Coronavirus (2021) thread

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Businesses and hospitals already highlighting concern over reductions in staff as a consequence of people being off sick and suggesting that the government may need to reduce the length of time people are off.
 
Sounds like we've woken up to more optimistic news regarding the severity of Omicron. Just one thing though - if it truly does turn out to be far less deadly and takes over as the dominant strain across the globe (as appears to be happening), while that would be good news long-term, is it not possible that it could mutate into something worse again further down the line? Or would that be very difficult to envisage due to Omicron being so much more transmissible than the other main variants?

Apologies for the pessimistic sounding post! I'm in the optimistic camp regarding Omicron but just interested to know
 
M18CTID said:
Sounds like we've woken up to more optimistic news regarding the severity of Omicron. Just one thing though - if it truly does turn out to be far less deadly and takes over as the dominant strain across the globe (as appears to be happening), while that would be good news long-term, is it not possible that it could mutate into something worse again further down the line? Or would that be very difficult to envisage due to Omicron being so much more transmissible than the other main variants?

Apologies for the pessimistic sounding post! I'm in the optimistic camp regarding Omicron but just interested to know
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From what I understand there’s zero evolutionary pressure for it to become more severe.

What would the virus gain by making people more ill / kill more people?

It’s in a virus’s best interests to infect loads of people but not make them so sick as they die and don’t infect others. Which is why they tend to evolve to be more infectious but less deadly.

It’s exactly what happened to the Spanish flu, and it’s why we don’t all walk around scared of catching Ebola.
 
M18CTID said:
Sounds like we've woken up to more optimistic news regarding the severity of Omicron. Just one thing though - if it truly does turn out to be far less deadly and takes over as the dominant strain across the globe (as appears to be happening), while that would be good news long-term, is it not possible that it could mutate into something worse again further down the line? Or would that be very difficult to envisage due to Omicron being so much more transmissible than the other main variants?

Apologies for the pessimistic sounding post! I'm in the optimistic camp regarding Omicron but just interested to know
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Asking Bluemoon posters probably not your wisest choice for getting the answer you seek
 
Bluewonder said:
We'd have been in lockdown for the last 18 months if it was up to those grifters.
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A prominent member of 'Independent' Sage is Susan Michie. A psychologist and lifelong prominent member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. She's a certifiable nutter.

Susan Michie - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
BlueAnorak said:
Excellent piece.
However, the major difference is that the average lifespan in SA is 64 and in the UK is 82 - a population cohort that is vulnerable to Covid.
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I'd imagine that the vast majority of over 60s and probably over 50s have had all 3 jabs by now, surely this goes a long way to trim the gap.
 
RobMCFC said:
That's a really good post. As usual, some people seem to taken this as an excuse to take the p*** out of people but I get where you are coming from.

When it comes to history, most of us don''t look beyond the last hundred years or so and in many cases, any further back than the second world war. The point is, just because something hasn't happened in the last 70 years doesn't mean it can't happen again. Just because we've lived in a era of generally available medicine and hospital beds doesn't mean we always will.

For the record, I don't think we will reach a point where people are dying in the streets, but the argument that there is a number of daily hospital admissions that will cause the system to break down is very real. To look at this week's hospital figures and say that we are nowhere near that point is true but also disingenuous.

Rapidly rising cases, plus two weeks of increasing social contact will put us in a much worse place come 6 or 7th January. A much milder variant but that doubles every two days can lead to some huge case numbers that can still do a lot of damage - that seems to be the point some are missing.
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Thanks for reading it in the spirit it was intended!

Yes, I think we are a far, far from away from that, and I don't think it would ever happen here because, ultimately, regardless of ideology or competence any politician of any party would slam the brakes long before it could get to that.

But I do think in places like Italy and New York in the first wave we were a lot closer than some would like to imagine to those possibilities, and there is nothing to suggest it couldn't happen here if some of the more casual voices here were listened to.
 
johnnymarrsbarres said:
Anyone in that age group has been offered jabs and boosters a while ago now.

I’m not willing to sacrifice one inch of my life to save the lives of elderly anti vaxxers.
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In fairness as an elderly person I waited over 8 months to get my booster despite 6 months being the time RE waning.
At least I got mine but how long before the next one 3 months?
 
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