Alpha Beta
| Use attributes for filter ! | |
| Google books | books.google.com |
|---|---|
| Originally published | 2000 |
| Authors | John Man |
| Date of Reg. | |
| Date of Upd. | |
| ID | 2950848 |
About Alpha Beta
Praise for Alpha Beta "This book comes at the perfect moment?as we rediscover the importance in early reading of ?cracking the alphabetic code. ? The story of how that code came into being is a fascinating one, and Man is the ideal writer to tell it. " . . .
Covid: New Omicron variant not a disaster, says Sage scientist
The Omicron Covid variant is " not a disaster" and Some People may be " hugely overstating The Situation " a scientist advising the government says.
Omicron has been labelled " of concern" by The World Health Organization, and is
But microbiologist Prof Calum Semple says vaccines are " still likely to protect you from severe disease".
Prof Semple does, however, support saying they will allow more people to get jabbed.
Asked whether people should be fearful of the new variant, Prof Semple - who sits on the UK government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies - Told Bbc Breakfast : " This is not a disaster, and the headlines from some of my colleagues saying 'this is horrendous' I think are hugely overstating The Situation .
" Immunity from the vaccination is still likely to protect you from severe disease. You might get a snuffle or a headache or a filthy cold but your chance of coming into hospital, or intensive care or sadly dying are greatly diminished by the vaccine and still will be going into The Future . "
So Far , More Than 50 million people in the UK have had at least one dose of a Covid vaccine. More Than 42 million have had two doses while almost 17 million have had a third or booster jab.
A " variant of concern" is The World Health Organization's top category of worrying Covid variants.
The decision adds weight to the mounting scientific worry about the potential of this new variant, but it doesn't change any of the facts.
The variant has an astounding collection of mutations which are thought to increase its ability to spread and bypass some, but not all, of the protection from vaccines.
However, we still don't have the clear real-world data.
We don't know for sure that it spreads faster, makes vaccines or drugs less effective or whether it leads to more severe disease.
The new Omicron variant was first reported to The Who from South Africa on 24 November and has also been identified in Botswana, Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel.
Countries around The World are currently racing to introduce travel bans and restrictions on southern African countries in an effort to contain Omicron's spread.
The UK has placed South Africa , Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini on its travel red list, meaning, from Sunday at 04:00 GMT, all arrivals will have to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days.
Prof Semple said that while it may not be possible to stop the variant coming to the UK, it is still important to delay its arrival.
" If you can slow The Virus coming into Your Country it gives you more time for your booster campaign to get ahead of it, " He Said .
" It also gives The Scientists longer to understand more about The Virus in case there is anything we really should be worrying about. "
Asked what other measures he thought were advisable in The Face of a new variant and the 50,091 new UK cases reported on Friday, Prof Semple said he was in favour of mask wearing in shops and on Public Transport , and hand washing.
Like Prof Semple, Prof Sir Andrew Pollard , The Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, expressed cautious optimism that existing vaccines could be effective at preventing serious disease from the Omicron variant.
He Told the Today programme that while it would still be weeks until scientists properly understood The Effects of Omicron's mutations, most of them are similar to those seen in other variants.
" That tells you that despite those mutations existing in other variants, The Vaccines have continued to prevent serious disease as we've moved through Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta.
" At least from a speculative point of view, we have some optimism that the vaccine should still work against a new variant for serious disease but really we need to wait several weeks to have that confirmed.
" It's extremely unlikely that a reboot of a pandemic in a vaccinated population like we saw Last Year is going to happen. "
Asked whether it was possible to update The Vaccines if deemed necessary, Prof Pollard added: " The processes of how one goes about developing a new vaccine are increasingly well oiled. So if it's needed that is something that could be moved very rapidly. "
Source of news: bbc.com
