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.

My daughters friends were told to isolate for 10 days due to being in contact with someone who has omicron. So I'm assuming the person who had it has also been told they have it or at the very least their household contacts will have been so I'm not sure it's true that nobody can know if they've had it or not...

The most ill I've ever been was with swine flu, and I still always specifically call it swine flu whenever I tell that riveting tale.

@icedcoffees

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

@icedcoffees this is such a strange thing to say. At no point have I claimed to be an expert. In fact I specifically said I was NOT an expert at all. I have no background in medicine, virology, biology or anything like that at all. I have no more information about covid than anybody else and have not been pretending otherwise and I am happy to be corrected about the correct and full name for covid. No problem.

I am simply saying that if you don't know you have omicron then why do you say you have?

people DO know if they have omicron

op stop! you are embarrassing yourself now

Ffs who cares. If people have covid does it really make a blind bit of difference if they say its Omicron. Don't be so pedantic

Honestly people get worked up about the strangest things

[quote CommonRoom]**@icedcoffees

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

@icedcoffees this is such a strange thing to say. At no point have I claimed to be an expert. In fact I specifically said I was NOT an expert at all. I have no background in medicine, virology, biology or anything like that at all. I have no more information about covid than anybody else and have not been pretending otherwise and I am happy to be corrected about the correct and full name for covid. No problem.

I am simply saying that if you don't know you have omicron then why do you say you have?[/quote]
But people DO know they have Omicron because Test and Trace tell them they do

@Dozer

Omicron sounds pleasingly like a transfomers or he man villain. More satisfying to say than boring old covid.

Yeah I feel a bit behind the times now because I had boring old Alpha - need to get with the program and get me some Omicron!

I am simply saying that if you don't know you have omicron then why do you say you have?
You’ve got us bang to rights, OP. We’ve been doing it for larks and cool points

Don't be daft, some people are told they have omicron same as I know I had delta

There's another thread running where 2 Covid positive neighbours are going to spend Christmas together and create Deltacron. I'd be proud to tell people I had that variant.

bird flu......swine flu.........

OP, people are bored of COVID, bored of being afraid of it and bored of reading about it.

If calling it Omicron makes it a bit more of a novelty and makes people more willing to get tested or self-isolate or work from home then so what?

How does it actually hurt you?

@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

🤣🤣🥳

[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]
You are - once again - wrong, @CommonRoom. Over 80% of Covid cases in London were Omicron on 15 December. Significantly higher now. Even without being informed by T&T, the likelihood is Omicron.

@CommonRoom

Covid is so 2020. Omicron sounds much more sinister, sexy and science fictiony and will get you attention. Everyone wants the latest thing.

Thing is though, anybody telling you they have it is almost certainly lying or really ignorant.

What if they had covid in November and covid now? With your virology hat on would you suspect it could be delta in November and Omicron in December as the two most dominant strains currently? or do you suspect it was bog standard covid followed by standard bog covid?

I am hearing people having covid getting over symptoms them symptoms coming back after a month. My biologist brain suspects delta then optimus prime but I didnt study at a Russel uni alas and suspect I might be one of the thickies

OP,
Please stop voicing opinions on stuff you know little about.

The government are taking advice from specialists in the area and are guided by them.

When you have a degree in epidemiology, pandemic preparedness, or vaccinology pleased come back and give us your opinions.

[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]
According to your first post you can't have omicron because it's a variant not a virus.

[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]
That’s not true. My in-laws have been contacted by Track and Trace and told they have the Omicron variant.

@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

Tiny bit in love with you right now.

I'm always amazed people didn't know the 19 is from 2019.

My manager kindly mansplained to me that it's because it's the 19th coronavirus in existence and we've all survived the first 18 so no need to worry... I enjoyed telling him what it actually refers to

The virus is covid! Omicron is a variant of covid.

This is wrong, OP. The virus is SARS-CoV-2. Covid-19 is the respiratory illness CAUSED by the virus.

This is why it's dangerous to preach, someone else will come along and correct you and someone will now do the same to me

CommonRoom, I bet you used to get just as cross sbout everyone calling a bad cold "the flu", before Covid!

I keep calling it "Omnicrom." Mistakenly. But I can't seem to stop.

Unclench and have a beer