Get rid of all restrictions

[AnEpisodeOfEastenders]

I think it's time for all restrictions to be removed. There has been plenty of time for people to be vaccinated / boosted that want to, those that can't or don't should take their own precautions.

If we test positive then we shouldn't need to isolate, shouldn't need to declare it and should just treat it as a normal cough / cold / illness. If you feel up to going to work, out to the pub, seeing friends or family then do so. Everyone I know who have had it say they feel fine.

Life has been disrupted for far too long, the costs associated are astronomical and will be a crippling debt for generations to come.

@BooksAndGin

Completely agree.

Nobody would know what covid even was, if the media didn't bang on about it 24/7.

@BooksAndGin No, but they would be very vocal if due to ill staff, their children can't attend school, if food is on short supply, if they or family members are unable to attend hospital, not access an ambulance quickly or emergency treatment for an accident.

Agree. I think the NHS is inefficient though, as is much of the public sector. I say this as someone who works in the public sector. It’s infuriating to hear that people want “more money pumped in” just to fuel more shambles but nothing changes.

@WiseUpJanetWeiss Who's administering the monoclonal antibodies?

@Blubells

Not all people have had time to get boosted at all.

These 'boosters' only last 5-10 weeks anyway so we're never all going to be protected using them..!

We need to build up immunity from vaccines and infection.

Omicron is spreading soo fast, everyone will eventually come into contact. As long as the hospitals can cope, then I agree we need to try to live our lives as normally as possible.

Please stop spreading false information about the boosters.

Protection from boosters has been shown to start to wane at 10weeks, those are the facts as we currently know them.

Show me where there is a credible evidence based clinical study that identifies booster protection ends at 5 weeks.

This is pure anti-vaxx nonsense.

@Kshhuxnxk

Agree and I am CEV but this is no life.

Me too and I agree 100% enough is enough.

@rrhuth

But as a society we have to decide.

Also this idea is horrific.

The idea that 'society' is qualified to decide on this.

We have a representative democracy (of sorts). Parliament has to decide on this. That is correct.

The primary reason why we have so many problems right now in the UK is because we have a Government that is deciding policies by public opinion during a Pandemic.

The reason why Pandemic management plans exist is so you can respond quickly by doing A, B or C while devoting most of your resources to solving the more complex problems (like vaccine development, production, and distribution).

If you dither (which is what Boris is doing to keep his political party happy) and you do not do A, B or C quickly (no matter how unpopular they may be with the public) you will get more people dying, and even more economic damage vs having restrictions.

They are making the same mistake this time ( Dec 2021) as they did in 2020 (Nov/Dec due to Alpha variant) because Omicron has eliminated too much of the vaccine advantage relative to what we had with the Delta variant.

They 100% know this. They also know far more people will die, and far more economic damage will be done over the next few months.

They are doing this purely for their own internal party politics. The "science" here is 100% against their current decision to have no restrictions until NYE.

England will pay the price for this come Jan 2022.

OP I am CEV triple jabbed and work pt from home. I also do an unpaid virtual voluntary role from home.

What restrictions are you referring to in England? If you mean mask wearing in shops this allows me to feel slightly more comfortable if I have to go to the pharmacy to collect a prescription periodically. Occasionally although I get groceries delivered from a supermarket and have done this weekly since March 2020. I occasionally get bored and visit a small M&S for something nice and different as a treat at a non busy time. If masks are removed my anxiety would be through the roof and I wouldn’t be able to do these two things occasionally. Other than that I walk our dog meet friends occasionally for a walk or certain friends even less often for a coffee somewhere large and spacious if we have all lateral flowed. When mask wearing was scrapped in July I felt awful and just stuck to dog walking and walks with friends I didn’t go inside any buildings.

Boris said in an interview today that up to 90% of Covid patients in ICU are unboosted (note he didn't say 'unvaccinated').

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/29/up-90-covid-patients-icu-unboosted-boris-johnson

My 80 year old dad died of COVID just before Christmas.
I think everyone saying ‘let the old and vulnerable die so we can enjoy ourselves’ are despicable.

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat

Yes you have misunderstood *@rrhuth*

In whch case my apologies and I would be grateful if you could explain to me!

[quote CrunchyCarrot]Boris said in an interview today that up to 90% of Covid patients in ICU are unboosted (note he didn't say 'unvaccinated').

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/29/up-90-covid-patients-icu-unboosted-boris-johnson[/quote]
yes he did and his spokesperson has now had to 'clarify' that this was anecdotal...
twitter.com/KateEMcCann/status/1476143761243656197

[quote CrunchyCarrot]Boris said in an interview today that up to 90% of Covid patients in ICU are unboosted (note he didn't say 'unvaccinated').

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/29/up-90-covid-patients-icu-unboosted-boris-johnson[/quote]
Yep.

Thats the main problem in the UK.

If you were fully vaccinated with AZ over 6 months ago, you are completely exposed to Omicron unless you receive a Booster shot.

The UK used AZ as its primary vaccine, and they started earlier than most countries, which means a very material portion of the fully vaccinated population is once again at risk.

The only difference now is that Omicron appears to be less severe vs Delta. While this may not be a major problem for younger folks, it will be for fully vaccinated (AZ) older folks (60+), and those with pre-existing conditions who have not received a booster shot + 7 days (minimum time for antibody protection to go back up to 70%).

yes he did and his spokesperson has now had to 'clarify' that this was anecdotal...
twitter.com/KateEMcCann/status/1476143761243656197

Bloody hell.

Someone in that Twitter thread said "I heard they tried to use a fact checker on Boris and the fact checker broke." That's about the size of it.

@CrunchyCarrot

yes he did and his spokesperson has now had to 'clarify' that this was anecdotal... *twitter.com/KateEMcCann/status/1476143761243656197*

Bloody hell.

Someone in that Twitter thread said "I heard they tried to use a fact checker on Boris and the fact checker broke." That's about the size of it.

I know I despair!

I know I despair!

facepalm

So are you proposing restrictions indefinitely? @IcedPurple

I don't think we can put an end date on control measures like people staying at home when they have an infectious disease. However if medical treatments improve and we understand what causes severe and long covid, then we can consider dropping or minimising isolation.

Agree. We can't have our lives put on hold and interrupted like this forever. I could get cancer next year and die. And I'd have missed out on so much to try and protect the vulnerable. But none of us are here forever and we should be living our lives to the fullest

I don't think we can put an end date on control measures like people staying at home when they have an infectious disease.

But we don't demand that people stay at home when they have an infectious disease. Only one infectious disease.

And if that disease is mild for the vast majority and there is little risk of services being overwhelmed, why should it go on indefinitely? It's massively disruptive and costly.

@IcedPurple

I don't think we can put an end date on control measures like people staying at home when they have an infectious disease.

But we don't demand that people stay at home when they have an infectious disease. Only one infectious disease.

And if that disease is mild for the vast majority and there is little risk of services being overwhelmed, why should it go on indefinitely? It's massively disruptive and costly.

And if that disease is mild for the vast majority and there is little risk of services being overwhelmed, why should it go on indefinitely

It won't go on idefinitely - so what are you moaning about?

We currently have fairly high risk of services being overwhelmed.

@BootySOS

Agree. We can't have our lives put on hold and interrupted like this forever. I could get cancer next year and die. And I'd have missed out on so much to try and protect the vulnerable. But none of us are here forever and we should be living our lives to the fullest

If you had cancer currently you might be a bit more aware of why restrictions are needed

You and your emojis are incredibly patronising @rrhuth.

Since you clearly consider yourself a cut above everyone else intellectually, surely you should know that if something does not have an 'end date', as in the post I was replying to, that is pretty much the dictionary definition of 'indefinitely'.

indefinitely
[ɪnˈdɛfɪnətli]
ADVERB
for an unlimited or unspecified period of time.
"talks cannot go on indefinitely"
synonyms:
for an unspecified time/period · for an unlimited time/period · without a fixed limit · sine die · forever · for always · for good · for good and all · evermore · [More]
to an unlimited or unspecified degree or extent.
"an indefinitely large number of channels"

@IcedPurple

You and your emojis are incredibly patronising *@rrhuth*.

Since you clearly consider yourself a cut above everyone else intellectually, surely you should know that if something does not have an 'end date', as in the post I was replying to, that is pretty much the dictionary definition of 'indefinitely'.

indefinitely
[ɪnˈdɛfɪnətli]
ADVERB
for an unlimited or unspecified period of time.
"talks cannot go on indefinitely"
synonyms:
for an unspecified time/period · for an unlimited time/period · without a fixed limit · sine die · forever · for always · for good · for good and all · evermore · [More]
to an unlimited or unspecified degree or extent.
"an indefinitely large number of channels"

Your views are...simplistic and prone to exagerration (this seems to be a very common problem in the UK).

We will be facing restrictions of varying degrees until at least 2024.

Thats when there is a fairly good chance we will reach a more endemic steady-state in the Pandemic.

Does that help you?

There has been plenty of time for people to be vaccinated / boosted that want to, those that can't or don't should take their own precautions.

So - the CEV child I know, who has been told by their paediatrician to isolate, along with their family, during this wave - and has not been vaccinated because they are too young, not because they do not want to be - they take their own precautions?

Because you don't want to wear a mask in supermarkets, take an occasional test or have to think about Covid (all so onerous).....

I could understand if we were living in total lockdown again. I could understand then that people would feel that this was excessive to protect the health of the somewhat more vulnerable. However, we are not. We have extremely minimal restrictions - boring, yes, onerous and life changing, no.

@IcedPurple I am sorry to read that you feel patronised. I don't consider myself a cut above anything.

If I understand you correctly, you think that we should have an end date now even though we currently still need isolation and don't yet know when the isolation will no longer be needed?

We clearly still need isolation by your own assessment because you mentioned getting rid of it when we have 'low risk of services being overwhelmed' and that is not the situation we are in, we currently have a fairly high risk of services being overwhelmed.

I shan't use an emoji as you don't like them, but that does seem very confusing to me. Any end date we had now would just be made up.

Any end date we had now would just be made up. and would be misinterpreted again - like the fact that so many people complained because 'freedom day' turned out not to be irreversible in the face of an exceptionally contagious new variant emerging in midwinter - who knew???