There’s no doubt that the Spanish Flu pandemic was one of the most disastrous plagues in human history. While nothing holds a candle for sheer, horrific scale to the Black Death, nothing since has even come close to the Spanish Flu. So, it’s just as well the virus went away, huh?
Except it didn’t. H1N1, the subtype of Influenza A that caused the Spanish Flu, is still very much with us. Occasionally it causes more severe outbreaks, particularly the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak, but mostly it just causes a small fraction of seasonal flu cases.
There is little reason to doubt that SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the covid pandemic, is going to go the same way — if it already isn’t.
Despite the unholy panic-mongering by politicians and “experts”, Delta is notably less deadly than earlier variants of the virus — barely a tenth as deadly.
Ooh, but now we’ve got the ominous-sounding “Omicron” variant sending the usual suspects into a tizzy. So, how deadly is it?
The doctor who discovered Omicron says symptoms from the variant are “extremely mild” and has accused the UK of “panicking unnecessarily”.
So, why all the panic?
Omicron, first detected in Botswana, has sparked alarm among scientists over fears that it could be more contagious than other variants and resistant to vaccines.
So, if it’s more contagious but much less deadly, given that we know that successfully recovering from covid infections (as almost everyone does) confers much stronger immunity than the vaccines, why so much hysteria?
But Dr Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association, said the UK is overreacting, adding that symptoms are “extremely mild”.
She told the Andrew Marr Show that she first discovered the variant in a man in his early 30s who displayed symptoms of tiredness and a mild headache.
Dr Coetzee said: “What we are seeing clinically in south Africa, and remember I’m at the epicentre – that’s where I’m practising – it’s extremely mild. For us, that’s mild cases.”
When asked if the UK was “panicking unnecessarily”, she said: “I think you already have it there in your country and you’re not knowing it, and I would say, yes, at this stage I would say definitely.
And, boy, are they panicking.
At a press conference on Saturday Boris Johnson said that masks will be reintroduced in shops and on public transport and that all travellers into the UK would have to take a PCR test on the second day after arrival.
Those who tested positive for Covid-19 will have to isolate for ten days.
Yahoo! News/Evening Standard
Johnson and Health Secretary Sajid Javid cite “expert health advice” for the moves. Lemme guess — they’re talking about Prof. Neil Ferguson, aren’t they?
These idiots never learn.
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