Is it over ?

[Observer II]

Some "experts" are now claiming that the Omicron variant now resembles the common cold and will now stay with us as such.  But, if this is the case, why are folk still being taken into Hospitals with it ?   😷

[Bill]

But it’s not quite like that is it. Although omicron might be mild for most, without the vaccine it’s still potentially deadly and a heck of a lot more transmissible than a cold. The people being hospitalized are mainly the unvaccinated, but I can’t see the only solution for the rest of us being getting jabs every couple of months.

Hopefully it will peak and die out before we do and providing nothing else comes along to replace it, this could be the end of our problems.

We live in hope.

 

Bill 😊

[Confused52]

No it isn't anything like over. Look at this link:

Polyvalent COVID-19 vaccines expected in five years, says chief medical officer - The Pharmaceutical Journal (pharmaceutical-journal.com)

I don't want to guess what is currently going on but it is very unlikely to go away since we have no actual immunity to the spike entry protein of omicron itself. We are relying on what is in common with the natural variant. In my opinion, We will at least need another vaccine targeted at Omicron next winter and then possibly different ones until the fabled polyvalent one in five years time.

[Latchford Locks]

19 hours ago, Bill said:

 

Hopefully it will peak and die out before we do and providing nothing else comes along to replace it, this could be the end of our problems.

We live in hope.

 

Bill 😊

I do hope so, but am not holding my breath.

[Evil Sid]

22 hours ago, Observer II said:

Some "experts" are now claiming that the Omicron variant now resembles the common cold

Well if you will believe the "experts" it is the worse one so far.

Mind you it all depends on which "experts" you care to believe.

One thing about this pandemic is that i have a new perspective on the renaissance painters.

I can now understand why they painted pictures of fat naked people lounging around on sofas........

[ninearches]

I did a lateral flow test before going out last night as a courtesy gesture to my fellow revellers. I did the test mid afternoon & it came up positive so Mrs9  i went & did a pcr test within the hour so are now waiting for the results. I must say though that if i do have Omicron ,i have had colds much worse.

[Observer II]

Explains why we won't be seeing an end to this virus.   

[ninearches]

4 hours ago, Observer II said:

Explains why we won't be seeing an end to this virus.   

Don't assume we went out Obs ,we have more sense than hat.

[Bill]

Any news yet on how the PCR tests turned out Davy? My son and his entire family have all now had PCR tests which returned positive and yet he’s still adamant that he doesn’t need to isolate simply because he’s had a cough for two weeks.

I thought the advice given last week was perfectly clear in that following a positive test,  you do two lateral flow tests on day six and seven and if they show clear then you’re ok to stop isolating. That’s also exactly what it says on the government website but a link to NHS gives conflicting advice. A report about this in one of the papers the other day asked why the NHS info was two weeks out of date and at completely at odds with the government’s rules.

The problem with getting info from the internet is that unless you take care to check the dates you could be looking at outdated advice. I did exactly this why trying to check these facts where the page I was reading although one of the top suggestions, was from 2020.

 

Bill 😊

[ninearches]

Spot on Bill ,internet searches can be a nightmare. My wife who is also isolating has been told from NHS after inputting her info that the isolation period is ten days but clear lateral flow tests on days 6 & 7 give you a get out of jail card. I on the other hand ,having a bog standard phone, can't input any data so i keep getting texts to ask me to do so. I can't even install the app on my computer because NHS assumes that everybody has an i phone. I even tried phoning my info through yesterday but gave up after half an hour of queueing.

[Bill]

Yes, the wife and I have similar phone issues. We both now have our own smart phones but for a couple of years we shared a mobile and now we get all sorts of health texts where we don’t know which one of us it relates to. And it’s a similar case when the phone number is linked with an internet account. I’m constantly getting warnings from Facebook that someone’s trying to use my account just because we once shared a mobile number.

As for the conflicting advice, I watched Dr Chris Smith on tv this morning who normally explains things so well that even my wife understands things but this morning, I had to rewind three times and I’m still not sure what he was saying. There may be deeper medical reasoning behind what he was saying but anything that causes me to have to rewind three times can’t be right.

Better to have simple clear rules that people understand without any confusing if and or but arguments even it they're technically correct.

 

Bill 😊

[ninearches]

I think one of the daftest ways of working is that once my phone was logged with NHS ,i couldn't use my wife's phone or the home computer to give them the information requested .