Covid 19 🐐- It's Back Baby!

[Cheasty]

@Tim_Riggins

Variants were originally denied by hardcore C19 lockdowners but became the flavour of the month from Dec-20 once the vaccine came on board.

If you look back to when the first major variant appeared pre-Christmas 2020 it was @Tierneevin1979 who was poo-pooing it.

@Tierneevin1979

I think it’s the latest in a series of clownish pronouncements from the UK government, yes. I’ve seen zero science to back up their bullshit.

@Tierneevin1979

Of all the nonsense regarding Covid, the shite talk on how contagious the virus is takes the biscuit. In the reporting from the UK, government officials are quoted as saying the R number is increasing from 1.1-1.2 to 1.4 due to this new strain. It’s complete horseshit. The basic reproductive number R0 is at least 3 and maybe 5 or 6. The actual transmission rate Rt depends on a multitude of factors, but it basically comes down to how many people are interacting closely with other people in a location where the virus is in circulation. What drives the Rt up is people’s behavior, far more than the genomic sequence of the individual strain.

But short lived poster @Padraig_O_Gammon was in little doubt that the variant was indeed real and a serious problem. He was sadly proved correct.

@Padraig_O_Gammon

But Chris Whitty and John Edmonds are saying it’s real. Now, who knows, maybe I’m naive, but these are actual experts, and I don’t think they’d make stuff up for the fun of it.

If there is even a chance that what they are saying is true, then it’s a very serious development and countries are right to shut down travel from the UK.

Would you agree that a virus with the same effects but with 70% increased transmissibility would be a very serious public health matter, more serious than the already serious situation?

And that therefore, approaching the situation on the basis that this news is true is by far the most rational approach for policy makers?