COVID-19 — Coronavirus

[True_Blue69]

Oh yes mate . I was nearly falling out with 2 workmates last week over it ..
It’s only flu & the government just want to get us all in debt to control us !!!
Unbelievable

The amount of people that say 'it's only flu' just shows how indoctrinated we are by what we are told. The flu kills an average of 11k a year with a vaccine. I don't understand why people play it down as if its nothing. They have even taken out an advert on Talksport to emphasise this so people stop playing it down so much. I hope covid doesn't kill an average of 11k a year once a vaccine is rolled out.

 

[kaz7]

Yes, you should stop that aswell.

Lol

 

[bluetonium]

Just need to remain calm. This strain is already in Europe and the solution is not to close borders completely but to restrict and improve processes and detection.

We'll all see a rise in cases now over Christmas and new year inevitably, will be hard to tell what affect the Christmas relaxation if rules will have if any, but my gut feeling is that there will be a resolution to start the flow of goods and trucks big ways again very soon. Neither side can afford anything else.

Britain is not self sufficient for many items, let alone luxury items that have become essential for many. Our manufacturing as it is still depends greatly if not totally on raw materials from outside of the UK in the diary place, be it the raw materials used to blend paint, the biocides used to make our disinfectant or the berries we sell in our shops.

No resolution means panicking Britons, empty shelves, rotting wasted good and other goods, demurrage charges, and European drivers missing Christmas with their families and risking higher chances of exposure.

Hang tight, let the flappers flap and the selfish stockpile. Not a bad time to start thinking about how much we use, how we use it, and even adopting seasonal eating too.

At least we all still have telly and the internet.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

What I cannot get my head around is that the common cold is a coronavirus and yet after donkeys years of research into the common cold, we never managed to come up with a vaccine. And yet in a matter of months, with COVID-19, we have a vaccine.

Now there could be various reasons for this. Perhaps with a cold, we just didn't try very hard because it doesn't kill people. But in a way, that seems unlikely to me when you consider the misery colds cause, to billions of people every year. Another possibility is that it's really, really difficult to come up with an effective vaccine for coronaviruses. I believe the reason you can catch a cold every year - having already had one - is because the virus is constantly mutating. Maybe this is why its so difficult to come up with an effective vaccine? Just as it's impossible for the human body to naturally develop resistance to the common cold, maybe it's also impossible to cause the body to develop immunity by vaccinating, because the virus is always mutating to something which is not protected by the vaccine.

It seems extremely possible to me that this could be the situation we find ourselves in with COVID-19. What if the vaccines don't work on the new virus? What if people who have had COVID already, are not immune to the new variant? These are worrying concerns. It could well be the case that we are never going to get rid of this thing and our only approach is to accept that we have to live with it, and the best we can do is to try to find treatments which stop people from dying when they eventually catch it, as perhaps we all will?

It's not quite like that.

Firstly, common cold symptoms are caused by a multitude of very different viruses: Rhinoviruses, adenoviruses, influenza viruses and others as well as coronaviruses.

These viruses are arguably more different from each other than we are from ants. There could never be a single vaccine against them.

Second, there's no motive for spending the money to develop a vaccine. How much would you pay for a common cold vaccine? Most people would never bother.

Third, there is very unlikely to be an effective treatment for COVID. Antiviral drugs in general are not very effective, nothing like as good as antibiotics.

Finally, the speed these vaccines have been developed is not an accident. They're using technology simply not available until recently. The platforms used were in some cases specifically developed in order to respond fast to a pandemic.

The vaccine is far and away our best option, even if it requires continuous change as the flu jab does in the long term (that has three different strains each year). Covid mutates much slower than flu.

 

[Northernstorirs]

Sainsburies have said there might be food shortages of fresh fruit and veg

Haha what's new, their veg availability has always been bad.

On a serious note I think they mentioned it will be on lettuce, lemon and other citrus fruits. I think we could live with that.

 

[sky tot]

The amount of people that say 'it's only flu' just shows how indoctrinated we are by what we are told. The flu kills an average of 11k a year with a vaccine. I don't understand why people play it down as if its nothing. They have even taken out an advert on Talksport to emphasise this so people stop playing it down so much. I hope covid doesn't kill an average of 11k a year once a vaccine is rolled out.

I will use that one in the next argument

 

[kaz7]

The amount of people that say 'it's only flu' just shows how indoctrinated we are by what we are told. The flu kills an average of 11k a year with a vaccine. I don't understand why people play it down as if its nothing. They have even taken out an advert on Talksport to emphasise this so people stop playing it down so much. I hope covid doesn't kill an average of 11k a year once a vaccine is rolled out.

Covid has killed near!y 80,000 in 9mths

 

[artfuldodger]

Haha what's new, their veg availability has always been bad.

On a serious note I think they mentioned it will be on lettuce, lemon and other citrus fruits. I think we could live with that.

I was worried about my Christmas sprouts but have been reassured we grow plenty of our own. But I do like some lemon in my G&T.

 

[twosips]

What I cannot get my head around is that the common cold is a coronavirus and yet after donkeys years of research into the common cold, we never managed to come up with a vaccine. And yet in a matter of months, with COVID-19, we have a vaccine.

Now there could be various reasons for this. Perhaps with a cold, we just didn't try very hard because it doesn't kill people. But in a way, that seems unlikely to me when you consider the misery colds cause, to billions of people every year. Another possibility is that it's really, really difficult to come up with an effective vaccine for coronaviruses. I believe the reason you can catch a cold every year - having already had one - is because the virus is constantly mutating. Maybe this is why its so difficult to come up with an effective vaccine? Just as it's impossible for the human body to naturally develop resistance to the common cold, maybe it's also impossible to cause the body to develop immunity by vaccinating, because the virus is always mutating to something which is not protected by the vaccine.

It seems extremely possible to me that this could be the situation we find ourselves in with COVID-19. What if the vaccines don't work on the new virus? What if people who have had COVID already, are not immune to the new variant? These are worrying concerns. It could well be the case that we are never going to get rid of this thing and our only approach is to accept that we have to live with it, and the best we can do is to try to find treatments which stop people from dying when they eventually catch it, as perhaps we all will?

You could've stopped there. That is literally the reason. It's not because it mutates (the flu one does - we just change it every year) - it's because there's no money in it, and there's zero motivation to solve it either. Who wants a vaccine for the common cold? It's pointless. Colds don't cause 'misery' to billions every year. A cold gives you a runny nose, make you a tad tired and perhaps a bit of a cough for a few days for 99.99999% of people (random number, not science - but cmon!). Overall its harmless.

Whereas we have vaccines for the flu as it actually kills people, and we update it constantly despite it mutating without any problems. Because there is a need for it.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

This thing is going to escape the vaccines, you can just see it with the way we can’t catch a break right now. Our luck is well and truly out.

No. We have it within our grasp to vaccinate ahead of this. The likelihood of the vaccines being useless against this variant is very low. And the data on it, whilst serious, is just emerging and could yet change.

The key thing is to act now, and decisively. If we clamp down we can keep numbers under control whilst we vaccinate. If we dither yet again we could have a truly awful few months.

But we have a choice.

Stay home. Stay strong. Get the jab.

(My audition as crass slogan writer for HMG there)