The arrival of the latest mutation of the Coronavirus which has been codenamed Omicron along with the media panic about it has pushed the government to reintroduce some Covid restrictions. Those restrictions are the return of the red list of countries where travel cannot come into the UK from and the return of masks in shops and on public transport. However the government is not at this stage bringing back work from home or other restrictions or the furlough system. My guess would be that this is because bringing back work from home and furlough would cost money that the country has not got as that money was spent on funding the last furlough scheme. To give some idea of how bad the nation’s finances are, the government is now so skint that it can’t even fund the railway vanity wank projects like HS2 to the extent that it would once have wanted to (personally I’d rather see railway money spent on de-Beeching the railway system and reopening closed lines than on projects that give marginal speed increases).
Omicron is worrying and some governments, such as Israel, are signalling that they are worried by banning all foreigners from entering for a period of 14 days whilst they gain more knowledge of Omicron itself. It’s worth looking at what Israel does with regards to Omicron as they have an extremely and comprehensively digitised healthcare system that links into the cellphones that nearly all Israelis carry around with them. If the Israelis are concerned then maybe other nations should be as well?
The main concerns as far as I can see about Omicron is the number of mutations that are associated with it and worries that it might be more transmissible and also that it could evade vaccine protection. The problem is at this point there is much that is not known. If it is more transmissible then does that additional transmissibility come with increased levels of illness? It might do or it might not. Then there is the issue with vaccine protection. It might, like the Delta variant, be vulnerable to the current vaccines but to a lesser extent than either the Alpha or Beta variants, or it could be able to bypass vaccine protection. At present we just do not know and it would be unethical to undertake a human experiment by deliberately exposing a vaccinated individual to a challenge from the Omicron variant.
But we, at least in the West, are in a far better position than we were a year ago. A year ago there were no covid vaccines on offer to the general public. Now not only are there vaccines but also there are new antiviral treatments coming on stream. In addition to these weapons against covid that were not there a year ago, the nature of the mRNA vaccines also work in our favour. This technique is far more adaptable than other vaccine production methods when it comes to creating new vaccines for new covid variants. The thirty year quest for mRNA vaccines that came to fruition just in time for the coronavirus pandemic has given us a tool that can be relatively rapidly adapted to cope with new covid variants. Because the difficult stages of the work to create mRNA vaccines, which started as theory back in the mid 1970’s but only became practical due to technical advances in the 1990’s, has already been done it is now quicker than ever to create new vaccines to counter new strains. Vaccine companies are now stating that a new vaccine against Omicron can be ready in 100 days. This is amazing when you consider that it took 22 years to develop the Polio vaccine from the first experiments to the introduction of the Salk vaccine in the early 1950’s.
I’m not going to panic about the Omicron variant. I don’t think that we will see the 2.5% infection fatality rate that we saw in Britain during 2020. There is now vaccine coverage for covid in general and better treatments. The main problem as I see it is how the creaking and unfit for purpose NHS will manage this issue. They’ve not had the best of records with regards covid and worse than that about 15 – 20% of hospitalised covid infections have been picked up by patients in Britain’s filthy NHS hospitals who were in for other reasons.
This is a situation where we should wait and see what happens. It could end up as a nothingburger or it could be more serious if there is vaccine protection fade from the current vaccines. I’m not going to panic as I said but I will certainly be making sure that I get my booster jab booked asap.
Hmm, yes, I was appreciating your article until I arrived at ‘our filthy NHS hospitals’. I have gathered you’re not a fan of the NHS and your blog is appears to be very much about focussing on negatives as opposed to suggesting possible improvements to discuss. (I could be wrong and no disrespect).
The division between public and private healthcare could be broken down more by facilitating non excessive profit making and more inclusive insurance. Is this what you have in mind?
I’m not a fan of the NHS. It’s a 1930’s solution to 21st century problems. People picking up c19 infections does suggest that the NHS has an infection control problem. Filth in the NHS is something I’ve seen first hand. My late father in law had the misfortune to be treated in a major Hospital in London and one of the toilets that I entered there was disgraceful. There was piss over the floor and bins were overflowing. My uncle had to be treated for liver cancer in a hospital in Essex and was placed in a side room along with laundry carts containing masses of soiled bedding. When my late parents were in hospital it was a constant worry about infection control as C Diff was circulating around their hospital trust at the time.
As for solutions I believe a separation from funding and provision of healthcare might be the best option along with giving patients more direct control of their healthcare budget. Hospitals funded by a compbination of taxation and insurance but operating at arms length from a government that cannot help but interfere would be exposed to more market forces than they are at present. Currently hospitals and other healthcare setting can take an attitude to patients of ‘it’s free, there’s no choices so take it or leave it’. If the patient had the power to ‘take up they bed’ or rather their healthcare spend and walk, the healthcare providers would have an incentive to keep their settings clean and safe. One of the actions that such incentives could spur could be bringing cleaning back in house rather than contracting it out to the cheapest bidder or one that is on the govts preferred list.
When’s it all going to end, that’s what I’d like to know. Another 6 months, another ‘variant of concern’, another injection of a drug which hasn’t yet completed the clinical trials to see if it’s safe – for the rest of my life? If that’s the case I think I’d rather take a chance with covid and if I die, so be it. I’m in my 70’s so probably haven’t got much longer anyway. I’m getting fed up with it all.
First of all the current vaccines have been trialed and as they have already been administered to billions of people without enormous numbers of adverse effects then it’s fair to say that they have been trialed. I believe that the govt is to a certain extent being led by the media on this and it is the media that is pushing panic. It’s probably correct to be precautionary about this but we are in no way in as bad a position as we were back in early 2020. I believe that we are approaching with covid a similar position as we are with influenza where vaccines are given on a yearly basis but focusing on whatever is that period’s variant of concern.