Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[davek]

The island of Ire

No thanks to that nob rot Rotheram.

 

[4737carlin]

If they continue to decline I wonder when will there be a review that might put us back into Tier 2?
Am I right the whole country is Tier 5 at the moment but as of now no dates are set for a review?

 

[Goat]

If they continue to decline I wonder when will there be a review that might put us back into Tier 2?
Am I right the whole country is Tier 5 at the moment but as of now no dates are set for a review?

I think this lockdown will last a while yet.

Hospital numbers are still utterly horrific.

 

[Wizard]

If they continue to decline I wonder when will there be a review that might put us back into Tier 2?
Am I right the whole country is Tier 5 at the moment but as of now no dates are set for a review?

The next date where changes could happen is supposed to be mid-February, i.e. at the end of half term on Feb 19th. The aim is to have the top 4 vaccine groups finished by then so if that is achieved and rates have come down then the plan is for schools to reopen and there could be some easing of restrictions.

I think Tier 2 is a good way off for everyone though.

 

[arminisgod]

The next date where changes could happen is supposed to be mid-February, i.e. at the end of half term on Feb 19th. The aim is to have the top 4 vaccine groups finished by then so if that is achieved and rates have come down then the plan is for schools to reopen and there could be some easing of restrictions.

I think Tier 2 is a good way off for everyone though.

Legally ends on 31st march.. a reason for that. Schools shut for easter then so they can put everywhere back into tier 4 and gain an extra 2 weeks of lockdown without the need for a commons vote.

 

[Cool_Blue]

This will also presumably have some impact, know that here in the US a not insignificant portion of those offered the vaccine in the first round (medical staff/firefighters) refused which will have slowed down the rate as need to seek those who were willing.

This makes grim reading. It means the deaths will keep on coming. So when someone winds up in hospital and on a ventilator and they get asked “have you been vaccinated”, and they say “I didn’t want it”, how do the nurses react to that? Unbelievable Jeff.

 

[PhilM]

I think this lockdown will last a while yet.

Hospital numbers are still utterly horrific.

We’re looking at mid-February at the earliest for the national lockdown to be removed, but even after that it’s like we’ll face strict restrictions.

 

[jackyboy]

Taking all the positives I can out of the current vaccine rollout numbers. Just hoping for things to improve month on month, no matter how slow.

 

[arminisgod]

We’re looking at mid-February at the earliest for the national lockdown to be removed, but even after that it’s like we’ll face strict restrictions.

the lockdown ends on the 31st march. People need to get February out of their heads.. that was a time frame for schools

 

[PhilM]

the lockdown ends on the 31st march. People need to get February out of their heads.. that was a time frame for schools

True. Yet without schools being closed, the argument is that inter-community transmission will continue - e.g. it's not truly an effective lock down.

There's still no guarantee that schools will open in February because surely the decision will be based on numbers being down to a manageable level.

When you see how the volume of traffic on the roads each morning, it does raise questions if we're doing enough to get the numbers down quick enough.

 

[davek]

True. Yet without schools being closed, the argument is that inter-community transmission will continue - e.g. it's not truly an effective lock down.

There's still no guarantee that schools will open in February because surely the decision will be based on numbers being down to a manageable level.

When you see how the volume of traffic on the roads each morning, it does raise questions if we're doing enough to get the numbers down quick enough.

Because way more people this time around are being allowed to classify themselves as "key workers"...which also means primary schools are seeing a 10-fold increase in attendance on the lockdown of last spring (as much as 50% attendance in some schools).

This murderous government know what they have to do and still wont do it in an ongoing catastrophe.

 

[Mutzo Nutzo]

Britain will be able to vaccinate the entire nation against dangerous new Covid strains within four months after a £158m super-factory opens later this year, The Telegraph can disclose.

Dr Matthew Duchars, chief executive of the Vaccines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (VMIC), revealed the Oxfordshire facility will be capable of producing 70m doses of an emergency vaccine manufactured entirely on British soil.

The news comes amid fears that a new Covid strain from Brazil may prove resistant to current vaccines. All travel corridors into the UK were scrapped this week to prevent new variants entering the country.

“We’ll be able to make 70 million doses within a four to five month period, enough for everyone in the country, when we open late this year,” Dr Duchars told The Telegraph.

“New Covid variants are absolutely part of the thinking. We probably will need to make seasonal vaccine variants because there may well be mutations in the virus, as well as vaccines for other diseases. You never know what’s coming next.”

Currently under construction at the Harwell Science & Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire, the VMIC was first conceived in 2018 and originally planned to open in 2022. When the Covid pandemic struck, the UK government pumped a further £131 million into the not-for-profit company to bring the project forward by a year.

The centre is already helping to manufacture the Oxford vaccine by lending expertise and giant bioreactors to the AstraZeneca team and its partners.

This week Sir Mene Pangalos, executive vice president of biopharmaceuticals research and development at AstraZeneca, told MPs that the UK’s lack of manufacturing capacity had been a major stumbling block in the development of the Oxford vaccine, and urged ministers to “urgently address” the issue.

Much of the Pfizer and Oxford vaccine doses currently being rolled out in the UK are made in factories in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Dr Duchars said the VMIC would be equipped to produce different types of vaccines including MRNA varieties like the Pfizer jab and adenovirus-based technology like the Oxford AstraZeneca jab.

“Covid came a year early for us, unfortunately,” he said.

“But when we open we’ll have a sovereign capability to manufacture different types of vaccines and still be able to make a large number of doses.

“It is a challenge. But that's what we're shooting for. If you don't set yourself a tough target, then there's no chance you can reach it.”

He added how the company and its new super-factory could also be used to help developers of numerous other vaccines - not just those targeting Covid-19 - from private and public organisations, whether academic institutions or foundations or private laboratories.

Explaining how he believes it is “absolutely remarkable” the vaccine has been developed so quickly, he said: “We may not have a facility that's built and ready to go. But we do have people who understand how to develop and manufacture vaccines.

“So, we've essentially lent them out to organisations to help them with the scale up and manufacturer of COVID-19 vaccine.”

“And we've been working with lots of those different organisations to help really accelerate and speed up and provide surety and expertise around how to get this vaccine made quickly.”

He said the new centre is “technology agnostic”, meaning it can be adapted to different methods for different types of vaccine and viruses.

“What we didn't want to do was make a facility that would be great for making the AstraZeneca vaccine, for example, but then next year a different MERS [Middle East Respiratory Syndrome] or SARS [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] comes along.” he added.

“That's a different type of platform and a different vaccine. So we've got to have a flexible facility that is able to make in an emergency a large amount of doses from different types of processes.”

Good old Oxford - Leading the way once again.

 

[Amw79]

A good piece, from a Tory MP, holding the gob-on-a-stick likes of Young, Pearson & Hartley-Brewer to account.

I’d love to ignore ‘covid sceptics’ and their tall tales. But they make a splash and have no shame | Neil O'Brien

The Tory MP on the fantasies of those in the media, and beyond, who oppose lockdown

www.theguardian.com

 

[Bruce Wayne]

True. Yet without schools being closed, the argument is that inter-community transmission will continue - e.g. it's not truly an effective lock down.

There's still no guarantee that schools will open in February because surely the decision will be based on numbers being down to a manageable level.

When you see how the volume of traffic on the roads each morning, it does raise questions if we're doing enough to get the numbers down quick enough.

Movement is 30% up on the March lockdown.

 

[BlueToff]

True. Yet without schools being closed, the argument is that inter-community transmission will continue - e.g. it's not truly an effective lock down.

There's still no guarantee that schools will open in February because surely the decision will be based on numbers being down to a manageable level.

When you see how the volume of traffic on the roads each morning, it does raise questions if we're doing enough to get the numbers down quick enough.

Takes 7-10 days for someone to be hospitalised, though, Phil.

So we should - in theory - start to see the impact on hospitalisations drop soon.

Cases are starting a steady decline it seems.

Everything has to be taken like you're looking through a telescope. Deaths and hospitalisations happening now (the ones not recorded from 28 days ago obviously) are results of infections 10-14 days ago.

Mid-Feb was the target for the vulnerable to get vaccinated so I fully don't expect us out of this form of lockdown until early March at the very earliest (and I think that would be hopeful).

End of March, by the time even more are vaccinated, we could start see restrictions lifted. And I guess they'll go into tiers again. And like I've said before, as long as they don't do anything daft, like put London into a more relaxed tier, then that should work while the vaccinations continue at pace.