End game

[screwcovid]

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

When the new world order is in.

Lets face it we haven't even started on plan b restrictions yet and they are already talking g about implementing plan c in a few weeks like wtf how can you even decide that if you haven't seen if plan b is working. Going off sage model which has time and time agin been wrong infact when has it ever been right?

If people can't see through the complete bs well we are fucked.

Preventive proactive measures beat reactive panicked actions.

Far better than 'let the bodies pile up' (and further ruin the economy) is a strong vaccination programme (including tweaked vaccines if need be) and simple sensible infection control. Masks, good ventilation (ideally more use of HEPA filters), and vaccine/negative test passes. Like much of the rest of the world is doing.

However, whilst caution for now is prudent, as I say there is a light at the end of the tunnel. In the future we'll have a better arsenal to fight SARS-COV-2.

Vaccines, wider availability of the treatments - the antivirals and the monoclonal antibodies. And also, very importantly, more knowledge.

@Tealightsandd

Yes I agree with you actually. (B) is also true.

I would like to see consistent simple virus control measures instead of some of the more extreme things (school closures, canceling Christmas at the last minute when it was perfectly obvious ages before this would need to happen, random rules about how many of your family you can see at once and ad hoc travel restrictions).

Most of this stuff doesn't actually affect us unless we're trying to see family in the uk. I hope my dad eventually gets his 90th birthday celebration while he is still alive to enjoy it. Otherwise, having to get a doctors note for every mild sniffle the kids develop is a right pain but otherwise our health measures are not too onerous.

consistent simple virus control measures instead of some of the more extreme things (school closures, canceling Christmas at the last minute

Yes you're right.

I really hope your dad gets his 90th celebration

Masks, good ventilation (ideally more use of HEPA filters), and vaccine/negative test passes. Like much of the rest of the world is doing.

They're doing all this like whoa in Korea, and cases are still going mad right now. Ditto most of continental Europe.

I am pro ventilation and vaccines, and I am happy to wear masks this winter. I am however very skeptical that these nice little tweaks are going to do much. To a certain extent we are going to have to comfortable with the virus spreading each winter.

There is no end game, because this poxy virus is endemic now.

We'll just keep hearing about different variants and probably get different vaccines every year.

Marking my spot for when we are in the same situation next Christmas!
Hope those of you who have faith that this is the beginning of the end are right though!
Would love nothing more than to see that my worries were all wrong.

If you actually listened to what was said in the last press conference, we are being prepared for there being no more NPIs. I've not made up my mind whether we're also being buttered up for mandatory vaccinations (god I hope not despite being triple jabbed, I believe everyone should have a choice about what goes in to their body), but Boris definitely spoke about the fact that we couldn't keep going in to restrictions.

I reckon that we'll have a couple more months of them investigating this new varient (with more and more of the good news stories being leaked about it) and then testing will start to be ramped down.

If and it is a big If, this varient is less dangerous/more like a cold, then that's a good thing. Yes some people will still get ill and some will die, but people were getting seriously ill and dying after a common cold pre-2020.

@paranoidnamechanger

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

Hope not!!

They're doing all this like whoa in Korea, and cases are still going mad right now. Ditto most of continental Europe.

South Korea's situation (probably North Korea too tbh) cannot possibly be compared in any way to the UK.

Cases going up from a much lower level and equally far lower numbers of hospitalisations. A very low death rate too.

Why? Because, like you say, cases start to rise - in part due to waning immunity (common with many vaccines hence top up/boosters). But here's the major difference. They're taking swift preventative mitigations. To avoid becoming a high risk country like the UK.

Likewise continental Europe. In no way as good as East Asia wrt mitigations and therefore case numbers, hospitalisations, and deaths. But mostly far more proactive and consequently better position than the UK.

I think I've got my head around annual jabs - or even semi annual. I just hope they can eventually create nasal sprays like with the flu jab. I also hope they invent some tests that are easier to take as those nasal swabs are pretty horrible particularly for littlies.

I was reading about China, which has largely battened down. No one in, no one out.

I honestly think the only way forward is to significantly limit travel. I know it will destroy the travel industry, but mass cheap movement of people must stop. We have to return to the days of jet-setting being only for the rich. Tough on the likes of most of us, but tant pis.

Even when people immigrated to America back in the day they had to ensure they weren’t importing TB, cholera, typhus etc. Free movement around the world has actually taken away our freedom now.

We would never know of it's successful or not there will we.