• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Omicron variant and the measures implemented in response to it

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

bramling

Veteran Member
Joined
5 Mar 2012
Messages
17,685
Location
Hertfordshire / Teesdale
I thought "SARS" stood for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, so no geographical references in there.

No geographical reference, but still very much associated with China in minds, presumably because when they had it first time round it did seem to be contained (albeit I see it did spread to a few countries).
 

brad465

Established Member
Joined
11 Aug 2010
Messages
6,968
Location
Taunton or Kent
I found where most of the rest of the Greek alphabet went: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/covid-19/variants-concern. Some to 'Variants of Interest', some to 'De-escalated Variants'.

The reason for skipping 'Nu' should be clear enough. Skipping 'Xi' is presumed to be to avoid upsetting China.

15 out of 24 letters used already.
Part of me wants the remaining letters to be used up quickly as maybe it will get into people's heads that variants are not something we can prevent existing. The only concern with them should be regarding updating vaccines to better respond to them and issue them to those most vulnerable on an annual basis, like with flu. But all of this should take place in the background, not on the front pages of tabloids and broadcast media outlets.
 

yorksrob

Veteran Member
Joined
6 Aug 2009
Messages
38,818
Location
Yorks
I found where most of the rest of the Greek alphabet went: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/covid-19/variants-concern. Some to 'Variants of Interest', some to 'De-escalated Variants'.

The reason for skipping 'Nu' should be clear enough. Skipping 'Xi' is presumed to be to avoid upsetting China.

15 out of 24 letters used already.

Perhaps if one emerges in South London it could become the Nu Cross variant !
 

52290

Member
Joined
23 Oct 2015
Messages
548
"I am Lrrr, from the planet Omicron Perseii 8."

That's been going round in my head since they announced it.

Who gets the reference?
From the Matt Groening animated series Futurama. Lrrr would attack the Earth if he was upset by anything he saw on Earth TV which displeased him.
 

Smidster

Member
Joined
23 Oct 2014
Messages
561
2 cases in the UK - Nottingham and Chelmsford.

Now the chilling bit - PM press conference, with Vallance & Whitty later today
 

bramling

Veteran Member
Joined
5 Mar 2012
Messages
17,685
Location
Hertfordshire / Teesdale
2 cases in the UK - Nottingham and Chelmsford.

Now the chilling bit - PM press conference, with Vallance & Whitty later today

As long as there isn’t a PM address at 20:00 on a Monday I’m not worried. That seems to be the preferred time to announce something bad!

In any case, most of the country are going to be too busy checking their roof tiles and garden fences to be worrying too much about listening to Whitty.
 

Yew

Established Member
Joined
12 Mar 2011
Messages
6,538
Location
UK
2 cases in the UK - Nottingham and Chelmsford.

Now the chilling bit - PM press conference, with Vallance & Whitty later today
Surely that shows just how pointless the travel bans are, you can't find the variants fast enough to stop them.


On the bright side, Prof Whitty is on record saying that it's less concerning than delta; so I don't think there's too much to worry about.
 

Smidster

Member
Joined
23 Oct 2014
Messages
561
As long as there isn’t a PM address at 20:00 on a Monday I’m not worried. That seems to be the preferred time to announce something bad!

In any case, most of the country are going to be too busy checking their roof tiles and garden fences to be worrying too much about listening to Whitty.
The fact they are bringing out the "big guns" worries me.

I suspect they will announce immediate move to Plan B - probably from Monday to inform Parliament
 

Baxenden Bank

Established Member
Joined
23 Oct 2013
Messages
4,002
The fact they are bringing out the "big guns" worries me.

I suspect they will announce immediate move to Plan B - probably from Monday to inform Parliament
Or bring out the big guns to silence the attention seeking hysterics? OMG, we're doomed, doomed I tell ye.

Shall pay little notice in either case.

Much more concerned about the Walkers crisp shortage, now affecting other brands as people buy alternatives. Will have to resort to eating toilet roll if things carry on like this.
 

adc82140

Established Member
Joined
10 May 2008
Messages
2,928
I'm actually surprised they didn't have a press conference yesterday to attempt to justify their reintroduction of the red list.
 

brad465

Established Member
Joined
11 Aug 2010
Messages
6,968
Location
Taunton or Kent
I'd say the Government here acted very swiftly for a change on travel restrictions, but this didn't stop the latest variant getting here. Therefore I think it's safe to say we will never be able to outrun whatever covid is doing, we will always be playing catch-up. Therefore adaptation is the only solution, which means changing vaccines to match newer variants and increasing healthcare capacity to cope with demands, but also accepting there will be losses.
 

yorksrob

Veteran Member
Joined
6 Aug 2009
Messages
38,818
Location
Yorks
I don't think anyone knows enough about the new variation to justify precipitous changes. Quite a few people around the world now have been identified as having it, and I've not seen reports of them all dropping off of their perches, ebola style.
 

adc82140

Established Member
Joined
10 May 2008
Messages
2,928
I'd say the Government here acted very swiftly for a change on travel restrictions, but this didn't stop the latest variant getting here. Therefore I think it's safe to say we will never be able to outrun whatever covid is doing, we will always be playing catch-up. Therefore adaptation is the only solution, which means changing vaccines to match newer variants and increasing healthcare capacity to cope with demands, but also accepting there will be losses.
We could ask the question of why the booster doses have not been tweaked to combat Delta. It would seem the obvious thing to do, and they've had the time.

But then if it was needed, they would have done. The reason the vaccines haven't been changed is that they don't need to be. When Delta first emerged, there was mass panic in the media about its vaccine defeating mutations (I think they called it a double mutant until it was named). So I still have confidence in the current vaccines to do their job, which is to keep people out of hospital, not to prevent them getting the sniffles.
 

westv

Established Member
Joined
29 Mar 2013
Messages
4,202
There's no mention of the news conference on the BBC main page so it can't be that important.
 

philosopher

Established Member
Joined
23 Sep 2015
Messages
1,346
I don't think anyone knows enough about the new variation to justify precipitous changes. Quite a few people around the world now have been identified as having it, and I've not seen reports of them all dropping off of their perches, ebola style.
Personally I think this variant will turn out to be a fuss about of nothing, from what I have heard all cases have either been asymptomatic or very mild. Of course I could be wrong here.

The issue I see is that for those who want restrictions reimposed, for whatever reason, this variant is sufficient justification to push for new restrictions. Already our work team Christmas party has been cancelled due to this variant.
 
Last edited:

adc82140

Established Member
Joined
10 May 2008
Messages
2,928
Already our work team Christmas party has been cancelled due to this variant.
With the greatest respect to the people in your workplace, I think that they are the victims of ignorance. Either that or they were looking for a reason to cancel it anyway, and this is as convenient as any.
 

yorksrob

Veteran Member
Joined
6 Aug 2009
Messages
38,818
Location
Yorks
Personally I think this variant will turn out to be a fuss about of nothing, from what I have heard all cases have either been asymptomatic or very mild. Of course I could be wrong here.

The issue I see is that for those who want restrictions reimposed, for whatever reason, this variant is sufficient justification to push for new restrictions. Already our work team Christmas party has been cancelled due to this variant.

With the greatest respect to the people in your workplace, I think that they are the victims of ignorance. Either that or they were looking for a reason to cancel it anyway, and this is as convenient as any.

Yes seems a precipitous decision for them to cancel at this stage.
 

Cdd89

Established Member
Joined
8 Jan 2017
Messages
1,451
I'd say the Government here acted very swiftly for a change on travel restrictions, but this didn't stop the latest variant getting here
While I disagree with travel restrictions, this is one upside of having acted swiftly. We couldn’t have acted much sooner, yet despite that it will be proved that travel restrictions won’t keep it out.

Given that Starmer was saying in the Summer that “the only reason we have Delta was because of the open door”, it is good that this narrative will be chipped away at.
 

Class 33

Established Member
Joined
14 Aug 2009
Messages
2,362
There's no mention of the news conference on the BBC main page so it can't be that important.

Well, it is scheduled to go out on BBC1 now. It is going to be important, and I am absolutely DREADING what is going to be announced.
 

yorksrob

Veteran Member
Joined
6 Aug 2009
Messages
38,818
Location
Yorks
While I disagree with travel restrictions, this is one upside of having acted swiftly. We couldn’t have acted much sooner, yet despite that it will be proved that travel restrictions won’t keep it out.

Given that Starmer was saying in the Summer that “the only reason we have Delta was because of the open door”, it is good that this narrative will be chipped away at.

It was proved that the tier restrictions and the rest were pointless, yet they only went when lockdown came in.
 

martin2345uk

Established Member
Joined
21 Sep 2011
Messages
2,052
Location
Essex
What’s he said? “Strengthen the rules around face coverings?” What does that mean!
 

adc82140

Established Member
Joined
10 May 2008
Messages
2,928
From what I can tell, all international arrivals from any country must isolate at home until the results of a PCR test are received.

Well done Boris. You've just killed off the travel industry.

Although it's a rule I'll be doing a Cummings on.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top