Small Percentage, Large Number

How exactly does one prove that one has had a negative lateral flow test in the last 48 hours, rather than proving someone had a negative lateral flow test, but not necessarily you? Am I missing something about the procedure or the way venues are able to police it, not that many appear to have the slightest wish to.

I simply cannot understand the mindset of anyone who would vote against additional measures to combat the spread of Covid. Are these people, who are overwhelmingly Conservative, so ideologically wedded to putting the economy over lives that they'd risk the lives of themselves and their loved ones? I know they have no regard for others outside of their own circle, but you'd think they would value those within their circle, who would be most at risk from them and from whom they'd be most at risk themselves.

Those ranting against additional measures are the very ones who are creating the necessity for the additional measures in the first place through their cavalier attitude to public health and their fetishisation of 'freedom'. It's pointless having freedom if you're dead.

Regardless of whether Omicron turns out to be a mild variant, the mere fact that it's highly infectious, and appears capable of evading the defences of the double jabbed, means vast swathes of people will get infected and, the more people are infected, the higher the chance of a further mutation that could be lethal, especially when Omicron itself is highly mutated and highly infectious. I know two double jabbed people who have already caught it. 

Hay, despite being eligible for the booster, can find nowhere local to receive it. She seems to have been missed off the list for vaccination at her local GP. She can go to a walk-in session at Cabot Circus in Bristol, but it's a double-edged sword, as you have to negotiate a crowded shopping centre to get the jab, which seems somewhat counterproductive, if not idiotic. She could easily catch the virus before the booster has chance to work. She's basically at the same risk from Omicron as an unvaccinated person.

Now, having said all the above with the vehemence of a zealot, if the Omicron variant produces only mild symptoms in the majority of cases, then there is an argument for letting it rip and for everyone to contract it, including unvaccinated, single jabbers, double jabbers and, yes, even anti-vaxxers (they couldn't avoid it), thereby obtaining natural antibodies which, hopefully, would offer some protection against future Omicron variants and finally defeat the bug. 

The problem with the above is that a percentage of those, albeit a small percentage, will be hospitalised but, given almost everyone will be exposed to it, that small percentage will still be a lot of people all needing hospitalisation at the same time, with the obvious consequences for the NHS and those needing other procedures.

Also, if the symptoms are mild and many will be asymptomatic, the risk of spread is far greater.

We're basically in uncharted territory, but it's imperative that all steps are taken to slow the transmission of the virus down so that the NHS can cope with that small percentage, but nevertheless large number all wanting care near simultaneously..