I thought the whole idea of double vaccines were to stop you getting COVID fatally, if you do get it it would be like an ordinary flu and rarely need hospital treatment. (as in winter flu) I feel sorry for the people who genuinely can’t have the vaccine but as most people will have it by the ‘freeing’ date, shouldn’t we be ok? If we carry it and someone catches it from us then let’s hope they’ve had their jabs. I wonder if the antivaccers are having 2nd thoughts, because after we’re all jabbed they’ll be the ones left to catch it fatally. I would like to think that people with an autoimmune problem would be especially looking after themselves and not going to crowded places anyway.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Yes Punkdoc, So after the vaccines, it becomes like ordinary flu, where some unfortunate people will develop pneumonia and die. It has to get back to normal at some point and as the newsreaders and the advisory team are beginning the frightening tales, hopefully people will proceed with caution.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Hmm. If I was prime minister I think I would open up much more cautiously. Still require everyone wanting to attend paid sporting/entertainment events to prove a negative test/double vaccine but not limit the numbers, require everyone on public transport, going into shops etc to still wear a mask, keep a tight restriction on arrivals from countries where there are other variants, require employers who want their employees to stop working from home to prove negative test/double vaccine... But I'm not the prime minister so who knows how this is all going to play out? Next vaccine-busting variant?
It seems to me that having to share a public indoor space with other people who refuse to wear masks out of courtesy to their fellow human beings is the same as people who smoke and inflict their smoke on others because they are allowed to.
So many people are talking about their freedom. Freedom to debilitate another person so that you can enjoy yourself without restriction is the ultimate in selfishness. And yet there are plenty of people who do so and who will continue to do so.
Great letter in the Guardian the other day
It will be interesting to see how much opening up and “learning to live with the virus” helps the economy if the result is that large numbers of people aged 50-plus opt to stow their disposable income and leisure time safely away from the crowds as masks are discarded and case numbers rocket. Fionn Fionnmhacháin Love the name. Can anyone write it phonetically for me, please?
Interweb says it's on older or rarer version of Finucane if that helps.
Someone on the radio today compared obeying covid rules to smoking and drinking. They said that just because a few people were alcoholics or damaged their health with smoking we don't mandate that the whole population should be banned from drinking or smoking. No one pointed out that smoking and drinking are heavily regulated for peoples' own health and the health of others.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I think it would have made more sense to wait until all adults had been at least offered their second dose, however I can understand why they have made this move now as I think people were starting to tire of this so much (understandably!) that even people who have followed the rules so far will start to slip/ignore them if they weren't relaxed soon.
Hopefully if people feel they have had a 'free' and happy summer of being able to travel a bit, meet up with much missed family/friends etc. then they might be happier to take a few more precautions over winter, masks on buses, smaller gatherings etc.
We do have to learn to live with this, as punkdoc says it is never going to go away. My poor niece is in the middle of another isolation period after being sent home from school, she'll have spent 20 days out of 23 unable to leave her house, including on her 10th birthday. In any other situation that would be borderline child abuse! I do not take the illness lightly, my grandad died of it just before xmas last year, but truthfully the worst of it wasn't that he died, it was that he died following a period of forced separation from his loved ones in his care home, and that on his 60th wedding anniversary he could only see his beloved wife through a closed window.
What we really need in order to learn to live with this is a better resourced NHS. We are pushed to near breaking point with the 'usual' winter pressures, add on the extra Covid patients and there just won't be the beds and the staff needed to care for everybody and make sure that the unlucky people who do still become very ill can get the best treatment and the best chance of recovery.
From a quick look at the figures, the case to hospitalisation and hospitalisation to death for covid is running at at very rough 1.5% and 4.5% (27,000 to 406 to 18) so even if the predicted August case number happens (100,000) the hospitalisations and deaths will be comparatively (to pre vaccination levels) low (1500 and 60+). But isn't the worry in the case number itself? To achieve the 100,000 per day what is the split with vaccinated/unvaccinated people getting the virus? - and isn't a potential issue then that to infect vaccinated individuals mutations arise that become more vaccine resistant?
I know the mantra was/is 'protect the NHS' and the vaccine appears to be doing that very well, but I also thought a goal was to keep infection numbers low - maybe it's my memory (and that's shot to pieces), but I thought that's what the scientists were saying.
Drinking, regulated, really! As for smoking,our station,the Taxis have signs saying No Smoking,and there are all the drivers standing by their cabs, smoking. Not much disposable income for us 'over 50s",we've had one lunch on town cafe in the last 18 months, been out twice with girlfriends for a meal in that time.
Theoretically,but that doesn't appear to stop underage drinking or smoking. I see an 11 year old just had a baby, depressing. Has anyone ever been prosecuted for any of these "underage" activities!
Posts
I feel sorry for the people who genuinely can’t have the vaccine but as most people will have it by the ‘freeing’ date, shouldn’t we be ok? If we carry it and someone catches it from us then let’s hope they’ve had their jabs.
I wonder if the antivaccers are having 2nd thoughts, because after we’re all jabbed they’ll be the ones left to catch it fatally.
I would like to think that people with an autoimmune problem would be especially looking after themselves and not going to crowded places anyway.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
It has to get back to normal at some point and as the newsreaders and the advisory team are beginning the frightening tales, hopefully people will proceed with caution.
Hopefully if people feel they have had a 'free' and happy summer of being able to travel a bit, meet up with much missed family/friends etc. then they might be happier to take a few more precautions over winter, masks on buses, smaller gatherings etc.
We do have to learn to live with this, as punkdoc says it is never going to go away. My poor niece is in the middle of another isolation period after being sent home from school, she'll have spent 20 days out of 23 unable to leave her house, including on her 10th birthday. In any other situation that would be borderline child abuse! I do not take the illness lightly, my grandad died of it just before xmas last year, but truthfully the worst of it wasn't that he died, it was that he died following a period of forced separation from his loved ones in his care home, and that on his 60th wedding anniversary he could only see his beloved wife through a closed window.
What we really need in order to learn to live with this is a better resourced NHS. We are pushed to near breaking point with the 'usual' winter pressures, add on the extra Covid patients and there just won't be the beds and the staff needed to care for everybody and make sure that the unlucky people who do still become very ill can get the best treatment and the best chance of recovery.