SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)

Actually, my recall is as bad as your maths. This paper gives 32% seroprevalence for “southern Africa” (<10% globally).
Looks like they only look at data until March 2021, so before delta. It also had some country numbers, SA highest at 49%, so probably around the 80+% after delta.
 
South Africa: Not great news.

Basically this thing is just absolutely exploding throughout Gauteng. It's jumped from 6,168 through 8,280 to 11,533 in just 2 days. During delta wave it took around 51 days to go from 1,194 to 16,145 daily cases. This time it's taken 9 days to go from 868 to 16,055 cases. Seems crazy. Positivity rate yesterday in Gauteng was more than 34% too. Couple that with the hospitalisation data steepening last week's curve....just doesn't feel good. Even if it is milder, the speed with which it runs through the population might overwhelm services anyway.



Yesterday:



2 days ago:

 
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UK omicron update available online with twitter summary/explanation. Includes all samples genotyped in the UK up until Wednesday:

 
Restrictions coming back in Ireland on advice of NPHET in light of Omicron but they don't actually affect me much at all.

Between the 7th Dec - 9th Jan: Nightclubs are to close
Restaurants are back to strict social distancing, table service, max 6 per table and no multiple table bookings.
Max 50 people indoors at gatherings and sporting events
Face masks at all times unless eating or drinking.
Vaccine certs required for Gyms, Hotel bars & restaurants etc
Gatherings in private households can only have guests from three other households at any one time
 
Restrictions coming back in Ireland on advice of NPHET in light of Omicron but they don't actually affect me much at all.

Between the 7th Dec - 9th Jan: Nightclubs are to close
Restaurants are back to strict social distancing, table service, max 6 per table and no multiple table bookings.
Max 50 people indoors at gatherings and sporting events
Face masks at all times unless eating or drinking.
Vaccine certs required for Gyms, Hotel bars & restaurants etc
Gatherings in private households can only have guests from three other households at any one time
Reasonable enough, I think. Probably the safest option rather than risk another Christmas lockdown.
 
Vaccine certs at gyms will probably hoover up most of the remaining vaccine sceptics (who seem to be predominantly gym bros or Eastern Europeans - often both)
It’s weird that. We’ve got 3 people left out of around 35 at my work place and all of them are into the gym. I wouldn’t call any of them “bros” but they are all into tracking their macros, eating clean and obviously take their training seriously.

They’re all software developers too so naturally analytical, critical and logical in their thinking but all of them have the same view of “not putting that into my body, you can all be Guinea pigs first”. The only thing I can think is that they’re all likely on some sort of strength and fitness community online and I bet it’s rife on those.
 
1000 % they will lock us down again.
We're fecked
No we're not. Hospital and ICU numbers have stabilised and dropped and our R rate is quite steady now. These are precautionary measures designed to avoid the scenario where we need to lock down rather than reactionary. It's actually quite positive at the moment. Obviously omicron could feck things up but we have to wait and see.
 
Vaccine certs at gyms will probably hoover up most of the remaining vaccine sceptics (who seem to be predominantly gym bros or Eastern Europeans - often both)

How I found my current gym. They were complaining about some sort of COVID restrictions or something on the news. It looked so well equipped in the background that I signed up the following weak. I would guess that at least 60% of the clientele are anti-vaxx, despite them loving other sorts of needles to the point the gym has someone come in once a month to blood test them :lol:
 
Vaccine certs at gyms will probably hoover up most of the remaining vaccine sceptics (who seem to be predominantly gym bros or Eastern Europeans - often both)
it really won't I dunno if you realise none of those guys are going to take it even if you turned up on their doorstep. its foolish wishful thinking to think any legislative or restrictive effort will get them to.
 
it really won't I dunno if you realise none of those guys are going to take it even if you turned up on their doorstep. its foolish wishful thinking to think any legislative or restrictive effort will get them to.

Yeah, I know that. All the effort and discipline required to lift very heavy weights and rigorously bulk and cut every year means they’re nothing if not stubborn as feck.

But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t going to enjoy the inconvenience it will cause them.
 
Had a good laugh while getting my hair cut today. Turns out my barber is a massive conspiracy theory nutcase. Supposedly Omicron wasn’t supposed to be released until May 2022 and we have seven more variants to look forward to over the next 7 years :lol:

Do we think there is any chance that the UK will follow Irelands lead and impose similar restrictions before Christmas?
 
Had a good laugh while getting my hair cut today. Turns out my barber is a massive conspiracy theory nutcase. Supposedly Omicron wasn’t supposed to be released until May 2022 and we have seven more variants to look forward to over the next 7 years :lol:

Do we think there is any chance that the UK will follow Irelands lead and impose similar restrictions before Christmas?
Why May 2022? Did he elaborate?
 

:smirk:

I admit I was surprised when Sturgeon said they were unlikely to be linked to COP26. As a mass event with people travelling from all over the world and limited controls, it sounded like a major risk factor. It's not hard to imagine catering staff or security staff being affected - and as they're likely to be young and relatively fit, perhaps not even symptomatic. Purely speculative at this stage of course, but it's as wrong to discount things as blame them.

Meanwhile, thinking of potential superspreader events:
 
Why May 2022? Did he elaborate?

He said he’d seen a leaked document months ago and this variant was scheduled to be released in May of next year :wenger:

He had scissors in his hand so I was just nodding along to everything he was saying:lol:
 
It’s weird that. We’ve got 3 people left out of around 35 at my work place and all of them are into the gym. I wouldn’t call any of them “bros” but they are all into tracking their macros, eating clean and obviously take their training seriously.

They’re all software developers too so naturally analytical, critical and logical in their thinking but all of them have the same view of “not putting that into my body, you can all be Guinea pigs first”. The only thing I can think is that they’re all likely on some sort of strength and fitness community online and I bet it’s rife on those.
When does the 'guinea pigs' phase end, for these people? We're a year into vaccinations now, with hundreds of millions of people vaccinated. If anything disastrous was going to happen, it would have happened by now.
 
:smirk:

I admit I was surprised when Sturgeon said they were unlikely to be linked to COP26. As a mass event with people travelling from all over the world and limited controls, it sounded like a major risk factor. It's not hard to imagine catering staff or security staff being affected - and as they're likely to be young and relatively fit, perhaps not even symptomatic. Purely speculative at this stage of course, but it's as wrong to discount things as blame them.

Meanwhile, thinking of potential superspreader events:

Cop26 didn't use vaccine passports
 
I'd love a lockdown here in the UK for a month in January.

Ideally the gyms stay open but if not, I'll still take it.
 
You aren't? Night clubs closing over Christmas and New Year, restrictions on mixing in households, table service only at pubs?

Doesn't look great. Right over Christmas through the new year.
Most of society is open. It’s a hell of a lot better than last year.
 
You’ll be doing the same, sooner than you think.

I really don't think so. Don't think the government will do it again here nor do I see the public accepting it. Definitely not over Christmas and New Year anyway.

Most of society is open. It’s a hell of a lot better than last year.

Oh of course. Still rubbish for you guys though right through the holidays. Hope you all have a good one and it gets no more stringent than that.
 
I really don't think so. Don't think the government will do it again here nor do I see the public accepting it. Definitely not over Christmas and New Year anyway.

I’d say you could maybe wing it as you are until Christmas? That’s a long time away though. The first known specimen in South Africa was identified three weeks ago. You have >100 cases already confirmed in England as of today. And Christmas is three weeks away.

I have a habit of getting over obsessed about negative stuff on here but I can’t see this being anything other than an absolute nightmare. And the countries who are slow to react could be in big big trouble. Hope I’m wrong, obviously.
 
A working from home order will surely be actioned ASAP in England now, won’t it?

The UK government is playing Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun.
 
I’d say you could maybe wing it as you are until Christmas? That’s a long time away though. The first known specimen in South Africa was identified three weeks ago. You have >100 cases already confirmed in England as of today. And Christmas is three weeks away.

I have a habit of getting over obsessed about negative stuff on here but I can’t see this being anything other than an absolute nightmare. And the countries who are slow to react could be in big big trouble. Hope I’m wrong, obviously.

I think exactly that. They will muddle through Christmas and New Year then face the repercussions afterwards. So long as hospitals aren't being over run and deaths don't climb I can't see anything shifting at number 10 nor will public acceptance of any return to strict regulations.