What IS the fuss about omicron?

[GingerHouse]

In all seriousness, data shows that not a single person has died from omicron and that’s in countries that have low vaccine uptake too.

The virus is going to mutate all the time and as things are showing this variant is very contagious and the vaccine doesn’t work as well against it, but it’s mild to almost everybody.

I feel like this is mass panic and for what reason?! I understand wearing a mask where applicable to help reduce the spread but I just don’t get it! Is this going to happen every winter forevermore?

It’s spreading very quickly and a proportion of people who catch it will get very poorly and need hospital. A small proportion of a lot of people is a lot of people. They’re predicting 1 million cases within a month.

It is too early to say that no one will die from Omicron. The numbers are shooting up. Once thousands of people have had it for a month or so we will be able to see the hospitalisation and death rate for vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Hopefully it will be mild and hopefully the government will relax restrictions if so. But they are not taking risks at the moment with the unknown.

It’s the fear of the unknown.

I think that two doses of the vaccine has 0% effectiveness in preventing you getting symptomatic Omicron is a bit of a stark fact!

The booster ups that to 75%.

But only 40% of people nationally have had the booster so far.

So a LOT of people are going to get Omicron in the next month or so.

Essential analysis here:

twitter.com/kallmemeg/status/1469350830864322560

@manolantern is that two doses of any vaccine? Do you have a link to that information, please.

But 2 doses doesn’t stop you getting delta either? It just makes it milder? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sorry, I didn’t see your link until I posted that 🤦‍♀️

[quote CalmDownBoris72]@manolantern is that two doses of any vaccine? Do you have a link to that information, please.[/quote]
Yes here's the actual tweet:

twitter.com/kallmemeg/status/1469351833416122369

@SerenadeOfTheSchoolRun

It is too early to say that no one will die from Omicron. The numbers are shooting up. Once thousands of people have had it for a month or so we will be able to see the hospitalisation and death rate for vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Hopefully it will be mild and hopefully the government will relax restrictions if so. But they are not taking risks at the moment with the unknown.

I absolutely see your point here, but as you say it’s spreading rapidly and will have been for a long time before it was discovered.

I’m not saying nobody will ever die from omicron but the risk seems relatively low.

The pandemic is no longer new we have been in this situation for 2 years. We know how viruses work and how the mutate and I think the answer to this is increase capacity in hospitals for other variants rather than the threat of restrictions at every turn?

Two doses of Pfizer is still 30%.

OP what makes you say it has gone undiscovered for a long time?

I don't believe that is what the evidence is showing, what have you seen?

@manolantern

I think that two doses of the vaccine has 0% effectiveness in preventing you getting symptomatic Omicron is a bit of a stark fact!

The booster ups that to 75%.

But only 40% of people nationally have had the booster so far.

So a LOT of people are going to get Omicron in the next month or so.

I can see that!! But omicron is obviously rife in countries with hardly any vaccine uptake at all!! And there is still no deaths. I understand that it’s all about keeping hospital rates low etc, but as a country we should have planned for this?!

How else would they keep everyone scared and easy to control?

Death tends to occur 6-8 weeks after the initial onset of symptoms, so too early to say what the death rate will be v delta. Even if it is lower (and I concede that's likely), a) more people are likely to get omicron, and a very small percentage of a very large number of people is still a large overall number, and b) very bluntly, the dead don't take up ICU beds; it's the very ill they're concerned about because they'll need treatment.

@GingerHouse

In all seriousness, data shows that not a single person has died from omicron and that’s in countries that have low vaccine uptake too.

The virus is going to mutate all the time and as things are showing this variant is very contagious and the vaccine doesn’t work as well against it, but it’s mild to almost everybody.

I feel like this is mass panic and for what reason?! I understand wearing a mask where applicable to help reduce the spread but I just don’t get it! Is this going to happen every winter forevermore?

@GingerHouse

This has got to be one of the more stupid posts on MN

Try looking at the bigger picture

1. More cases of covid, means more people will need hospitalisation which in turn means more people won’t get treatment for non covid related illnesses, you know such as cancer treatment,so people may die, hip replacements so people remain in severe pain, cataract operations, so people can’t see

1. More cases mean more people off sick, businesses can’t cope with lots of sickness, the cost is horrendous to them, when they are already suffering and some may not make it, not to mention lots of people don’t get sick pay and have to try and manage on SSP, and they cant manage and all that entails

3 more cases mean school kids are affected, either by being ill, having to isolate, or potentially schools closing thus affecting their education again

4 because it’s so infectious it doesn’t matter if you are jabbed or not any contact means you have to isolate, thus affecting business etc, see point 2

Yes we learn to live with covid when case rates are low. But as they rise they cause much wider issues and we need mitigation’s to stop cases rising and affecting as in my points

Get it now?

Is there any data on how omicron affects older/vulnerable people in SA? I know their population is generally younger than ours but surely by now it must have filtered to other demographics

[quote CalmDownBoris72]@manolantern is that two doses of any vaccine? Do you have a link to that information, please.[/quote]
2 doses of AZ are useless. Double Pfizer gives you 30%z

An mRNA booster after any original double dose gets you back to 70-75% protection. So basically boostered gives you the same protection against Omicron as double jabbed did with Delta.

It's all a bit shit

@GingerHouse
We know how viruses work and how the mutate and I think the answer to this is increase capacity in hospitals for other variants rather than the threat of restrictions at every turn?

And how exactly are you going to increase capacity in hospitals that are already creaking at the seams? Don’t you think that if they could they would? And also take the opportunity to increase capacity for all the backlogs

Where do you expect the staff to man this capacity to come from?

It's no coincidence that the fear mongering about a new variant has appeared just as the winter hits. Everyone predicted this would happen months ago, just as Delta hit the headlines.

@DoOneBoJo

How else would they keep everyone scared and easy to control?

Exactly. Scare the fuck out of people so they will agree to anything. And on it goes...

but what do they want to control us for? They want us out spending money and going to work and renting the commercial properties and using the trains.

@rightsideoftheroad

It's no coincidence that the fear mongering about a new variant has appeared just as the winter hits. Everyone predicted this would happen months ago, just as Delta hit the headlines.

Yeah it's almost as if viruses tend to mutate and spread more in winter isn't it?

Chloemol you could possibly have made the same points without being rude.
The endless hostility is so incredibly tedious and I'm really not sure what anyone hopes to achieve by it.

Unknown factor? SA has low vaxx rate, but they have very young population. Different from UK.

We really don't know anything about it except it is extremely contagious. It makes sense to take precautions until we know more.