PM to give 8pm address tonight (Sunday), no new restrictions expected

[bagofconkers]

"As pressure from virus rises, PM will give national address at 8pm tonight, updating the booster programme - sounds like this will NOT include new restrictions"

twitter.com/bbclaurak/status/1470076029926522884

Good luck to them training thousands of vaccinators to do the work in the next 19 days. A very slow and frustrating process in January. Or they could find some of the people who they did train and then not use like me. I would be up for it but can’t imagine they will be organised enough to make it happen.

I'll have the booster.
What happens when it wears off though ?
I've not heard any expert address this.

Hmm would love to know how and where they are getting the staff from, and will Chris leave be cancelled?

Half of our department are off over Christmas and we are running on skeleton staffing. I’m sure others are the same.

@MarshaBradyo

I thought the booster did help with severe disease etc?

Just not infection that much

So I agree re big wave and I reckon we’re to expect high numbers rather than lockdown

My understanding is that the booster gives c.75% protection against symptomatic Omicron and c.95% protection against symptomatic Delta.

@Cyrilgoggin

Justasking11 nowhere at all? When I had mine we had to sit on chairs outside in the car park. It was worth it to get the booster.

We've only a small car park for staff really. Three of our surgeries that I can think of are on the street not even staff parking, terrace houses converted. We don't have walk in clinics you wait for a letter

@the80sweregreat

I'll have the booster. What happens when it wears off though ? I've not heard any expert address this.

Because no expert could possibly reasonably be expected to know at this point. The impact on boosters on Omicron has only been estimated over the past week or so.

@ AndreaC74

I was referring to the tone of the post that I quoted - not the situation

@LegoPandemic

Trained vaccinator here. I haven’t put myself on the rota this month because I have Christmas prep to do and school holidays and we are all just getting over an awful cold. Jabbing is hard work and cold and it isn’t worth it for £11 per hour. I did it this time last year but now we need a workforce whose job this is. Feel taken advantage of.

Exactly, and there will be lots in the same position.

@the80sweregreat

I'll have the booster. What happens when it wears off though ? I've not heard any expert address this.

Don't worry the Pfizer CEO is already planning your fourth booster and he's decided it will have to be sooner than he expected www.cnbc.com/2021/12/08/omicron-pfizer-ceo-says-we-may-need-fourth-covid-vaccine-doses-sooner-than-expected.html

More jabs then :(

The booster drive sounds very sensible to me. We have no idea if lockdown would be sufficient to contain omicron anyway. Very unlikely that the current measures will make much difference. There is much better evidence that boosters will help than anything else.
Agreed. Everyone and their stupid cousin is an arm chair expert on MN. Moan, moan, moan. If it's all not up to your superior standards, do something consecutive.

Are the government lying about Omicron

@rosie1959 Yes or rather going ultra cautious/worst case scenario, way ahead of any other country, for political reasons.

Constructive even.

@AndreaC74

Are the government lying about Omicron

@rosie1959 Yes or rather going ultra cautious/worst case scenario, way ahead of any other country, for political reasons.

The government haven't lied about anything else so why would they be now?

Listening to epidemiologist on LBC

Booster definitely helps and is needed for omicron

@jgw1 You've caught me out before!

So no Johnson has never lied before aprt from being sacked for lying twice and a string of infidelities, which is lying

@RedToothBrush

No it maps exactly to the fact we have 42 Integrated Care Systems in the NHS.

Oh thats helpful... Not.

So we have to drop everything, travel and go to a centralised point and queue for hours with kids. Or try and do it before Friday fitting it with school hours or work. Whilst competing with 18 year olds to do so.

Over Christmas.

Yep thats going to work a treat.

You’ve just said upthread that you wish your DH would step up and support you with childcare to enable you to go and get your jab.

Perhaps try that approach first rather than over exaggerating about queuing for 8 hours etc.

@tootyfruitypickle Where does it say previous infection doesn’t help? I’ve read it gives more immunity than vaccines 🤷🏻‍♀️

@LegoPandemic

Trained vaccinator here. I haven’t put myself on the rota this month because I have Christmas prep to do and school holidays and we are all just getting over an awful cold. Jabbing is hard work and cold and it isn’t worth it for £11 per hour. I did it this time last year but now we need a workforce whose job this is. Feel taken advantage of.

£11?! That's awful. We get £25, but that's locum based, so we have to pay our own tax and no pension contributions. Still a lot better than my standard nursing pay! Our drawers-up (the people who draw up the vaccine but can't give it) get £13.50, which I thought was crap as that's just as hard work (although they don't have to deal with the public). However, I am in awe of our volunteers as they take most of the crap from people and have to stand in the cold for 4 hours.

We are still struggling for staff though, many of us started back in January thinking we'd do 3-6 months of this. It's been nearly a year... Currently I'm booked up for every Saturday until end of March.

One upside of tonight's Booster Boost may actually be that we aren't still giving boosters at Easter!

@MarshaBradyo

Listening to epidemiologist on LBC

Booster definitely helps and is needed for omicron

No one is disputing that.

But the Data/EMA/WHO say its not as serious as delta, the description they use is "mild"
So why the panic now?

Unfortunately Governments will lie when it suits their agenda, no matter the cost, look no further than Iraq.

But the Data/EMA/WHO say its not as serious as delta, the description they use is "mild"
So why the panic now?

He didn’t confirm that. I hope so though

But still even if milder we will get a rise in hospitalisation when the big wave hits so I do think the booster makes sense to minimise that

I just knew the dickhead was going to announce something like this yesterday
I got DH to book his and he managed to get a Christmas Eve appointment yesterday

I booked mine for January a week ago
I’m not fussed about waiting
If I can get to a walk in center at some point I will otherwise I will wait till January

I'm really starting to feel like the government losing the plot here now. Everything feels quite 'headless chicken' like we don't know what the fck to do, so are placing all our chips on red, the vaccine, and hoping that it works. How we're going to vaccinate 18 million people or whatever it is by the end of the year, when they're not even normal days, but in fact the least normal days of the year, actual Christmas, I don't know.

It feels a bit like when a work project or whatever gets completely out of control and somebody pipes up with 'right, stop, we need to go back to basics.'

Or I wonder if it's actually me losing the plot and a few days away from 'the news' might do me good!

@AndreaC74

No, you are wrong. The WHO dows not describe Omicron as 'mild'. What there current report actually says about the severity of Omicron is this:

Severity of disease: It is not yet clear whether infection with Omicron causes more severe disease compared to infections with other variants, including Delta. Preliminary data suggests that there are increasing rates of hospitalization in South Africa, but this may be due to increasing overall numbers of people becoming infected, rather than a result of specific infection with Omicron. There is currently no information to suggest that symptoms associated with Omicron are different from those from other variants. Initial reported infections were among university students—younger individuals who tend to have more mild disease—but understanding the level of severity of the Omicron variant will take days to several weeks. All variants of COVID-19, including the Delta variant that is dominant worldwide, can cause severe disease or death, in particular for the most vulnerable people, and thus prevention is always key.

Squirrel