Perhaps our situation with covid is looking up

Yes we too watched the Royal Institution Lectures and they were very good. We'll done to JVT for his New Year Honour.

Reality check needed here, I think. Didn't know that ostriches could whistle in the dark, but some most certainly are...

If all hospital appointments and procedures return to at least what they were, and they were by no means great, two years ago; if GPs can hold face to face consultations without a 3 week wait then I will
agree Omicron is no longer a threat to us all living our life as normal. Until then the daily barrage of stats mean nothing to me. I have spent nearly two years helping DH with his phone Drs and Oncology Consultant appointments (he is hearing impaired) which basically turn into my appointments as I have to relay questions to DH and then relay answer to professional. Two very major issues not spotted as medics didn't actually see DH. Needed ambulance and hospital treatment. So, when folk start debating whether the information provided by the media on Covid is accurate I find it so juvenile I have to laugh.

Most doctors are saying that people are going into hospital but being discharged a few days later. So the numbers are going up for admissions but not recording discharges.

micmc47

Reality check needed here, I think. Didn't know that ostriches could whistle in the dark, but some most certainly are...

You are Deepti Gurdasani and I claim my £5.

I believe Covid will always be problematic but as time goes on will affect far fewer people . The knock on effect though will take many years to stabilise. The economy,the health service as we previously knew it, the management of long term health issues, education and the healthy development of young minds sadly have all suffered. Its going to take a very long time to heal that and scars, I fear will always be there

if the government had made it compulory that every one had to have the jasb by law we would be in the situition we are now 0r follow the hong kong way if you are offered the jab and refuse it you will have to get over it at your home they will not be taken to hospital the covid is only spreading due to rhe minority of selfish people in the uk I still see people without a mask in some supermakets and supermarket staff wake up uk stop blaming the gocernment we should be advertising the number of deaths in the media and on television every day and prosicute body who states the covid is not a problem

The figures can be misleading. My granddaughter was admitted to hospital yesterday with an orthopaedic issue and although she had done a rapid flow test before going and was negative, when she had her PCR test in hoist all she was positive. Presumable she will count as someone admitted to hospital with covid. She was - but that wasn’t the reason for her admission. Presumably there are others in a similar situation.

Alegrias 1. Who? No £5 I'm afraid. Try a lucky dip on the Lottery tonight. Better odds. :-)

You don't know who Dr Gurdasani is and yet to claim to know how we should be behaving over Covid?

Okey dokey.

I don't do the lottery because I understand probabilities.

Alegrais please no that woman is so depressing we are all doomed according Deepti Gurdasani

Teacheranne

Barmeyoldbat

Yes they are, think it was on the news. What a mess this bunch in government have got us into, Johnson can’t even be bothered to attend COBRA meetings, instead spending his time on photo shoots. We haven’t even got enough testing kits.

Rev the testing kits, I went on the gvt website two days ago and ordered a test pack despite newspapers saying none were available and showing photos of messages.

It appears that more packs become available throughout the day so you just have to try again a few times. Both my brother and sister have managed to get packs this week as well.

I really find the negativity in the newspapers and on social media tiresome at the moment.

I do feel concerned about the mental health of the children in the doomsayers families. Imagine being surrounded by so much negativity as well as coping with the uncertainty. All this ridiculous talk about making one set of rules and sticking to them. Unfortunately covid doesn’t play by the rules and keeps changing the game plan.

New Year's Day, and a new experience for me joining Gransnet.
With so much negativity around, more positive thinking is surely good?

all we can talk about is deaths from something (omicron) which may be less harmful in the big picture than flu. I think we are all losing the plot here.

I don't think that people have quite taken on board the fact that the covid virus, unlike flu, can attack other vital organs apart from the lungs /respiratory tract. And that even 'mild' cases can have long term adverse effects.

We don't yet know enough about omicrom to be able to confidently assert that it's not so bad to have an omicrom infection and that it won't have long term effects.

We also have no idea what the next dominant mutation (if we get one) will be like. More or less transmissible? More or less lethal?

I'm not exactly cowering in fear, but I'm not terribly optimistic at the moment.

Exactly, MaisieD.
I just despair when people use the “I’m being positive” explanation when they’re abandoning masks, playing down transmission, visiting everywhere and generally trying to convince people it’s not serious.
It’s not flu and nothing like a cold in that whatever the symptoms or lack of symptoms ( if you’re lucky), the long term effects can be devastating.
Nobody should take risks with themselves or their families. Avoiding catching it is the only sensible policy.
My local paper has plenty of recent examples of children, young people and adults becoming seriously ill 6/8 weeks after having Covid.
Most people won’t be affected, however nobody knows who will be, so caution and precautions are as always the only ways to behave.

'Looking up'??thats what they said last year when they made a vaccine- and look where we still are now?!!!??

Nannan2

'Looking up'??thats what they said last year when they made a vaccine- and look where we still are now?!!!??

Where are we now?

No lockdown.
High case numbers yet a much reduced proportion in hospital or dying.
Treatments.
Reliable tests.
Vaccines that are still effective despite the chorus of people who think they don't work any more.

Where are we now? A bl**dy sight better off than we were this time last year.

Might there be another more virulent variant? Might omicron lead to as-yet-unimagined long term effects? Yes. And we might get hit by a comet tomorrow.

How do some of you get out of bed in the morning?

JenniferEccles

Oh let’s not spoil the fun of the eternal doomsayers.
The building of the Nightingale is possibly, to quote a phrase, an abundance of caution.

All the signs point to us having turned a corner, despite the rise in cases.

Have faith folks!

Oh let’s not spoil the fun of the eternal doomsayers.

Why be snarky about it?
I'm happy to watch and wait. I have no strong sense of optimism or pessimism but I'm tired of the weaponisng of opinion that this pandemic has brought out more than ever.

Rosie51

Why is it some people just hate a bit of optimism emerging? So far Omicron is infecting way more people but hospital admissions for complications arising from Omicron are not following the same trajectory. ICU admissions and deaths so far are also not the same proportions as the Delta wave. This might change but the indications are that it won't. I've been accused (in real life) of being a bit of a Pollyanna at times, but honestly why not enjoy a bit of positivity, we've lived with the negative for almost two years.

Why is it some people just hate a bit of optimism emerging?
Why not state your opinion on the situation without slagging off other people who are entitled to theirs?

I'm more sick of the bickering than the pandemic itself.

mayisay

New Year's Day, and a new experience for me joining Gransnet.
With so much negativity around, more positive thinking is surely good?

Welcome to GN mayisay.

micmc47

Reality check needed here, I think. Didn't know that ostriches could whistle in the dark, but some most certainly are...

That merely adds rudeness to the debate. Nothing more.
I'll stop making my point now.

Alegrias1

Nannan2

'Looking up'??thats what they said last year when they made a vaccine- and look where we still are now?!!!??

Where are we now?

No lockdown.
High case numbers yet a much reduced proportion in hospital or dying.
Treatments.
Reliable tests.
Vaccines that are still effective despite the chorus of people who think they don't work any more.

Where are we now? A bl**dy sight better off than we were this time last year.

Might there be another more virulent variant? Might omicron lead to as-yet-unimagined long term effects? Yes. And we might get hit by a comet tomorrow.

How do some of you get out of bed in the morning?

I agree with Alegrias1

Does anyone know of a double vaccinated person falling v ill with covid in the last 2/3 weeks. People i know who have caught just before xmas (all over 60) have said it is no worse than a cold. Were all 4 just lucky or is it their vaccinations protecting them. I wish the govt would give more detailed info on who is being hospitalised

BStP

Does anyone know of a double vaccinated person falling v ill with covid in the last 2/3 weeks. People i know who have caught just before xmas (all over 60) have said it is no worse than a cold. Were all 4 just lucky or is it their vaccinations protecting them. I wish the govt would give more detailed info on who is being hospitalised

We have had quite a few friends and acquaintances test positive over the last couple of weeks
No serious illness mild cold symptoms and some only knew they had it by testing. One had flu like symptoms for a couple of days

I am being positive but I AM STILL WEARING MY MASK and doing all the hand washing etc. Why the assumption that others are just plain stupid?

We haven’t been out and about socialising and i’ve yet to catch up with friends so not too sure what’s been happening with them.

Our local daughter and her family have all had it except our older GS. Son and family in London, apart from toddler, have all had it. Our youngest in W. Yorkshire and her family are ok still.

People around here seem to be taking it more seriously now and the majority are wearing masks.