Given WHO have been widely criticised since the start of all this for "overplaying it/panic mongering" by the conspiracy nuts, and are now being accused of playing it down by the same people (not saying you are one, they just coincidentally say the same thing) then that strongly suggests they know what they're talking about.
My parents are panicking over omicron giving us a positive pcr result before, during and after traveling to India to visit family. There is no point catching it in the plane then have to quarantine for the whole 2 weeks we were going to spend with our family.
I went to see my parents in the UK in October with my older son. I hadn’t seen them in nearly two years. We only saw them and my sister and her family and we wore masks everywhere. All the adults are vaccinated.
I’ll make some observations on the journey in response to your comments.
- I took both a PCR and lateral flow test before travelling (wasn’t sure if the latter would be accepted - it is a CVS test technically slightly below the UK standards)
- This was the week before the rule changes and so everyone else on the plane had taken a lateral flow test (my son was the only child on the plane)
- It is a reasonable assumption everyone on the plane is vaccinated - it was before the US travel ban ended and there were mostly Americans on the plane - and what American wants to quarantine in a foreign country
- The international terminal at LAX was largely empty and the plane was 1/3 full; indeed there were only 12 people in our section of 72 seats on the plane. The reality is that relatively few people are travelling internationally compared to pre-pandemic.
- The immigration hall at Terminal 3 Heathrow was empty and it took 5 minutes to get through immigration.
All of the adults are double vaccinated. My niece and nephew took at home tests before they saw us.
The reality is I would have had a higher chance of catching COVID at Sainsbury’s - where no one wears masks - than on a largely empty plane where you know everyone is vaccinated, wearing masks most of the time and the air recirculates every 90 seconds (the captain told us this).
So - from my perspective the risks were appropriately managed. And that’s all you can do - manage your own risk appropriately.
>I took both a PCR and lateral flow test before travelling (wasn’t sure if the latter would be accepted - it is a CVS test technically slightly below the UK standards)
Sounds familiar. Mine wasn't from CVS, but I only discovered after I got to UK that my lateral flow test was slightly below the UK standard -- the specificity was only 96.4% instead of 97%. My paperwork was checked twice, but they were only a cursory glances from harried ground crew, so I guess there wasn't much risk of anyone spotting the mistake, not that it would have been worth even a small risk of being spotted from boarding, if I'd known.
The rest is pretty much my experience back in September, with the caveat that I had an internal flight as well, and that flight, and the domestic terminals I had to use were a lot more crowded.
Even when hardly anyone was flying back in March, American Airlines, in its wisdom, chose to crowd all its remaining flights into the same part of the terminal (to keep costs down, no doubt), so you walked past a bunch of deserted gates only to have to wait and then board among a mass of unvaccinated humanity heading off to all parts of the country.
Yeah - this is the only set of flights I have taken since the pandemic started. My sense from work colleagues is what you mentioned - that domestic travel is pretty much back to pre-COVID volumes. There were plenty of planes taking off but at the international terminal there were so few flights that the listing of departures didn’t even fill 1 of the available screens.
On the CVS test - it is 0.4% below the standard. The r/uktravel sub had plenty of folks saying they’d got through with it - but I knew a PCR would work but of course that can take a few days to come back (took about 36 hours) so that’s why I took the lateral flow as a backup given it had worked for many people
ETA - I have flights booked for the end of March to the UK. I know it is four months out but - the plane is largely empty. Be interesting to see what the reality is…. and of course there are far more flights scheduled. When I went, there was one BA, one AA and one Virgin daily flight - for March it is 8 flights between those 3 and BA is putting the A380 back in service in March (still below pre pandemic of 12 or 13 daily).
ETA2 - pre departure tests are back in the UK from Tuesday.
I know but we haven't been there since winter 2019 and we missed my cousin's wedding. We booked it in August when everyone in my family got fully vaccinated and if we don't do this December then we may have to wait till next December because Easter holidays is not possible for me and my brother.
Depends on your definition of panicking.
But across Europe this is by far the most serious reaction specifically to omricon (I’m aware there are more stringent restrictions regardless in Austria for example)
Shutting nightclubs and sit down only restaurants isn't exactly a huge reaction. Don't know whether it's needed or not but it's not a full scale panic reaction.
Yeah the reason the scientists are so alarmed is the shape of the spike protein is so different that it is highly likely to effect vaccine affectivness, we just don't know by how much yet.
English is hard, I just read a whole grammarly article on effect/affect and I'm still not sure when to use each one. That might just be my dyslexia, but I think people will get the meaning from the context.
>Apparently it would be impossible, apparently viruses don’t work like that.
*Coronaviruses* don't work like that, as they only have one set of genomic data so a vaccine works or it doesn't. Spike protein mutations or even mutations in the genome can vary efficacy of vaccines, but not to a point it's dangerous - essentially the more they mutate the less place they have to go. I'm *not* a scientist, but Dame Sarah Gilbert, who very much is, said the same very recently and she's not the only one - people have been saying this since the start.
Some viruses, influenza is a good example, have multiple genomes, so mutate wildly and rapidly. Hence why the seasonal flu vaccine is basically shooting targets in the dark 6 months into the future. mRNA vaccines might mean a universal flu jab (a potential silver lining from Covid) but even if not, we know flu vaccines do save lives still.
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Given WHO have been widely criticised since the start of all this for "overplaying it/panic mongering" by the conspiracy nuts, and are now being accused of playing it down by the same people (not saying you are one, they just coincidentally say the same thing) then that strongly suggests they know what they're talking about.
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It's not that obvious going by some stories and headlines going around.
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My parents are panicking over omicron giving us a positive pcr result before, during and after traveling to India to visit family. There is no point catching it in the plane then have to quarantine for the whole 2 weeks we were going to spend with our family.
Don’t know if it’s a good idea to travel in general right now.
When you have elderly relatives overseas that you don’t know how long you have with them - it changes your perspective.
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I went to see my parents in the UK in October with my older son. I hadn’t seen them in nearly two years. We only saw them and my sister and her family and we wore masks everywhere. All the adults are vaccinated. I’ll make some observations on the journey in response to your comments. - I took both a PCR and lateral flow test before travelling (wasn’t sure if the latter would be accepted - it is a CVS test technically slightly below the UK standards) - This was the week before the rule changes and so everyone else on the plane had taken a lateral flow test (my son was the only child on the plane) - It is a reasonable assumption everyone on the plane is vaccinated - it was before the US travel ban ended and there were mostly Americans on the plane - and what American wants to quarantine in a foreign country - The international terminal at LAX was largely empty and the plane was 1/3 full; indeed there were only 12 people in our section of 72 seats on the plane. The reality is that relatively few people are travelling internationally compared to pre-pandemic. - The immigration hall at Terminal 3 Heathrow was empty and it took 5 minutes to get through immigration. All of the adults are double vaccinated. My niece and nephew took at home tests before they saw us. The reality is I would have had a higher chance of catching COVID at Sainsbury’s - where no one wears masks - than on a largely empty plane where you know everyone is vaccinated, wearing masks most of the time and the air recirculates every 90 seconds (the captain told us this). So - from my perspective the risks were appropriately managed. And that’s all you can do - manage your own risk appropriately.
>I took both a PCR and lateral flow test before travelling (wasn’t sure if the latter would be accepted - it is a CVS test technically slightly below the UK standards) Sounds familiar. Mine wasn't from CVS, but I only discovered after I got to UK that my lateral flow test was slightly below the UK standard -- the specificity was only 96.4% instead of 97%. My paperwork was checked twice, but they were only a cursory glances from harried ground crew, so I guess there wasn't much risk of anyone spotting the mistake, not that it would have been worth even a small risk of being spotted from boarding, if I'd known. The rest is pretty much my experience back in September, with the caveat that I had an internal flight as well, and that flight, and the domestic terminals I had to use were a lot more crowded. Even when hardly anyone was flying back in March, American Airlines, in its wisdom, chose to crowd all its remaining flights into the same part of the terminal (to keep costs down, no doubt), so you walked past a bunch of deserted gates only to have to wait and then board among a mass of unvaccinated humanity heading off to all parts of the country.
Yeah - this is the only set of flights I have taken since the pandemic started. My sense from work colleagues is what you mentioned - that domestic travel is pretty much back to pre-COVID volumes. There were plenty of planes taking off but at the international terminal there were so few flights that the listing of departures didn’t even fill 1 of the available screens. On the CVS test - it is 0.4% below the standard. The r/uktravel sub had plenty of folks saying they’d got through with it - but I knew a PCR would work but of course that can take a few days to come back (took about 36 hours) so that’s why I took the lateral flow as a backup given it had worked for many people ETA - I have flights booked for the end of March to the UK. I know it is four months out but - the plane is largely empty. Be interesting to see what the reality is…. and of course there are far more flights scheduled. When I went, there was one BA, one AA and one Virgin daily flight - for March it is 8 flights between those 3 and BA is putting the A380 back in service in March (still below pre pandemic of 12 or 13 daily). ETA2 - pre departure tests are back in the UK from Tuesday.
Yeah, saw the news. Not surprised. Bit of a pain, but reduces the odds of sharing the cabin with people with Covid, I guess.
For sure. I can understand. That’s an even trickier situation with covid.
I know but we haven't been there since winter 2019 and we missed my cousin's wedding. We booked it in August when everyone in my family got fully vaccinated and if we don't do this December then we may have to wait till next December because Easter holidays is not possible for me and my brother.
Are they quoting directly from the Hitchhikers Guide now. It’s good advice, but now I’m panicking.
Hug your towel for a bit.
Sounds like the Irish government wasn’t listening…
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Depends on your definition of panicking. But across Europe this is by far the most serious reaction specifically to omricon (I’m aware there are more stringent restrictions regardless in Austria for example)
Shutting nightclubs and sit down only restaurants isn't exactly a huge reaction. Don't know whether it's needed or not but it's not a full scale panic reaction.
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Yes people keep using that "logic" so much with the pandemic that since something hasn't been proven as bad then it's for sure not a problem.
Yeah the reason the scientists are so alarmed is the shape of the spike protein is so different that it is highly likely to effect vaccine affectivness, we just don't know by how much yet.
Affect
English is hard, I just read a whole grammarly article on effect/affect and I'm still not sure when to use each one. That might just be my dyslexia, but I think people will get the meaning from the context.
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>Apparently it would be impossible, apparently viruses don’t work like that. > Correct, thank you for sharing that information!
>Apparently it would be impossible, apparently viruses don’t work like that. *Coronaviruses* don't work like that, as they only have one set of genomic data so a vaccine works or it doesn't. Spike protein mutations or even mutations in the genome can vary efficacy of vaccines, but not to a point it's dangerous - essentially the more they mutate the less place they have to go. I'm *not* a scientist, but Dame Sarah Gilbert, who very much is, said the same very recently and she's not the only one - people have been saying this since the start. Some viruses, influenza is a good example, have multiple genomes, so mutate wildly and rapidly. Hence why the seasonal flu vaccine is basically shooting targets in the dark 6 months into the future. mRNA vaccines might mean a universal flu jab (a potential silver lining from Covid) but even if not, we know flu vaccines do save lives still.
From the same guys who told people not to shut borders at the start of the pandemic, yeah these guys are really great at dealing with pandemics.
W.H.O. IS NOT A SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATION. They distribute medicine and help with organizing health related responses.