You can't compare HIV/AIDS to COVID in this simplistic way, including the attitudes and public debate around them, and this comment is dangerously close to some sort of public health version of a Godwin's Law violation.

What I remember about HIV in the early 80s was that fear of it fueled a lot of homophobia from those who were ignorant about the disease, certainly to begin with. In fact I remember it originally being seen as a disease that only infected homosexuals and drug addicts - and those being the people who were vilified - which proved to be a fatally uninformed point of view for some.

But HIV is, fundamentally, a very different pathogen to COVID. In the 80s HIV was a death sentence: if you were infected with HIV, sooner or later it would develop into AIDS and you would die. However, a relatively small proportion of the population was infected, and it wasn't very transmissible (you had to have sex or other transfer of body fluids, such as a blood transfusion). Nowadays, HIV treatments have improved to the extent that in developed countries most people receiving treatment can expect to lead a fairly normal and full life, and to live a normal lifetime (ignoring other causes of death that might intervene). I'm not sure what the story is in less developed countries, but I imagine it's not as encouraging.

COVID has never close to that deadly, but is far more transmissible. It's that high transmission rate that has seen so many people die, even though these represent a small fraction of those infected. And this time, nobody is being vilified for their sexual preference, or their gender identity, or any other characteristic that is fundamental to who they are and over which they may not have had much if any agency. You might argue that drug addicts have agency but they don't have very much once they're hooked.

No, with COVID, people are being vilified for wilful ignorance, which is a choice: a conscious decision, and one that - in this case - has a substantial negative impact on their surrounding community and the world at large.

I can't tell you how effective, or not, that vilification is, but I can tell you that a lot of people - myself included - who are fully vaxxed, boosted, and will gladly accept further vaccinations (and would also welcome effective treatments for those who are sick), are getting enormously fed up of having restrictions placed on our lives which, to a non-trivial extent, are being propagated as a result of people who are spreading misinformation and choosing not to get vaccinated. I'm not old - somewhere in the middle - but the remaining count of the best years of my life is finite and even in the best possible case very limited, so I'm getting sick to death of people telling me what I can and can't do with them.

I even agree with you that pointing fingers and calling names won't change anything, but it doesn't matter. Lots of people have had their fill and the anti-vaxxers are a convenient, and frankly not entirely unjust, target for their rage and frustration, which pays to a key point: the rest of us, the "vaxxed and done", or whatever you want to call us, will eventually tire of allowing the lowest common denominator to set the agenda. That's not a threat: it's just a reality, just who we are. Eventually we'll tire of the yoke and throw it off.

"are getting enormously fed up of having restrictions placed on our lives which, to a non-trivial extent, are being propagated as a result of people who are spreading misinformation and choosing not to get vaccinated" I am assuming you are a tech worker and can find a remote job. Just move somewhere with no restrictions. There are essentially zero restrictions in states like Florida or Texas. I live in one of those states and aside from maybe 35% of people voluntarily wearing masks there are few signs of the pandemic. I am not denying that people are getting sick I'm just saying that if you dont want to deal with the restrictions then there are options.

Sure, I work in tech, but like plenty of other people who work in tech, it's not as simple as "just move somewhere else." I've only ever driven through Texas, and it's a big state, so I can't comment on what it would be like to live there but I properly detest the climate in Florida, which I'd find impossible to tolerate, and the topography there is extremely uncompelling. Still, I suppose who doesn't love a bit of Miami from time to time? But even ignoring those relative trivialities, there are a bunch of serious issues I'd have to negotiate to make any major relocation a reality:

1. I live in the UK. Sadly I can't just up and move anywhere I choose. Even more frustrating, since we left the EU I can't even just up and move anywhere I choose in Europe (not that restrictions-wise it's much better there at the moment).

2. My close family are all in the UK and, although the rules have made it hard to see them as regularly as I would have liked over the past 2 years, it's been a lot easier (and less costly) than it would have been had I "just moved somewhere else", and I want to continue to be nearish to them.

4. My girlfriend and her close family live in the UK. I'm not leaving her to move somewhere else, and especially not to move to Florida - WTF. Just as importantly I can't see her being keen on living that far from her family.

5. Most of my friends live in the UK, either close to where I live now, or close to where my parents live. I could start again somewhere else but, overall, I'm fairly content with my life. Ditto my girlfriend's friends.

6. My current employer places a 45 day limit on working abroad for tax reasons. This isn't insurmountable. I could find another job but finding another job is another barrier, and I quite like my current job.

7. I have a house that I'm part way through refurbishing. I'd have to figure out what to do with that but, whatever the outcome, that decision will require a significant investment of time, or money, or both. The reality is it would be a trade-off between the two but, in any event, would represent a substantial investment that due to the need to act quickly might well outweigh what I'd invest if I were less constrained by time.

8. I've never wanted to live in the US, though I like visiting, and I'd certainly want better employment conditions than I'm likely to find there: i.e., sensible amounts of holiday, decent employee rights, not to mention public healthcare.

Yes, if I was still 28, single, had my whole career ahead of me, and hadn't yet bought a house, I could simply up sticks and leave, as long as practicalities rather than relationships were my major driving factor. But it's not so simple, and the fact that I work in tech is basically irrelevant because the only part of the equation it simplifies is the "getting a job" part, which isn't even the most important aspect of said equation. As an aside, somebody like Joe Rogan can move from California to Texas relatively easily because he's a jetsetter and all his mates are jetsetters so he pretty much only gets the upsides from that move (not a criticism: with the kind of money he has, I might well see things differently too).

But far more important than all of that, your comment plays hard to the point I was making: why the hell should I give everything up because, in some part, of a bunch of people who won't see sense? What difference does it make whether that's because of rules and restrictions, or because I've had to walk away from my life and start again because of them?

All good points, I assumed you lived in the US, my fault. If everyone in the UK was vaccinated tomorrow would all of the restrictions go away? Iceland and Israel essentially show that the cases don't stop and Israel is experiencing a case load as high as they have ever had. I would argue that your main problem is not the unvaccinated but the restrictions put in place by your government that they in turn blame on the unvaccinated.

Fair, and no worries, I'd guess at least 50% of the readership here is from the US. Also, sorry if I came off a bit sharp: that was all written fairly hastily.

That's a great question, and it also touches on the reason I'm not only infuriated with antivaxxers: vaccines don't fully protect against illness, nor do they stop transmission. So whilst I vaccines are of substantial benefit they're clearly not a total solution to the problem of COVID, nor do I think such a total solution exists or can exist within any foreseeable timeframe.

One becomes jaded living with controls over a situation that doesn't appear to be particularly controllable; certainly not a situation that can be controlled by the UK government, or other governments in Western Europe.

I've tolerated - we've all tolerated - restrictions for nearly two years now but, if they're not making much difference, well, eff the restrictions, I've had enough. I'm not getting any younger here and I'm fed up of wasting my life away. I suppose, to some extent, I'm a bit consumed with a sort of impotent frustration.

What's the situation where you are, if you don't mind me asking?

"Also, sorry if I came off a bit sharp: that was all written fairly hastily." Nope, my fault, was a bit flippant of me to suggest you just pack up and move. I probably would have reacted the same way. I'm in Florida and its pretty relaxed here. There are no real restrictions that I am aware of, including no mask requirements. My kids go to school and no one wear's masks. Funnily enough school only opened last week and I got a call saying the county recommends but does not require that everyone wear a mask. So we sent the kids to school with masks and literally no one including the teachers were masked so masking died the first day and we have not enforced it.

Along the same lines my kid is also quarantined for the the next few days as someone at his table tested positive this past Friday (did not even make it a week). They can either do virtual schooling for 10 days or return once they have a negative test. Only the 4 kids at his table are quarantined, rest of the class is not. He has actually had a low grade fever (99 - 100 degrees F) the last 3 days so he may have it but he tested negative on a covid test, so technically he can go back to school monday. Not sure I trust the test and will hold him home for a few more days until he has no fever. Other than that he has no symptoms. No one else in the family is symptomatic.

In grocery stores about 35 - 40% of people wear masks. I am hit or miss, mainly miss on masks. I used to mask all the time and not sure there was a conscious decision to stop but it just kind of faded away. I did recently get the booster. Have not vaccinated the kids yet, go back and forth on it. Service workers are generally masked, not sure if by choice or company policy, I am assuming the latter. No vaccination or masking req. to eat at a restaurant. Feel a little bad about the almost dual class structure created where the service industry is masked while those they serve are not.

There are places in the US like NYC that check your vaccine card before they will admit you. Federal government is attempting to push a vaccine requirement for all companies over 100 employees through the courts, sitting at the supreme court right now, not sure what will happen with that.

It is very hard to get a test though here and the state government is encouraging people not to get tested unless they have severe symptoms. Not sure I agree with this.

I am very center of the road politically and politicians here are now extreme so I find myself lost in the shuffle not agreeing with most of those that represent me. Covid has been very much politicized now with Republican governors essentially removing all restrictions and many democratic governors adding much more stringent restrictions although I think most of them fall short of Euro style restrictions and are not close to Australian levels.

My kids did not do well with the isolation that came with the initial outbreak so I think I have tailored my response more to ensuring they are mentally well than any real concern for the physical risks of Covid which are generally low (not saying zero) in younger patients.

I vote Democrat usually but find myself disliking the hardline approach they have taken on vaccination but dislike even more any politician that refuses to acknowledge how egregious what happened when they attempted to overthrow the election for Trump last year. So I just kind of worry about my family now and attempt to block out the country at large.

Apologies for the novel.

This is really interesting - thanks. Some things are the same, some things different.

One of the things that really resonated with me is that if you're a customer of the hospitality industry, you don't have to wear a mask, but if you're a staff member, you do. It's very two tier, and they're obviously at far higher risk of contracting COVID than the rest of us.

Something that is different is that a fair number of events do check COVID passes - my GF and I went to a gig a couple of days ago, for example, where this was the case. So this is similar to NYC.

Like you, I'm pretty centrist, but I don't think COVID has become quite the political hot potato here in the UK that it perhaps is in the US. There's a lot of sniping but there's also broad cross-party support for measures that attempt to control the pandemic. That being said, there is still a notable left/right divide with, for example, some conservatives being very heavily against certain measures (e.g., COVID passports), and some on the left always being in favour of more restrictions.

There's quite a bit of politics playing across countries in Europe around travel measures as well, with the UK I think probably as guilty as other countries in this regard.

The situation with schoolchildren has been similar, but with mask wearing for teenagers now mandatory. No issues with younger kids though, which I think is good but also marginally aggravating when GF and I take her kids places, and we have to wear masks but they don't.

The quarantine/isolation rules are loosening, which I think is pragmatically sensible, with a testing regime defining when quarantine can end, rather than some sort of fixed 7 or 10 day rule. This is really an improvement because, before, you might not even realise you have COVID for a few days, then have to isolate for 10 days after testing positive, which was pretty difficult.

We are experiencing widespread disruption across the economy due to COVID related absences though. I was in a meeting a few days ago where, out of the 7 of us, 2 had COVID, and 1 was still recovering from quite a severe infection that had hospitalised him. We've never experienced that before, and clearly it's quite widespread with many people I know now having had it recent weeks.

I don't get the impression there's much appetite for further restrictions in England or much chance of further lockdowns but, across the Union as a whole, it's a pretty mixed picture, so it's hard to say how it's going to play out over the next few months. There is a sense that people are starting to care a lot less about the pandemic though.

The government, of course, have not done themselves any favours with recent revelations about parties and drinks events. The outdoor stuff I'm not so bothered about, but what I think a lot of us find tough to swallow is the "one rule for us, another rule for them" mentality that is perhaps behind it.

(Btw, sorry I was also a bit rude about Florida: it's the heat and humidity in summer that kills me but there's a lot there to like, obviously, and despite being drenched in sweat the moment I step outside in June in Orlando, I've had great times on both the trips I took there, both for business, even managing to catch a shuttle launch one evening back in 2007, which was incredible. I imagine the winters would be fine but the summers would definitely cripple me.)