Well I am not so sure everything will be released and open come the 19th, apparently Joe Public is massively in favour of more caution.
José Público over here is of the same mind set from what I see, I'm 62 and I'm still waiting for my first jab so masks outdoors are still part of my daily regime and I still wear disposable gloves when I'm shopping. Even when/ if I get fully vaccinated I will still mask up in public even though they will soon not be required by the local Junta's regulations. My view is that I'm responsible for my own health and also if I do contract covid it is my responsibility to protect others by not spreading it. I do a few paint jobs around where I live, full apartments not bits and bobs, usually for Brits and I get work from recommendations. At the start of the pandemic no-one wanted work done, fine by me but gradually work picked up. Everyone was very respectful of each others space and always wore a mask when I visited their home to look at the job. Now when I go to look at prospective work no one wears a mask, they've had 2 jabs, and for some reason feel the need to get as close as is decent when discussing their requirements. I'm ready to go into my own little lockdown again if I think it's merited. I don't want to catch it or carry it and will do all I can to avoid that happening regardless of the strange looks I sometimes get from holidaying Brits down and around the ports not because it's right for me but because it's right for everyone I may come into contact with.
I'm not liking you post cos I like it just acknowledging your predicament, I'm in the same boat but should get my first next month.
ive been notified oct for me mate Von Der Layen needs a kick in the Fanny, she is useless, Baravia went their own way and ignored her and bought it
That's the most sensible approach, the double vaccinated have been carried away on a wave of nonchalance, me included. Still cautious, how can you be though at a footy match when a high percentage will be wrecked. I reckon the disposable gloves are more of a hazard, unless you are a decontamination expert, more risk of decontamination when taking them off. I just use sanitiser robustly, and I don't touch my grid unless I know my mitts are gleaming.
There's always going to be reasons NOT to open up if you look hard enough. What people (and the media in particular) need to get out of their heads is that cases does not mean "ill people". 30-odd thousand cases per day at the mo and 417 people in hospital needing ventilation.
That's still 417 too many for a disease that should be highly preventable if people just follow the rules, think about others, and have patience.
Well yes 417 is too many because none of us want people to be ill but you will NEVER achieve zero covid, that's just not possible. It's not preventable at all unfortunately - you can supress the spread (through lockdown) and reduce the transmission/illness (through vaccines) but you cannot kill the virus unless you put every person in the world in their own bio-secure bubble for 2 weeks at the same time It's not as simple as asking people to be "patient" and "think about others" - the vast majority of us have been doing that for the best part of 18 months and with the proof that the vaccine works, it's time to get life back to normal
Yep totally agree, once the vaccine rollout is at a certain percentage I think they should stop broadcasting the daily new infections, it just panics the masses, the vast majority of vaccinated bods don't get serious symptoms. However, a high percentage of people think they are completely immune from getting any symptoms or illness. Similar to the flu jab, in that it will prevent serious illness in the majority, but won't stop you getting a cold.
100% agree, Mate of mine is double jabbed but not fully immune yet. He got pinged by the NHS app and is isolating - turns out a mate of his whom he was out with has tested positive. My mate says he feels a but rough and has lost his sense of taste, but feels ok as a result. If that is "living with covid" for the majority then I think it's do-able
Again agree. They have to change the way the stats are recorded. Forget cases and only report on people in hospital and those dying, showing the % split between vaccinated and unvaccinated. You are right in your other post - people panic when they see 30,000 cases per day (because pre-vaccine we all felt the same and knew that it was a very bad thing)
Sure is. We've seen nothing like this before. It's been a horrendous last year and a half but we have to be brave now and get back to normal. It doesn't help that various "experts" in the medical profession are trying to spook people by saying the cases will rise and the NHS will get overrun again. It's simply not true
I read an article yesterday about the Chinese harvesting DNA from pregnant women in various countries courtesy of a Chinese pregnancy test kit. Some boffins reckon that the Chinese are into genetically engineering pathogens that can specifically target certain races and not be harmful to other races. I saw it in the express at first so took it with a pinch of salt. I've seen it from other sources now though.
No, you're right, it is impossible to eradicate Covid. But its not a case of going "**** it, let's go back to how we were before". The BBC are reporting this morning that doctors are warning that the situation will get worse before it gets better. The growing numbers of cases will lead to more hospitalizations and therefore more deaths. People will be throwing caution to the wind tomorrow night and that could have dramatic consequences. We still need some restrictions in place and will do for some time to come, even with the vaccine. So, to a large extent with the combination of the vaccine and sensible use of precautions, it could become, if not preventable, easily avoidable.
I've seen that phrase bandied about a lot without any qualification, or more importantly quantification. The easy maths is to say increasing cases means increasing deaths, but growth rate in both are no longer linked. 30,000 cases and about 30 deaths a day, compared with 30,000 cases (in the pre vaccine world) and 800 or so daily deaths. There is nothing to say 50,000 daily cases will suddenly bring hundreds/thousands of daily deaths No deaths are acceptable of course, but the fact is that this virus is here to stay and there will always be deaths whether we are locked down or opened up. The fact that the vast, vast majority of deaths are to unvaccinated people needs addressing. The only way to do this is to publish the stats and hopefully focus some minds
That's not quite what the medical profession are saying. The link between the number of cases and the number of deaths has been weakened but it has not been severed. While, as you say, the majority of deaths are in the unvaccinated, the possibility of new variants that are vaccine-resistant also has to be considered. New variants emerge as the virus is transmitted, the more it is transmitted, the more opportunities it has to mutate, and the vaccine doesn't prevent transmission. Therefore, while its our civic and moral duty to have the vaccination its also our duty to listen to the medics and scientists and do everything we can to prevent transmission. That means some restrictions remaining in place.
