When will this shit end?

[March Hare]

7 minutes ago, zahidf said:

Pfizer takes UK side against the EU

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/pfizer-eu-covid-vaccine-threats-uk-b925289.html

Sooner everyone realises UK and EU are in it together, the better off we will all be. Economy, holidays, suppressing new variants, all come from working together 

[xxialac]

39 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

When the foreign places have been vaccinated. The UK is way ahead of lots of Europe. They'll have largely caught up next year.

How far the European countries are behind is massively overstated.

They’ll catch up at the very end of the summer. They’re a few months behind, that’s all and the period they’ll be catching up is when case levels are low anyway.

[zahidf]

7 minutes ago, xxialac said:

How far the European countries are behind is massively overstated.

They’ll catch up at the very end of the summer. They’re a few months behind, that’s all and the period they’ll be catching up is when case levels are low anyway.

I dunno. I think France will SERIOUS issues in getting most of their population Vaxxed. Its not just supply for them, but massive hesitancy. The French government are really screwing up

[efcfanwirral]

And a bit more detail 

This is the one we need to keep out. So far we have PR campaigns saying the vaccines are effective against it, but not a real world test just yet. 

[jparx]

Re; the summer holiday abroad thing on the BBC. Yes, no foreign travel is obviously the safest thing, but I don’t for one second think foreign holidays will be totally banned this summer. Not a chance imo. We’ll at least have some type of travel corridor arrangement or a red list scenario, if not more widely available travel. We know that countries (and apparently the UK is leading the charge) are looking at ways to make it safer with the vaccine passport stuff.

I get Europe are lagging behind, but if there’s very low cases in, say, Cyprus by the summer, they’ve vaccinated a fair number of people and we’ve vaccinated all our adults, it becomes very hard to justify to people why we can’t go there. I just don’t see a blanket ban on all holidays to all destinations as remotely likely, or even sensible given the travel industry as a whole would probably go under.

[eFestivals]

The wife got her jab today .

[efcfanwirral]

2 minutes ago, jparx said:

Re; the summer holiday abroad thing on the BBC. Yes, no foreign travel is obviously the safest thing, but I don’t for one second think foreign holidays will be totally banned this summer. Not a chance imo. We’ll at least have some type of travel corridor arrangement or a red list scenario, if not more widely available travel. We know that countries (and apparently the UK is leading the charge) are looking at ways to make it safer with the vaccine passport stuff.

I get Europe are lagging behind, but if there’s very low cases in, say, Cyprus by the summer, they’ve vaccinated a fair number of people and we’ve vaccinated all our adults, it becomes very hard to justify to people why we can’t go there. I just don’t see a blanket ban on all holidays to all destinations as remotely likely, or even sensible given the travel industry as a whole would probably go under.

I know it won't catch all of them but I do wonder if a mandatory test on the way back in could be a good plan? With any positives there going to the sequencing lab. Should at least help point us in the right direction to warn if something is happening 

[zero000]

52 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

When the foreign places have been vaccinated. The UK is way ahead of lots of Europe. They'll have largely caught up next year.

If our population are vaccinated presumably the chance of them bringing back the virus are also low, in combination with vaccine rates increasing in Europe (slowly) and the summer coming.
 

I’m not saying it’s definitely the right call to allow travel, but we’ve got to ease the restrictions at some point and this summer seems a good point to consider it, to areas with low prevalence and ongoing vaccination programs. 

[Mr.Tease]

41 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

 

I like this metaphor :

 

 

[jparx]

1 minute ago, efcfanwirral said:

I know it won't catch all of them but I do wonder if a mandatory test on the way back in could be a good plan? With any positives there going to the sequencing lab. Should at least help point us in the right direction to warn if something is happening 

Sounds a good idea to me. Could just do it at the airport before you go through passport control or something. There will be things in place to unlock overseas travel I’m absolutely certain. Throwing your arms up saying “variants” isn’t going to sit especially well with the public, and companies like Tui. Imagine if Greece has really low cases like last summer and they can’t fly people there because we’re worried about hypotheticals.

[efcfanwirral]

14 minutes ago, jparx said:

Sounds a good idea to me. Could just do it at the airport before you go through passport control or something. There will be things in place to unlock overseas travel I’m absolutely certain. Throwing your arms up saying “variants” isn’t going to sit especially well with the public, and companies like Tui. Imagine if Greece has really low cases like last summer and they can’t fly people there because we’re worried about hypotheticals.

Yeah we just need to make sure we're not taken by surprise by variants if the worst does happen, say the Brazil one made it in and reduced effectiveness even a bit we could be quickly in trouble. I think we'll have a couple of "just in case" mini lockdowns at least over the next year around things like this 

[Havors]

7 minutes ago, efcfanwirral said:

Yeah we just need to make sure we're not taken by surprise by variants if the worst does happen, say the Brazil one made it in and reduced effectiveness even a bit we could be quickly in trouble. I think we'll have a couple of "just in case" mini lockdowns at least over the next year around things like this 

There are going to be variants for the rest of time.... do we lockdown everytime theres a new one? A variant is still the same virus. 

Edited March 20, 2021 by Havors

[Mr.Tease]

4 minutes ago, Havors said:

There are going to be variants for the rest of time.... do we lockdown everytime theres a new one? A variant is still the same virus. 

It depends on the variant - if one is particularly vaccine resistant then obviously you'd treat the rise of it differently 

[efcfanwirral]

5 minutes ago, Havors said:

There are going to be variants for the rest of time.... do we lockdown everytime theres a new one? A variant is still the same virus. 

I mean if they sequence it and find it gets past the vaccine- I don't think we should lock down again but I think we will

[steviewevie]

10 minutes ago, Havors said:

There are going to be variants for the rest of time.... do we lockdown everytime theres a new one? A variant is still the same virus. 

we're right at the start with vaccines though, eventually we'll be able to manufacture and rollout vaccine for whatever variant is dominant, but at moment we're not at that stage.

Also...how much can this virus mutate and become dominant, it's not infinite, right?

[tigger123]

35 minutes ago, Mr.Tease said:

I like this metaphor :

 

 

I agree, a good metaphor but what does she mean by being sensible? Not going to crowded public spaces again? Permanent social distancing? Never hugging their grandkids again? Or just washing your hands and staying at home when you’re ill? 
 

if the vaccines can’t return us to normality then what is the alternative? Live/exist like this forever? No thanks 

[steviewevie]

43 minutes ago, efcfanwirral said:

And a bit more detail 

This is the one we need to keep out. So far we have PR campaigns saying the vaccines are effective against it, but not a real world test just yet. 

the other problem for Brazil is they have a nutcase in charge.

[shoptildrop]

So it's been 3 weeks since my 1st Pfizer jab, feeling a bit relieved tbh and hopefully the fella will get his in April all being well 🤞

With Europe and lets be honest the rest of the world, I do hope they catch up on their vaccination programmes as until we get global coverage of suppressing the risk with this vaccine, it's going to be hard to do anything normal as such... 

I do worry for Brazil as they have that nutter in charge that is just letting them die on the bloody streets 😞 

[efcfanwirral]

I see the seeds of a move on the leadership coming soon, lots of these stories being allowed out. Wonder if it'll be during or after the roadmap? That's one route to "data not dates" 

[Havors]

22 minutes ago, efcfanwirral said:

I mean if they sequence it and find it gets past the vaccine- I don't think we should lock down again but I think we will

I agree with that, we shouldn't but me may well. Makes no sense all this variant hyperbole. They are by all accounts variants that make them more infectious but they are ultimately he same virus.

Vaccines are not just there to stop you getting the virus persay they are predominantly to reduce the seriousness of any illness/death in the weak (which is already a tiny percentage I may add). Reduced infection is a bonus. 

We will find ourselves in the same position every winter that we did with the flu. New boosters or vaccines each winter for the elderly and vulnerable and life will go on. 

 

[Havors]

21 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

we're right at the start with vaccines though, eventually we'll be able to manufacture and rollout vaccine for whatever variant is dominant, but at moment we're not at that stage.

Also...how much can this virus mutate and become dominant, it's not infinite, right?

We certainly will have vaccines every year now or boosters. Its quite obvious even to the lay person. 

[Havors]

30 minutes ago, Mr.Tease said:

It depends on the variant - if one is particularly vaccine resistant then obviously you'd treat the rise of it differently 

When you say vaccine resistant though we are talkign about its ability to infect.. the vaccines will still reduce the seriousness of the illness if caught which is the main job of the vaccine. 

[steviewevie]

12 minutes ago, Havors said:

When you say vaccine resistant though we are talkign about its ability to infect.. the vaccines will still reduce the seriousness of the illness if caught which is the main job of the vaccine. 

do we actually know this yet? that vaccines we have will be just as effective in reducing chance of serious illness or death for any variant?

Edited March 20, 2021 by steviewevie

[steviewevie]

 

[Havors]

1 minute ago, steviewevie said:

do we actually know this yet? that vaccine we have will be just as effective in reducing chance of seriousness illness or death for any variant?

Well thats the premise. The virus is still covid 19... until it mutates and becomes a different virus?