Member Info for big-blue

https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20220102-france-to-ease-covid-restrictions-from-monday

Yes omicron is the end of the pandemic. It might spread easily but there a very low hospitalisation numbers. And those campaigning to present an armageddon scenario just around the corner [it's been just around the corner for two months now] are losing traction day by day. People are wise enough to spot twisting of data. The games up, it is over, just need to get through a couple of weeks as countries peak without their hospitals showing stress and restrictions will be unwound at a lightning pace. Far too many countries are making the basic error of trying to control the spread. It can't be controlled. The critical bitis omicron is much milder and for almost all people, nothing more than a heavy cold. Self-isolation is not working and is doing all the damage with absence from work. We know that is the issue but experts are still holding on to a political position of population control rather than giving way and receding back into the labs.

And here they come, the lockdown lobby making a big panic push in the papers today. Trying very hard to freak out everybody into panic lockdowns..... It is a political war, the experts must not be treated as impartial advisors anymore, they are part of a lobby community now advocating population control in good old fashioned socialist style. They must be ignored and SAGE disbanded. The pandemic is over with omicron, we must unwind the restrictions and return to normality and these weak feeble lockdown lobby advocates must be pushed aside.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/frightening-new-covid-data-shows-boris-johnsons-omicron-gamble/

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nhs-leaders-warn-health-emergency-25831666

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/masks-schools-covid-b974599.html

Germany has dropped the tests. I predicted the first week would be a big one for backpedaling restrictions.

The house of cards is well and truly crumbling. But then again, all regular readers of this board have known that from the back end of November onwards. SA called this form day 1, reporting 'unusually mild symptoms' against firm epidemiological knowledge of how a disease progresses through various variations.

https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/fauci-finally-distinguishes-between-hospitalizations-and-because-covid

Slowly but surely, the truth is breaking through. The game is up and the reasoning to continue with any restrictions gets weaker by the day.

"We recently advised that it is possible to reduce the self-isolation period for those with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 from 10 days to 7, following two negative lateral flow tests taken on day 6 and day 7 after symptoms start (or, in the case of those who do not have any symptoms, from the date of their first positive test). This advice is based on the latest data on how long people remain infectious, and modelling of different self-isolation options."

https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2022/01/01/using-lateral-flow-tests-to-reduce-the-self-isolation-period/

Interesting;

"There have been calls for us to also shorten our self-isolation window in line with the United States guidelines of 5 days.

However, it is important to note that we are not comparing like with like. In the UK our advice is to self-isolate from the point at which you have symptoms or get a positive test, whichever is first– this is when the self-isolation “clock” starts."

Whilst it looks like the advice isn't changing, it does look like there are attempts to get the procedure correct so people can 'suggest' when the symptoms start and thereby shorten the self-isolation period. I think this is a complicated message to convey and it won't help many ending self-isolation sooner but within the rules. Would have been better to drop to 5 days unless having symptoms.

This fiddling about with the self-isolation is a good indicator of the lockdown wars. How far can you push the lifting of restrictions before the lockdown lobby go all mass media panic doom and gloom. This government 'blog' is obviously aimed at trying to give people an early way out of lockdown. "I sneezed a week ago, ahhh that must have been the first symptom, therefore I'm good to go and join the rest of the infected in the fresh air!"

https://www.unilad.co.uk/news/omicron-boris-johnson-expected-to-make-indoor-mixing-announcement-next-week/

There is a defiant war between open and lockdown lobbies. This time round the open lobby has just got the other hand and is eeking out on a day by day basis a hold on further restrictions. A neatly placed paragraph at the end of the piece explains it. In SA the spike has passed and the case numbers are in a negative decline, a rather rapid one too, much faster than stat theory would allow. So holding off further restrictions buys time to get into the decline zone and hence get out of restrictions altogether. But the lockdown lobby are still playing their cards - a new one being that over 60s are suddenly being infected. They were before but the way the Christmas stats have come out has given them an opportunity to 'raise caution' and at least hold on to the lockdown gains they have been able to impose. And the expert community is becoming increasingly vocal as a lobby group trying to hold on to the limelight.

It'll all be over soon but Boris must keep his nerve, lift restrictions at the first opportunity and then he can leave office end of January with some degree of dignity.

Glen, my only long, or rather mid term holding is Easy J ready for takeover news, if that happens. Otherwise I am day trading. Omicron has thrown a spanner in that day trading, although if you remember I did sort myself out with a small pile of KFC bargain buckets in Autumn when I returned to toe dipping. Like many, many, and probably the overwhelming majority of people who read this bb, I am in and out here and there simply looking to pick up spikes. There is a reason to be very cautious with IAG in case you end up holding when an RI drops, but as I have saisd before I already have the dry powder to see through any RI if caught out. For other day traders, that might be a significant issue. As for the troll, I couldn't care less what air lickin' Bengi Boy thinks.

"My purpose is not start an argument or attack anyone"

LIAR!

You set up an avatar with one single purpose and you have set about it with gusto. You have been given the verdict on your open trolling. And that last post has to be one of the worst 'playing the innocent' I think i have ever seen. There is nothing clever listing a whole heap of questions designed to force defensive rather than actually 'saying' something. 100% classic troll tactic to displace argument, divide and distract.

Simply leave you on the permanent filter list. Beg for attention from others, I have no time to feed the trolls.

I've been given a nod about RR. Pipeline stuff not in full view yet - not related to aircraft engines.

https://www.rediff.com/news/report/overnight-curfew-lifted-officials-say-omicron-wave-may-have-peaked-in-sa/20211231.htm

This SA is being flagged up across a lot of publications. I am getting an even stronger sense this is being pushed as the cover for governments to use to end the pandemic. Looking good so far. The light at the end of the tunnel has a lovely warm glow I can feel on my naked body. Very nice.

That is quite remarkable. Given the first bit chopped off at the start of the line is the head, it must have been deliberately taken to the wing bucket and put there. What I would be interested to know is how many heads have the restaurant teams found. And then it would have to get past the AI picture recognition stage. To plant one and hope it gets all the way through a rather manual process in the restaurant to a customer is a bit chancy. You would be better off putting dozens of heads in the wing bucket to get one through. The chicken looked at peace though.

https://www.metro.us/sydney-kicks-off-the/

Note the reference to the SA data!!!!! I am sure that the latest publication I posted earlier is going to be used a lot as a cover to get out of the lockdown mess many governments have put themselves in.

GOOD LUCK [with a dry January lol].....

Very true bobbins, but I am expecting the evenings celebrations being heavily depressed all over the world is going to result in a lot of trouble. Wise policing will be to let the party happen, but that isn't going to happen in most places. The clean-up tomorrow and the strength of feeling may spook our glorious leaders to look for a quick way out, and SA is providing the cover story. Our glorious leaders will hopefully U turn simply to save themselves, but nevertheless it will be job done. I just hope people are not going to have to die on the streets for the inevitable changes in policy.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20211231/SARS-CoV-2-omicron-variant-may-be-less-severe-than-the-delta-variant.aspx

And this, hopefully, will be the paper and research used to bring forward the lifting of ALL restrictions ahead of any topping out of the spread of omicron. It is clear no stress is put on the hospitals with it and the more worrying symptom cases are very low. Fingers crossed there is a lot of changes in week one.

bobbins, probably but not for letting it runaway. More like not giving it a sufficient push to reach a hard object for the insurance claim.

Perhaps planes should be fitted with a parking brake? Hey, there's an idea - copyright ME!

https://mg.co.za/health/2021-12-31-curfew-lifted-as-south-africas-omicron-fuelled-fourth-wave-subsides/

"“According to experts, Omicron has reached the peak, …with clinical manifestations that have not caused any alarm in the hospital situation,” Mondli Gungubele, a minister in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office, said on Friday."

There really is no excuse now to have restrictions in place for vaccinated and boosted populations. This news will be as wide spread on social media as have been all the data from SA. Western governments are now playing with fire maintaining restrictions. The pandemic is over, now we need the governments to dial it back in full and quickly.

It is over.

WOW!!!!

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/united-airlines/video-boeing-767-on-the-loose-at-santiago-de-chile/

HOWEVER, on the flip side as we return to normality....

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/travel/advice/2021/12/31/family-travel-coming-back-2022-heres-how-cope/9048243002/

Finally, some good news

https://www.theportugalnews.com/news/2021-12-21/five-more-kfcs-open-in-portugal/64255