Omicron variant and the measures implemented in response to it

[martin2345uk]

Is thee any detail as to what workers will have to do these daily tests? As a Freight driver, will I? I bloody hope not!

 

[HST274]

Most likely those who will work in close contact with others such as teachers though I don't know the specifics

 

[martin2345uk]

Hmm so it seems...

It will be for key industries including food processing, transport and the border force, the prime minister said at a Downing Street briefing.

I don't really come into contact with people in my role, well rarely compared to others. So fingers crossed...

 

[greyman42]

I watched it on Twitter. Was apprehensive earlier when it was announced but I was most pleased (and relieved!) to hear Bojo say that we can “ride out” this wave, in part “thanks to Omicron being less severe” without needing to “close the country”.

For the first and last time in my life, well done Boris!

Yes, we should be grateful that Labour or the SNP are not running the country.

 

[DustyBin]

Yes, we should be grateful that Labour or the SNP are not running the country.

Very true!

I genuinely sympathise with the people of Scotland and Wales who are suffering at the hands of power crazy authoritarians, unable to admit they’ve made a mistake and seemingly determined to make life as miserable for their citizens as humanly possible.

 

[greyman42]

Very true!

I genuinely sympathise with the people of Scotland and Wales who are suffering at the hands of power crazy authoritarians, unable to admit they’ve made a mistake and seemingly determined to make life as miserable for their citizens as humanly possible.

As would Starmer.

 

[bramling]

I watched it on Twitter. Was apprehensive earlier when it was announced but I was most pleased (and relieved!) to hear Bojo say that we can “ride out” this wave, in part “thanks to Omicron being less severe” without needing to “close the country”.

For the first and last time in my life, well done Boris!

I wouldn’t credit it to Johnson. I suspect we’d have had more restrictions before Christmas were is not for the backbenchers, whoever leaked the Christmas party stuff, and perhaps the Fraser Nelson exchange. All these factors made it too politically untenable. Johnson would have buckled if he didn’t have these other pressures.

 

[DustyBin]

As would Starmer.

Yes it’s clear he’s from the same mould.

 

[Ian1971]

Whatever they say or think in private, which is entirely their business, it doesn't strike me as the right or respectful thing to do to express those frustrations to the media about someone who has just died.

Maybe they feel it’s their duty to try and ensure others don’t suffer a similar fate.

 

[Furryanimal]

Very true!

I genuinely sympathise with the people of Scotland and Wales who are suffering at the hands of power crazy authoritarians, unable to admit they’ve made a mistake and seemingly determined to make life as miserable for their citizens as humanly possible.

Thank you....I dread Drakeford opening his mouth.Spending the next four Saturdays watching rugby in England as i can’t watch my team in Wales.
And looking up concerts in England too.
We can only be grateful he can’t implement a full lockdown without money from London.
And Plaid Cymru could end this nonsense but won’t vote against Labour.

 

[bramling]

His speech has been good until



This could end up in disaster if key workers take daily tests, as this will only result in increased absences (where a good portion will be perfectly fine) and will heavily impact national services, which could harm the health of the nation.

I hope they have modeled [properly], the impact on both for and against this policy.

I see the good old “key worker” has made a return to Peppa Pig world. Johnson can do one - the thanks to “key workers” for their efforts before was to play political football with them.

I can certainly see mass testing turning into a shambles, we’ve already had a taste of this over Christmas. I suspect there will be some interesting patterns as to which individuals turn up positive LFTs on a regular basis, and which ones don’t. It’s also drop-in-ocean territory -
apart perhaps from specific applications (such as two people sharing a cab to undertake training), if Omicron is spreadable simply from a whiff of breath then this is a waste of time.

It also undermines the notion that we are supposed to trust the vaccine. Three weeks to flatten the curve (or whatever it was), get vaccinated, get boosted - and this still doesn’t avoid masks and tests. Is it any wonder many people have simply lost interest now, quite honestly the best remedy to this pandemic is to simply de-tune the rolling news channels and not watch any other form of news broadcast.

 

[brad465]

Two colleagues (who live together as a couple) tested positive over Christmas and I heard today that they didn't know where they got it from. I haven't said this to them but there's a good chance that, because covid is so infectious, they could simply have got it from walking past a stranger on the high street with it, or any other random and minor interaction. Hence why test and trace is pointless and arguably the most squandered £37bn in this country's history.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Two colleagues (who live together as a couple) tested positive over Christmas and I heard today that they didn't know where they got it from. I haven't said this to them but there's a good chance that, because covid is so infectious, they could simply have got it from walking past a stranger on the high street with it, or any other random and minor interaction. Hence why test and trace is pointless and arguably the most squandered £37bn in this country's history.

Santa is a the super-spreader. Only logical explanation for the increase in cases over the festive period. He must self-isolate for 12 months.

It also undermines the notion that we are supposed to trust the vaccine. Three weeks to flatten the curve (or whatever it was), get vaccinated, get boosted - and this still doesn’t avoid masks and tests. Is it any wonder many people have simply lost interest now, quite honestly the best remedy to this pandemic is to simply de-tune the rolling news channels and not watch any other form of news broadcast.

19 March 2020: Boris Johnson today said the country can 'beat coronavirus in 12 weeks'.
23 March 2020 3 weeks to flatten the curve.
19 May 2020: Boris Johnson promised a world-beating ‘test and trace’ system by 1 June.
5 November 2020: Legal lockdown. Circuit breaker to save Christmas.
November 2020: Modelling suggests 4,000 deaths per day worst case scenario. Data three weeks old and superceded at time of use.
16 December 2020: Boris Johnson says Christmas is safe.
19 December 2020: Boris Johnson announces Christmas is cancelled.
Spring 2021: get double vaccinated to get out of covid.
Autumn 2021: get a booster to save Christmas.
Christmas 2021: Professor Pantzoff gets a new set of modelling dice under the tree. Faces numbered 4 to 9 as low numbers just aren't scary enough.

International Travel – In out; in out; shake it all about; do the pokey-throaty and turn around; that’s what it’s all about.

The advantage of not having a TV licence is that I get to see an absolute 0% of the daily 3 suits show.

 

[takno]

Two colleagues (who live together as a couple) tested positive over Christmas and I heard today that they didn't know where they got it from. I haven't said this to them but there's a good chance that, because covid is so infectious, they could simply have got it from walking past a stranger on the high street with it, or any other random and minor interaction. Hence why test and trace is pointless and arguably the most squandered £37bn in this country's history.

A friend has just told me that in spite of isolating more or less completely over the couple of weeks, his wife has tested positive. His conclusion was similarly that if it's infectious enough for them to have picked it up then there's no point in doing anything to try to control it.

 

[MikeWM]

A friend has just told me that in spite of isolating more or less completely over the couple of weeks, his wife has tested positive. His conclusion was similarly that if it's infectious enough for them to have picked it up then there's no point in doing anything to try to control it.

And indeed - for the second year running - there's been an outbreak in a camp in the Antarctic. Everyone thoroughly tested and isolated before setting off, and this year they were all fully vaccinated too.

https://www.rt.com/news/544909-belgian-station-antarctic-covid-outbreak/

Two-thirds of the [Belgium's Polar Station's] staff of 25 have been infected with the coronavirus, Belgium’s polar secretariat confirmed to local media earlier this week.

“All those present have received two doses of vaccine, and one person has even received a booster shot,”

Those en route there take one PCR test in Belgium before leaving for South Africa and another five days after their arrival. They self-isolate for 10 days in Cape Town, then undergo two further tests: one before leaving for Antarctica and another five days after arriving at the station.

 

[DustyBin]

And indeed - for the second year running - there's been an outbreak in a camp in the Antarctic. Everyone thoroughly tested and isolated before setting off, and this year they were all fully vaccinated too.

https://www.rt.com/news/544909-belgian-station-antarctic-covid-outbreak/

I reckon they need a mask mandate and a one way system, that’ll sort it!

 

[farleigh]

I reckon they need a mask mandate and a one way system, that’ll sort it!

 

[Eyersey468]

I reckon they need a mask mandate and a one way system, that’ll sort it!

Nah they need a full lockdown

 

[Ilovetrains43]

Nah they need a full lockdown

Yes, they need to have a full lockdown and very strict restrictions such as shopping once/maybe two times a day, 1 person to leave the house at a time and up to 20 minutes dog walking.

 

[DelayRepay]

Is thee any detail as to what workers will have to do these daily tests? As a Freight driver, will I? I bloody hope not!

I don't think they've announced anything yet. But my interpretation (which could be wrong) is that the Government are supplying the LFT kits directly to the employers, to avoid problems with workers sourcing kits through pharmacies or the NHS website. I don't think it's a new scheme as such, just another way of distributing the kits to ensure they reach those with (perceived) greatest need given the existing channels cannot cope.

 

[nw1]

I’m not so sure, a quick browse of social media will reveal zero-covid nutters from all walks of life, not all professionals and in some instances I suspect not employed at all!

I certainly think zero Covid is fantasist nonsense. Not going to happen unless you literally lock everyone in their houses and don't even allow delivery. That would of course involve everyone starving to death.

I wouldn’t credit it to Johnson. I suspect we’d have had more restrictions before Christmas were is not for the backbenchers, whoever leaked the Christmas party stuff, and perhaps the Fraser Nelson exchange. All these factors made it too politically untenable. Johnson would have buckled if he didn’t have these other pressures.

Yes, that's the thing. If it hadn't been for Partygate, then Johnson couldn't have been labelled a hypocrite if he tried to introduce harsh restrictions. Remember this time last year with that advertising campaign when the government appeared to insinuate that people who took takeaway coffees and went to the supermarket for something non-critical (let's say a can of beer to lift your spirits in lockdown, for example) were effectively guilty of manslaughter? Remember those two women arrested for drinking a coffee by a lake? (Though I will admit, we had Hancock then and people guilty of breaking rules are often very authoritarian in ensuring that other people keep to the same rules...)

As others have said, IMV the main thing that's going to cause problems in the coming weeks is the disruption to critical services due to large numbers of enforced absences. Given how easily Omicron spreads is 7 to 10 days isolation for the asymptomatic who happened to have a test (when many don't) actually going to make much difference to the spread? Perhaps a more measured approach now would be, you isolate if you test positive *while you feel ill, and no longer*?

An interesting question also would be: if the original Covid in 2020 had been Omicron, with the same death and serious illness rate and symptoms, would we have reacted in the same way? I'm not answering this question, just posing it. Also, another question: how does Omicron compare with the 1958 and 1968 flu outbreaks in terms of death and serious illness rate? Again, I don't know the answer to this - just posing it.

 

[Peterthegreat]

An interesting question also would be: if the original Covid in 2020 had been Omicron, with the same death and serious illness rate and symptoms, would we have reacted in the same way? I'm not answering this question, just posing it. Also, another question: how does Omicron compare with the 1958 and 1968 flu outbreaks in terms of death and serious illness rate? Again, I don't know the answer to this - just posing it.

In respect to your first question I suspect, initially at least, we would have acted faster and more decisively/stricter. Although omicron is much less "dangerous" it spreads much, much more quickly. Pre vaccines the NHS would have been completely swamped. However it would probably have burnt out somewhat quicker.

 

[island]

Is thee any detail as to what workers will have to do these daily tests? As a Freight driver, will I? I bloody hope not!

I did not understand there to be any new mandatory government requirements to take daily tests; the update was that those in whatever class of essential workers they want to assist this week will have priority access to tests should they wish to take them.

 

[duncanp]

1 person to leave the house at a time and up to 20 minutes dog walking.

When they had the strict lockdown in Spain at the beginning of the pandemic, people with dogs were renting their dogs out for €20 a time so that people could have an excuse to leave the house.

So one dog would go for walkies several times a day.

Just as well dogs can't talk.

 

[kristiang85]

When they had the strict lockdown in Spain at the beginning of the pandemic, people with dogs were renting their dogs out for €20 a time so that people could have an excuse to leave the house.

So one dog would go for walkies several times a day.

Just as well dogs can't talk.

That's brilliant. And just shows how futile any kind of regulation is - people will always find ways round it (unless you go down the China route).

 

[nw1]

When they had the strict lockdown in Spain at the beginning of the pandemic, people with dogs were renting their dogs out for €20 a time so that people could have an excuse to leave the house.

So one dog would go for walkies several times a day.

Just as well dogs can't talk.

You couldn't leave the house even for a short walk without a dog? That really is harsh.

Bad though the Tories are, at least they were human enough to allow us out for exercise once a day. Imagine how even more miserable that first lockdown would have been (with the nice weather as well) if we hadn't been even able to go for local walks of around an hour.

 

[brad465]

Starmer has tested positive again and is isolating for what must be the 1000th time now or something:

Sir Keir Starmer tests positive for Covid for a second time

Labour's leader misses Prime Minister's Questions, with deputy Angela Rayner filling in for him.

www.bbc.co.uk

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has tested positive for Covid for a second time, and is now isolating.

His deputy, Angela Rayner, will fill in for him at the first 2022 session of Prime Minister's Questions, which starts at 15:00 GMT.

Sir Keir also tested positive for Covid last October and had to miss the Budget as a result.

And he has previously had to self-isolate after coming into contact with others diagnosed with the virus.

 

[35B]

Sorry, I might not have been as clear as I meant to be - my point was that tb is suffering from the attention given to COVID and we should be reprioritising. But at the same time given how "background" TB is, despite being much more serious, the precedent is there to let COVID take a back seat in priorities.

I work in TB research, hence my "passion" for it. It is still underfunded and undertested.

Thanks for the clarification. My observation, given my reading your views on how Covid has been handled, was that (rightly) upping the priority given to TB would have unwelcome side effects.

 

[Eyersey468]

I certainly think zero Covid is fantasist nonsense. Not going to happen unless you literally lock everyone in their houses and don't even allow delivery. That would of course involve everyone starving to death.

I suppose that's one way of stopping Covid spreading

 

[yorksrob]

I suppose that's one way of stopping Covid spreading

Although strictly speaking, even that wouldn't as it now exists in various animal populations.