UK Long Term Plan - ideas welcome

[lightand]

It seems to me that,
Coronavirus may be here to stay for decades, even centuries.
Vaccines may work, but we dont know yet all possible effects, and how long some immunity lasts for.
We now know that some people are much more vulnerable to covid, one way or another, that others. We all seem to have our personal at risk levels, ranging from possible 0, all the way through to critical.
People on the whole, may not die in such huge numbers, when, or if vaccinated.
There may always be some people who do not want to have the covid vaccination, or certainly not ad infinitum.
All other countries seem to have the same sorts of problems with covid, to a more or less degree.
The UK is not the sort of country that will tolerate almost 100% monitoring.
The UK is not a country that can realistically shut itself off completely from the outside world. Or certainly, not comfortably.

Having said all that, what is to be done in the Longer Term about covid? Or even the Medium Term?
Ideas welcome.

Everyone is still trying to work this out! But I'm sure mumsnetters will know.

Covid will shortly be eclipsed by climate change/environmental degradation.
Exactly as Brexit was eclipsed by covid.

Climate change alarm has been around for more than 30 years now.

Brexit had an ending of sorts.

Covid?

It will just gradually cease to matter as much.

Part of it is that this is the first pandemic that’s hit during the social media age, so billions of people are all talking about it, their fears and experiences, sharing information (and misinformation).

On top of that it isn’t particularly well-suited to the 24-hour news cycle — not enough actually happens so media ends up filling up with speculation and punditry.

I reckon what will happen will be a gradual fading of relevance as vaccines start to take effect, treatments improve further and people just become accustomed to covid as just another illness they’d rather not get.

It’s not going away, exactly, but it won’t be front-page news for the long term.

I think you could be right.
I know a couple of people with it currently. No underlying health conditions as far as I know.
And I am a bit like, meh.
I couldnt decide if I should be more alarmed or not.

Once everyone has been vaccinated, I imagine will be a low level problem with occasional peaks, like flu is. Some people will still die from it, as they do from myriad other things, but the NHS won't be overwhelmed because the number of people getting seriously ill is hugely reduced by the vaccines.
There will be boosters each year - free for the vulnerable and paid for if you aren't vulnerable and want one. Just like flu.

Get two lots of vaccines into as many 12+ as possible. Ensure that people who have covid are covered financially to isolate. Masks on public transport and in schools/crowded areas when there outbreaks. Then we learn to live with it.

Covid is just the calm before the storm, unfortunately.

I'd like to see masks and SD in busy indoor settings become the norm, WFH to be fully accepted, annual boosters for the CEV and elderly, and for people to just think twice before taking unnecessary risks.

Hopefully it will mutate into weaker versions and then the threat from it will be gone.

@NannyAndJohn

Covid is just the calm before the storm, unfortunately.

I'd like to see masks and SD in busy indoor settings become the norm, WFH to be fully accepted, annual boosters for the CEV and elderly, and for people to just think twice before taking unnecessary risks.

How on earth do you expect the hospitality industry to survive if social distancing becomes the norm?!

There are other human coronaviruses. They crossed over from other species at some point and probably caused pandemics when they did. There’s a theory that the ‘Russian flu’ pandemic of the 1890s was a coronavirus, OC43 - we don’t know, but we do know that OC43 crossed over into humans from cows about this time.

They now don’t cause many issues. They cause colds in most people, although they can be pretty nasty for immunosuppressed people or very fragile people in nursing homes. Because most people have some immunity to them, then even though that immunity won’t stop you catching them forever, it means that if you do catch it it’ll be milder.

So I’m thinking covid will be like that for a country as well vaccinated as we are. Another nasty in respiratory virus season, but not significantly different to the other background bugs we live with.

Yearly booster jabs for the over 50's, maybe less frequently for younger people?

Everything else back to normal-ish, though some behaviours will stay.

@OhYouBadBadKitten

Get two lots of vaccines into as many 12+ as possible. Ensure that people who have covid are covered financially to isolate. Masks on public transport and in schools/crowded areas when there outbreaks. Then we learn to live with it.

can we vaccinate vulnerable kids first off please?

& also give boosters to vulnerable people

masks in hospitals/ healthcare as routine

masks in shops as default with concessions for people who can't cope with masks, until cases are VERY low

masks in schools to be encouraged at least till vaccines have been offered

otherwise yes I agree

@NannyAndJohn

Covid is just the calm before the storm, unfortunately.

I'd like to see masks and SD in busy indoor settings become the norm, WFH to be fully accepted, annual boosters for the CEV and elderly, and for people to just think twice before taking unnecessary risks.

😂😂😂

As a pp said there are other coronaviruses, they cause colds.
Some worse than others but we all know that children get every cold going and as adults we get fewer as we get older and mostly not as bad. I presume this is due to immunity from earlier exposure.

No vaccine or cure has ever been found for colds though I imagine they could make one now using what they have learned from making covid vaccines.

The difference with covid is that it's capable of killing people and no-one had any immunity.

I agree with getting children vaccinated asap.

Continue with taking steps to avoid infecting others when you have covid.
Change the culture of going to school or work when you have a virus (this has probably happened already).

It’ll just become a background story imo. We’ll give annual vaccines to the elderly, nhs workers etc but 10-20,000 will die each year regardless. I personally think it will maybe get less deadly over time but no scientific or otherwise Evidence for me thinking this. I just do!
We’ll be watching the zero Covid countries carefully over the next 18 months to see what happens there as it’ll help us all inform strategy for the future.
It’ll give scientists etc years and years of research to study as to the pro’s and con’s of lockdowns, masks etc etc etc.

This thread already seems to be a bit out of date, and it is only 9 days old!

I cant see covid being a background story from now until say May next year.
And I dont know what the answer is between now and then. Or after.

I dont think there should be all the pings. It is crippling the country, and how many of the pinged actually have covid?

Personally I think the letting it rip was done too late[I also think it was done to time with MPs holidays].

I am not sure that there can be a long term strategy at the moment. When the current and mid term is still so hazy?

@CrunchyCarrot

Hopefully it will mutate into weaker versions and then the threat from it will be gone.

It looks like this could be happening, hopefully.

@NannyAndJohn - you are genuinely hilarious. I do hope you are a troll or I pity your life & those who are in yours.

I think there will be more people wearing masks indoors (not cos its the law but because they want to and its not too much trouble). I still wear masks in shops and on public transport- i expect to continue to wear masks on public transport indefinitely.

Covid vaccination proof will be the norm for travel overseas but overseas travel will be pretty much the same other than that.

There will be peaks where covid cases are very high, but not much will be done about it. Just read about the new viral drugs for covid that will work against variants and will cut risk of hospitalization/NHS so that should keep the NHS ticking over (not very well, but the NHS hasn't functioned really well in the 8 years I have been in the UK).

Other than that, everything will be back to normal. @NannyAndJohn will be disappointed but probably there will be more WFH in some companies so i guess it will be easy for her to never go out and stay in her garden. Some companies will change their mind on WFH if they lose business to companies where there is more innovation due to face to face interaction and at the end of the day, it is profits that matter

@giletrouge

Covid will shortly be eclipsed by climate change/environmental degradation. Exactly as Brexit was eclipsed by covid.

The delights of Brexit are still shining through

Is that you, Boris?

Haven’t really rtft but won’t we move towards Sarah Gilbert’s predictions?

It’ll be a weaker impact

Sort out the LFTs so they are more accurate and reliable and easier to use.

Sort out PCR testing so it is quicker. It needs to be overnight processed otherwise more people are going to stop testing so they can work.