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HSE CHIEF PAUL Reid has said it’s still early days in assessing the danger of Omicron, as two British studies were published that aimed to shed some light on how severe the new variant of concern may be.
Scientists involved in a study published by the University of Edinburgh yesterday said that Omicron is associated with a two-thirds reduction in the risk of hospital admission compared with Delta.
New research from Imperial College London published today has indicated that people with PCR-confirmed Omicron are 15-20% less likely to need admission to hospital, and 40-45% less likely to require a stay of one night or more.
But Professor Neil Ferguson, from the Imperial College London team said the moderate reduced hospitalisations “appears to be offset by the reduced efficacy of vaccines against infection with the Omicron variant”.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today, HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid made a similar point about the studies.
“There’s always a few qualifiers in all of this – first of all Omicron only emerged in South Africa since 24 November. It’s really early days in terms of the evidence from all of this.
Reid said that the Omicron variant is thought to be over five and a half times more transmissible than Delta – which is the main concern.
“There’s early evidence that we’d all cling to the hope of, but equally we do know it’s a highly transmissible virus.”
On the University of Edinburgh study, Reid said the potential reduction in hospitalisations was a “key finding” – but added the concern “is purely the volume”.
Reid said that if the number of Covid-19 cases continues to increase, “we’re still dealing with a much higher volume of hospitalisations”, adding that that would put “severe strain on our overall health system”.
He said the study did show that a booster demonstrated “substantial additional protection” against risk of symptomatic illness.
There were 109,000 vaccine doses administered yesterday; with 106,000 of these booster shots. Over the past three days, 303,000 doses have been administered. Around 8% of the adult population has received a vaccine since Monday.
Reid said that 54% of patients with Covid-19 in ICU are completely unvaccinated; those who are unvaccinated make up just 6% of the adult population.
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Really the HSE and Gov need to step up here and do something about the state of the health service in this Country. Easy to blame failings now on COVID when for years we had people languishing on trolleys when there was no COVID. For years we have been conditioned to believe that only politicians can solve our problems when we need now to understand that they create them as well.
@Maurice O Neill: that’s a gas statement coming from an account that spends most of its time cheerleading for Donald Trump and all he stands for.
You probably can’t see the irony in it yourself though.
@Pseud O’Nym: imagine trying to discredit a person by adding Trump in to conversation about Irish health system. LMAO. You are a sad troII
@Pseud O’Nym: Sad comment
@Maurice O Neill: Mary Harney was the worst thing to happen to the health service in this country in decades.
Getting the booster: is this a free personal choice with no strings attached or will our Digital Covid Certs become invalid if you don’t boost? I’m under 40 and low risk so might decide not to boost, but not anti-vax.
@cianj: 9 months for digital covid certs now…just go get the booster. It was said we’d probably need it. Booster for a couple of times in 2022 to get rid of this…although its the anti vax that are putting the strain on the health system…selfish people!
@cianj: it’s a fair question. I’m early 50s and very pro vax. I’ve just had my booster. But if the virus is weakening to the point where its even less likely to cause severe illness than the flu then I’d be reluctant to keep getting boosters, especially since I’ve had reactions to all my shots that were worse than covid was when I had it last year. Of course I’ll listen to the scientists but if it is weakening and becoming more transmissible we’ll all get it at some point.
@Andy O’B: have had fairly bad reactions to the second vaccine and the booster so I’ll get another booster before next winter if it’s still needed. I had the booster on Monday and I’m still not right.
@Colleen: what’s a bad reaction? A little bit achy and fluey? It will pass. I got it myself on Sunday and didn’t feel fantastic until yesterday. I’d prefer that to the possibility of being hospitalised with covid.
@cianj: No it is not a free choice. If you don’t continue to get your boosters you will become ‘unvaccinated’ again and be treated like those free from the jabs have been for 6 months now – banishment from polite society. Welcome to the New Normal.
@Andy O’B: ‘it was said we’d probably need it’. No it wasn’t, we were told vaccines were our ticket back to normality. No-one said we’d need boosters every year in order to participate in society.
@Sean Murphy: nah man – go back and read the literature. Also, it’s an evolving disease…people still don’t know everything about it, so if certain things were said a few months ago, they may not be relevant anymore as new scientific evidence arises.
@Sean Murphy: thanks Sean. Yes thats a better answer than Andy’s “just go and get booster” and ” they always said we’d need them”. Another good one is “its like the annual flu jab” but I don’t remember them making a digital pass invalid for not having that.
@Sean Murphy: if you actually read the article it is implying that the vaccine is our way back to normal. Waning vaccines are offsetting the milder effects of Omncron when it comes to hospitalisation numbers. The implication is that if people get vaccinated then we can floor the hospitalisation numbers. Nobody is excluded from society, you’re just not allowed in the pub with the rest of us as you pose a greater threat due to your unvaxed status.
@Sean Murphy: they are our path back to normality though. They keep people alive and reduce hospital numbers until it runs its course. No one was ever told that the virus wouldn’t mutate or that we wouldn’t need boosters.
@Andy O’B: Demonising the sickest people in our society (immunocomprimised unjabbed) and belittling peoples adverse reactions in one thread, what a treat you are haha. Anyway Coleen don’t mind him, I’m sorry to hear you’re unwell from your jab and I hope you feel better in time for Christmas.
@cianj: You are low risk but can easily contribute to the spread resulting in high risk individuals contacting it. You can understand if others are annoyed with your choice as it is a real Me Fein move
@GrumpyAulFella: Why are you even listening to a word from the now defunct Neil Ferguson. A man who’s models at the start of this virus, that sent everyone into a panic, were wildy inaccurate. A man who while he said we were facing a new plague was busy breaking lockdown to have an affair with a married woman.
@Sean Murphy: A regular attribute of the people who complain a lot seem to be the use of people’s names in arguments.
Leo this, Tony that etc.
Seems these types get much more wound up and take things personally instead of sitting back and being more analytical, even if that means confronting data they don’t like.
@Sean Murphy: because it doesn’t take a genius to establish that this particular statement from him is true and in fact aligns with statements coming from others in the profession. Vaccines work, more people with vaccines will work better.
@Andy O’B: Is it possible that of the 638 ICU patients in the period end June to beginning of December, of which 511 had previous underlying health conditions, might account for the hospital beds? Is it also possible that some people are very worried about vaccines on health grounds if they have underlying conditions. Not all, some people choose to just stay away from the maddening crowds instead of putting un trialled, chemicals into their body so they can go to a pub. Is it not possible that the scientists could be wrong? Info freely available on HSE if anyone wanted to ‘actually’ get facts and not listen to their taxi driver!
@cianj: They will become invalid shortly if you don’t get your booster, Leo has as much as said it. He also said there’s going to be a fourth booster in the spring. So if you’re onboard with this whole thing, just be aware that you’ll be looking at another shot AFTER this next booster, at least..
@Mickety Dee: What a supercilious comment. There’s no reason whatsoever to think a person could spread it to a high risk individual. They are the ones that are more then likely already full bolstered up and will be protecting themselves. You get it to protect yourself never mind whether “others” are annoyed. It’s each individuals decision. Constant arrogant, self serving, over bearing attitudes like yours are definitely not needed.
@brenster: “putting untrialed chemicals into their body”. Pretty much everything else you say is irrelevant when you use that phrase. No medicine or vaccine in history has been subject to as much scrutiny as these have. If you want to know why they were developed for use so quickly the reasons are there for all to see and they have been explained to us a billion times by now. Nothing to do with them being rushed at the expense of safety
@Fozz: because Leo’s the only one talking/showing off
Paul Reid has no medical qualifications whatsoever.
@John Fahy: is Michael O’Leary a qualified commercial pilot?
@GrumpyAulFella: No, and he never speaks about how to fly a plane. He manages his company and makes sure it runs efficiently unlike the HSE.
@John Fahy: And he keeps telling us how easily the HSE is overwhelmed whilst he picks up a huge salary for supposedly running it, the man should be sacked asap
@John Fahy: I haven’t seen Reid comment on how to perform open heart surgery either. What’s your point?
@John Fahy: I’d love to see anyone come in to try and manage the HSE with different results. The problem with people Like you is you think everything is black and white. I agree the HSE is a shambles but the task anyone faces to make real change to the HSE is impossible. The politics to trudge through block every move.You have a situation where private health education companies trying to train highly skilled profession like ICU nursing is blocked by unions representing public health nurses bc they don’t want privately trained nurses taking jobs or places etc. You have regional politicians blocking expansion of all areas because if a larger hospital gets funding why doesn’t a small hospital get the same. Most of the people that make these comments have never actually ran any significant.
@Michael Geraghty: So we are suppose to just sit back and ignore the fact an overpaid incompetent is “running” or should I say ruining the health service. Its no wonder its in chaos with attitudes like yours. Just remember it’s the hard pressed tax payers money that’s been squandered while the health issues of of the public are being ignored…to the detriment of many.
@Franny Ando: the health service was ruined long before he was there. In your infinite wisdom, tell me how you would fix it or is complaining on the journal about sitting back and ignoring the best thing you have to offer?
Omicron, more like omiCON.
@JillyBean: better tell the medical staff in A&E that they can go home from Xmas if that’s the case.
@GrumpyAulFella: A lot of them will be home for Xmas.
2/3 less hospitalisation than Delta in Scotland .This is such great news
@Niamh Hayes: many more people will catch it though leading to hospital admissions staying the same or increasing.
@Steve: Denmark which has the same population as us and is ahead of us in omicrom transmission had an increase of 16 in icu .We need to be careful of course but it does look like it’s going to be okay.
@Niamh Hayes: Yeah, both of these things appear to be true at the same time.
It seems we will have our record case numbers for a period starting soon, but vaccines (and the less hard-hitting new variant) will hopefully protect our hospitals from the worst of it and the vast majority of us will either suffer no symptoms, or symptoms we can treat ourselves at home (the unvacced will get hit a lot harder).
Doubt we’ll see a hospital surge like last Jan/Feb.
The more pressing issue right now is the amount of people who need to isolate, missing out on family meetups etc. over the next week or so.
Shame this wave didn’t wait a few weeks.
@Fozz: I would say the more pressing issue now is for the staff in hospitality the musicians who play over the Christmas that nobody falls through the cracks and get financial support over this tough period for them. I know of a few who are in dire straits and are having trouble getting financial support.
@Niamh Hayes: it’s like the Japanese tsunami. You see the water levels going down and everything calm for a while…. then boom!
@Steve: Supposition. No one knows if it will have a negative effect on hospitals. Most relevant and recent information says otherwise. Try a more positive attitude.
@Fozz: so precaution against something that looked like it wouldn’t be that bad based on real life data is worth ruining people businesses and livelihoods over Xmas. Kids not getting presents and patents stressed about paying credit cards and mortgages?
That last sentence is a stark reminder who is causing this problem with restrictions in Ireland…get the out of hospital beds since they don’t believe in science.
@Andy O’B: Its also a wilful misrepresentation of the facts, because it fails to mention the most important statistic that unifies the majority of patients with covid19 in ICU, that 80.1% of them have an underlying condition, meaning that is why covid19 had a more severe and detrimental impact on them, including requiring admission to ICU, not because they were either vaccinated or unvaccinated.
Source for 80.1% of patients in ICU with covid19 have underlying conditions:
@David Van-Standen: so that 80.1% could be all of the vaccinated people and still 34% of the unvaccinated people…so, at a minimum, 34% of the total are unvaccinated have an underlying condition. Get a vaccine so that you aren’t put into hospital.
Yes, I appreciate that some of these people can’t get a vaccine due to their condition, but if everyone who can get a vaccine got a vaccine, there would be less people in hospital and less people roaming around mask free and unvaccinated spreading it (and before you say it, I know it can be spread by vaccinated people too).
In short, vaccines work. There haven’t been many side effects. There’s no 5G in our heads. The unvaccinated are the ones causing transplants to be cancelled due to lack of beds. Purely selfish in their motives
@David Van-Standen: Very inconvenient facts for virtuous Andy, who does exactly what Big Pharma asks like a good little boy, in his attempt to demonise the sickest people in our society. Let’s scapegoat all the immunocomprimised unjabbed, who are most likely too sick to even take the jab, and not put the blame on our defunct healthcare system. A health care system that is overrun every winter, only this time the media can blame the people instead of those running it. These people are trash.
@David Van-Standen: but it’s irrelevant. The fact remains that 53% in ICU are unvaxed from a population of 9%. That’s a startling reminder of the effectiveness of the vaccine. Having an underling condition or being immunocompromised very very rarely means that a person can’t be vaxed. 1 in 8 of the population has asthma alone. That’s an underlying condition and for many of those on steroids they will be immunocompromised but will have gotten the vaccine.
@David Van-Standen: the unvaccinated must be a really unhealthy bunch as 54 percent of ICU cases from only 6 percent of the eligible population come from that cohort. Also 68 percent of unvaxxed admissions are 60 or under compared to vaccinated people where 75 percent are 60 or over.
@Andy O’B: You are basically doing the same thing as Paul Reid, attempting to spin the statistics to suit the narrative you are pushing, no matter how much they contradict your position, instead of looking at them objectively or presenting them without an additional soundbite of the Pfizer sales pitch and throwing in some 5g spoofology for good measure.
@GrumpyAulFella: As someone that is not invested in either the pro mass vaccination programme, or the Antivaxxer agenda, this data leads me to unbiased conclusions of my own, that a much better course of action would have been to target all resources including the vaccines and isolation, to those people with underlying conditions and those living and working around them.
Rather than promoting and engaging in a mass vaccination programme across the entire population, the vast majority of whom have no need to be vaccinated against covid19 for any demonstrable purpose, except the alleged protection of the medically vunerable i.e. those with underlying conditions.
But that would be a much less profitable alternative solution for Pharmaceutical companies.
@Sean Murphy: big pharma – that’s all you had to say for me to dismiss you Seany Boy. Have a good Christmas. Nope you don’t need tinfoil from your hat to cook the turkey.
@GrumpyAulFella: How is it irrelevant that the majority of the unjabbed in ICU are immunocomprimised? It means that most can’t take the jab and are so sick they probably would’ve been there anyway. There’s a reason the deaths/cases stats broken down by jabbed/unjabbed are wildly different than the ICU stats. You can’t cook those numbers, which is why the media never focus on it.
@Steve: You are missing the point, that its the people with underlying conditions are a really unhealthy group of people and 54% of them are unvaccinated, that’s just over half.
Meaning if you have an underlying condition, regardless of your vaccination status you are more at risk from covid19 and a numerous number of other less publicised viruses too.
The vast majority of the rest of the entire population, be they vaccinated or unvaccinated are a reasonably health group of people.
Now if 54% of the total 300,000 plus unvaccinated people were ending up in hospital it would be an entirely different story, but lets try and be objective and stick to the facts, the total number of people in hospital and ICU are in the hundreds, not tens of thousands regardless of their vaccination status.
@David Van-Standen: 2/3 of people in hospital are NOT vaccinated
@David Van-Standen: and how many people do you think would have ended up in hospital if there had been no vaccinations? How might the vaccine have mutated on such a green field population? How many more would have died? How many with long Covid and other post Covid complications? What is an underlying condition, how many have one and how many are diagnosed with one every day? How would we constantly track this and apply vaccines accordingly? What of the 40% increased transmission threat of unvaxed? Would we just let that go unchecked? What would the end game be in this vax free, virus rampant world that you paint? So many questions, so few answers.
@Sean Murphy: it certainly doesn’t mean that they can’t get the vaccine. Where are you getting that nonsense from? The vast vast majority of immunocompromised can receive the vaccine. I’m immunocompromised myself and have had 3 shots. All it means is that they are more susceptible to greater harm should they contract the disease. 53% unvaxed in hospital from 7% of the population. That’s the only relevant stat. The vaccines are working very well. Quit with the Big Pharma conspiracy theories and misinformation.
@GrumpyAulFella: it’s not the only relevant stat. You can’t just pick the statistic that agrees with your position and then discount all other statistics as irrelevant, while at the same time berate others for being unscientific!
What that statistic (50% in icu are unvaccinated out of 9% of the population) is, is the only relevant stat that shows the effectiveness of vaccines. If you look at a lot of the other statistics they aren’t as clear.
The reality is, even unvaccinated you have 99% likelihood of being absolutely fine after covid infection.
If you want to increase that protection to 99.9%, get vaccinated, don’t worry about what anyone else is doing because it is most likely that over 90% of transmissions are from vaccinated people to other vaccinated people.
@john doe: “The reality is, even unvaccinated you have 99% likelihood of being absolutely fine after covid infection.” … thanks, nice to be reminded of that stark fact occasionally. Most people these days seem to think unvaxed + covid = ICU, which is simply not true.
@GrumpyAulFella: You can ask this multitude of questions in an attempt to muddy the waters and make it seem so complicated as to be beyond comprehension and yet, you cannot see the simple truth, the vast majority of people that chose not to be unvaccinated are not being hospitalised, nevermind ending up in ICU.
So if only a few thousand out of 350,000 unvaccinated people got sick enough to need hospital treatment during the entire pandemic so far, then the vast majority of the rest of the population wouldn’t have either.
The unvaccinated are the control group, which disproves the necessity for the mass vaccination programme.
The only people that needed to take a covid19 vaccine is the same demographic that takes an annual flu vaccine, based on their underlying condition and risk.
@David Van-Standen: it should read: “the vast majority the chose to be unvaccinated”
@David Van-Standen: wow thats just information that we haven’t been made aware of. Where is the good information project on that? Why are we not getting a property breakdown of everyone that has died with or due to covid? Would this constitute real journalism? Not much of that going on now tbf
@retsnuM: his comments were that the first world countries are off doing their own thing while the third world countries can’t get access to vaccines, so they should have been divided out a lot better and had the whole world 40% vaccinated at this point. He also goes on to say that there will be enough vaccines to vaccinated the whole world by middle of 2022, so let’s just keep heads up and do what we can to get through it…pity the unvaccinated people aren’t doing their bit….
This one looks like it’s the beginning of the end. Far less dangerous than delta. Hopefully by the looks of things it will be well and truly gone in the next year
@Shaun Gallagher: that’s what I’m hoping. But I remember this time last year I said the same thing
No smokers should be given hospital beds, no chronic drinkers should be given hospital beds, no dangerous drivers should be given hospital beds. The Government have mismanaged the HSE donkeys years now, Covid is a convenient veil to their ineptitude.
@Gary C: would you propose to have a judge and jury in session at the doors of the hospital? Your proposal for selective healthcare is preposterous.
@Gary C: wow, and if your parent, sibling, spouse or friend fell into any of those categories would be happy to accept them not receiving medical attention?
@Gary C: Don’t stoop to the level of the branch covidians. Everyone is entitled to healthcare.
@Sean Murphy: branch covidians lol I’m stealing that
@Jo H: Good lord. I imagine those remarks are being made because of the constant lambasting of the unvaccinated by a small cohort seriously lacking intelligence and empathy. The ones further up these comments who want unvaccinated to be treated like lepers.
@Sean Murphy: That’s my point, even unvaccinated
@Jo H: sarcasm
@Franny Ando: exactly
@Gary C: Apologies, the sarcasm of your comment was lost on me, my mistake. Sadly, since March 2020 I’ve seen and heard it said or implied seriously too many times
Less scaremongering
and so will the next one… on and on and on.. we just gotta live with it til it burns itself out
@Geoff Bateman: it wouldn’t burn itself out until we hinder the spread of it.
The Spanish flu hit around 1917-1918, people were still wearing masks in the early 1920s.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: was it vaccines that halted it?
Anyone else noticing the anti vax opinions on here getting more extreme? Its almost as if the regular ones on here have got it or know someone who has it by now, and only the true nutjobs remain convinced its a scamdemic.
You can’t boost your way out of a pandemic.Jabs do not reduce risk of passing Covid within household. 80% less hospitalization with omicron compared to Delta. 85% Covid deaths in Ireland in people with underlying conditions. What is going on?
@Michael Sheehan: the facts are stubborn and the reality this administration and public health officials fell asleep at the wheel in July when Israel pointed out that vaccines waned and started to boost will eventually come home to roost for them – its beingost in this noise of omicron and Xmas but they dropped the ball – facts are stubborn the 100 in icu atm would be half that if they rolled out boosters sooner – niac dragged their feet and the Govt were congratulating themselves at hitting 90% vax instead of following the science in a timely manner the way. emergency teams’. are suppose to
And that statement cost the tax payer 425000 grand a year
Yes it’s more transmittable but no deaths from it. It’s a cold
@Edel Nally: no deaths in Ireland you mean. There have been deaths in other countries.
No Chrimbo for you Paul and Philip with no medical degree spouting nonsense
@Adam Rekio: You don’t have to have a medical degree to effectively run a large health care organisation, just as you don’t have to be an opera singer to be an opera critic.
@Anne Busher Collins: But you do need a modicum of intelligence and experience something seriously lacking in both.
54% of people in ICU are not vaccinated. 6% of the population. That alone speaks volumes. Anyone not vaccinated really should start considering it.
anybody want to try predictions for positive cases(c) and hospital(h) numbers on 6th January ???
c 1820
h 550
..who knows?
The Tsunami has started but impressive vaccination numbers. With Omicron a sure thing the schools will be out for month of January.
@Splat: but the teachers will be boosted and the kids don’t get that sick and it is less dangerous than delta.
@Splat: if they could operate schools. In delta and omicron is showing to be less virulent and not require hospitalisation then we should be able to manage schools in January – Ireland pushing this narrative of scare mongering when the facts of omicron are emerging as being more transmissible but less virulent – they are being overly cautious and in truth couldn’t face Xmas with drunken idiots in emergency deparements – the real reason they closed pubs early but won’t just come out and say it
@Dave Hammond: the idi0ts will get drunk at home anyway and still end up in A&E.
@Dave Hammond: try explaining that to the teacher’s unions. I hope they keep the schools open I have 3 in primary. I agree the emergency departments will be less but I know a few that got covid on nights out in Dublin. Closing pubs early is a good step. The pubs are a cesspit. Also they predict worst case 20k a day. I go with 40k a day in January
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