Omicron variant and the measures implemented in response to it

[greyman42]

I see Norway has banned the sale of alcohol in hospitality for four weeks.

How is that going to make the slightest bit of difference?

 

[brad465]

Today's case numbers are up 12% again, but tests conducted continue to go up at the same rate. What is particularly noticeable is daily deaths are now down 6.5%, and despite cases being on an upward trend for around 6 weeks now, deaths are still flat/down slightly, implying milder illness and/or booster rollout success so far. The only concern is hospital admissions are now up 10%, but again this took a while to start increasing, and the booster rollout progression should dent that increase.

 

[DustyBin]

Officially. If it looks too much like pushing vaccines is the real agenda, then I'm out.

<ducks for cover>

The Chief Medical Officer at Moderna insists Omicron is every bit as dangerous as Delta, and not only that he thinks we’ll soon see “dual infections”. Fortunately he has a solution……

 

[duncanp]

How is that going to make the slightest bit of difference?

Banning the sale of alcohol in bars for the next four weeks, over the Christmas and New Year period, is not going to make the slightest bit of difference to transmission of the virus (unless so few people bother coming), but will be a huge hit economically for the businesses concerned.

You might just as well close them completely, unless the reason for not doing so is to avoid having to pay compensation.

 

[DustyBin]

How is that going to make the slightest bit of difference?

It isn’t, but it will help grind people down which seems to be the primary aim at this stage.

 

[kristiang85]

Banning the sale of alcohol in bars for the next four weeks, over the Christmas and New Year period, is not going to make the slightest bit of difference to transmission of the virus (unless so few people bother coming), but will be a huge hit economically for the businesses concerned.

You might just as well close them completely, unless the reason for not doing so is to avoid having to pay compensation.

Yes I agree- nobody's going to go to a bar if they can't drink alcohol, so it effectively locks those buisnesses down without needing to give them compensation.

Instead people will go to each other's houses and have parties there, which is much less regulated than letting people socialise in a bar.

It's "Doing something", isn't it?

 

[Freightmaster]

How is that going to make the slightest bit of difference?

I think the idea is that if people are drunk, they are more likely to be shouting/singing/hugging/fighting
and far less likely to be social distancing, all of which significantly increase transmission...

(I must stress that I don't agree with alcohol bans, just explaining the likely reasoning behind them)





MARK

 

[MikeWM]

Today's case numbers are up 12% again, but tests conducted continue to go up at the same rate. What is particularly noticeable is daily deaths are now down 6.5%, and despite cases being on an upward trend for around 6 weeks now, deaths are still flat/down slightly, implying milder illness and/or booster rollout success so far. The only concern is hospital admissions are now up 10%, but again this took a while to start increasing, and the booster rollout progression should dent that increase.

In the face of a very-transmissable variant, and vaccines that don't prevent infection, hospital admission stats are going to be useless unless they start to attempt to make some distinction between with and of.

That doesn't mean they won't try to beat us into submission with them, of course.

 

[jumble]

That is if you haven't made a mistake with the number you give them. It is, of course illegal to knowingly give false details on the PLF, but fat fingers and phone screens are not a good combination.

Is it illegal to give them the number of a burner phone that is never actually switched on?

 

[Bikeman78]

The big question right now is whether we can get to Christmas without any more restrictions - frankly I doubt it.

If we get to Christmas then by the time the New Year rolls around we will have a pretty good level of population immunity, one way or the other, and we will have good data on what is happening in hospitals.

Unfortunately I don't think we have a hope of that - Don't forget Parliament goes into Recess on Thursday until January 5th so they would face no questioning at all over that period. I would bet on a PM press conference on Thursday - hope I am wrong.

My one slight hope is that the Public don't seem quite as "on board" as they were last time round - Not as many seem to be going into hiding.

It's busy in the shops today. Roads are busy, even the buses are still well used. There's been a notable increase in people wearing masks out on the street but each to their own. I doubt many people will take any notice even if they went for a full on lockdown over Christmas. Who would enforce it?

 

[yorksrob]

How is that going to make the slightest bit of difference?

None whatsoever. Remeniscent of pointless curfews etc.

 

[Bikeman78]

The Chief Medical Officer at Moderna insists Omicron is every bit as dangerous as Delta, and not only that he thinks we’ll soon see “dual infections”. Fortunately he has a solution……

No doubt they will be sipping champagne as they party away whilst telling the plebs not to socialise. I can't believe anyone takes this seriously any more.

 

[Chris125]

I note that the above only makes mention of two Pfizer doses. What is the stated official situation for people like me at the age of 76, who had both the referred-to two Pfizer doses, plus a Pfizer booster dose, which was said to increase the protection?

Those numbers are for protection against hospitalisation, so it's too soon to say - but there's no reason to think that boosters showing a big improvement against symptomatic infection won't show a corresponding improvement against severe illness too, back in the 90s I'd expect.

 

[Jonny]

No doubt they will be sipping champagne as they party away whilst telling the plebs not to socialise. I can't believe anyone takes this seriously any more.

Me neither. I'm like shaking my head.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

No doubt they will be sipping champagne as they party away whilst telling the plebs not to socialise. I can't believe anyone takes this seriously any more.

Where is your evidence that staff at Moderna, the company to whom you are referencing, are likely to act in the manner that you state above? Your use of the term "plebs" is an insult to all other non-Moderna employed staff.

 

[Robert]

This interview with Prof. Angus Dalgleish went out on GBNews yesterday regarding the Omicron booster plan:

 

[kristiang85]

Where is your evidence that staff at Moderna, the company to whom you are referencing, are likely to act in the manner that you state above? Your use of the term "plebs" is an insult to all other non-Moderna employed staff.

Whilst the comment was flippant, I would hardly call the word 'pleb' an insult, as in ancient Rome 'plebian' meant pretty much anybody who wasn't the ruling classes. Therefore all of us are effecively plebs. #PlebAndProud

 

[Chris125]

Some science behind why boosters are proving effective against Omicron:

https://twitter.com/BalazsLab/status/1470726999538745355

Overall, our findings suggest that boosting is doing a lot more than simply increasing your titers. It seems to be broadening the antibody response to be better equipped to recognize diverse variants. Hopefully it will still work against whatever variant comes next!

13/16

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Whilst the comment was flippant, I would hardly call the word 'pleb' an insult, as in ancient Rome 'plebian' meant pretty much anybody who wasn't the ruling classes. Therefore all of us are effecively plebs. #PlebAndProud

I think we all know what was intended in the posting. The contributor making the comment most certainly did not refer to ancient Rome as the posting made reference specifically to events in this particular moment in time, which you will see if you read the posting that was made.

 

[dave87016]

I cannot believe the number of SAGE experts that are saying the NHS is already becoming overwhelmed !!! Yes with people that have none Covid related problems possibly but certainly not from
Covid

 

[DustyBin]

I think we all know what was intended in the posting. The contributor making the comment most certainly did not refer to ancient Rome as the posting made reference specifically to events in this particular moment in time, which you will see if you read the posting that was made.

The meaning of the post was essentially correct though. Some people are doing very well out of this and they may choose to celebrate their success. The impact on the wider population is likely to be of little concern to them.

 

[Bantamzen]

Some science behind why boosters are proving effective against Omicron:

https://twitter.com/BalazsLab/status/1470726999538745355

Yeah you might want to mention the caveats around other immune responses. This is because antibodies are not produced for longer than they are needed. This is the so-called waning talked about.

Once an infection is cleared, antibody production ramps down quickly, often within weeks. Thus whilst boosters do provoke the production of said antibodies, any strategy that relies purely on vaccines producing them will likely be a precursor to at least annual boosters. But as we are seeing politicians want to use antibodies to "protect" health services, and the pharmaceutical industry will be more than willing to sell them more. So we are stumbling down the road of 3 or even 4 booster a year, or whenever a new variant springs up. We need only observe the problems caused by this next booster on the NHS. Can we really afford to have this every year, possibly several times?

 

[52290]

I see Norway has banned the sale of alcohol in hospitality for four weeks. You just know that Mrs Murrell is dying to do the same!

I believe that Norwegian banks have stopped granting mortgage applications for pints of beer so nobody can afford them anymore.

 

[asw22]

So is Plan C just speculation?

I think there is a Plan C (oven ready I guess) and probably a Plan B+.

From what I heard from the Scotland speech, physical distancing, and limiting household contact to 3 households.
She also said that she would have gone further if she had the financial backing from Westminster.

Scotland’s Covid response ‘curtailed’ by lack of cash, Sturgeon tells MSPs - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

 

[Class 33]

Here we go then, here come the parliament votes. Despite the Tory backbencher rebellion, the votes for these stupid restrictions will all win by an absolute landslide. Shame on all the MP's voting in favour of them. Disgraceful.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

In the face of a very-transmissable variant, and vaccines that don't prevent infection, hospital admission stats are going to be useless unless they start to attempt to make some distinction between with and of.

That doesn't mean they won't try to beat us into submission with them, of course.

NHS England reporting highest daily admission rate for months at 772 but total hospitalised up only 34 which indicates duration of stay remains low for majority. Of course a daily nett gain will still eat up all capacity in the end.

 

[Class 33]

Only 41 MP's voted against this mandatory face mask nonsense! Where's all these 80-ish Tory backbencher rebels who said they would vote against all these restrictions?! 440(or however many) voting in favour of this nonsense. Absolutely unbelievable and disgraceful!

 

[21C101]

Does Nicola's County Council Parliament actually have the power to stop more than three households associating or is it just advisory?

 

[asw22]

Does Nicola's County Council Parliament actually have the power to stop more than three households associating or is it just advisory?

It is just advisory - she said there wasn't a law being passed in 2021 for this part

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Only 41 MP's voted against this mandatory face mask nonsense! Where's all these 80-ish Tory backbencher rebels who said they would vote against all these restrictions?! 440(or however many) voting in favour of this nonsense. Absolutely unbelievable and disgraceful!

C4 reckon it was c90 for the vaccine passport