In this March 10, 2022 article for Daily Mail, Luke Andrews reports on the analysis made by Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert from the University of East Anglia. According to Hunter, current data being released by the UK government indicates that COVID is now less deadly compared to the flu.

COVID mortality before Omicron was around 0.2%, but this figure has since plunged seven-fold to as little as 0.3%. Estimates show that seasonal influenza’s infection fatality rate (IFR) sits between 0.01 and 0.05%.

Professor Robert Dingwall, a former member of the UK’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), confirms that Omicron is no longer a major health concern. He says, “What we are seeing now is consistent with a transition to a world where Covid is just one ore respiratory illness, circulating alongside the 30 or so other respiratory viruses that commonly infect humans and not presenting any exceptional risk…There is no justification today for any measures that we would not have adopted in November 2019 ahead of the flu season.”

Both Dingwall and Hunter credit both the vaccines and natural immunity for creating a “wall of immunity” against the disease.

Editor’s Note: When will Filipino health “experts” see that Omicron has already changed the “pandemic” in the Philippines? [See Why can’t the Philippine government give up its unscientific, illogical, and useless COVID policies?, Will 90% COVID Inoculation Rate Protect Filipinos from Surge of New Cases and High Mortality?]

Consider the following data (see above) from Baguio City. In this city with a population of that is nearly 370,000^[1]https://www.philatlas.com/luzon/car/baguio.html, as of March 15, 2022, only two new cases have been detected from a total of 410 RT-PCR tests ran on this day by the government. Both of these two cases are asymptomatic.

Despite this, however, the city still operates as if we are still in the middle of a pandemic. It requires travelers to register and present a QR code, and proof of vaccination (or a negative test taken within 14 days prior to arrival for the unvaccinated).^[2]https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=508605650629416&set=pcb.507548227401825 There are checkpoints in all the city’s entry points, masks are still required, the government still monitors cases of Omicron, and there is still no assurance that the emergency measures implemented from two (2) years ago will be lifted anytime soon. This, despite the city’s 104.15% vaccination rate.efn_note]https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/aseanplus-news/2022/03/17/no-surge-in-covid-19-cases-amid-tourist-influx-in-philippines039-baguio[/efn_note]

Is the Philippines using a different science than that of other countries which are already saying that COVID is no longer a major health concern? [Read UK the 11th Country to Remove COVID-19 Travel Restrictions, South Africa eases most COVID restrictions, citing high population immunity, Iceland: Vaccines Not Enough, as Many as Possible People Need to be Infected for herd immunity, How Denmark decided COVID isn’t a critical threat to society, South Korea shifts pandemic policy to focused protection].

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