As I’m sure most people have been doing, I’ve been chatting with friends regarding the latest mutation of COVID; Omicron. Everyone has a take/opinion on it, right? None of us really have a clue as to what’s right, and what’s wrong, we have to trust the government, and the science. If we don’t, if we dare to question the official line, we’re getting shot down pretty quickly.

Apparently this variant originated in South Africa and the early indications were that it was causing very few hospitalisations and next to no deaths. In fact, it was said that the people being hospitalised, were generally being so for other conditions, and when admitted were being tested. Up until this point, they were unaware that they had COVID because the symptoms are so mild; said to be comparable to a common cold.

Shortly afterwards (towards the end of the first week of December 2021), President Putin referred to Omicron as a live vaccine because of the low risk of illness, it’s comparison to a cold, and the expectation of getting antibodies.

On 12th December 2021 Boris Johnson released a pre-recorded announcement telling people to get booster jabbed to defeat Omicron, in many people this created a panic, and a rush towards the vaccine centres.

The booster jabs are typically the Pfizer one, which has now been rebranded to Comirnaty, which sounds very similar to community depending on how you pronounce it.

Many people in the countries with an experience of Omicron considered the British governments response to this variant to be hysterical and completely disproportionate to the threat. This was mentioned publicly by some very well informed people towards the end of the second week of December 2021.

Todays UK newspapers (26th December 2021) are quite interesting, in particular, the Telegraph;

“One of Britain’s most senior health advisers has been accused of disseminating “dodgy data” that inflated the potential risk of omicron”

So, Jenny Harries allegedly supplied data that mislead over hospitalisations due to Omicron, essentially overstating the risk. This data indicated that there is a 17 day lag between patients being infected and requiring hospitalisation which was stated by Government minister, Sajid Javid. However, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the lag is actually 9-10 days.

“The latest UKHSA data showed that people infected with the Omicron variant were between 50 and 70 per cent less likely to be admitted to hospital than those with Delta.

At the time of Javid’s claim last weekend, despite soaring Omicron cases, only 85 people were in hospital with confirmed Omicron – a figure that has since risen to 366.”

So, in the UK we’ve got Omicron infections up in the millions, the Government has said that of all the people that are suffering with colds, half could be Omicron, and we still only have a few hundred in hospital.

I guess the government will say it is because they did the right thing, followed the science, got everyone booster jabbed and managed the crisis so well.

Of course, it’s nothing to do with the fact that the variant in question is so mild, the majority don’t even know that they have it – vaccinated or unvaccinated. Check out what is going on in South Africa, only a 26% vaccination rate.

And the push for booster jabs, is that following the science because the statistics are starting to indicate otherwise. Who knows, this could have been known prior to Boris’ announcement on 12th December, but either way, it worked out pretty well for him deflecting some of the public relations mess that he found himself in.

To be clear, Boris Johnson has been proved time and time again to be a liar. This is accepted and on the record. Boris’ name and the truth don’t sit well together. There’s a wonderful Eddie Mair interview with him from 2013 where he was shown to have been sacked from two jobs because of his lies, and conspired to get a journalist a beating because of his running a story that upset one of his friends.

So, I’m daring to question what this government is putting in front of me regarding Omicron, and I’ll likely get shot down for it.