The biggest thing that annoys me when people say "it's only the flu" is how that trivialises the Flu. Its a massive killer in its own right.
This publication is not from a medical journal and is instead published by Haymarket Media Group, owned by the son of Conservative Peer Lord Heseltine, Rupert. Rupert spent a number of years working for Robert Maxwell at Maxwell Communications Corporation. Robert Maxwell is Ghislaine Maxwell's father. This magazine is therefore involved with a child exploitation ring. Thought I'd just join in the rest of the flawed logic on this thread.
He’s at it again in today. So far, they haven’t spoken about anything else. No clarification or explanation whatsoever of the new guidelines. Possibly the worst briefing to date. The health secretary doesn’t sound very convincing either. Like you, I have no confidence in the questions from the media.
I don't really understand what you want either of them to say. These are the facts as I see them: Since last winter we have had a vaccination programme and since then the number of deaths caused by Covid are much lower in comparison to number of cases. Countries which do not have as many people vaccinated as the UK currently have a higher death to case rate in general. There maybe some anomalies, but in general I believe that is the trend. There is doubt that existing vaccines are as effective against the new variant. There was also this worry when delta became the dominant strain. It turns out that the vaccine is still keeping the number of deaths down. Until weeks and months go by, we will have no way of knowing if Omicron is more/less transmissible, more/less harmful or more/less likely to be disrupted by the vaccine. If anything we ought to be more risk averse, but if they bring in more restrictions and then it turns out to be less harmless, less transmissible and the vaccine is more effective, and then there is a new strain again, people will resist even more than they already are.
I was disappointed, because I expected the update to to cover the new measures that have come into force today (and the reasoning behind them). I'm sure the PM stated there has been "no change" to the guidance - which is a confusing statement. In August, it was announced that we no longer had to isolate if a "close contact" tested positive. But on the news earlier today, there was some suggestion that if a "close contact" tested positive for the "O" variant, we DO have to isolate. BTW, we had three bureaucrat's today, and no medical professionals.
The medical professionals were all on the other day, weren't they? Professors Whitty and Van Tam? If you are genuinely confused about the adjusted rules please click this link. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-52530518
They have just reported on the findings of the American heart association. Here is the base journal: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circ.144.suppl_1.10712 Makes you think about the number of elite sports persons and the massive increase in heart issues - around 500% increase. Someone operating at high heart rates for long periods will probably show up issues more. Just like trying to run an engine at full throttle when there is an oil pressure problem. Something will give. I just hope this is being looked into further otherwise they'll be protecting the NHS from heart attack sufferers next.
It was not the American Heart Association who published it. They issued a warning it is not reliable, it's right there on the website. The author has had previous works around plant proteins causing heart inflammation dismissed as pseudo-science. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Gundry In November 2021, Gundry published a poster abstract in Circulation which claimed that mRNA vaccines against the COVID-19 virus "dramatically increase" inflammation and that this was associated with heart disease. Commentators in British media cited the abstract as evidence of the mRNA vaccines being unsafe. The abstract was not peer-reviewed before publication and the American Heart Association issued an "Expression of concern" warning that the abstract may not be reliable and the Reuters Fact Check team concluded that it did "not provide reliable evidence that mRNA vaccines increase risk of heart disease".[16]
I didn’t watch it the other day. The new restrictions came in today - so I wrongly assumed they would cover the changes. I wasn’t aware I needed to binge watch.
I am reading your posts and feeling they have an antagonistic tone, but I am giving you the benefit of the doubt and trying to explain things as they happened. The new measures were put out their on Friday last week and they gave everyone several days to become accustomed to them. It would be a bit unfair to bring in rules before you'd announced them. A press conference was held with Professor Whitty and Professor Van Tam to explain these and the reasoning. The fact the journalists at today's press conference ask the same stupid questions every week is our own fault for continually buying their papers and listening to and watching them on various media outlets.
It's an awful bit of 'research' - it was raised on another thread and several posts explained why it should be ignored. Sorry to keep harping on about this - but science doesn't involve googling until you find something that seems to provide the answer that you are looking for. I didn't watch but they really should keep on repeating any changes so that it's clear. You are right that any contacts of a suspected Omicron case will need to isolate - this is just part of being sensibly cautious until the new variant is understood more.
In fact, the editor of that journal was warning about fake news being spread in his journal as far back as 2016, hence why they flag it now. https://www.cardiovascularbusiness....t/journal-leaders-warn-against-misinformation
Also, just to try and calm fears of the renegade mutant strain, Omicron, this article in Nature was published last February. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-020-0690-4
That pr1ck should be struck off. "if you choose to opt out of the vaccine then logically you choose to opt out of all supportive hospital care including ICU" "I don’t care if you have an exemption: if wearing a mask makes you that unwell you can’t wear one then you should stay at home" Sorry but they're not acceptable comments for a professional to make under the name of their profession.