I feel like crying I've had enough

[LifesTooShortYOLO]

I made a conscious decision to try and switch off from the media stories and coronavirus news and just try and get in with our lives.
I had been feeling mentally a lot better and almost forgot about covid in the sense of not seeing it in your face every where you turn on social media etc.
Now it's everywhere again 'Plans for plan c' 'lockdown imminent' 'data suggests this wave will be the worst one yet' 'modelling shows new strain could cause 75,000 feather in 5 months'
Are just some of the headlines I've seen today and I just feel so fed up.
Why are we still talking about lockdowns 2 years on?
I'm just so done with it all, it feels like there never will be a normal again, just when we start to get back to doing normal things you get taken back to square one again and told we may have to lockdown or have further restrictions brought back in. It's just so draining 😩

@Florianus

In every single thread about covid is this weird black and white, all or nothing mentality. I don't get it at all. "Oh well if it's not 100% effective, there's no point in bothering" whether it's about vaccines, masks, vaccine passports, or anything else. Is critical thinking REALLY that bad in this country?

You have totally missed the point, megustalacerveza, which is that it is the media that is falsely portraying the situation as black and white with headlines such as "Booster Can Stop Omicron". Having a booster jab will not necessarily stop you being infected by Omicron.

But it is very likely to prevent you from getting very sick. I agree the headline is a bit misleading but the main idea is correct.

@TatianaBis

I never would have thought last Christmas that we could be facing the same restrictions for this Christmas, or that early 2022 could bring another lockdown.

Really? You didn’t think winter is flu season so unless the pandemic is actually over - this Christmas will likely be like last?

People seem to have disappointed themselves by not thinking rationally what was actually likely.

No, I was naive enough to think that we would continue to be cautious and have mitigations in place during 2021, and that almost everyone would be vaccinated.

You do realise most of the rest of the world is having a normal Christmas, right?

@Lunaduckdrop

In March 2020 I read up about previous pandemics. These indicate that although things tend to improve year on year, with the obvious seasonal ups and downs, it tends to be about 5 years before things are something like pre-pandemic. I've tried to keep this as my perspective - not overpromising and under-delivering to myself, while getting out, seeing friends and family and doing stuff when I can.

My heart goes out to those with businesses and those who have lost jobs. And also to all the children whose education has been disrupted and to all the babies born into this distopia , and to those living alone.

I will wear a mask when necessary, as that doesn't bother me, but I will be having all my family here for Christmas, whatever the rules say at that point.

My information comes from the Zoe podcats and from listening to what scientists are saying, not from the news, which is just media hype and over-simplification - the "black and white" referred to by others - when in reality we have just shades of grey and a lot of unknowns. We are living with uncertainty, and that's a difficult thing to do.

This is what the government should have been saying at the beginning.

The government have really failed in their messaging and flit from impending doom to freedom day and ignoring everything in between about how pandemics actually play out.

They need to be honest with the population about how the next few years are likely to look.

You do realise most of the rest of the world is having a normal Christmas, right?

What like Germany with its lockdown for the unvaxxed?. Turkey, Russia, France and Germany have roughly the same amount of cases as us.

@TatianaBis

You do realise most of the rest of the world is having a normal Christmas, right?

What like Germany with its lockdown for the unvaxxed?. Turkey, Russia, France and Germany have roughly the same amount of cases as us.

Well, the German lockdown doesn't affect vaccinated people, does it? My friend there will be seeing all her extended family over Christmas.

You've just named four countries. Do you know how many countries there are in the world?

@yellowgreysocks five years is what you'd expect with zero interventions. It was expected to be more like two years to start reaching normality with the vaccines we had.

@megustalacerveza

Unvaxxed in lockdown affects everyone. It’s not a normal Christmas.

I’m surprised to hear there are more than 4 countries in the world, do enlighten me further.

[quote TatianaBis]@megustalacerveza

Unvaxxed in lockdown affects everyone. It’s not a normal Christmas.

I’m surprised to hear there are more than 4 countries in the world, do enlighten me further.[/quote]
Well your point was silly, wasn't it? I said 'most of the rest of the world' and you named a fraction of the countries in the world as if that negated my point.

Again, most of the rest of the world is having a normal Christmas, and they had a largely normal 2021 as well. Perhaps that's why travel rules have been so silly - if we actually left the UK we'd realise how much better it is almost everywhere else.

megustalacerveza

The UK is open, everything is open and in full festive flow without vaccine passports and we will be having a normal Christmas come what may, which is more than can be said for huge swathes of Europe. So I am not actually sure what you are talking about. We have been fully open since mid July and will continue to be until the end of the year. Many are forcing mandatory vaccines, passports etc and that is not ethical either.

If you know anything about geography and virus seasonality you would understand that other countries in the world are not in the middle of their winter season, Russia and Europe are being hit by a winter wave was predicted and totally in line with expectations.

But it is very likely to prevent you from getting very sick. I agree the headline is a bit misleading but the main idea is correct.

The trouble is that people remember the headlines. So, when it's time for a 4th jab, as will inevitably happen, the usual suspects will claim "We were told that the booster would stop Covid", now they are saying it hasn't and that we now need more jabs.

@Fairylights25

megustalacerveza

The UK is open, everything is open and in full festive flow without vaccine passports and we will be having a normal Christmas come what may, which is more than can be said for huge swathes of Europe. So I am not actually sure what you are talking about. We have been fully open since mid July and will continue to be until the end of the year. Many are forcing mandatory vaccines, passports etc and that is not ethical either.

If you know anything about geography and virus seasonality you would understand that other countries in the world are not in the middle of their winter season, Russia and Europe are being hit by a winter wave was predicted and totally in line with expectations.

Oh right, you're one of THOSE people. You think vaccine passports are a bad thing rather than a way for people to continue normal life during a pandemic.

Well, I hope you enjoy the lockdown after xmas.

@Florianus

But it is very likely to prevent you from getting very sick. I agree the headline is a bit misleading but the main idea is correct.

The trouble is that people remember the headlines. So, when it's time for a 4th jab, as will inevitably happen, the usual suspects will claim "We were told that the booster would stop Covid", now they are saying it hasn't and that we now need more jabs.

I think the main problem is that the scientists just didn't know. Early on, it DID look like two jabs would do the trick. Rather than understanding that medicine and science is adapting to changing circumstances, people would rather believe they've been purposely lied to so they could be 'controlled'.

It's a very childish attitude.

It seems never ending and everyone is entitled to be feeling a bit shit about it all, especially in the run up to Xmas. Again!!!!

Here’s my thoughts on what we need to accept and what needs to happen.

There will always be viruses that mutate and kill people. Humans are not infallible.

The vaccination works but we need to administer it globally as it’s a global pandemic.

The government sets a deadline for vaccinations by age bracket, after which folk get put down the priority list whilst the next lot are vaccinated, making vaccinations possible but not as easy to get.
Vaccinations are then sent to third world countries. There is no point in triple boosting here if virus is still running amok and mutating in other countries, it’s selfish.
Once our vaccination programme is complete we deal with the back log of other medical issues as a priority. Unvaccinated Covid patients do not take priority over general patients with life threatening issues in need of icu beds.

We move on with life. Harsh decisions but this is not Utopia we live in.

[quote megustalacerveza]@yellowgreysocks five years is what you'd expect with zero interventions. It was expected to be more like two years to start reaching normality with the vaccines we had.[/quote]
Clearly not!

It's pretty evident that this isn't going to be over with in 2 years. There's many more years of 2 steps forward, 1 step back. All while going in a forward trajectory. It'll get there but a new disease was never going to be normalised in such a short period of time.

I'm behind in the international news
I thought Germany and Austria had moved to full lockdown for all?

@yellowgreysocks yes, NOW it's clear that it isn't true, but it wasn't clear in March 2020. Plenty of experts thought it would be pretty much done and dusted by March 2022.

The problem here in the UK and other countries in northern Europe was we were arrogant enough to try to go back to 'normality' far too quickly. The countries that accepted that masks, social distancing and other NPIs would be a thing for several years are doing much, much better.

It's not all arrogance.
That neat theory does that explain low vaccine uptake, high seroprevalence, low death rate in Japan.

@HopefulHetty

It's not all arrogance. That neat theory does that explain low vaccine uptake, high seroprevalence, low death rate in Japan.

Not sure what you're talking about. Are you saying Japan is coming out worse than we are? South Korea? China?

@TatianaBis

I never would have thought last Christmas that we could be facing the same restrictions for this Christmas, or that early 2022 could bring another lockdown.

Really? You didn’t think winter is flu season so unless the pandemic is actually over - this Christmas will likely be like last?

People seem to have disappointed themselves by not thinking rationally what was actually likely.

How do we think rationally about something we’ve never gone through before?

The vaccination works but we need to administer it globally as it’s a global pandemic

It's very difficult to administer the vaccine to people who refuse to be jabbed. Only a few weeks ago, South Africa asked Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer Inc. to suspend delivery of Covid-19 vaccines as they had ample stocks due to large sections of the population resuing to be jabbed. The same problem has occured in a number of African countries.

refusing

@Florianus

The vaccination works but we need to administer it globally as it’s a global pandemic

It's very difficult to administer the vaccine to people who refuse to be jabbed. Only a few weeks ago, South Africa asked Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer Inc. to suspend delivery of Covid-19 vaccines as they had ample stocks due to large sections of the population resuing to be jabbed. The same problem has occured in a number of African countries.

Exactly. It's actually quite patronising the way so many British people talk about 'those poor Africans' and how we should refuse our boosters so they could get jabbed. The main problem in Africa isn't supply, it's take-up.

@megustalacerveza

Well your point was silly, wasn't it? I said 'most of the rest of the world' and you named a fraction of the countries in the world as if that negated my point.

You said originally ‘trotw’ and I simply gave examples of countries that didn’t apply. Most of Europe is affected. It’s not as if those countries are outliers.

If you want to talk about silly, that would be thinking the pandemic would be over by Christmas.

[quote TatianaBis]@megustalacerveza

Well your point was silly, wasn't it? I said 'most of the rest of the world' and you named a fraction of the countries in the world as if that negated my point.

You said originally ‘trotw’ and I simply gave examples of countries that didn’t apply. Most of Europe is affected. It’s not as if those countries are outliers.

If you want to talk about silly, that would be thinking the pandemic would be over by Christmas.[/quote]
No, I originally said most of the rest of the world. It's there in black and white. Stop lying.

I never said I thought the pandemic would be over by Christmas. You really need to work on your reading comprehension, hun.

I never said I thought the pandemic would be over by Christmas. You really need to work on your reading comprehension, hun.

And you need to work on your historical allusions, WWI ring any bells? (hun)

Perhaps your history is as shaky as your geography, which would explain the failure to grasp that the Southern Hemisphere is not in winter flu season.