ICYMI: Omicron, Storm Arwen and snogging – the five biggest stories this week explained
Welcome to another edition of ‘This Week On The Dark And Scary Planet We Call Home’.
We can’t be alone in noticing that things have all got a bit apocalyptic again recently? You didn’t notice? No? Really?!
Look, if you haven’t been paying attention, we’re not going to try and sugarcoat this – it’s been bleak, from start to finish.
It’s been the type of week where you could be forgiven for trying to look away and pretend it’s all not happening.
Well, we’re afraid to say it has been happening and Metro.co.uk has been watching the whole sorry affair unfold for you. It’s what we do. All day. Every day.
We’ll get you up to speed in a few minutes and then you can get back to burying your head in that sweet, sweet, sand. Happy weekend!
Omicron and that sinking feeling
The biggest story of the week has been the relaunch of the Covid-19 virus under the snappy new brand ‘Omicron’. This was the week governments around the country hit the big red button marked ‘Houston, we have a problem’ and everyone got that familiar ‘here we go again’ feeling.
Here’s the science: The variant first spotted in southern Africa may not actually be inherently more transmissible than Delta, the version which has established itself as the World Heavyweight Champion of Covid. But because it has so many different mutations, scientists reckon our bodies won’t recognise it, meaning people who are ‘immune’ through a previous infection or vaccination can get it again.
How bad is it? We don’t know. It’s spreading, that’s for sure, with a few dozen cases in the UK already, and it will spread more. But two massive questions remain unanswered: does it cause a more or less severe disease and to what extent will the vaccines we already have hold up?
How has the world responded? At home, mask-wearing in shops and on public transport is back and anyone deemed a close contact of someone infected with Omicron must self-isolate, even if they’re vaccinated. Travel restrictions are in place around the planet and measures are being rolled out across Europe, with Germany becoming the latest country to announce it’s making the jab mandatory. Science, of course, is doing its thing again and has begun developing new jabs already. But for now, it’s wait, watch and hope.
TL;DR: Another winter, another variant, another Christmas threatened by restrictions.
Storm Arwen and winter’s big entrance
Never one to be upstaged, the weather ensured coronavirus didn’t hog all the headlines this week.
How? Well, first it absolutely battered the life out of several parts of the country with Storm Arwen. Homes in the North East and Scotland are still without power after some of the worst storm damage in years. The extreme weather began last week but the clean up operation is still ongoing in some places and will be for weeks to come, with some people potentially off-grid until Christmas.
And then there was snow up and down the country for the first time this year, including in London (which, of course, upgrades it from ‘a bit of weather’ to ‘MAJOR NATIONAL NEWS’*). Northern towns on the east coast were particularly badly hit, including Middlesbrough and Aberdeen. There could be more in store as we head into next week so for heaven’s sake, dust off that snood.
*Your northern correspondent may or may not have a chip on his shoulder.
TL;DR: It’s cold now, it will be cold tomorrow, it may be cold forever. Questions?
Arthur
We try to have a bit of fun with this round-up but there is no easy way of relaying the horror that befell Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, a defenceless six-year-old who deserved more than his short, painful life. At the hands of his father and stepmother, Arthur was abused, poisoned and ultimately murdered. He was in the care of ‘evil’ Emma Tustin, 32, when he suffered an unsurvivable brain injury after being assaulted in his home. She was jailed for 29 years for murder alongside ‘pitiless’ father Thomas Hughes, 29, who was found guilty of manslaughter and locked up for 21 years.
There is a lot more that could be said about Arthur, the monsters who destroyed his life and the process to bring them to justice. But for now, consider this one question: how was this allowed to happen again? After the Baby P case, how was this beaming young lad allowed to waste away and remain a captor to his abusers even after the alarm was raised? A review has been launched and the government says it ‘will not hesitate to act’. There’s nothing more that can be done for Arthur but there are others out there who need help now.
TL;DR – A vulnerable child was killed slowly and no one noticed. It shouldn’t have happened again. It did.
Down it street
Remember last November when the country slumped back into lockdown and it was becoming increasingly clear a normal Christmas was a pipe dream? Well, if reports are to be believed, staff in Downing Street received this news in the only way they knew how: cracking open the Echo Falls, putting out a spread and playing party games. Allegedly.
The Daily Mirror discovered that boozy gatherings may have taken place inside the very building where restrictions were being drawn up and at a time when London was already in Tier 3. One witness said they had been a ‘Covid nightmare’, while another said attendees had been crammed in ‘cheek by jowl’. It’s even claimed Boris Johnson made a personal appearance at one farewell do to give a leaving speech.
The prime minister and Downing Street have not strictly denied parties happened, but they have quibbled with the description and insisted that any gatherings which may or may not have taken place did so within the confines of the social-distancing rules in place at the time. Make of that what you will, reader.
TL;DR: While the country closed down, Downing Street got down (allegedly).
And finally…snogging Sajid Javid
The Saj is a snogger and he’s absolutely insistent that everybody knows it. Every Christmas, Mr and Mrs Javid, under the mistletoe, a big old neck on. Why do we know this?
Well, ministers and health officials got in a bit of a muddle this week over how we should all conduct ourselves at all those Christmas parties we’ve been invited to (my DMs, as ever, are open). DWP chief Therese Coffey made an unclear situation more unclear but a tad saucier by suggesting we should all avoid snogging ‘people you don’t already know’. While that’s maybe not the worst life advice we’ve ever heard, it doesn’t amount to the most precise public health messaging possible.
And so it fell to Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Snogging (and health), to clarify that the government does not intend to regulate who, what, where or when you should be kissing this Christmas. And never one to leave the crowd wanting more, the minister threw in a war story of his own, opening up about his mistletoe ‘tradition’ with his wife. So there you have it. The snogging is back on, in Casa de Javid and beyond.
TL;DR: There isn’t one, go away, we’re done.
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