My day began by listening to an interview on BBC Radio Five Live with (didn’t catch his name) from the Kings College Covid-19 ZOE study whereby ornery folk submit their symptoms and the experts try to pin point how bad things are. The answer to how bad things are going to be can be described in four words: we don’t know yet. The Omicron appears to be more transmissible, more infectious and less effective against vaccines, APPEARS TO BE doing all the heavy lifting. Either way, Mr Expert explained that – and I quote – travel restrictions are “a waste of time” because Omicron is already circulating in the community and it’s too late to stop it.
As ever, it’s those who are unvaccinated who will take the biggest hit in terms of illness, hospitalisations and death, which is, frankly, just too bad, although we must feel sympathy for those who, for various medical reasons, cannot be vaccinated. What a feeling that must be.
In 11 days, Boris Johnson will announce that Christmas is going ahead, always assuming the elderly Santa Claus has not been struck with the virus and, worse still, has to self-isolate. Given how many homes he will be visiting on Christmas Eve, it’s fair to say this will the biggest super-spreader event in history.
Mr Expert added that he expects Omicron to be the dominant strain by January. Probably. Because we don’t know enough about it at the moment. And I couldn’t really work out quite was he was saying between the lines. Was it “let’s carry on as normal because there’s sod all we can do about it” or was it “batten down the hatches”? My feeling is that the public won’t buy more lockdowns unless councils are literally collecting the dead from the road side. I’m not saying this is right but many people are as bored with Covid as they were with Brexit. They – we – will take some convincing.
My view today: if the number of new cases goes through the roof then hospitals we be overwhelmed and the government will have to act. As your man said, in January.
