Originally Posted by Arsey00

We are watching the scientific method play out in real time. Something most of us aren't accustomed to in our daily lives, where we are usually able to rely on more settled science. But science doesn't settle immediately just because people find waiting for solid results inconvenient. Whatever is going to get us out of this, half the population saying "I know better than epidemiologists" probably isn't it, even if sometimes epidemiologists get things wrong. We will try things, some will work, some won't, some will at first and then suddenly won't, not because our guesses aren't educated enough but because it's literally impossible to plan for every eventuality. Something many of us know from our work and personal lives, I would presume. The new requirements have been brought in quickly (by governments of varied political stripes, not just the UK Tories) because past delays to restrictions resulted in both deaths and longer restrictions, and governments (of varied political stripes) were pilloried. If omicron turns out to be a storm in a teacup, which we will know fairly soon, the restrictions can be removed even more quickly and easily than they were brought in.