Why the panic of Omicron is mild?

[WineGetsMeThroughIt]

All of this just seems utter bollocks. A handful of new cases of a variant that could potentially pose less of a threat than delta. Yet with delta we were basically told to keep calm and carry on. No masks, no isolating, children or C+ parents going to school, no social distancing or any rules really.

I'm seeing news reports now encouraging everyone to go get their booster jab and their flu jab to help protect against the new variant and flu this winter. But if you come in contact or test positive with Omicron even if you're fully vaccinated then you must isolate for 8 days. Then seeing other reports saying that Omicron is resistant to the vaccine, so the pharm companies are rushing out a new vaccine - so potentially everyone will be encouraged to get a 4th vaccine.

Meanwhile even though you're vaccinated you can still spread it and it's been said that the first positive case of Omicron to enter this country was via a fully vaxx'd person because that's the only way you can travel now. But the vaccines were the ticket of this pandemic they said. Obviously there are fewer ill people because of the vaccine, but there are also a lot of people experiencing worrying Ng side effects with them as well. What will the build up of all these vaccines be doing to us I wonder. Genuine question we may not know for years.

Im just getting so fed up with all this now. It's so depressing

From your link @HesterShaw1:

“Prof Peter Horby, from the University of Oxford, said: "This news made me smile from ear to ear. "It is a relief... there is a long long way to go before vaccines will start to make a real difference, but this feels to me like a watershed moment."

How do you translate “there is a long way to go before vaccines will start to make a real difference” to “back to normal life in spring 2021”?

Honestly, I’m hiding these threads because the level of scientific ignorance and stupidity is utterly mindboggling.

I agree OP, at the moment there’s no evidence to suggest it’s more dangerous than delta, more likely that most people will have less symptoms. There’s talk that it could actually be a good thing and if it spreads it could get rid of delta?

I do feel they want us to be scared when there is no reason to be.

Look, I'm pointing out an actual interview given on the actual radio and an actual question asked and an actual reply given, with a clip of the interview in question.

You can say all you want, but a lot of people remember that news item because it was met with so much joy and relief and hope.

It might have been over optimistic and wrong in retrospect, but this was the message which was given at the start

And you might be tremendously clever and terrifically important, but you don't have to be so bloody rude

I’ve been asking myself the same question. Granted other experts need to verify the likely illness levels caused by this variant. But equally, the initial reports that it is extremely mild and hasn’t hospitalised anyone that they know off should be great news, even better if it does become the dominant strain and Covid can be declared over.
Except it’s not presented as that is it? It’s one large scare story to put everyone back into compliance. I will be very surprised if everything steps down in 3 weeks time if they verify it has indeed now evolved into a more contagious but even less deadly disease. First we must all boost Pfizer’s profits for another winter period.

Hopefully it really is a weaker mutation.

But we mustn't be complacent.

We need to be mindful of Long Covid - including the fact that many sufferers had initial mild infections.

Until we know more, we should take sensible precautions.

No panic - but proactive mitigations, yes.

Pfizer set to make £100 billion profit this year.

@foxgoosefinch

From your link *@HesterShaw1*:

“Prof Peter Horby, from the University of Oxford, said: "This news made me smile from ear to ear. "It is a relief... there is a long long way to go before vaccines will start to make a real difference, but this feels to me like a watershed moment."

How do you translate “there is a long way to go before vaccines will start to make a real difference” to “back to normal life in spring 2021”?

Honestly, I’m hiding these threads because the level of scientific ignorance and stupidity is utterly mindboggling.

Thank you for your efforts on a couple of threads today. Am not surprised that your patience is wearing thin!

Another thing that annoys me is the media’s happiness to announce that South Africa has a much lower aged population which may explain why nobody has been hospitalised and their death rate has remained tiny for months and yet at the same time all over 12’s are supposed to get more doses.

@hamstersarse

Pfizer set to make £100 billion profit this year.

That will serve me right. I had shares in AZ but never Pfizer.

Pharmaceuticals always generally a good bet for investment. Not risk free of course but nothing is.

Still, I'd say they can definitely afford a temporary vaccine patent waiver, don't you agree. Let's get the world vaccinated.

@HesterShaw1

And you might be tremendously clever and terrifically important, but you don't have to be so bloody rude

It’s not my job to coddle the daft.

Did you think that “there is a long long way to go before vaccines will start to make a real difference, but this feels to me like a watershed moment” meant that a vanload of 60m vaccines would roll up in February 2021 and the entire disease would be wiped out by the end of the spring?

Are there any other vaccinations you know of that worked that way? Do you not bother with any of them if they’re not perfect?

It is a scam to make people get a booster and to stop people travelling.

Also to keep the fear going so that people cannot relax.

They can now come up with any story without any proof or evidence and the journalists just keep saying "When will we go into lockdown?"

Don't believe the media and politicians

@tv2021

It is a scam to make people get a booster and to stop people travelling.

Also to keep the fear going so that people cannot relax.

They can now come up with any story without any proof or evidence and the journalists just keep saying "When will we go into lockdown?"

Don't believe the media and politicians

Believe conspiracy theorists instead.

The flat earther society hold meetings on Tuesday.

@tv2021

It is a scam to make people get a booster and to stop people travelling.

Also to keep the fear going so that people cannot relax.

They can now come up with any story without any proof or evidence and the journalists just keep saying "When will we go into lockdown?"

Don't believe the media and politicians

Just shoot me now! I really need to step away from this board, so many posters are batshit.

@hamstersarse

No-one has ever said that vaccination is a ticket out of the pandemic

It's funny how the narrative changes so much.

Literally a week ago it was all about the unvaccinated keeping the pandemic going (i.e. the only way out of this is to have everyone vaccinated).

When the vaccines were 'launched' it was literally called V-Day.

Exactly this. Yes- many people were literally saying have you vaccination- it’s our ticket out of this. They were literally saying those words. This whole thing is like being in an abusive relationship where you are being told things never happened or we’re never said or done.

@tv2021

It is a scam to make people get a booster and to stop people travelling.

Also to keep the fear going so that people cannot relax.

They can now come up with any story without any proof or evidence and the journalists just keep saying "When will we go into lockdown?"

Don't believe the media and politicians

How do you reckon the entire worlds scientists have been persuaded into taking part in a mass conspiracy?

It's genomic sequence has been releaed, there's already dozens of preprints on it

Seems daft to go to all the effort just to "scam" people

Yes- many people were literally saying have you vaccination- it’s our ticket out of this. They were literally saying those words. This whole thing is like being in an abusive relationship where you are being told things never happened or we’re never said or done.

@hamstersarse @Silverswirl

No reputable scientist said anything of the sort.

If you don't get your information from credible sources then yes you will probably end up thinking things are true when they are not.

@tv2021

It is a scam to make people get a booster and to stop people travelling.

Also to keep the fear going so that people cannot relax.

They can now come up with any story without any proof or evidence and the journalists just keep saying "When will we go into lockdown?"

Don't believe the media and politicians

For what reason?

@hamstersarse

Pfizer set to make £100 billion profit this year.

Isn’t that the aim of every company in the world? Did you know that gasp Tesco isn’t in it for the feelgood factor to feed people, just for the money. That’s why they can refuse anyone they want in their shops, it’s not a public service.

In a fucked up way, I have kind of missed people being arseholes to each other on Covid threads - glad to see it's back

So many people here don’t seem to like lockdown (who does?), don’t like restrictions, don’t like vaccinations either, seem to think that there is some magic fairy solution being withheld from us, where Glinda the Good witch could appear and wave a wand, or Boris is hiding a magic Covid Cure just because Evil Overlord Reasons. (I hate Boris with a passion, but the idea that the government is using virus variants to control the population is Trumpian batshittery of the highest order.)

It just makes me think none of you paid the faintest bit of attention in school. What do you honestly want? Do you think if we all just pretend it’s not there it will disappear?

@Thefartingsofaofdenmarkstreet

In a fucked up way, I have kind of missed people being arseholes to each other on Covid threads - glad to see it's back

It makes a change from skewering TRAs though - a change is as good as a rest, as my gran used to say

And I think it's a bit disingenuous to say that 'no one ever said that vaccines were our way out of this'. How do you think that they managed to get such an enormous uptake in the population, that was totally the narrative!

foxgoosefinch a while ago I was getting so wound up posting in the covid section that I came away for a good long while. Possibly you should consider doing likewise, the way you're now speaking to other posters does not suggest someone in a good place and it actually makes the threads quite jarring to read.

@foxgoosefinch

So many people here don’t seem to like lockdown (who does?), don’t like restrictions, don’t like vaccinations either, seem to think that there is some magic fairy solution being withheld from us, where Glinda the Good witch could appear and wave a wand, or Boris is hiding a magic Covid Cure just because Evil Overlord Reasons. (I hate Boris with a passion, but the idea that the government is using virus variants to control the population is Trumpian batshittery of the highest order.)

It just makes me think none of you paid the faintest bit of attention in school. What do you honestly want? Do you think if we all just pretend it’s not there it will disappear?

this!

honestly starting to wish people had to live in a world to see out the consequences of their proposed coronavirus strategies (or lack there of)