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Coronavirus

Coronavirus - The Poll

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    97
Dave said:
Come on, it takes months to increase factory capacity, it comes nowhere near the complexity of increasing hospital capacity.

You still don’t seem to be explaining how planning in March would have trained thousands of health care professionals with a method of compressing 12 years of training into 12 months? You are right that there should have been more planning for such a situation, that’s why the underfunding is a huge problem that will take years to put right, you are wrong that the impact of this underfunding can be fixed in a matter of months.
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It might take 12 years from scratch for 1% of frontline staff but that isn’t the case for 99%.
I’m also sure that a lot of already highly trained staff could of been retrained or received extra training whilst those positions filled with new recruits receiving maybe 3 normal years of training in 1 year.
With the correct will power it could of been done I’m sure.
When was the last time you went inside a factory? We have left the Victorian era now and to be honest most modern production factories are full of highly highly complex machinery that can take years of planning not months.
A high speed packing line for instance like what would be used in the vaccine factories would normally take at least a couple of years from start to finish, and twice that long when dealing with public sector units.
 
BigT said:
I’m also sure that a lot of already highly trained staff could of been retrained or received extra training whilst those positions filled with new recruits receiving maybe 3 normal years of training in 1 year.
With the correct will power it could of been done I’m sure.
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That sort of thing has been done, most NHS staff have been redeployed to other wards. I read about an eye specialist who hadn't worked on other areas of the body in 10 years put onto another ward to free up specialists to move to ITU. But you reach a point where you can't cancel everything people still need treatment for other conditions and some staff still need to work on their normal wards.

As I said before I've had outpatient physiotherapy cancelled as those staff got redeployed.

But if the government had properly invested in getting more people into the NHS over the last 10 years then there would have just been more staff to move around into new areas as needed.
 
There's also the problem of actually finding people to employ. A career in healthcare is not as attractive as it once was, no thanks to various governments sitting around and doing nothing to support the NHS.
 
I have a promising development for you all; firstly, the Pfizer vaccine has been found to produce a strong immune response against both new variants (Kent and South Africa): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/11/pfizer-vaccine-strong-response-new-covid-variants

Secondly, this study has concluded that the T cells generated from coronavirus infection target different parts of the spike protein to antibodies, so even though the E484K mutation can quite possibly evade antibodies, the T cells will still be able to recognise the virus and thus will produce a better immune response against the virus than if there was no vaccine or previous infection.

So that means that previous infection or vaccination will still help to a degree against the E484K variants.
 
Matt N said:
I have a promising development for you all; firstly, the Pfizer vaccine has been found to produce a strong immune response against both new variants (Kent and South Africa): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/11/pfizer-vaccine-strong-response-new-covid-variants

Secondly, this study has concluded that the T cells generated from coronavirus infection target different parts of the spike protein to antibodies, so even though the E484K mutation can quite possibly evade antibodies, the T cells will still be able to recognise the virus and thus will produce a better immune response against the virus than if there was no vaccine or previous infection.

So that means that previous infection or vaccination will still help to a degree against the E484K variants.
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Great news. Makes sense as well, since the panic caused by the '10%' efficacy' headline, only looked at antibodies. Important to note, eventhough this was observed using the Pfizer vaccine, they would expect the same general results from the other vaccines as well.

Keep the good news coming Matt.
 
This is a great article https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/hygiene-theater-still-waste/617939/

too many people are still over thinking about “dirty” things rather than the dirty air.
Someone commented recently that they were using Zipcar hire cars to cut down their risk during the pandemic, but others were worried about the contamination from the previous user, it took effort for them to understand that being in an Uber, taxi or bus with other people at the same time is a greater risk as it’s aerosol transmission with Covid, not surface.
 
Very interesting news, and could potentially be groundbreaking in our fight against COVID if it goes well! A new vaccine is being trialled that targets the core of the virus as well as the spike protein. This mutates far, far more slowly than the spike protein, if at all. The spike protein is included as well, so it basically incorporates the virus’ entire genetic code as opposed to just one bit of it. This would mean that it works against all variants, as well as protecting against potential future ones: https://apple.news/ATSFu9p2RRxmJmfVjv6ELbw

The vaccine has performed well in animal trials, but still needs to be tested in humans. If all goes well, it could be ready by the end of this year.

This could be a really promising development, if all goes well!
 
Sorry for double posting, but I bring more good news!

The results are coming in from the first major study of the real-world effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine in Israel, and the results are looking outstanding! 1.2 million people were used in this study, so it’s not just another small study with only a limited amount of people.

The vaccine was found to be 94% effective at preventing symptomatic disease among vaccinated individuals and 92% effective at preventing serious illness among vaccinated individuals. This efficacy was maintained across all age groups, including the over-70s. The efficacy was highest two weeks after the second dose, when efficacy was said to be possibly as high as 99%.

There is also data due on transmission very soon, which is also rumoured to be incredibly positive.

Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-...-finds-pfizer-jab-94-per-cent-effective-real/

Really promising stuff, don’t you think? Should certainly help with easing lockdown!
 
Looks like this is a fairly common mutation for the virus, so it's likely going to be one that the whole world will need to deal with at some point. I suppose it is positive that we are rather good at picking up mutations here in the UK. There are bound to have been mutations in other countries that have gone somewhat unnoticed. It's hard to believe that there have not been any real concernig mutations in the US when you see how many cases they have had.
 
Rob said:
Looks like this is a fairly common mutation for the virus, so it's likely going to be one that the whole world will need to deal with at some point. I suppose it is positive that we are rather good at picking up mutations here in the UK. There are bound to have been mutations in other countries that have gone somewhat unnoticed. It's hard to believe that there have not been any real concernig mutations in the US when you see how many cases they have had.
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Though given who was President up until January 20th, I'm not overly surprised. It wouldn't surprise me much if Trump tried to suppress as much bad news re: coronavirus in an attempt to make it seem as though he was doing a good job of it, when the rest of the would could easily see the complete opposite was the case. Plus I think he completely lost any credibility about coronavirus (not that he had much in the first place) when he suggested injecting bleach as a way of treating it in one of his rambling, incoherent speeches.
 
Rob said:
Looks like this is a fairly common mutation for the virus, so it's likely going to be one that the whole world will need to deal with at some point. I suppose it is positive that we are rather good at picking up mutations here in the UK. There are bound to have been mutations in other countries that have gone somewhat unnoticed. It's hard to believe that there have not been any real concernig mutations in the US when you see how many cases they have had.
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I think I read somewhere that the US isn't really testing for mutations adequately, they could have several but not be aware.
 
I’ve had a very big, yet welcome, surprise this evening. I received a text from my GP practice inviting me to book my first vaccination due to being in Group 6. I wasn’t expecting this message for a few more months, but I’m not complaining. My only guess as to why this has happened is because I’m autistic and fall into the ‘severe and profound learning disability’ category as a result. I’m aware that I’ve been offered the vaccine ahead of my parents (both in Group 8), and there may be others who should perhaps be prioritised, but I think me taking it is justified in that the sooner people are vaccinated, the sooner we’ll be able to return to normality.
 
Do you think this means that the government is offering it to anyone with autism, or do you think that your GP/the government decides it on a case-by-case basis?

Because if it’s the former, then I might be far higher on the vaccine queue than I thought...
 
Matt N said:
Do you think this means that the government is offering it to anyone with autism, or do you think that your GP/the government decides it on a case-by-case basis?

Because if it’s the former, then I might be far higher on the vaccine queue than I thought...
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I honestly don’t know for certain, Matt. Given I know at least one other autistic person has a vaccine appointment next week, I’m inclined to think it may be the former as well. Might depend on availability in different NHS trusts as well. Either way, I’m not gonna complain!
 
I've got my second dose next week, sooner than expected. Good to see that things are running smoothly and quickly.

I'm interested in seeing how much of an impact the programme has on figures when more 'healthy adults' get the vaccine.

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