COVID-19 — Coronavirus

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BlueAnorak said:
Who knows. Pretty much an unlimited amount of cash is being thrown at the situation to find a solution though.
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Gelsons Dad said:
last time anyone did that they went to the moon.
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This convo has been stuck in my head all day and i've got a feeling it'll stay there until we get through this. It's the most hopeful realisation about all of this for me personally, cos I'd never really put it in such simple terms before internally. There's basically a bunch of insane geniuses being given unlimited funding. Of *course* they'll find a way through with this. Geniuses sent us to the fucking moon, they can find a way to get the better of a virus. They have to, so they will.

I really needed to read something as logical and and as simple as that, so cheers gents. Sometimes its quite easy to forget that we've got the collective will of the world trying to fix this, and its quite reassuring. We get up in our own little bubble too easily. I do anyway.
 
Nightmare Walking said:
I understand that mate, but I was asking whether the fact we currently have no vaccine is because of theoretical and practical implications of making them or is it purely financial?

I was watching something the other night and the experts were suggesting the only reason we do not have a vaccine for coronaviruses is because of financial implications. In regards to the common cold, because it is harmless in the grand scheme of things and there is a whole industry surrounding common cold relief, it is not worth anyone making a vaccine. In regards to SARS/MERS, they said there was good progress made in regards to a vaccine but then they were mothballed due to them dying out. From a theoretical perspective they said there was nothing inhibiting a vaccine being developed.

Now it is difficult to know what or who to believe. There are just so many conflicting stories. Now we are hearing there may be no immunity, no antibodies, no vaccine, if you get put on a ventilator then you are pretty much done for anyway. I am going to try and remain a bit more positive than that. I remember the absolute horror stories the media and medical professions were coming out with regarding HIV. 30 years on there are now treatments and it is no longer a death sentence. No one knows how this particular episode will turn out. It seems like we are playing for time and that is the way to go about it. It is impossible to expect the authorities to have everything under control and a cure/vaccine in less than 6 months. We all need to adhere to the social distancing rules, try to limit the spread and give the scientists and medical professions the time needed while educate themselves and gain more understanding of the virus, before trying to come up with a feasible plan to mitigate the effects of the virus.

Everything seems to be best guess at the minute. I spent longer doing my dissertation at uni than people have had to try and work out a solution for this global pandemic. I am going to take all the necessary precautions to keep myself and my loved ones safe. But I am going to take all these claims about what may and may not be with a pinch of salt, until the authorities have a better understanding of what is going on and the best course of action.
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The truth is it is really early days,we are far too advanced in the scientific world to let anything beat us,the whole world is working it,it is going to painful in the short term as we are finding out,all we can do is follow the rules,stay safe and wait
 
Nightmare Walking said:
I understand that mate, but I was asking whether the fact we currently have no vaccine is because of theoretical and practical implications of making them or is it purely financial?

I was watching something the other night and the experts were suggesting the only reason we do not have a vaccine for coronaviruses is because of financial implications. In regards to the common cold, because it is harmless in the grand scheme of things and there is a whole industry surrounding common cold relief, it is not worth anyone making a vaccine. In regards to SARS/MERS, they said there was good progress made in regards to a vaccine but then they were mothballed due to them dying out. From a theoretical perspective they said there was nothing inhibiting a vaccine being developed.

Now it is difficult to know what or who to believe. There are just so many conflicting stories. Now we are hearing there may be no immunity, no antibodies, no vaccine, if you get put on a ventilator then you are pretty much done for anyway. I am going to try and remain a bit more positive than that. I remember the absolute horror stories the media and medical professions were coming out with regarding HIV. 30 years on there are now treatments and it is no longer a death sentence. No one knows how this particular episode will turn out. It seems like we are playing for time and that is the way to go about it. It is impossible to expect the authorities to have everything under control and a cure/vaccine in less than 6 months. We all need to adhere to the social distancing rules, try to limit the spread and give the scientists and medical professions the time needed while educate themselves and gain more understanding of the virus, before trying to come up with a feasible plan to mitigate the effects of the virus.

Everything seems to be best guess at the minute. I spent longer doing my dissertation at uni than people have had to try and work out a solution for this global pandemic. I am going to take all the necessary precautions to keep myself and my loved ones safe. But I am going to take all these claims about what may and may not be with a pinch of salt, until the authorities have a better understanding of what is going on and the best course of action.
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Did you see Prof Sarah Gilbert on the Andrew Marr show this morning? She seemed reasonably confident. China are in front I believe but obviously there isn't so much news about that. It's possibly still on the i player. Not sure. BBC 1, 9am today.

I believe they are using genetically altered adenovirus (they insert some a section of the coronavirus genetic sequence) to introduce some element of the Covid19 virus into the body. Don't know much more than that. She seemed confident. I think they have already worked on coronavirus vaccines. I think I have heard elsewhere that research on SARS or MERS was stopped when the infections petered out. What would be the point for commercial companies?

If you want you can probably find her papers or work and I expect what her research group are doing now is based on work they have done before.
 
Marvin said:
Did you see Prof Sarah Gilbert on the Andrew Marr show this morning? She seemed reasonably confident. China are in front I believe but obviously there isn't so much news about that. It's possibly still on the i player. Not sure. BBC 1, 9am today.

I believe they are using genetically altered adenovirus (they insert some a section of the coronavirus genetic sequence) to introduce some element of the Covid19 virus into the body. Don't know much more than that. She seemed confident. I think they have already worked on coronavirus vaccines. I think I have heard elsewhere that research on SARS or MERS was stopped when the infections petered out. What would be the point for commercial companies?

If you want you can probably find her papers or work and I expect what her research group are doing now is based on work they have done before.
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I did not see anything this morning mate, I shall have a ganders :-D
 
Gelsons Dad said:
if you find your spirit wavering you can double down with this.

Whichever team finds the vaccine or a antiviral cure can claim to have saved the world as we know it.

How's that for motivation? Unlimited funds and a chance to save the world.
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Christ if it’s from the US Trump will actually claim to be God.
 
BlueAnorak said:
I think the most important thing, besides a vaccine and an antibody test is finding a drug that slugs the Cytokine storm that is killing most of those who are ill. Indeed, that would be a holy grail for medicine in general.
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AstraZeneca are testing a cancer drug that does that type of thing, announced in the last week.
 
BlueAnorak said:
There's some immunity - the UK antibody test results showed that. Just not as much as expected in people who are asymptomatic or where only slightly ill.
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Also only in certain age group,can't remember which,not much of it and patchy so far,i am sure not what we were hoping for,whether it just a test issue? i don't think i can do it a second time,we haven't found out in a great number whether a second time is easier or harder,i am interested to read more if you have any links about immunity as we go along
 
Lots of debate about whether we can find a vaccine.

An equally important question - maybe even more important - is whether we can find a treatment.

It's a bit of a mystery as to why it kills some people - on accession even young, fit and healthy people - and yet for others they get mild symptoms.

If we can figure that out, and develop a treatment such that if you catch this, you pop down to the docs and he/she says "take 2 of these tablets 3 times a day and come back in a fortnight if it's not cleared up" - then it won't matter whether we have a vaccine if not.

If we can get to a situation where it's no more deadly than flu, then we can get back to normal, vaccine or no vaccine.
 
karen7 said:
Also only in certain age group,can't remember which,not much of it and patchy so far,i am sure not what we were hoping for,whether it just a test issue? i don't think i can do it a second time,we haven't found out in a great number whether a second time is easier or harder,i am interested to read more if you have any links about immunity as we go along
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Those less than 40 had -ve results as their antibody count was too low for the specificity of the test. Very few false +ves though.
 
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Gelsons Dad said:
if you find your spirit wavering you can double down with this.

Whichever team finds the vaccine or a antiviral cure can claim to have saved the world as we know it.

How's that for motivation? Unlimited funds and a chance to save the world.
Click to expand...
Save the world from the near perfect killing machine?
 
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