me

Not for me