Coronavirus (2021) thread

[Toney’s bookie]

Finally a sensible comment on the travel and holiday situation.

Shapps really is a massive **** saying it's illegal to book a holiday. No it isn't.

The travel industry is on it's knees anyway, an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people directly and indirectly. We're getting no sector specific help from the government, and all the mixed messages they are giving out just compound things.

No-one is going anywhere for a few months, domestically or internationally. Which is a good thing whilst the vaccine rollout continues at pace.
But I do think/hope that by summer there will be the scope for some travel to selected destinations in Europe, in a similar fashion to last summer/autumn. Whether that might involve testing, proof of vaccination etc I'm really not sure but I'd be surprised if 2021 is written off for all international travel.

If people wanna holiday at home then fill your boots, but why some feel the need to act all superior about it is beyond me.

I also think people sometimes downplay the importance of holidays and travel.
Is it essential? Course it isn't, just like going to a gig, watching City live, going to the cinema or theatre, going out for food and drink etc also isn't.
If it's 'acceptable' to pine the return of live football, then it's perfectly acceptable to pine the return of holidays and international travel.

And anyone worried about packed beaches in Europe this year.....lol, you seen Bournemouth beach on a sunny bank holiday weekend? If domestic holidays are permitted this summer then that's what it's gonna be like daily for 3/4 months.

I'll have this instead please (if it's allowed, of course) Majorca, mid July 2020. Lovely stuff.

Exactly. All these people demanding we're all banished to these shores for 3 years surely can't think there will be any airlines, hotel companies etc left by then?! Unfortunately too many here are blinkered by covid and nothing else and are starting to lose all sense of reality. People need to have a future or we end up just existing and that is not a good place to be. The politicians have to take a bigger picture view and balance the needs of society to function and for people to live for the future and it's easy to sit behind a keyboard and say 'do this do that' with no regard for the consequences. Same as SAGE undoubtedly (and understandably) don't factor in economic or societal consequences of their advice which is likely framed solely around covid and the health issues. Politicians need to take their advice into account and balance it with other factors, they can't just blindly follow it but so many seem to not be able to grasp that.

 

[Marvin]

Exactly. All these people demanding we're all banished to these shores for 3 years surely can't think there will be any airlines, hotel companies etc left by then?! Unfortunately too many here are blinkered by covid and nothing else and are starting to lose all sense of reality. People need to have a future or we end up just existing and that is not a good place to be. The politicians have to take a bigger picture view and balance the needs of society to function and for people to live for the future and it's easy to sit behind a keyboard and say 'do this do that' with no regard for the consequences. Same as SAGE undoubtedly (and understandably) don't factor in economic or societal consequences of their advice which is likely framed solely around covid and the health issues. Politicians need to take their advice into account and balance it with other factors, they can't just blindly follow it but so many seem to not be able to grasp that.

We don't know what the epidemic is going to look like in 3 months let alone 3 years.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

The bit about being lucky to find anywhere in the UK this year that isn't extortionate is a myth. We booked 7 nights in Cornwall last week for £600 and there were load of options available.

I can go to Greece for a week for less than that!

 

[feelymcfeel]

There's some picky sods on this Forum.

Took me 2 minutes to find 5 nights for £133.95. Bang in centre of town. Roker beach, cheap bars and cinemas, museums and gardens. I stayed there when we used to lose at Stadium of Light each year. Try it.

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Bars, museums, cinemas? You gonna guarantee they'll be open for me before I spend £130 on going to fucking Sunderland on holiday

Also there seem to be a few people on here who don't understand how supply and demand affect price.

 

[dennishasdoneit]

Yes I totally get it and understand.
I had a mental breakdown last year through all of this and thought a lot about whether I wanted to carry on, that was last summer. It's now a year into all this.
I'm a lot better and run every day, I had a relationship with a lovely woman that last a few months but we finished 2 weeks ago as we both couldn't cope with the isolation and lack of things to do, it broke us.
I live on my own and trying to deal with this is impossible now after a year.
The government are drunk on power and are making decisions without legislation or debate.
They have lost all control.

Its the total lack of legislation and debate wbich really troubles me.
Keep up the running mate,and Good luck..

 

[Bluemoon dan]

We don't know what the epidemic is going to look like in 3 months let alone 3 years.

I think this is the key point with summer holidays. It's too early to really commit. We have a week in Majorca booked for August that was rolled over from last year. I'm trying not to think about it either way at the moment as we really don't know.
Having said that, if we get to the end of May and we are able to count our new daily covid cases in the dozens rather than thousands, and the Spanish/Greek Islands are the same if not better, then it's going to be very difficult to justify not allowing travel corridors in the same way we had last summer.

 

[shemnel]

We don't know what the epidemic is going to look like in 3 months let alone 3 years.

i think the principle problem that we now face, from here on, is the reaction to new strains.

i've read on here that a vast majority of critical illness and death will be mitigated by the current vaccine programme. So we can safely assume that, against the current dominant strains in the UK, we are a vaccination programme away from making covid another respiratory disease we generally live with.

The worry is that other strains coming in from elsewhere might evade this efficacy and/or reduction in extreme illness and therefore we go back around, cases that produce illness and death go up and up and the precautionary principle of 'NHS overwhelmed' is back out again.

i suppose what people are really struggling with now, is the fact that that strategy has no end. With billions around the world not being vaccinated for years, or possibly ever, then does the mutation merry go round simply never stop? do borders have to be extremely tight for years to come? is this a world we want to live in? and can anyone actually deny that with any confidence? if they can, then that implies vaccination is the way out and therefore restrictions need to be lifted from late spring onwards. We cannot live on edge, it's just not really worth living for.

so, how do we react.

 

[paulchapo]

Bars, museums, cinemas? You gonna guarantee they'll be open for me before I spend £130 on going to fucking Sunderland on holiday

Also there seem to be a few people on here who don't understand how supply and demand affect price.

Plus Sunderland will be -20 in July and you'll never learn the local dialect before then.

 

[feelymcfeel]

i think the principle problem that we now face, from here on, is the reaction to new strains.

i've read on here that a vast majority of critical illness and death will be mitigated by the current vaccine programme. So we can safely assume that, against the current dominant strains in the UK, we are a vaccination programme away from making covid another respiratory disease we generally live with.

The worry is that other strains coming in from elsewhere might evade this efficacy and/or reduction in extreme illness and therefore we go back around, cases that produce illness and death go up and up and the precautionary principle of 'NHS overwhelmed' is back out again.

i suppose what people are really struggling with now, is the fact that that strategy has no end. With billions around the world not being vaccinated for years, or possibly ever, then does the mutation merry go round simply never stop? do borders have to be extremely tight for years to come? is this a world we want to live in? and can anyone actually deny that with any confidence? if they can, then that implies vaccination is the way out and therefore restrictions need to be lifted from late spring onwards. We cannot live on edge, it's just not really worth living for.

so, how do we react.

Is exactly the point.

If life is reduced to constantly hopping in and out of lockdowns, continually distancing from others, being reduced to 'essential travel only,' then what is the actual point? Existing isn't the same as living.

 

[RobMCFC]

Right, I'm fed up with some of the clowns asking stupid questions at the daily briefings so I've submitted one of my own. Says the cabinet office will contact me within 3 days if it's chosen. Probably unlikely but you can only try.

My question was along the lines of "Why don't the government set out a plan of lifting restrictions based on case numbers rather than dates? e.g. lift restriction x when case numbers are below 5000 for 7 consecutive dates."

My daughter says that putting "x" in the question will confuse most people!