Are we pinning our hope too much on the vaccine?

varian mask wearing in Japan and SE Asia, isn't just about because of SARS and MERS, or even mainly about them. It is because the air quality in many cities in those countries is so poor that they wear them to protect themselves from being poisoned by the air they breath.

Hetty58 You do not mention vaccination. It is vaccination that is protecting us from long COVID and other variants, home grown and imported.

Vaccination rates are well above 80% for first jabs in all parts of the UK - and it is the first jab that gives most of the immunity and over 60% and growing rapidly for both jabs www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55274833.

The majority of people getting COVID currently are the unvaccinated. If you are fully vaccinated. your chances of getting COVID at all, let alone getting it badly, are very low indeed and the same applies to passing the disease on. COVID us currently less fatal than flu and more people are dying from heart attacks and cancer than are dying from COVID.

We have just got to get used to being vaccinated regulalry and treating COVID as just another infection like flu, colds and coughs.

I am glad we are not as compliant as the Japanese. Their society tends to be socially repressive and the position of women in that country, is way behind the position we have in this country. History has shown where a tradition of compliance can lead countries.

I have every intention of reverting to how we were, with the usual consideration for other people which was part of my life then and will continue to be now.

Summerlove

MerylStreep

Maybee70
I don’t know what you call a majority Would you call 60% of the population being double vaccinated a majority

www.gov.uk/government/news/3-in-5-uk-adults-receive-both-doses-of-covid-19-vaccine

3 in 5 adults. There are more people than just adults In the UK.

You need to look at total population, not just eligible for the vaccine population.

Even then, most people say you need 80% total population or more for herd immunity

The higher the transmissibility if the virus the higher the percentage of the population that needs to be vaccinated or have had the virus to achieve herd immunity If we’d’ve had more people vaccinated before the government stupidly allowed the Delta variant to take over the closer we’d be closer to herd immunity now.

MerylStreep

Maybee70
I don’t know what you call a majority Would you call 60% of the population being double vaccinated a majority

www.gov.uk/government/news/3-in-5-uk-adults-receive-both-doses-of-covid-19-vaccine

3 in 5 adults. There are more people than just adults In the UK.

You need to look at total population, not just eligible for the vaccine population.

Even then, most people say you need 80% total population or more for herd immunity

It's great that hospital admissions and death rates have been curbed - yet we still have the real threats of long Covid and variants brought in by travel from abroad.

Whatever we do, it's a world pandemic, after all. I'm not reassured, at all, by testing rates or quarantine arrangements.

It's easy, for the determined, to avoid quarantine and testing. We're just not (generally) as compliant and community minded as the Japanese, are we?

I know a large family who refuse testing, vaccination or restrictions - still thinking it's a big fuss about nothing and too much government control.

In Japan and many other countries in SE Asia, mask wearing in public has become commonplace because they have experienced SARS and MERS.

Mask wearing is considered good manners as it shows your concern for others.

MerylStreep

Can some give an idea what a little bit longer is?
6 weeks, 3 months, what!!
The only time I will be wearing a mask is for my B12 injection.

Surely doctors surgeries and hospitals will continue to ask people to wear a mask?

What saddens me is that, for many months we were irritated by people not giving us space when we’re walking the dog. Never acknowledging us for moving out of their way etc. However, for the past couple of weeks everything has changed. We haven’t been the first people to find a safe passing place. Everyone has smiled or waved, put their dogs on a lead when seeing that ours is on a lead. Those whose dogs have ran up to ours have apologised and retrieved them. It’s as if hands face space ventilate has actually become part of our culture. I just hope that this new freedom day, or whatever Johnson’s latest sound bite is, doesn’t to mean that people just revert back to how they were.

MerylStreep

Can some give an idea what a little bit longer is?
6 weeks, 3 months, what!!
The only time I will be wearing a mask is for my B12 injection.

May I ask why ? Would you not think it wise to wear a mask in shops and on public transport ? Surely that’s a minimum thing we could all do to help? Although I do realise there are many who are even now too selfish to do that.

Maybee70
I don’t know what you call a majority Would you call 60% of the population being double vaccinated a majority

www.gov.uk/government/news/3-in-5-uk-adults-receive-both-doses-of-covid-19-vaccine

Like many, I would dearly like to get back to normal but I am not ready to throw caution to the wind. Possibly when my GDs are fully vaccinated I will think, now is the time to gradually take steps to return to a normality with fewer risks.

Three valid points made by WW should take priority before Freedom Day is allowed to go ahead.

Maw you are echoing my lurking thoughts, but I also want to put my fingers in my ears and go ‘la, la, la. I don’t know, I suppose you have to trust, USA have opened up for a few weeks now, we have exemplary vaccination happening, I can hope, that’s all.

Until the majority of people have been vaccinating thereby the country having reached herd immunity. As it is many people are still not three weeks after having their second vaccine. And the Delta variant means that it takes longer to reach herd immunity. I shall continue to wear a mask to protect other people. It’s interesting the way people are approaching this pandemic. I’m sure sociologists/anthropologists will have a field day in years to come.

Can some give an idea what a little bit longer is?
6 weeks, 3 months, what!!
The only time I will be wearing a mask is for my B12 injection.

imo this is a populist decision not a scientific one. Maybe we should think of people such as bus drivers and shop workers that will now be subjected to more of a viral load. I certainly won’t be going to a cinema or theatre for the foreseeable future although I might have been tempted to if everyone wore masks so places like that might find that people many won’t be flocking to them. And surely it will mean that more people will have to self isolate unless, of course, testing and tracing is stopped also. We should have waited that bit longer, especially as the Delta variant seems to be more transmissible outside. I wonder if our new found freedoms are to cover up Johnson’s plans for the NHS?

I'm just horrified at the thought of 'back to normal'. What on Earth is wrong with people? Can't they understand that 'normal' is exactly where this started - the ideal conditions for the next pandemic? Have they learned nothing?

The vaccines are a huge blessing and do seem to prevent more serious illness. I am confident that, alongside these, new and better treatments will be developed.

We do indeed have to learn to live with it.

My 18 year old GS has it right now and is not in the least unwell thankfully - he had to get tested as he was pinged by the app. His whole family is in isolation whilst in the middle of moving house - a bit of a conundrum.

I think the restrictions need to be reduced slowly rather than there being a Freedom Day.

The fact that a new variant was imported from India reinforces the need for a global vaccination programme. Goodness knows how this can be achieved.

I'll be keeping my mask for a while to wear indoors in public places and on public transport. This morning at the supermarket someone sneezed down my back, which even before Covid I would have thought was pretty disgusting.

My life is almost back to normal anyway, I know my family are keeping safe wherever they are in the world so for the time being I can live reasonably happily with occasional mask use, hand washing (which I always thought was standard hygiene anyway) and avoiding dense crowds.

Personally I would prefer a slightly slower removal of these restrictions, I think that doing away with social distancing, mask wearing, travel quarantines, allowing large events to take place etc should be done one at a time with time to review any impact. But I know most people just want total freedom and in many ways so do I but I do worry about a surge in infections and virus mutations which might lead to significant rises in hospitalisation sand deaths.

I think I will be a little cautious for a while longer, meeting friends outside wherever possible and continuing to wash hands frequently and avoid crowded places or wear a mask. I really hope that we are past the worst and that there won’t be problems this winter, I’d be very happy if I were proved wrong!

M0nica

How does a vaccine differ from catching a disease and getting immunity that way? The end effect is the same.

I think the difference is that vaccines give us an element of control.

To my mind the most important thing is to prevent the virus mutating into something we can’t control and causing a dreadful situation. We don’t know if this will happen by letting it spread Willy hilly, but with vaccine it will of course be under pressure to mutate but we will be able to slow it down.

Mutations are expected as this is what a virus will do. We have to accept personal responsibility for our own safety.

Life is a risk, we all have to take the plunge one way or another eventually. Also we all have to take responsibility for our own choices and protect others.

How does a vaccine differ from catching a disease and getting immunity that way? The end effect is the same.

Third and really important is to prevent the virus from its ability to mutate by not allowing such widespread infection
I really agree with this and wonder whether the Indian/Delta variant would have developed and spread if the population of the sub continent had been adequately vaccinated and living conditions (including those in hospitals) had been better.
What affects one part of the world affects us all.

What I do think is that it would have been sensible to wait just a bit longer until the vaccine level had reached herd immunity level.

I think that it would then help to do a number of things.

First to help prevent illness and death ( however small)
Second to relieve the NHS and assist in their aim in decreasing the backlog
Third and really important is to prevent the virus from its ability to mutate by not allowing such widespread infection.

I feel that we cant stay under wraps for ever, even though there will be set backs.

I know it's a bit of a tightrope walk, but the debt has to be paid sometime. People need work.

I still feel very strongly that the time bomb is in the delayed health care provision, not so much from Covid.

We are all guinea pigs.