How will ever get out of this?

[Toria84]

Cases are continually rising, vaccines don’t stop transmission, vaccines don’t prevent infection.

You can be infected with Covid more than once and by the looks of things we will need a vaccine every 6 months.

How will we ever move on from how things are now? How can things change?

It’s absolutely rife in my area and in my DS school.

Are we now just expected to accept these levels of infection, hospitalisations and death?

There are 130 Covid patients in our local hospital which isn’t far off the number of the second wave!

Whoever thought vaccines stop transmission and prevention infection are very naive.

Just live your life and don't worry about it.

@Remmy123

I think that’s a particular ignorant thing to say.

@Remmy123

Whoever thought vaccines stop transmission and prevention infection are very naive.

Just live your life and don't worry about it.

Yep, totally agree.

Toria

I guarantee most of those wont be in hospital for covid.

Just live your life and don't worry about it

This is pretty much what we're doing. I've stopped ready the news about it, we don't test, we're just carrying on as if it doesn't exist. Fed up of my DCs education and all our lives being affected so negatively.

*reading

Like any other pandemic. When a herd immunity has been achieved and by that I mean when repeated infections cause milder and milder symptoms.

No, they don’t stop transmission but they do protect the vast majority to a great extent. The minority (of which my CEV husband is one) needs to take additional precautions: wfh if they can, keep contacts to a minimum, SD and wear a protective FFP3/N95.

All double vaxxed, we’ve enjoyed summer, got out/about/away in UK a bit, always taking sensible precautions. We’ll be hunkering down again for winter now. ‘flu is a real risk to my husband every year, he’s allergic to the regular jab and surgery can’t always source the alternative. His Covid booster is due and mine in a month or so, which we’re grateful for.

Lesson therefore, I suppose, become vaccinated if you can.

I'm just living like normal now.
I've been vaccinated and already had it once.

You can't put your life on hold forever

But people are getting it more than once so can there be herd immunity?

DD (13) asked me last night if it will ever end and Iended up talking about all previous times when we thought the world had changed forever but then we did move ok... albeit changed(eg 9/11). Not sure that was helpful parenting... but my point was there will be a new balance reached and it won't always feel like this ?

I think it's more a case now of "when" you get it not "if". But the vaccine does seem to be proving effective in keeping the vast majority of people out of hospital. Hopefully, it'll do the same as the Spanish flu. But I think by in large it's a matter of living life as best you can.

You just get on with it. Flu deaths pre covid were what? 25k a year l can't remember. We keep vaccinating the people most at risk just like with flu. Everyone else lives their life. Covid is never going away

@PanicStationsAhh

Just live your life and don't worry about it

This is pretty much what we're doing. I've stopped ready the news about it, we don't test, we're just carrying on as if it doesn't exist. Fed up of my DCs education and all our lives being affected so negatively.

You don’t test? That kind of illogical behaviour is one of the reasons why we’ll never get out of this mess. It’s naive to think if you ignore it that it’ll go away, sadly Covid doesn’t work that way.

I believe this winter will be when we all realise we can not simply live with it and expect vaccines to do all the work without any intervention from ourselves. The government know this, they just don’t know how to tell everyone, but one thing is certain, unless we address the elephant in the room the big event of the year which is only just 2 months away will be under threat just like last year.

@PanicStationsAhh

Just live your life and don't worry about it

This is pretty much what we're doing. I've stopped ready the news about it, we don't test, we're just carrying on as if it doesn't exist. Fed up of my DCs education and all our lives being affected so negatively.

Interesting, exponential spread is kind of wiping out schools at the moment. Great logic that.

@PanicStationsAhh

Just live your life and don't worry about it

This is pretty much what we're doing. I've stopped ready the news about it, we don't test, we're just carrying on as if it doesn't exist. Fed up of my DCs education and all our lives being affected so negatively.

Same. Never did test.

You do just have to live your life and try not to worry about it.

It is noticeable scrolling down the active threads that most are about normal, everyday life not HOW WILL WE GET OUT OF THIS which is frankly overdramatic and not necessary. You can choose to not be in this apocalyptic mindset and come over to a different thread instead. Or alternatively spend some time working out why you're so invested in such an incredibly negative mindset that you've failed to see any kind of wider perspective.

Reinfection is very rare. The vaccines are doing what they were designed to do in preventing severe disease.

If you aren't immune compromised, you get vaccinated and get on with your life. If you are, then you need to take more precautions.

I think it’s helpful to adjust the way you think about it. We’ve been spending so long thinking about covid that we’ve wasted almost two years of our lives. It’s not going away so how much more of your life are you willing to give up, two years, twenty? Yes we will probably all get covid at some point, most will be fine, some will get very sick and some will die but you can get many things in your life and some you survive and some you won’t, that’s just reality. But you’re alive now and living in endless fear and paranoia is just wasting what’s left of your life so you may as well go out and make the most of it.

We don't have herd immunity to flu (in the sense that immunity levels are not high enough that it has disappeared) but we don't generally take any particular steps to avoid infection over and above annual flu vaccine actions for certain groups. That's because there is a level of background immunity built up in the population from regular exposure which we supplement with vaccines.

We will get to the same/a very similar place with Covid eventually. We will be vaccinated, we will be exposed to covid, occasionally we will be ill with covid, we will have covid boosters, we'll be exposed to covid etc, etc, etc. Life will go on as it always has, might just take a while.

I think it’s a good question as we go into winter.
I hope that in sixty years’ time, seventy-year-olds will have had Covid so often it will just be like a cold, or maybe there will one day be a vaccine as effective as the measles one.
In the meantime, some mitigation looks necessary as we are already getting reports of ambulances queuing for hours to admit patients.

I think the difficulty for many at the moment is that we are in some kind of in between phase. Our local schools (in partnership with public health) are asking that siblings/household members isolate if there is a positive case in the household, yet this isn't official guidance and therefore people won't do it. Some do; people like my ex won't, despite having had 4 positive cases in his household this month. How can we move forward to normal life when we still need to isolate, cases are so high, people are still very ill, in hospital and dying? Yes, lots are asymptomatic or just have a sniffle but there's no logic to who is ill and who isn't from what I can see. With swine flu we had antivirals to use so maybe advances could be made there so the more poorly don't end up in hospital.
People like me who are CEV and struggling with the other viruses around at the moment are back to being very worried about catching covid on top of whatever else is going round when there are little restrictions to protect us. There's no longer any feeling of wanting to protect others from people I read about here or see out and about without masks. We just have to do what we can in terms of taking personal responsibility and hope our vaccines hold up if we've been lucky enough to have them. My 6 year old happily wears a mask in shops or on the bus/train/busy places as he knows it helps protect me and others like me. He's had to listen to me being told several times this week that I am at risk of being hospitalised due to the nasty chest infection I have secondary to one of the viruses going round. It saddens me that so many are selfish and there's no sense of altruism.
How to move forward though? I don't know. Winter looks scary from my point of view and I'm normally pretty healthy despite bad asthma. I dread to think how others more vulnerable are feeling. We certainly won't be able to have as many freedoms this winter. I'm glad my two teens will be vaccinated as school is a germ pit at the best of times. We all have to do what we can and make a joint effort to protect others as well as ourselves. This pandemic has certainly brought out the best and the worst of humanity. I've seen some amazing community spirit and people who are prepared to help others. Volunteers have been 3 times this last week to get prescriptions for me. At Christmas they brought a bag of treats with fancy chocolates, mince pies, a magazine, and a book for ds along with lots of local information for use over the holidays regarding pharmacies, how to keep warm, nutrition, self help and support. It was a lovely chat on the doorstep too for those who were lonely. It was the local volunteers and the Co-op who organised it. Others only cared about their freedoms and how restrictions were inconvenient and how they couldn't possibly wear a mask because: reasons 🤷🏼‍♀️ The rules simply didn't apply to them.

Are we now just expected to accept these levels of infection, hospitalisations and death?
Yes.

@Shelovesamystery

Are we now just expected to accept these levels of infection, hospitalisations and death? Yes.

The government knew this would happen:

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/18/uk-covid-cases-50000-in-one-day-no-10-challenging-winter

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/15/why-britons-are-tolerating-sky-high-covid-rates-and-why-this-may-not-last

I'm in Australia and don't post this smugly, as I think we're fucked too. Just in slow motion.

@Shelovesamystery

Are we now just expected to accept these levels of infection, hospitalisations and death? Yes.

Long term it will change

Look at a Sarah Gilbert on this

But also treatments will likely improve

Just to say that when I say "yes" I mean that we do just have to accept that covid is here to stay and unfortunately people will die from it. Just like people die every day from a multitude of other causes. We aren't "getting out of it" and I can't wrap my head around people still believing that that's an option.

I do think that, over the years, immunity will get stronger (from people catching it over and over again) and treatments/vaccines will get better. It will take time but covid will be less of a problem for each generation as time goes on.

I accepted this quite a while ago and have been happily living my life as normal ever since 🤷‍♀️