COVID-19 — Coronavirus

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cleavers said:
Not really my business, but you should do the right thing then, she's not allowed to do that, and given her position she knows that she's not. "A week" was never allowed, and it's only for a day now.

Kids won't be fined but she will if the police pay a visit.
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The second paragraph of my post shows I have indeed done the right thing. Not sure why you didn't leave it in your reply.
 
If we knew weeks back that there was a new variant and it was correlated with fast cluster growth are we honestly to expect that no one has been investigating the vaccine effectiveness until very recently? I can't believe that given the huge importance of this. As soon as they knew of this variant I am sure they'd have been starting enquiries.

We've got hospital patients with the virus. Isolate it, do the neutralising antibodies still combine with it?

Model it in a computer program. Stick the new amino acids in the stucture. What happens to the shape, in particular what happens to the epitopes? Confirm with X-ray diffraction. There are loads of things you can do and I suspect they must be quite some way into working through this. Perhaps they want 100% confidence and want to complete a whole raft of tests and not just get a preliminary idea

Here's another thought: If the variant has been about since September at least, then how come there have been no reports of reinfections? That suggests neutralising Covid antibodies still work. That's a negative argument i.e. an absence of evidence but something.
 
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According to press reports in the last two and a half hours, Government ministers were informed of the problem on the 18th and they changed the rules on the 19th.
I'm not sure how the report that decisions are based on (see twitter post on previous pages) took a month and a half to deliver and why early warnings of problems were not raised up the PHE management food chain earlier, but there you go.
 
On my way to work the other day i drove past the local school and was gobsmacked at just how many elderly people are still having to take their Grandchildren to school, talk about running the gauntlet ffs.
Poor bastards
 
Marvin said:
The vaccines are based on the March virus it will gradually evolve away from it as we are seeing.

However, there are loads of variants all the vaccines have been shown to be effective against them but they have to check. It was either Patrick Vallance or Whitty who said last week that Porton Down are checking and I suspect many other people are doing likewise.

I don't think anyone knows at the moment because this morning a Dr Susie Hopkins (sp.) was interviewed on Marr show. She is investigating the variant on behalf of PHE and she says they don't know at the moment if the vaccine is affected in any way. Theoretically it could be affected.

I work with people who study protein folding and one amino acid can alter a protein's form. If you remember from school a mutation in Sickle Cell anaemia changes the haemoglobin structure and deforms it so one mutation can have an effect. You don't know until you check. Computer simulation and in vitro tests can be done.

We can of course change the vaccines particularly the mRNA vaccines as we go along and I think this is expected, it's just very annoying that this happens just as we are rolling out the vaccines.

I think most experts have said that it's unlikely the vaccines will be rendered useless because they produce a broad response against more than one site on the spike protein but this is clearly an important aspect to clear up. I don't think we'll know for some days at least.
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Good stuff Marvin, very informative.
 
FantasyIreland said:
We should have been from the start,unfortunately a divisive and unfair Tier system was introduced that,along with individual fuckwittery,has made a mockery of unity.

This entire episode has been handled about as poorly as anyone could have imagined.
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You don’t have to imagine. As badly as it’s been handled here, it‘s unquestionably been handled discernibly worse in the States.
 
Marvin said:
You'd expect it to be on the continent in small numbers given how long it's been circulating in the UK. The spread of the vrius suggests to me the mutation occurred in the UK, and probably Kent seeing as that is where the largest clusters are. Again guesswork.

This isn't the first variant but it sounds like it's the first known variant to really significantly change the characteristics of the virus.
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Illegal immigrants?
 
cleavers said:
A bigger worry is that our only vaccine is currently being manufactured in Belgium, the other side of the channel, so it's not clear they can get it through either if France stops goods coming this way, Eurotunnel has closed tonight.
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Logistically it seems simple to me, unless I’m missing something obvious. Military planes fly to Belgium, get loaded without any interaction between pilots and loaders (can’t see the pilots helping out with the loading anyway) and fly back.
 
middlewichblue said:
Hypothetically speaking, if we took a 6 week national lockdown from now , surely the amount of vaccinations that would take place in those 6 weeks , and then the following 6 weeks after where cases continue to fall due to the lockdown effect, would give us 3 months to roll out mass vaccinations and be on the front foot heading into April , by which time the mass vaccinations would surely stop a massive spike in cases ?
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Can you do mass vaccinations while on a strict 6 week lockdown? Would imagine it could be a challenge.
 
big phil said:
Logistically it seems simple to me, unless I’m missing something obvious. Military planes fly to Belgium, get loaded without any interaction between pilots and loaders (can’t see the pilots helping out with the loading anyway) and fly back.
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The part you are missing out, and that thwarts your very simple (and effective plan) is that in under 10 days we will no longer be in the EU, or governed by their rules. This has all come at a very bad time and I think some of the European countries imposing bans, are doing so not just for health reasons, but also lots politician ones too.
 
hammocity said:
It's bollocks, we're in this together, 100%
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That is why from day one we should all have been in the same tier, England-Scotland-Wales. Northern Ireland should have been paired with Eire. I know for a fact that here in Trafford (really East Cheshire) people have been driving over to Lymm to have pub lunches.

Trying to create imaginary boundaries is just bloody stupid.
 
Marvin said:
Here's another thought: If the variant has been about since September at least, then how come there have been no reports of reinfections? That suggests neutralising Covid antibodies still work. That's a negative argument i.e. an absence of evidence but something.
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Actually the Nervetag minutes record 4 probable reinfections.
 
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