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Covid

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Original poster

Omicron is not an illness!

186 replies

CommonRoom · 21/12/2021 20:12

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.

OP posts:
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Bluntness100 · 21/12/2021 22:45

Op do you need some help?

I think it’s clear most people know omicron is Covid. It’s also clear most folks know they can’t be completely sure of which variant of Covid they have, and that’s ok. They still know it’s Covid.

The key issue is you come across as deeply upset and het up, and that you seem to think people don’t understand what they clearly do.

So, are you ok?

Hippopotas · 21/12/2021 22:47

@JaneJeffer

.
.
Omicron is not an illness!
Magicpaintbrush · 21/12/2021 22:53

People already know all this OP - but thanks for the rant. Hmm

SpookyScarySkeletons · 21/12/2021 22:56

There are way more things in the world to get wound up about.

Ineedapuppy · 21/12/2021 22:58

Is it just me who imagines the OP reading her post out loud in a slightly patronising, tight and bemused voice - little like Delores Umbridge from Harry Potter?

“Aren’t you all silly Mums-Netters for not knowing that Omnicron is not an illness… now let’s write some lines”

Bouledeneige · 21/12/2021 23:02

You're really not telling anyone anything they don't know. I just had covid. I tested positive in a PCR. I isolated for 10 days. I have no idea if I had Omicron. They didn't tell me. I didn't need you to shout it at me.

MissCruellaDeVil · 21/12/2021 23:07

The labs do tell you if you have omicron as test and trace phone your contacts to inform them. They have changed the rules now on isolating for omicron so not sure how it works.

ratussbaguss · 21/12/2021 23:10

@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...
Track and trace told me I've got Radox, I feel pretty bubbly tbh
PutTheBathOnPlease · 21/12/2021 23:14

Thread Of The Year for sure Grin. FFS

Ormally · 21/12/2021 23:25

@Hippopotas, don't even start on how 'Persei' should be uttered....

Bobholll · 21/12/2021 23:30

Given that Omicron is now dominant in London, it’s safe to say most Londoners can say they’ve got it. My in-laws have got covid at the mo. London. Could be Delta but they all have identical symptoms & they are nothing like the covid I had in October. They’ve had a sore throat, blocked nose & slight cough. No loss of smell or taste, no cough, no real sinus pain. I’d say I’m about 99% sure they’ve Omicron.

But really, this is a really weird post. Who cares what people call it. Think you need a festive drink or 6 OP. And get over a very minor point 😂

MadAntonia · 21/12/2021 23:46

I get it, OP.

Especially as you teach linguistics. I can understand finding this irritating.

milkyaqua · 22/12/2021 00:00

I just can't get past the title!

user9513574682 · 22/12/2021 00:21

I here ya OP. I would of got angry if I herd someone saying there virus was Omnicrom when they didnt have all the datum.

SD1978 · 22/12/2021 00:27

I just see it as people seeming tired grove on the drama again of something new. Sensationalism and then peoples need to be sensationalist- that seems to be part and parcel of covid full stop- the virus and then the drama.

Madhairday · 22/12/2021 00:52

@Summerfun54321

Nothing quite says “Merry Christmas” like debating infectious virus nomenclature.
Grin

Don't forget the side debate of lonely elevators. Living La Vida Lifto Grin

I was slightly bored and decided to read this thread from the POV of a time traveller from 2019. My mind is now blown into tiny little bits. Wtf are you all on about?

OP, if nothing else, you've brought us some light relief and that's flipping welcome on this board.

#teamomicron #byebyecovid

Furries · 22/12/2021 01:56

@user9513574682

I here ya OP. I would of got angry if I herd someone saying there virus was Omnicrom when they didnt have all the datum.
Brilliant!
Topseyt · 22/12/2021 03:35

I knew from reading news reports that the Omicron and other variants are picked up by the PCR tests and that that was how people knew which one they had (via contact from test and trace).

It was also regularly explained back at the start of the pandemic that the virus was SARS-COV-2. Covid 19 is the illness it causes, which was identified and named in December 2019.

Of course, I am not a virologist. I could have some of those technicalities a bit cock-eyed, and I accept that.

OP, you were very pedantic. If you are going to be pedantic then you at least need to be reasonably certain of your facts.

You definitely stated as fact that people couldn't possibly know which variant they had because tests don't reveal it, but PCRs actually do reveal it. How else did you think test and trace know who to contact? Did you think that they just took a wild guess and a random set of results and decided to call them up for the sheer fun of it.

You've embarrassed yourself now and have begun trying to row back a little, but it isn't working.

Bubblty · 22/12/2021 05:15

Chill

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 22/12/2021 05:26

I guess it's a bit like calling a vacuum cleaner a hoover

This is the real crime here.

Ordinarily I'm totally opposed to capital punishment, but I'd bring bang hanging for this lot, as soon as we've dealt with the 'could/would/should of' brigade.

Gwenhwyfar · 22/12/2021 05:47

"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. "

I've heard of people being told they have Omicron.

PAFMO · 22/12/2021 06:52

@MadAntonia

I get it, OP.

Especially as you teach linguistics. I can understand finding this irritating.

Teaching linguistics is irrelevant. Semantics, at a push. Meta Semantics or Meta Lexical Inference would be better.

Whichever, the OP has still made herself look silly, and smug.

frogswimming · 22/12/2021 07:01

@stuntbubbles

Covid-19 in 2019, Omnicrom-21 in 2021
GrinGrinGrinGrin
BellyDancer124 · 22/12/2021 07:14

@FlamesEmbersAshes

I think you need a mince pie and a sit down OP.
This is great advice
TheCloudsHavePassed · 22/12/2021 07:18

Huh, well who knew 🤷

we all did

Merry Christmas Op. I hope 2022 is less difficult for you.

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