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Worse are the gratuitous vaccine passports, which are unlikely to stem omicron, given its spread among the double-jabbed. Nor has there been much debate about the estimated £2 billion per month cost to the economy, as city centre firms are left fighting for their survival. While the evidence suggests that working from home can cut transmissions if implemented early, it is far from clear that this time it will be all that effective, given omicron’s much higher household transmission rate, and the fact that 75 per cent of workers can’t do their job at home. Plan B – which is as cynical as it is blinkered – does not bode well. In particular, there is little sign that No 10 has done a proper cost-benefit analysis, weighing the risks of omicron against the potential damage of new measures. Unlike omicron, though, this risk gets no air time. Like the variant, the fallout of another lockdown could be milder than some of us fear, or it could be catastrophic beyond comprehension. The other is the effect of further restrictions. But the threat posed by omicron is not the only unknown risk in play. True, it is a game of chance: the virus is statistically just as likely to mutate against vaccines in a way that makes it more lethal, and it is simply too early to say anything conclusive about the new strain. Some immunologists suggest that this could turn out to be the case with omicron.
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Every time it alters itself to evade our immunity, it risks mutating in a way that makes it less deadly. In fact, it may be that we are entering the end game with the virus. So too does an early real-world study by the UK Health Security Agency suggesting that boosters restore vaccine protection to a significant extent. While South Africa has a younger population than Britain and clinical data remains limited, the fact that its ICU occupancy rates are lower now than during its summer delta peak points in the opposite direction. In particular, the projections of 75,000 omicron deaths by May are based on the assumption that the variant causes as severe disease as delta and boosters have low efficacy. Still, once again, our Covid response is seemingly more informed by modelling than evidence. Its sheer contagiousness means that, even if it is far less virulent than delta, it could in theory cause a surge in hospitalisations and deaths. Early studies suggest that vaccines are less effective against the new strain. There is no doubt that omicron is a potentially serious setback. We cannot go on with a superficially populist Tory Government that will entertain the drastic action of lockdowns but not radical NHS reform. We cannot go on pursuing Covid Plan Bs, Cs and Ds without a sensible cost-benefit analysis that weighs the harms and uncertainties of the virus against those of the restrictions. We cannot go on being plunged into panic by pessimistic modelling that has consistently been proved wrong in the past. As a majority-vaccinated country, we cannot go on suffering the permanent threat of lockdown restrictions, for fear the health service could be overwhelmed. It counts more than 175 members working around three central themes: gender, connectivity and teachers.Amid this fresh uncertainty, one thing is clear: we cannot go on living like this. Key in its initiatives was the establishment of the Global Education Coalition, a new model for international cooperation which develops innovative responses to help countries cope with the after effects of the crisis. The Sector's work is now focused on prioritizing education as a public good for everyone in order to avoid a generational catastrophe and drive sustainable recovery.
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Some gains already made towards the goals of the 2030 Education Agenda were lost.įrom the outset UNESCO's Education Sector worked with ministries of education, public and private partners and civil society to ensure continued learning for all children and youth. The pandemic affected more than 1.5 billion students and youth with the most vulnerable learners were hit hardest. After the historic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, most schools are back open worldwide but education is still in recovery assessing the damage done and lessons learned.