imanautie
TS Member
Because without a fairly known end game there's no hope and that doesn't exactly look pretty.
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Coronavirus
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Benjsh
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Yeah I get that. They have to do something true.
If they can't cure the common flu bug which has been around a lot longer so they know miles more about then I don't hold out much hope for this tbh. I think covid will be something we get under more control than right now but something we might sadly have to live with going forwards. Don't see how it's ever going to go without having a China style Draconian lockdown and spraying disinfectant everywhere like they did. Our people will never go for that. No. Chance.
Rob
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We can't be certain. But it's got to be better than nothing, right? A vaccination that at least slows down transmission combined with better treatment as our understanding of the disease evolves seems to be the best way out of this as it were.
An influenza virus is also different to a coronavirus. I'm sure there are people with more knowledge on the differences than me but their behavioral differences likely have implications for a vaccine one way or the other.
Craig
TS Administrator
A vaccine certainly isn't a cure, but it goes a long way to reducing the problems that this virus can cause. Like the flu vaccine, in simple terms a Covid vaccine essentially teaches your body what the virus is to allow you deal with it better should you become exposed to it. The aim is also to stop your body going into panic mode dealing with something unknown, which is why many suffered so badly when this thing first came about.
Now for some as with the flu vaccine, it might mean your body shakes it off without realising you've even had it, for others it might be a reduced severity of symptoms and for others it might not do a thing. In any case, like the flu vaccine, it goes a long way to reducing the number of patients who become ill enough to require hospital treatment. The more people who are capable of fighting off the virus quickly also means the fewer people who are likely to be exposed in the long run.
It's important not to think of a vaccine as one magic bullet to get us back to normality. However it is without a doubt the largest tool in a growing 'box of tricks' that's being used and researched as time goes on. Whether that's convalescent plasma, mask wearing, antibody cocktails or steroids. Even some studies on mask wearing are said to have helped the situation, as whilst they don't prevent exposure to the virus, they may have reduced the viral load received by those exposed meaning people have been more likely to have the virus asymptomatically.
Now for some as with the flu vaccine, it might mean your body shakes it off without realising you've even had it, for others it might be a reduced severity of symptoms and for others it might not do a thing. In any case, like the flu vaccine, it goes a long way to reducing the number of patients who become ill enough to require hospital treatment. The more people who are capable of fighting off the virus quickly also means the fewer people who are likely to be exposed in the long run.
It's important not to think of a vaccine as one magic bullet to get us back to normality. However it is without a doubt the largest tool in a growing 'box of tricks' that's being used and researched as time goes on. Whether that's convalescent plasma, mask wearing, antibody cocktails or steroids. Even some studies on mask wearing are said to have helped the situation, as whilst they don't prevent exposure to the virus, they may have reduced the viral load received by those exposed meaning people have been more likely to have the virus asymptomatically.
pluk
TS Member
Test at 10:30
Result by email 00:08
With the volumes being done I think that's quite remarkable.
Negative!
That's just not achievable though, is it? The numbers needing the test will naturally fluctuate wildly as Corona, and other illness with overlapping symptoms, move through an area. You can not build such huge redundancy into a system that it can cope with an upswing in demand by multiples of hundreds without it having an impact on availability and processing. If they did half of you would be on here moaning about the wasteful government squandering billions on unneeded capacity sitting there doing nothing.
It's a good aspersion, it's clearly being achieved where I am at the moment, but where there are delays that is understandable. What is being achieved is quite remarkable.
Result by email 00:08
With the volumes being done I think that's quite remarkable.
Negative!
That's just not achievable though, is it? The numbers needing the test will naturally fluctuate wildly as Corona, and other illness with overlapping symptoms, move through an area. You can not build such huge redundancy into a system that it can cope with an upswing in demand by multiples of hundreds without it having an impact on availability and processing. If they did half of you would be on here moaning about the wasteful government squandering billions on unneeded capacity sitting there doing nothing.
It's a good aspersion, it's clearly being achieved where I am at the moment, but where there are delays that is understandable. What is being achieved is quite remarkable.
You are right, a vaccine will not stop this. Only has there ever been one vaccine that has eradicated a virus and that is smallpox. All other vaccines have only help control viruses. Covid will be like the flu, it will come back again and again, so we will boosters. It won't be 100% effective. We will be living with this for many years to come. We may never get a vaccine that works. I personally can't see that we will be going back to the old normal life in the foreseeable future
Stuie
TS Member
It seems that corona-viruses are much more stable in their mutation that flu viruses, so a vaccine should work effectively.
Matt N
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It won’t be the eradication of COVID-19 that allows us to return to normality. As many have already said, eradication would be extremely hard.
The reason why so much is being pinned upon a vaccine is because once key groups have been vaccinated (key workers, elderly, vulnerable etc.), it should reduce hospital admissions with COVID-19 to a level that the NHS can cope with without needing any of the restrictions. The key reason why these restrictions exist is due to the need to keep hospital admissions low, so as long as the admissions to intensive care can be kept low, I don’t think the government really cares about the virus spreading.
It’s like flu; as long as the key groups are protected and there’s room in ICU for those who need it, there’s no need for any further intervention in the government’s eyes. So once the groups who are most at risk get vaccinated, the government will likely just let the virus spread amongst the rest of the population without any restrictions.
My personal view is that we will eventually return to how we were before. The head of the UK’s vaccine taskforce predicted that we would be “welcoming in 2022 with parties and family gatherings”, and I personally think that’s a very attainable timeline.
The reason why so much is being pinned upon a vaccine is because once key groups have been vaccinated (key workers, elderly, vulnerable etc.), it should reduce hospital admissions with COVID-19 to a level that the NHS can cope with without needing any of the restrictions. The key reason why these restrictions exist is due to the need to keep hospital admissions low, so as long as the admissions to intensive care can be kept low, I don’t think the government really cares about the virus spreading.
It’s like flu; as long as the key groups are protected and there’s room in ICU for those who need it, there’s no need for any further intervention in the government’s eyes. So once the groups who are most at risk get vaccinated, the government will likely just let the virus spread amongst the rest of the population without any restrictions.
My personal view is that we will eventually return to how we were before. The head of the UK’s vaccine taskforce predicted that we would be “welcoming in 2022 with parties and family gatherings”, and I personally think that’s a very attainable timeline.
Benjsh
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The impact of the drastic measures taken could lead to worse outcomes than the virus itself. This is where we must be sensible. By all means take the required action to slow the spread etc but we can't allow the cure (lockdowns etc) to be more dangerous than the virus itself. And sadly I feel this is the way we're heading.
People don't realise what's coming. Unemployment already soaring and will continue to. Crime will also go through the roof over the next few years with so many out of work. It's going to be very very bleak for us and I'm sorry if i'm being negative. It's just a stone cold fact. Covid and Brexit are going to cause so much woe for this country.
People don't realise what's coming. Unemployment already soaring and will continue to. Crime will also go through the roof over the next few years with so many out of work. It's going to be very very bleak for us and I'm sorry if i'm being negative. It's just a stone cold fact. Covid and Brexit are going to cause so much woe for this country.
my partner recently asked me how I voted with brexit, it’s a sort of subject we never really talk about but we spoke and I’ll always stick to I voted remain just over the Irish border situation. To me personally I don’t want another conflict again in my life time, after 30 years we finally got peace and tho tensions have always been there for 20 years we have been at peace and I never want anything to stop that peace process.
Rojo
TS Member
Interestingly enough it wasn't a smallpox vaccine that necessarily cured smallpox but the "injection" of a similar disease of cowpox after Edward Jenner noticed Milkmaids did not contract smallpox. The word Vaccine coming from the latin for cow (Vacca). Luckily for us killing your host isn't a good thing for the disease that wants to live, so most mutate into weaker strains and as immunity builds up they burn out. (I earnt that GCSE in history for medical knowledge
)The problem is this process can be slow and given how we're quarantining the well for the first time in history, rather than just the sick we're stumbling in a financial black hole. We'll have a grim winter and there's still no indication that 2021 will be a better year, yet soo many are betting their happiness and mental health on it. Next year could be really rough as @Benjsh mentioned in the above post.
The comparison of this to the flu is lazy journalism. It's a disease that has already been proven to affect major organs and even caused stroke like symptoms in perfectly well young people. This is just the short term, we still can't access the long term damage of the disease. So even by 2022 we might not be out of the woods! There's evidence that a good number of people with MERS and SARS suffered with symptoms for up to 3 years and they were considered more aggressive illnesses and that's why they burnt out to a certain degree. (You can still pick up MERS if you go snogging camels on the Arabian Peninsula)
A vaccine may help with the positive spin for a brighter future but some major damage to this country has already been done with the fumblings over the summer by parliament. I'm not sure how we'll be a united kingdom after this, I can see Wales and Scotland pushing for more independence and the option to control their own borders in the future.
Hope I'm massively wide of the mark though!
Stuie
TS Member
I agree - I understand that some powers are devolved but I've never felt like a separate country to Wales and Scotland, until now. It's very sad.
Lets hope they push for independence, they can stop blood sucking from the English tax payer then and as an added bonus we will never have to suffer a Labour Government again.
D4n
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Because the last ten years of Tory rule has been SUCH a success. It's not like they've literally divided the country down the middle with a self-serving referendum or put thousands more children into poverty through needless austerity or completely messed up their response to the coronavirus crisis so that we're one of the worst affected countries in the entire world (on topic). No sir! Would be much worse suffering through that nasty Labour lot I'm sure!
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Austin Towers
TS Member
Try living in Northern Ireland. A lot of folk from the UK mainland think the Euro is our currency.
imanautie
TS Member
Considering what I see at work a fair few in NI think the same about themselfs ...
Matt N
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I’m somewhat surprised that this hasn’t been bigger news, but yesterday, the results of a study by the University of Bristol indicated that the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine is on course to work: https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/23/oxfo...pected-and-triggers-strong-immunity-13467677/
Phase 3 trials have apparently shown that it works as expected and triggers “strong immunity” against COVID-19.
Very promising stuff; hopefully this vaccine will get approved soon so that we can begin to vaccinate the population and carve our way back to some semblance of normality.
Phase 3 trials have apparently shown that it works as expected and triggers “strong immunity” against COVID-19.
Very promising stuff; hopefully this vaccine will get approved soon so that we can begin to vaccinate the population and carve our way back to some semblance of normality.
Matt N
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No problem at all; I do often search for news on this as I like to keep myself and others informed! In this case, this vaccine news seemed very positive and I thought it deserved more attention!@Matt N your positivity in this time of woe is fantastic, thank you for your updates.
I must admit, however, that I am growing increasingly worried that even with a vaccine, the restrictions may never end up getting removed. In a way, it almost feels as though we’re going to have to live like this forever with the way some people talk...