If you've never said "Covid iS jUsT ThE FLu," but do think "Covid is becoming more flu-like, and therefore it's reasonable to gradually treat it more and more like flu" you might be a Covid centrist.

[greenteafiend]

I've heard the phrase "Covid centrist" being tried out for size quite a bit on Twitter and think that we could do with mainstreaming the term a bit more.

The great majority of people I know, including myself, have always understood that Covid has represented a significant threat to the world, have (mostly) stuck to the various rules and restrictions, albeit with some grumbling, and have happily had our vaccines and encouraged our friends and families to do the same.

We do not, however, wish to engage in a pointless "ever-war" against Covid, and believe that as the threat from the virus diminishes and tails off into the endemic phase, that the way we handle and treat Covid should respond in the same manner and that we should gradually start moving towards treating it more and more like seasonal flu.

It's therefore extra frustrating when the people in the public sphere speaking out the risks or harms of allowing restrictions to drag on for years on end tend to be the Laurence Foxes and Toby Youngs of this would, who have a lot of really unpleasant politics in general and who seem to have a lot of really stupid and unscientific beliefs about the virus itself, including being openly or covertly anti-vaccine. Whenever I've tried to point out the risks of being to quick to do things that damage children's education, for example, I feel like I'm being lumped in with those people. And I'm not one of them!

Pro-vaccine, pro-most-restrictions-while-getting-the-jabs rolled out, but anti-living-with-endless-restrictions-that-drag-on-forever people... are you there? Do you feel the same way? I feel like we need a label for ourselves if we want to make traction!

I think the trouble lies in the idea that there are people who want the restrictions to go on forever, and I don’t think that’s true. People just want to feel safe, that’s it.

The concern with the new variant is surely that it might escape the vaccine. So it's not really up to what we think or how we want it to be so, but about medical fact. All signs are that it's getting milder and that's what everyone wants.

Why the need to label this thinking as covid centrist? It's what most scientists, medical professionals and general public understand and also want. One can think this way and also agree that caution is still required as we discover more about the virus.

Labels just helps create division.

I feel the same OP and it is frustrating, we have developed a whole new language around covid and I find that very disconcerting. There were and always have been CV people of which a cold could prove fatal, "long covid" surely that is a version of post viral fatigue syndrome which has been in existence forever. Yet say any of that you get screams of "selfish" it is tiring.

I'm glad the government (who I don't support) is holding it's nerve thanks to the back benches who are rightly pointing out that the cost of lockdowns outweighs the benefits. We have the vaccines, in triple jabbed - if we don't start living now when will we? I'll await the cries of "what about the NHS" and you won't get treatment if you need it, but honestly it is "overwhelmed" each and every winter and is a failing organisation for a variety of reasons of which covid is one.

I'm bored with smart arse names

Covid centrist? You know what, I like that!

Labels definitely create more division, I can happily accept I will have one opinion this week about the virus and have the opposite next week. That probably makes me more “centralist” as my opinions and feelings change as and when the pinions of the scientists and data does do.

@Xmasprrssiehelp

Labels definitely create more division, I can happily accept I will have one opinion this week about the virus and have the opposite next week. That probably makes me more “centralist” as my opinions and feelings change as and when the pinions of the scientists and data does do.

I agree. I think it’s important to be mentally flexible about this thing. I see a lot of people on Twitter choosing a camp and then filtering information on vaccine efficacy, severity of new variants etc through that particular lens.

"Covid centrist" being tried out for size quite a bit on Twitter
Oh look yet another divisive label.
You do you, I'll do me. I don't want a label ta.

@Pumperthepumper

I think the trouble lies in the idea that there are people who want the restrictions to go on forever, and I don’t think that’s true. People just want to feel safe, that’s it.

Oh there are definitely people who want some of them to go on forever. But there are also a lot more people who basically want restrictions kept in place indefinitely for as long as it makes them feel safer, which they maybe don’t think is ‘forever’ but looks effectively indistinguishable from ‘forever’ from the outside.

@youkiddingme

"Covid centrist" being tried out for size quite a bit on Twitter Oh look yet another divisive label. You do you, I'll do me. I don't want a label ta.

This. All these labels are getting ridiculous now.

tbh though I think most people always were in the middle ground, and it’s the “not a real pandemic unless you see people dying in the streets” people on the one extreme and the “we’ll just have to reorganise all of human society forever, the virus doesn’t care if that makes you sad” people on the other extreme who need descriptive labels.

I don't think labels are helpful at all but this is about where I am right now.

I'm fully jabbed, stuck to all of the rules during the first 3 lockdowns and am still being cautious so wear a mask when in shops etc, lft if seeing older people but I also think we need to start to live with it.

I'm aware this may change if the virus changes to be more dangerous but at the moment it seems to be slightly weaker which is a step in the right direction.

I think the powers that be need to know case numbers but feel that the public no longer need this data as cases don't appear to be translating into hospitalisation etc like before.

Most older and CEV people I know feel the same.

I’m not a fan of labels such as “Covid Centrist” because labels beget tribes and once you have tribes, you have othering and intolerance: “Those people over there have a different view so they must be bad”. And frankly we’ve all fucking well had enough of that.

Oh there are definitely people who want some of them to go on forever. But there are also a lot more people who basically want restrictions kept in place indefinitely for as long as it makes them feel safer, which they maybe don’t think is ‘forever’ but looks effectively indistinguishable from ‘forever’ from the outside.

I think this is a big problem. There are lot of people for whom the "The virus is not going away" penny has not dropped yet. They want a lot of restrictions to carry on until the virus basically vanishes, like the original SARS did, but Covid 19 seems to be a very different kind of beast.

It reminds me of the way some people (mostly on the political right, rather than the left) reacted after 9/11 in the United States. Wanting things to be "done" about terrorism until they felt "safe," but of course terrorism is never going to disappear so you are talking about an undefeatable enemy.

We're still engaging in a lot of mad security theater at airports to make people feel "safe," so I have a feeling that some of the Covid theater will take a really long time to disappear.

I also think that some people have just been kind of damaged by the last 23 months and will never really recover in psychological terms.

This is def my stance on covid. I think it's also far more common than the OP suggests - in fact may even be the dominant position. Most people I know are of this view, this includes those who work in the NHS (earlier this evening I picked up my daughter from a play date at a friend's house - both friends parents are both doctors and seen a lot of the grim side of it and they were reflecting views exactly like those the OP has outlined). I do have a few slightly cautious friends, interestingly none of whom work in healthcare. Small sample of course, but interesting.

I agree with what the OP is says on around finding that views critical of lockdown means you get lumped in with the mad covid deniers. However, I think there is a bit of a shift. Some of the (more cautious) scientists are talking about the cost of some of the restrictions (see https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/24/omicron-britain-schools-remain-open-children-covid?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other but o advise looking at the comments - the covid doomsayers are out in force, or at least they were yesterday)

I'm more of a COVID pragmatist... A balance will have to be found between protecting the population from what can still be a very nasty disease, and allowing society to keep functioning.

I'm afraid the latter will always trump the former in practice (whether we like it or not). I imagine life expectancy will drop as a result. Not a happy thought. But there isn't really that much choice. Lockdowns and other drastic restrictions are unsustainable.

I agree about schools being kept open. It should always be a top priority. Like health care and food retail. I've always argued for them being kept open right from the start

But some of the rest of this 'centrist' stuff still sounds like covid denial
This for example
...and [we] believe that as the threat from the virus diminishes and tails off into the endemic phase, that the way we handle and treat Covid should respond in the same manner and that we should gradually start moving towards treating it more and more like seasonal flu.

I think it makes perfect sense that someone may have been pro lockdown in March 2020 but not in Jan 2022. The cost / benefit of lockdowns has changed (I always thought lockdowns were too high a cost for the benefit but that is even more the case now). People should change their views to reflect the changing landscape, most notably that vaccines make covid a much less dangerous illness.

A lockdown until most people are vaccinated or until we knew how dangerous covid was is different to a perpetual cycle of lockdowns to slow transmission of a disease which we have protected people against as far as we can with vaccines and which is very likely to infect everyone at some point anyway. I think people who still want lockdowns and restrictions now want them permanently (though they may not see if that way as they may still think covid will disappear at some point).

@Wizzbangfizz

I feel the same OP and it is frustrating, we have developed a whole new language around covid and I find that very disconcerting. There were and always have been CV people of which a cold could prove fatal, "long covid" surely that is a version of post viral fatigue syndrome which has been in existence forever. Yet say any of that you get screams of "selfish" it is tiring.

I'm glad the government (who I don't support) is holding it's nerve thanks to the back benches who are rightly pointing out that the cost of lockdowns outweighs the benefits. We have the vaccines, in triple jabbed - if we don't start living now when will we? I'll await the cries of "what about the NHS" and you won't get treatment if you need it, but honestly it is "overwhelmed" each and every winter and is a failing organisation for a variety of reasons of which covid is one.

Totally agree with this post

The problem with using the term covid centrist is what are the other terms then? The terms will then become divisive as we insult each other with them and use them to shut down debate and discussion.

Labeling yourself a centrist is just marketing - trying to give your views a sheen of reasonableness whether or not they are actually reasonable, just by using that label for them. Labels just encourage tribalism. I'd rather see people debating things for themselves, maybe agreeing on some things but not others, than try to find a 'tribe' that matches them.

Ok so let’s say Covid is like the flu… and just became a very transmissible flu with the omicron variant.

That means we need to go with the flu pandemic plan for a super transmissible flu right?

Not do nothing.

@mintfuschia

Labeling yourself a centrist is just marketing - trying to give your views a sheen of reasonableness whether or not they are actually reasonable, just by using that label for them. Labels just encourage tribalism. I'd rather see people debating things for themselves, maybe agreeing on some things but not others, than try to find a 'tribe' that matches them.

This is so true.