Did it seem a bit odd that the tone of today's announcement was so sombre?

[secretintrovert]

Bojo should have been doing his victory dance for freedom day! Instead the three of them looked as miserable as sin. There's trouble afoot methinks. This will be very very temporary

@secretintrovert

Bojo should have been doing his victory dance for freedom day! Instead the three of them looked as miserable as sin. There's trouble afoot methinks. This will be very very temporary

Just like the morning of the Brexit result.

@beguilingeyes

I’m pretty bored of losing jobs because my children have had seven isolations. My husband is also pretty bored after being made redundant after 22 years.

My children are incredibly bored when their education and activities are disrupted yet again.

Yeah, definitely bored here.

Of course they were somber. Whatever happens people are going to die. Victory dance is hardly appropriate, is it?

BoredZelda

“Boris said, ‘If not now, then when?’

When we have reached the threshold of people doubly vaccinated which has been shown to make a difference elsewhere. And we are really close to that.“

I agree.

Until recently I thought this was the plan and it makes me wonder what’s changed.

There are a few papers recently that show delta has a little more vaccine escape than we originally hoped for.

Is it a possibility that Boris is hoping to “boost” the older population with exposure over the summer months (when we’d be able to cope with resulting hospital admissions)?

I guess the mood is somber because we’re taking a step into the unknown.

Yes, it will certainly cause more deaths in the immediate months, but what is just not certain is the impact over winter. There is more than those immediate deaths at stake.

I said I thought the PM and the government would just get totally bored of the whole thing within a year and would move on

Or they're just doing what they did last year. Opening up in time for parliament recess and their summer jollies and then see what the damage is when back in parliament in September.

We were told we were in a war against Covid and lots of WW2 analogies last year about British spirit and all pulling together to protect others. Now it’s everyone for themselves. I really understand that we all want this to be over, it’s not fair, sick of wearing masks but I keep thinking back to WW2, I’m sure no-one wanted it to go on for years and years but it did, and of course it affected children’s education, social lives, mental health etc too. This feels like the situation is still really on a knife edge, if there’s a vaccine resistant variant and we have 100,000 a day catching Covid we are screwed.

Anyway, we’ll just have to take things as they come, but I cant begin to see how to ‘risk assess’ this.

Somber is not spelt somber.

Sombre

Apologies. Didn’t realise we were judged on spelling on here. Will try harder next time.

Boris has handled covid well trying to balance, covid, other illnesses, the economy and MH

Really?? It’s been an absolute fiasco, not a success on any level

@Brown76

The WW2 British spirit is mostly a myth. People were frightened, traumatised and lived with PTSD for years and years afterwards. This situation is simply not the same as a bloody war. It’s just not.

I find it incomprehensible when the Delta variant is running rampant. Of course deaths will go up. It seems that none of the MPs interviewed can give a clear indication of whether they will wear a mask or not, or if they should, or we should, the guidance is clear as mud and I have a very sinking feeling about it all.

We are not following the science and that's been proved to result in catastrophe. Why expect a different result now? Why the gamble?

I honestly dont give a shit anymore about this whole debacle. Covid is here to stay, it's about time we just got on with living our lives.

We've had pandemics of one sort or another throughout our existence. No, not everyone will survive. I have my own health problems which put me in the "at risk" category for covid, yet when I caught it honestly I've had worse colds.

Wear a mask, dont wear a mask. I just dont care anymore. Stay home, dont stay home. I just dont care. I dont care if your 91 yo Nan might die, I dont care if your DH gets covid. I'm not heartless, but I also cant keep shouldering the responsibility to keep strangers safe from an invisible virus. I just cant do it anymore. I played my part, I HATED masks. I'm asthmatic and found them very difficult to wear, especially in hayfever season when I can barely breathe anyway. I havent been out partying and I wfh. But i NEED my freedom, i need to not have covid restrictions leading my daily life.

Call me selfish, i honestly could not care less....and I'm not alone in this either I'd wager.

Covid is here to stay, life is fleeting. We have a finite time on this earth. I dont want to spend it living in a state of fear that I might infect a stranger with an illness they will most likely live through with nowt worse than a cold.

Boris is presenting a false set of options.

"If not now then when" already carries the idea that this step if the only possible course of action, and that the only alternative is no action.

This is not the case.

There are different courses of action, and I think what Keit starner said yesterday (about masks and public transport) makes sense.

Also, with cases rocketing, abandoning indoors mask wearing and having unlimited numbers as close as you like is reckless.

We could do some of it now, and the rest when the data supports it (ie this wave has peaked and numbers are shoowing a sustained fall) not because the date is the start of the summer hols.

I did notice that there was no mention ant more of any of this being irreversible.

Those who are healthy get a good summer, which recharges them for the possible slog of another bad winter.

Those who are more vulnerable don't really get anything, apart from the ending of safer indoors spaces leaving fewer options, even for essential food shopping.

@BungleandGeorge

Boris has handled covid well trying to balance, covid, other illnesses, the economy and MH

Really?? It’s been an absolute fiasco, not a success on any level

Yes he's balanced things better than Scotland - currently the highest covid rates in Europe.

England is ready to move on and Scotland is scratching its head going, mmmm how do we reduce the rates. While the population have had enough of SD and not being allowed to visit family for 9 months.

@Comeinoutoftherain

If you look at India's cases over the last 4 months, it appears the delta variant burns high but also burns out quickly.

They have not gotten anywhere near our vaccine rate and cases are falling rapidly.

Delta is infecting younger people because of the vaccines making it harder to infect the more vulnerable.

It has to infect younger people and work harder to do so, it it dies out.

Delta took 2 months to reach the peak in India. We're already a few weeks into rising cases.

So if you let it run now, in the summer, it will be burning itself out by the time winter hits.

People are outside more in summer which naturally reduces transmission rates. Couple that with reducing transmission due to vaccines and it may burn out faster because there is a rapidly decreasing pool of people without antibodies.

The flu vaccine will be a complete guess this year as flu rates have been so low in the last year due to covid.

The NHS has to get on with elective surgery and treatments. Or more people will die from preventable injuries/diseases.

It is now or never, and the economy can't stay in shutdown much longer.

The UK is leading the way in terms of life after vaccines; but India has already proven that cases won't just rise forever.

We can't do zero covid. It's not possible.

It also doesn't appear to have triggered a new mutation in India - or at least not one worth worrying about.

Excellent post.

And that is very much where Chris Whitty I think has been for awhile. The sombre tone is because there is no other way out now - we can no longer divert or go around we simply have to go through it.

We can't go over it, we can't go under it, we've got to go through it.

"I dont think uptake of the autumn booster will be high if they try another Christmas lockdown."

You think they'll tell us their plans for Christmas in Autumn?! 🤣

I just don’t understand it. I don’t understand it. I haven’t been this worried since early December last year. The sheer howling irresponsibility of it all is too much for me to comprehend.

One of my colleagues is very ill with the Delta variant. Double Pfizered weeks ago - plenty of time for the full protection to kick in. Another friend of a friend is also really unwell but was denied hospital admission because they didn’t want to get Delta in the wards; that’s what she was actually told!

It’s all very well to talk about personal choice and nobody being made to do what they don’t want to, but plenty of people will be forced back into work by employers who base their decisions on the government’s stance. I’m lucky that my employer won’t do that while cases are at nearly 30k a day and rising rapidly, and I’m lucky I can work from home, and I’m lucky I don’t have any particular need to travel abroad anytime soon. But that’s not the case for lots of people. Why on Earth will other countries let us in if we’ve got Delta rampaging unchecked though the population?

I had really thought that this pandemic would result in much more mask acceptance in Britain, that it would become pretty normal on public transport particularly during flu season, as it is in large parts of Asia (and has been for years). Instead we have set our faces against it! It’s madness and ignorance. We look so stupid to other parts of the world.

Yes, it will certainly cause more deaths in the immediate months, but what is just not certain is the impact over winter. There is more than those immediate deaths at stake.

I think it looks increasingly certain. They look like they are wheeling out Javid today to do some nhs backlog propaganda. We’re screwed and I suspect they know it.

Whitty even pointed out we have exponential growth in hospital numbers in that press conference. No way we are making a dent in the backlog we’re just going to cause longer term health issues. Happy Birthday NHS.

Stop comparing this to the war, it is not the same thing and if anyone actually thinks the spirit was there and the people weren't affected for years afterwards, you are really mistaken.
This is not a war, this is a virus. It's doing what it is supposed to do. It will mutate, more than likely there will never be a time there is no Covid. The hope is it does mutate and become less serious.
We have kept some form of lockdown / restrictions for over a year now, it is time to ease out. Those who are CEV can continue to restrict themselves from places if they wish.
It is time to learn to live with Covid. It is not going away. The NHS is coping and catching up on missed treatments or operations. There are many people who will die from things other than Covid because GPs haven't done face to face or investigations are suspended. Those lives are important too.

It has to infect younger people and work harder to do so, it it dies out.
Which is why the answer to if not,when? is when vulnerable children have been double vaccinated.

I had really thought that this pandemic would result in much more mask acceptance in Britain

Never underestimate the stupidity and sense of exceptionalism of the British public.

Those who are CEV can continue to restrict themselves from places if they wish.
What about the unvaccinated school children? Or even my vaccinated but vulnerable schoolchild? Does she not go to school?

I think it is time to let people assess their own risk. My DD had a few covid cases in her class so had to self isolate. The 4 children that had it, had nothing more than a sniffle between them. I don't see evidence of the delta variant causing more serious illness. The vulnerable and older generation are vaccinated, now we learn to live with it like we do other invisible diseases. Meningitis still circulates and has terrible consequences - we still live our lives with this risk.
I do think masks on public transport and busy shops are sensible but aside from that, it's time to stop all this.

@nether

Boris is presenting a false set of options.

"If not now then when" already carries the idea that this step if the only possible course of action, and that the only alternative is no action.

This is not the case.

There are different courses of action, and I think what Keit starner said yesterday (about masks and public transport) makes sense.

Also, with cases rocketing, abandoning indoors mask wearing and having unlimited numbers as close as you like is reckless.

We could do some of it now, and the rest when the data supports it (ie this wave has peaked and numbers are shoowing a sustained fall) not because the date is the start of the summer hols.

I did notice that there was no mention ant more of any of this being irreversible.

Those who are healthy get a good summer, which recharges them for the possible slog of another bad winter.

Those who are more vulnerable don't really get anything, apart from the ending of safer indoors spaces leaving fewer options, even for essential food shopping.

What should the more vulnerable be getting this summer? Genuine question.