U.K. May be Panicking Unnecessarily Over Omicron Variant, Says Doctor Who Discovered It

The South African doctor who discovered the Omicron variant said on Marr this morning that the U.K. may be panicking unnecessarily about the new Covid strain. Metro has more.

Dr Angelique Coetzee said that patients had been presenting with ‘extremely mild’ symptoms in her country, though the population there is significantly younger than in the UK.

The chair of the South African Medical Association suspects the variant is already widely in the UK but added she had not seen any confirmed cases admitted to hospital – adding that other colleagues had seen the “same picture”.

But other experts have disagreed with the characterisation of the variant, especially given the limited amount of data available.

It comes amid growing concern and new restrictions following the discovery of the strain, which experts fear may be able to evade vaccines and be more transmissible.

Those fears are yet to be confirmed, however.

She told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show she first encountered the variant in a man in his early 30s who presented with tiredness and a mild headache, but none of the usual coronavirus symptoms.

She 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.

“Two weeks from now maybe we will say something different.”

She listed symptoms of Omicron as extreme tiredness, headaches and a scratchy cough – but not a loss of smell or taste.

“Your doctors might be more focussed on the Delta symptoms and missing this, because it is easy to miss this,” Dr Angelique added.

Worth reading in full.

So the symptoms are tiredness, headaches and a scratchy cough? Sounds a lot like a cold.

Watch the clip from Marr on Twitter here.

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Mark
4 years ago

The South African doctor who discovered the Omicron variant said on Marr this morning that the U.K. may be panicking unnecessarily about the new Covid strain.”

Bit late now, when that insufferable arse Javid has already had a breathless news conference about it, and the other cheek of the arse, Johnson, has already announced the panic response.

Stable door, bolted horse.

John
4 years ago
Reply to  Mark

This was actually mentioned yesterday on the BBC website but it was buried about some way down the article. Can’t find the link.

Mark
4 years ago
Reply to  John

buried about some way down the article

Sounds about right, when prime time radio and TV was full of Javid solemnly announcing that TWO – count them – “cases” had been identified in the UK, but DON’T PANIC!, Big Brother has them and their contacts under observation and will save us all from the Deadly New Variant of The Worst Disease in History (provided everyone behaves like good little girls and boys, and those naughty antivaxxers who don’t take their medicine or wear their face nappies are properly dealt with)!

George L
4 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Oldest trick in the book.. put out the fear headline using saturation coverage, then rescind it a little with a salad of weasel words after its done its damage.. job done!

Mark
4 years ago
Reply to  George L

Best way to cover yourself against future accusations of not reporting both sides, while achieving the effect of…not reporting both sides.

George L
4 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Well summed up..

Sinor
Sinor
4 years ago

Pig Dictator doing theatrics to cover arse…..hang on whats been happening over the last 18 months..

iane
iane
4 years ago
Reply to  Sinor

Well, 20 months, but who’s counting!?

Vallarta
Vallarta
4 years ago

She’s not helping by saying nonsense like they presented with unusual symptoms!

trevorpee
trevorpee
4 years ago
Reply to  Vallarta

Yes, those never-before encountered in humans symptoms of ‘extreme tiredness, headaches and a scratchy cough’!

John
4 years ago

There is a nasty cold going round, son and daughter-in-law were laid low for a few days. How can anyone tell the difference? Grandson(4) had a temperature and feeling sorry for himself yesterday, several children at his nursery had similar last week. Viruses tend to develop the same variants over time whilst remaining geographically separate.
more contagious viruses tend to be less virulent.

Mark
4 years ago
Reply to  John

There is a nasty cold going round, son and daughter-in-law were laid low for a few days. How can anyone tell the difference? “

Are we still not allowed to class this new one with all the other common cold causing viruses? Do we have to wait through another year or two of pretending it’s the Worst Disease In History?

The common cold is an infection of the upper respiratory tract which can be caused by many different viruses. The most commonly implicated is a rhinovirus (30–80%), a type of picornavirus with 99 known serotypes.[30] Other commonly implicated viruses include human coronaviruses (≈ 15%),[31][32] influenza viruses (10–15%),[33][34][35] adenoviruses (5%),[33] human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), enteroviruses other than rhinoviruses, human parainfluenza viruses, and human metapneumovirus.[36] Frequently more than one virus is present.[37] In total, more than 200 viral types are associated with colds.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_cold

John
4 years ago
Reply to  Mark

To answer your questions, it appears not and probably?
There are cold causing viruses and there’s SARS-CoV-2 ne’er the twain shall meet, even though the symptoms are indistinguishable. The madness continues.
My son didn’t think that my grandson had Covid as he hadn’t got the symptoms other than fever.

John
4 years ago
Reply to  John

From the Leicester Mercury website today:
“She says the new variant has presented young people all with intense fatigue, and a six-year-old child with a high pulse rate.
She says there was no sore throat, more scratchy, and there was a mild headache. She says there was also no cough.
None of the patients had the loss of sense of taste or smell that has become a common indicator of Covid.”
Not CoViD19 then as it doesn’t meet the diagnostic criteria of signs and symptoms.

TheRightToArmBears
TheRightToArmBears
4 years ago
Reply to  John

Doesn’t sound like the instant death that Ferguson said would result in half a million bodies lying about the streets in three weeks if we didn’t do exactly as he said, does it?
Could TOTB be getting it wrong?

Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  John

It’s Covid-20. Or possibly Short Covid.

George L
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

Don’t jump the gun Foxy.. that’s being held back for Boxing Day..

TheRightToArmBears
TheRightToArmBears
4 years ago
Reply to  John

Since when did small children not get sniffles, coughs, colds, not feel well?
its only their immune system grappling with new problems and them being slowed down to enable them to recover. They need to experience bugs and whatever. If they didn’t then their immune systems would atrophy and become useless, which is happening to all those idiots who obey every stupidity the government tell them to do.

CrouplessCoup
CrouplessCoup
4 years ago

Yeah and modern medical practice does too much treatment that in realiity is suppression of symptoms, which symptoms I suspect should in reality be allowed to run unless for any illness they threaten to reach the very rare stage of cytokine storm. For instance some symptoms like skin breakouts are probably the body’s defense systems expelling antigens and/or their waste products.

mishmash
4 years ago

Sounds a lot like a cold.”

But PCR said it was covid Toby, so it must be covid.

Julian
4 years ago

Tell us something we don’t know. We’ve been saying there was no need for panic from the start.

But one suspects that the “panic” from governments is entirely necessary given that their objective is the perpetuation of fear and thus their power grab.

TheRightToArmBears
TheRightToArmBears
4 years ago
Reply to  Julian

They need to control us because they don’t trust us.
They know that we know they are lying through their teeth at us, and as soon as enough of us realise that we are not all dying of this scamdemic then the game will be up. Which is why they need to kill sufficient of us with the killer vaxxes to con the sheeple into going along with the scam.

peyrole
peyrole
4 years ago

I really do smell ratty.
How can she have ‘discovered’ it on 18 November, when Botswana say they tested diplomats with it between 7-11 November showing no symptoms?
There a loads of variants all the time, its what virus does, so why this one now?
I think we all know the answer, ‘Its not about, what they say its about’.

CynicalRealist
4 years ago

The government were just looking for an excuse to re-impose face nappies (which are good for creating a climate of paranoia) and to extend the age range for the “booster” – if this new scariant hadn’t come along they’d no doubt have found some other reason to “justify” it.

James Kreis
4 years ago

Former England cricket great Kevin Pieterson hits out at media

https://www.rt.com/sport/541547-south-africa-covid-variant-omicron-pietersen/

Draper233
4 years ago
Reply to  James Kreis

Great to see Pieterson tear into the controlled media, but has he been a sceptic all the way through?

PhantomOfLiberty
PhantomOfLiberty
4 years ago

It’s a test of imbecility. The tiniest signal is enough to close down the whole world – on this basis it can never re-open. The people are mad and wicked.

Jo Starlin
4 years ago

“…though the population there is significantly younger than in the UK.”

Having a lower average age or life expectancy does not mean there are no old people in poor countries. Not everyone in the developing world dies at 40, as I get very tired of explaining to people. There are vastly more old people in India for instance than there are in the UK, though the proportion of older people is lower.

Mark76
Mark76
4 years ago

Doctor Who discovered the Omicron variant? This is news indeed

Mark
4 years ago
Reply to  Mark76

Well in fairness it’s science fiction, albeit more of the dystopian variety than the right on, achingly woke Dr Who kind.

TheBluePill
4 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Doctor who is as much science fiction as Devi Sridhar is an epidemiologist.

Mark
4 years ago
Reply to  TheBluePill

Well, it’s never been hard science fiction. But science fiction includes some pretty way out stuff!

Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  TheBluePill

Down to D for Devi. She’s not just an epidemi-wotsit but identifies herself as being ‘black’.

https://blackfemaleprofessorsforum.org/category/professors/

TheRightToArmBears
TheRightToArmBears
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

Doesn’t the PCR test detect blackness if ratcheted up high enough?
If it can detect Covid-19 in avocado and pineapple then she’s first cousin to the Abbottopotamus.

CrouplessCoup
CrouplessCoup
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

If they want to celebrate Black women who’ve made major contributions to medical science they should consider first Eleanor McBean (‘The Poisoned Needle’, 1957) and/or Nancy Turner Banks (‘AIDS, Opium, Diamonds and Empire’, 2010).

dpj
dpj
4 years ago
Reply to  Mark76

She’s not having a great week all round after causing all the jails to be full of criminals with no male role models earlier in the week.

Draper233
4 years ago
Reply to  Mark76

Well as far as i’m aware, there is no such character named “Doctor Who”, the main character has only ever been known as “The Doctor”.

That said, i’m now being one of those pedantic cunts who say things like “Frankenstein isn’t the monster you know, he’s the creator of the monster!”

shrenkssedge
shrenkssedge
4 years ago

Is this yet another case of the emperor crying wolf whilst having no clothes on?

Gregoryno6
4 years ago

Dr Coetzee is going to Epstein herself if she’s not careful.

George L
4 years ago
Reply to  Gregoryno6

Yeah.. three bullets in the back of the head first, and then throw herself out of a high building..

TheRightToArmBears
TheRightToArmBears
4 years ago
Reply to  George L

Obvious suicide due to concerns for inhumanity of man with yellow hair.

rayc
rayc
4 years ago
Reply to  Gregoryno6

She’s caught in the crossfire – the one (global) band of thugs is telling her to make the virus dangerous or shut up; the other (more local) band of thugs is telling her to make the virus innocent to protect their country’s interests. But overall, it serves her well for collaborating with the regime.

BS665
BS665
4 years ago

EVERYTHING IS A LIE. Now watch everyone panic, compulsory vaccines by January, and the start of attacks on maskless people before Christmas.

We will still win, but this will be the hardest test yet.

Annie
4 years ago
Reply to  BS665

I’ve been waiting for a year and a half for someone to attack maskless me. By the living God, they will not know what has hit them, and by the time they wake up, they’ll be in hospital with a nosocomial omicron,

BS665
BS665
4 years ago
Reply to  Annie

Give ’em hell, Annie! Seriously, we do need to stay alert. The gov have stoked bitterness in the mask-wearers, who could blow-up at any moment in time. They have been abused too, of course, not just us, even if they’ve been coddled by ‘collective virtue’. This makes them all the more dangerous if and when they feel provoked by the gov or a maskless person.

TC
TC
4 years ago

They did not panic.
If it was not this “variant”, they would readily find another.
Depressingly predictable.

Hopeless
4 years ago

Another bloody Pandora’s Box, compliments of Peppa Pig’s Father and Baldilocks. A put-up job, if ever there was one.

Cecil B
Cecil B
4 years ago

“Ready for the press briefing?”

” Yep ready to go, just to clarify we are saying the vaccines don’t work but keep taking the vaccines”

” No, no we are saying everyone who has the O thingy is double vaccinated so keep taking the vaccine”

” Isn’t that the same thing?”

“No, that would be admitting we spent billions on vaccines that don’t work, and we must never do that”

” Won’t the press pick holes in that?”

“Only if they want to lose their government advertising revenues and their jobs”

“Is any mention of ADE still a no no”

“Yep, Ok lets go”

TheRightToArmBears
TheRightToArmBears
4 years ago

Let’s hope this ‘new variant’ is as dangerous and fatal as our wonderful leaders say it is, and that it kills the lit of them, since they don’t wear face nappies or social distance in any of the dozen or more bars and restaurants they enjoy in Westminster.
But they aren’t getting the deadly vaxx No.2 or 3 (cancer, killer) that we are being forced to take, are they? They get the No.1 (saline solution) shot, as let out of the bag by the nurse in Slovenia, who will probably be wearing cement boots in the Aegean by now.

George L
4 years ago

All I’m going to say to those who are still trusting ‘the science’.. THINK !

kh34fyr144571.png
smithey
4 years ago
Reply to  George L

Sadly the vast majority of the population are incapable of thinking.

mwhite
4 years ago

So went to a symptom checker

Cough, Fatigue, Headache and Tires quickly: Common Related Medical Conditions (webmd.com)

“There are 158 conditions associated with cough, fatigue, headache and tires quickly”

Let’s hope it was nothing too serious.

John
4 years ago
Reply to  mwhite

All viral upper respiratory tract infections meet these criteria, particularly in children.

George L
4 years ago
Reply to  mwhite

I always run my ‘tires’ down to bald.. the grip on a dry road is superior to those with tread.. MOT tester is never impressed though.. 😉

J4mes
4 years ago

Isn’t it weird that the BBC prioritised Susie Michie’s opinion on the announcement yesterday, ahead of any other scientist? Stalin’s Nanny, a behavioural expert with no training on virology live-linked to the BBC studio where both she and the presenter excitedly chatted about the reintroduction of misery upon the nation. This happened immediately after the announcement.

Let’s think about this for a moment. Susie Michie, an expert in experimental psychology, has been a member of the Communist Party of Britain for over 40 years. Why is she advising a supposedly conservative party government on a [fake] pandemic?

Mark
4 years ago
Reply to  J4mes

Isn’t it weird that the BBC prioritised Susie Michie’s opinion

Hmmm…

a behavioural expert with no training on virology……a member of the Communist Party of Britain for over 40 years

Nope, not in the slightest weird or unusual that the BBC would present her falsely as an “expert” and give her views undue prominence. Remember this is the corporation that thinks Andrew Marr (Maoist “Red Andy”) was acceptable as Political Editor, and presented him for years as supposedly an honest and politically neutral commentator.

That this “Conservative” government still gets away with pretending to be conservative whilst allowing the BBC to push leftist woke bullshit, and giving undue prominence to actual communists – that really is weird.

George L
4 years ago
Reply to  J4mes

Why is she advising a supposedly conservative party government on a [fake] pandemic?

Because she’s a commie, and they’ve been waiting for years to achieve their ‘long march through the institutions’ and I’m afraid through organisations like ‘Common Purpose’ they’ve pretty well achieved it..

PS : the BBC is stuffed with them..

TheRightToArmBears
TheRightToArmBears
4 years ago
Reply to  J4mes

Anyone paying the tv tax is fellow-travelling Marxist.

Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  J4mes

Susan’s no ‘Communist’ – if she were, she’d be sharing her nice big house and money, not just keeping it all to herself.

Mark
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

Surely the vanguard deserve some small rewards, while they are subverting The System from within?

smithey
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

Actually, doesn’t that make her a true communist/socialist. She is following their age of principle of what is yours in mine and what is mine is mine.

Draper233
4 years ago
Reply to  J4mes

Well let’s not forget, this is the nutter who called for a mask mandate….forever!

RickH
4 years ago
Reply to  J4mes

Simple : Tories/Communists = at root are different senses of the same totalitarian entitlement. Church of England or Little Red Book – same old same old ideological nose ring for the elite to pull.

thinkcriticall
4 years ago

By design!

Cecil B
Cecil B
4 years ago

Ooops!!! enjoy Christmas in South Africa

Cardiff hit by Covid-19 in South Africa – BBC Sport

lds001
4 years ago

Why would any country from now on ever report a new “variant” – its economic self-harm. But I guess someone will do it for them

rayc
rayc
4 years ago
Reply to  lds001

The bribes make it worth it.

Cecil B
Cecil B
4 years ago

Are the Moronics panic buying bog rolls yet?

Annie
4 years ago
Reply to  Cecil B

Only micro-rolls.

miketa1957
miketa1957
4 years ago

I was out chopping firewood this afternoon. Usually, if I meet a particularly tough bit, as I swing the mawl, I chant the an incarnation: “Blair” or “Cameron” or …. but now I have a new pantheon of names: “Whitty” or “Ferguson” or “Gates” ….

Oh, and the Omicron variant. I say: “Bring it on, muthaf**ker. My immune system gonna whip your skanky arse”. [*]

[*] Mixing English-English and US-English.

RW
RW
4 years ago

The UK government, in persona, Boris ‘Hosenscheißer’ Johnson, was already needlessly panicking in March 2020, when they rushed to buy loads of never used ventilators and to erect emergency overflow hospitals nobody ever saw a need to use or even staff.

Yesterday’s announcement followed the meanwhile ‘classic’ pattern of a bunch of career civil servants wrongly calling themselves scientists ganging on poor, little Bojo with lots of wild scare stories about what they all don’t know and what thus could happen if … and so, poor little Bojo had to hold another emergency press conference detailling that population must urgently be terrorized with Corona politics again because there’s something career civil servants don’t know. They even recycled the S-gene dropout story from last year verbatim.

This was his last chance to at least become a second-class champion of the people and he blew it again. The ‘sovereign’ United Kingdom of London and Westminster plus some associated countryside of lesser importance is de facto ruled by some shady body of anonymous international experts in faking stats. For their’s is the kingdom, the power and absolutely no glory.

mka1221
4 years ago

Destroy ordinary peoples lives, jobs, businesses, plans, hopes, dreams not to forget their basic freedoms that no government has the right to take, over a bit of fucking fatigue. Burn in Hell to all of the panic spreaders and fascist pigs pushing this scam.

Moderate Radical
4 years ago

On the contrary, the ‘panic’ is necessary to keep things moving. Contrived panic at the top, real panic down below. Have we not sussed this out yet?