It's A Strategy Of Short-Term Pain In Hope Of Long-Term Gain

The wording of the four home nations' chief medical officers joint statement yesterday afternoon was undramatic but still ominous. “Transmission of Covid-19 is already high in the community, mainly still driven by Delta, but the emergence of Omicron adds additional and rapidly increasing risk to the public and healthcare services."

- Denis Campbell

Given that vaccine protection against symptomatic disease from Omicron is reduced ...hospitalisations from Omicron are already occurring and these are likely to increase rapidly”.

The growing threat means the imperatives of all policy now are to save lives and prevent the NHS becoming overwhelmed by what Boris Johnson in his televised address called “the tidal wave of Omicron coming. The UK Health Security Agency has warned that the new variant could produce 1m infections a day by New Year's Eve.

Johnson's message and tone made clear the urgency of the threat. He emphasised that vaccination was the main, in reality the sole, meaningful tactic the government has chosen to pursue, given another lockdown or anything resembling it is - for now - not on the cards.