Omicron is not an illness!

[CommonRoom]

People on MN are claiming they have omicron, or their DH/DCs have omicron or asking if someone else has omicron. Omicron is not a virus. The virus is covid! Omicron is a variant of covid. All virus have variants. Flu has new ones all the time, but we don't use the variant name, we still call it flu.

Also, LFTs and PCRs are tests to detect COVID. In the results you will only find out if you have COVID or not. The omicron variant is something that labs and researchers can detect and they are compiling statistics about its spread but these results are not being given to individuals as a matter of course. Simple common sense would tell you this. The LFTs and PCRs that people are doing regularly are COVID tests and the results are positive/negative for COVID. There is no mention in these results of omicron.

I am telling people things that don't know. Three people on MN today have said that they have omicron.

My point is that the regular LFT and PCR results do not tell you what variant you have, so if you say you have omicron you are not being truthful. You can't possibly know if it's omicron.
I’m in London, it’s definitely omicron

I am not in any way involved in medicine so of course I make mistakes about the correct names for viruses because I am not well informed about that at all. I am not cringing because I do not claim to be an expert at all. I do know that if people say they have omicron they are lying because they would not have been given that information.

🙄 I think people know that omicron is covid. They are simply specifying further.

@CommonRoom

I am not in any way involved in medicine so of course I make mistakes about the correct names for viruses because I am not well informed about that at all. I am not cringing because I do not claim to be an expert at all. I do know that if people say they have omicron they are lying because they would not have been given that information.

You're entire post is you claiming to be an expert

Yeah we know, mate. It's a shorthand.

@stuntbubbles I live in London but if I tested positive I would not assume I had omicron. I would have no way of knowing.

Also as an FYI, if you test positive on PCR and analyse shows it is Omicron then Test and Trace notify you of this because they need a list of contacts from you, with thus variant your contacts have to isolate for ten days regardless of their vaccination status.

So yeah, people do get informed if they have Omicron or are suspected of having Omicron. People who've been a close contact who then go on to test positive can be fairly certain it's Omicron too.

I understand that people are using omicron as a synonym for covid.

What? They are using omicron as a word for omicron. Everyone knows that omicron is Covid.

As for people not knowing for sure whether it’s omicron or not, meh, they’re probably right.

They are simply specifying further

But you can't specify if you have no evidence for it.

.

@bananasinchristmaspyjamas

Oh my goodness.

Is it actually called COVID-19 because it originated in 2019?

Yes COrona VIrus Disease 2019 Covid 19

[quote CommonRoom]@stuntbubbles I live in London but if I tested positive I would not assume I had omicron. I would have no way of knowing.[/quote]
Test and Trace tell you as if you're an Omicron contact you have to isolate even if jabbed.

They have to ask you for your list of contacts.

@UnmentionedElephantDildo

The virus is covid!

No it isn't - the virus is SARS-COV2

Covid-19 is the name of the disease, named by WHO, meaning 'coronavirus disease'
www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it

Omicron is a variant of covid. All virus have variants

No it's the given name for the B.1.1.529 variant of SARS-COV2

Schooled 😎

@CommonRoom

They are simply specifying further

But you can't specify if you have no evidence for it.

FFS!!! some people are actually informed they have the omicron variant....did you not know this??

@Sausagis

Who pissed on your chips?

I love this phrase

Covid-19 in 2019, Omnicrom-21 in 2021

@Mamette that seems so obvious now you've pointed it out like that but I had no idea

Yh, but it sounds way cooler don’t it 😎

[quote CommonRoom]@stuntbubbles I live in London but if I tested positive I would not assume I had omicron. I would have no way of knowing.[/quote]
Fully vaccinated close contacts only have to isolate if it's omicron , so the person who tested positive must have been told which it was.

@CommonRoom

My point is that the regular LFT and PCR results do not tell you what variant you have, so if you say you have omicron you are not being truthful. You can't possibly know if it's omicron. Indeed it's likely that a certain proportion of people will already be infected with the new variant, whatever that might be, or might be called. Pi, querty, radox...

People are being contacted by T&T and told the have omicron! They were last week, anyway. Presumably others they infect also have omicron.

An illness is an unhealthy condition of the body or mind. If you're ill with omicron then it's an illness as that's the cause of your symptoms. An illness can be caused by germs. How do you think people catch omicron?

@bananasinchristmaspyjamas oh no don’t worry I’m sure someone told me back at the start.

One of the politicians in Ireland made a huge gaffe by saying something about the other 18 Covids 😂 I think it was the minister for health now that I think about it.

Also, you’re allowed to say you’ve got omicron! You don’t even have to test positive to get some of the hot new Covid that’s sweeping the nation. Affects no one but you if you say “I’ve got omicron”. Try it, OP! Kick it old school with Delta if you prefer

we have 2 routes for covid related absence at work....1 for regular covid and delta variant and the other, more stringent for now, for omicron

depends what a colleague is told on their confirmation email

bless the op, she didnt know and came on here full of herself hoping to enlighten us all...