Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[Kev50]

Vaccines are effective.

Let me rephrase that..

Actually, I'll just repeat it, vaccines are effective.

that's not what professor lockdown's been saying

 

[Paris]

Absolutely mad that the Germans and French are banning UK nationals over Covid. The UK is the only Western nation* testing in meaningful numbers and has nowhere near the high amounts of deaths and hospitalizations seen in either France (15k to 7k hospitalizations this week) or Germany (400+ to 140-150 deaths yesterday)

*=Not seen what testing is like for Australasia.

 

[Nymzee]

I hope Portugal ban UK nationals so I can get money back on my cancelled holiday.

 

[LinekersLegs]

 

[grandjoeblue]

that's not what professor lockdown's been saying

Ferguson is after headlines. He has been wrong every single time but caveats it by saying it's a 'worst case' scenario.

I could do the same thing. 10000 a day could die or 500 will, or somewhere in between. How he can be trusted after his antics during the first lockdown I don't know.

 

[Billy Dean]

That is Everton like timing!

Hope you manage to take some eggnog back home to help with the quarantine x

Thanks LL that’s a good idea. My case will definitely be clinking lol

 

[Prevenger17]

Yeah people with actual businesses and livelihoods and [Poor language removed] might disagree that it's 'okay'.


Genuine insanity. I'm out. Will come back in six months when you're still going around in circles after more lockdowns and more jabs.

Leaving thread pls

 

[Walken]

First tubey and now the wool joe rogan, there is power in these masks

 

[coollino]

Leaving thread pls

He'll write it in wingdings stating only the few that strive for a civilised society will understand and then mention that pizza place in the US

 

[grandjoeblue]

Absolutely mad that the Germans and French are banning UK nationals over Covid. The UK is the only Western nation* testing in meaningful numbers and has nowhere near the high amounts of deaths and hospitalizations seen in either France (15k to 7k hospitalizations this week) or Germany (400+ to 140-150 deaths yesterday)

*=Not seen what testing is like for Australasia.

Banning countries is pointless once you have some cases of the variant. Both of them have loads anyway.

 

[RAFUH]

Don’t think so but will tag in @RAFUH as she is the expert.

It is used in combo with another drug that apparently in some HIV treatments.

COVID antiviral pills: what scientists still want to know

Drugs such as molnupiravir and Paxlovid could change the course of the pandemic if clinical trial results hold up in the real world.

www.nature.com

Paxlovid acts by inhibiting an enzyme that’s needed to process some viral proteins into their final, functional form. But the drug is a combination of an antiviral and another drug, called ritonavir, which helps to prevent enzymes in the liver from breaking down the antiviral before it has a chance to disable the coronavirus. Ritonavir, a component of some HIV treatment cocktails, can affect how some other medications are metabolized by the body. A wide range of drugs should not be given with it, including some that are commonly used to treat heart conditions, suppress the immune system and reduce pain.

That Ritonavir was on that letter I received with medications that they've found not to be effective ( Lopinavir ritonavir - antiviral treatment commonly used to treat HIV )

Tagging me in LL?? That is the opposite of a slap to the head.

Ritonavir is a not very effective treatment for HIV as resistance has developed. However, when its added to other antivirals it boosts their efficacy. You never see it given alone any more.

So for @maccavennie in your example its the lopinavir that is the “active” agent and not effective, even if you boost it with ritonavir.

Paxlovid is a SARS-CoV-2 protease inhibitor. Protease is an enzyme required in viral replication. If you inhibit it, at minimum viral replication is slowed allowing more time for the immune system to do its thing.

They have been trying protease inhibitors developed for HIV to treat COVID. This is the first developed for SARS-COV-2.

Early data looks good, but smallish trials. Standard for phase 2 and 3 trials.


Now watch all those that don’t want a new vaccine suddenly demand this when ill.

 

[Paris]

Banning countries is pointless once you have some cases of the variant. Both of them have loads anyway.

In my opinion the best way is a negative PCR test taken within 48 hours of arrival and then another PCR test upon arrival, to be taken in quarantine and once result received and it's negative then off you go. Not this absolute crap of blanket bans.

 

[tsubaki]

Absolutely mad that the Germans and French are banning UK nationals over Covid. The UK is the only Western nation* testing in meaningful numbers and has nowhere near the high amounts of deaths and hospitalizations seen in either France (15k to 7k hospitalizations) or Germany (400+ to 140-150 deaths)

*=Not seen what testing is like for Australasia.

TBF I think its not so much on the figures as it is that what is happening in the UK is clear evidence that our government hasn't got its s**t together, again.

Alpha originated here and Delta + Omicron have all found a good foothold here too. We can do as many tests as we like but we are manifestly behind nearly all other Western European countries in terms of what we know about the spread of variants of concern within our own country, never mind deal actually with them, and there is very little evidence to suggest this government is going to do anything meaningful to improve that.

I mean take one example - that recent super-spreader event in Norway. Within a week of that happening the Norwegian system had picked it up, identified that it was the Omicron variant (which had only been declared on the day of the party), identified the participants and got them all to isolate. Within ten days they'd tested and interviewed them all, and could start to assess the seriousness of the illness, likely symptoms and other information. Doing all that quickly reduces the contact the attendees (most of whom caught it there) have with other people, preventing infections, and can help the government understand what the risk is with something actually is (rather than relying on the WHO).

Getting a reaction from our public health system that fast and that thorough is not something we have seen that often (or at all; certainly I am not aware of it happening). It needs to be much better than it is.

 

[grandjoeblue]

In my opinion the best way is a negative PCR test taken within 48 hours of arrival and then another PCR test upon arrival, to be taken in quarantine and once result received and it's negative then off you go. Not this absolute crap of blanket bans.

That would work quite well but the PCR upon arrival with possible quarantine would stop a lot of travellers. There's no easy answer to it really.

 

[BlueToff]

Thanks LL. I landed in the uk last night lol

Just means I’ll be holed up for 2 weeks in my flat when I get back there.

at least it's at home I suppose... bloody hell, just rubbish, the world over