How are we getting through it?

[Techno II]

'Cannot Believe' WHO advising against restrictions!   

That made me go 'EH ?' , as well, Keith.

Like you say...may well be a storm in a teacup.

I STILL wait to hear about my booster ...it is over 6 months since my second jab....ditto Von, now.

From what I've gleaned from the  Welsh NHS site, they've closed the 'walk in centres' for the time being 'cos too many folk were turning up, all at once.

Cheers - Phil.

[Raider4]

'Cannot Believe' WHO advising against restrictions!

I seem to recall that the WHO were initially advising that masks were not needed, 18 months ago?

[Steve J]

We have a few walk in centres, but I think most have closed due to the surge of walk-ins, leaving them only open for bookings, which makes sense. When I had my booster the volunteers were all commenting on how very busy it was, much more so than normal apparently.

[Heedless Horseman]

Hmm. Is it possible that Omicron variant just might mark a watershed in the Covid story?
It certainly is scary in the number of mutations increasing its transmission and reducing effectiveness of existing vaccines, but...

It is very early days, yet, but Omicron just may produce 'milder' symptoms... at least in some patients. More like a nasty Flu.
Is this how what we now regard as Flu started up? Severe epidemics with high mortality, gradually stabilising into a more endemic but survivable condition... though still unpleasant and a great risk to those vulnerable, (Hence Flu jabs).

Very early days. 'Milder' symptoms may be due to many cases being younger, (Social contact?)... so better able to cope with infection. Increasing hospitalisations may be due to infection numbers, rather than severity.  'MAY'.

Possibly, as Delta variant outstripped the original variant in transmision, (Though original will probably still be around?), Omicron super transmission just MIGHT make it the dominant form over the more serious variants?
Might this actually help to build up general 'immunity'?
Caution, though. The sheer number of mutations indicate that this form may be more 'unstable' and subject to even more mutations... especially as infection numbers multiply. Some of these may be more dangerous... so we still do not want it around. Containment, (if a losing battle), is vastly preferable to slow its spread until more study of effects and to buy time for vaccine tweaks.

https://www.cityam.com/coronavirus-blessing-in-the-sky-omicron-may-be-very-positive-news-for-the-world-if-new-covid-mutation-kills-off-more-lethal-delta-variant/

Very early days... so... in My view, keep on masking, be cautious in social interactions... and impose travel restrictions... unfortunate for those who have risked travel overseas... I would not have.

[steve_holmes_11]

To back up the Horseman (above).

Severity is likely to follow "regression to the mean".
In layman terms, the odds are the new variants will be less deadly than what we've seen to date.
Besides, we now have a vaccine that attenuates, of not completely preventing symptoms.

Transmissibility doesn't follow regression to the mean, because variants compete for carriers.
This means low transmission variants disappear fast, often so fast that they are not observed.

This competition (generally you won't suffer 2 vuruses (virii?) simultaneously), means that a transmissable, but low severity variant can damp down an outbreak, even one as big as a pandemic.

The disclaimer is that some viruses (virii?) can co-exist: for example HIV and Hepatitis.
So the picture looks good, with reservations.

[Leon]

My concern for this new variant is how quickly the UK government have moved to reintroduce restrictions again.  They didn't seem too concerned with 40,000 new cases per day for the past couple of months, but have now reacted very differently to a handful of cases of the new strain.  Whether there's more to it or not, I guess we'll see.

[Heedless Horseman]

I'm not in Gov't loop. but think rapid response may be due to two factors.
 
One being the usual political B/S from opposition parties attacking 'inaction' over previous variants... but, yes, I do think in the early stages of Covid19 , there should have been much harsher travel restrictions, sooner... especially as there were no vaccines. There was an understandable reluctance to incur economic damage... but that came anyway.

The other is that Omicron has so many potential differences to earlier variants, that no-one can yet have any certainty about it's effects...especially with regard to vaccines.

If in doubt, raise the alarm and close the gates. Some may be annoyed, but they would be much more than annoyed if they got 'overrun' due to dithering.

[Techno II]

Von & I have given up on getting the booster for the time being.

Contradictory messages comes from the Welsh NHS.

"Don't phone to book an appointment."
"Phone to book an appointment if you're over 65 and your second jab was over 6 months ago." (That's us.)

Five goes to try and book an appointment, by Von, yesterday. Each call cut off by the automated answer.
Heard from a friend who had been notified (by post) to book an appointment...She gave up for the reason above.

I think we'll just wait until things calm down.    One worry is that 'they' forgot Von re her second jab, so we're half expecting that to happen again.

Anecdotally...(again, from friends) the centres that were running, were poorly organised and folk were queuing in their cars in the roads outside the centres for two hours plus.

It would appear, because of this, they're not posting reminders out....until things settle.

Cheers - Phil.

[Raider4]

Had my booster yesterday - Moderna. Felt rough in the evening, and my arm is aching badly this AM. Poxy Tesco's would not allow me to buy 2 packs of ibuprofen and 1 box of Lemsip together. Grrr. What am I going to do, overdose on Lemsip?

[Orcs]

Had my booster yesterday - Moderna. Felt rough in the evening, and my arm is aching badly this AM. Poxy Tesco's would not allow me to buy 2 packs of ibuprofen and 1 box of Lemsip together. Grrr. What am I going to do, overdose on Lemsip?

I just go round twice.

The stupid thing is that the maximum 2 packs of paracetamol they allow you to buy is enough to kill you anyway.

[steve_holmes_11]

Ah, Chunky KitKats! Some years ago the local shop to where I work had a batch in that had somehow missed most of the wafer and were 90% or more chocolate. Bu God they were nice and we bought loads .

Reminds me of Club bars.

"If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit join our club".

Very occasionally, you'd get a solid chunk of chocolate without any biscuit in.
I like to think that's how the Yorkie was invented.

I think this was manufacturing error with the biscuit missing the mould.
But I have visions of a famished production line worker grabbing a sneaky biscuit as it whizzed past - and unintentionally boosting customer satisfaction.

[Steve J]

Yep, I remember the odd orange Jacob's club biscuit that was mainly chocolate, which was simply heaven .

[Heedless Horseman]

Phil. I can't see things 'settling down' for a long time. It might be Best to visit GP/Health Centre in person... even if awkward.
Phone lines are a joke... not!    Last time... was 12th in queue and sat on phone for 45mins.

How about online booking?

I am still waiting for District Nurse to recontact for Ma's Booster and Flu jabs. However, I have had Booster/Flu jabs and she has no contact with anyone else, so...

[Ithoriel]

Last time I contacted my Health Centre, which was yesterday, I was first in the queue and waited a matter of seconds after the recorded message directing you to other services for certain conditions.

Same the time before.

I did have to wait about fifteen minutes when I phoned first thing a couple of months ago and was caught up in the rush of people looking for a consult that day.

Postcode lottery or dumb luck?

[Raider4]

Last time I contacted my Health Centre, which was yesterday, I was first in the queue and waited a matter of seconds after the recorded message directing you to other services for certain conditions.

Good for you. Believe me when I tell you that not everyone has that experience. It is next to impossible for us to contact our GP surgery.

And the frontline staff are experiencing the brunt of people's frustration at not being able to see a doctor:
'We're not battle-axes', say GP receptionists
GP receptionists face increasing abuse, doctors say

[Orcs]

I managed to get a face to face appointment yesterday.

Was also told to book in for Diabetic health check, as they now have enough phials to take blood.

Told to see "Nurse Pippa", not sure I like this informality , think it was better when we referred to them as "Nurse Smith" etc. 

[Techno II]

Our health centre/surgery is fine, as far as getting through on the phone.

It's the contact number at the health board that's impossible to access. 

(I like being able to call the nurses by their first names..They all call me "Phil".)

Cheers - Phil.

[Heedless Horseman]

A bit lost here, Phil. Health Centre/Surgery should be able to arrange jabs internally... or flag up contact to Health Board... whatever that is?

[Techno II]

Hi, Keith.

You could call our local 'Docs' a health centre...or surgery.

It's our health authority...
..the equivalent of the top of the NHS in England that appears to have lost the plot, a wee bit.

For our first two jabs, we went to the local surgery.
But the surgery appear to have decided that they're having nothing to do with the booster jabs.

Cheers - Phil.

[Ithoriel]

Told to see "Nurse Pippa", not sure I like this informality , think it was better when we referred to them as "Nurse Smith" etc. 

Staff at the health centre call me Mike and I call them by their first names. Same with the taxi firm I tend to use. Same at work, when I worked for a living.

I prefer that. Mr Such-and-such or Ms So-and-so seems so Victorian to me. We're "a' Jock Tamson's bairns" after all.

But I'm sure that if I took my grandmother's tack of,"You don't know me well enough to call me by my first name!" they'd oblige by being more formal.