Light at the end of the tunnel?

[Old git]

I should be in Thailand now - my routine of two decades standing rudely disrupted for a second season.

But I'm getting very optimistic that we really are on the final furlong with this wretched bug now.

The Omicron cycle, as experienced by South Africa, seems to last about six weeks, primarily mopping up those who have previously escaped infection. It's also clear that the Covid 'machine' is shutting down in many countries. Large parts of Canada are actively discouraging testing, India's official case numbers are being dismissed as a joke, and from my own correspondence, Omicron appears to be much more advanced in Thailand than the official data indicates. Here in the UK, a senior government medical officer has stepped down - rats and ships come to mind. Although not yet conceded by the UK government, the complete failure of the vaccines to stem the tide of Omicron is evident to all, and demand for vaccination has almost vanished.

We're about two thirds through the Omicron cycle in the UK - Thailand is perhaps one third way through. Many countries appear to have their case numbers cresting right now.

I'm hoping that in the immediate aftermath, governments around the world will be embarrassed by the ultimate failure of the lockdowns and vaccination campaigns, and will want to consign all the accumulated paraphernalia and reminders of Covid to the bin as soon as possible. Quarantines, mask mandates, vaccination 'passports' etc - will, I suspect, be binned in very short order.

How soon? Next month? Possible - but March/April looks much more likely. I want to return to a land of smiles where those smiles can be seen again..

[Nirish guy]

Although not yet conceded by the UK government, the complete failure of the vaccines to stem the tide of Omicron is evident to all..

For clarity - no one, ever, said that being vaccinated would stop you getting Omicron, vaccination was merely to reduce the effects and that as well as Omicron being less aggressive seems to have worked, hence why 90% of the patients in ICU wards in the UK and UN vaccinated.

Can we imagine just for a second what NHS numbers would have looked like if Omicron HAD of been as or more aggressive than the Delta variant, the NHS would have been overrun for sure ! So, thank goodness for vaccines I say ( and Omicrom not being as aggressive as it appears we dodged a bullet there ( well so far anyway until the next time perhaps :-(.

[pong]

I am not too optimistic. remember how long it took for the Thai (govmt.) to realise that after vaccination people could be admitted in relative safety-to close that door as a knee-reflex ASAP when this omicron came to light? However I too wished it would be earlier, I expect it will take just a few more monthes for them to realise what you describe here. OR maybe untill they have incented their own money-spinning vaccine special for this and oblige any visitor to take it at Swampy.........??

[goji]

The vaccines reduce the incidence rate for severe COVID.

The UK has one of the highest vaccination rates and once almost everyone has been vaccinated, the rate of vaccination will slow down, because there is hardly anyone else left to do.
Also, the Westminster government is in the process of demonstrating how to deal with COVID in 2022. Almost no restrictions and rely on vaccines to keep the hospitalisation rate down. Numbers with COVID are already falling, so the policy is working..

The Thai government is still stuck with a mindset suitable for COVID in 2020. I guess they will catch up eventually.

[bkkguy]

of course, in the worst-case scenario, the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train with the next variant to show its spike somewhere among the teeming masses, one that proves to be both more transmissible AND more virulent than Omicron and blows all our hopes and dreams out of the water for yet another year :mad:

while my glass may be suffering from being too much less than half-full, I don't think the fat lady is anywhere near singing yet, and the Omicron wave passing its peak and COVID becoming endemic may not be quite the saviour that many people, including many politicians, seem to think it will be!

[Jellybean]

Copies of posts #2 and #4, together with posts mainly relating to the Covid situation in the UK, have been moved to the Everything Else forum and given the new title, Covid cases, vaccination rates, masks and Omicron, particularly in the UK.

To contribute to the new topic, please click on the following link:
https://sawatdeenetwork.com/v4/showthread.php?22597-Covid-cases-vaccination-rates-masks-and-Omicron-particularly-in-the-UK

[Brad the Impala]

The UK has one of the highest vaccination rates and once almost everyone has been vaccinated.

The UK had one of the highest vaccine rates in the early days. The effectiveness of the UK vaccine drive waned, undermined by the feckless government. The UK are now just average in proportion of population vaccinated.

https://www.sortiraparis.com/news/coronavirus/articles/240384-vaccine-in-the-world-as-of-friday-14-january-2022-the-percentage-of-people-vaccinated-by-country/lang/en

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-vaccinations-tracker.html

[StevieWonders]

The UK had one of the highest vaccine rates in the early days. The effectiveness of the UK vaccine drive waned, undermined by the feckless government. The UK are now just average in proportion of population vaccinated.

https://www.sortiraparis.com/news/coronavirus/articles/240384-vaccine-in-the-world-as-of-friday-14-january-2022-the-percentage-of-people-vaccinated-by-country/lang/en

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-vaccinations-tracker.html
I do so agree, Brad, people must be discouraged from taking responsibility for themselves and rely solely on their government before they act

[dinagam]

.....

[Oliver2]

Taking responsibility for themselves is fine, as long as it doesn't involve threatening the welfare, health and even lives of fellow citizens. it is reasonable for society to expect that those who are dangerous - drunk drivers, mask/vaccine refuses, for example- to be restrained. After all, we don't leave it up to drivers to decide whether they drink alcohol. nor (in most countries) swagger about with guns.

[mr giggles]

.....

Dingers is on a rant again displaying his frightful ignorance ...

[dinagam]

.....

[dinagam]

Look at what is happening in Gibraltar although almost all of its citizens have been been fully vaccinated and are being given boosters and more...

[StevieWonders]

Taking responsibility for themselves is fine, as long as it doesn't involve threatening the welfare, health and even lives of fellow citizens. it is reasonable for society to expect that those who are dangerous - drunk drivers, mask/vaccine refuses, for example- to be restrained. After all, we don't leave it up to drivers to decide whether they drink alcohol. nor (in most countries) swagger about with guns.The Catholic Church has long since held a similar belief; ordinary people can’t be trusted. It was formerly known as “No salvation outside the Church “ - nowadays it’s the dictates of the State outside which society cannot survive

[Oliver2]

"No such thing as society?" as Thatcher claimed. Or, to put it another way, each man for himself. Yup, that's capitalism for you.

[goji]

"No such thing as society?" as Thatcher claimed. Or, to put it another way, each man for himself. Yup, that's capitalism for you.

Capitalism has mostly enabled the R&D and production capabilities to produce billions of vaccines. A wonderful economic system.

In comparison, not one communist country has produced a vaccine worth having.

Apologies for going off topic and introducing some facts into what was otherwise becoming a fake news thread.

[dinagam]

...

[arsenal]

"Yup, that's capitalism for you."
Oliver

"Capitalism has mostly enabled the R&D and production capabilities to produce billions of vaccines. A wonderful economic system."
Goji

Everything in fact. Everything that we love has come from capitalism. Socialism/communism destroy everything they touch.

China under communism = famine.
China under capitalism * = tables groaning with food and everyone over 26 is as fat as a pig for slaughter.

* Just about the most capitalistic country in the world. Authoritarian yes, but still capitalist.

[dinagam]

... and they definitely produce better vaccines than those from the western capitalists. Proportionately much fewer fat Chinese [Deleted] succumbed to their vaccines compared to the slaughter of fat and obese westerners brought about by their allegedly superior "vaccines".

[goji]

Ignore list expanded by 1.

[Brad the Impala]

Capitalism has mostly enabled the R&D and production capabilities to produce billions of vaccines. A wonderful economic system.

In comparison, not one communist country has produced a vaccine worth having.



Cuba! Even under an economic embargo from their capitalist neighbours.


The tiny Communist-run Caribbean island has achieved this milestone by producing its own Covid vaccine, even as it struggles to keep supermarket shelves stocked amid a decades-old U.S. trade embargo.

“It is an incredible feat,” Helen Yaffe, a Cuba expert and lecturer in economic and social history at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, told CNBC via telephone..

“Those of us who have studied biotech aren’t surprised in that sense, because it has not just come out of the blue. It is the product of a conscious government policy of state investment in the sector, in both public health and in medical science.”

To date, around 86% of the Cuban population has been fully vaccinated against Covid with three doses, and another 7% have been partly inoculated against the disease, according to official statistics compiled by Our World in Data.



https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/13/why-cubas-extraordinary-covid-vaccine-success-could-provide-the-best-hope-for-the-global-south.html

[Surfcrest]

If you ever played that game as a kid, where you whisper something in someone’s ear and then see what you said sounds like, after it’s been whispered to several other people…that’s how the virus is behaving. People fully vaccinated and with boosters are getting Omicron. The vaccination is just protecting them from the more severe symptoms of the virus, but not protecting them from being infected. It’s not the same virus as it was when it started. Just like what was whispered to the first person, in the game I just explained. The virus is mutating among the unvaccinated. Until enough people are vaccinated to hinder community transmission, it will continue to mutate and require humans to get boosters.

Surfcrest

[poshglasgow]

I should be in Thailand now - my routine of two decades standing rudely disrupted for a second season.

But I'm getting very optimistic that we really are on the final furlong with this wretched bug now.

The Omicron cycle, as experienced by South Africa, seems to last about six weeks, primarily mopping up those who have previously escaped infection. It's also clear that the Covid 'machine' is shutting down in many countries. Large parts of Canada are actively discouraging testing, India's official case numbers are being dismissed as a joke, and from my own correspondence, Omicron appears to be much more advanced in Thailand than the official data indicates. Here in the UK, a senior government medical officer has stepped down - rats and ships come to mind. Although not yet conceded by the UK government, the complete failure of the vaccines to stem the tide of Omicron is evident to all, and demand for vaccination has almost vanished.

We're about two thirds through the Omicron cycle in the UK - Thailand is perhaps one third way through. Many countries appear to have their case numbers cresting right now.

I'm hoping that in the immediate aftermath, governments around the world will be embarrassed by the ultimate failure of the lockdowns and vaccination campaigns, and will want to consign all the accumulated paraphernalia and reminders of Covid to the bin as soon as possible. Quarantines, mask mandates, vaccination 'passports' etc - will, I suspect, be binned in very short order.

How soon? Next month? Possible - but March/April looks much more likely. I want to return to a land of smiles where those smiles can be seen again..

Excellent and credible report OG. Thank you.