UK’s over reaction to Omicron.

Chemtrail

And almost everyone in the UK has been exposed to covid

??

The NHS is, as usual, ‘‘overwhelmed’ despite the vast amounts of money pumped into it and the vast salaries paid to vast amounts of ‘managers’.

That is utter nonsense.

The NHS is short of 100,000 staff for a start. Its budgets have been cut in real terms by the tories over the past decade. It is forced to run at maximum capacity in 'normal' times which allows it no spare capacity for emergencies such as this pandemic. It has coped brilliantly so far in impossibly difficult circumstances.

What happened to the Nightingale Hospitals that were set up. I understand there will be a staffing problems but at least they could be isolated from the general hospital population. Because that's what killed my husband in February lack of isolation in our local hospital. He went in there Covid free and caught it 5 days later.

Epidemiologists warned about the likelihood of new variants long before Omicron was reported from SA. (Just as new variants of the Coronvirus were predicted years ago. Remember the lack of PPE & etc spring 2020.) Johnson et al are more concerned with trying to stay in power and keep people happy rather than taking root and branch measures to deal with this pandemic. Eg why are masks not mandatory? Why is ventilation not mandatory? Why is social distancing not mandatory?

Septimia is spot on . It’s the transmissibility factor 4 times as contagious in an older population with less effective vaccine against it it’s those kind of numbers that could over run our hospitals and the reason to react!

MaggsMcG

What happened to the Nightingale Hospitals that were set up. I understand there will be a staffing problems but at least they could be isolated from the general hospital population. Because that's what killed my husband in February lack of isolation in our local hospital. He went in there Covid free and caught it 5 days later.

You just said it! Staffing was the issue.

daughterofbonniebelle

Epidemiologists warned about the likelihood of new variants long before Omicron was reported from SA. (Just as new variants of the Coronvirus were predicted years ago. Remember the lack of PPE & etc spring 2020.) Johnson et al are more concerned with trying to stay in power and keep people happy rather than taking root and branch measures to deal with this pandemic. Eg why are masks not mandatory? Why is ventilation not mandatory? Why is social distancing not mandatory?

I agree with you absolutely. Omicron (or something like it) was predicted.

Chemtrail

And almost everyone in the UK has been exposed to covid

I doubt if I have.

Remember that viruses mutate, not always for the worse. They need a host to survive so killing off the host isn't in its best interest.
It is too early to say which way Omicron has gone, lets hope for the best.

Taliya

Yes, it is an over reaction to Omricon. The best thing people can do to protect the NHS is to stop eating junk food, processed food and sitting on their a...efor 8 hours a day and start doing some regular exercise, eat fruit and veg and cook from scratch with no added salt and sugar. The obesity crisis in this country will kill far more than Covid or any variant. I still see really really fat people waddling around with face masks on outside and slathering themselves with anti bac. Lose weight! Also dont smoke...it causes long term lung damage and heart disease!

Losing weight and stopping smoking will improve a person's overall health and might protect a little against serious illness, but they have nothing to do with protecting people from being infected and won't increase a person's immunity.

pce612

Remember that viruses mutate, not always for the worse. They need a host to survive so killing off the host isn't in its best interest.
It is too early to say which way Omicron has gone, lets hope for the best.

Yes, but viruses aren't intelligent. Mutations are random. They don't decide for themselves not to kill off all their hosts.

Susan55

I also believe the government is overreacting. I don't understand why, that's the problem, and it's causing me to lose faith in governments and even causing me to wonder who is actually running these countries - governments or big pharma? Boris always says 'We have to be led by the science', so who knows for sure?

The idea that "big pharma" is running the country is straying into conspiracy theory territory.

TanaMa

What a poisoned chalice Boris took on when he became P.M. I don't think there are many who would take in the job - he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't! Just try and leave his personal life out of political arguments - after all French P.M.s have second families and no-one turns a hair! I don't write the above as a supporter or otherwise of Boris, just think he has had a load of s****to cope with since becoming P.M.

I'm more than happy to leave Johnson's personal life - and his hair - out of any debate on his and his government's handling of the crisis.

I believe that personal ambition drove him to become PM and I also believe that he wanted to go down in history as the man who took Britain out of the EU. And if, as is said, he had two speeches ready on the night of the Referendum result, and the country had chosen to Remain, he would've been equally happy to be the PM who kept us in. He is, in fact, on record clearly denouncing the idea that our domestic problems were caused by our membership and, according to his analysis, are "home-grown".

His ambition has led him to court popularity at the expense of doing what is right for the country as a whole. He has, in effect, dug his own grave, by trying to appease all factions. He can't, no-one could.

He is not committed to any ideology - apart from libertarianism and his own aspirations. He needs to keep his majority happy - and they are now divided both by what Brexit has reaped (or not) and the catastrophic effect of the pandemic. The ERG are constantly poking him in the back, his party is divided... he's in a terrible position.

Only a really strong leader, with faith in his ideology and a commitment to serve his country could deal with the situation we are now in. I don't think he is strong enough, nor committed to much other than his own ambition and the party's survival. Yes, we have the booster programme - and he latches on to that for dear life - even resorting to mentioning it during PMQs when it's not the topic being discussed. I believe he thinks it's his saving grace.

We are going to lurch from one direction to the other as he attempts the impossible and re-acts rather than pro acts. I believe he's out of his depth, he's floundering, and he knows it. He will be got rid of ultimately. He didn't expect the pandemic, but if he'd been the 'Churchill' that he thinks he is in his imagination, he would have dealt with it.

And TBH, I'm not sure Starmer would, could, will be much different because I think he, too, is trying to appease everyone. His "make Brexit work" is a sop to both factions. Though I do believe he's more committed to the democratic process, than Johnson.

We're a very divided nation, and no party / leader is going to satisfy both / all divisions. It's impossible. But a leader who has a firm conviction to serve his or her country above all else will, at the very least, stop all this dithering. Jeez, as a left-of-centre voter, I'd even vote Conservative at a push if the party was led by someone like Clarke, Grieve, or 'Tarzan".

I don't expect anyone to agree with me and some might think it's simply 'Boris bashing'. But it isn't. I've nothing personal against him, I simply believe he's the wrong man for the job.

As we've had the first death from Omicron I don't think we are over reacting...

It’s not an overreaction. It is a sensible measure to protect our society - and especially those who are particularly vulnerable. Only a fool would wait until hospital beds were full and people dying to take preventative measures. A strong economy will not bring loved ones back

Of course the government aren't overreacting.
It's about time they reacted promptly to something.
Honestly!

Trew

She’s actually the Chair of the South African medical Association.
I agree it is an over reaction.
We will have to deal with many variants as we move forward destroying lives and livelihoods is not the answer.Yes to vaccinations .. yes to shielding the vulnerable but no to politically saving an nhs that needs to be re-engineered

But giving the virus a free rein will destroy lives and livelihoods.

rosie1959

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

Don’t they just love the opportunity to Boris bash again.

He deserves a good bashing for a lot of things, but not for "overreacting" on this issue.

MaggsMcG

What happened to the Nightingale Hospitals that were set up. I understand there will be a staffing problems but at least they could be isolated from the general hospital population. Because that's what killed my husband in February lack of isolation in our local hospital. He went in there Covid free and caught it 5 days later.

I’m so sorry to hear that

Tanamay, the s..t Johnson has to cope with is his own making.

Great post @13.50 Dickens.

Taliya

Yes, it is an over reaction to Omricon. The best thing people can do to protect the NHS is to stop eating junk food, processed food and sitting on their a...efor 8 hours a day and start doing some regular exercise, eat fruit and veg and cook from scratch with no added salt and sugar. The obesity crisis in this country will kill far more than Covid or any variant. I still see really really fat people waddling around with face masks on outside and slathering themselves with anti bac. Lose weight! Also dont smoke...it causes long term lung damage and heart disease!

Absolutely spot on!!!!

This is a huge over-reaction because Johnson is fighting for his political life. This GP basically reported something that has been moving its way around sub-Saharan Africa for a while, and it's not true that the SA population is stronger than ours because it's younger - in fact it is far less healthy than ours is, and certainly the population in Botswana is very much at risk but there's been no deadly outbreak. We can't continue to react in this way to every new variant - we should have a proactive government that funds its NHS properly and then if and when something new arrives we can carry on as usual and accommodate a few (and that's all it is) extra hospitalisations. As it is, cancer patients are having treatments put on hold and they are definitely going to die. Johnson treats the population of the UK like his own personal train set - he experiments continually whilst gaily going on in his own privileged way. Rant over.

esgt1967

Taliya

Yes, it is an over reaction to Omricon. The best thing people can do to protect the NHS is to stop eating junk food, processed food and sitting on their a...efor 8 hours a day and start doing some regular exercise, eat fruit and veg and cook from scratch with no added salt and sugar. The obesity crisis in this country will kill far more than Covid or any variant. I still see really really fat people waddling around with face masks on outside and slathering themselves with anti bac. Lose weight! Also dont smoke...it causes long term lung damage and heart disease!

Absolutely spot on!!!!

I don't agree it's spot on.