New South African variant.

[Kremmen]

When I read all of the above and then go out for a walk, before daylight, I can see why the infection rate is high.

I see buses in West London, noticeably the 140 heading for Heathrow full of workers, with very few wearing masks, especially upstairs, and most of the bus windows shut. Later on I see customers entering supermarkets and about a third still maskless and another smaller percentage wearing them as chin warmers or an exposed nose.

They just don't care or understand.

Then children pick up asymptomatic from parents of the above don't care mob, pass it around school which then gets taken home.

Very difficult to stop transmission.

[Jayt43]

They just don't care or understand.

Or are selfish, of low-intelligence, or believe that everything is a conspiracy / their "personal freedoms" are being interfered with...

[culzean]

Young children will probably be the first to get infected since they are not yet vaccinated.
They wiill only suffer mild infections and probably not require hospitalisation.
They are however likely to pass the infection to older people who will be more susceptible to more serious illness.

There seems to be a myth that the vaccinated cannot pass the virus on to others...   I remember at the start of this virus that SAGE were saying that kids could not pass virus on,  how wrong they were - been wrong about other stuff as well, their models turned out to be pants...

[culzean]

Double jabbed lab worker in Taiwan gets a bite from a mouse being used for covid experiments and gets Delta... The initial theory of Wuhan lab leak was that the meat of experimental animals found its way to nearby wet market..

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/10/mouse-bite-infected-taiwan-lab-woker-covid

[culzean]

You have to be careful in making comparisons with South Africa.
The population is much younger.
The percentage of people vaccinated is much smaller.
Many have previously been infected with other variants.
Many of the older people have died from Covid and therefore been removed from the people left to be susceptible to omicron.

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 2/3 of Aids cases,  aids / hiv makes people more likely to die from any other disease.  South Africa has huge numbers of aids cases. About 15% of population is SA have aids ( rising to about 20% in people from 30 to 50 ), and it is the one of the largest if not the largest causes of death - around 70,000 people a year die from aids related illnesses every year in SA.  If aids sufferers not dying from Omicron that is hopeful..

[JimSh]

Young children will probably be the first to get infected since they are not yet vaccinated.
They wiill only suffer mild infections and probably not require hospitalisation.
They are however likely to pass the infection to older people who will be more susceptible to more serious illness.

There seems to be a myth that the vaccinated cannot pass the virus on to others...   I remember at the start of this virus that SAGE were saying that kids could not pass virus on,  how wrong they were - been wrong about other stuff as well, their models turned out to be pants...

I don't know that they ever said that.
They said that children were unlikely to suffer serious illness --which still holds true.
Severity of covid is very much related to age - the older you are the more serious it is likely to be.
Circumstances change.
At the start of the pandemic the priority was to vaccinate the old and vulnerable.
As the older and more vulnerable were vaccinated and protected the disease spread amongst younger and younger age groups since they were unprotected. This was complicated by human behaviour and things like school and University terms.
As immunity from vaccinations waned in the elderly. they needed the protection of further vaccination.

Everybody makes mistakes. ----- It's how most of us learn.

[richardfrost]

Do we know that you can't have Delta and Omicron at the same time? They are different viruses after all.

Second edit. It would appear that you can be infected with two different variants of covid at the same time.
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/yes-you-can-contract-2-coronavirus-strains-at-the-same-time-what-to-know

Thanks. So can we now stop spouting the absolute nonsense that Omicron is nature's free vaccine please? Anyone saying that clearly does not understand much about virology.

[culzean]

Last month the Federal Drug Administration ( USA ) went to court to get an order so that it can delay the release of the trial data used to licence Pfizer / Biontec vaccines until 2076,  yup that is 55 years away -- I wonder why they did that ? Pfizer is well known for dodgy trial data and failing to reveal side effects,  they have been fined over $3billion in last 20 years for malpractice.

[culzean]

Do we know that you can't have Delta and Omicron at the same time? They are different viruses after all.

Second edit. It would appear that you can be infected with two different variants of covid at the same time.
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/yes-you-can-contract-2-coronavirus-strains-at-the-same-time-what-to-know

Thanks. So can we now stop spouting the absolute nonsense that Omicron is nature's free vaccine please? Anyone saying that clearly does not understand much about virology.

The cases of  co-infection are rarer than hens teeth, so not particularly valid / significant enough to guide government policies.

[JimSh]

Do we know that you can't have Delta and Omicron at the same time? They are different viruses after all.

Second edit. It would appear that you can be infected with two different variants of covid at the same time.
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/yes-you-can-contract-2-coronavirus-strains-at-the-same-time-what-to-know

Thanks. So can we now stop spouting the absolute nonsense that Omicron is nature's free vaccine please? Anyone saying that clearly does not understand much about virology.

The cases of  co-infection are rarer than hens teeth, so not particularly valid / significant enough to guide government policies.

Not quite but I agree very rare.
Who said anything about guiding government policies?

[richardfrost]

Do we know that you can't have Delta and Omicron at the same time? They are different viruses after all.

Second edit. It would appear that you can be infected with two different variants of covid at the same time.
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/yes-you-can-contract-2-coronavirus-strains-at-the-same-time-what-to-know

Thanks. So can we now stop spouting the absolute nonsense that Omicron is nature's free vaccine please? Anyone saying that clearly does not understand much about virology.

The cases of  co-infection are rarer than hens teeth, so not particularly valid / significant enough to guide government policies.

Not quite but I agree very rare.
Who said anything about guiding government policies?

Not me. My only point is that you can not assume that 'Omicron will dispose Delta, and because it is milder, life is good'. First off, Omicron may not be milder, and secondly, you can still get Delta, even if you have had Omicron. In my analysis, that means it is still vital to get the vaccine and take other preventative measures, whether it is effective against Omicron or not.

[Jocko]

Well, that is the first death from Omicron here in the UK. Maybe it is not as mild as first reported.

[culzean]

Well, that is the first death from Omicron here in the UK. Maybe it is not as mild as first reported.

All the papers I have seen said 'died with' the wording is important,  'died from' would have been worse ( but the government do not seem to know the difference when compiling deaths figures ).  No mention of the Hospital or even the area patient was from . Anyone know ?

[Jocko]

No mention of the Hospital or even the area patient was from . Anyone know ?

They will not be able to release that for patient confidentiality issues.

[Kremmen]

The headline was a patient has died 'with' Omicron, not because of Omicron.

How old ?
Vaccinated ?
Other health issues ?