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

Would you quit bashing the schools for feck sake.
I’m bashing the department of education, schools are doing the best they can in the circumstances. But the last few weeks at ours, loads of kids off sick, after school clubs cancelled, teachers out and parents holding their kids at home just in case. I don’t see the point in not letting them break up on Friday. They won’t be doing much at school but there’s lots of risk on the mouth of Christmas
 
In what sense? Number of infections or hospitalisations? I'm cautiously optimistic that Omicron is milder due to vaccination and previous exposure throughout a population. Time will tell though!

Pretty much on all fronts

Russia had 28,000 new cases and 1,133 deaths
Poland had 22,000 new cases and 592 deaths
Ukraine had 9,590 new cases and 355 deaths

Of course Russia's population is huge, but as a percentage their deaths are well out of whack. The Government tried to introduce a new lockdown but a public backlash made them back down
 
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I’m bashing the department of education, schools are doing the best they can in the circumstances. But the last few weeks at ours, loads of kids off sick, after school clubs cancelled, teachers out and parents holding their kids at home just in case. I don’t see the point in not letting them break up on Friday. They won’t be doing much at school but there’s lots of risk on the mouth of Christmas
Oh in case it wasn't clear I was only messing. I constantly bash the schools and the handling of them and it irks certain people. I don't get why they're not letting them off early either, seems like an easy win, surely. I feel bad for the teachers who are probably concerned about getting covid now in advance of Xmas.
 
Pretty much on all fronts

Russia had 28,000 new cases and 1133 deaths
Poland had 22,000 new cases and 592 deaths
Ukraine had 9590 new cases and 355 deaths

Of course Russia's population is huge, but as a percentage their deaths are well out of whack. The Government tried to introduce a new lockdown but a public backlash made them back down

Are their stats any good? Those deaths to cases look remarkably high?
 
Pretty much on all fronts

Russia had 28,000 new cases and 1133 deaths
Poland had 22,000 new cases and 592 deaths
Ukraine had 9590 new cases and 355 deaths

Of course Russia's population is huge, but as a percentage their deaths are well out of whack. The Government tried to introduce a new lockdown but a public backlash made them back down

You mean invade Ukraine
 
Been bad in Russia for a while that’s delta figures rather then what we are facing.
 
Every person infected with the Omicron COVID variant is believed to be passing it on to between three and five others on average, a senior government scientist has said.

Dr Susan Hopkins, the UK Health Security Agency's chief medical adviser, told MPs on the Commons health committee that for Omicron, the R value in the UK is between 3 and 5.

So we had to lockdown when R rate was 0.7-1 and we were having vaccines deployed.

Now it's likely around 5 and no Lockdown

This government is just a shambles.

Boris has totally lost it, by keep saying no more lockdown - so it will either get worse or Boris will Lockdown and lie to us yet again.

This is now the period, where Boris is simply out to save his own leadership and be dammed with what is right and best for everyone IMO.
 
Every person infected with the Omicron COVID variant is believed to be passing it on to between three and five others on average, a senior government scientist has said.

Dr Susan Hopkins, the UK Health Security Agency's chief medical adviser, told MPs on the Commons health committee that for Omicron, the R value in the UK is between 3 and 5.

So we had to lockdown when R rate was 0.7-1 and we were having vaccines deployed.

Now it's likely around 5 and no Lockdown

This government is just a shambles.

Boris has totally lost it, by keep saying no more lockdown - so it will either get worse or Boris will Lockdown and lie to us yet again.

This is now the period, where Boris is simply out to save his own leadership and be dammed with what is right and best for everyone IMO.

I'm pretty sure than once Christmas and Boxing Day are over there will be a lockdown.
 
Pretty much on all fronts

Russia had 28,000 new cases and 1133 deaths
Poland had 22,000 new cases and 592 deaths
Ukraine had 9590 new cases and 355 deaths

Of course Russia's population is huge, but as a percentage their deaths are well out of whack. The Government tried to introduce a new lockdown but a public backlash made them back down
Russia's death rates have been up there for a couple of months now - and probably for much longer. According to their excess deaths stats there's almost certainly been massive under-reporting of covid deaths from them during the pandemic.

Cases per death will be partly due to under-testing, they're probably only testing people who need professional medical care. Combine that with low vaccination rates and they've got a fight on. Similar for Ukraine.

Incidentally these are assumed to be more or less entirely delta cases. With no serious historic case data it's anybody's guess what that will mean for omicron.
 
Every person infected with the Omicron COVID variant is believed to be passing it on to between three and five others on average, a senior government scientist has said.

Dr Susan Hopkins, the UK Health Security Agency's chief medical adviser, told MPs on the Commons health committee that for Omicron, the R value in the UK is between 3 and 5.

So we had to lockdown when R rate was 0.7-1 and we were having vaccines deployed.

Now it's likely around 5 and no Lockdown

This government is just a shambles.

Boris has totally lost it, by keep saying no more lockdown - so it will either get worse or Boris will Lockdown and lie to us yet again.

This is now the period, where Boris is simply out to save his own leadership and be dammed with what is right and best for everyone IMO.
It’s pure faith in the vaccines when its already proven to escape the vaccines to a degree. He’s letting it rip through the population hoping that most people will get mild symptoms and benefit from the increased immunity it will give them.

The danger is if it evades vaccines to the point where our death toll is back above what it was at the previous peak with nearly 2K deaths in a day. Boris is said to see 50k deaths per year from covid as an “acceptable” range. If this goes tits up it could do it in a month.
 
Vaccines are all about training the body to recognise a threat and deal with it.

Why has the political will for a pan-sarbecovirus vaccine vanished, if the current ones are and will continue to struggle? Is it a US led decision?
 
@jojojo Stupid question probably.... With smallpox and other diseases in previous centuries, people sniffed spores and stuff to 'get infected' to quite good effect. Now obviously there's a huge difference as you couldn't be infected twice with variola, but would/is there any logic to intentionally infecting people with low doses of each variant to train the bodies?
Vaccines are all about training the body to recognise a threat and deal with it, that's no different in principle to what the early experimenters were trying to achieve. For some diseases one or two rounds of training seem to be enough.

For things like the common cold we start training as babies, and still keep catching it, but mostly we ignore it. Even so, a lot of people this year think they've had the "worst cold ever." Assuming they didn't actually catch covid, chances are they felt worse because they were out of training because we hadn't been meeting people so much. It actually also meant that a lot of young children and babies caught things that are normally (winter) seasonal viruses as the country reopened in summer.

Covid in the future? Good chance that kids who grow up with it circulating will always think it's just another cold. Some of us will be safer if we get that kind of protection routinely in a controlled way via vaccines, even if that doesn't stop us getting exposed to the virus or occasionally catching it ourselves.
 
Why has the political will for a pan-sarbecovirus vaccine vanished, if the current ones are and will continue to struggle? Is it a US led decision?
I don't think the research has been shut down, it's just not seen as something we can get in the next few months.

Incidentally there are trials underway of vaccines delivered by patches, nasal spray and even in tablet form. They're struggling to do clinical trials though. Not surprising really as they're looking for people who have not been previously infected who are willing to get infected.
 
Thursday and Friday seem to have been biggest reported numbers in last couple of weeks. (Obviously next Tuesday will have bigger real numbers than tomorrow.)

Cases next week will surely nosedive. Sly feckers with milder symptoms won't want to cancel their Christmas plans.
 
Cases next week will surely nosedive. Sly feckers with milder symptoms won't want to cancel their Christmas plans.
Maybe. Doesn't seem like that happened last year. Reported cases are rather meaningless anyway.
 
Oh in case it wasn't clear I was only messing. I constantly bash the schools and the handling of them and it irks certain people. I don't get why they're not letting them off early either, seems like an easy win, surely. I feel bad for the teachers who are probably concerned about getting covid now in advance of Xmas.

^insert Mourinho storming the pitch gif here*

Believe it or not, I am also in favour of closing schools early. Although it would probably make feck all difference as they’ll all be milling in and out of each other’s gaffs anyway. That’s what they do throughout school holidays in my experience. Still, though, it won’t do any harm. Academic stuff goes out the window next week anyway. Although it would be tough for parents who rely on school for childcare (which is not me, thanks to marrying an “influencer” who can happily dick around on Instagram with or without the kids at home).
 
We are not far away from you in Norway now. We have the 9th most infections per population/infected ratio. Some restrictions have come and maybe more will follow as this variant is so extremely contagious. There is a story in the news today about the earlier company christmas party here that infected 74% of the 111 guests. 60% of them got omicron. 1 got Delta. Data shows that 98% of the infected were double vaccinated (Pfizer or Moderna). Among the 25 that did not get infected 7/25 were vaccinated with Pfizer og 12/25 with Moderna. 41/75 infected had the Pfizer vaccine and 17/75 had Moderna.
 


Good news from Gauteng.


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Prefer the linear scale one its just visually easier to see the difference.
 
qRDeinW.jpg


Prefer the linear scale one its just visually easier to see the difference.

Case numbers are insane after a few days. Death numbers look optimistic, but considering Omicron has only been with us a few days pretty much they are irrelevent right?
 
We are not far away from you in Norway now. We have the 9th most infections per population/infected ratio. Some restrictions have come and maybe more will follow as this variant is so extremely contagious. There is a story in the news today about the earlier company christmas party here that infected 74% of the 111 guests. 60% of them got omicron. 1 got Delta. Data shows that 98% of the infected were double vaccinated (Pfizer or Moderna). Among the 25 that did not get infected 7/25 were vaccinated with Pfizer og 12/25 with Moderna. 41/75 infected had the Pfizer vaccine and 17/75 had Moderna.

Those numbers dont make sense? 98% of the infected were vaccinated with Moderna or Pfizer, but 58/75 infected had one of them? That's 77%.

And it's saying that 6 of the 25 non infected were unvaccinated, whereas only 1 of 75 infected was unvaccinated ie there is less chance of catching it if unvaccinated.
 
Case numbers are insane after a few days. Death numbers look optimistic, but considering Omicron has only been with us a few days pretty much they are irrelevent right?

That's Gauteng South Africa they reckon they have reached the peak already so there may be some lag in hospitalizations and death but its nowhere near Delta is that prior infection or a less severe variant no one currently knows.
 
Case numbers are insane after a few days. Death numbers look optimistic, but considering Omicron has only been with us a few days pretty much they are irrelevent right?
Case numbers are insane after a few days. Death numbers look optimistic, but considering Omicron has only been with us a few days pretty much they are irrelevent right?
I think this wave of covid is very mild, the numbers are staggering compared to previous waves, but no panic on the streets or in the media. The government seams quite “Chilled”, on this outbreak.
No outcry’s or panic and pleas from the Medical and hospital fraternity.
I am still hoping for no lockdown this December season!
 
The strategy is clearly to hope combination of vaccines, natural immunity through infection and the fact indications are that this wave *might* end up with lower hospitalisations as a portion of overall cases will mean we can avoid another lockdown. It becomes politically more difficult as the headline case numbers grow scarier. It's a gamble. I think the next fortnight is key. Now Omicron is here and it's taken a hold the key metrics will determine not only what happens in terms of greater restrictions but also how the public interpret the case numbers. If hospitalisations remain manageable and deaths stay fairly consistent as they have been past few days into the new year I think it'll change how we think/deal with the pandemic and maybe future response to rising cases
 
Oh in case it wasn't clear I was only messing. I constantly bash the schools and the handling of them and it irks certain people. I don't get why they're not letting them off early either, seems like an easy win, surely. I feel bad for the teachers who are probably concerned about getting covid now in advance of Xmas.
I had a feeling!

yeah I feel sorry for the teachers, give them a break!