UK’s over reaction to Omicron.

We have now got a friend fighting for his life in ICU with pneumonia and Covid. He’s early fifties. Having lost members of my family and friends to Covid I think all necessary precautions should be kept in place. Masks are a priority. My DS n family work and live in Tokyo in Soring next year it will be 3 years since I have seen them due to Covid lockdown. Japan two days ago had 7 Covid cases yes just 7 not 7,000 due to closing their borders n citizens not grumbling but following the rules to help each other. I have the graph to prove the figures

And almost everyone in the UK has been exposed to covid

My next door neighbour has been so ill. I've heard her coughing at night ( thin walls ) and gasping for breath. When I spoke to her on her doorstep last Sunday she was full of it-----all Covid tests etc were negative !

At one time I'd have said she had a very heavy cold and cough ?
Does everything now have to be classed as though you're breathing your last breath ?
A boil on your arris and death often follows ?

Makes you wonder. Though this Omicron could show itself to be the real brute !

I think we should all make our own decisions as much as we can to do the best for others and ourselves.
Personally I am taking extra care and have had all the jabs and have a Covid pass.
Better safe than sorry.

SIL and DIL both positive today! Both feel like death! Both double jabbed but no booster ! Not sure how to help with 5 and 2 year olds ??‍♀️

No, totally due to the virus, in my opinion.
I don't see how anyone would be in a position to plan how a virus is going to spread.

Sago

Dr Angelique Coetzee the South African doctor that discovered the Omicron strain has spoken publicly about the over reaction to Omicron and has called for calm.
According to this doctor the variant is very mild compared to Delta.
In SA only 26% of the population are vaccinated and Omicron has not caused a surge in hospital admissions.
Why are we destroying the economy, putting people’s health and well-being at risk for a strain that’s milder than all the previous strains?

I am really starting to think that this is all planned the longer it goes on .... have never been a conspiracy theorist and am fully jabbed, but was reluctant to take the Pfizer booster as I didn't like the fact that it was sort of 'genetically modified', so initially chose AZ.

The NHS isn't working, it is already overwhelmed, and not necessarily with Covid patients. From underfunding and deliberate 'letting go' so that it can be sold off to their pals ..... I have felt sure that Covid deaths were being overinflated for a long time now, but couldn't think why?

MissAdventure I think there is a huge crisis on it's way.... not scaremongering.
Just a feeling.

I agree ..... but is it planned or not?

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?

This virus does not at the moment appear to be causing many deaths, but it is incredibly infectious. As others have said the population in South Africa is younger and fitter than here so probably less likely to have severe problems.
As long as the virus continues to infect people it will continue to mutate, and the obvious fear is that we could very easily end up with a mutation that is as infectious as Omicron but far more dangerous to health than the Delta variant.
It is important to stop the spread, which will stop the mutations and reduce the risk of the virus changing into a very infectious and very dangerous infection.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

I really think it's about time we all took responsibility for our own health with Covid as we did with all other things that can make us ill/possibly cause our untimely death.

I am really sick to the back teeth of being told what I can and can't do in my personal life by the Government and beyond annoyed about the constant talk of "protecting the NHS". Sorry, but this has gone on for far too long now, we know what we need to do to reduce our risk to Covid exposure so please just let us get on with it.

We are not living at the moment, just existing and launching from one crisis to the next it seems with nothing really being achieved. Enough is enough.

Because it’s not about saving people it’s more to do with getting everyone jabbed!! Why not sure as people have died after getting jabbed or with the virus ?but this time really overreacting!!! Remember it’s all about one rule for us but another one for the people at the top?

agree about over reaction BUT poor Boris cannot do right for doing wrong if they don't react enough are accused of not coping etc.

MaizieD

^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...

I don't know.

I'm neither an epidemiologist nor a politician. Which I'm really pleased about right now.

But I know that they all have to balance the imperfect knowledge we have about the omicron variant with the need to keep the NHS working and having a working economy. And you need a working economy to have the NHS, or any other kind of public service.

I said this somewhere else and its relevant again. Just saying "the scientists say..." isn't a valid argument. Not all scientists have the same view on things. Not all scientists have the luxury of being able to focus only on one aspect of the problem and being able to ignore the implications of what they are asking for. Some scientists ( perish the thought ) have politically motivated biases and a Twitter login.

Whitewavemark2

Richard Murphy blog dated 14/12

The UK’s chief medical officers increased their assessment of the threat from Covid to level five yesterday. What that means is that they think that there is a risk of the NHS being overwhelmed by the number of new Covid cases.

Right then.

Murphy might have a lot of knowledge about taxation but his reading comprehension skills leave a lot to be desired.

He puts that in the headline of his 14th December post but the article that he links to clearly says that the level has gone up from 3 to 4. Not 5.

In addition, level 5 does not mean total lockdown, and to suggest that it does is just...wrong. Level 5 on the alert level scale does not map exactly to any specific kind of restrictions.

If I was a suspicious person I'd say someone was trying to scaremonger.

Lincslass

rosie1959

MaizieD

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...

Wasn’t grumbling Maizie just making an observation
Of course you can criticise him
As far as I remember he increased the booster programme back in November to be done by the end of January
Haven’t got time for logical thought looking after 3 year old granddaughter

Yes on the 27th November boosters increase mention. Can access on Gov website.

Offering boosters to younger people.

Don't recall a target of 1 million jabs a day and all done by the end of December, though.

rosie1959

MaizieD

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...

Wasn’t grumbling Maizie just making an observation
Of course you can criticise him
As far as I remember he increased the booster programme back in November to be done by the end of January
Haven’t got time for logical thought looking after 3 year old granddaughter

Yes on the 27th November boosters increase mention. Can access on Gov website.

What is worrying me is that if mitigation is not taken in a timely manner, then the NHS - if you use the model -attached in the link - will simply fail.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2021/12/14/reasonable-forecasts-suggest-that-we-are-facing-a-health-crisis-of-a-scale-no-one-in-the-uk-has-ever-previously-experienced/

MaizieD

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...

Wasn’t grumbling Maizie just making an observation
Of course you can criticise him
As far as I remember he increased the booster programme back in November to be done by the end of January
Haven’t got time for logical thought looking after 3 year old granddaughter

Richard Murphy blog dated 14/12

The UK’s chief medical officers increased their assessment of the threat from Covid to level five yesterday. What that means is that they think that there is a risk of the NHS being overwhelmed by the number of new Covid cases.

4 is bad enough..

We’re not at level 5.
www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/12/uk-covid-alert-raised-to-level-4-in-uk-as-omicron-cases-surge

Am I wrong in thinking level 5 is closure of nightclubs and other venues where many people meet and are more likely to spread covid?

Alert level was raised to 4 last Sunday, I can’t find level 5?

Whitewavemark2

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. .

He can be trusted to ignore all the regulations, give his pals positions in government so they can give lucrative contracts to their pals. He ignores advice if it doesn’t suit his current agenda.