We're not going to stop omicron - that's pretty clear. We may need to spread the wave over a longer time period though. The current models are predicting a UK

We're not going to stop omicron - that's pretty clear. We may need to spread the wave over a longer time period though. The current models are predicting a UK wave peaking in early to mid january with hospital admissions between half and double the previous highest peak. If it's half, we're probably OK. If it's double, the hospitals will not cope and many people will die unnecessarily, both from covid and from everything else you need emergency treatment for. The growth rate is so fast at the moment - less that 2 days doubling - that we could easily end up with 25% of healthcare workers (and delivery drivers, etc) off work at the same time. It looks like Denmark and the UK will provide the test case everyone else needs to decide whether stricter measures are needed to spread the wave. Personally, I'd prefer we weren't the test case - I think a little more caution at the moment on behalf of the government would be warranted.