According to Dr. Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association, the spread of Omicron may help, rather than a hinder…
“Tough lockdown restrictions could end up doing more harm than good. Omicron could potentially be of great help to us, which is certainly not something you could say about the Delta variant. A hard lockdown would slow the process of Omicron making its way through the population and allowing people to develop the vital antibodies which will move your population towards herd immunity. The next variant might be slower spreading but more severe, and so we will need all the help we can get from such natural immunity.”
Former Treasury minister and adviser to Burnham in the Makerfield campaign Lord Jim O’Neill, who has turned down a role in his government, said Burnham’s first statement Commons was:
“The last thing investors wanted to hear… gilt yields have risen by a 0.25% in one day, which is a lot. We’ve not had that since Liz Truss days… If your country is under the focus of ‘can they come up with a sensible fiscal strategy’ on a day when the markets think ‘well no, you’re not showing any sign of it’ you’re going to have a tough day…if it stays like this your mortgage rate is going up.”