New Covid variant *title edited by MNHQ at OP's request*

[Wingingthis]

Can anyone talk some sense about how dangerous this is or is it just the media over exaggerating?

And I don’t mean that to sound glib.

I was just so excited when it was taken off the Red list.

UK wants to delay the arrival of this variant here as much as possible, hoping we get over the worst of the usual winter NHS pressures before it does. That's why they acting so fast.

Agree, we need to try to delay as much as possible.

Blimey the government has acted fast this time !

It’s gone from 6 cases to 22 today, and now the BBC is reporting 77.

The thing is, with only 23% of people double jabbed in SA and 20% in Botswana, they’re not going to have reliable information yet on how resistant this strain is. I can see why scientists are being cautious, but feel that it’s a case of watch and wait for the next week or so.

This. Who gives an F.

Anyone with more than half a brain, I would say.

"they said the same about Delta"

mmm... yes and they were right.. Delta's transmissibility is evident - the difference was that Delta didn't have capacity to escape vaccines. This new variant's profile seems to be very different from the "base" CV on which vaccines were based so we're unsure about what happens next

@fournonblondes

No idea but if we keep vaccinating just developed countries this will get worse and worse with the mutations.

Botswana is a developed country, and they have a vaccine programme.

How many people came to London from SA for the rugby match last week?

I know I'm over reacting but I'm freaked out. I want things to be normal and I want to go to my family in Ireland for Christmas

Acting fast doesn’t worry me especially

I agree it’s unknown though and I really would like to know what the variables are

I'm getting married in a few weeks. I have a very bad feeling about this!

By that I mean I don’t see it as an indication of whether it’ll be worse

Just that it makes sense to be fast

@ollyollyoxenfree

I read it more as that thing people do to be polite... like when you ask something in a training course and get a long rambling answer that doesn't actually help, but you want them to shut up so just nod vigorously and thank them several times

This speaks to my soul @JesusInTheCabbageVan

Speaks to my soul too, my head nodding gets more frantic the more I want them to shut up!!! 😄😄

@JesusIsAnyNameFree

This. Who gives an F.

Anyone with more than half a brain, I would say.

Right you are. There is more to life than feckin Covid.

[quote tallduckandhandsome]@JesusInTheCabbageVan

It's certainly squeaky bum time for whoever came up with the Tesco Christmas advert.

What does this mean? Lost.[/quote]
Tesco Xmas ad theme is ‘don’t stop me now’ ie making up for a lost Xmas last year

🤞🏼This turns out not to be a big concern (previous scares: South Africa & Peru variants)

Why are so many people obsessed with COVID?

This has come as such a huge blow to my family, we were due to go to SA for Christmas to be with family, my husband has cancer so we wanted to go in case we don’t get another chance and now this. Hopefully the vaccines will prove to have some effectiveness against it, our family in SA have been vaccinated but this is such a worry!

Francois Balloux was good on R4 news just now. He said if it arrives here would certainly be a setback but not a new pandemic. And we are prepared for mutations, it's not unexpected.

Sounds like there's no need to call the butcher at 9am tomorrow cancelling the Christmas turkey.

@tomwombsgans

"Not another one, honestly I can't stand this"

Sorry for the unfortunate crossover of posts EmpressSuiko, we must have been typing at the same time.

@Wakemeuuuup

How many people came to London from SA for the rugby match last week?

I know I'm over reacting but I'm freaked out. I want things to be normal and I want to go to my family in Ireland for Christmas

My thoughts exactly with regards to Cop26, it's now just wait and see. Government must be concerned to be putting them on the red list and so quickly. Will this nightmare ever end??

@roarfeckingroarr I have no idea but it’s sad, I also don’t know any of these obsessed people in real life, they all just seem to hang around on mumsnet or following doom mongering independent sage “professors” on Twitter and re tweeting their doom to ruin everyone’s day.

The bottom line is the virus will continue to mutate, if we go back to square one with this one (which we won’t) then what is the end goal? I would love to know what people think the answer is but it certainly isn’t a continued cycle of lockdowns and restrictions forever more!

@roarfeckingroarr why are you bothering to check the Coronavirus forum then? What a silly comment!

Here, have a

@LadyRoughDiamond vaccination rate is still low in SA, but it is 35% double jabbed in SA as of 24 Nov.

@Wakemeuuuup - The # of cases in SA increased exponentially, over the last week, from about 250 per day to about 2,400 25 Nov.

It is concerning, but the UK had over 47k cases on 25 Nov.

There've been multiple variants around the world, each worse than the previous.

@manolantern right now we are sitting tight hoping we can still fly out in December but with how long things went on with the delta variant we aren’t feeling overly confident :(