Life after Covid-19: How social distancing, schools, travel and NHS will look when pandemic becomes endemic

[Northerner]

England is due to throw off the remaining Covid-19 rules in less than three weeks – but the full shape of the post-19 July world has yet to be determined.

There are still key unanswered questions about how schools, international travel and household gatherings will look – whether it will be back to the pre-crisis status quo, or a “new normal”.

It also remains to be seen what steps the Government will take to keep the success of the vaccination programme going, and how it will support the economy through the turbulence ahead.

How social distancing, schools, travel and NHS will look when pandemic becomes endemic

From jabs to jobs, the shape of the post-Covid world - and the changes that remain - is becoming clearer

inews.co.uk

 

[pm133]

A bit of discussion on it here on Sky News (link below).

As the interviewee points out, unless the goverment specifically instruct no restrictions should remain, then some will keep them voluntarily, which will basically force every business to retain the restrictions through fear of not meeting health and safety rules. So by default, restrictions will probably never end.

To me, this all looks like a back door ID system.

This is a genuine fear for many of us that we won't be actually free for years to come. We simply cannot trust any of these politicians.

Not sure I agree with Baker on the voluntary mask and distancing thing where he fears that companies will feel obliged to keep them for health and safety reasons. I don't think there's any evidence to back that suggestion. Any customer facing company who enforces something which is supposed to be voluntary on the part of the public will lose a ton of business.
For me, that isn't the issue.
The issue is what they are NOT including as restrictions and it looks like they are trying to present something as total freedom which is anything but. I think they are hoping we'll be so happy to get back to almost normal that we'll accept something short of going back to where we were 14 months ago.

Anyway, we'll know for sure in 3 weeks whether or not Javid is just another in a long list of lying bastards.

 

[mikeyB]

One of the list of unintended consequences of the lockdown is that our immune systems have gone unchallenged for months. That is not normal. We all get the odd cold in winter, and we haven’t had any flu in the last winter.

The very last thing we should do after full immunisation against Covid is continue social distancing or wearing masks. Or allowing project fear to ruin our lives. We should be mixing, hugging, going to the cinema, going to football, and generally distrubuting all the comfortable old viruses to recharge and tone up our immune systems. Otherwise, every illness will bring lockdowns.

It’s all too over dramatic. Did you know 7 million people died from TB last year? That’s more than malaria. Let’s get things in a bit of perspective, and don’t allow project fear to win.

 

[pm133]

On thing that has quite frankly amazed me during the past year is how easily and quickly people are willing to give up their liberty and freedoms... and still, that looks to continue.

I agree.
That has been particularly shocking.
I think it's fear of taking personal responsibility. Fear of something going wrong and having nobody else to blame for our woes. And we Brits do like to have someone to blame when things go wrong in our lives don't we?

I wonder if we should be surprised though?
We are a nation brought up to believe that our leaders are our "betters".
We still have people fawning over the royal family as though they are god-like creatures for goodness sakes.
Our class system breeds dependency.
Our culture actively discourages peole sticking their necks out and going against the grain.
"Don't get ideas above your station" is our national catchprase.
Having ambition is scorned upon.

We are not a nation of leaders. We are a nation stuffed to the rafters with followers.
We are not a nation of risk takers.
And as a result, while other nations rejoice in the act of getting back to full normality, we'll still have millions cowering under the bedsheets rigid with fear that a new vaccine-avoiding variant is just around the corner. We're going to have to be force-fed out freedom.

 

[Amigo]

One of the list of unintended consequences of the lockdown is that our immune systems have gone unchallenged for months. That is not normal. We all get the odd cold in winter, and we haven’t had any flu in the last winter.

The very last thing we should do after full immunisation against Covid is continue social distancing or wearing masks. Or allowing project fear to ruin our lives. We should be mixing, hugging, going to the cinema, going to football, and generally distrubuting all the comfortable old viruses to recharge and tone up our immune systems. Otherwise, every illness will bring lockdowns.

It’s all too over dramatic. Did you know 7 million people died from TB last year? That’s more than malaria. Let’s get things in a bit of perspective, and don’t allow project fear to win.

I agree we’ll need dependence on herd immunity but for some of us, the risk from infection will unfortunately continue. The new normal seems to rely on robust immune systems or at least those that have mounted a durable response to the vaccine. Being immunocompromised with chronic blood cancer, myself and many thousands of others have been shown to have mounted little or no antibody response to the vaccine. We have to hope there is an improved T cell response but that is more difficult to calculate.
So I’ll not be immediately throwing off the mask and embracing widely because like many others, freedom day doesn’t feel quite as liberating to us 😳

 

[pm133]

The very last thing we should do after full immunisation against Covid is continue social distancing or wearing masks. Or allowing project fear to ruin our lives. We should be mixing, hugging, going to the cinema, going to football, and generally distrubuting all the comfortable old viruses to recharge and tone up our immune systems. Otherwise, every illness will bring lockdowns.

I'm prepared to bet that millions of people will never get over their fear and will ruin the rest of their lives panicking about this all kicking off again.

That's such a shame but we can't be holding back everyone else because of this.

 

[Amigo]

I'm prepared to bet that millions of people will never get over their fear and will ruin the rest of their lives panicking about this all kicking off again.

That's such a shame but we can't be holding back everyone else because of this.

I‘d never wish to hold anyone back but the reality is, for many people, the ‘fear’ translates into very real risk. The immune system is pretty much the ‘secret defender’ we take for granted…until it doesn’t work or defend us anymore but people can’t see that so rarely make allowances.

 

[Leadinglights]

The danger is that when things open up people will think the danger is over and think they don't need to bother to get vaccinated.

 

[pm133]

I‘d never wish to hold anyone back but the reality is, for many people, the ‘fear’ translates into very real risk. The immune system is pretty much the ‘secret defender’ we take for granted…until it doesn’t work or defend us anymore but people can’t see that so rarely make allowances.

I certainly wouldn't dispute the fact that in cases like yours there genuinely is a very real risk and the lifting of restrictions is going to be a justifiable cause for concern.

I'm talking in more general terms about where the perceived risk totally outweighs the actual risk. It's that aspect of synthetic fear which is going to be a real issue for people moving forwards.

 

[pm133]

The danger is that when things open up people will think the danger is over and think they don't need to bother to get vaccinated.

I don't know the story in England but in Scotland our opening up is conditional on getting everyone over 40 fully vaccinated (I think we are due to be in that position in 3 weeks time).

Getting people under that age fully vaccinated is much less of a priority because those age groups are not affected to the same extent as the older and vulnerable groups and not a reason to hold off removing restrictions.