So how do 61 positive cases end up on two planes arriving into the Netherlands from South Africa? I don’t get it.
I was thinking the same thing. That’s a high number of positive tests on just two flights.
Again though we’re in this situation that its place of identification does not mean its place of origin or necessarily the place where we need to focus our attention. South Africa, due its work on HIV, has great infrastructure for identifying and characterizing variants and it’s likely this technical capability that explains why we’re learning about from South Africans. Im not saying this isnt where it developed or where it is currently located, but an excessive focus on stopping it leaving SA when it is likely already much dispersed is likely going to be a repeat of Feb 2020.
Travel bans are only ever an adjunct to allow your primary methods of risk mitigation to work. The reason they tend not to work is not that they come too late, but they are treated with too much primacy when implemented.
This was mostly an issue of semantics (aerosol transmission is a specific sort of airborne transmission that is not technically considered airborne) that the aerosol researchers made worse rather than better.
This is an entirely new regulatory issue, but I cannot imagine it would be ready to go into arms of the general publci from day 1. Doubt it would need to the same sort of trials as we saw for the initial EUAs, but there would still be some regulatory hurdle to overcome.
Didn’t the person that arrived in Hong Kong from sth Africa test negative before leaving, and on arrival but positive 2 days later?
I’ll need to look back at the article I linked above. I think that’s where it was.
Possibly, there’s bound to be the occasional one like that. But 61 on two flights? Sounds like people trying to get out before they were grounded in SA not giving a shit.
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Rumors are that Omicron landed in Frankfurt yesterday or recently or something…We are really very hospitable, there will be no checks at the airport before tomorrow because …“some german reasons”. 
Possibly he has already made a short visit to our famous Christmas markets and some long shopping trips etc. There is much to do.
But it is now kindly asked that all those who have recently arrived from the affected countries should please report to the relevant authorities…
I am so so tired.
Edit, 2 confirmed cases in Munich now
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The authorities are stating that as per their travel requirements all passengers over 13 had to show proof of negative test from the prior 72 hours. One way to square that on how that could have happened AND 10% of the flight arrive positive would be if this variant has a much shorter incubation period. That sounds terrible, but one of the big challenges we’ve faced so far is the unusually long incubation that makes testing and tracing and targeting quarantines difficult.
I presume it’s not that difficult to game the system though. Do they have to get swabbed somewhere official and then isolate in those 72 hours or do they just have to text over a screenshot of a negative LFT? Or are these PCR only tests? I seem to recall the UK relaxing the need for PCRs or maybe that wasn’t with regard to travel? Are the requirements for this particular flight set by the Netherlands, KLM, or South Africa? I presume the destination country?
This is all very boring. The same was said when the UK spotted Alpha.
There is no other responsible reaction. You have to alert everyone and you have to accept there will be embargoes.
I agree with @Arminius though. Countries like South Africa ought to be given financial and medical support to allow them to suppress the spread as much as possible and as compensation for the hit to their economy resulting from their early warning, for the benefit of other nations.
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So I see Australia has stopped travel from the Southern African nations but hasn’t done so for Belgium, Hong Kong etc. I will be interested to see how they handle this news from UK.
Not least because I have travel booked to Aus for Christmas… 
Is it too early to say I’m glad Cynical isn’t around to climate shame me? Or has someone else taken on the mantle?
Agreed, but when one of your major functions is the effective dissemination of health information, an issue of semantics communicated that woefully is a serious failure.
It does appear that the horse is out of the barn
Here’s your best option to keep your soul clean
Stephen Miller was just on Fox claiming that if Trump were president (I thought they thought he was) we’d already have vaccines for the new variant. I wish these people would just pick one imbecilic position instead of constantly flitting among different equally fucking stupid positions.
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It’s the heads and tails theory.
Toss a coin, shout “heads” and “tails”, claim victory when the the coin lands.
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I was going to mention this earlier. It’s absolutely correct additional precautions are being taken, but this variant could actually turn out to be a good thing.
Different latent periods, changes in percentage symptomatic, different mortality rates.
We know it’s spreading like wildfire but we know very little at this time. Whilst I lean towards it being a negative, this variant is likely to become dominant and might be easier to control or lesser health impacts
I am trying to be optimistic… although it does seem like a kick in the balls for Christmas
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I was on a tram in Sheffield today. I could see 25 people and I was the only one wearing a mask.
That has to change.
The same travelling around London on public transport about one in five wear masks.