The Lemon Fool

The now traditional annual poll (see last year's: viewtopic.php?f=98&t=27025)

Thought this would be an interesting one to look back on next year, let's get some (hopefully realistic) expectations set... Poll will close in 30 days time.

Broadly speaking this means:
- No more LFT/PCR testing, proof of result, covid passports
- No more manadatory mask wearing
- A general return to commuting and office working >= 3 days/week
- No more restrictions on the hospitality industry
- Spontaneous and/or unrestricted international travel

Heh. I note your use of the collective "we", which precludes my last year's reply to the directed "you".

UncleEbenezer wrote:Heh. I note your use of the collective "we", which precludes my last year's reply to the directed "you".

You are invited to give your non secular vote on whether we will be living with any Covid restrictions on 25 December 2022 !

moorfield wrote:You are invited to give your non secular vote on whether we will be living with any Covid restrictions on 25 December 2022 !

I voted when I replied, though the question of whether my vote could be considered secular or otherwise never crossed my mind.

Though I might've been tempted to quibble with your criteria. Brexit has buggered unencumbered travel as we knew it. As for that commute, may I refer the Hon. Lemon to what I wrote when my publisher insisted my Apache book have a "dedication":

To all who share my dream, and are working to help make it happen ….

…. the dream of a world where your work, your colleagues, and your opportunities in life are not dictated by where you live, or how far you commute. Where the old-fashioned office of the 19th and 20th centuries has passed into history, along with its soul-destroying bums-on-seats culture and Dilbertian work practices. A world inclusive of those who cannot work in a standard office. A world inclusive of those who reject car-dependence, but embrace a full and active life. A world inclusive of those who seek to fit study and learning in to a busy life, yet have no accessible library, let alone university. Of those who are housebound ….

Our information infrastructure is poised to liberate us all. We who develop with Apache are playing a small but exciting part in that. This work is dedicated to all of us!

moorfield wrote:Broadly speaking this means:
- No more LFT/PCR testing, proof of result, covid passports
- No more manadatory mask wearing
- A general return to commuting and office working >= 3 days/week
- No more restrictions on the hospitality industry
- Spontaneous and/or unrestricted international travel

Yes I predict all of the above for next Xmas, along with the hospital industry in crisis as a result come the New Year.

So yes, rocketing covid infections, the scientific community screaming for some measures to be taken, and politicians refusing, saying "We must not be seen to be cancelling Xmas".

It'll be groundhog day, all over again.

Mike4 wrote:
It'll be groundhog day, all over again.

Interesting that the initial mood is more pessimistic than last year, yet we are all (mostly) vaccinated and omicron seems to be hospitalising less. We shall see.

My view is travel is buggered for longer than we may think, understandable if other countries have different ways of handling it.

Masks - hopefully not mandatory.

LFT/PCS tests - well, that has to stop, and soon ...

I was rather enjoying getting back to 3 days week in office, it was working well for both my productivity and wellbeing/mental health.

UncleEbenezer wrote:

moorfield wrote:You are invited to give your non secular vote on whether we will be living with any Covid restrictions on 25 December 2022 !

To all who share my dream, and are working to help make it happen ….
Where the old-fashioned office of the 19th and 20th centuries has passed into history, along with its soul-destroying bums-on-seats culture and Dilbertian work practices.

Some restrictions, but fewer.

As to the office, that is academic to me now but I bet that presenteeism will still have value for those wishing to climb the greasy pole.

If your dream comes true though, what of Dilbert? I like Dilbert.
Will he be replaced by Ebenezer?
And where will the railways be without commuters and their annual seasons? Are you also planning to abolish the Fat Controller?

V8

moorfield wrote:... soul-destroying bums-on-seats culture and Dilbertian work practices.

Love this reference!

I voted no, despite thinking most restrictions and testing will be gone.

2 things that I think will be lasting:
- COVID passes based on vaccination status (not testing) to enable access to certain events/places (e.g. hospitals?)
- some international travel restrictions (and I am in no hurry to get on an aeroplane any time soon)

It is highly likely that there will be new variants with improved immune escape, and this will require new/tweaked boosters.
3 of my investment trusts count Moderna amongst their largest stakes (SMT, Monks, KPC).

moorfield wrote:

Mike4 wrote:It'll be groundhog day, all over again.

Interesting that the initial mood is more pessimistic than last year, yet we are all (mostly) vaccinated and omicron seems to be hospitalising less. We shall see.

I think we're all a year older, and a fair bit more sceptical about what officialdom tells us. Not everything our politicians say has been a pack of lies, but it's become a survival mechanism for Boris and co to assure us that it's all going to be fine until next month, when it probably won't.

We've had "Eat out to spread it about". "Off to the seaside with you, and never mind that the public toilets are closed so you'll have to use somebody's garden." "Yes, you can gather in pubs to yell at the UEFA footie finals, and you won't cause a spike in infections." All of them delivered with fingers firmly crossed behind the PM's back.

And, for us in the south west, "Congratulations, Immensa Labs are pleased to tell you that you and 43,000 other sick people are officially covid-free. Now, off to the pubs and clubs and restaurants with you."

Yes, the vaccination programme in Britain has been superb, and probably as effective as we might have hoped. And by March we'll have the Omicron boosters in our arms. But even other countries that adopted much tougher covid rules than us (such as France or Germany) have been struggling with massive infectivity, and we'd be idiots to suppose that we've got this virus finally licked. Not at all what Boris and Donald promised us. Why wouldn't we be cautiously pessimistic?

BJ

I think there's going to be restrictions on international travel for some time to come. Until the world gets used to a round of covid every winter much like annual flu. I expect eventually, all vulnerable people in the developed world will get an annual covid jab at the same time they get a flu jab.

BullDog wrote:I think there's going to be restrictions on international travel for some time to come. Until the world gets used to a round of covid every winter much like annual flu. I expect eventually, all vulnerable people in the developed world will get an annual covid jab at the same time they get a flu jab.

Yes and until the politicians get real and start taking timely action instead of holding off for Xmas every year, the NHS staff are gonna just have to suck it up and get treated like cannon fodder.

The obvious solution would be to move Xmas to say, mid November. I can't see there being any objection that, can you?

I will be celebrating Xmas 2022 without any restrictions at all.
You might not be, but I will.

BullDog wrote:I think there's going to be restrictions on international travel for some time to come.

There aren't too many restrictions at this point. Even Australia, which has been more paranoid than most about Covid, is opening up again in 2022, and I have friends visiting there in February 2022. Qantas is ramping up flights and it is flying its A380s from next month, along with Singapore Airlines and BA who have also brought their biggest birds back into service. I recently passed through Heathrow Terminal 5 and it was packed.

The US is now open again for non-Americans, and most countries require only a vaccination card/passport and a recent test.

So you can travel now and many are. The US daily air passenger numbers went from 3 million a day pre-Covid to 300,000 a day at the height of Covid, but is now back to close to 2 million a day.

Lootman wrote:

BullDog wrote:I think there's going to be restrictions on international travel for some time to come.

There aren't too many restrictions at this point. Even Australia, which has been more paranoid than most about Covid, is opening up again in 2022, and I have friends visiting there in February 2022. Qantas is ramping up flights and it is flying its A380s from next month, along with Singapore Airlines and BA who have also brought their biggest birds back into service. I recently passed through Heathrow Terminal 5 and it was packed.

The US is now open again for non-Americans, and most countries require only a vaccination card/passport and a recent test.

So you can travel now and many are. The US daily air passenger numbers went from 3 million a day pre-Covid to 300,000 a day at the height of Covid, but is now back to close to 2 million a day.

Thanks. West Australia and Northern Territory likely to be closed for some time yet, I think. Particularly interested in the former since I am very interested in doing the Indian Pacific rail journey from Perth to Sydney!