Coronavirus Thread

[davieG]

[Costock_Fox]

12 hours ago, WigstonWanderer said:

For anyone with the attention span, this is an interesting discussion about a paper suggesting that exposure to one coronavirus may provide a long lasting T cell level immune response to another. It is suggested as a possible explanation why some people have less severe reactions to Covid 19 than others.

 

I’ve posted stuff from this guy before and have found his analyses to be very helpful to my understanding of this infection.
 

 

Can anyone summarise? I’m not someone blessed with an attention span.

[StanSP]

2 weeks on from the scenes seen across the country, mainly London, of pubs full and streets full of people. No sign of second waves there. Follows the same pattern of crowds from protests previous to that. Doesn't appear to be a second wave in Liverpool either after their title celebrations. Wonder if same will be said for Leeds and their celebrations outside Elland Road last night?

[WigstonWanderer]

53 minutes ago, Costock_Fox said:

Can anyone summarise? I’m not someone blessed with an attention span.

Haha

 

Sorry mate I watched it a couple of days ago. More or less made sense at the time, but complete blank now 

[Crinklyfox]

1 hour ago, Costock_Fox said:

Can anyone summarise? I’m not someone blessed with an attention span.

The study proposed that that was evidence that exposure to one form of coronavirus could confer some level of immunity to other coronaviruses through the T cells in the immune system.  There are many coronaviruses including variants of the common cold.  They found that persons exposed to the SARS coronavirus fifteen years ago exhibited resistance.

[WigstonWanderer]

2 hours ago, StanSP said:

2 weeks on from the scenes seen across the country, mainly London, of pubs full and streets full of people. No sign of second waves there. Follows the same pattern of crowds from protests previous to that. Doesn't appear to be a second wave in Liverpool either after their title celebrations. Wonder if same will be said for Leeds and their celebrations outside Elland Road last night?

Outdoor event do not seem anywhere near as potent as indoor ones, presumably because of ventilation.

[MattFox]

Been out and about in London and Brum ( Don’t live in the restricted zone!) for work stuff this week and this idea that things are getting back to normal is nonsense.
 

Central London especially still feals like it’s in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

 

 

[st albans fox]

41 minutes ago, MattFox said:

Been out and about in London and Brum ( Don’t live in the restricted zone!) for work stuff this week and this idea that things are getting back to normal is nonsense.
 

Central London especially still feals like it’s in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

 

 

Central London is a big problem 

 

few people want to use public transport 

 

lots of workers can do their jobs from home 

 

the shops, cafes and restaurants are either closed or haemorrhaging money being open with few punters 

 

TFL is just losing money day by day

 

when the theatres do eventually open, will there be enough demand for tickets ?? 

 

the price of office space could crash and whilst many would say ‘good’, it really wouldn’t be for the future of a strong economy .... 

 

[oxford blue]

4 hours ago, Costock_Fox said:

Can anyone summarise? I’m not someone blessed with an attention span.

I am not a scientist but my understanding is as follows - although I don't understand the process! (Nor have I seen your video clip.)

 

Both B cells and T cells a re formed in the Bone marrow (B are kept there); T cells being stored In Thymus.

T cells can get rid of cells already infected (killer T cells) and instruct (helper T cells) to generate B cells. B cells will bind itself to something (in this case CV19) as it is  not recognised and neutralise it.

The T cell essentially instructs the B cells to clear up any cells still infected which themselves help generate antibodies (which is a protein, which is part of cell construction) used to neutralise pathogens.

 

Cells which have been previously infected  remember those pathogens and fight them off the next time they enter the body. (This is essentially how vaccines work— which use a  small, harmless amount of protein from a disease to allow the immune system to generate antibodies should that disease enter the body in the future.)

[MPH]

I’m feeling much better today. won’t be able to do much for a while but i’m finally sleeping well at night, no more fever or aches, cough has gone down considerably and just a little out of breath when i get up to do stuff.  i can taste a few things too  which is a huge improvement!

[Sampson]

11 minutes ago, MPH said:

I’m feeling much better today. won’t be able to do much for a while but i’m finally sleeping well at night, no more fever or aches, cough has gone down considerably and just a little out of breath when i get up to do stuff.  i can taste a few things too  which is a huge improvement!

That's brilliant news! Hopefully it continues getting better and better in the next few days! 

Edited 18 July 2020 by Sampson

[joachim1965]

1 hour ago, st albans fox said:

Central London is a big problem 

 

few people want to use public transport 

 

lots of workers can do their jobs from home 

 

the shops, cafes and restaurants are either closed or haemorrhaging money being open with few punters 

 

TFL is just losing money day by day

 

when the theatres do eventually open, will there be enough demand for tickets ?? 

 

the price of office space could crash and whilst many would say ‘good’, it really wouldn’t be for the future of a strong economy .... 

 

Same in Leicester,  I drive a bus and am literally taking no money at the minute, empty buses.  Once the government stop paying, the industry is knackered. 

[Costock_Fox]

23 minutes ago, MPH said:

I’m feeling much better today. won’t be able to do much for a while but i’m finally sleeping well at night, no more fever or aches, cough has gone down considerably and just a little out of breath when i get up to do stuff.  i can taste a few things too  which is a huge improvement!

When you are out of breath does your inhaler work? Wondering if it’s similar to asthma or not.

[Lionator]

8 hours ago, Innovindil said:

Nope, none at all. 

 

Cheers for this. Just to be clear I'm not leaving the house for the next 2 weeks as is recommended. Missus gets retested Wednesday as well so we'll see how that one turns out. Reckon number 3 is the one though, I'm probably just not to the point where a test will pick it up, seems crazy that I could have avoided it when it spreads so easily and we're pretty much always in the same room. 

If your partner doesn't have symptoms then it's very likely that she's not transmitting the virus. Even though a lot has been made of asymptomatic transmission, if she's not coughing outwards and onto surfaces then it's unlikely to transmit to you. 

 

[MPH]

32 minutes ago, Costock_Fox said:

When you are out of breath does your inhaler work? Wondering if it’s similar to asthma or not.

 

It can help a little bit but it all depends on how much exertion I have done...

[WigstonWanderer]

An update from Australia for anyone interested. These are my personal views, and others may disagree.

 

The outbreak in Victoria (Melbourne) appears to be getting away from the capacity of the Test, Track & Trace scheme. This follows the hotel quarantine security debacle, in which security personnel are rumoured to have been engaging in sex with guests. The authorities seem to be behind the curve and don’t seem to have learnt the lesson that is quite clear from outbreaks across the world - go hard and go early.

 

The most recent news is that 80% of infections in the recent outbreak have spread within the workplace. To my mind this means that there should be a hard lockdown (only essential workers allowed out) to snuff out the outbreak quickly. It is a mistake to wait until the last minute. That simply extends the crisis and ultimately costs more, both in lives and economically. They have at least made mask wearing mandatory for anyone outside their home.

 

Meanwhile, Gladys Berejiklian, the NSW Premier, is presiding over the beginnings of what could turn into a serious problem in Sydney. She has been the most belligerent advocate of opening State borders within Australia, regularly lecturing everyone else, whilst simultaneously playing fast and loose with her own borders. The infection has been traced as having spread from Victoria. If she had her way I’ve no doubt everywhere else would eventually be the same. While numbers are low at present I’d say it’s about 50/50 as the whether the Sydney outbreak gets out of control.

 

Of course, closing the border between NSW and Victoria is a much bigger deal than WA closing its borders, but they’ve had to do so now anyway, after the proverbial horse has bolted.

 

Here in WA we’re hosting AFL matches with a 50% capacity crowd (30k). I just hope this doesn’t backfire. Life is all but back to normal, but this means that should an outbreak occur it is likely to spread very quickly.

 

As far as I know everyone can pretty much go about their business as normal, so theoretically the economy should only be limited by external factors such as world trade, etc. The holiday/travel industry is limited by the border closures, but has a captive audience in WA residents to compensate. Overall, AFAICT there is little to be gained by opening WA borders and everything to lose.

[WigstonWanderer]

11 hours ago, MPH said:

I’m feeling much better today. won’t be able to do much for a while but i’m finally sleeping well at night, no more fever or aches, cough has gone down considerably and just a little out of breath when i get up to do stuff.  i can taste a few things too  which is a huge improvement!

Glad to hear you’re on the mend.

[st albans fox]

Apparently the Yorkshire choir who developed respiratory viral symptoms in jan didn’t have covid 

 

[perthfox]

2 hours ago, WigstonWanderer said:

An update from Australia for anyone interested. These are my personal views, and others may disagree.

 

The outbreak in Victoria (Melbourne) appears to be getting away from the capacity of the Test, Track & Trace scheme. This follows the hotel quarantine security debacle, in which security personnel are rumoured to have been engaging in sex with guests. The authorities seem to be behind the curve and don’t seem to have learnt the lesson that is quite clear from outbreaks across the world - go hard and go early.

 

The most recent news is that 80% of infections in the recent outbreak have spread within the workplace. To my mind this means that there should be a hard lockdown (only essential workers allowed out) to snuff out the outbreak quickly. It is a mistake to wait until the last minute. That simply extends the crisis and ultimately costs more, both in lives and economically. They have at least made mask wearing mandatory for anyone outside their home.

 

Meanwhile, Gladys Berejiklian, the NSW Premier, is presiding over the beginnings of what could turn into a serious problem in Sydney. She has been the most belligerent advocate of opening State borders within Australia, regularly lecturing everyone else, whilst simultaneously playing fast and loose with her own borders. The infection has been traced as having spread from Victoria. If she had her way I’ve no doubt everywhere else would eventually be the same. While numbers are low at present I’d say it’s about 50/50 as the whether the Sydney outbreak gets out of control.

 

Of course, closing the border between NSW and Victoria is a much bigger deal than WA closing its borders, but they’ve had to do so now anyway, after the proverbial horse has bolted.

 

Here in WA we’re hosting AFL matches with a 50% capacity crowd (30k). I just hope this doesn’t backfire. Life is all but back to normal, but this means that should an outbreak occur it is likely to spread very quickly.

 

As far as I know everyone can pretty much go about their business as normal, so theoretically the economy should only be limited by external factors such as world trade, etc. The holiday/travel industry is limited by the border closures, but has a captive audience in WA residents to compensate. Overall, AFAICT there is little to be gained by opening WA borders and everything to lose.

WA has done extremely well i agree keep our borders closed as long as possible

[Lionator]

4 hours ago, st albans fox said:

Apparently the Yorkshire choir who developed respiratory viral symptoms in jan didn’t have covid 

 

Just proves that those people who are convinced they had it between October - February probably had something else.

[Bryn]

31 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Just proves that those people who are convinced they had it between October - February probably had something else.

 

No, not necessarily.

 

You have two branches of your immune system. The innate immune system is the 24 hour patrol that deals with things right off the bat. It uses readymade, generic defences to eliminate threats.

 

Your adaptive immune system is the antibody-mediated, tailored response to a sustained or severe attack from a pathogen.

 

It is possible to become unwell and have an innate response and even an early adaptive response which does not generate antibodies which last before the threat is eliminated.

 

That's before we even discuss the fact that we don't know how long COVID antibodies last and the limitations of COVID antibody testing.

[Lionator]

20 minutes ago, Bryn said:

 

No, not necessarily.

 

You have two branches of your immune system. The innate immune system is the 24 hour patrol that deals with things right off the bat. It uses readymade, generic defences to eliminate threats.

 

Your adaptive immune system is the antibody-mediated, tailored response to a sustained or severe attack from a pathogen.

 

It is possible to become unwell and have an innate response and even an early adaptive response which does not generate antibodies which last before the threat is eliminated.

 

That's before we even discuss the fact that we don't know how long COVID antibodies last and the limitations of COVID antibody testing.

The second thing is t-cell memory though right? They didn't find that in the study.

[Sampson]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53467022?at_custom3=BBC+News&at_custom1=%5Bpost+type%5D&at_custom2=facebook_page&at_medium=custo

 

Not fully per reviewed yet but this looks like the best news we've had yet in terms of effective treatments.

 

Edited 20 July 2020 by Sampson

[davieG]

The UK government has signed deals for 90 million doses of promising coronavirus vaccines that are being developed.

The vaccines are being researched by an alliance between the pharmaceutical companies BioNtech and Pfizer as well as the firm Valneva.

The new deal is on top of 100 million doses of the Oxford University vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca.

However, it is still uncertain which of the experimental vaccines may work.

A vaccine is widely seen as the best chance of getting our lives back to normal.

Research is taking place at an unprecedented scale - the world became aware of coronavirus at the beginning of the year, but already more than 20 vaccines are in clinical trials.

Some can provoke an immune response, but none has yet been proven to protect against infection.

 

The UK government has now secured access to vaccines that use three completely different approaches:

100m doses of the Oxford vaccine made from a genetically engineered virus
30 million doses of the BioNtech/Pfizer vaccine, which injects part of the coronavirus' genetic code
60 million doses of the Valneva, which uses an inactive version of the coronavirus
Using different styles of vaccine maximises the chance that one of them will work.

 

 

More here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53469269

[WigstonWanderer]

4 hours ago, Sampson said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53467022?at_custom3=BBC+News&at_custom1=%5Bpost+type%5D&at_custom2=facebook_page&at_medium=custo

 

Not fully per reviewed yet but this looks like the best news we've had yet in terms of effective treatments.

 

 

2 hours ago, davieG said:

The UK government has signed deals for 90 million doses of promising coronavirus vaccines that are being developed.

The vaccines are being researched by an alliance between the pharmaceutical companies BioNtech and Pfizer as well as the firm Valneva.

The new deal is on top of 100 million doses of the Oxford University vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca.

However, it is still uncertain which of the experimental vaccines may work.

A vaccine is widely seen as the best chance of getting our lives back to normal.

Research is taking place at an unprecedented scale - the world became aware of coronavirus at the beginning of the year, but already more than 20 vaccines are in clinical trials.

Some can provoke an immune response, but none has yet been proven to protect against infection.

 

The UK government has now secured access to vaccines that use three completely different approaches:

100m doses of the Oxford vaccine made from a genetically engineered virus
30 million doses of the BioNtech/Pfizer vaccine, which injects part of the coronavirus' genetic code
60 million doses of the Valneva, which uses an inactive version of the coronavirus
Using different styles of vaccine maximises the chance that one of them will work.

 

 

More here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53469269

Perhaps I’m wrong and being over cynical, but I can’t help being sceptical about many of the drug announcements from pharmaceutical companies. I suspect they are more about pumping share prices and raising capital than anything.