Omicron New Variant Thread 2 *title edited by MNHQ at OP's request*

[Thewiseoneincognito]

Continuation of the last thread

If there were some kind of extreme sport which was causing floods of injuries at a particular time of year to the extent that it was actually clogging up hospitals and denying other people their treatment, then yes of course we bloody well would be thinking about either making the sport illegal or introducing some system where you get billed for your choices.

I don’t think that kind of logic would take us to good places…

inews.co.uk/news/health/obesity-related-illnesses-could-overwhelm-nhs-unless-urgent-action-taken-1086322

So no, I don’t think that’s a good idea. It’s a slippery slope that I don’t think we should step onto.

Lets ban buffets style restaurants with all you can eat deals and restrict entry to venues to only people with a healthy bmi. They can do weigh ins on the door.

Problem solved.

(oh wait..)

I was able to book a booster last night for Weds, waited online for 2 hours

At what point do you think isolation will stop (and therefore testing stop) because surely it reaches the point where you cannot continue with the isolation, the numbers are so high testing capacity is reached.

I am not by the way advocating just letting it go - I think measures throughout January and February will be required its just isolating and testing with Omicron all seems pointless

@Quartz2208

At what point do you think isolation will stop (and therefore testing stop) because surely it reaches the point where you cannot continue with the isolation, the numbers are so high testing capacity is reached.

I am not by the way advocating just letting it go - I think measures throughout January and February will be required its just isolating and testing with Omicron all seems pointless

Hospital staff will be asked to come in even if positive soon enough. No alternative available.

Key workers generally will get exemptions if this continues. Again no alternative.

At that point I'd like to think we'd have some restrictions in place, but that ultimately requires Johnson and the Cabinet to sacrifice themselves and pretty much join Labour at this point!

Its a damn depressing state of affairs and actually i do think Tory Rebels will just let hospitals go into meltdown, saying a short sharp pain will save lives in the long run at this point.

On this I disagree. But the attitude about triage will be that children and fit healthy people will be just fine (not true).

If we go to triage, its going to get really ugly.

Don't plan to do dangerous tasks such as DIY, climbing a ladder, playing football etc for a few weeks.

Press conference at 5pm

I was just speaking to Italy and asked what news of Omicron there. Nowt! No panic, no mad booster rush, covid is not even front page news or tv headlines.

The BBC/Daily Mail and of course social media have a lot to answer for. I'm not denying the seriousness of the situation, but this constant battering that it has to be someone's fault all the time is unhelpful and destabilising.

I think the messaging so far has missed telling vulnerable people to be extra careful now. The booster alone is not enough for them. I was out Christmas shopping yesterday and the amount of very frail, elderly and many in wheelchairs was astounding. Anyone with health conditions really needs to be careful right now.
I think the last address focussing on just the booster missed this point totally.

@RedToothBrush- the NHS would never triage against children especially not under 2s. The opposite is the case.
There is no point in locking down in January when it is all too late. It is either now or in next week that would be worthwhile or never. After that it is just financial loss and destroying people’s livelihoods and children’s education after the horse has bolted. Once the virus is into households it is too late anyway.

I don't think they'd end isolation for people who actually have covid - that's generally regarded to be one of the most effective and best targeted infection control measures (as you're stopping contact between people who actually have the virus rather than everyone, most of whom don't have it at any one time) My local hospital was until recently going further than required by law and also asking staff who were household contacts of covid cases to stay home. They've now replaced this policy of allowing them in to work but redeploying them into a covid ward, which seems kind of sensible to me!

I agree what's the point of closing restaurants and not household mixing. It is whacking an area which is an easy hit, but not a particularly important one.

I also saw today that 30% THIRTY PER CENT of Londoners are unvaccinated. Presumably these people are not patronising restaurants and pubs but spreading covid through community contact.

I think the cev and elderly have to form their own risk assessments. There is enough in the news about it! It isn't much of an excuse to say, "Who knew? Boris didn't tell me to stay in!" And if they're watching news conferences then presumably they're aware of the general Omicron situation.

I am now being more cautious. Actually I was pretty cautious before all this blew up but now I am giving crowds a swerve. Although if you have dcs you are a bit stuffed.

Sorry if this has been asked before but I’ve just tested positive on an LFT, waiting for PCR results now. How will I know if I have the omicron variant. Will the results email tell me?

[quote Incognito22333]@RedToothBrush- the NHS would never triage against children especially not under 2s. The opposite is the case.
There is no point in locking down in January when it is all too late. It is either now or in next week that would be worthwhile or never. After that it is just financial loss and destroying people’s livelihoods and children’s education after the horse has bolted. Once the virus is into households it is too late anyway.[/quote]
Of course they can triage against kids. What happens if you have any major incident with too many patients and not enough staff? Too many kids in the major incident and they will be triaged too. Its just a question of numbers. Could we be looking at that with omicron? Hopefully not. But we also know that the SA data seemed to show more child hospitalisations than previous waves. Hopefully the situation will be different here but what if its not?

The local a&e here often only had 1/2 a consultant for the children's section as it was. That means that whilst children are deemed the priority, you could still be waiting for hours if the consultant is caught up in the adult department with more serious cases. Or if the consultant had several kids waiting to see them.

It stunned me that was the staffing situation. But it was what we were told by the hospital itself on arrival. Pre-covid.

@Moana123

Sorry if this has been asked before but I’ve just tested positive on an LFT, waiting for PCR results now. How will I know if I have the omicron variant. Will the results email tell me?

I think the PCR results might tell you if it's suspected Omicron - it depends whether the lab yours happens to get sent to is doing a test that can tell whether it's likely to be or not.

Although if you have dcs you are a bit stuffed.

DC got it through school. Neither DH or I have tested positive.

So we couldn't do anything about it.

His year have really suffered with concerntration and focus skills they'd normally learn in reception or yr 1. I'm hearing its a pretty common issue that the kids in his age band are lacking in this because they've spent so much time at home / had so much more screen time than children that age normally would have.

Its affecting the whole year group because of the disruptive behaviour.

DS is also an only child, so he really does need to be in school.

Its really sad tbh.

He's fine. Doing much better than most. But its still starting to affect him massively if only indirectly.

Re kids

mobile.twitter.com/paysupplystaff/status/1471074279626264580

Italy had the original virus a lot worse than we did back in feb / March 2020, then it hit us a week or so later on.
They may be ok at the moment, but not by next week ? Plus they have a wonderful health service , sadly ours isn't as good ( not knocking them by the way )
I don't know , but all the news today is just grim , for us anyway.

A wonderful health service? Well, they do have to pay for blood tests/scans etc and the waiting list for a relative’s shoulder scan is two years .

My lovely neighbour who is a recently qualified teacher is struggling with her year 3 class .They have missed so much in soft skills (if that's the correct word) that they are very challenging ,very hard to manage .

Currently awaiting PCR results from a faint positive LFT. I had Covid in September so it’s just over 3 months. Hopefully it’s a false positive LFT but who knows (Christmas dinner in the bedroom anyone, ho ho ho 😑)

I had a thought this evening about the booster program and the level of protection against Omicron. From a quick google, the program began mid September so that means many of those boosted right at the start are now approaching 3 months, do we have any data yet on how long the boosted immunity is effective for?

My main reason to ask is because they halved the time limit between second and third dose to 3 months in the face of Omicron does this have any effect on longevity of immunity for 3rd dose?

@Thewiseoneincognito

Currently awaiting PCR results from a faint positive LFT. I had Covid in September so it’s just over 3 months. Hopefully it’s a false positive LFT but who knows (Christmas dinner in the bedroom anyone, ho ho ho 😑)

I had a thought this evening about the booster program and the level of protection against Omicron. From a quick google, the program began mid September so that means many of those boosted right at the start are now approaching 3 months, do we have any data yet on how long the boosted immunity is effective for?

My main reason to ask is because they halved the time limit between second and third dose to 3 months in the face of Omicron does this have any effect on longevity of immunity for 3rd dose?

Its a good question and one im curious about.

I know a couple of people who have had their booster but still got omicron. They got their booster particularly early though.

Israel have just announced a 4th dose. By all accounts its being thought of as a stop gap to keep immunity levels as high as possible before an omicron specific jab is rolled out in a few months.

I don't know what the UK's purchasing is, but i do wonder if we will get first batches of any new variant vaccine. With AZ somewhat sidelined we may have to wait longer so that might well mean 4th doses at least for some of the population.

Whitty has been saying in the last couple of days that we should expect boosters or some restrictions for the next 12 months or so whilst they figure it all out. It should still be a declining problem but it will be a problem. Omicron has changed things somewhat - this is looking like it will run into 2023 now already when prior to omicron talk was much more about this spring.

I think with that in mind as a realistic possibility, that is going to affect how policy is driven over the next few weeks never mind months or even years.

If we aren't seeing a mass recruitment and training drive for certain sectors by Spring you really should be asking some big questions.

I'd also reflect on the decision to prioritise pregnant women.

Its useless and irrelevant at present with this booster drive being a free for all at this point.

But it does point to more jabs being more likely than not.

I was flamed on another thread for suggesting that the isolation period could be dropped from ten days to five, but I remember when it was 14 at the start in 2020 and is now 10! I Was told that 10 days is needed, which does cause its own problems
Are more people ending up in hospital with this new variant or will we not know for another few weeks?

I don't think we will know about hospitalisations for a couple of weeks. Plus the Christmas spread. So beginning of January will be when we know more.

[quote Berkeys]Re kids

mobile.twitter.com/paysupplystaff/status/1471074279626264580[/quote]

My friend works in children's A&E and she said they are seeing more children with covid problems. The children she's been seeing mainly having abdominal issues and problems maintaining blood pressure.