Breaking News Boris press conference tonight 14/05/21

[Whichjab]

So, is Monday under threat? Change to school masks or hugs?

masks are guidance only and DD says most people at school and college do not wear them, not even in corridors.
Some staff wear them and many do not.

@DelBocaVista

Indeed. My DS has spent what was left of his savings to prepare and advertise reopening on Monday.

I hope it goes well for him. We've booked into as many local places as we can over the next few weeks. I'm desperate to support them!

Thank you

Because in many states it was quite hard for many weeks to book a vaccine. So yes quite people in the US have been vaccinated in larger numbers because white people are a majority. But vaccine hesitancy amongst white people is ALSO higher than amongst Latinos and Blacks.
64% of the vaccine hesitant in this survey were white.
www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/news/20210429/poll-reveals-whos-most-vaccine-hesitant-in-america-and-why

A more polemical way of putting it
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/17/us/vaccine-hesitancy-politics.html

I’m so sick of lockdown and even I can say ploughing on with Monday is a big mistake. It will just land us back in a full lockdown sooner and another full lockdown needs to be prevented at all costs. I’d rather they were cautious and we didn’t end up back at square one. All that rubbish about dates not data.

@happyface42

Predicted this would happen. Who are we now protecting now the elderly and vulnerable have been vaccinated? We are destroying our children's lives and what for now? The vaccine was out ticket out of this mess and if that won't 'protect' us what will? We have no other option but to get on with life now as carefully as we can but I refuse to lock myself or my children away again. I realise he hasn't come out and said we are going back into lockdown but that's what will be next because this virus isn't going away.

I agree. A year ago this was just about 'flattening the curve' to reduce the pressure on the NHS. What a crock of shit that was.

Now place this vaccine hesitancy data above alongside this data from the KFF on who has been vaccinated:
www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-race-ethnicity/

The myth that ethnic minorities in the US at least are vaccine resistant is exactly that- a myth.

I can't believe there are people saying the restrictions should not be lifted on Monday when almost 70% of the population have now had at least their first vaccine. There is no evidence to suggest (nor prove otherwise) that the vaccines aren't effective against this variant.. We have to start living our lives again. This is just unsustainable. The talk of further lockdowns just doesn't make sense - what was the vaccine for then? We need to live with this virus and accept there will be some deaths each year, just like with Flu.

Yes the under 40s have not all been vaccinated, but according to the ONS figures, there were 436 deaths of under 40s between March 2020 to the end of Jan 2021, out of over 80,000 deaths.

Businesses need to open, people need to get back to jobs and living their lives. Stopping the easing of restrictions on Monday simply cannot and should not happen.

So the suggestion is for a certain lockdown now, in order to prevent the small chance of a lockdown later?

What barking madness. Plot lost.

I think it will be a stern talking to about being sensible but Monday will go ahead.

Omg why worry before the announcement. People are in a constant state of speculation. It is enough with the bloody media.

Surely we need to stop worrying about 'cases' at some point.

We know the vaccine doesn't stop all cases but it massively reduces hospitalisations and deaths and gives you a milder form of the illness. This is a virus that is Not. Going. Anywhere. It really is a case of at some point having to get on with life and accept it exists and that some of us are going to get it. And just like with flu or pneumonia, unfortunately, some of us are going to die.

Isn't it 2 weeks since the large event trials in Liverpool? Maybe the results from that could be announced as well, if that's worked or not.

@PicsInRed not a lockdown, just wait a week or so to try and get a handle on the Indian variant before loosening more stuff.

If they could promise we could crack on now and they wouldn't lock us down properly later then great but he lies, every single time so I am worried that is what will happen.

I'd rather we just got on with it and learned to live with and went back to normal but the government won't allow that so if it's a trade off I'd take a slower unlocking now rather than full lockdown later.

@AlmostSummer21

I expect just blah blah blah bout being careful etc no actual action.

They should stop Mondays removal of masks in schools - it's a no brained & easy to reverse.

They should put a stop to the indoor socialising & hospitality venues opening etc.

Basically, they should put May 17
'Easings' on hold until further notice, but they're too wet to do it.

We will, again, wait until it's far harder to control, jut like they have every bloody time. They do not learn.

And again things will be much worse than they need to be, more people will die and more will have long Covid. All because they don't want to have to take an unpopular stance 🙇🏻‍♀️

Think your stance is the unpopular one love.

arf take, no I know sorry you mis read my post.

And there is no way I want to hug my mil, Ive never felt it.

@ringading22 but there are businesses who have paid out to promote and advertise opening on Monday, taken bookings, set staff back on. It's not just as easy as 'waiting a couple more weeks' for some.

I do feel it should be compulsory that hospitality is made to have some form of fresh air valentine, either some windows open all the time or airing every so often.

@KurtWilde I absolutely know this. But if this goes wrong then they'll be open for a month and fully closed again.

I don't want it to / hope it doesn't (I have my wedding planned). I just think the government make decisions too late again and again and again and it's worse for us in the long run.

This is doing my head in so close to the 17th. Just saw an article that said Warwick University modelled a third wave with up to 5000 deaths a day if the Indian variant is really 50% more infectious as they are concerned it may be.

I think it unlikely that they won't allow things to open up in the UK given cases are low. Maybe it's to advise people not to book holidays abroad yet.

It is the government’s fault. It was very obvious that India should have gone on the red list when Pakistan did. They are now trying to cover up by showing that they are managing it. It is also very obvious that Eid, coupled with lower vaccination rates in some of those communities will lead to an increase in hospitalisations. I would say open vaccinations to all BAME ... but don’t won’t go down well politically. Our GP thinks BAME are already at an increased risk of serious Covid.
Finally, hospitality needs to go ahead and open, meeting in each other’s houses less so. I would keep the current roadmap but I doubt mid June plans will happen now. We are going to have to keep living with precautions for the foreseeable future. It is incredibly annoying but I don’t think enough people have been vaccinated yet. No idea what will happen if the vaccines are not as effective as we hoped.

As for mask wearing schools- I didn't think they were doing that anyway!

@happyface42

Predicted this would happen. Who are we now protecting now the elderly and vulnerable have been vaccinated? We are destroying our children's lives and what for now? The vaccine was out ticket out of this mess and if that won't 'protect' us what will? We have no other option but to get on with life now as carefully as we can but I refuse to lock myself or my children away again. I realise he hasn't come out and said we are going back into lockdown but that's what will be next because this virus isn't going away.

Totally agree.

Until we have large outbreaks with many thousands of infected some people just don’t have the foresight to realise the error in opening up at this point. They fail to correlate a highly transmissible variant taking off just as we start easing off restrictions with the fact it will lead to a major outbreak and possible lockdown in literally a few months.

So what would you do?

What should we do?

Covid has been in the world for roughly 18 months (contested?) and how many variants have we had? Lets count 5. Original, Kent, SA, Brazilian, Indian. Lets put the Danish, New York, Californian, Lithuanian and all the other ones to the side for a moment to keep it nice and simple.

5 transmissible variants taking off in 18 months.

They're predicting it's going to take three years to vaccinate the world, so that would be another 10 (if we're using our modest figure of 5).

Are you suggesting this country should be in full lockdown from March 2020 until December 2024? I'm going to guess clearly not. That would mean 4+ years of missed education, people unable to work, businesses unable to open, families unable to meet, people unable to start relationships, people unable to migrate and move around. People unable to access healthcare.

People would have to be entirely funded by the government (which I'm going to guess would honestly collapse) or people would be dying of starvation in the streets. That's if people actually complied, which people probably wouldn't.

Nobody sane of mind could possibly be suggesting that.

So I'm going to use the: They fail to correlate a highly transmissible variant taking off just as we start easing off restrictions with the fact it will lead to a major outbreak and possible lockdown in literally a few months. Quoted from your post to mean that you are in favour of locking down every time it looks like a transmissible variant is about to take off?

So that would be a very conservative 5 times every 18 months.

And since (in my part of the country) our lockdowns have lasted at least 5 months... that would mean we'd never be out of lockdown.

Which would mean we'd have the situation above ^.
^
I think there is a scarily large number of people on here who do not see lockdown as an absolute last resort to be used only when the health service is at serious risk of being completely overwhelmed^
^
And instead see it as more of a "lets all just pop back into lockdown incase the numbers of positive cases start to look like they're going up again"

Fuck business. Fuck education. Fuck wellbeing. Fuck health. Fuck the economy. Fuck going out for a meal on a Friday night with your workmates. Fuck Tinder. Fuck getting a new carpet fitted. Fuck seeing your Grandmother. Fuck gym memberships, swimming pools, and anything else designed to keep you at a healthy weight during a pandemic that fucks obese people. Fuck holidays. Fuck popping into the office. Fuck costa coffee. Fuck playdates, softplay, play of any kind - just especially fuck children.

Fuck everyone in every aspect of life so they won't be fucked by covid.

Sorry but the country has been shut for over 4 months and 35 million have been vaccinated. If that's not enough, nothing ever will be.