UK’s over reaction to Omicron.

The population of SA is much younger than ours, young are more able to fight this off, and can you imagine, if on scientific advice, our Government did nothing. People are already screaming for school closure early. She may well be right, the cases seem to be dropping in SA, is it still too early to say if ours will, at the moment they are on the up.

By the way, it’s not only the UK that may be overreacting. Many countries have banned us from visiting, and many have banned African countries too. So have they all overreacted, or is she just talking down the UK?

This Doctor is a GP, not an infectious diseases expert. She didn't "discover" the variant, she reported to the authorities that she was seeing new symptoms and the sequencing carried out thereafter "discovered" it.

The patients she has seen have had mild doses but that is not an indication that everybody will be mild.

Many people in SA have been exposed to Covid and have immunity that way.

Even if nearly everybody has a mild case, some won't, and the infections nature of Omicron means that many people could be infected. A small percentage of a large number is a large number.

I'd rather we were safe than sorry.

(Cases aren't dropping in SA, that was a reporting artefact)

Are you saying that Johnson is cynical enough to react to omicron as he has in order to move the focus away from his lies over the parties?

Some may say so - and are- I couldnt possibly comment.

She's not talking down the UK, whatever the Daily Mail would have you believe. She is saying the same things about every country. She may be right. We'll see, won't we?

lincslass The Omicron strain according to new data is being driven by young vaccinated people.

It doesn't matter if Omicron causes milder symptoms. the problem is that it spreads more easily and thus more people are likely to be infected. With higher numbers unwell, there are bound to be more people who are seriously ill and needing to be in hospital. By slowing down the spread of Omicron we're reducing the number of people in hospital at any one time and helping the NHS to cope.

I judge how serious things are by how many ummmms and aaaaarghs Johnson's latest speech contains.
He was pretty definite on the last one, so I presume things to be dire.

It appears to be as good a way of finding the truth as any other at the moment.

Alegrias1

She's not talking down the UK, whatever the Daily Mail would have you believe. She is saying the same things about every country. She may be right. We'll see, won't we?

Why do you always have a go at me. I don’t read the bloody Mail, I have never seen her mention any other country as over reacting. Those are my words if they are allowed.

The danger is in the mutations of any virus.

Just giving the other side Lincslass. And when I google Coetzee and overreacting I get the Daily Mail.

www.spiked-online.com/2021/12/09/we-are-not-afraid-of-omicron/

Angelique Coetzee, the doctor who first spotted the Omicron variant, tells spiked that the world is overreacting.

The present government is dammed if it reacts early, and castigated if they react slowly.

It was at the end of november that she stated that symptoms were mild, whilst also saying that it didnt mean that further down the line there would be cause for concern.

Oh bum!
She said there could be cause for concern further down the line.

Just think how B.J would be leapt upon and criticised if he didn't react. I think we've done the right thing in having this huge vaccination drive.

GrannyGravy13

The present government is dammed if it reacts early, and castigated if they react slowly.

They haven’t reacted early this time.

Johnson was told by scientists to take action 2 weeks ago.

Now you must ask yourself, why did he finally take the action he did, when he did.

No doubt whatever choice he made it would be wrong for some

Whitewavemark2

GrannyGravy13

The present government is dammed if it reacts early, and castigated if they react slowly.

They haven’t reacted early this time.

Johnson was told by scientists to take action 2 weeks ago.

Now you must ask yourself, why did he finally take the action he did, when he did.

I'm a scientist. (Or I was, in the dim and distant past)

I call for free daffodils for all.

Just because "scientists" call for something that doesn't make it the best option at the time.

I posted about this on the other thread, not realising there was this one.

rosie1959

No doubt whatever choice he made it would be wrong for some

If you'd apply a bit of logical thought to this Rosie instead of grumbling about him 'always being wrong for some' perhaps you could see that if scientists were warning him about it 2 weeks ago a prudent PM would have been making plans for the worst case scenario. Among which would be the possibility of accelerating the booster programme. Instead, he did nothing. The accelerated booster programme took everyone by surprise, even the NHS which is supposed to implement it. It looks exactly like what it is, a knee jerk reaction designed to take our minds off the gathering clouds around his tenure of the office of PM. A grand gesture with no substance to it.

It's not as though it's a completely novel situation. We've had nearly 2 years of covid and he appears to have learned absolutely nothing about the behaviour of the virus in that period, even though the way Delta variant took hold should have taught him something.

EV is right, omicron 'might' be less virulent, but allowing it to take hold increases the possibility of more dangerous, vaccine resistant, mutations developing. He is afraid to introduce more stringent mitigation measures because of the rebellious wing of his parliamentary party; he even needs Labour support to get his modest proposals through Parliament today.

I think that those of us who criticise him have every right to do so...

Just because "scientists" call for something that doesn't make it the best option at the time.

So the 'best option' would have been what, Alegrias?

I can't see how Johnson's sitting on his hands and telling everyone to enjoy their Christmas parties would qualify...

Alegrias1

This Doctor is a GP, not an infectious diseases expert. She didn't "discover" the variant, she reported to the authorities that she was seeing new symptoms and the sequencing carried out thereafter "discovered" it.

The patients she has seen have had mild doses but that is not an indication that everybody will be mild.

Many people in SA have been exposed to Covid and have immunity that way.

Even if nearly everybody has a mild case, some won't, and the infections nature of Omicron means that many people could be infected. A small percentage of a large number is a large number.

I'd rather we were safe than sorry.

(Cases aren't dropping in SA, that was a reporting artefact)

Me too. Better to react to this quickly and back pedal later if necessary.

We have a deeply flawed prime minister making decisions, not for the good of the country but for the good of the prim e minister.

He simply can’t be trusted to do the right thing. .