▪️106,122 new Covid cases today alone
— David Schneider (@davidschneider) December 22, 2021
▪️Hospitals cancelling all non-urgent surgery
▪️NHS contemplating field hospitals in car parks
Boris Johnson: pic.twitter.com/YqS6WKbi3T
Wales' Mark Drakeford blasts 'paralysed' Boris Johnson over Covid lockdown ditheringhttps://t.co/WGYK2XQTd9 pic.twitter.com/tExw8qoIkn
— Mirror Politics (@MirrorPolitics) December 22, 2021
'He has all the authority of an inept deputy head of a third rate prep school.'
— LBC (@LBC) December 22, 2021
A furious Nick Ferrari says we all know more restrictions are coming in the new year but Boris Johnson doesn't have the balls to bring them in now.@NickFerrariLBC pic.twitter.com/YozkKYrbXR
Column: Boris Johnson – unpopular populist, and the cult of cake that ate the Conservative party https://t.co/EBpbu6wGyo
— Rafael Behr (@rafaelbehr) December 22, 2021
Early this year I was asked to leave Parliament for saying #JohnsonIsALiar.
— Dawn Butler MP✊🏾💙 (@DawnButlerBrent) December 22, 2021
It's difficult to pick but here’s 12 of his worst lies 😳feel free to add your own.
Johnson would not want you to share this 👀👇🏾https://t.co/74o5MRD9Pf
Well, that’s Boris Johnson done. pic.twitter.com/Dd9cY0VBK2
— John Cotter (@John_Cotter) December 22, 2021
Which of the following do you think would make the best Prime Minister? (19-20 Dec)
— YouGov (@YouGov) December 22, 2021
Keir Starmer: 34% (+1 from 14-15 Dec)
Boris Johnson: 22% (-1)
Don't know: 39% pic.twitter.com/PeIiY0LPUt
— Alex Sowden 😷🏴🏴🇮🇪🇪🇺 (@AJS77) December 22, 2021
Thursday's Times: “Omicron is less likely to be serious, say experts” #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday https://t.co/7FuHsAa3Vz pic.twitter.com/PTUxClqj43
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) December 22, 2021
Hospital stay risk for Omicron is 40%-45% lower than Delta -UK study https://t.co/0HKU7p5lQi pic.twitter.com/07uzuq0fVe
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 22, 2021
Wave of Omicron appears to be milder, with potentially around a two-thirds reduction in those needing hospital treatment, preliminary studies in UK and South Africa find https://t.co/KAS6XbxN2J
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) December 22, 2021
Thread summarising all of today’s Omicron severity data:
— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) December 22, 2021
Story from me, @mroliverbarnes and @rmilneNordic, running through new data from South Africa, Denmark, England & Scotland https://t.co/6axp4zau9G
Top-line: share of Omicron cases requiring hospital is lower than for Delta
Shameless plug: in some ways, the mildness or otherwise is a bit of a red herring, in that what matters still is whether or not you end up with 6,000 people needing a critical care bed: which is still up in the air https://t.co/fjZLFJ2lZz
— Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) December 22, 2021
Before I get into the rest, I want to re-emphasise that the overall impact of omicron will be determined by growth (exponential) and severity (linear)- even with lower severity, growth in itself will cause serious impact at population level, even if severity is moderately lower.
— Deepti Gurdasani (@dgurdasani1) December 22, 2021
I've worked on infectious disease outbreaks for 30 years. I've NEVER seen anything like the speed of Omicron. It's as infectious as measles spreading in a non-immune population, with a much shorter incubation time therefore much faster doubling time. Hope it's a lot less severe. pic.twitter.com/EtLfa4JKqd
— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) December 21, 2021
NEW—scientists at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research will soon announce that they have developed a vaccine that protects people from COVID-19 and all its variants, even #Omicron, called The ‘Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle COVID-19 vaccine’, or SpFN. 🧵https://t.co/C140590sPj
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) December 22, 2021
The U.S. has authorized the first pill against COVID-19, a Pfizer drug that Americans can take at home to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death. The announcement comes as the U.S. braces for a wave of new infections from the omicron variant.https://t.co/9whaTANKOK
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 22, 2021
The Biden administration has extended a moratorium on student loan payments until May 1 as omicron surge hits the U.S. The moratorium has been in place since early in the pandemic, but was set to expire on Jan. 31. https://t.co/CI9MgJf4T3
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 22, 2021
There are about 20 people crowded inside the front of my local CVS.
— Kevin Baron (@DefenseBaron) December 22, 2021
“What’s going on?” I ask someone.
“There’s a truck with a shipment of home tests coming soon,” we heard.
A million lateral flow packs are being sent out every day in the UK. Incredible!
— Tom Harwood (@tomhfh) December 22, 2021
The Overnight Note 