How COVID-19 is affecting society

[Innula Zenovka]

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[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Unjabbed parents, get jabbed or get arrangements.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Who are Britain’s six million vaccine refuseniks?

“I just don’t see the point in being vaccinated – the virus is mainly fatal to the middle aged,” says one man in his twenties.“I still feel sceptical and quite

www.thetimes.co.uk

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eta

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Hundreds off work ill at leading London hospital trust as Omicron cases surge

Non-essential services cancelled and staff redeployed to intensive care to treat influx of Covid admissions

www.theguardian.com

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[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Romana]

Who are Britain’s six million vaccine refuseniks?

“I just don’t see the point in being vaccinated – the virus is mainly fatal to the middle aged,” says one man in his twenties.“I still feel sceptical and quite

www.thetimes.co.uk

Evernote link

eta

That's my brother's ex (hereinafter to be known as THAT BITCH), four rows down. "Oh, the vaccines don't work, so why get a booster?". I don't know if she's forbidding my nephew to get a booster; he's 19 now, and an adult) but she's definitely discouraging him. She's lucky I never see her (and I guess so am I, because I'd get done for assault). My brother figures the college will require students to be boosted, just like they did the first vaccinations, and she (and he, if he's foolish enough to listen) won't have a choice.
But I'll be afraid for him until that happens.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

I hate terms like "vaccine skepticism" as if there was at this point a rational reason for not getting the jab.

 

[Sid]

Here in NL well informed sources say that the Government will announce another lockdown for the next 3 weeks, starting tonight. Only essential businesses open (supermarkets, bakeries, greengrocers, pharmacies, chemists, takeaway food) and the rest all closed. No theaters, cinemas, musea, events, hairdressers, restaurants, bars, cafés, other shops etc. All closed. Max 2 people together on the street when from the same household otherwise at least 1,5 meter distancing. Mouth masks mandatory in shops that are open and in public transportation. Working from home where possible. Schools close starting this weekend, one week early to the normal holiday recess.
And who knows what more will come up. The PM and the health minister will give a press conference in half an hour.

But one thing is for sure our national outbreak management team takes the omicron variation very seriously. Another sober Christmas ahead. I hope that everybody who exchanges gifts was smart enough, so they did their Christmas shopping on time. Amazon and other online stores plus the postal services will no doubt be flooded and deliver times will sky rocket to well over a week within a day I guess.

There will be a lot of groaning. A lot of people don't understand or don't want to understand any longer how serious the situation can become very rapidly if we don't act.

In other news: Tuesday I will get my booster. Yay.

Edit to add: The well informed sources were well informed indeed. Except a few sport restrictions, this was pretty much it.
Plus no more than two visitors a day at home, and with Christmas max 4 visitors a day.

 

[Isabeau]

Yeah, as of yesterday, we’re on semi-lockdown here.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

And here...

Ministers reportedly considering Omicron ‘circuit breaker’ in England

Post-Christmas measures could include ban on mixing indoors except for work, with outdoor service only at pubs and restaurants

www.theguardian.com

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Two-week Omicron circuit breaker would ban meetings indoors

Meeting other people indoors would be banned for two weeks after Christmas under plans being drawn up for a “circuit breaker” to slow Omicron.Ministers are due

www.thetimes.co.uk

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Meeting other people indoors would be banned for two weeks after Christmas under plans being drawn up for a “circuit breaker” to slow Omicron.

Ministers are due imminently to present proposals under which England would return to restrictions last seen in April after models suggested that this could halve a peak of hospital admissions that might otherwise break the NHS. However, Boris Johnson has not yet approved the plans and insisted yesterday that he was not “closing things down”.

More measures before Christmas have not been ruled out but Johnson is reluctant to toughen restrictions after the rebellion against plan B this week by 100 of his MPs and the North Shropshire by-election defeat.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

UK scientists: bring in curbs now or face up to 2m daily Covid infections as Omicron spreads

Deaths could hit 6,000 a day and delaying restrictions until New Year will cut effectiveness, say Sage experts

www.theguardian.com

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[Innula Zenovka]

I hate terms like "vaccine skepticism" as if there was at this point a rational reason for not getting the jab.

However, as one of the co-authors of the article discussed here suggests, it may well seem a rational decision, if you're on a zero-hours contract and are double-vaxxed anyway, to weigh the possibility of catching Covid and becoming symptomatic against the possibility of having to take a couple of days off sick, without pay, just before Christmas, if you experience similar side effects from the booster that you had from the initial shots (if you had a bad time with those, which many people did).

One in 13 Covid double-jabbed in UK reluctant to get booster, study finds

UCL researchers say hesitant also more likely to come from poorer backgrounds, with consequences for socioeconomic inequality

www.theguardian.com

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People may be reluctant because they feel they have enough immunity and have “done their bit”, Fancourt said.

“They now feel like it’s asking too much of them,” she said. “We really need to understand more why some people aren’t getting boosters.”

In January, low-paid workers were avoiding Covid tests because of a lack of financial support. People on zero-hours contracts are now worried about becoming ill from side-effects of the booster and missing days of work – a particular problem before Christmas, Fancourt added.

 

[danielravennest]

Yeah, as of yesterday, we’re on semi-lockdown here.

I'm back in self-imposed lockdown because cases are spiking in Georgia.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I'm back in self-imposed lockdown because cases are spiking in Georgia.

Me too. I'm taking no chances.

 

[Romana]

Well, as one of the co-authors of the article discussed here suggests, it may well seem a rational decision, if you're on a zero-hours contract and are double-vaxxed anyway, to weigh the possibility of catching Covid and becoming symptomatic against the possibility of having to take a couple of days off sick, without pay, just before Christmas, if you experience similar side effects from the booster that you had from the initial shots (if you had a bad time with those, which many people did).

One in 13 Covid double-jabbed in UK reluctant to get booster, study finds

UCL researchers say hesitant also more likely to come from poorer backgrounds, with consequences for socioeconomic inequality

www.theguardian.com

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According to my brother, it depends what vaccine you're double vaxxed on, but even though I'm triple-vaxxed (full dose booster) on the one he tells me is the best, he told me --at great length to batten down the hatches, so to speak. He's quite shaken by the rate omicron spreads at.
So yeah, what Daniel said.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

We're being told here that, because of the alarming speed at which Omicron is spreading, even among people who've had boosters, that, while the likelihood of it being symptomatic is very low, and the likelihood it will require hospitalization is lower still, so many people are becoming infected that even the very small proportion who do need treatment in hospital, combined with the number of health care workers not at work because they're self-isolating, and the numbers in hospital anyway with Covid, is going to put hospitals under an impossible strain.

 

[Sid]

We're being told here that, because of the alarming speed at which Omicron is spreading, even among people who've had boosters, that, while the likelihood of it being symptomatic is very low, and the likelihood it will require hospitalization is lower still, so many people are becoming infected that even the very small proportion who do need treatment in hospital, combined with the number of health care workers not at work because they're self-isolating, and the numbers in hospital anyway with Covid, is going to put hospitals under an impossible strain.

That is exactly why we are back to the lockdown phase we where already in last winter as well. Omicron seems to spread really easy. Chances of a (partly) collapse of appropriate healthcare in hospitals is really a possibility in the next few weeks. Hopefully enough people will take it seriously and act accordingly.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

One bit of good news.

A great volunteer army mobilises to defeat Omicron

Usually when you find a crowd walking purposefully towards Stamford Bridge on a Saturday afternoon in December, it means Chelsea are about to give someone a fes

www.thetimes.co.uk

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[Innula Zenovka]

That is exactly why we are back to the lockdown phase we where already in last winter as well. Omicron seems to spread really easy. Chances of a (partly) collapse of appropriate healthcare in hospitals is really a possibility in the next few weeks. Hopefully enough people will take it seriously and act accordingly.

The Health Service here is already moving onto "a war footing"

Covid patients treated at home to protect NHS

Thousands of Covid-19 patients will be treated in their own homes in an expansion of “virtual wards” to help the health service cope with a surge in Omicron c

www.thetimes.co.uk

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[Katheryne Helendale]

Yeah, as of yesterday, we’re on semi-lockdown here.

No lock downs here, yet. Just a statewide mask mandate for everyone regardless of vaccination status here in California. But in my red-leaning, Trump-supporting county, guess how many stores and businesses are enforcing it? If you guessed "none", you'd be right.