I hate the face mask propaganda pictures. It repulses me seeing this normalised. Latest delightful article from the BBC about whether compulsory face masks work (that you only need to wear in certain settings, cos corona knows not to infect you if you're in a pub):
The new variant's genetic profile has raised concerns, but there's a shortage of real-world data.
www.bbc.co.uk
archived 28 Nov 2021 07:51:37 UTC
archive.md
Spoiler alert: no, they won't.
The picture that annoyed me. It's not even particularly egregious, so maybe I'm just in a bit of a sour mood this morning. Don't sleep so great many days nowadays.
It is a rapidly evolving situation. Omicron's genetic profile has raised concerns, but there's a shortage of real-world data that means nobody has the complete picture of what it can do.
It is unclear how big a threat it poses.
Kay, so maybe stop shitting out so many fucking articles that say the same bloody thing, about how you have no clue about anything.
Yet, it is at this early stage, in an absence of definitive facts and when there is a danger of both underreacting and overreacting, that the UK government has to act.
It's like you or me deciding whether to marry someone after the first date. Only the stakes are much higher.
I thought that was a really weird comparison.
And bugger off journo, who would want to marry you?
Next quote is from a different article he wrote:
I was over the moon to get vaccinated. I've covered the coronavirus pandemic, including the race to develop a vaccine, since only a handful of people were infected in Wuhan.
So when it was my turn to roll up my sleeve at the GP surgery, it really felt like a moment.
This is him:
Looks just like you'd expect, eh? Dude had terrible side effects from the shot. Reap what you sow.
Anyway, back to the original article.
What we know is Omicron has mutations that theoretically help it to spread more quickly and there is mounting evidence of that happening in South Africa.
It also has mutations that theoretically make vaccines less effective and the World Health Organization says there is a higher risk of reinfection than with other variants.
Viruses typically mutate to become more transmissible over time? And leaky vaccines apply a pressure for the virus to acquire mutations allowing for immune escape? Why didn't all the boffins and eggheads realise this sooner?! We need to get them all in a room
and shoot them and sit them down for some Big Talk to get this sorted once and for all!
Come on, boffins!
But we don't know how transmissible it is. We don't know whether it is milder or more severe. We don't know what will really happen when it comes up against our significant wall of immunity built up through vaccines, boosters and high levels of Covid this autumn.
So significant, our wall of immunity, that people keep getting infected and reinfected, and we are never peaking in this latest wave of infections:
They are averaging at more than 40,000 a day and the R number is just above the crucial threshold of one. If Omicron can combine faster transmission with some ability to evade immunity then it too could spread.
Fuck off with your case numbers and R number.
Show me the bodies piling up in the morgues and spilling over into the streets. Show me children who aren't riddled with leukemia or who aren't hamplanets (and fuck their worthless parents for doing that to them) succumbing to this disease. Show me people being turned away from the hospital and subsequently dying because the capacity due to corona just isn't there. Oh wait, that last one is actually true, but only because they cancelled or pushed back important, life-saving treatments, so that fat old granny could get an extra day alive.
All the measures can do is buy time, but for what? Science and boosters.
Buys time for science? What kind of generic bullshit is that? What science anyway? The science that hasn't fucking worked, because we're still in this bullshit situation two years on
with no signs of it ending any soon? And yeah, boosters, that'll do the trick! The virus likely evades the vaccines, so injecting more vaccine will solve the problem! The fuck kind of retarded 'health and science correspondent' are you, James Gallagher?
There's another BBC correspondent on the pandemic whose articles (and face) also piss me off, Nick Triggle. Here is the smarmy looking fucker:
I hope you both Google your names and see this. You are scum and have terrified so many people with your nonsensical bullshit. Fuck you both.
Our immune system learns to attack several parts of that spike. The antibodies in our blood are like a pit crew descending on a Formula 1 car - each going to their target area. But the mutations in Omicron are like changing some parts of the car to bamboozle the mechanics and make their job harder.
Again with the retarded analogies. Go to a different fucking mechanic if they're 'bamboozled' by you modifying your car. Jesus fuck where do these ridiculous comparisons come from.
It might sound odd, but booster doses could limit any impact. In theory you can compensate for a less efficient immune defence by simply throwing more antibodies and T-cells at the problem, even if they are imperfect.
Yeah, that does sound odd. Because you're full of shit. Tell me, how many boosters are you expecting to deliver for this to work? What even is 'working'? What's the end game here? No corona cases? Impossible. No deaths from corona? Have we managed that for flu with the flu vaccines? Not overwhelming the NHS? Maybe stop gutting it every year and firing staff when you need them most.
Pharmaceutical companies say they could update vaccines to match the Omicron variant in around 100 days if they were needed.
James Gallagher, why aren't you doing your job and asking why creating an updated vaccine will take 100 days, when the original vaccine was formulated in a mere few hours? Do you mean it will take that long to get sent out? What's to say the virus won't mutate again and render this updated vaccine useless before it's even rolled out? Are you going to recommend taking that anyway because 'throwing more antibodies and T-cells at the problem, even if they are imperfect' is apparently your solution to everything?
It is worth noting we do have new weapons in our armoury in the form of anti-viral drugs. Paxlovid and molnupiravir both target the inner workings of the virus and experts have told me there is no suggestion their effectiveness would be knocked by the mutations seen so far.
'Inner workings of the virus', so specific and informative. Please tell me more about what 'experts' are saying to you in between you sucking their cocks.
There are already cries that the government is both over-reacting and not going far enough.
The problem for all of us is we'll only know the right answer with hindsight.
Hey, you want me to tell you what your hindsight is going to say? I'll even do it for free!
The pandemic is over. Stop spouting this scaremongering bullshit. Go back to life as normal. No, not 'the new normal', actual normal, where we aren't afraid of visiting our own families lest we kill them with a disease that is so deadly, many don't even know they have it unless they test for it. And stop testing for it. The tests suck, have so many false positives, and don't tell us any useful clinical information. Who cares if someone is asymptomatic? We should care about those who are hospitalised because of corona - no, not with corona, or acquired corona whilst in hospital, but
because of corona - and dying of corona (not with corona). Look at why certain populations are more affected than others (old people - can't do much about that, but that's life. Fatties? Exercise, put down the burger you fat shit. Vitamin deficiencies - improve knowledge & benefits of supplements such as vitamin D). And stop trying to poison fucking everybody with some bullshit that doesn't fucking work and has cost and will cost us an arm and a leg (and heart muscle). I could go on, but I really need another coffee now.
Sorry farmers for being so angry on the internet this morning. Not sorry to you journo scum.