Is the pandemic over for good?

[Ashleighz88]

Is the pandemic finally over for good? I really can't see it getting worse again now Or am I naive?

The flu has been here for over one hundred years and will continue to be here

Covid is no different. It will still be here long after we've gone

@Avocadoandlemons - that’s great news. Do you have a source for that please?

The need for restrictions in the UK is over. It’s still around and people will get it and need a few days at home to recover and then just get back to normality.
Any variants will be weaker.

Why would it mutate into a more deadly form?

And I could understand the argument of it might continue to mutate into worse forms unless everyone in the world is vaccinated IF the vaccines stopped it being passed on etc etc.

Can no one just be happy? Why are there people who want to bring doom at any cost?Any one of us can walk out of our front door this morning and get hit by a truck.

Don’t waste your lives handwringing.

Yeah those terrible uft lot. Wanting children to be properly educated, safeguarded and play with friends. I even think they should shut the windows in school when it's cold. DD's teacher agrees and is quietly rebelling but told off for it. I think the cold will drive her out before covid

[quote ForFe]@Avocadoandlemons - that’s great news. Do you have a source for that please?[/quote]
There are loads :-)

Here is one

Honestly. It's over. Time for mumsnet to take the covid board down! Yay!!!!

(Sorry covid bedwetters but you'll need to get a new hobby)

www.nature.com/articles/s41579-018-0118-9

@TheKeatingFive You started well but then resorted to the normal v. poor response of "you worry yourself blah blah ...." which i never said at all nor am i...

I just don't believe anyone, even you, can say with any degree of certainty CV won't return in a more virulent form and it doesn't need much in the way of vaccine escape to cause mayhem in the NHS, which it is having right now, with staff off and cancelled operations whenever a patient tests positive.

No it's not. But most people I know don't care about it any more, including me. That doesn't mean we think it's over. It just means that we're not worried about it and won't restrict our lives.

Restrictions in response to long term crisis are likely over, hopefully

Covid will still be around though and will have variants so depends on that too

I remember Sarah Gilbert talking about the direction it would go in and she is good to listen to

@JangolinaPitt

We may need restrictions again in future, depending on what comes up. That's stuff for crystal balls - it'll depend on characteristics of the virus at the point and whether and how far it evades immunity. I don’t think people will be suckered again. Sure there will be a vocal minority clamouring for restrictions but most people understand that the hysteria and panic was misplaced.

Yes, and the government know this.

But I think the mask mandate may be back next winter. The type of restrictions we’ve seen in the past in the form of ridiculous lockdowns I can’t see ever imagining again. The vaccines have been doing what they need to do very well, although some on MN don’t like to think so.

Avocadoandlemons

ForFe
@Avocadoandlemons - that’s great news. Do you have a source for that please?
There are loads :-)

Here is one

Honestly. It's over. Time for mumsnet to take the covid board down! Yay!!!!

(Sorry covid bedwetters but you'll need to get a new hobby)

www.nature.com/articles/s41579-018-0118-9"

Wow, for someone not interested in covid you do a lot of research!

@Sloughsabigplace

Why would it mutate into a more deadly form?

And I could understand the argument of it might continue to mutate into worse forms unless everyone in the world is vaccinated IF the vaccines stopped it being passed on etc etc.

Can no one just be happy? Why are there people who want to bring doom at any cost?Any one of us can walk out of our front door this morning and get hit by a truck.

Don’t waste your lives handwringing.

Tbf some of them are probably genuinely enjoying themselves.

I'm very happy we have a milder form of CV, foreign hols booked for 2022 as they were in 2021 and 2020 nor do i spend time limiting my life on what might happen.

BUT that does not mean i bury my head in the sand and refuse to believe that CV may change again.

The expert virologists say there are no certainties and they are worth listening too.

I just don't believe anyone, even you, can say with any degree of certainty CV won't return in a more virulent form

And I didn't say that. Go back and read my posts again.

Thanks so much @Avocadoandlemons!

The pandemic isn’t over. We absolutely need to live with covid but ignoring it and dropping everything when cases are so high and pretending it’s over is wrong. Omicron is still covid. Covid is a nasty illness that can and still does cause damage to our organs. It’s not always ‘mild.’ Lots of people with what’s classed as mild covid have issues months later. Hundreds are still dying but we seem blind to it now.

It still is causing huge issues it’s just not being reported on. Schools are the worse they’ve been through the pandemic. Our hospital cases have dropped a little but still busy with it. It’s contagious and so easily spread even with IC measures. Much higher than we had with delta that had stabilised with vaccines. This is because case numbers are still high so that small amount of people that get sick is higher. Some are of course in with other things and illness is absolutely less severe than a year ago.

I’m NOT talking lockdowns just basic mitigations like masks and testing are sensible while cases and deaths are consistently high.

Schools absolutely need help for ventilation etc. kids getting infected 2/3 times in short amounts of time is not on we don’t have long term data on how it can affect their organs and health in the long term.

@Rainbowbrite2022

The pandemic isn’t over. We absolutely need to live with covid but ignoring it and dropping everything when cases are so high and pretending it’s over is wrong. Omicron is still covid. Covid is a nasty illness that can and still does cause damage to our organs. It’s not always ‘mild.’ Lots of people with what’s classed as mild covid have issues months later. Hundreds are still dying but we seem blind to it now.

It still is causing huge issues it’s just not being reported on. Schools are the worse they’ve been through the pandemic. Our hospital cases have dropped a little but still busy with it. It’s contagious and so easily spread even with IC measures. Much higher than we had with delta that had stabilised with vaccines. This is because case numbers are still high so that small amount of people that get sick is higher. Some are of course in with other things and illness is absolutely less severe than a year ago.

I’m NOT talking lockdowns just basic mitigations like masks and testing are sensible while cases and deaths are consistently high.

Schools absolutely need help for ventilation etc. kids getting infected 2/3 times in short amounts of time is not on we don’t have long term data on how it can affect their organs and health in the long term.

People keep saying this but masks do not seem to be helping a jot in similar EU countries. Infection rates in France and Germany are higher than ours with stricter mask mandates. Cases in Spain are similar levels to the UK too.

People keep saying omicron is milder but my understanding is the real reason it is milder is mainly because of the high level of immunity. It's actually quite a dangerous thing to keep saying as it's one of the reasons booster uptake has stalled.

Our school has the most cases they’ve ever had, several children off in most classes. Don’t think anyone is reporting this to government, dunno.

Omnicron is peaking in different regions at different dates obviously.

That said, from end Feb cases will fall dramatically and things will be pretty normal over Spring and Summer and then there will be another, smaller but still problematic, wave Nov-Feb. Then that’ll be the end of it basically.

People keep saying omicron is milder but my understanding is the real reason it is milder is mainly because of the high level of immunity.

Tests in animals indicate much less severe disease because it is much less good at infecting the lungs.

So no, not entirely.

Though high immunity levels will also be helping hugely.

Not over.

Changing, yes. We’re heading into the next phase of it IMO.

I was listening to a microbiologist on the radio last week and he said that COVID is here to stay. He explained that there will be times where it goes from pandemic to endemic and vice versa. There will be different mutations and some strains will be more severe than others, but there will also be very mild strains. There will be times when we will live with few restrictions but other times when more restrictions will need to be put in place.

We will learn to live with it and as time goes on scientists will learn more and more about it.

@Cookerhood

People keep saying omicron is milder but my understanding is the real reason it is milder is mainly because of the high level of immunity. It's actually quite a dangerous thing to keep saying as it's one of the reasons booster uptake has stalled.

Yes and no. Both are true actually. Yes, immunity levels from both vaccination and prior infection help enormously.

But omicron is also less severe. Not a huge amount in percentage terms but it also behaves differently pathologically. Or at least — its make-up means that it is less likely to cause severe disease in most people. (Although of course it can still do that for a small number of people.)

So actually it’s a bit of both. Although it would be correct to say that we’d be in a far, far worse position if we didn’t have a big majority of the adult population vaccinated.

@TheKeatingFive

No it's not over (never will be) but it is no longer an extreme threat from a public health POV and is unlikely to be again (though no guarantees).

Pretty much agree. It's moved from an acute healthcare threat which we all need to be guarding against to just one of those other things which is always out there in the background.

I don't think we will see lockdowns again.

Although it does annoy me that posters say everything is back to normal when talking about England. In Scotland we still have masks which have been compulsory since July 2020. masks in schools, work from home / hybrid working, one-metre social distancing, vaccine passports, "flow before you go", recommendation you mix with no more than 3 other households, have to check in or leave your contact details at indoor hospitality, restrictions on visiting in hospitals/care homes....

I think it's going to be really hard for some people to adjust as restrictions do relax. Many, including some in my family, have spent the last 2 years being very scared of doing anything.

It's never over till the lady sings