dbd33

This makes sense because the next variant may be more potent than the Delta one. We don't know when it's coming so we should be prepared.

dbd33

If there's a group of people it's difficult to care about, it's those who dress up in spandex and go and sculpt their bits in front of shared mirrors. People wanting bigger thighs can stay home and walk up and down the stairs. If they need people to see they can post to Grindr. Risking infection because you wanted strangers to pant on you, or you on them, is really very silly.

Danny B

OK boomer.
Gyms closed, casinos open. Makes total sen$e.

Shard

Good quick video showing the Omicron growth and hospitals curves in the UK and London. UK data suggests low impact; London data suggests rising impact.

printer

Exactly it's just gone overboard now. Todays Global news was reporting that South Africas surge has receded and hospitalizations remain on a reasonable level. They said the data coming out is it's more transmissible but much milder and this has been echoed by some scientist bods in UK also. Boris has still not announced any changes and now Joe Biden is telling all his people to enjoy the festivities providing your are vaccinated, meanwhile the doom merchants in BC press the panic button despite out good vaccination stats. Boosters are supposed to be a key defence which is why UK is going all out on this, meanwhile BC may start in January.
Who will care in January we would all enjoy a few extra days off work to self isolate

old.sparkles

I think I heard that the vaccination rate in London was only around 60% to 65%, so that may be a factor.

Over here we are seeing rising numbers on the East coast (and most states now in lesser degrees) - and starting to see hospitalisations starting to climb, albeit slowly. Risk of needing hospital stay is 40% lower, which is not low enough given the increased number of cases.

Reports here also of increasing numbers of police, hospital staff, etc off work due to COVID too. Not sure if it is definitely omicron, but it is believed to be,

Shard

Certainly there is a lower vax rate in London and that would be a factor. Having said that London's population is younger so rising hospitalization is a concern. It's still early days on Omicron, less than one month, so the data is just starting to emerge.

Gozit

BC hasn't even started booster rollout?

Danny B

Omicron: Half of colds will be Covid, warn UK researchers.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59768366

scrubbedexpat134

In BC every double vaccinated adult 70 and over has had the opportunity to get the booster and two weeks ago the under 70's were starting to be contacted, i am 69 and got my booster shot on Monday 20th Dec.

BristolUK

It's funny how much has been forgoten.
Apart from getting Covid, there are three things that stand out in my memory from all the stuff we were told.

• It was more damaging for older people or those with health conditions
• We need to take steps to avoid health services being overrun; a problem for Covid patients and others
• As the virus passes, it changes into different variants

From the BBC article
So that's the first two taken care of then. As someone else said "a small % of a very high number can be more than a large % of a low number," and if medical staff are off sick or isolating, there's the overrun health services with more patients than it can deal with including those whose other checks and treatments cannot go ahead due to staff shortage.

And with the virus spreading far more quickly - no matter how mild it may be - there would appear to be a risk of faster rate of mutation, bring the third part into play.

Danny B

Omicron is a storm in a tea cup, look at these stats and tell me I'm wrong. 195 people in hospital, and 18 dead. All those other deaths you read about are from the previous delta variant.
https://assets.publishing.service.go...n_Overview.pdf

The biggest problem the world is facing right now is not from people dying of Omicron, but from people calling in sick and having to isolate which affects essential front line services.

BristolUK

So get virus carriers to turn up for work and help spread an already fast spreading variant even faster and just leave it to chance as to whether that brings the next variant along more quickly, one that may be a lot worse immediately than this one but we don't discover that until it's taken a hold.

Well, it's a plan. But it sounds like one of those "it's so crazy it just might work" ones.

Danny B

Most of us are sick to death of this never ending pandemic. I swear some people are looking forward to the next variant to come along just so that they can stay working from home a bit longer. I'd say we should look on the bright side and hope that this variant turns into Omnicold and fizzles out.

I'm outta here now till Jan 4th, Merry Christmas everyone!

dbd33

That's certainly an advantage but I expect it'll be short lived. I imagine few firms will want to pay for office space now that they know they don't need it and there will be no need of continuing covid to support working from home.