Indian variant

Just announced - Boris to hold a press conference today. 4 have died with the Indian variant.

Just heard that Boris is doing a t.v call today at 5p.m to discuss the Indian variant all sounds a bit scary to me.

There seems to be a lot of 'I'm alright Jack' coming through, though.

What about the young people who have given up so much to protect the older generations, but have not been vaccinated? My son and son-in-law have not had their vaccinations yet, and both have worked throughout the pandemic, restricted their lives enormously (including both cancelling weddings) and who knows whether their jobs will survive the inevitable Austerity that will be brought in 'to pay for this'.

It is, apparently, mostly younger people who are suffering most from the Indian variant, so is it not the turn of the older generations to support them? It is not just death rates that matter - Long Covid is a life-changing condition that affects significant numbers, and its duration and trajectory is not fully understood yet.

For the young to see older people saying 'Oh, but we've been doubly vaccinated, why can't we start seeing people again?' must be infuriating. There is a lot of inter-generational conflict whipped up by the media, but I can't help feeling that in this case it would be justified.

MayBee70

Sarnia

That's the risk the Government took when they gave travellers several days notice about flights from India and invited an Indian delegation to the G7 summit. Extremely risky and now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Would that be the Indian delegates that tested positive for the virus by any chance? That didn’t even sneak in via Turkey but were invited here....

Yes, that's them. India isn't even a member of the G7. We shouldn't have invited them and they should have declined. But Boris has the whiff of a trade deal so that's ok, then.

I think it's sensible to be cautious still but at some point in the future we have to start living normal lives again.

After all, various descendants of the devastating Spanish Influenza are still with us but we now have flu vaccinations, thank goodness, which are constantly being changed as viruses mutate, join together etc.

Sorry if I come across as angry, it just scares me, the thought of living under all these restrictions for goodness knows how long.
Having a British government tell us when we can hug our children or have our families in our own homes would have been laughable 2 years ago.
Now we're all walking around with muzzles on, scared of anyone we might walk past, just in case they might be carrying the virus with no symptoms (there's still no proof of this) and so many of us aren't even questioning it.
It terrifies me that people are happy to accept this as the new normal.
The deaths and hospitalisations are level now, even though the Indian variant has been here for weeks.

Why is everyone bothering to have the vaccine if they don't trust it's going to keep them safe?
I didn't want the blooming thing but I had it because I want life to return to some form of normality. If we're going to have a mass panic every time there's a new variant, what's the point?

Yes, we are going to have to learn to live with this at some point.

We are lucky that scientists have developed these vaccines and will continue with research because Covid and its variants will probably be with us for many years, just as influenza mutates, is around in various forms and does still kill people each year.

Once the first stages of this dreadful pandemic are over, this is probably going to be another disease humankind will have to learn to cope with and perhaps need to be vaccinated annually against the mutations if life is ever to return to normal.

This is why I'm so confused about people panicking!
The press will keep eeking this thing out for as long as it's making them money, but the scientists wouldn't be saying it's safe to continue opening the country if the risk to the NHS was still great.
Why is everyone bothering to have the vaccine if they don't trust it's going to keep them safe?
I didn't want the blooming thing but I had it because I want life to return to some form of normality. If we're going to have a mass panic every time there's a new variant, what's the point?

We know that the whole reason our generation was vaccinated first was due to the potential for older people, in particular, to need hospital treatment, which in 2020 led to the NHS Crisis. The fact that infections are on the up does not mean this will happen again, as most of us have had one if not both jabs.

In Bolton there are valiant efforts being made to reach out to wary ethnic communities, with leaflets in Hindi and Gujarati for those who do not read English. In local terms, the best is being done, I feel.

I've just sat down with a cuppa, and put on This Morning, where they are having a phone in asking people about what they are looking forward to now the pandemic is over.

It is so ill judged, I think, but telling in the way that people are looking forward to seeing relatives, getting their children back into things like swimming lessons, meeting up with friends and so on. They are planning outfits and all sound so excited, which is lovely, but it will make any rollback of the 'roadmap' like taking candy from babies.

Johnson likes to be Father Christmas, not The Grinch, so I can't see him being the grown-up in this, and the consequences could be catastrophic.

The chances of the NHS becoming overwhelmed again by Covid is very small now though isn't it?? I thought that was the whole point of the vaccine - it was our 'route out of the pandemic'?
A large proportion of the most vulnerable people have very sadly already suffered with or died from the virus. Largely due to the complete incompetance of the blithering idiot in charge.
But now so many of the adult population are hugely protected, we should never get back to that situtation?
The scientists have already said the Indian variant isn't as resistant to the vaccine as the Kent variant.
We're seeing very sad and worrying images on the news from India and it's scaring us, but they've had huge festivals with no social distancing and large areas of the country in extreme poverty with nothing like the medical facilites we have.

Once people are told they can do certain things by a certain date it’s very difficult to back track on that. If they do stop mandatory wearing of masks in public places it will be very difficult to get people to use them again even though the py may well prevent another wave in the autumn. I can’t help but feel that, with there being no flu epidemic this winter due to social distancing, mask wearing etc there may well be a bad one next winter. But that’s me being pessimistic again. They really should stop the opening up of pubs etc next week till we know more about the new variant but it’s too late to do that now.

I think that giving dates for the 'roadmap' was a bad move. I know that Johnson said he would be led by the data and would adjust if necessary, but people have been working toward these dates since they were announced.

It would have been far better if he had learnt from his massive mistake at Christmas, when he had to roll back his promises. It is much easier to give people good news than bad, and he could have given good news in June if the science suggested the time was right, but if not, he could have waited until July or August without causing the disappointment that he finds impossible to deliver.

I said the same on another thread EllanVannin.
It`s bluddy common sense.
Whats the betting we will be in lockdown again this summer.

Donna we are not going to get back to normal unless the situation is managed. Some forecasting puts the NHS at risk of becoming overwhelmed as early as the summer. I'm sure we are all fed up with the whole thing, but it's not going anywhere anytime soon. The government needs to be proactive, something they have found very difficult.

donnab31

That being said, I'd happily sacrifice overseas travel for the privilege and think keeping all borders closed for the time being is very sensible!

Agreed ?

That being said, I'd happily sacrifice overseas travel for the privilege and think keeping all borders closed for the time being is very sensible!

I think if we wait much longer, there won't be a country left to open!
If everyone who wants the vaccine gets it, they are protecting themselves a great deal.
Those (mainly younger) who don't want the jab are at a much lower risk of serious infection anyway, the risk to young healthy children is virtually non-existent and all the vulnerable and older generations have been offered it already.
If anyone really is concerned about restaurants etc opening too soon, we all have the option to avoid them.
We also have the option of wearing masks and socially distancing at the moment, as well as working from home and not mixing socially.
It scares the hell out of me much more than the virus that having any options is potentially being eroded.
The governments handling of the whole thing has been a sh@*show but I do think it's time to get back to as normal as we can now before we have an even greater problem with mental health and poverty than we already do.

My comment was to sago.

donnab32, I don’t know what to think about the virility of the Indian variant. I do think that assuming that this government would have closed the borders if the variant were dangerous is not borne out by experience of the way the pandemic has been handled so far, though.

On balance I think we should probably wait a bit longer to open everything up.

Comments about ‘certain posters’ are very school-like. If you want to call someone on what they have said, please do so, instead of having sly digs?

I don’t know how to avoid threads where ‘certain posters have commented’ without reading the thread first. Am I missing something, as it would sometimes be handy, I suppose.

I don’t know if I am a ‘certain poster’, but I commented because to me it looked very like a racist remark. I was very careful to give the poster the benefit of any doubt, though, as I’m sure we have all posted things that we haven’t realised could be taken differently.

If the Indian variant was that dangerous, surely they would have closed the borders to India sooner?? Just because it spreads fast, doesn't make it more deadly or cause more hospital admissions. We were told from the very beginning that there would always be variants - it's the very nature of viruses that they mutate.
I've honestly stopped believing anything in the news now, other than that actual figures.
These show that for over a month now, the new cases sit at around 2000 a day and the new deaths sit at around 10-20.
The numbers have plateaued, they're not increasing and the deaths per day are below average for a normal year.
A large percentage of our country has now been vaccinated and the programme is ongoing.
We have allowed ourselves to be controlled very quickly because we're scared but this is setting a dangerous precedent and it scares me the way our country is going.

It is quite clear why tidyskatemum has used the lady’s nationality.

Is it? Can you tell us why? Is the lady responsible for everybody who happens to have the same background as she does?

Anyway, her nationality seems to be British....

Why are you looking to be offended?
It is quite clear why tidyskatemum has used the lady’s nationality.
I avoid threads now where certain posters have commented as some of you are clearly looking for an argument.
It’s like being back at school.

Should say check, ?

Absolutely, no travel, unless for freight, less people to chalk and quarantine. Personally I feel there has been no change to International travel, let all in seems to have been the go to. Even writing to my MP she said travels brings people together, yes along with the variants. Not good.