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.”
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”