Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Bairnardo]

There seems to be a LOT of data available to the layman that points towards omicron being less severe.

One migbt assume that the decision makers have even more than us with more qualified people to interpret it.

So its pretty concerning to me that we are at a level of politicking where the vaccines not only dont buy us "lets ride this out". They dont even buy us "lets just wait and see" before leaping in.

The UK population is pretty much at the most immune it can ever really hope to be.

Theres always going to be peaks and troughs on that particular graph, but by and large we must be in as good a place as you could ever hope to be, since we have great uptake on initial and boosters, plus been ravaged by several big waves. You probably cant hope for as high uptake on jag 4 and beyond.

I think (and it may be more hope than expectation) that Sturgeon has overplayed her hand on this one. But on a higher level, it concerns me that we can expect this sort of bullshit for the next few months as they slowly roll back towards normality rather than admit they overreacted.

[funky_nomad]

8 hours ago, Left Back said:

Absolutely agree there should have been Barnett consequentials for that and it was a Boris bribe.  Another example where the principle is ignored.

That particular bribe pre-dated Boris, although the principle stands:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-dup-deal-brexit-legal-mps-parliament-vote-a8226056.html

[Dons_1988]

So is anything going to happen today or are we in for yet another day of “we can’t rule anything out”?

I try and not let myself get too bothered by all the noise around things but I am getting more and more seething at the limbo people and businesses are being put in by being told we’re all doomed yet doing nothing. 

5 days before Christmas and folk are being drip fed thinly veiled threats of lockdown, guilted/shamed for social activity and businesses fucked over by people being told the chances are they’ll miss Xmas if they go out. 

This has been one of the worst chapters of covid to date, I certainly don’t remember being as angered by it before. 

[101]

1 hour ago, oaksoft said:

Is your argument here that when Sturgeon asks for something she should get it simply because she has asked?

 

I don't think it should be just one devolved nation unless there is good reason but when you have "Union of equals" being trotted out why should one government have more say than the other surely it's a simple 3-1 majority for funding.

Simply not to even have a discussion with the chancellor who is fannying about in California whilst businesses struggle just seems odd.

[sparky88]

Not sure I can bear Sturgeon's 'I make no apologies....' routine today when she pointlessly shuts down businesses for a couple of weeks with her furlough money. 

[ICTChris]

Just now, oaksoft said:

So instead of 0.3% it's 1%

Am I reading that correctly?

If so, that's not really statistically that interesting.

 

I think that's 30% to 100%.

[Bairnardo]

And that first sentence is the problem for Sturgeon. There IS no good reason. Not yet anyway.
As for Rishi, he's back in the UK and has been for a couple of days as far as I remember.
Businesses are struggling because of Sturgeon's ego and loose lips.
Do you expect Rishi to avoid any travelling whatsoever on the off-chance that Sturgeon has a brain fart? That seems pretty unreasonable.

Said this already, but there are people who are not prepared to move on to the post pandemic phase because they do not yet feel they have made the political capital they think they deserve. Sturgeon is too busy trying to make political points to even be aware of the anguish she is currently causing.

We know this because she had the sheer fucking audacity to call out a newspaper for doing same.

[ICTChris]

1 = 100%, confirmed in the replies.  He also posts a scatter chart below showing the data.

I think there are some reasons why the data might exceed 100% and there are definitional issues - I think France define ICU differently to the UK and they are at a different stage iwth Omicron than we are.  As a trend though, it's really, really striking.  

 

 

[smpar]

I can't get my head around peoplle's attitude towards Christmas at all.
Delaying your booster so you don't feel a bit run down on this one day sounds like an insane decision.
Genuinely baffled by the logic behind some peoples decision-making.

I get your point, I just didn’t want to risk being out the game on Christmas Day when it’s the most I’ve looked forward to it in years. Due to work etc we can’t just replace it and ‘do’ Christmas on another day. I was fine on my second jag but I was fucked from my first one for 24 hours, just wanted to know if there was any experience of people having effects 48+ hours after.

Got it booked for tomorrow anyway.

[ICTChris]

Here's a chart on a number of measurements in Gauteng, comparing Delta and the Omicron wave, shows a similar thing.

 

I am trending towards this stuff showing more 'hope' than 'cope'.

 

[JMDP]

Always reassuring to start the week reading the ramblings of the likes of @Elixir, @Todd_is_God, @Left Back and @oaksoft. Fair play to you boys, your commitment to long term awful patter is fantastic.

[Empty It]

Surely if Omicron is significantly less dangerous than any other variant they should be encouraging people to get out and get it so natural antibodies can be built up.

[ICTChris]

The suggestion about the ICU figures and the severity discussion is that the Omicron variant replicates a lot more in the upper respitory system (nose and throat) but much less in the lower respitory system (lungs).  This means it transmits a lot more due to the viral load in your nose and throat spreading to other people but it's much less likely to get into your lungs and cause severe illness and death.  There were initial results from studies into Omicron that reflected this, Muge Cevnik tweeted about it a week or so ago.

Maybe it's the Christmas spirit but I'm trending towards hope not cope.

[Suspect Device]

Just now, Empty It said:

Surely if Omicron is significantly less dangerous than any other variant they should be encouraging people to get out and get it so natural antibodies can be built up.

That's what I think as well but I'm assuming that the scientists know better than us and aren't just sticking to the ultra cautious "We just don't know" line. If we do that we will never get out of this.

[sparky88]

12 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

The suggestion about the ICU figures and the severity discussion is that the Omicron variant replicates a lot more in the upper respitory system (nose and throat) but much less in the lower respitory system (lungs).  This means it transmits a lot more due to the viral load in your nose and throat spreading to other people but it's much less likely to get into your lungs and cause severe illness and death.  There were initial results from studies into Omicron that reflected this, Muge Cevnik tweeted about it a week or so ago.

Maybe it's the Christmas spirit but I'm trending towards hope not cope.

Tbh, I barely even think about the virus within these terms any more. Politicians' reactions to it are more worrying, especially now we have actual evidence Omicron might not be the danger Sturgeon has warned us about. 

[TheScarf]

59 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

So is anything going to happen today or are we in for yet another day of “we can’t rule anything out”?

I try and not let myself get too bothered by all the noise around things but I am getting more and more seething at the limbo people and businesses are being put in by being told we’re all doomed yet doing nothing. 

5 days before Christmas and folk are being drip fed thinly veiled threats of lockdown, guilted/shamed for social activity and businesses fucked over by people being told the chances are they’ll miss Xmas if they go out. 

This has been one of the worst chapters of covid to date, I certainly don’t remember being as angered by it before. 

This is my take on it too.  It's the anger I have at the fact that most of us have 3 fucking doses of Pfizer or AZ coursing through our body and there's another fucking lockdown coming. The goverments are going by cases and not by hospitalisation and deaths.  We were lied to with regards to the vaccine being the end to this sorry period in history. 

[sparky88]

51 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

Said this already, but there are people who are not prepared to move on to the post pandemic phase because they do not yet feel they have made the political capital they think they deserve. Sturgeon is too busy trying to make political points to even be aware of the anguish she is currently causing.

We know this because she had the sheer fucking audacity to call out a newspaper for doing same.

This is an excellent point. When it comes to COVID there's been remarkable little opportunity for Sturgeon to manufacture grievance re Westminster. The end of furlough combined with the new variant has, seemingly given her the chance to drive a wedge between Scotland and Westminster.

But anyone with the ability to google 'South Africa Omicron cases' can end up with the impression that the use of the begging bowl is about naked opportunism. 

[101]

1 hour ago, oaksoft said:

And that first sentence is the problem for Sturgeon. There IS no good reason. Not yet anyway.

As for Rishi, he's back in the UK and has been for a couple of days as far as I remember.

Businesses are struggling because of Sturgeon's ego and loose lips.

Do you expect Rishi to avoid any travelling whatsoever on the off-chance that Sturgeon has a brain fart? That seems pretty unreasonable.

Staff absences are bitting right across the economy.

Entering in "if my aunty had baws" territory but had the advice not been given the economy would still tank when you fire loads of folk into self isolation and quite frankly we don't have staffing levels in our emergency services to let that happen. 

I would expect the Chancellor and PM to attend meetings especially when arranged by number 10. If he can't attend is he working or on a jolly?

We pay their wages and own them 24/7 365 they should be working non stop if the country is in such a state yet all that seems to of happened at number 10 is constant parties.

[Gaz]

6 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

This is my take on it too.  It's the anger I have at the fact that most of us have 3 fucking doses of Pfizer or AZ coursing through our body and there's another fucking lockdown coming. The goverments are going by cases and not by hospitalisation and deaths.  We were lied to with regards to the vaccine being the end to this sorry period in history. 

I sucked up two lockdowns because I believed (and still do) that it was the right thing to do. I worked 60+ hour weeks at all times of the day and night while trying to look after a newborn and two disabled kids while staying in the house for 23 hours a day to protect folk that were vulnerable. I (or my wife) went to the shops ourselves. I didn't see my Gran for the last months of her life and had a socially distanced funeral with a small number of my family. My mum (a widow) sat in the hoose herself for months on end before the bubble families were made a thing. My mental health has went to pot and I've put on five and a half stone in weight. I cannot bring myself to do anything but work and eat.

Not any more. I've had three jabs, pretty much everyone at risk has had three jabs. What the hell are we supposed to do?

[Sergeant Wilson]

26 minutes ago, Empty It said:

Surely if Omicron is significantly less dangerous than any other variant they should be encouraging people to get out and get it so natural antibodies can be built up.

I know you'll all agree I'm a bit thick, but that's what I thought too. The Northern Ireland model used seemed to indicate that any measures taken now are too late and that everyone would get in about the next week, meaning it'll all be done by the second week in January.