Stats on the up

250,000+ with Long Covid... more women than men and often the young are affected. Interesting discussion on yesterday's Woman's Hour.
Learn to live with it? Maybe, easy to say when it doesn't affect you or your family and you don't stop to think about an already beleaguered NHS.

Thank you Alegrias1 we each have to manage our own risk. The vaccines are slowly losing their potency, although there are differing scientific views on the rate. The flu vaccine does the same and is not always spot on with its targeted protection, so we minimise our risk.
I too am fed up with lockdown being bandied about as either a threat or salvation.

I saw that interview this morning and she had absolutely no idea. She was expecting that all festival-goers would follow the rules!!!

My granddaughter came back from the Boardmasters Festival in Newquay with Covid and with tales to tell of people cheating the system, showing other people's phones for test results, absolutely NO social distancing of course (surely that was never expected??) and the toilets were filthy and mostly blocked because cleaners hadn't turned up .... and the virus is shed in faeces.

Approx 4,700 people were infected with Covid at the festival which a virologist on the radio a few days ago projected to 17,000 cases once everyone had returned home.

My granddaughter and her boyfriend went home and tested positive. They had had their 1st vax. They have both been fairly ill with nasty coughs and are still in isolation and coughing at my daughter's house. My daughter has been totally scrupulous in hygiene and isolation, and kept my young grandson at home. He then contracted Covid despite her measures, and has been very poorly - in pain all over and it even hurt for him to move his eyes.

Yesterday my daughter had a positive PCR test and has officially got Covid. However, her 2 vax are standing her in good stead and she has had one bad day and otherwise is feeling fine.

Test and Trace were astonished that neither she nor my grandson had any contacts to report .... and this is because she has been very sensible and not mixed. Officially my grandson could have gone to his football practice before he became ill as he is under 18, even with his sister isolating at home with Covid, but my daughter said no, thus saving a footie team of contacts who might have caught it. I am proud of the way she has handled it.

The rules are daft, and we will go into the autumn with a much higher rate of infections than last year.

Alegrias1

Really? Lockdown? Who will pay for everyone to stay at home this time instead of going to work? What was the point of being vaccinated?

We cannot have another lockdown. The way forward as I see it is to give booster vaccines to the vulnerable and over fifties as they come to the end of their six months, and for everyone to take individual responsibility by continuing to live their lives normally, but carefully.

Keep posting Alegrias because you are always the voice of reason whenever you post about Covid (I’m not implying by the way that you’re not reasonable on other threads.) I’m feeling a bit nervous about what is happening, having had serious Covid in January. It’s the waning of the protection that our vaccinations give us that worries me. I’m going out and about as usual, visiting my mother in a care home, shopping, meeting friends sometimes, and eating out sometimes, and the most important of all seeing my now fully vaccinated family. I’ve even taken my grandson to the cinema twice (very little risk there, hardly anyone in the cinema) but I do avoid crowds wherever possible, and I wear a mask and sanitise when shop. I’ve noticed that fewer and fewer people seem to be sanitising when they enter a shop, and whilst the majority still wear a mask, numbers seem to be creeping up of non mask wearers, consequently I will feel much more confident about the winter if we get a booster vaccine to be honest. I was a lot more confident earlier in the year after my double Pfizer vaccine, now, not so much.

Alegrias1

Really? Lockdown? Who will pay for everyone to stay at home this time instead of going to work? What was the point of being vaccinated?

Totally with you companies can just keep locking down as you said who is going to pay for it
Perhaps we are learning you can't go round this virus you have to go through it If not it's the definition of insanity trying the same thing expecting different results

Really? Lockdown? Who will pay for everyone to stay at home this time instead of going to work? What was the point of being vaccinated?

I can see yet another lockdown coming.
People are getting complacent.
No mask wearing,no social distancing,it`s a no brainer sadly.

It's shocking how the rates are rising and that there is now data showing that vaccine efficacy is waning.

Figures are rocketing

Its standalone sentences like this that chip away at any positivity, and add to the general feeling of impending doom.

The rates are rising comparatively slowly and actually fell after the English "Freedom Day". Rates are going up very fast in Scotland, where the schools are already back.

Deaths are going up slowly and are around 100 a day. There are between 6,000 and 7,000 patients in hospital. Like everyone, I'd like these numbers to be zero, but they 'll never be zero again.

The vaccine efficiency is waning for protection against infection but no signs yet of it waning for protections against severe illness and hospitalisation. "Waning" doesn't mean we're back to page 1.

Now I expect this will be a bit unpopular but for 18 months we've been "protecting the NHS". Well the NHS is supposed to protect us. Going about our normal business shouldn't be considered as anti social. And before anyone tells me that you can't just throw money at the situation, I know that, but its been 18 months. What has been done to get ready for any potential winter surges in health provision?

Hospitals were not overwhelmed at any time in the last 18 months, so considering how many people are double jabbed, as the saying goes, and there may be a booster jab coming up, it’s an unlikely scenario that hospitals won’t be coping in a few months.
Unfortunately some people are imprisoning themselves for no good reason, hiding in their houses still.Others are going out and about with a bit of caution ( sensible) and others are living life entirely normally.

I just take what precautions I can, I work in a care home so I’m testing very regularly but I am certainly not very, very fearful about this, it’s going to be with us for God knows how long and we have to get used to living with it, if l was to panic every time I read one of the stories I stay in bed all day with the cover over my head. ?…

I am not implying they are cowards growstuff but just pointing out that everyone is not the same By reading some comments on here and other media some are still afraid of doing the most basic of outings

rosie1959

As Covid is going nowhere life has to go on I was listening to a Dr speaking he was saying that there will always be an underlying amount of infection and we will all probably catch it and more than once increasing our immunity
Those that are going to festivals are not silly they are just getting on with life the best they can and many do not have a knee trembling fear of Covid anymore
I don’t think they believe it’s all over but that the infection isn’t going anywhere so they are not prepared to hide away any longer

Most people don't have a "knee trembling" fear. Why do people insist on using language which implies people are cowards?

Lillie

i dont get it
they said schools were the worst for transmission but they must have been ok
now the figures are rocketing with the kids all out of class and mingling

Schools were one of the worst places for transmission and I understand that the rates are increasing again in this age group in Scotland now that pupils are back in school. It will be interesting to see what happens when pupils return in the other countries of the UK.

Teenagers mingling (often in the open air) cannot be compared with being cooped up in a poorly ventilated space with 30 others. There are rumours that teenagers are finally being offered vaccination.

The reason transmission has increased in the community is because many people have dropped their guard.

I think it’s very worrying. Whilst I agree we have to live with covid as we do with flu I am concerned that hospitals are going to be overwhelmed during the winter. It’s only August now so we have a long winter ahead. There are still many people waiting for treatment that is not Covid related and I feel desperately sorry for them. Cancelling festivals where large numbers of people attend is a small price to pay to prevent further hospitalisation for covid infections. I’m sure there are lots of activities that young people can become involved in without meeting in large crowds and spreading infection. To be honest (tin hat on ready for the grenades) am fed up of the media stating that these festivals have to take place because of the mental health of young people.

It's hardly a question of hiding away when some hospitals are already nearing capacity according to a Director of Health. Covid infection rates need managed, awareness needs to be raised. We nearing the end of summer, schools in England are mainly still out. As a country we're not in a good place to be tackling winter and all that we KNOW will bring.

Yesterday 35,847 new cases?
coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases

As Covid is going nowhere life has to go on I was listening to a Dr speaking he was saying that there will always be an underlying amount of infection and we will all probably catch it and more than once increasing our immunity
Those that are going to festivals are not silly they are just getting on with life the best they can and many do not have a knee trembling fear of Covid anymore
I don’t think they believe it’s all over but that the infection isn’t going anywhere so they are not prepared to hide away any longer

I agree with both your points *Daisymae'. There is a sense that many people believe that the pandemic is over yet yesterday an expert was quoted as advising people to stay away from crowded venues.

It's shocking how the rates are rising and that there is now data showing that vaccine efficacy is waning.

Whereas in the last few lockdowns, I have only heard personally of one Covid sufferer, I now know several and they have been double vaccinated. Infections have risen 20% in the last week where I live and friends in Devon tell me that Cornwall and Torbay now have the highest rates in the country.

I agree she was giving very contradictory information totally confusing the whole issue yes you can go to to festivals with tens of thousands of people but you might catch COVID how silly. If people are feeling so deprived of enjoyment then on their own head be it.

i dont get it
they said schools were the worst for transmission but they must have been ok
now the figures are rocketing with the kids all out of class and mingling