Obviously we all hope that both the vaccines and treatments in general get stronger and more effective but I think a general truth that will be voiced more often in these coming months is that this virus isn't going away....though it will be subject to the normal respiratory seasonal highs and declines.

It's a new landscape.....a Chinese takeaway no one's enjoying.

I suppose we could compare it to a form of terror threat....how much do you allow it to affect your life and for how long?

How much do you accept the right of the government to decide that for you.

Edited by Stirlingsays (06 Mar 2021 2.42pm)

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

Hosts won't reduce enough all the time apparently intelligent people brief against the vaccines.

'I'm not saying YOU shouldn't have it but....' Followed by a load of spurious pseudoscience. That's more likely to put people off having the vaccines than just outright telling them not to. Then the individuals involved just shrug their shoulders and say 'well, it's up to the individual. I did nothing wrong, they don't have to follow me.' Meanwhile the people that actually know what they are talking about get drowned out by the loud voices because, as we know, an empty drum makes the most noise.

Listen to yourself, you're away with the fairies.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

Is that not an artificial distrust.

I have been vaccinated. Everyone I know personally has either been vaccinated or intends to at the earliest opportunity. No-one I know has refused or intends to refuse.

The only people who intend to refuse are those I have only online contact with and they are all people whose views I also find weird in many ways other than this one.

There is my good friend in the USA, a devout Trump supporter who believes everything that InfoWars publishes, who is convinced Bill Gates is trying to take over the world via the vaccines. Then there are the conspiracy theorists I lock horns with who don't trust anything which originates from government or mainstream media sources. Then there are those on here too.

Those who are vaccine enthusiasts tend to have my respect for their opinions on other matters, whilst those who aren't I tend to disagree with on almost everything.

Why is this? What binds these groups together? It cannot be just that the second group are simply unconventional and prepared to think out of the box for there are plenty of them in the first group. My impression is that those in the second group have only a tentative grasp on reality and are prepared to treat all opinions as being equally valid.

The vaccines are safe. The folk at Oxford were both convinced and very convincing that theirs was safe even before the trials began. They knew how it was built and that their experience told them it was fine. The trials confirmed that and now the real-life experience is backing it up.

So should people who are medically able to be vaccinated be compelled to comply? Tempting though it is to force the issue we cannot do that. People must have the freedom to refuse.

However, if people have the right to refuse then we all also have the right to know if someone has refused and the right to decide for ourselves how to respond.

Do we want to work, travel or socialise in situations where close contact is unavoidable with people who could have been vaccinated but refused?

If enough people don't want to be involved in such situations will it become the norm that before a ticket for a flight, train, theatre or football match is issued that you will need to prove you have either been vaccinated or hold an exemption? Will the same apply in restaurants and pubs? Will there be outdoor spaces where the unvaccinated can socialise together, just as smokers must now do in pubs?

Will vaccination become a requirement employers expect of their staff?

I pose the questions but don't have answers. I do though expect that some at least will become part of our futures.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

I'm having the jab because irrespective of the need for the wider population to be vaccinated, anyone not doing so will become something of a pariah and possibly unable to travel or attend public events.