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Original poster

End game

63 replies

screwcovid · 08/12/2021 21:21

What do you think it is or we going to have this every winter ? Seems like never gonna end

OP posts:
hopeishere · 08/12/2021 21:24

I think we will improve vaccines and begin to look at other things like school ventilation. I think case numbers will be slowly dropped from being reported and the focus will be on hospitalisations.

Topseyt · 08/12/2021 22:18

I think that eventually we will just have to treat it in a very similar way to flu each year, with annual vaccine boosters that have been tweaked to take care of new and emerging variants. Even though it isn't flu.

I can't see any other way forward in the end because Covid isn't going anywhere.

Tealightsandd · 08/12/2021 22:26

Don't forget the very successful new treatments particularly the monoclonal antibodies. No miracle cure but definitely very much making a big difference and saving lives.

Very limited supply (worldwide) for the time being but eventually there will be more.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel even if some countries (including the UK) decided to choose the longer route to get there.

Original poster
screwcovid · 08/12/2021 22:31

I have been quite strong but I can't see a way out now .... can't see this getting any better

OP posts:
changing221 · 08/12/2021 22:34

This pandemic will be going on for years. It's not going away any time soon. We'll need to get the whole world vaccinated and offer yearly boosters. Just like how we treat the flu.

paranoidnamechanger · 08/12/2021 22:38

I’m starting to think that mandatory vaccinations are the only way out of this nightmare.

XenoBitch · 08/12/2021 22:39

@paranoidnamechanger

I’m starting to think that mandatory vaccinations are the only way out of this nightmare.
No thanks. Mandatory vaccines will be a the way out my nightmare.
Tealightsandd · 08/12/2021 22:41

@screwcovid

I have been quite strong but I can't see a way out now .... can't see this getting any better
Don't despair. Flowers

Like I said, there are new treatments - with possibly more to come.

Clearly prevention is better than cure - hence the importance of vaccines (including if need be tweaked ones). And, whilst things are still bad, sensible little mitigations like masks.

But eventually we'll have better supply of good treatments too.

OldaRailer · 08/12/2021 22:42

But the vaccines are only part effective. I mean I'm taking them when offered but they won't stop me catching this eventually. They ate not sterilising vaccines so we'll still all be passing it on too.
Mandating vaccines will only bring strife.

Imdreamingofapeacefulxmas · 08/12/2021 22:42

Yes it will end.
After this winter, when so many of us are vaccinated and boosted etc, a fresh new highly mutated strain to study I really do feel by March it will be mostly behind us with probably boosters each year. Caveat unless something really awful happens in between like ebola type thing...

We have just got to get through winter.

As for ventilation on school though!! Absolutely not! There has been no appetite or movement towards anything like that at all!

OldaRailer · 08/12/2021 22:42

We are in a much better position than last year.

Warhertisuff · 08/12/2021 22:43

Although things are a bit shit, they are considerably better than where we were at last year, even with the recent emergence of Omicron at possibly the worst possible time for us (early winter in the run up to Christmas). I genuinely believe things will be better next year and things will trend back completely to normal by 2023.

Warhertisuff · 08/12/2021 22:46

@changing221

This pandemic will be going on for years. It's not going away any time soon. We'll need to get the whole world vaccinated and offer yearly boosters. Just like how we treat the flu.
I don't believe the "whole world" gets the flu vaccine annually... Even in the "rich" U.K. you have to be over 50 if you're an adult!
Claudethecat · 08/12/2021 22:47

@screwcovid

I have been quite strong but I can't see a way out now .... can't see this getting any better
Well although things are shite right now, we are still in a better position than this time last year. This time next year things will have improved a lot more.

Well, that is what I tell myself!

Bagelsandbrie · 08/12/2021 22:53

I can cope with this. I can’t cope with schools shutting and shops shutting again.

Tealightsandd · 08/12/2021 22:55

don't believe the "whole world" gets the flu vaccine annually... Even in the "rich" U.K. you have to be over 50 if you're an adult!

Many under 50s too. Underlying conditions, carers/NHS staff, and children (depending on age) are offered it for free.

Lots of businesses also offer it for free to their employees.

It's also usually widely available privately pretty cheaply for £10-15.

Original poster
screwcovid · 08/12/2021 23:02

Thanks all I naively thought it would be "over" by now stupid I am

OP posts:
PuzzledObserver · 08/12/2021 23:04

Don’t know, OP.

Masks, giving people space, annual (or more often) boosters - no big deal as far as I’m concerned, and if we have to, we have to.

I’m just getting on with it. I retired in the summer, so I don’t have work (or school, obviously) to contend with. I’ve just come back from a concert, and I really hope they don’t have to be stopped.

Tealightsandd · 08/12/2021 23:25

You're not stupid OP. We all hoped it would be over. Unfortunately it's taking longer than initially thought/hoped - but we are getting there. Long tunnel but definitely light at the end of it.

milly74 · 08/12/2021 23:33

Hi I think it will be every winter now. There is no end game I can see

onlychildhamster · 08/12/2021 23:43

I think it will be for the next 5 years. Restrictions lifted every spring/summer but every winter, the cases will skyrocket and lockdown would be an option that is explored. We will need booster vaccines and perhaps vaccine passports will apply to more venues but I don't see UK making vaccines mandatory.

We will learn to live with it, not because there will be no restrictions but we will become more savvy- we will book our holidays when the cases are down and it's safe to do so, schools will develop a proper home school plan for the few weeks the kids can't go to school (maybe term holidays will be lengthened in winter and shortened in summer).

It will end one day. Just not that soon

Chessie678 · 08/12/2021 23:47

Covid for vaccinated people has a very comparable IFR to flu now.

Originally covid was thought to have an IFR of 0.5-1%.

Vaccines appear to be over 90% effective against death. Maybe they will be less effective against omicron but we don't know that yet and omicron may have a lower IFR anyway.

So with vaccines you are looking at an IFR of 0.1-0.2%. That is broadly consistent with the numbers dying against reported cases.

The IFR may be higher in unvaccinated people but these people are more likely to be young, in which case the IFR of covid is much lower anyway.

Covid is more infectious but then flu infects c.20% people per year, many of whom are asymptomatic.

So I think they are much more comparable than they were.

But that said, I couldn't begin to guess how long restrictions will go on for and how often they will come back as that's really a political and social question. The public seem to have broadly accepted these measures and I can imagine there being reasonable support for another lockdown if the government whipped up sufficient fear.

I think measures which aim to reduce transmission of such an infectious virus and, in particular lockdowns, are a completely insane, damaging, inefficient and cruel way to manage hospital capacity on an ongoing basis (we could, for example, increase hospital capacity instead and we could have started doing that 20 months ago) but they seem to be increasingly accepted as a normal "sensible" thing to do .

Trying to prevent people spreading any illnesses between each other on an ongoing basis could be very damaging. We've already seen young children's immunity affected by all these measures. If we go on with that approach indefinitely, normal illnesses like flu and colds come become much more dangerous. And then you need more restrictions to reduce transmission of these illnesses and you are stuck in a cycle of restrictions.

If omicron is actually going to infect 1m a day (and I'll believe that when I see it) there probably is an end in sight though, at least until the next variant. Alternatively, if the money really does run out and once people start to see the economic impact of spending £320bn on delaying the time at which people catch covid by a few months maybe that will be the end of it.

AlecTrevelyan006 · 08/12/2021 23:50

The end game is digital passports and social credits. We will never be free again. The future has arrived early.

byvirtue · 08/12/2021 23:52

It will end when they stop mass testing. But let’s face it testing, ppe, vaccinations, enforcements. It’s a whole new industry and employs lots of people, so never.

madroid · 08/12/2021 23:56

Pandemic waves are normally 3 years with the highest peaks in the second year. These were the patterns of the pandemics in 1957+ and 1968+

I think you need to focus on how fortunate you are to be living in the UK as a prosperous country compared to most people in the world. That helps.

But I absolutely know what you mean. I'm not sure I can face another lockdown but I don't think anything else will work in another 2-3 weeks Xmas Hmm

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