Despite being in the epicentre of Omicron, South Africa's 'SAGE' committee has told the Government to end all contact tracing and self-isolation of contacts for Covid because it is unnecessary and ineffective.
Is it really true that Omicron is surging and warrants the Prime Minister breaking his promise that the lifting of restrictions in the summer was "irreversible"? Not according to the latest data.
The fact that Omicron is not able to push Delta out completely, combined with the as-yet muted spike in positivity, is further evidence that natural immunity is holding Omicron off to a similar degree to Delta.
As SAGE makes the case for new restrictions and even the cancellation of Christmas, Fraser Nelson probes SAGE modeller Graham Medley on Twitter on why SAGE's models are so often pessimistic and wrong.
The 21st of our round-ups of Covid vaccine safety reports and news from a group of medics to inform the debate on vaccination.
While UK reported infections have spiked this week, the positive rate is only slightly up, and South Africa has confirmed Omicron appears to be mild. Can we stop panicking yet?
Mixed news on vaccines from the UKHSA this week. Unadjusted VE is still negative for 18-70 year-olds. But boosters appear to be helping. On the other hand, this only shows how poorly two doses were performing.
Pressurising parents with the threat of closing schools to vaccinate their children when the safety profile is highly uncertain and the disease is no real threat to them is not a medically or ethically sound policy.
In a key confession that demolishes the strategy behind vaccine passports, the ex-head of the U.K. Vaccine Taskforce writes that "the vaccines will not stop the spread of the virus in the short or medium term".
Sajid Javid told MPs there are 200,000 new Omicron infections a day and implied there are 7,000,000 new coronavirus infections a week. But that's 16 times higher than the latest ONS estimate, which is not plausible.
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