COVID-19 — Coronavirus

[Manc in London]

But life expectancy does vary by a significant degree from local area to local area, which is of course linked to income levels, education, lifestyle factors (diet, exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption, etc.) etc.

e.g. A 65 y.o man living in Manchester can expect, on average, to die around 6 years earlier than someone the same age/sex living in South Lakeland.

There are proportionately more poor, unhealthy people living in the northern cities compared to many other parts of the UK so there are a lot more easy targets for Covid to get stuck into compared to more prosperous areas, including large parts of the South.

I understand your point and it certainly makes sense on an intuitive basis. I am confident it will, in part, explain some of the differences. However, this does not explain why, for example, the recent rates in some of the poorer parts of London (e.g. Lewisham) are much lower than very affluent areas (e.g. Richmond). It is also worth noting that some of these London areas are very poor, with as much poverty as anywhere else in the country. There are various factors at play, in my opinion.

London is an area of extremes. Even in the borough of Enfield, in the Upper Edmonton ward (high levels of deprivation), life expectancy is 21 years lower than that in the Winchmore Hill ward (very posh, in general). Mind-blowing, really. The wards are only a couple of miles or so apart.

 

[Healdplace]

Btw great news for the North West hospitals today. We stayed over the peak of wave 1 patient numbers that Sky were referring to earlier for one day. And - for now - are back under it.

Patients down 2948 to 2781 today so back 109 below the peak. This is actually LESS patients than 7 days ago when it was 2845. The first time that has happened over 7 days for some weeks.

Ventilators also down from 259 to 229 - again LESS than the 238 on them a week ago.

The NE/Yorkshire health area continues to now have more patients in than the NW which only happened a few days ago for the first time in the second wave.

This is all good news, It can change and yes the many deaths here are a factor but it is hard not to see these as positives.

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

Yes I agree with that for hospital admissions and deaths but still not sure why infection rates are higher. The areas where Covid is prevelant in Warrington are certainly those where perhaps the majority residents are less affluent but most towns and cities have these issues don’t they?

A lot of the elderly population here worked in factory settings when younger so maybe that has taken its toll on general health and perhaps one reason why more men are dying from it than women. I’m sure someone will write a detailed book on it in time and it will become a subject for sociology students in years to come.

Furlough scheme for a salaried couple, £5000 a month. Family of 4 on UC, as they’ve no work, £1666.67 a month. Which ones are most likely to self isolate if they’ve got symptoms?

 

[03 March 2002]

Transport studies are not normally submitted to agencies but done to generate data for internal company use to justify release of material in case of temperature excursions (temperature excursions during transport are a fairly common occurence). Routinely done as part of development now, though less so historically.

Not sure what you mean by loss "into the cell". You think the lipid vehicle is limiting for stability? I can believe that, but I'm very surprised ultra low temperature required for that purpose - I'd assumed something "special" about the RNA strand used - I think these are chemically modified rather than natural RNA? - or maybe the secondary structure matters??

But as you can tell, this is pure speculation rather than informed comment

Into the cell for the purposes of replication.

I've worked on small molecules (Oxaliplatin to name one) which was encapsulated in a lipid nanoparticle. The work was 2-fold, to understand the 'natural' release rate - aka degradation of the lipid nanoparticle under bodily conditions and to understand the effects of different formulations on this rate. I'd wager the lipid is the focal point of the stability study.

I'm not sure secondary structure of RNA would be an issue. Structural conformations happen in <30 mins in my experience and so this would happen naturally when we make our own proteins anyway. The replication process would be able to work around this I think, though I'm not sure what it does to counter it? In PCR we simply heat it to ~95c in what's called the melting phase.

If the RNA were to loop on the end I could see a problem with that. Clearly if it's 90%+ effective this isn't happening?

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

Are these storage conditions not required at every GP surgery and any other facility being earmarked for administering the vaccine

It’ll last 4/5 days without degradation not at those temperatures so, proving supply and demand are matched it won’t be an issue.

 

[shemnel]

Data here. Excess deaths are rising in line with COVID deaths

Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest insights - Office for National Statistics

The latest data and trends about the coronavirus (COVID-18) pandemic from the Office for National Statistics and other sources.

www.ons.gov.uk

thank you, i was looking at a chart that did not have some data, i'll delete my previous.

i think it is still not at an alarming level up to end of Oct, but we all know how that might change here on.

 

[kaz7]

Behind numbers on a screen

I have talked to numerous intensive care doctors throughout the pandemic. They all tell me about the steep learning curve, learning about a novel virus on the job, the dedication of their teams and the relentlessness of this health crisis.

Privately many will tell me they are at breaking point, exhausted and drained. Now, without barely a lull, they are having to step up again.

COVID-19: 'You are literally fighting for your breath' - Inside intensive care unit battling deadly second wave

Just behind a screen, shielded from public view, there is a hint of the pain and anguish I am about to witness.

news.sky.com

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

Into the cell for the purposes of replication.

I've worked on small molecules (Oxaliplatin to name one) which was encapsulated in a lipid nanoparticle. The work was 2-fold, to understand the 'natural' release rate - aka degradation of the lipid nanoparticle under bodily conditions and to understand the effects of different formulations on this rate. I'd wager the lipid is the focal point of the stability study.

I'm not sure secondary structure of RNA would be an issue. Structural conformations happen in <30 mins in my experience and so this would happen naturally when we make our own proteins anyway. The replication process would be able to work around this I think, though I'm not sure what it does to counter it? In PCR we simply heat it to ~95c in what's called the melting phase.

If the RNA were to loop on the end I could see a problem with that. Clearly if it's 90%+ effective this isn't happening?

Isn’t the Cycle Threshold rate one of the keys here? From what I understand the more cycling the specimen the more it is likely any virus found is highly likely to be dead and will certainly mean the ’carrier’ is not infectious. As our labs are told not to report it there must be a significant amount of ’positives’ that fall into that category and don’t need to isolate or be tracked or traced?

 

[Healdplace]

Not quite such good news in GM for cases I am afraid:

Regional scoreboard:

London 2048 - UP from 1501

Midlands 2700 - DOWN from 2788.

North East 1671 - UP from 1303

Yorkshire 3163 - UP from 3001

And North West 3840 - UP from 3388 to highest in 5 days. And first time highest numbers in a few days too.

 

[Healdplace]

Greater Manchester meanwhile up too.

1811 - so 407 up over two successive increases. But nearly 800 down on the 2599 of last Wednesday.

However, as other parts of NW were up as well this is actually a FALL in the NW percentage to 47% - lowest GM has contributed for a week or two.