Things have gone a bit mad here in the UK very quickly. Our government are saying the spread is like nothing they have ever seen before and the public need to realise we are in a Covid emergency.   They say it will be the dominant strain in London within 24hrs.

  The first few patients are turning up in hospital aged 18 - 75 and most are double vaccinated. The first death from the new varient  occured here today and was from one of the first cases 10 days ago.  That's all the information they are releasing but they are predicting that the true figure is that  200,000 people in UK today contracted omicron.  (Link below)

They say double vaccination is not enough and to get booster but dont say for how long that protection will last.  They want to boost 1million every day and brought in the militaries to aid this.   As a result we have 6hr queues of people waiting for vaccine. NHS has gone to top alert level and  signs of panic buying hitting the shops as people are stocking up.  

I dont know if this panic is necessary but something has really spooked our government and all the opposition parties as they are all suddenly agreeing to work together.

Yesterday the UK was cautious but sane...today it's gone a bit crazy without warning.

Be prepared but whether that's from omicron or from the mania and I am not yet sure.  

Hz x

P.S.   UPDATE Printed a few mins ago our governmemt advisers (SAGE) has updated modelling saying we should be protected to some degree from severe illness by omicron.  So having scared the country shirtless they are now doubling back....as I said mad  think they all on something today.  We are normally quite reserved.

2 dose Pfz 84% protection against death by omicron.

2 dose Az  77.1% protection

Wanes between 3-6 months to 61.3%.

Boosting dose of Pfz estimates to give 93% protection from death and 71% against symptoms.

This is just UK modelling waiting for published figures of how they came to this.

COVID-19: Omicron infecting 200,000 in UK every day, Health Secretary Sajid Javid says - as COVID passport changes announced | UK News | Sky News

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-omicron-now-estimated-to-be-20-of-infections-in-england-as-coronavirus-pass-changes-announced-12495087

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10304005/TWO-Covid-jabs-slash-risk-dying-Omicron-hospitalised-84.html

"Saving the economy" is destroying that economy ! 

If Norway numbers on cases/deaths are an indication of what countries may expect it looks "bad"...Did some "politicians" finally wake up or so...realized what a total mess they did create...

There are conflicting studies on vaccines/immunity...still...Omicron is high speed !

It feels like March of last year, just watching for it all to set in stateside. With the speed and doubling times, it feels like were headed for another shutdown, and shortages again.

Looks like Déjà vu.

Note the Manufacturing affected by this.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/14/chinas-zhejiang-fights-new-covid-outbreak-amid-omicron

Things have gone mad very very quickly! It will be interesting (maybe not the right word) what the next few weeks hold.

Lol interesting might be the right word to use but weeks might be too hopeful  :-)