It's all over isn't it?

[Bornslippery]

Just that really. Thankfully. Used to have a high temp twice a year and spent a few days in bed (few times knocked me for 6 and spent a week in bed as feeling so rubbish). So no change there for most. Seems it's normal again now. Been abroad twice this year and it feels no different than before.

I have two kids at school ,they had a normal year in the last academic year ,exams back to normal etc, they are advised to stsy home if they feel unwell for 3 or 5 days but testing isn't compulsory anyway and kids would normally stay off for a few days if they were unwell .

That's good. We had a number of teachers and pupils off so it was a struggle at times. All overseas school sports tours were cancelled (appreciate it's a nice to have but the kids are still missing out). Exams were based on reduced content due to the disrupted teaching over the course of the last two years,

Also a tough year for any U6 doing Uni applications due to the hangover from the previous year's TAGs, the number of pupils therefore getting their grades and the need to persuade students to defer. This led to a smaller number of places available for this year's applicants.

None of these were insurmountable but neither were our kids 'back to normal'. May be different if you don't have kids sitting exams or are at primary school where missing a few lessons isn't quite such an issue.

it’s not lockdown, but it’s still more than 3 - 4 months of the harshest restrictions.

as for education my youngest has special needs and was just thrown totally under the bus. Now in third year in secondary and still struggling. Eldest absolutely aced his exams but there have been amendments to the curriculum and also the constant worry of Covid and having to isolate even right up to exams so most definitely not normal.

It's most definitely not all over. If the virus mutates again we may be back to square one with ineffective vaccines.

Hahaha to the 3-4 months thing.

Schools in Scotland were closed March - August 2020 and January - April 2021. 2 years running national exams cancelled. My eldest started university in October 2021 and because of Covid, was only in Uni 6 times in the whole of his first year. Scotland only ditched the masks in Easter 2022. We had repeated shutdowns of hospitality, weren't allowed to socialise inside for months and were up and down the tiers/levels too many times to remember. For much of 2021, it was illegal for me to leave my local authority area for non-essential reasons. My son is now into his 3rd year at secondary school and since he started there have been no parents' evenings, no assemblies, no social events.

This minimising of the "oh it was just 3 months" is plain bollocks. If you are the sort of person who pre-pandemic never went anywhere, doesn't have kids at school or teenagers at uni you may not have been through the worst of it, but COME ON.

And in Scotland we are still not back to normal. I needed to go to the main library in Edinburgh this week to look at archive material. Appointments booked in advance, limited capacity, quarantining documents. Because Covid.

Everanewbie that is what I meant to say - but you said it far better 😀

It's not over- I caught it at the beginning of July, it affected my heart and am now having loads of hospital tests and we had to cancel our holiday

not a lockdown lover it affected my elderly mother and children badly but "craziness of lockdowns "as said by previous poster ? are you forgetting there were no vaccines ??? hence lockdown was necessary.

It was overthebow who was talking about craziness of lockdowns.Also remember it suits this government to forget about covid and keep the tills ringing.I think fine but it wouldn't hurt for people to wear masks on transport like they are doing in Italy and also shops especially with winter coming

Yes it’s all over, which in reality means the government can continue to ignore people with “long covid” and not provide help, financial assistance or even an agreed care package for people whose life has been detrimentally affected by “just a cold”.

It’s amazing for some people that they are vaccinated and are only mildly ill if they catch covid now, but not everyone is in that position and it seems a bit of a lottery in who does become impacted. I’ve heard of plenty of fit, healthy people taking months to get back on their feet after being ill.

It doesn’t feel over to me. I tested positive on Thursday (symptoms from Wednesday) for the first time. I feel really rough. It feels like flu, certainly not just a cold for me. This will be day 4 spent mostly in bed. Just hoping it gets no worse. I am 50 and triple vaxed. Was eagerly awaiting my winter booster but the bastard got me first! I have been pretty careful. I still mostly shop online, wfh and don’t attend any large gatherings.

I am assuming DS (15) picked it up at a group activity, He was really ill for a day, then a little better. He got up yesterday afternoon and has just reported he is feeling better today. He is 2 days ahead of me (positive tues and symptoms from mon).

There have been a lot of people I know who have got it recently. Some for the first time. Every week at work there seems mention that someone new has it. There have been a few mentions on facebook too.

We are supposed to be going on holiday in a few days time so I am going to try and move the dates. That will be the 3rd booked holiday disrupted due to Covid.

My SEN kid got fuck all too when schools were shut, although tbf so did the other one. I will not forget or forgive that they were considered unworthy of education whilst other children were afforded it.

@Bornslippery it's quite arrogant to think that if something doesn't affect you or your circles, it must be 'over' for everyone. Surely you have a little more insight into the wider world than that....

Lots of children with SEN in special schools went under the bus. If everyone in the school has a ehcp then no one was a priority child. Luckily or unlucky for us my sin also has a disability social worker so went In full time but he is so far behind now I'm actually paying for a tutor and he's got severe learning difficulties

No, it isn’t. We’re just all pretending it is because the figures aren’t published every day.
I shall be very pleased when we receive our autumn boosters.

I'm not trying to be hostile, and I genuinely understand that for some people COVID is more serious to me, and also some people have a different perception of risk. So my question to you is in two parts. Firstly, what does "all over" look like to you, given that experts are now more or less unanimous that COVID cannot be eradicated, and secondly, given that you think that it is not "all over" how should the public act and the government legislate?

It depends what you mean by all over- covid isn't as it will always be around, but yes largely restrictions are over. People are still dying from it or having long lasting effects from it though so i wouldn't be tooting the horn too much yet. My wonderful father was near to discharge from hospital when he caught it and he died- he wasn't overly old and was in good health aside from the op he went in for (which was on a joint so not a major organ) so reasonably had many years left in him had it not been for covid. He was triple jabbed, no conditions at all and very fit and healthy- we also couldn't go see him due to it. This was very recently. Be mindful that in some settings they are still reasonably taking measures to protect people even if you are fortunate enough to not deal with it yourself.

We’re just all pretending it is because the figures aren’t published every day.

Many people genuinely do feel 'it's all over' as they are no longer worried about the virus or about catching it.

People make their own risk assessments and many people have decided that for them, the risk of catching covid is smaller than the benefits of living life 'normally' again.

Also, covid will never 'be over' as it will continue to co-exist with us for generations to come.

I agree @Bornslippery everything does seem normal again, thank goodness.

No one talks about covid anymore and I don't think about it when out and about. A turning point for us as a family (one of who is classed as extremely clinically vulnerable) was when we all caught it last spring and my elderly parents also caught it. No one was anything other than mildly unwell, even the unvaccinated ones. Now the fear factor has been taken away.

Yes, I know you can catch it again and covid will always be circulating but now I file it under 'the same threat as flu' which I've never spent anytime worrying about either :)

As an aside I really hated seeing countries like Canada and Austria who I had previously had a high opinion of forcing their populations to be vaccinated. I thought it was shockingly undemocratic and it's completely altered my view of left-wing politics.

It does depend, and I always feel terminology about what's over needs to be more specific to be useful. People could mean in biological terms, legal, societal, they're all valid interpretations but could yield very different answers.

I think what OP probably means is that the attitude we saw to covid from March 2020 to probably about mid 2021 isn't coming back, which is true and no bad thing.

Yes, the op isn't phrased very helpfully.

No, the Covid virus isn't 'over'. It's here to stay . Like the Flu or many other viruses.

Yes, the worry about Covid is over for most people