Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Guest]

I'm sure the first person to have died "with" Omicron will be some young person with no underlying health conditions and not a 96 year old who has been in and out of hospital for years.

[PedroMoutinho]

Tbh I don’t see how the fact that 1 person has died ‘with’ omicron tells us very much.

As far as I can see, no one is saying omicron is harmless, but that the indications are it’s significantly less severe.

Even if that is correct, there will still sadly be some deaths.

[AyrExile]

1 hour ago, TheScarf said:

I think we can all safely assume, and will have to accept, that there will be restrictions every winter for years to come.

If the population can build up some immunity and the govt prepare the Nhs then that shouldn't really be necessary 

[Abdul_Latif]

Jason Leitch coming up on Radio Scotland if anyone fancies hearing the hints of what’s to come tomorrow.

[TheScarf]

11 minutes ago, Empty It said:

1 hour ago, TheScarf said:

I think we can all safely assume, and will have to accept, that there will be restrictions every winter for years to come.

Why should we just accept restrictions?

We shouldn’t. But we will probably have to. 

[Michael W]

Maybe I'm having a bad day, but that Boris Johnson quote has absolutely riled me. 

Quote

So I think the idea that this is somehow a milder version of the virus, I think that's something we need to set on one side and just recognise the sheer pace at which it accelerates through the population. So the best thing we can do is all get our boosters."

What the actual f**k is this? Person dies of covid has been a sad but routine fact throughout the last twenty months. Indeed, we have averaged about 150 deaths a day for the past few months and not an eyelid has been batted about that. That someone has died of the Omicron variant (sorry, WITH the Omicron variant) is not exactly a massive surprise either. Unfortunately, some people do die of the virus.

You should avoid direct comparisons between countries as they are not comparable, but you can draw some inferences. South Africa's hospitals are not filling up the way they did with Delta and this is a country with a vaccination rate far below the UK's. The qualifier is that they have a younger population than we do, almost certainly in part to inferior standards of healthcare. Two things can be true at once: it might be milder, but some may still die from it. 

There is a doomsday feel about Omicron tht seems to be harking back to the pre-vaccine, "we just don't know" days of April and May 2020 and it's really starting to grate given that we live in one of the most vaccinated countries in the world. There is still no evidence that the vaccines don't protect against serious illness. 

[jamamafegan]

I'm sure the first person to have died "with" Omicron will be some young person with no underlying health conditions and not a 96 year old who has been in and out of hospital for years.

Is this the case? I couldn’t find a source for it but saw one guy on FB saying the person was 96 years old.

[Dons_1988]

2 minutes ago, Michael W said:

Maybe I'm having a bad day, but that Boris Johnson quote has absolutely riled me. 

What the actual f**k is this? Person dies of covid has been a sad but routine fact throughout the last twenty months. Indeed, we have averaged about 150 deaths a day for the past few months and not an eyelid has been batted about that. That someone has died of the Omicron variant (sorry, WITH the Omicron variant) is not exactly a massive surprise either. Unfortunately, some people do die of the virus.

You should avoid direct comparisons between countries as they are not comparable, but you can draw some inferences. South Africa's hospitals are not filling up the way they did with Delta and this is a country with a vaccination rate far below the UK's. The qualifier is that they have a younger population than we do, almost certainly in part to inferior standards of healthcare. Two things can be true at once: it might be milder, but some may still die from it. 

There is a doomsday feel about Omicron tht seems to be harking back to the pre-vaccine, "we just don't know" days of April and May 2020 and it's really starting to grate given that we live in one of the most vaccinated countries in the world. There is still no evidence that the vaccines don't protect against serious illness. 

They are trying to shift peoples mindset back to covid being a serious thing. 

They’ve had months in England with no masks and people not really caring. So the language is deliberately provocative and ‘hard hitting’. See also ‘tsunami’ and ‘galloping towards us’.

its 100% been coached by the psychologists as to how to get people back in a ‘war footing’.

Nuance and facts around the science of the new variant are not welcome at this time. 

[Elixir]

It's all going to be over in a few weeks anyway (apparently), so who really cares.

 

[LongTimeLurker]

The politicians have lost the plot on this. The news coming in from southern Africa is not in the least bit similar to Wuhan in Jan 2020 or India in Feb 2021 where delta was concerned. Maybe the old story of generals still using tactics suitable for the previous war they were involved in rather than the one they are actually faced with in the here and now.

[Elixir]

Meanwhile, more compelling evidence that masks make all the difference!

Oh...

 

[Elixir]

The human immune system working the same for this shan virus as it does for all others? Repeat infections in now non-naive individuals a complete non-story? Who could have thought!

 

[Rugster]

Leitch saying they haven't run out of LFD tests, just they've reached the limit in the amount that can be sent via Royal Mail in a day, and more available to book online at 8pm.

[No_Problemo]

I can’t be bothered going back to find the  posts, but the government are absolutely making a rod for their own back with the unions in schools etc. 
 

They can’t continue their fear project, and at the same time not expect unions to question why things carry on as normal in one of the most transmissible environments there is. 
 

I obviously don’t think anything should close, but if the government are discussing a tsunami of cases, and implying that the vaccines won’t work then of course a union is going to question this. As per this time last year really. 

[ddfg]

1 hour ago, TheScarf said:

I think we can all safely assume, and will have to accept, that there will be restrictions every winter for years to come.

Assuming that politicans will feel the need to intefere and accepting this are not necessarily the same thing. 

Sadly too many are happy to accept free this and free that that they have stopped thinking for themselves. 

Maybe if more people had something to loose they might be less accepting of all this nonsense for what on this occasion appears to be nothing more than a bad cold. 

[101]

11 minutes ago, Rugster said:

Leitch saying they haven't run out of LFD tests, just they've reached the limit in the amount that can be sent via Royal Mail in a day, and more available to book online at 8pm.

[mizfit]

Leitch saying they haven't run out of LFD tests, just they've reached the limit in the amount that can be sent via Royal Mail in a day, and more available to book online at 8pm.

Did he say it with a condescending tone and laugh?

[Rugster]

1 minute ago, mizfit said:

Did he say it with a condescending tone and laugh?

He absolutely did. "Oh no no no, it's not a shortage of tests, per se." 

He's a p***k.

[Have some faith in Magic]

32 minutes ago, Michael W said:

Maybe I'm having a bad day, but that Boris Johnson quote has absolutely riled me. 

What the actual f**k is this? Person dies of covid has been a sad but routine fact throughout the last twenty months. Indeed, we have averaged about 150 deaths a day for the past few months and not an eyelid has been batted about that. That someone has died of the Omicron variant (sorry, WITH the Omicron variant) is not exactly a massive surprise either. Unfortunately, some people do die of the virus.

You should avoid direct comparisons between countries as they are not comparable, but you can draw some inferences. South Africa's hospitals are not filling up the way they did with Delta and this is a country with a vaccination rate far below the UK's. The qualifier is that they have a younger population than we do, almost certainly in part to inferior standards of healthcare. Two things can be true at once: it might be milder, but some may still die from it. 

There is a doomsday feel about Omicron tht seems to be harking back to the pre-vaccine, "we just don't know" days of April and May 2020 and it's really starting to grate given that we live in one of the most vaccinated countries in the world. There is still no evidence that the vaccines don't protect against serious illness. 

The pictures from China of them desperately building new hospitals in Jan 20; the scenes from the hospitals in Northern Italy in March; later with delta the shortage of wood and bodies piling up in the Ganges.

These were sobering and frightening stories. If South Africa was being swamped in these ways you can guarantee it would be headline news all over the world. 

 

 

[sparky88]

1 hour ago, williemillersmoustache said:

There's Boris announcing the first death of a patient in the UK who had Omicron. 

That's sooner than i was expecting tbh. 

It's everywhere , there will be plenty of people in hospital who have Omicron.