Coronavirus - worldwide spread and control

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Andy said:
Clare Gereda on Radio 5 now.

"it was worse than flu"
"all I could do was sleep"
"it's very frightening being ill"
"it's difficult to be compassionate for others because we are rarely ill"
"let's all be in this together"
"we've all got to pull together behind the government and scientists"
and even brought Churchill into it.

Unsurprisingly, she supports the UK government on coronavirus policy.
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So, she found it very hard to be ill and wants us all to be compassionate for ill people, but then wants to deliberately infect 60% of the country’s population so they can go through what she just did? Is that what “we’re all in this together” means?
 
alex3619 said:
Multiple vaccines are in the testing phase right now. Vaccine creation is largely automated now, the procedures streamlined. However testing those vaccines is still a long process. One group in the US, I do not recall details, is talking about skipping animal testing and currently recruiting human volunteers, in an effort to cut testing time.

The big issue here is not how long it will take to create the first vaccine, but how long it will take to create an effective vaccine. That is a whole other issue.
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There is a virology blog on vacine creation
http://www.virology.ws/2020/03/11/sars-cov-2-the-vaccine-landscape/
 
Invisible Woman said:
My husband's employers have just changed the level of approval needed for non emergency time off. For now, employees who are planning on travel outside the country need to clear it ahead of travel, otherwise if they get stuck abroad they won't be laid for the time they miss.

No visitors allowed into the offices and restrictions placed on meetings etc.
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We've now been told to work at home if possible and not to come into the office for 14 days if we have traveled to a different 'metropolitan district'. Also no visits to offices.
 
I have been talking to my nephew Al about vaccines. It may be that something can be produced quite quickly but a lot of resources should be put into trying various tricks to find one that works.

The best vaccines are live but harmless versions of a virus. I see no prospect of such an attenuated strain being made that reliably infects but does no harm. A less good but still effective method is to use proteins from the virus that in themselves cannot replicate. But these need to be injected with a 'danger' signal - what traditionally is called an adjuvant.

There ought to be a clever way to tag virus proteins with adjuvants that are based on human signalling systems and so entirely harmless and potentially highly efficient. The question is just how to do it. Making proteins to order is easy these days with molecular biology methods.

I would not even think of bothering with animals. They could give misleading results. I think the sticking point at the moment is setting up a reliable test of immunity - a serology/antibody test. As far as I can see there is none validated at present.
 
Nellie said:
Radio 4 'Today' program just after 8.15 and for about 10 minutes, Robert Peston interviewing Mr Gerada/Sir/Prof Wesley and erm forgotten who else.
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Professor Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist from Imperial College London, was interviewed along with Professor Wessely: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000gdsw

Interestingly, the interviewer (Nick Robinson) mentions that SW had wanted to come to the studio to do the interview despite the fact that his wife has tested positive for Covid-19. The BBC told him not to and did the interview by phone.

SW claimed (at approx 1hr 20 min) that it was not necessary for him to self-isolate because he doesn’t currently have any symptoms.
 
Lucibee said:
It's not a PCR-based test. It's a rapid antibody test. I think this is the one that was featured: https://www.biopanda.co.uk/php/products/rapid/infectious_diseases/covid19.php
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OK, I had trouble finding information on it. It looks like the sort of serological test that is badly needed to establish who has had the virus. It would also indicate the likely usefulness of a vaccine. But I presume it is no use as a test to see if someone is actively infected - at least in the early stage when they may be infectious. It takes about 20 days for IgG responses to peak. IgM responses are quicker but still about 10 days traditionally.

In other words it does not look like a quick alternative to see if you are infectious.
 
I heard the the Simon Wessely INTERVIEW. Not his best. Nick Robinson first introduced him as psychologist, then suggested some thought his science wasn’t as real as the biological stuff, he then asked a data modeller if he respected and wanted Wessely type input (we all know how this real word irks wessely) . and then he was saying as posted above he’d isolate if he had Symptoms but there was no need for him to now, which might well be medical advice but he didn’t come across particularly good or responsible . I think that advice coming now is all family self isolate ?
 
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Bath half marathon to go ahead despite coronavirus fears

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-51887950

Bath's annual half marathon is to go ahead on Sunday despite fears over coronavirus, organisers have confirmed.

It comes after city MP Wera Hobhouse said it "should be cancelled" because it was "simply not worth the risk".

But organisers said they have taken advice from "experts in local and national government" and it is "now too late to cancel or postpone the event".
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TiredSam said:
Bath half marathon to go ahead despite coronavirus fears

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-51887950
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We have municipal elections planned for tomorrow and next sunday in France (two round election).
Schools are closed, we are told to work from home, avoid social contacts... but we should go voting, bars and restaurants are not closed.

As a result, people are stock pilling pastas and toilet paper but café terraces were full yesterday night in Paris and many other towns.
Incoherence and selfishness...
 
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Perrier said:
I just heard this evening on Radio Canada (the French CBC) an Anthropologist arguing that this is nature's way of dealing with the fact that the planet is overpopulated. He didn't add too much more information to this conjecture of his. But as a further aside, when I was born the population was 2.5 billion and now it is 7.5 billion or so.
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I wonder what "Doc Maillioux" would have to say about it. :emoji_rolling_eyes:
 
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