The devolved nations may have to look at mask laws again if cases/hospitalisations keep rising. Can't see England reintroducing them though. I've certainly been still wearing my mask in public transport and shops even though its only like 40% of people who I see wearing them now.

On the flipside I can't WAIT to not have to wear masks

The devolved nations may have to look at mask laws again if cases/hospitalisations keep rising. Can't see England reintroducing them though. I've certainly been still wearing my mask in public transport and shops even though its only like 40% of people who I see wearing them now.

 

40% seems high I find where I live (London) especially evenings where it goes to about 10% or less

 

Barely anyone wears a mask anymore, I get it, covid is rife again but this is going to happen over the next couple of years. I suspect come winter the vulnerable and over 55s will be offered a booster jab again, but the idea now surely is that we all catch it. Wearing masks will do bugger all when nobody has to legally self isolate.

I would have a 4th booster jab if there was clinical benefit. The problem is the government have basically said covid is pretty much over by dropping all restrictions and even the daily figures aren’t published in the media as much as before. This kinda sends out a message to people to get on with their lives so people aren’t going to see the necessity of having further jabs. Covid will be around for a long time and case rates will likely remain high unless more preventative measures are put in place as we are still dealing with a highly contagious virus. Omicron might be weaker but I’ve heard reports from people who have still been really unwell despite having jabs and there is a new covid variant called Deltacron on the horizon which is one to watch. Deltacron is when someone is infected with both the delta and omicron variants at the same time but little is known about the variant so far which appears to originate from France.

Edited March 14, 20223 yr by slowdown73

I reckon Sigma will be the big new variant of 2022.

I'm happy getting a jab every year. I just want life to not feel like a dystopia

If this new Deltacron variant originated in France, I really think they missed a trick not calling it "Macronicron"

Masks to stay 'until April' now in Scotland 'because of a spike' aye sure it starts to feel like forever now. Oh noooo, not a spike!

excess deaths reported, from those countries that monitor annual deaths, since Covid total 18 million. It's not gone away, I'd say about getting on 40% the people I know have had it in Dorset. Not a scientific stat but there you go...

 

So actual deaths will be way higher given those that dont have accurate statistics and ongoing variations. 20 or 30 million dead is quite a lot of personal tragedies.

Masks to stay 'until April' now in Scotland 'because of a spike' aye sure it starts to feel like forever now. Oh noooo, not a spike!

 

It isn’t over though. Just because you don’t want to wear a mask, these rules are in place to protect which is what they should be concerned with. Working in the public sector on the English/Welsh border, I’m already feeling the strain lifting restrictions has had, I’m having to do other people’s jobs as well as my own because of infections and am at even more risk of getting Covid myself. So what if they want to keep masks a little longer if it helps? They haven’t exactly done anything else to protect people.

 

And besides, no one enforces these rules so why don’t you just not wear a mask? Or get one of those lanyards that are easy to come by? I feel uneasy seeing you mocking rules about masks.

Honestly it’s just a mask. Like it’s the most basic protection measure and tbh just a sign of basic human decency and after two years I am absolutely judging anyone complaining about still having to wear a mask

Interesting thread from John Burn-Murdoch on the recent spike in Hong Kong cases/deaths- it seems that relatively lower level of vaccination in the most vulnerable people (apparently <20% in the over 80s), combined with lower vaccine efficacy has allowed Omicron to spread to devastating effect after 2 years of a Zero Covid approach, which to be completely fair has mostly kept the worst impacts at bay and until now been seen as a relative success. Could be repeated in China, hence the large fall in the Chinese stock market this afternoon.. I suppose the danger of the Zero Covid approach is partly that people feel too complacent to come forward for a vaccine. Nothing is ever black and white and there are no easy choices.

 

@1503420660869214213

 

Further analyis also shows that the infection fatality rate (IFR) for Covid-19 has now fallen to comparable levels with flu *for the first time* - note, this is almost entirely down to a combination of vaccines, previous infection and the slightly lower virulence of Omicron. That point about vaccines and prior infection hammered home by the stats from Hong Kong above.

 

It isn’t over though. Just because you don’t want to wear a mask, these rules are in place to protect which is what they should be concerned with. Working in the public sector on the English/Welsh border, I’m already feeling the strain lifting restrictions has had, I’m having to do other people’s jobs as well as my own because of infections and am at even more risk of getting Covid myself. So what if they want to keep masks a little longer if it helps? They haven’t exactly done anything else to protect people.

 

And besides, no one enforces these rules so why don’t you just not wear a mask? Or get one of those lanyards that are easy to come by? I feel uneasy seeing you mocking rules about masks.

 

I'm just fed up of it all Toby. It feels absolutely neverending and so much of it is built on a foundation of lies.

 

I miss being able to trust the government and the people that run the country I live in. Especially since working for the NHS. Very eye opening about why we are told what we are told and about the rules, and about how the communication and advertising was straight up wrong early on and we are still trying to correct it.

What lies?

'Everyone is equally at risk, staying in for ANY reason is the most important thing, young people mixing is killing granny and grandad (where are they magically getting it from?), all older people are 100% sticking to the rules and being victimized by evil young people who are infecting them despite their best efforts' etc. The old one about the death rate being 1 in 10 which was absolutely incorrect and was never corrected. Told to actively not wear masks for first 3 months before thet became absolutely mandatory. One vaccine being enough to get new freedoms and priority vaccinated people ONLY being allowed to access tgem while people who let them go ahead weren't allowed even though the reason they didn't was that they were at less risk in the first place.

 

Any concern whatsoever about the harms done by lockdowns being shouted down and pushed under the rug to the extent even now that articles on the topic talk about 'covid harms' when they mean lockdown harms.

 

And so on and so forth.

'Everyone is equally at risk, staying in for ANY reason is the most important thing, young people mixing is killing granny and grandad (where are they magically getting it from?), all older people are 100% sticking to the rules and being victimized by evil young people who are infecting them despite their best efforts' etc. The old one about the death rate being 1 in 10 which was absolutely incorrect and was never corrected. Told to actively not wear masks for first 3 months before thet became absolutely mandatory. One vaccine being enough to get new freedoms and priority vaccinated people ONLY being allowed to access tgem while people who let them go ahead weren't allowed even though the reason they didn't was that they were at less risk in the first place.

 

Any concern whatsoever about the harms done by lockdowns being shouted down and pushed under the rug to the extent even now that articles on the topic talk about 'covid harms' when they mean lockdown harms.

 

And so on and so forth.

There is a big difference between lies and advice which proved to be an over-reaction. Early advice was based on what was known at the time with a degree of caution (the amount of caution varied from country to country). That's how science works.

Yeah. Sorry. It's been a stressful week and I need space to vent. Maybe this wasn't the best space.

 

I can't deal with things well when I think something bad will pass and then it doesn't. Covid has been an exercise in that happening over and over and over again and it really destroys my coping mechanisms.

Yeah. Sorry. It's been a stressful week and I need space to vent. Maybe this wasn't the best space.

 

I can't deal with things well when I think something bad will pass and then it doesn't. Covid has been an exercise in that happening over and over and over again and it really destroys my coping mechanisms.

 

 

Sorry to hear that, hope you de-stress soon, I know about venting, I do that if things build up too much once in a blue moon and I get very embarrassed afterwards.

 

Take it easy, and don't worry about it...!

'Everyone is equally at risk, staying in for ANY reason is the most important thing, young people mixing is killing granny and grandad (where are they magically getting it from?), all older people are 100% sticking to the rules and being victimized by evil young people who are infecting them despite their best efforts' etc. The old one about the death rate being 1 in 10 which was absolutely incorrect and was never corrected. Told to actively not wear masks for first 3 months before thet became absolutely mandatory. One vaccine being enough to get new freedoms and priority vaccinated people ONLY being allowed to access tgem while people who let them go ahead weren't allowed even though the reason they didn't was that they were at less risk in the first place.

 

Any concern whatsoever about the harms done by lockdowns being shouted down and pushed under the rug to the extent even now that articles on the topic talk about 'covid harms' when they mean lockdown harms.

 

And so on and so forth.

 

Things were so unknown at the start that of course not every rule was sensible. Masks especially could and should have been brought in earlier. But I don’t recall them ever saying everyone was the same risk. In fact, I seem to remember at the start it was very much ‘don’t worry if you’re young and healthy’ and that people who died would die anyway. Staying in was solidarity for those who were vulnerable especially when so much was not known. It was difficult but I don’t begrudge anyone for it.

 

I also don’t like the divisions of old and young in any argument. Those who didn’t follow the rules were jerks, no matter what age. All generations of my family followed them, even my parents who complained about them. Good people cared enough about others to make sacrifices.