Covid update - my take

Blimey - missing in action again. I haven't posted since April.

Well let's ignore all the other crap going on (Brexit I'm looking at you), and concentrate on the Covid pandemic.

Last night, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson (yes, the clown really is still PM) announced that pretty much all restrictions will be lifted on 19 July, which many are referring to as "Freedom Day". Of course, this only applies to England. The Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford, was at pains to point this out, and say that he'd be looking at an announcement at the end of next week based on the latest scientific data. Read into that what you will.

It seems that people are now broadly divided into two groups. Those who think that we're fast heading towards (or are already in) a 3rd wave as cases are rising, rapidly in some areas, and that lifting restrictions is lunacy, and those who say that we just have to learn to live with Covid come what may (we do), and that although cases are rising, deaths and hospitalisations aren't, because of the massively successful vaccine rollout. There are of course the usual bunch of "others" - continuing Covid deniers and anti-vaxxers, but sadly and inevitably there will always be idiots.

Personally, I fall into the let's just get on with it  group. Yes it's a thing. No it's not going away. But deaths and hospitalisations are down. Continuing to base any decisions about management on cases rather than the latter seems illogical. We need to be cautious, but not to the point of being so risk averse we wrap ourselves in cotton wool when there's no need to do so. Continue wearing masks in crowded places and for example on public transport. Get everyone jabbed (or as many as will have it - and we're doing very well on this).

I frequently see people saying "it's not the same as flu", you can't treat/.manage it the same way. No it's not the same, but we've had years of vaccinating vulnerable people against flu - we're only just starting down this path with Covid. But the vaccine efficacy is also much higher for Covid. In the autumn we'll probably be into booster jabs for Covid, and the data already shows that vaccination is working. Lets run with it, and get ourselves back to as near normal as possible. Please.