Will P&O now delay announcements for future cruise pauses?

[yorkshirephil]

Just now, terrierjohn said:

The flu virus has to be tweaked each year, so doing something similar for covid will be the way to ensure we all remain protected.

That is already happening, Cambridge are working on a vaccine to be given as a booster before next winter. I think this will be the way of things for a few years at least.

[Chrisdriving]

So everyone already jabbed twice will need a third one?

[yorkshirephil]

1 minute ago, Chrisdriving said:

So everyone already jabbed twice will need a third one?

Very likely, the virus could effectively die away but that is unlikely. The scientists have got a head start for future development. As with everything covid we will have to wait and see, and hope for the best but plan for the worst.

[terrierjohn]

6 minutes ago, Chrisdriving said:

So everyone already jabbed twice will need a third one?

The expert virologists have been saying since day one, that a booster would probably be needed, mutations or no mutations.

Edited February 16, 2021 by terrierjohn

[Chrisdriving]

So every adult is due 2 shots by August and then every single one of them will need a booster.

 

That should be interesting to see how that will be done.

 

you can see where i am going here.

Edited February 16, 2021 by Chrisdriving

[grapau27]

1 minute ago, terrierjohn said:

The expert virologists have been saying since day one, that an booster would probably be needed, mutations or no mutations.

Covid19 is awful from personal experience so whatever it takes I highly recommend everyone gets the vaccine jabs and boosters.

[yorkshirephil]

1 minute ago, Chrisdriving said:

So every adult over 50 is due 2 shots by August and then every single on of them will need a booster.

 

That should be interesting to see how that will be done.

 

you can see where i am going here.

If a mutant strain resistant to the current vaccine prevails you can virtually guarantee there will be a booster, however hopefully it will be only 1 jab so will be easier than the current programme.

[Chrisdriving]

Steering back on topic, this is why i cannot see how we can get back to anything like normal cruising any time soon, the situation is just too volatile.

[cruisenewbie1976]

43 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

Mutants. 
 

That’s the problem now.  The virus is mutating, and travel has the potential to spread the mutations even further. The Kent strain is said to be more transmissible and the South African strain could be resistant to the current vaccines. Governments will want to minimise the risk of mutations taking hold in their countries. 

 

 

 

 

Covid has mutated over 2000 times already. Its what viruses do. The key is to get transmission of the virus low. If that happens, very few people are catching it and therefore, it can't mutate. 

Transmission rates were very low in the UK and Europe through last summer, we're in a better position now than we were this time last year, we also have the vaccine being rolled out and everything is heading in the right direction. 

Plenty of reasons to be positive. 

[terrierjohn]

16 minutes ago, Chrisdriving said:

So every adult is due 2 shots by August and then every single one of them will need a booster.

 

That should be interesting to see how that will be done.

 

you can see where i am going here.

Not really, unless you are assuming the NHS will not be able to continue their present performance.

 

[Chrisdriving]

And how long will this take?

 

And like i said before, the UK is nothing, to allow international travel and cruising we need to vaccinate the whole world.

 

And how long will that take?

 

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by Chrisdriving

[terrierjohn]

1 minute ago, Chrisdriving said:

And how long will this take?

It may become a rolling vaccination, but It all depends on how the virus mutates, and how effective they can make the vaccine, so that it protects against all mutations.  But science will prevail in the end, as it will with climate change.

[Chrisdriving]

I do hope you are correct, because life and what we can do being dictated by a Virus is no fun.

[terrierjohn]

3 minutes ago, Chrisdriving said:

I do hope you are correct, because life and what we can do being dictated by a Virus is no fun.

If you have not been amazed by how science has managed to analyse this virus and produce several very effective vaccines in about 10 months from first obtaining its genomic sequence, then its perhaps no surprise that you are still pessimistic about the outcome.

[yorkshirephil]

7 minutes ago, Chrisdriving said:

I do hope you are correct, because life and what we can do being dictated by a Virus is no fun.

You are right, it is a terrible thing which has decimated families and destroyed lives and the after effect will touch us all for years to come. Life can be very fickle, but when we come through this maybe we will think differently and value life for what it is.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

The jury is still out regarding the possible transmission from someone who has been vaccinated, but the concencus is edging toward this being only a minor issue.

Thank you John. That was my reasoning.

[wowzz]

25 minutes ago, Chrisdriving said:

And like i said before, the UK is nothing, to allow international travel and cruising we need to vaccinate the whole world.

No you don't, you need to build up herd immunity, and add the CV19 booster to the annual flu vaccine. 

[Dermotsgirl]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

The flu virus has to be tweaked each year, so doing something similar for covid will be the way to ensure we all remain protected.

The trouble is, Covid is moving fast, as it is far more infectious than flu and as we are in a pandemic it infects more people than flu, and therefore has more opportunity to mutate. We are constantly playing catch up. 
 

By the time they’ve got the vaccine that works on the South African variant, there’s every chance other mutations will come along and get a grip in the population.

 

It will be like painting the Forth Bridge 

[Dermotsgirl]

56 minutes ago, cruisenewbie1976 said:

Covid has mutated over 2000 times already. Its what viruses do. The key is to get transmission of the virus low. If that happens, very few people are catching it and therefore, it can't mutate. 

Transmission rates were very low in the UK and Europe through last summer, we're in a better position now than we were this time last year, we also have the vaccine being rolled out and everything is heading in the right direction. 

Plenty of reasons to be positive. 

Some mutations are more successful than others, like the Kent variant, because they are so infectious. We now have the vaccine which is good, but we also have more infectious variants which is bad. As travel drives infections, it is unlikely to be permitted this year, because, as you say, transmission needs to be kept low.

 

it’s a precarious situation. Maybe, an ultra cautious approach this year might pay dividends for next year onwards

[wowzz]

9 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

The trouble is, Covid is moving fast, as it is far more infectious than flu and as we are in a pandemic it infects more people than flu, and therefore has more opportunity to mutate. We are constantly playing catch up. 
 

By the time they’ve got the vaccine that works on the South African variant, there’s every chance other mutations will come along and get a grip in the population.

 

It will be like painting the Forth Bridge 

Thanks for cheering me up!

[terrierjohn]

32 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

You are right, it is a terrible thing which has decimated families and destroyed lives and the after effect will touch us all for years to come. Life can be very fickle, but when we come through this maybe we will think differently and value life for what it is.

I hope you are right Phil, but equally I hope the economy improves well enough to enable the govt, any govt, to have the financial backing that will be needed.

However the left need to abandon their relative poverty ideology, there will always be someone at the bottom of the income league, we just need to find a way to ensure they have enough to survive, without having to apply taxes that will stifle investment.

[yorkshirephil]

7 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

The trouble is, Covid is moving fast, as it is far more infectious than flu and as we are in a pandemic it infects more people than flu, and therefore has more opportunity to mutate. We are constantly playing catch up. 
 

By the time they’ve got the vaccine that works on the South African variant, there’s every chance other mutations will come along and get a grip in the population.

 

It will be like painting the Forth Bridge 

There is one main difference in that billions of pounds are being thrown at covid and the finest scientists in the world are working on it. We will likely be chasing the virus for years as it mutates, there are also other alternatives to vaccine being worked on that can be used to treat covid

[Dermotsgirl]

43 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

You are right, it is a terrible thing which has decimated families and destroyed lives and the after effect will touch us all for years to come. Life can be very fickle, but when we come through this maybe we will think differently and value life for what it is.

Covid is probably one of the defining events of this century, in the same way that WW1 and WW2 defined the 20th century. When there’s an event of that magnitude, it leaves indelible change.

 

when the pandemic is over, life will be different to before - as you say, the after effects will be with us for a long time  

[terrierjohn]

21 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

The trouble is, Covid is moving fast, as it is far more infectious than flu and as we are in a pandemic it infects more people than flu, and therefore has more opportunity to mutate. We are constantly playing catch up. 
 

By the time they’ve got the vaccine that works on the South African variant, there’s every chance other mutations will come along and get a grip in the population.

 

It will be like painting the Forth Bridge 

DG, please don't be so pessimistic about how we can learn to live with covid.  The transmission rate will significantly reduce as more of the population are vaccinated, and as this happens the ability of the virus to mutate will inevitably reduce.  Equally as I pointed out earlier if we can roll out a vaccination programme in under 10 months, then I have every confidence in science to continue to produce a vaccine that is active against all variants of covid.

I rather like you're Forth Bridge comparison, that is probably a good analogy, especially as it is still going strong after 140yrs.

Edited February 16, 2021 by terrierjohn

[Dermotsgirl]

1 minute ago, terrierjohn said:

DG, please don't be so pessimistic about how we can learn to live with covid.  The transmission rate will significantly reduce as more of the population are vaccinated, and as this happens the ability of the virus to mutate will inevitably will reduce.  Equally as I pointed out earlier if we can roll out a vaccination programme in under 10 months, then I have every confidence in science to continue to produce a vaccine that is active against all variants of covid.

I rather like you're Forth Bridge comparison, that is probably a good analogy, especially as it is still going strong after 140yrs.

I’m not being pessimistic - just realistic.  

 

This is going to be a long haul - not something that can be neatly resolved this year. There’ll be times when we feel we are ‘winning’ and times when we there are setbacks.

 

It is an amazing feat to have produced a vaccine in such a short time and to have started mass vaccination.

 

But even the best scientists on the planet are unlikely to produce a vaccine that is effective against all variants of an actively mutating virus.

 

We are learning to live with Covid, and the learning process will entail different behaviours to ‘before’. 
 

As I said, cataclysmic world events force change.