Covid-19: I can be contagious for two weeks before you even know you’re sick.
Alpha Variant (Formerly UK variant): I’m more contagious than you are!
Delta Variant: You call that contagious? Watch This!
Omicron Variant: Hold my beer.
Omicron is on the rise. Case numbers are doubling every 2 days and it is set to be the dominant strain in the UK before Christmas. More of the cases admitted to hospital are the Omicron variant and there has been one Omicron death so far. There will be more to come.
And Boris Johnson has responded. Swiftly, even. He blocked travel from Southern African countries. It was too late, by the time omicron was identified it was likely already in the UK, but still, a swift response. It took him three weeks to block travel from India when Delta emerged, so it’s an improvement.
He implemented mandatory PCR tests for all incoming travellers, regardless of origin point and vaccination status. This is also a good idea, but it was always a good idea. It’s something we should have been doing all along. He also brought back the mask mandates for shops and public transport, later extending it to Cinemas, theatres, etc. Again, something we should never have stopped doing.
Boris has an interesting take on Freedom, and it seems to be shared by a growing number of people, at least the ones going to Anti Vaxx protests and posting anti mask memes online. They think any restriction, any rule, is a Violation of their Freedom, rather than the price they have to pay for their Freedom. They live in a society of One, and bear no responsibility to anyone else.
Put more bluntly, people like to be selfish. And it really sucks that Our Fearful Leader is one of those people. He has put the mask rules in place, to satisfy the people who keep telling him he has to do SOMETHING. And the rules are fine, as far as they go. (There’s no requirement for masks in Pubs, why? Does he think alcohol makes people More inclined to social distance?) But the rules are meaningless if not enforced, if breaking them has no consequence and after nearly two years of this, everybody knows there are no consequences.
But lo, BoJo has taken even more action. He taken more action in the last two weeks than in the last two years, he probably needs a lie down. He has opened up Booster Vaccines to everyone over 18, if it’s 3 months since their 2nd dose. The Booster campaign was already in the works, with more people being eligible incrementally, buy age. This week, it was supposed to 40-50 year olds now eligible. That’s about 9 million people. Instead, roughly 27.5 million joined the queue.
I think people mistake the point of all the restrictions and masks and vaccine drives. It wasn’t about stopping the disease. The virus is fairly unstoppable. All of the measures were to prevent the health service from being overwhelmed. To prevent the disease from overwhelming the NHS. Bojo deciding that everyone needs a booster by New Year is going to achieve what the virus did not. Boosters for all means 2 million shots a day, including Christmas day and Boxing day. All efforts going to the Booster campaigns takes resources away from everything else the NHS does.
Boris Johnson is an Irony Vortex. To protect the NHS, everyone must get boosters, thus crippling the NHS. He is telling people to be cautious, but not to cancel their Christmas parties. He wants to protect the economy, so he wants people to do their normal things. but more social interaction means more people getting sick and even if they don’t go to hospital, they’re still off work, which hurts the economy because they’re not going out. He needs the new restrictions to pass in Parliament, which will only happen with the support of Labour, the opposition, because his own party won’t support him.
Boris, in trying to please too many masters, has pleased no one. He has been the author of too many lies, inconsistencies and hypocrisies. Politically, I think he’s done for. He’s in a No-Win situation. He can only choose a way to lose.
So That Happened 