For the first time since this started, I feel quite frightened

[FreeBettyBoop]

Just this really.

I am concerned that there is something they’re not telling us. Is the new strain worse? I know there is chat about easier/faster spread but is it more deadly? Affecting children?

I’m in Scotland and all of a sudden we are looking at lockdown and school closure. Why now?

In a bit of a pit of despair today. I can live with the Christmas restrictions and will comply. But the thought of going back to school closures while trying to hold down a job...😩 gutted for the kids too.

@StealthPolarBear the sceptic in me would say propaganda.

@RunnerDown

www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4857 I read this today and it made me feel a bit better. Still got an underlying anxiety which feels like being back in March

Thanks for posting that article - it's useful.

There is a strain going around South Africa that seems quite a bit more deadly... In short, at present to most people the virus might not seem a big deal, but it's the virus's potential to evolve into a virus that has the same mortality rate as the SARS/MEARS infections of the early 2000s that should cause the most alarm...It is mutating faster now for some reason.

www.express.co.uk/news/world/1374779/covid-strain-latest-new-coronavirus-variant-south-africa-young-adults

www.republicworld.com/world-news/rest-of-the-world-news/new-coronavirus-strain-discovered-in-south-africa-more-severe-than-previous-variants.html

@amitoooldforthisshit, I may have misread as I just skimmed those articles, but I think they are saying it spread quicker and they don't know if it's more deadly or that it might effect young people more, (ie they don't know that it doesn't), so be careful?

[quote CrispySeaweedIsReallyCabbage]@amitoooldforthisshit, I may have misread as I just skimmed those articles, but I think they are saying it spread quicker and they don't know if it's more deadly or that it might effect young people more, (ie they don't know that it doesn't), so be careful?[/quote]
So quite similar to what I've read about the new variant where I live (SE). I think.

It is mutating faster now for some reason

As a general rule, the greater the number of infections, the faster a virus will mutate. So it's not surprising that we are seeing more strains emerge as infections increase.

They're full of shit. They're lying to you. You are believing propaganda.

I'm more scared that the entire country is devoid of critical thinking skills to be honest.

And if you want a working NHS, you have to fund it adequately ALL the time. Then it won't collapse when flu arrives. Which it has done every year for the past decade or more. This really, really isn't new.

For balance, there are many scientists saying it is a good thing that the virus is mutating.
It means it’s getting less severe. All viruses do this. It’s in their interests not to kill their hosts. They become more infectious but less harmful by nature.

www.standard.co.uk/news/health/new-coronavirus-strain-disease-expert-a4527631.html

Yes .. this is the first time throughout the whole thing I have felt spooked .. my old dad who is 90 had his vaccine on Friday and he was so happy and positive.. it's never ending

@loulouljh

What's happened to the nightingales? All empty. Its normal for the hospitals to be 96% full. That's how the NHS works...

It may well be normal for hospitals to be 96% full what is not normal is the social distancing that is needed and for a huge amount of staff to be off sick or isolating. What is also not normal is for people to be getting into fewer accidents, while the amount of people in hospital stays at a similar level. People are not going to hospital for things they usually would but if families were to have big get-togethers drive home when maybe they shouldn't have friends going out or having parties you have a perfect combination for the NHS to be overwhelmed. Yes the pressure is there at normal times what is not there normally is the social distancing, the high rates of staff absence etc which mean people will be unable to access healthcare. It's all well and good having almost identical numbers presenting at A&E but if you then have a couple of doctors isolating and a handful of nurses you can very quickly find yourself in a precarious position.

Me too, not for the first time, but a lot more now being in tier 4. The vaccine seems a million miles away, we'll be lucky to get it within a year at this rate and infections are out of hand in this area. Already not in the best of health, so really quite scared and despondent.

There is no one to staff the Nightingales. Sigh. Why do people not know this still? That's why there is no one in them.

Then why build them?

I agree with @loulouljh s/he speaks a lot of sense

I don’t think the strain is more deadly, it’s just transmitted faster, so you get more cases

They say the vaccines will still work

They're full of shit. They're lying to you. You are believing propaganda

Yeah, it's a carefully co-ordinated worldwide conspiracy by the lizard people to soften us up for alien invasion.

It is mutating faster now for some reason

Every time the virus replicates in a new host, it has the opportunity to mutate. More infected people = more opportunities to mutate.

I don't think comparing it to having the potential to be more serious like SARS or MERS is helpful. It could also go completely the other way and become less severe. The problem here being although it could be less severe, you could have more people with it, which means the hospitals still have a problem (which could indirectly affect mortality rates - which is one of the two things they are concerned about - the other is very large numbers of key workers being sick or isolated at the same time because of the knock on consequences). If it is becoming less severe it could reduce the need for a vaccine for all...

They just don't know.

The fact its easier to catch could mean that children who were previously thought were less likely than adults to get it, are more affected going forward. Which has a number of implications...

What I will say is that, if it were significantly more serious as a disease, we probably would be aware of it by now. The government data says that they have identified 4 deaths out of a 1000 cases from this new strain. Four. But they haven't got anywhere near enough data to compare it with the older strains to draw any meaningful conclusions yet.

So I don't think its worth getting overly anxious about it at this stage. Its something to monitor and be aware of and have extra caution about. But I won't be losing sleeping over it myself. Yet.

@MissLucyEyelesbarrow I wouldnt take anything from that graph. It shows many more cases than there were in March/ April/May but we didnt have testing on the scale that we do now so it's not a reliable comparison

@MotheringShites

This useless government is using the threat of a new strain to excuse their shoddy handling of Christmas while injecting a bit more fear into an increasingly sceptical public.

EXACTLY!

AlreadyHancock is complaining about "irresponsible" people leaving London before the deadline and going wherever for Christmas.

What does he expect?

People have made arrangement - they are both emotionally and financially invested. The government should have never had the 5-day Christmas - Whitty and Valance and all the other medics were telling them not to -but BJ had to be the "man who saved Christmas". Then he was forced to cancel it - and having done so, he should have stopped people IMMEDIATELY- taken trains and buses out of service and refunded fares.

Of COURSE people were going to try to get to their families - but now the likelihood is that this more infectious strain won't be contained the way they were hoping.

Talk about not being able to organise a piss-up in a brewery . . .

The chief medical officer confirmed the government was given the new information on the variant and acted within 24 hours.

I have friends in a country where the children didn't go back to school in September. All schools have been teaching online. There are also curfews and mini lockdowns happening. Mask wearing is strict and compliance is high. Yet their cases are moderately rising too - nowhere as fast as ours, but still rising. If we hadn't sent teenagers back to school, I think we wouldn't have seen this spike in figures. They might try to social distance in school, but they don't on buses and on the high streets after school.

[quote BonnieDundee]@MissLucyEyelesbarrow I wouldnt take anything from that graph. It shows many more cases than there were in March/ April/May but we didnt have testing on the scale that we do now so it's not a reliable comparison[/quote]
I meant more the effect of the 2nd lockdown - numbers fall sharply (with a lag) then start to rise again as it lifts.

Remmy123

I have been thinking the same thing- there will always be new strains, so are we always going to be locking down etc every bloody time???

I’m sceptical about the masks to be honest. Don’t get me wrong, I comply. I wear them whenever I’m out and about. But deep down I feel like, really, are these little strips of cloth from Amazon or handmade by your neighbour really going to help..!

For those feeling very anxious about the vaccine there is an excellent, very beautifully produced video that explains how many of the new vaccines work here

Most / many of the new vaccines are made using RNA within lipid cells or harmless viruses.

This is a highly innovate and safe method of vaccine production, a real game changer that will have all kinds of medical therapetic applications.

The beautiful thing about these novel vaccines is that, should the protein spikes (how the virus hijacks human cells and turns them into virus factories) change, so that the new vaccines don't work (the new vaccines effectively educate the immune system to recognise and attack specific protein spikes), new vaccines can be produced using the same method. The new vaccines are a kind of template, a paradigm shift in terms of vaccine production, that can be adapted fairly easily should the viral RNA (and thus the protien spikes) change. At least that's how it appears to me.

I am not a virologist but just a lay person fascinated by genetics and viruses.

Anyway, check out the video, it is extremely helpful IMO

I felt spooked when they said it was Porton Down that was looking at it.

I was picturing some disaster movie last night, those of us who survive till next year will be looking at films of crowded railway stations and trying to remember when there were so many people. Then I thought I'd better get on with things and made dinner.