Covid 19 Part XXXV-956,720 ROI (5,952 deaths) 452,946 NI (3,002 deaths) (08/01) Read OP

Eh...vaccines? And regular boosters.

Similar to flu vaccines and pneumococcal vaccines which are generally taken by 50+ folks and health care workers.

I don't see how the rampant spread of colds and sore throats heretofore in any way supports the suggestion that you can trust people not to pass illnesses along willy-nilly, so I'll assume you're trying to make the point that if Omicron is mild people don't need to be trusted. And if Omicron does turn out to be significantly milder than previous variants, I'd agree that we don't need to rely much on Joe Public's adherence to public health advice, so fingers crossed! But I'll feel much more comfortable if that call is made by professionals - or at least semi-professionals.... - on the back of significant data - rather than people at low risk, who aren't concerned about passing it along, baying to rally behind the earliest preprint that supports their cause. And yes, I do think the majority of the public can be trusted, but there are always those happy to come to work/the pub/dinner with flus and colds - firm believers in the "A trouble shared is a trouble halved" adage...

Just catching up on the case numbers for today, god that's a serious situation, glad now we decided to more or less isolate ourselves from family and friends for the festive season, good desition on our part it would seem

That's a bit extreme, surely Tony and co would go quieter than that.

What I said last night this time last night, seeing the case numbers today it seems to have borne fruit, anyway talking to extended family all over different parts of the country today, the number of them isolating or having tested positive seems to have gone beyond the beyond, all I'll say is myself and OH are just glad we made the decision to isolate this xmas.

Happened to me also. Frustrating.

Mr Nolans projections was based on the behavior the delta variant only and even now with a more transmissible variant (Omicron) it remains to be seen how that transfers in hospitalisations in the weeks ahead.

Good points. For all the talk of Omicron being supposedly "mild", you wouldn't knowingly turn up at a Christmas dinner with a cold or flu on you, never mind the Omicron variant itself, as you would know there is a strong chance you would pass it on to your relatives or friends and make them sick. So all of the talk today of people isolating and giving Christmas a miss this year seems eminently sensible.

Do they not have rounds of vaccines available to them?

Having family down today for our annual sesh. Bring on the sniffles. Nothing to be hiding away from anymore.

It wont. Nphet are goosed and they know it. By saying we wont see the impact on hospitals for 2-3 weeks they are just buying time.

I left this thread yesterday to avoid the doom and gloom. Never thought there would be 7/8 odd pages worth of stuff!!