So the Government has set out the way forward. A roadmap. Starting with all schools opening on the 8th March with parents able to play golf or tennis is socially distanced way as soon as the school buses have left the street. Ending with getting the bunting out just before summer with every adult having been offered at least one shot of vaccine and virtually all restrictions lifted. That’s the plan.

This time they have introduced some gaps between the various stages to check on the impact. It’s an improvement on the first lockdown release. Not great but an improvement on the last shambles.

I’m already hearing people talk about booking summer holidays, binning the masks, going to nightclubs. The message is ‘soon it will be over, we will have won….’.

Sadly I’m not convinced yet….

  • Schools are being fully reopened against the advice of many of the Government’s own scientific advisers. Reopened with no meaningful additional safety measures put in place.
  • No plans to prioritise front line groups like teachers or police for vaccines. Apparently this will just complicate things.
  • No thought given to the Health and Care sectors that have been stretched to breaking point for a year now. They can’t keep functioning like this.
  • No plans for under 18 vaccines at all as schools are ‘perfectly safe’ and the kids can develop herd immunity without getting too sick. Yet no mention of the increasing number of under 18s suffering long covid symptoms. No mention of school outbreaks that are already happening even with 3/4 quarter empty schools. No mention of overcrowded classrooms with no ventilation. No mention of the scores of children going down with associated diseases which have been brought on as a result of a seemingly mild Covid bout. No investment in home schooling resources to take pressure off classrooms and create another avenue for education – just threats of fines for parents.
  • The plans assume that the vaccine is the way out of the crisis. No mention of virus related mutations becoming resistant to the vaccine. A real risk when you have high infection rates and delayed second shot vaccine delivery. The vaccine is good but it’s not 100% effective. Plus we just don’t know how long the protection will last for in individuals.
  • The plan is in tatters if a change in the virus makes current vaccines less effective. In that increasingly like scenario the vaccine programme has to completely reset and start again.
  • No thought on making changes to how we work, study and play to make them safer going forward. We seem to be happy going back to the status quo which so spectacularly failed only a year ago.
  • The plan assumes an acceptable level of Covid infections and casualties. This is not a zero virus plan.
  • No mention of the mental health crisis facing young and old in this country.
  • The Virus will still be here…..

So no I’m not planning for a pandemic free future just yet. I hope we are fortunate and the plan does work. But when do things ever go to Plan.

48 thoughts on “It’s a plan”

  2. It is the same here. People thinking the vaccine is the cure all. Kinda scares me because it means people are going to become more careless. As well hearing people say that they are not going to get tested if they are feeling ill. They will just stay home. IDK it seems a little too soon to be making plans as such. 🙂

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  3. We just got an update today as well. We have to choose for our kids to either go back in-person 5 days a week or go completely virtual 5 days a week. They only have to social distance 3 feet apart, although 6 is preferred. As long as each school in the district stays under a 10% infection rate, each school will stay open. If a school goes above, then that school will go virtual. We’re going to choose in-person 5 days a week. My kids are just not doing well learning in a virtual environment. They are easily distracted and their grades are going down. I can completely see why Hawklad would choose to stay home. It is a tough choice because as you said, the virus is living among us.

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      1. I agree – it is tough. But the government should not be making a choice and forcing everyone into their box. How frustrating for you!

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  4. And here in Aotearoa New Zealand, a high school in Auckland was closed when one student returned a positive Covid-19 test, and only after deep cleaning was it opened, Even then, students had to return a negative test before they could return to school. And it’s been closed again as two close contacts of the first infected have just returned positive results after returning to school.

    One of our two island nations have got it wrong, and I don’t think it’s the one I live in. Oh I forgot. The UK isn’t an island, it’s a kingdom!

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      1. If every country had done the same as Aotearoa New Zealand, Taiwan, Vietnam, and a few others, then there would have been a month or two of lockdown followed by more or less a normal life.

        I’m not persuaded that our situation is so unique that it is not possible to emulate elsewhere. All it takes is for leaders to fully take on board the advice of the scientists, and then do two things:
        1. Act on it.
        2. Sell it to the public.

        Seems to me that some governments aren’t capable of doing either.

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      1. You are right this is a large struggle for us here in the US where people are still arguing over wearing masks. We will be forced to an adaptation in one way or another, but the cost grows the longer we delay. Further as we struggle with things like going back to school before those adaptations are made we will pay a cost in lives…not just lives lost but lives changed forever as people become long haulers who will be permanently effected by the conditions the disease leaves behind.

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  7. I really wish people would wake up and realize the COVID has moved in. It will EVENTUALLY become like other viruses, the different flus, but not for a long time. “Herd immunity” is a long way off. And “herd immunity” means people will still get sick, and a percentage will die. People die from the flu every year. Masking and distancing are things we need to get used to. We CAN’T go back. We need to think of better ways to go forward. The sooner that happens, the better everyone will be.

    Sorry. I did it again. Ranting in your comments.🤐🤐

    Obviously you and Hawklad will continue doing whatever is best for you guys.💌💌💌

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  8. When things, if ever, start to go back to ‘normal,’ like you, I don’t plan on making anu plans. I haven’t forgotten how the yrar has gone so far.
    I will stay in my four walls, when not shopping, work, or with support bubble.
    The idea of travelling further afield is now just filled with anxiety and doesn’t bear thinking. It took me 10 years to work on myself travelling that further afield in the UK, where I had not neen before. I now feel I have gone backwards.

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  15. I feel as you do, Gary. The feeling seems to be that things will be back to normal by end of summer. I don’t see it. There are too many things we still don’t know about this virus but I think we are being encouraged to just “get on with it” and hope for the best.

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  16. I have friends who are planning their 21st June parties already. I find it very hard to plan that far ahead when there are so many pitfalls. And I don’t think they’ve looked ahead and checked that 21st June is a Monday. Who parties on a Monday?

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      1. Good grief. Ridiculous. And of course, when they all realise it’s a Monday, they’ll just start on the Friday night and go all weekend instead.

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  18. I must agree with you. Sadly hate to think this way but it’s far from over and why not open things up and expose more people and just keep it going longer. Things have opened up here a bit more but I’m cautious and still doing less then more. . Do what’s right for you and your son. Someday this will be over.❤️

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