The Omicron wave: What next?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 10 January 2022
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's been just over six weeks since the discovery of the Omicron variant. In England, the government now seems to be growing in confidence that it's chosen the right plan. But as other governments take different stances, is it on the right course? And what might the next few months look like?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Adam Vaughn, the Times' Environment Editor. |
| 0:02.8 | At this October's Earth Summit, the Times and Sunday Times are bringing together |
| 0:06.2 | some of the UK's top people in sustainability from science to business and government. |
| 0:10.9 | The aim is to make more businesses more green and more profitable. |
| 0:15.2 | How do we revolutionise supply chains? How do we get green investment? |
| 0:19.4 | What opportunities are there when businesses work in an environmentally friendly way? |
| 0:24.0 | Find out by registering at TimesEarthSummit.com. |
| 0:30.1 | There are many things that we just cannot know at this early stage, but our scientists are |
| 0:43.9 | learning more hour by hour. It's been just over six weeks since the discovery of the |
| 0:50.3 | Omicron variant blew up everything we thought we knew about the virus. |
| 0:55.9 | In England, the government now seems to be growing in confidence |
| 0:59.8 | but it's chosen the right plan. It's now the proportionate and the responsible thing |
| 1:04.6 | to move to plan B in England. Before Christmas, more restrictions were on the cards. |
| 1:11.4 | Unfortunately, I must say to people we will have to reserve the possibility of taking further action. |
| 1:20.8 | We don't think today that there is enough evidence to justify any tougher measures |
| 1:28.0 | before Christmas. There will be no further measures before the new year. |
| 1:32.2 | The Cabinet agreed this morning that we should stick with plan B for another three weeks. |
| 1:36.4 | As Omicron burves through, and it is very much my hope and belief that it will, |
| 1:41.8 | I do believe that we will be able to get back to something much closer to normality. |
| 1:48.5 | But is England on the right course? Why is it so different to what Scotland and Wales are doing? |
| 1:54.9 | And what have we learned about the new variant since its discovery? |
| 1:59.3 | We have only the haziest idea of how many true infections there are at the moment |
... |
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