Some social distancing will be in force for a long long time, even if we are down to the really vulnerable, and particular restrictions in shops/hospitality/football.
It is completely inconceivable that social distancing won't be in force for a considerable length of time.
www.bbc.co.uk
I don't see why fit and healthy people might not be able to play football outside for example
Or a treatment - if you could keep most people out of ICU and reduce their hospital stay to a few days max then the capacity to deal with a major outbreak would absolutely rocket.
Because that would be 22 plus people from different household, maybe even different towns, in close contact with each other.
Especially when a vaccine might never be available. Then what? We can’t live our lives with the social distancing forever, at some point we’d have to say stuff it, and get back to normal, allbeit with the increased risk of excess deaths
OK. That was just an example, but small communities tend to operate as a tight group, and given the neglect that tourist areas get out of season, especially from politicians, the influx of visitors just turning up as a self-interest move I believe would be seen as an abuse of their wellbeing.
One measure that appears to have had some success, especially in East Asia, is the requirement is to wear some form of mask, particularly in confined areas where effective distancing is difficult, such as on public transport. The primary aim here is to stop unknowingly infected people ejecting droplets from their mouths into the faces of others nearby and onto surfaces that may be touched later, so non-medical, home-made and improvised mouth coverings can be highly effective. Once thereby, and in combination with distancing and general caution still required elsewhere, the 'R value' has dropped below 1 for a few weeks, the number of new infections should collapse dramatically, and test and trace of any new small outbreaks should become practical in a partially reopened economy. The other major element would be testing of those travelling to areas that have been cleared from places that haven't, especially those entering the UK from abroad. Mass public gatherings, such as major sports events and concerts will probably have to remain out of the question for a while longer, although restaurants and then pubs might be allowed to reopen with reduced numbers and limited mask removal allowed in small well-spaced groups. This all gives time for new treatments and vaccines to be developed and tested before restrictions are further lifted.
A lot of people I have spoken to, including pensioners, are saying the same thing. For the sake of our quality of life and the economy, which go hand in hand, we will have to be less risk averse.
I suspect a lot of elderly people (80+) would not be too bothered about dying from Corona, other than the effect that it will have on their friends and family, and would actually prefer to die from it while living a relatively normal life than stay alive for a few more years unable to do much either through continued restrictions or declining health. On a slightly different note (and one I expect to be flamed for) I also wonder if the desire to keep all care home residents alive as long as possible is mistaken (and not just in terms of corona) when many of them, such as those with later stage dementia, have basically no quality of life and may well prefer to be dead than being kept alive despite being able to do basically nothing for themselves.
Apparently healthy people.
Yes there may never be a vaccine; there may never be a 'cure' (aka a treatment to reduce mortality rates); catching the virus might not even confer immunity. If that's the case then we'll probably be reliant on test & trace to keep the spread at manageable levels. Whichever it is, life will then be at the new normal. Imagining that this will be in a couple of weeks is a pipedream. The government is not going to condemn thousands of people to death, even if the majority of them only have a few years life expectancy (actually WHO have estimated that the average reduction in life expectancy by covid-19, even with the very high average age of those dying, is 13 years), because the media and opposition would crucify them, even if they were so minded.
I won't flame you; I will say that this attitude is callous and lacking in empathy.
