Coronavirus (2021) thread

[roubaixtuesday]

I do hope that the Janssen results, perhaps within the fortnight, are as positive as expected.In these dark moments, a single shot that can be more easily stored will be a huge shot in the arm...

I had a read about this one. Same approach as oxford/AZ and the trial is testing both double and single as I read it.

Is that right, or did they later decide a single dose approach?

 

[inchy14]

Whether it’s 10 months late or not, the news we are potentially going to solidify our borders even more by using empty hotels for quarantine can only be a good thing.

I agree, better late than never.
Should have closed borders last March, gold everyone to holiday in the U.K. after a month long lockdown and we’d be in a similar position to NZ or Australia. Used hotels around airports for quarantine purposes to British nationals coming home and got on top of it from the off.

 

[Rammy Blue]

I agree, better late than never.
Should have closed borders last March, gold everyone to holiday in the U.K. after a month long lockdown and we’d be in a similar position to NZ or Australia. Used hotels around airports for quarantine purposes to British nationals coming home and got on top of it from the off.

Yep, it’d have had far less an impact on our economy by doing it this way, but can’t wind clock back unfortunately.

Im guessing that this though is how they are now thinking for 2021, let’s get our own house in order before giving a fuck about anything abroad.

 

[Indaparkside]

Book now, I have, cottage for 3, Devon in august, £950. Can’t complain at that and just hope the ‘British weather’ doesn’t let me down!!

Is that for a month:)

 

[Gabriel]

I had a read about this one. Same approach as oxford/AZ and the trial is testing both double and single as I read it.

Is that right, or did they later decide a single dose approach?

Other way round. They started with the single-dose approach and later commenced a double-dose approach. It's similar to the AstraZeneca offering, but (taken from CNN) made by taking "a small amount of genetic material that codes for a piece of the novel coronavirus and integrating it with a weakened version of adenovirus 26. J&J scientists altered this adenovirus so it can enter cells, but it doesn't replicate and make people sick. AstraZeneca uses a similar platform, but its adenovirus comes from a chimpanzee. The adenovirus carries the genetic material from the coronavirus into human cells, tricking them into making pieces of the coronavirus spike protein - the part it uses to attach to cells. The immune system then reacts against these pieces of the coronavirus. 'So you're not being infected with the virus that can give you Covid-19 when you get this vaccine. It just has some of the harmless Covid virus proteins on its surface,' ... 'So essentially it's a sheep in wolf's clothing, and when your immune system sees it, it responds to it and creates protection against it and in the future, against the real virus that causes Covid-19.' "

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/22/health/covid-19-vaccines-johnson-and-johnson-next/index.html

 

[MillionMilesAway]

The virus doesn’t know, and we should try and understand that evolution, which is what mutations drive, does not have a ‘will’. Mutations are chance events. And it is only the mutations which provide an increased chance of survival (in this case, increased transmissibility) which then go on to be more successful and reproduce. It’s why the really nasty virus’s, Ebola for example, don’t spread like this. They kill the host too quickly and therefore can not replicate.

It’s important to appreciate that there has probably been a number of mutations which have occurred in the UK since this began. However, if a new mutation occurred which meant the virus is 50% more deadly but at the expense of its transmissibility - well it won’t cause any further damage.

I get what you’re saying there too, but the virus’s ‘job’, so to speak, isn’t to infect hosts. It is to replicate. It does that by infecting hosts yes but once you see it that way, it’s much clearer as to why its ability to spread is so important and why as far as we know, it’s very similar mutations that we are seeing here, in SA etc. That’s the key mutation in the amino acid chain which really drives its transmissibility.

Good explanation. It's just rapid evolution, and the typical wording of what the virus 'wants make it sound sentient when it isn't.

There will other mutations which cause less transmission, but they don't then cause spread and don't get headlines. We see the mutations that are 'successful.

 

[RobMCFC]

So we’ve heard today the Vaccine works against the new variant, infection rate has dropped and the R number is now below 1

... but everyone saying we’re gonna be in lockdown longer than April

I wouldn’t like to try to guess a date, but the easing of restrictions will come when the no of new cases drops below 2000-3000 a day, hospitalisation and deaths are down below a level the government feel are acceptable, and have stayed in that stable range for 2 or 3 weeks.

I think the government should be telling people to look at these 3 key stats whenever the question comes up.

 

[kevin horlocks wand]

hopeful.

 

[inchy14]

Is that for a month:)

Haha I wish. Just the week but it’s nice enough.

 

[Nellies left peg]

Morning Covid thread,

What kind of day are we having today?

Shall we have a positive Saturday, try and lift everyone’s spirits?

I think so.

Best regards,

RB

City will lose today, my car battery will be flat when I go to use it. Rags will beat dippers and I will have to wait months for the vaccine. Oh sorry, wrong thread should be on the positive mental attitude one :-)