It is go time, I guess everybody is getting boosted today....

And I am now the proud recipient of a dose of the Moderna vaccine as my booster.

But don't let that spoil a good quibble :)

Got booster at Wimbledon as a walk-in. People with a pre-booked appointment were inserted into the queue at around position 30 (out of around 100), which seems a bit silly, I would have just let them go straight to the front. Majority of people had not pre booked.

There's probably as much air traffic from JNB into CDG as there is JNB to LHR (not to mention AMS and FRA) so several major hubs in Europe were very likely hit at the same time. If France was to sequence PCR tests in meaningful enough numbers, I think they'd find it quite a bit less than a week. The real problem for mainland Europe is it really is two pandemics. Those hospital beds around Paris will be full of Delta patients.

I thought opening up the way we did here, in July, was utterly bonkers but I'm now thinking a combination of guesswork and luck has put Britain in a better position than many.

To be fair it was exactly the plan rather than guesswork. If you remember there were many saying we shouldn't relax restrictions just yet and what harm would it do to keep them going a bit longer, but the SAGE modelling was clear that delaying easing of restrictions in to autumn meant an exit wave which coincided with normal winter pressures and this was not desirable. They didn't predict omicron as such, but the reasoning was sound. Keeping restrictions going beyond July was not actually the option which was predicted to save more lives.

Not by me I can assure you. But if I were a betting man I would be all in this time around.

If you've had anything else as your primo-course of vaccination(s), I'd take a pre-emptive paracetamols before getting to bed, and keep the box on the bedside table. But congrats on doing your bit!! :)

Daily data:

Cases 88,376 (50,867 last Thursday)
Deaths 146 (148)
Patients admitted 849 (823 on the 5th)
Patients in hospital 7,579 (7,371 on the 8th)
Patients in ventilation beds 886 (890 on the 8th)
People vaccinated up to and including 15 December 2021:
First dose: 51,360,987
Second dose: 46,881,291
Booster: 25,477,345

The rolling seven day daily average for cases is now up 31.4% on the previous week and the same measure for deaths is down 6.0%. The rolling 7 day daily average for deaths is 115.0 today. There is no doubting the daily record for the number of cases today. Yesterdays 745,183 boosters is only eclipsed by the 752,308 first jabs given on 20th March. The 7 day booster average is now above the 1st jab average.

New omicron figures - the breakdown for around the UK isn't out yet

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0433aeaf6e.png

I can 2nd that. I had Moderna as my booster yesterday... my arm feels super feeble today and tonight (30 hours later), the chills have started!

Are they multiplying? Are you losing control? Well you better shape up! :)

I had three doses of Pfizer and virtually no side effects other than some minor local pain for a day, and sometimes my mind wonders ("I hope she did it right, got the right dose out of the vile and no less, did they cool it properly, hope it wasn't expired, I hope there wasn't a local scam siphoning the real vaccine and giving out fakes, lol, etc.). At least with Moderna and the chills you know that you got the real thing for sure, lol....

A case of YMMV - I had a Moderna booster last week (1 + 2 were both AZ) and felt absolutely nothing, no symptoms of anything and not even a hint of a sore arm.

Was it just my mind that was trying to work out what song those were the lyrics to? :D