From: slider@anashram.com

Omicron variant may be spreading faster in UK than in South Africa

The UK is going to see a large wave of omicron cases and deaths in the
next few months, a scientist advising the government has said. John
Edmunds of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a member of
the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said that sequencing suggested omicron had been around since mid-October and the variant may be spreading even faster in the UK than it is in South Africa, where it was
first detected.

“I think over the next two months, we’re going to see a really rather
large wave of omicron,” he said at a Royal Society of Medicine briefing. “We’re getting large numbers of cases and that will result in a large number of hospitalisations and, unfortunately, it will result in a large
number of deaths, I’m pretty sure of that.”

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2237475-covid-19-news-uk-will-see-large-wave-of-omicron-scientist-says/

The UK Health Security Agency identified a further 249 omicron cases on Thursday, almost twice the number announced the day before, bringing the
UK total to 817. At this rate of growth, the UK could have more than
60,000 cases of omicron before Christmas, Edmunds said.

The overall covid-19 numbers in the UK show cases rising 8 per cent week-on-week and hospital admissions rising 3.9 per cent, while deaths
have risen by 0.7 per cent.

In South Africa, covid-19 cases have surged by 255 per cent in the past
week. The country’s biggest private healthcare provider said it is seeing patients with milder symptoms than those in previous waves, with fewer requiring oxygen therapy.

A report from SPI-M-O, a modelling group advising the UK government, says
if the characteristics of omicron estimated from South Africa apply in the
UK, there is the potential for a peak of infections much larger than the
one seen in January 2021. “If omicron in the UK combines increased transmissibility and immune escape, irrespective of severity, it is highly likely that very stringent measures would be required to control growth
and keep R below 1,” the report said.

### - alarm is growing here today over just HOW fuckin' infectious omicron actually IS??

and they's speaking in terms of an 'attack-rate' to describe this...

e.g., omicron is currently being assigned an 'attack-rate' of 90%, this
meaning that if there are 10 people in a room and someone with omicron
walks into that same room, then 9 outta 10 of the people IN that room WILL
all get it just from being in the same room regardless of masks,
vaccinations, boosters, previous infections of covid: everything!!!

which is pretty damn rough coz that means *everyone's* gonna be getting
omicron eventually!

and all we can possibly DO about it is to hope that it's... mild

coz boy if it ain't then the fuckin' fucker's fucked!?

it's all coming down to THAT now...

(last chance to place yer bets?)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)