A new variant doesn't equal disaster

[chararara]

A new variant, more negative news.

Fact is, it is far too early to know anything concrete about this variant and already the news is contradicting itself. They are overly negative for views.

Some more positive points:

• South Africa has great genome testing and does a lot more advanced testing than neighbouring countries due to their expertise from HIV testing. It is no surprise they discovered it and very possible other countries missed it. The sequence of this variant points to being older than two weeks. Hence, it is likely it already existed and SA have been the first to pick it up. Why is this good? It means it has potentially been circulating for months, so if it has only just been noticed, it is less likely to be the extra transmissible nightmare as the media state.

• SA is not a good country to make predictions from. They have a low vaccine rate, yet had unusually low infections. Any strain would take a great hold, so it's impossible to say that its "ripping through," when the population is largely unvaccinated. Data cannot be extrapolated to majority vaccinated countries at this point in time.

• It has new spike protein additions. Concerning? Yes. Definitely a problem? No. They could just be changes that have barely any impact. It's just as feasible to assume the best, as well as the worst.

• Even if this is a more transmissible strain or resistant strain, it is highly unlikely it would completely evade vaccines or not offer defense against severe illness.

We are not back at the beginning. Be cautious and mindful with the media you consume. Get a booster vaccine.

Some less negative articles:

www.reddit.com/r/CoronavirusUK/comments/r2k067/new_variant_will_not_take_us_back_to_square_one/

@rrhuth

The answer to when it ends is when we decide to stop talking non-stop about it

Yeah, well this isn't going to happen, @dabbydeedoo. You can't just wish difficult/inconvenient things away. Pretending isn't going to help anyone.

If you don't want to think about it, that's your issue lookout, just stop listening to the news and pretend in your head it has gone away. You can't expect the world to turn a blind eye just to suit you.

Of course it will happen! You think covid is just going to just dominate the headlines and dominate everything everyone does for the next decade?

The virus won't go away. Ever. There will be mutations, new variants, spikes and waves. Forever. What will happen is that the daily case numbers will stop being reported and anyone who doesn't work in the NHS will just be blissfully unaware. Just like most people always were with the flu, which has killed tens of thousands every winter for years. It will be a political decision to stop reporting case numbers every day and a media decision to stop reporting on covid. Just like it is with absolutely everything else.

I'm so, so tired of people like you who think anyone with a rational mindset is 'wishing inconvenient things away'.

@dabbydeedoo respectfully I am not sure you sound that much like you have a rational mindset about this issue.

Covid will stop being discussed when it is time, but clearly that time is not here yet.

Why do you need it to stop now? Surely if you are so very rational, you can rationalise why it is still being discussed?

And yet @dabbydeedoo here you are on yet another Covid thread. If it's so boring and not worth talking about why are you proliferating the conversation about it yourself?

You go and be an ostrich if you want, some of us prefer to know what is actually going on.

@EileenGC

Of course ‘the media’ won’t report 100% accurately. People shouldn’t take their information from ‘the media’ but research a bit themselves first, read trusted sources.

It could be nothing or it could be bad. We don’t know yet. Imposing a few restrictions now doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world though.

Problem is, and I don't mean this rudely, that many people just aren't bright or educated enough to do that. Or even curious enough

@ChequerBoard

And yet *@dabbydeedoo* here you are on yet another Covid thread. If it's so boring and not worth talking about why are you proliferating the conversation about it yourself?

You go and be an ostrich if you want, some of us prefer to know what is actually going on.

You've got a bit of a reading comprehension issue, haven't you?

The comment about talking about it was making the point that covid won't 'go away' until the government/media decide to stop talking about it and reporting case numbers. I wasn't talking about this thread, at all. I never said it wasn't worth talking about. I said there will never be a day when covid is no longer circulating, but there WILL be a day when the government decides to stop publishing case numbers and in turn, the media will stop reporting on it. That will be when covid is considered 'over' in most people's minds, even if case numbers are no lower than what they are today.

It's really, really alarming how many people have so much trouble comprehending what they read.

@dabbydeedoo personal attacks is are pretty low and no, I don't have a reading comprehension problem.

Perhaps since multiple people have 'misunderstood' you, there is an issue with clarity of your own writing?

Not read all the comments because I know there will be some that will worry me but thank you to those posters that are offering rational cautious reassurance, I've felt more anxious in the last day or two than I have since January and I definitely need to read some less alarmist news so appreciate those posting comments along these lines .

[quote ChequerBoard]@dabbydeedoo personal attacks is are pretty low and no, I don't have a reading comprehension problem.

Perhaps since multiple people have 'misunderstood' you, there is an issue with clarity of your own writing?[/quote]
No. What I wrote was perfectly clear, and the follow up posts even clearer still. Sorry. Not once did I say it was 'boring' and not once did I refer to the conversation on this thread. You put those words in my mouth and twisted my point completely so yes, you do have a reading comprehension problem. That's not an attack, it's a fact.

My words are still there in black and white - check them.

I'm also sick to death of the scare mongering and the shaming of people who want to live their lives. For goodness sake, it's been nearly two years.

Sounds like you are bored with it/over it here.

@milkyaqua

I'm also sick to death of the scare mongering and the shaming of people who want to live their lives. For goodness sake, it's been nearly two years.

Sounds like you are bored with it/over it here.

That's a completely different post to the one where I said covid will be over when they stop publishing daily cases and the media stop reporting on it!! You don't get to just cherry pick bits of different points and pretend I said something I didn't say.

That's a completely different post to the one where I said covid will be over when they stop publishing daily cases and the media stop reporting on it!! You don't get to just cherry pick bits of different points and pretend I said something I didn't say.

Oh, a different silly and petulant post? Same diff.

@milkyaqua

That's a completely different post to the one where I said covid will be over when they stop publishing daily cases and the media stop reporting on it!! You don't get to just cherry pick bits of different points and pretend I said something I didn't say.

Oh, a different silly and petulant post? Same diff.

Petulant for stating a fact? If you're waiting for the 'end' of the pandemic, there won't be one. There will come a point where the government decides to stop reporting cases and remove all or most restrictions. It won't mean there's no more risk. You just won't hear about it.

If you'd like to sit there in your bunker pretending it's still March 2020 and we should only be going out for essential reasons, be my guest.

Er, it's a world-wide pandemic. Don't think it's just down to 'the government'...

@milkyaqua

Er, it's a world-wide pandemic. Don't think it's just down to 'the government'...

I would have thought it went without saying that this would happen roughly around the same time for all or most countries.

You're just not getting the point. I know people who were shaming people who had been to SA, all 'who is going on holiday during a pandemic?' Why would people not go on holiday? We're two years in, people are vaccinated, we're in a completely different place to March 2020. It's simply not feasible to live life with the mindset that we can do fun things again when it's 'over'. It will never be over.

It will never be over.

At some point, the pandemic will be over. Right now, it isn't. Much of Europe - especially the countries higher up on the northern hemisphere, who are experiencing colder temperatures sooner - is already struggling with a surge of Delta, the previous VOC, and now a new and rather unnerving VOC has been detected. One's heart sinks, but there we are.

@rrhuth
Unfortunately not talking about difficult things is exactly what this government has been doing and when it isn’t in the media or talked about it does in fact seem to go away.

The obvious elephant in the room is any balance around the morbidity, mortality, age profile and impact of those with other diseases such as cancer and impact on the young of the lockdown measures. Nothing is presented in context by the government.

So many people who don’t have access to the bigger picture are not able to think critically about the overall situation and put COVID ahead of all else.

Health economists assess the impact of any intervention, pharmaceutical or otherwise, on the basis of QUALYs.
This rational approach seemed to be thrown aside for COVID, which has a very low mortality rate, to the detriment of treatment and prevention of other diseases with younger age profiles.

Perhaps one day it will become evident whether this was mass hysteria by western governments and populations or there was another reason more justified reason for this behaviour.

@dabbydeedoo

I'm also sick to death of the scare mongering and the shaming of people who want to live their lives. For goodness sake, it's been nearly two years. I was happier than anyone to give up my own life to help others and barely left my flat in 2020, but I've now been TRIPLE vaccinated. At what point is this ever going to be 'over'?

First it was 'wait for the vaccines - it'll all be over then'. Waited for a year. Then it was 'wait for the most vulnerable to be vaccinated and we'll open up'. Vulnerable were vaccinated by March 2021, we didn't open up. Then it was 'if you get vaccinated, you'll be able to travel'. I was fully vaccinated by May 2021 but guess what...major restrictions on travel including a ten-day quarantine for almost everywhere, so I couldn't go away anywhere. This was all conveniently removed once the travel season was over. Then it's 'get the booster'. Got the booster, isolated myself for two weeks to make absolute sure I didn't get covid before it kicked in, booked myself a holiday as a treat, and now this. I'll either have to cancel the holiday or go and spend the entire time worrying about restrictions and problems.

We cannot go on like this. Where does it end? There will always be covid cases. There will always be variants. I thought the whole point of vaccination was to reduce the problem to a very manageable level?

So cute that you think this is all about you

@milkyaqua

I'm also sick to death of the scare mongering and the shaming of people who want to live their lives. For goodness sake, it's been nearly two years.

Sounds like you are bored with it/over it here.

Too right people are bored with it. And there's nothing wrong with that.

What a pity every Covid thread is again descending into sneering and unpleasantness.

@frazzledali so cute you can't comprehend that this is just an example of what everyone is dealing with. I talked about my own situation because obviously that's what I know. If you didn't get it the first time, I explained it again. Not everyone can be clever, I guess.

It was a bitch unnecessary comment @dabbydeedoo, from someone who seems to want to lash out.

@HesterShaw1

It was a bitch unnecessary comment *@dabbydeedoo*, from someone who seems to want to lash out.

Yep...pathetic. Some people are just devoid of compassion, have no thought for those who have suffered throughout the past two years, dealing with things other than covid. They want other people to be as cold hearted and miserable as they are.

@HesterShaw1

It was a bitch unnecessary comment *@dabbydeedoo*, from someone who seems to want to lash out.

No, it was a logical progression, if you actually read the preceding posts, where yabbadabbadoo whines repeatedly that it will never be over and then denies being bored with it. Clearly, they are bored with the situation, about which they remain remarkably uninformed; but thrashing about and pounding the floor does not alter reality, most people find.

I'll repeat, this board has got even more combative, sneering and just plain unpleasant over the last 24 hours. Feels like we're back to April 2020.

@milkyaqua remarkably uninformed?

Hahahahahaha. That gave me a good laugh. If only you knew. If only you knew just how much I know.

I love clueless patronising people.

Well, none of your posts indicate you are at all up to date with what is going on with the new VOC; you insist it will never be over, as we (the world) are in the midst of trying to understand and factor in a worrying new development. You seem unaware of the trajectory of previous pandemics, or their mitigations. Yet apparently you have your fingers on the pulse of true science! Do tell.