They can’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg

from the BFD

When it comes to Omicron, New Zealand has an enormous advantage. We heard with trepidation about its arrival in South Africa late last year. Then the UK started reporting thousands of cases. Then Australia did the same. The numbers were eye-watering. Over 50,000 cases in Australia in a single day. This must have been the doomsayer’s dream… literally thousands of people are going down with the disease. But just as they were rubbing their hands with unbridled glee, more news came out of South Africa. Yes, Omicron is very contagious, but… it is very much less deadly than either the Alpha or Delta variants. So much so that case numbers might be high, but covid deaths dropped like the proverbial stone. Omicron, it turned out, was nothing more than a cold. For most, it was a mild cold at that.

Britain soon started reporting much the same findings. Again, there were lots of cases, but the hospitals coped and the number of deaths dropped dramatically. Could this be – dare we even think it – the beginning of the end of the pandemic?

Then, news started to filter out from the UK that the number of covid deaths had been grossly overstated and that, in fact, the true number of deaths from the actual disease was more like 17,500, rather than the 153,500 deaths reported to the WHO.

Suddenly, the whole narrative seemed to be falling apart.

How could the numbers be so grossly exaggerated? Well, this might be because countries were encouraged to report all deaths of people who had covid, whether or not it was the actual cause of death. We know from our own list of covid deaths that one of them was a man shot dead in the street but, because he tested positive for covid posthumously (yes, they test corpses for covid), he was counted as a covid death. Yes, it is all completely crazy, but the fact that it caused the UK to overreport their covid deaths by approximately 136,000 is mind-boggling. The true situation with the pandemic has been grossly overstated, presumably to keep the people in fear – and in a lot of cases, it has worked very well.

But as Omicron hits our shores, we are in a good position to take it in our stride. It is summer and a hot one at that. We know what has happened overseas, and we expect a rise in cases, but for the number of deaths to fall away rapidly. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that this is anything to do with vaccination rates because the CEO of Pfizer himself has admitted that its vaccines are largely ineffective against Omicron. Britain didn’t introduce new restrictions for Omicron; nor did Australia, and both countries are doing just fine. So, we’ll be fine too… won’t we?

In come the prophets of doom – right on cue:

Along comes the pink-haired wonder, spreading panic when none is needed. Let’s not pretend that she is not aware of what has happened overseas with Omicron. She knows perfectly well, but the pandemic has brought her fame, and no doubt fortune, and we can’t let it all go, can we?

She is not alone, of course.

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