We need clarity on Omicron advice

DR Sakthi Karunanithi, director of public health at Lancashire County Council, is understandably worried about the impact of the Omicron variant in Lancashire.

He said: “If you have a temperature, cough, loss or change to your sense of smell or taste, or the new Omicron symptoms which include a runny nose, sore throat and a headache – no matter how mild – you need to isolate as quickly as possible.

“It is the right and safe thing to do.”

This advice makes complete sense - but also doesn’t square with what we’re hearing from the Government, where apparently the advice is now to ‘ride it out.’

The problem is that the symptoms being described are also the symptoms you could get with a myriad of minor illnesses too and what happens if everyone self isolates when they have the symptoms?

That’s not to question medical advice - too many others are doing that already - but the increasingly conflicting advice from political and medical leaders runs the risk of leaving people feeling confused at time when clarity is more needed than ever.