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Wednesday 15 December 2021

Day 638 of self-isolation - Omicron

Omicron

78,610 new Covid cases in the UK today; probably at least half of those are Omicron. And this is the largest number of new cases in a day since the pandemic began.

But hospitalisations aren't too bad (yet - there's a lag of several days) and the death rate, although averaging over 100, isn't nearly as bad as it was in the first two waves.

We also know that there's a major shortage of testing kits, which means that this might be capping the official figures.

Omicron is a lot more infectious than delta, which was more infectious than alpha, which was more infectious than the original Covid. That's how evolution works - a mutation that reproduces faster, replaces the old variant. Omicron won't be the last variant.

The government response is to order a million boosters per day until the end of the year. I had mine a few weeks ago, but people getting theirs today, won 't be covered until a couple of weeks later. And the target looks very optimistic.

The number of new cases is going to rocket, but I'm hopeful that this won't lead to the sort of death toll we've seen before, because of all the people who are double-vaccinated, all those with the booster, and with all the new treatments that we're seeing now. This is going to hit the unvaccinated much harder than the rest of us - but that's their choice.

And what happens in the UK in the next few weeks, will happen in the USA in the new year. Plus, there's a lot more unvaccinated there. Why is that? I don't know, but perhaps it's because the pandemic somehow got politicised, and being unvaccinated is a badge of courage.




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