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?

@megustalacerveza

The main problem is that people wrongly thing their opinion is as valid as anyone else's. It isn't.

If you managed to read the data and info that came out yesterday and are still asking what the big deal is, you are not qualified to have an opinion.

This succinctly summarises what I am trying to say - if you don't get why there is concern about Omicron, you need to go back to basics and start reading.

@Alltheblue

Oh and we don't yet have confirmation that it's less serious. Back in the winter of 2020/21, many people were convinced for a couple of months that Covid was just a cold.

Plenty of the numpties on this thread and many others still are, to be fair.

Why are more people not targeting their anger at the absolute fool Johnson and his stupidity in claiming the route out of lockdown restrictions would be permanent and irreversible?? Of course there were idiots who would believe him -believe that some serial shagger, best known for not giving a shiny shit about those he supposedly loves, never mind the general public - believe that he had any sort of inside knowledge to guarantee the path of a fucking virus.

And people trusted that?!

@megustalacerveza

The main problem is that people wrongly thing their opinion is as valid as anyone else's. It isn't.

If you managed to read the data and info that came out yesterday and are still asking what the big deal is, you are not qualified to have an opinion.

Of course people can have an opinion.

Plus it’s always a decision re what will be brought in, one that needs to be voted on.

For anyone who is (genuinely) trying to understand why there is concern, this twitter thread explaining the UKHSA briefing is a decent summary

twitter.com/kallmemeg/status/1469350830864322560

This early stat will be why they have changed the isolation rules in Scotland, and in England for confirmed Omicron cases: 19% of Omicron cases resulted in household outbreaks vs 8.5% of Delta cases

@megustalacerveza

The main problem is that people wrongly thing their opinion is as valid as anyone else's. It isn't.

If you managed to read the data and info that came out yesterday and are still asking what the big deal is, you are not qualified to have an opinion.

This! I fully believe that people are entitled to their own opinion and also to question and challenge what we get told via the media… But people now seem to feel entitled to their own “facts”. If virologists, epidemiologists and doctors (I.e. skilled people who actually know what they are talking about) are telling us this virus poses a major risk to public health why are so many determined to just dismiss that out of hand?

Fleur because most people can see that all that feeds into bigger decisions on things which effect the public.

In fact even scientists acknowledge they are giving information that is part of the picture.

Chris Whitty, or nearly anyone who speaks in the public will reinforce that key point.

Yes quite @Fleur405

It is legitimate to assign a different weighting to health vs economy, social, other issues - but it is not legitimate to just decide that Omicron is not that much of a risk. It is a risk according to the data we have at the moment. If the data changes, scientific assessment will also change.

Well it was fine for them to put their own lives at risk to do their job last year when no vaccine was available and this year, vulnerable people have been vaccinated so are at lower risk. Also, many of those workers had the virus already so would be low risk anyway. I would much rather my loved ones were looked after by a good, unvaccinated carer than no one at all, thanks.

It wasn't fine then either, but there was little choice (well, about vaccination; the government did have a choice about letting sick people return from hospital to care homes, and undoubtedly caused too many to die.)

A 'good unvaccinated carer' is a contradiction in terms, assuming that vaccination is available and that they don't have a medical condition that makes vaccination inadvisable. I suppose there is one exception to this: if a carer is looking after only one or very few people, and is prepared to isolate themselves totally from society, then it is not so important that they be vaccinated. But most people who won't be vaccinated are either conspiracy theorists, or basically taking the attitude that their freedom from 'being told what to do' is more important than other people's safety; and I wouldn't trust them around vulnerable people.

Give carers better pay and conditions, as is only fair in any case, and the shortages and therefore the other problems are likely to disappear. And yes, I'd be prepared to pay more in taxes/ NI to achieve that.

@ddl1

Well it was fine for them to put their own lives at risk to do their job last year when no vaccine was available and this year, vulnerable people have been vaccinated so are at lower risk. Also, many of those workers had the virus already so would be low risk anyway. I would much rather my loved ones were looked after by a good, unvaccinated carer than no one at all, thanks.

It wasn't fine then either, but there was little choice (well, about vaccination; the government did have a choice about letting sick people return from hospital to care homes, and undoubtedly caused too many to die.)

A 'good unvaccinated carer' is a contradiction in terms, assuming that vaccination is available and that they don't have a medical condition that makes vaccination inadvisable. I suppose there is one exception to this: if a carer is looking after only one or very few people, and is prepared to isolate themselves totally from society, then it is not so important that they be vaccinated. But most people who won't be vaccinated are either conspiracy theorists, or basically taking the attitude that their freedom from 'being told what to do' is more important than other people's safety; and I wouldn't trust them around vulnerable people.

Give carers better pay and conditions, as is only fair in any case, and the shortages and therefore the other problems are likely to disappear. And yes, I'd be prepared to pay more in taxes/ NI to achieve that.

There are plenty of good unvaccinated carers (and plenty of crappy vaccinated ones). Just because someone isn’t vaccinated doesn’t mean that they’re not immune. If you were prepared to ‘let’ people do their job last year when there was no option of a vaccine and we knew much less about the virus then it’s hypocritical to be banging on about them putting their patients at risk now when their patients have been vaccinated and so are at lower risk than they were last year. If the other precautions they had to take to work with vulnerable people last year were considered good enough then, they should be considered good enough now.

[quote rrhuth]@GingerHouse

I’m asking WHY this particular VOC is causing so much havoc providing we have 2 years of research and vaccines and boosters readily available. This absolutely is an uninformed question. The answer has literally been published by the government. You have not read that paper. If you read it, you will have the answer.

That’s all I’m asking?! I’m not stupid or uneducated for asking that particular question am I? Yeah I am insulted and I’m insulted in the way you’re talking to me for asking a very valid question by the way. I haven't said you are stupid, I have said 'uninformed'. Your question shows you are uninformed, that you have not read the information which has been published by the government.[/quote]
My goodness. You really think you’re something special don’t you?
Not sure who you think you are speaking to people like that but to me you sound like a petulant teenager

@bumbleymummy it used to be acceptable for doctors to operate on patients without gloves or surgical masks or even washing their hands. They didn't know any better then, and they didn't have an option of doing better.

Your argument is ridiculous. It didn't matter that they weren't vaccinated last year because nobody was. We had to work with what we had. Now we have much better options, so we should use them.

Here is some Omicron analysis from about eight hours ago.

@Silverswirl Someone posting facts in the face of an unbelievable level of wilful ignorance and stupidity is the petulant one? LOL!!!!

The answers to the OP's questions are all there in the technical briefing and the many Twitter threads written by scientists and experts. 'Uninformed' is a very polite way to describe someone who keeps asking the same questions over and over but refuses to read the masses of information available that would answer all their questions. I can think of a few other words I'd use.

@Silverswirl

'petulant' my arse.

If the other precautions they had to take to work with vulnerable people last year were considered good enough then, they should be considered good enough now.

That's like saying if the car seats we had twenty years ago were considered good enough for us it would be hypocritical to raise the safety threshold and buy the best available now. Apart from anything, it's callous to ignore the moral imperative to provide the safest standard of care humanly possible for vulnerable people simply because it clashes with a principle you hold dear. As a society we know that the most vulnerable need special care.

bumblymummy

I didn't realise I was replying to you. Please ignore it. I don't have the energy or time to take you on. Bumble away to your heart's content.

The main problem is that people wrongly thing their opinion is as valid as anyone else's. It isn't.

If you managed to read the data and info that came out yesterday and are still asking what the big deal is, you are not qualified to have an opinion.

^agreed.

It still boils down to fear.
There is fear of what will happen so restrictions are put in place.
I’ve had a booster, but the side effects for me were just as bad as having the disease ( statistically speaking for someone of my age)
I’m not going to have any further vaccines now unless a strain is particularly lethal.
I understand fully that a small percentage of a large number is still a large number but it’s only a potential not a given.
The virus will keep mutating and we can’t continue like this year after year.
I’d like to see daily deaths from cancer, heart disease and suicide published next to covid deaths.

@megustalacerveza I'm afraid you haven't answered my question . However I am glad to see you understand that we will have both natural and vaccine immunity to this variant. It maybe excellent at preventing serious illness, nobody knows yet.

@MaxNormal that link is very interesting thank you. It’s good to read something without all the emotive language like tsunami…

Stop focussing on deaths. Look at the bigger picture. Morbidity, not just mortality. The effect on the health service. The economy!

FFS! It's really not rocket science.

The utterly thick comments on here from pp not clever enough to be immunologists, but think they are, are more tedious than Corona!

Enough now!

The economy is being adversely affected by all the restrictions. But I guess it’s ok for people’s livelihoods to go under..

If businesses go under, there is less tax revenue and more people dependent on state support. This results in a net reduction of money paid in to support the NHS and other public sectors. It’s not rocket science- it’s income and expenditure.