To think we’ll be in lockdown by Christmas

Some God awful gathering of Darts players, 3,000 many of them maskless gathered together for what is essentially some glorified pub pursuit Just wait for the numbers to rise in the aftermath. Personally, if I had to live with someone who just had to go to such a gathering right now, I wouldn't let them back in the house.

If we had not learned to live with say measles by getting children vaccinated they would be dying of it in their many hundreds, as used to be the case. Ditto diphtheria, TB etc. etc

Yes. Let's add in these other nasty illnesses prevented by vaccination such as Polio, Tetanus, Typhoid, Smallpox, Whooping Cough, Yellow Fever ... to name a few. Vaccination works!

Biscuitmuncher, we have two 'pandemics' together here, the Delta and Omicron ones. You'll wait forever for a vaccine that matches perfectly with current mutations/variants. It's ever changing.

Still, a partial match is some protection, much better than none at all. You're likely to catch it soon, however careful you are (unless you're a hermit, of course).

Biscuitmuncher

dragonfly46 I've heard stories of wards full of young people who've had strokes from the vaccine, who do you believe?

Can you tell us what hospitals these patients are in? Where in the uk are they?

Biscuitmuncher I was a bit surprised by what you said as I had never heard that so I did a bit of research. This is what I found in the Associated Press:

CLAIM: A bus advertisement on knowing the warning signs of strokes in children is related to the COVID-19 vaccine.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The ad was placed in May of 2021 as part of pediatric stroke awareness month and is not related to COVID-19 vaccines. The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not listed strokes as a side effect for children taking COVID-19 vaccines.

Just another rumour from across the pond then.

dragonfly46 I've heard stories of wards full of young people who've had strokes from the vaccine, who do you believe?

A friend who is a consultant at our main hospital is furious that beds in ICU which should be going to cancer patients ar filled with non vaccinated Covid patients.

I was frightened of catching it.
That's good enough for me.

No one was frightened of catching it last Christmas at No 10 were they! No one was scared in Cornwall last summer when everyone jetted in from around the world

It is necessary to be realistic - a magic bullet that will stop Covid in its tracks 100% immediately for every person who is vaccinated, is just not going to be found overnight. Scientists have been working on it since the virus appeared ( and using work that had been done earlier) and they have done wonders.

The perfect solution could be years in the future. Not accepting it until it is absolutely 100% means that until then you will be vulnerable to it - and by then it could be too late for you. While others get it in their top-up booster, you could be lying in your hospital bed with tubes sticking out of every orifice, and kicking yourself.

Biscuitmuncher

I'm waiting for a vaccine that works, that doesn't need topping up every five minutes for some slight protection

Don't worry - we'll carry on testing them for you until there is one that is acceptable to you. Hope you're not too ill when that day comes to take advantage of it.

I'll settle for one that lessens the impact of the disease as well as the latest technology can, and keeps me alive and fit while the boffins work on improving it. Meanwhile I don't mind getting boosters which top up my resistance and add the extras needed to defend me against the variations that inevitably occur - just as variations in the flu virus keep vaccination makers on their toes each year.

Me not catching it and not passing it on is a bonus for others who won't catch it from me, as them not getting it is a bonus for me. We help one another. No man (or woman) is an island.

Omicron seems to be an unknown quantity at the moment but by the time it's done its rounds mixing with other variants----who knows ? Could be the mother of all virus's, or fizzle out like a damp squib, we don't know.

You’ll get Covid very soon Biscuitmuncher, sure as eggs is eggs. Good luck to you and the other unvaccinated.

I'm waiting for a vaccine that works, that doesn't need topping up every five minutes for some slight protection

Yes, Saetana, get that booster asap! Still, this is nothing like Measles etc. where one immunisation (or infection) gives lasting protection. Immunity fades rapidly, so it looks like we'll need regular jabs for it.

covid is going nowhere, we have to learn to live with it

One of the main ways we learn to live with it is by vaccinating the population against it, as has been successful with so many other illnesses that we have to live with.

We live with it by fighting it - allowing it to become rife throughout the population by not getting vaccinated is not living with it, it is capitulating to the idea that we just have to let it decimate the population and cripple the NHS.

If we had not learned to live with say measles by getting children vaccinated they would be dying of it in their many hundreds, as used to be the case. Ditto diphtheria, TB etc. etc.

Saetana - get your head out of the sand and enter the 21st century where we have the power to fight dreadful infectious diseases.

I suppose you could always wait until you have experienced for yourself whether it is bad enough for you to take precautions against it - oh, wait, there is a flaw in that path.

What on earth are you waiting for? I'm sorry you are needle phobic but get the booster, please, for us and for you. This is why the third dose is so necessary. A good summary from the BBC.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59639973

The way we live with it is by using all the methods we unavailable to us, not sitting on our hands to see what happens next.

We do not know anywhere near enough about Omicron at the moment - the government are jumping the gun because they do not want to be accused of acting too late. I've had both vaccinations and I will NOT have another one until its a lot clearer whether its necessary - I'm needlephobic and am not having someone sticking a needle in my arm (especially for a different vaccine from my first two) unless its really necessary. My husband (ECV) has had his booster - his choice he would have been anxious otherwide. I'm waiting for some actual science regarding Omicron, rather than projections and speculations before I make my decision. I'm a Conservative voter and I want Boris GONE - my party needs to make the right decision sooner rather than later. No issue with the mask policy - I never stopped wearing mine in shops and on public transport, and nor did my husband even though he is exempt. Getting really sick of all the hysteria - covid is going nowhere, we have to learn to live with it like we live with different variants of flu every year. Whatever happened to civil liberties?

FoghornLeghorn

HannahLoisLuke

maddyone

Are people in hospital with the Omicron variant? I haven’t heard anything about that yet. Is it truth or gossip?

Hundreds in hospital and the first death today according to the radio news.

Perfect example of getting it wildly wrong and scaremongering. ?

Raab got it wrong.

He said in an interview that there were 250 in hospital with Omicron.

He did later 'correct' it - though it's said that he still didn't get the number quite right'.
It is thought that he had misheard the question.
But maybe he was scaremongering?

Whatever the reason though, if he can get it wrong, what hope is there for the rest of us?

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/breaking-250-fighting-omicron-hospital-25690728

FarNorth

And our neighbours are not just in the UK. They are people all over the world.
Whole countries could find themselves in danger from each other, depending on the success or otherwise of their covid strategies.

Yep, agree.

And our neighbours are not just in the UK. They are people all over the world.
Whole countries could find themselves in danger from each other, depending on the success or otherwise of their covid strategies.

Basically none of us have experienced a serious pandemic so disbelief is rife. I do not know what more can be done to get the message across.

Never before has our fate rested in the hands of our neighbours in quite this way.

Luckygirl3

The loss of state enrolled nurses is indeed very sad. They were the backbone of hospital care.

To those who are angered by the "new normal" - living in pandemic is not normal - we have to get a grip and get on with it. None of it is ideal; but then neither is a pandemic. At least we have the means to fight it now - even though some reject it all. I bet they won't reject the drugs when they are lying in intensive care.

There was a thread on GN a little while ago which showed the amount of drugs and equipment needed to care for a Covid patient in ICU. That the anti vaxers are prepared to accept all of that when their lives are on the line, but will refuse the vaccine to prevent or at least mitigate the effects, is something that’s beyond me. I think the thread was asking what people thought about making vaccination mandatory, and it wasn’t a popular move.

I think rather than going down that route, we need more public information via media and press - a bit like the information campaign for AIDS in the 1980s. Hard to believe that there’s anyone left on the planet who doesn’t get it, but maybe accurate and easy to understand information broadcast regularly, and appearing in newspapers, targeted at those who remain unvaccinated would help some people to make the right decision. The effects of the virus, how being unvaccinated helps it to mutate and information on the efficacy and safety of the vaccines are things that come immediately to mind.

There will always be the hard core who won’t be persuaded but I think we need to do more to convince people to come forward and dispel the disinformation out there. I also think we should start making everyday life a lot harder for people who remain unvaccinated without good reason - working from home as far as possible, refusing entry into all public venues and all shops except for essentials, and mandatory, regular testing are things that come to mind. I don’t know how else we’re going to get out of this, because if large numbers of people remain unvaccinated I think it’s only a matter of time before a vaccine resistant variant emerges.