Lifting all Covid resrictions- how do you feel about it?

Poor dead people who have died from covid.

How are you not back to normal? I take lateral flow tests and wear a mask. I isolate when I have suspected covid. Every other bit of my life is entirely normal. Wearing a mask & doing lateral flows is much less annoying than many regular normal activities - such as cooking dinner or hovering the hall.

Masks are ineffective and bad for your lungs. Horrible torturous things. They disappear each others faces. Poor children who think humans only have half a face. Poor deaf people who have lived in visual silence for two years.

I'm not sure what people are finding 'not normal'.
What is there to get back to?

I agree ....time to try to start to get back to normal ! There are some people who disagree ........that is up to them, they can continue as they wish .............

Where are you all that you are not back to normality? My life is entirely back to normal and has been for a long time. I just go about being normal while wearing a mask .

The Behavioural Sciences Unit is doing a great job in terrifying the population out of any sense of proportion

Speak for yourself. I haven't been terrified by any of it - but then I am lucky in that my health is not compromised in any way. Quite frankly I find this sort of attitude far more terrifying.

I am really not sure and really have to wonder if it is mainly a financial decision rather than medical.
Yes we do need to deal with this eventually but I don't believe that the number of infections have dropped enough to take off all of the restrictions so soon.
After 1st April we won't know how many have become infected because I should think that only a small number of people will either want to pay or be able to pay for testing, so what happens if a new variant arrives in the country that is worse than Omicrom? will we be back to square one ?
I most probably will still continue to wear my mask on the bus and in shops. My choice.

I do think it is about time we did try to get back to some form of normality. We have to think for ourselves and be sensible. I wear a mask, wash my hands, use antiviral hand foam as well as using the antibacterial gel in shops. I bleach work surfaces, door handles etc on a regular basis, my windows are kept open. Have had my jabs, two covid, booster, flu and pneumonia. I tested positive for covid on Sunday, luckily my symptoms are mild and my sense of smell has gone. Last year I had RSV caught from my grandchildren, being over 70 I had in quite bad haven't felt so ill in years, couldn't get out of bed for days. I do know how serious covid can be, we lost our daughter-in-law to it last year, it has devastated our family our son and their three children are heartbroken. Wouldn't it be sensible to now follow our own guidelines, my mother wouldn't let us go near our elderly relatives or new born infants if we had the slightest sniffle. My grownup children have been told if your children are sick don't bring them over to Nan and Granddad or anyone with little ones. Wouldn't it be sensible to follow our own guidelines, think of others and protect those who need our care. We can't continue to be held hostage to this virus, we need to get out and about when we are well. Get back to some kind of normal.

I shall continue to wear a mask in shops and crowded places.
Neither the Health Secretary nor Proffesors'Sir Chris Whitty and Patrick Valance looked very comfortable at the announcement yesterday. They did mention caution and that there may be new variants. Nothing heard from SAGE either lately.
This might be a political move to lessen the tension on Johnston but he has a big one with Russia and Ukraine. Maybe he needs to keep his citizens safe from further outbreaks of Covid then he can concentrate on what is going on in Europe.
There will always be people who follow the guidelines and the ones who ignore them to the max.Let's hope the former are in the majority.

Well my eldest son has severe learning disabilities and has not been able to be vaccinated. So I shall continue to wear my FFP2 in public places and will continue to test. I’m not hiding, I’m currently booking theatre tickets, but I wear a mask that offers me some protection in crowded places (as plenty not interested in protecting others now as impinges on their ‘freedoms’ ).

Incidentally my very fit & healthy son on his twenties had covid in the summer. He’s never even had an antibiotic in his life before. He had a fairly mild dose with a sore throat and not much else but it completely screwed up his immune system and he has been repeatedly ill since. He ended up spending a few days in hospital in the autumn & needed iv antibiotics and steroids. I also worked in a clinic over the autumn and saw a number of people with very similar experiences to him.

So something I’d rather avoid. I don’t understand the anger towards people wearing masks but then I lived in Japan where people always wore masks if they thought they were getting a cold. It was the polite thing to do.

The government has done a good job of stoking up the culture wars again rather than talking about protecting others.

I am 66 and have already had my fourth vaccine, as have many who are immunosuppressed
We also have a fast track to accessing anti viral treatment.
That has been a confidence booster for me.

It’s got to happen sometime. Respect others and protect yourself with whatever you feel is right. The damage to the mental health of naturally social animals comes at a great cost, look at damaged animals in old fashioned zoos, we’re no different really.

I am concerned about immunity fatigue with too many vaccinations for Covid, but I am not old enough to be offered one. I am lucky not to have bad physical health and can only speak for myself.

I have enjoyed wearing a mask as it has meant I haven’t had to smile at people as much, and can feel “happily c%%p” when shopping.

Sparklefizz

NurseRuth ... but thanks to Vaccines , our lives should be normal( ish!)

But we are already being told that the effect of our boosters is declining. I am vulnerable and juggling multiple health issues yet I'm under 75 so will not be in the first cohort to get a 4th jab. I'm concerned.

I'm sure you will get it. They said 75+ and those over 12 with underlying conditions.

I would also like to point out that there is a difference between being CEV and being CEV with multiple comorbidities and being immunocompromised into the bargain. The vaccines were not very effective for some us and our compromised immune systems make it very very difficult to fight even the most minor of infections.

MaggsMcG

Stop making this political its not. Lots of other countries have come to similar conclusions. Its the reasonable thing to do. Lots of elderly people I know have had Omicron and been fine. Those that are not might just have easily caught flu or pneumonia. I'm not a Tory but I'm sick of everyone blaming politics for things they dobt agree with. Not everything is.

It's difficult to think of an area of our lives that aren't affected by politics. Funding of public services, the NHS, benefits, taxation, farming, health and safety - need I go on?

Baggs

More info here from ONS.

It's actually tricky to find numbers for the whole of the UK.

Yes, Baggs. they show a 77,081 increase in deaths in 2020 over 2019.

Interestingly, the 2019 figure shows a decrease in deaths over the previous year...

I wonder where that 77,000 came from

I think people need to do what they feel happy with, life does have to carry on & i’m sure some day some when covid will be no more. I will continue face masks in shops, public transport etc. Still use hand sanitizer wherever I go.
I do think they should continue face masks though, I bit scary taking away all restrictions. After all, covid is still out there. Albeit not very high figures, but it’s still there.

‘Controlling people’ who do not agree with or observe the latest suggested measures! A ‘killer’ disease that we are encouraged to believe is more or less deadly to a large part of the population! The Behavioural Sciences Unit is doing a great job in terrifying the population out of any sense of proportion, personal responsibility or the ability to judge sensible precautions! Should ever Mr Putin, God forbid, pay a visit here, he’ll find a most compliant public, just waiting for his ‘guidance’, won’t he?!

It’s not just the CEV who get really ill. I was hospitalised with Covid before I could have any vaccinations. I have asthma but was never told I was CEV. People who are not CEV can become very ill too, although the vaccinations have reduced the numbers in this group.

I don't expect the system will pay for me to isolate anytime soon.
So, vulnerable (I presume, as nobody has actually been in touch) zero hour contract, working, sole guardian for my grandchild, and hard pushed to find £20 to buy tests.
Still, I might have died, anyway.

Lilyflower

17,000 died from Covid alone. The rest were older and had comorbidities which could have been fatal in themselves.

Added to these stark and tiny figures we now know that the government and Nudge units were ramping up the fear factor to ensure compliance with new and illiberal regulations.

We have seen how this new authoritarian stance has been abused in New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Wales and Scotland where autocratic edicts are placing ever restrictive limits on the freedom of the people. In some cases, force and China-like social passport punishments are being used to cow democratic and legal protest.

It is about time this ended and I admire the government which has the option to keep controls over its electors but cedes that authoritarian power.

No one is stopping a soul from wearing a mask, distancing and vaccinating

It's about time use of the fear factor was stopped. We need to take responsibility for our own lives and live with Covid as we have lived with flu, measles and many other mildly hazardous diseases.

The point here is surely "could have been fatal" But the thousands of people who've died did because of covid. They may well have had other illnesses but the chances are that without covid, they would have lived longer.

I'm with you Marydoll (your post 11.54.04)
Life is basically sh*t for those of us with multiple health conditions.

NurseRuth ... but thanks to Vaccines , our lives should be normal( ish!)

But we are already being told that the effect of our boosters is declining. I am vulnerable and juggling multiple health issues yet I'm under 75 so will not be in the first cohort to get a 4th jab. I'm concerned.

I have switched to PPF3 masks now because those ones protect me up to 98% as well as others. I am concerned especially as the people on low wages/ zero hour contracts (which are many) are also the ones most likely to have to go to work with covid and also the ones who can't afford to buy lateral flow tests. It would not have been a big deal to firmly state that everyone must wear masks in certain settings and would not be detrimental to the economy but would protect the more vulnerable. I have not been able to have the booster because I reacted to the 2nd Oxford jab and 8 months only am only beginning to feel like getting back to where I was. There are lot of people out there like myself or worse.