Normal life is back

[ExmoorValley]

I don't know about you but life where I am is pretty much back to normal, masks in shops falling rapidly. People having a good time. Covid barely gets mentioned now. (and yes I know people are still catching it and a tiny proportion will die)

It feels great. So what happened to the 200,000 cases a day doom scenario peddlers on here? They seem rather quiet.......

I think that is actually the thing that some people struggle with the most - the unknown. There are different paths this can take over the course of 2021 and beyond varying from vaccine resistant variant to coronavirus ebbing away to just being a cold - with it realistically being more in the middle

I think for some believing and sticking to the idea of lockdown at Christmas is easier than accepting that there are no clear answer to where this is going to go

@Delatron

I’m not angry at all *@jasjas1973* looking forward to my holiday abroad in two days. Loving everything getting back to normal. Well in real life. Mumsnet never ceases to amaze me with the doom mongers but then I guess this is where they like to hang out.

Just like to pull up phrases such as ‘blind optimism’ ‘denial’ , ‘selfish’ etc.

I’m hopefully off to Spain in two weeks but what is normal about having to wear a mask on the plane, having to prove your vaccine status or produce a negative test, having to fill out a health declaration, having to take a further test before you come home with the risk of not being allowed to fly and being carted off to a quarantine hotel, then having to test when you’re home and potentially isolate?

Genuine question. Because that is not remotely normal to me.

@BustopherPonsonbyJones to be fair I didn’t start the thread about things being back to normal, I popped on in response to certain posters claiming people were in denial, being selfish for going to the theatre, blind optimism. Etc.

The amount of testing and hoops we have to jump through to go abroad I’m fully aware we are unfortunately not fully back to normal. Though I wish we were and would welcome no testing and no isolation unless symptomatic.

That’s my stance - not that we’re back to normal yet.

Agreed @Quartz2208 - we simply don't know exactly how the future will pan out and whilst vaccines have helped enormously, they're no magic silver bullet.

I'm happy to go out and take my chances with Covid but I am very wary of looking forward to anything as experience has taught me it could be cancelled at short notice.

@FloFlower Yes international travel isn’t back to normal at all. My paragraph was wrong. I meant day to day it feels more normal and I am enjoying that. I’m looking forward to getting away but no wearing a mask on the plane and all the testing isn’t normal and it frustrating. It was a clumsy paragraph in response to an accusation that I’m angry.

I’m not angry. I would like all restrictions to go though. Especially around travel.

I’m not remotely in denial about Covid.
I’ve had a family member die of it.
Lots of other family members have had it (somehow I’ve avoided it completely).
My entire industry was shut down in the first lockdown because of it.

But here we are. My industry is now playing catch up with more work than we know what to do with. I can visit my old mum. I can go to Wembley and to a packed theatre. So I am.
If I catch Covid then so be it. I suppose I must do eventually - shocked I haven’t already. I’m double vaccinated which hopefully will provide me with some protection. But if it doesn’t, then it doesn’t.
Worrying about any of it can’t do me an ounce of good.

@stepupandbecounted

Those saying "we must watch china and Delta" There are other ways the virus can get us, and now coming up with a plastic chat winging its way from China as a new path of doom, clearly have no grasp at all on Chinese culture.

China did not, and will not close down their factories under any circumstances (unlike the west) they didn't do it in the height of the first wave, they certainly won't be doing it in the subsequent waves. They were the only major producer still producing to a high capacity throughout, and the Chinese community have no power and will become collateral damage I am afraid. The party has its eye only on the spread sheets and the economy - people will be locked away if they are test positive as before, and the others will be expected to step up their work load to make up for it, as before.

You are making it up, literally, as you go along to try and scare other people or to give them something else to worry about. All you are achieving is a narrow world for yourself and those that choose to believe in your lies.

China will be fine, China will always be fine, the party will make sure of it. Come what may China will be exporting (very sadly for the planet)

"The closure of a key terminal at the Ningbo-Zhoushan port on the east coast, which handled almost 1.2bn tonnes in 2020, reflects China’s determination to squash its worst coronavirus outbreak in months no matter the economic costs, AFP reports"

Finally our risk profiles are not as linked and we get to choose

Strange comment to make about a highly infectious virus! Our "risk profiles" are inextricably linked with each other's behaviour.

What is normal international travel, though? If we don't wear masks but still can't carry liquid on board a plane, does that count?

@CryingAtTheDiscotheque

Finally our risk profiles are not as linked and we get to choose

Strange comment to make about a highly infectious virus! Our "risk profiles" are inextricably linked with each other's behaviour.

And yet we have the recent shift away from blanket restrictions for all - which impacted all regardless of age / risk. Now we can choose what we do.

Some won’t welcome it but I do.

@DaisyWaldron

What is normal international travel, though? If we don't wear masks but still can't carry liquid on board a plane, does that count?

Don’t know - you tell me.

Well some of us have had a fabulous day out with all of the other covid lepers and what a brilliant day it has been too!

milky as you are in lockdown elsewhere in the world you are simply
coming across as resentful and angry and trying to pour cold water on our party. I feel sorry that you are still stuck in the covid nightmare, but honestly take hope from our situation here that things will get better everywhere and for you too.

BustopherPonsonbyJones Everything IS pretty much back to normal now with the exception of international travel though. I too have had two overseas trips just about to take a third. Delatron I think is making the point that we need to make the most of all the fun times available now, she accepts that there is uncertainty and we don't know what will happen in the future, but who does? She is simply saying no one knows so why not crack on and make the best of it. Break free from the pit of despair.

I have to say on a personal level, my life IS pretty normal. I don't wear a mask or distance, I am going out everywhere, shopping and for lunch, drinks and theatre. I am struggling to think of what isn't normal now. Hugging friends and kissing people and having a great time. I guess if you are in a chemist or medical setting things might be different, but I am not, so it is fine. I feel happy about where we are to date, thrilled we are back on track. I can't understand how anyone can not be.

balloonrace And your plastic tat from China dried up when exactly? Because I was able to ship anything from Amazon and anywhere else throughout the pandemic next day delivery without the slightest inconvenience, as could most people I imagine. We didn't run out of anything. At no point was there a problem. The biggest problem we saw we had was the Suez canal blockage, nothing at all to do with covid!! So rest assured no one anywhere is expecting China to stop trading any time soon delta or no delta (and what a shame, as the oceans could do with a break!)

[quote ICUDoc]Sorry to another killjoy and definitely don’t want to scaremonger, but we are seeing exponential growth of admissions to ITU with Covid from the community. The majority of admissions are mostly young (

Sorry, stepup, it isn’t normal. It’s better but very far from being normal. None of you have convinced me it is normal or that we will even stay at this level but I am going to enjoy my relative freedom right now and go out for a drink - perhaps to drown my sorrows and escape being in the pit of despair 😉!

Er what is not normal then? Care to elaborate a little?

@stepupandbecounted - do you mind clarifying what you mean when you say you aren’t distancing? Do you mean from friends and family or do you mean in supermarket queues (etc)?

[quote nomore3lw]@Thewiseoneincognito how does it feel in anyway the same to last year? We still had very strict restrictions last year (rule of 6 etc) and no vaccine?[/quote]
Delta weighs all that out unfortunately.

@Delatron: @BustopherPonsonbyJones to be fair I didn’t start the thread about things being back to normal, I popped on in response to certain posters claiming people were in denial, being selfish for going to the theatre, blind optimism. Etc.

We are all inextricably linked. You will know a small number of the people you come in to contact with, whatever you choose to do. You won't know all of the people *they are going to come into contact with. Any one of you carrying covid will put everyone else you come into contact with at risk. That's not doom mongering, it's fact.

ICUs are filling with covid patients, and Doctors and nursing staff are frustrated that this is apparently not newsworthy.

@Whatever9999

Late to the party with this quote, but where the hell do you get the expontent increase in ITU admission from?

In my case, from the people working in the hospitals. Some of my friends and neighbours have relatives working in the local hospitals. They're filling with CV patients. The government aren't hiding anything, they're just not telling people this is happening. They want their economy moving again. If that means that people die, well, so be it.

Little anecdote...
outside fruit& veg stall today, popular Thursday market.
14-21 people in Q at any time.
Outdoor Queue, outdoor produce, outdoor staff.

7-12 people at any one time waiting in Q were wearing masks.
I thought it was interesting, almost 50% masked in an outdoor setting. "New normal"?

@NannyAndJohn delta outweighs 'all' the vaccines....

In my case, from the people working in the hospitals. Some of my friends and neighbours have relatives working in the local hospitals. They're filling with CV patients. The government aren't hiding anything, they're just not telling people this is happening. They want their economy moving again. If that means that people die, well, so be it.

‘Filling with CV patients’ - better to look at charts to see what is going on.

Hospital numbers level off
The most recent government figures show at least 5,909 people with coronavirus in hospital in the UK. A week ago that figure was 5,751.
Although numbers climbed in recent weeks, they are far below the peak of nearly 40,000 people back in January.
Chart showing that the number of patients in hospital is stable
Presentational white space
Patient numbers have also started to level off across the country, albeit at different rates, as the chart below shows.

It doesn’t matter if my interactions are linked to other people @Doodlebug71. I don’t get your point at all. My point was that accepting we need to live with Covid isn’t blind optimism it’s just realism. We’re allowed to go to the theatre. Heck we can go and lick people’s faces in nightclubs if we want to....

You’re implying we should continue with restrictions, I disagree.

coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare

[quote TempsPerdu]They've presumably all jumped on the global warming bandwagon. Some people are not happy unless panicking about something

Well that seems to be Indie Sage/The Citizens’ chosen strategy. As soon as the media storm arounds Covid dies down and they’re no longer getting sufficient media appearances/column inches they will pivot to climate change.

Not saying at all that I disagree that climate change is a huge issue, but it’s interesting to see how these groups and the activists within them operate.

www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jun/20/head-of-independent-sage-to-launch-international-climate-change-group[/quote]
I am presumably naive, but I find that bizarre.

@NannysndJohn show be one article or piece of Delta maybe by your SAGE that shows thatDelta outweighs it all
There is no doubt I think or debate that Delta shows a reduction in vaccine efficacy from the other variants particularly in transmission. But to get from there to outweighs to lockdown at Christmas is a massive leap