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[hash tag]

Where do these people come from, what world are they living in - It's fine if you don't know anyone with C19
Beachgoer says huge crowds 'don't matter because I don't know anyone with Covid'

 

[planetgeli]

Patient 91: How Vietnam saved a British pilot and kept a clean Covid-19 sheet

Stephen Cameron spent 68 days on a ventilator but beat the odds to survive coronavirus.

www.bbc.co.uk

This is a nice story. Vietnam is such a strange place with many faults, especially of a governmental nature, but their approach to Covid has been exemplary and this tale of care for a patient with little regard paid to what part of the planet that patient is from is illustrative of the humanity that can be found there, despite still being an international pariah when it comes to aid and trade.

 

[teuchter]

This is what Australia is saying about England.

UK stumbles towards new coronavirus crisis

Not even Boris Johnson's bluff and bluster can hide the grim truth about the scale of Britain's coronavirus crisis.

www.smh.com.au

View attachment 219627

No, it's what they're saying about the UK.

 

[Doodler]

Where do these people come from, what world are they living in - It's fine if you don't know anyone with C19
Beachgoer says huge crowds 'don't matter because I don't know anyone with Covid'

Some people learn from direct experience only.

 

[Aladdin]

Coronavirus: WHO director-general says ‘the worst is yet to come’ regarding pandemic, pleads to ‘quarantine COVID politics

 

[Mr.Bishie]

Flu virus with 'pandemic potential' found in China

The new strain, scientists say, is carried by pigs but can infect humans and requires close monitoring.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[frogwoman]

Flu virus with 'pandemic potential' found in China

The new strain, scientists say, is carried by pigs but can infect humans and requires close monitoring.

www.bbc.co.uk

Not now please, flu virus with pandemic potential

 

[William of Walworth]

Not now please, flu virus with pandemic potential

Adjusting flu vaccines to fit a new strain is done every year, and will probably** be a fair bit easier to manage again in time (?) than findng a coronavirus vaccine any time soon.
ETA : and I'm not seeing too much?? in that BBC article to suggest any difficulty would be insurmountable???

**Note emphasis though -- I'm no scientist!

 

[elbows]

There are a bunch of flu viruses with pandemic potential that are known, and who knows how many that are unknown to us. I usually take note of them but dont pay much attention to the subject at all unless there are notable outbreaks of said virus in humans which show the potential to escalate. So I'm sticking with just this coronavirus on the radar for now.

 

[2hats]

I try to avoid repeat posts but this, from another thread, is probably significant...

There is a growing body of research that points to T-cells playing an important role in the immune response to this virus, particularly in the degree of severity of outcome.

Depletion of certain T-cells (CD3+) may be key in severe cases. T cell senescence is well known to be a feature of ageing.

A race to determine what drives COVID-19 severity

Clinical evidence reveals how host factors affect coronavirus infection.

www.nature.com

Whereas a robust T cell response (here, CD4+ and CD8+) now appears to be a feature of mild and asymptomatic COVID-19 cases.

Robust T cell immunity in convalescent individuals with asymptomatic or mild COVID-19

SARS-CoV-2-specific memory T cells will likely prove critical for long-term immune protection against COVID-19. We systematically mapped the functional and phenotypic landscape of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses in a large cohort of unexposed individuals as well as exposed family members...

www.biorxiv.org

Which would go a long way to explaining the apparent (false) negative test results in cohorts who have experienced COVID-19 symptoms. (The bulk of antibody testing is looking for IgG and, some, IgM antibody responses - certainly that currently available to the public at home or via testing sites/labs).

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I try to avoid repeat posts but this, from another thread, is probably significant...

There is a growing body of research that points to T-cells playing an important role in the immune response to this virus, particularly in the degree of severity of outcome.

Depletion of certain T-cells (CD3+) may be key in severe cases. T cell senescence is well known to be a feature of ageing.

A race to determine what drives COVID-19 severity

Clinical evidence reveals how host factors affect coronavirus infection.

www.nature.com

Whereas a robust T cell response (here, CD4+ and CD8+) now appears to be a feature of mild and asymptomatic COVID-19 cases.

Robust T cell immunity in convalescent individuals with asymptomatic or mild COVID-19

SARS-CoV-2-specific memory T cells will likely prove critical for long-term immune protection against COVID-19. We systematically mapped the functional and phenotypic landscape of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses in a large cohort of unexposed individuals as well as exposed family members...

www.biorxiv.org

Which would go a long way to explaining the apparent (false) negative test results in cohorts who have experienced COVID-19 symptoms. (The bulk of antibody testing is looking for IgG and, some, IgM antibody responses - certainly that currently available to the public at home or via testing sites/labs).

I posted a link a while ago to a study from May that found 50% presence of CD4+ (and 20% CD8+) in never-infected subjects. I guess one of the problems with calling them 'never-infected' is that you can't actually know for sure. I don't know how they judged that - if they were asymptomatic, they couldn't.

 

[prunus]

I posted a link a while ago to a study from May that found 50% presence of CD4+ (and 20% CD8+) in never-infected subjects. I guess one of the problems with calling them 'never-infected' is that you can't actually know for sure. I don't know how they judged that - if they were asymptomatic, they couldn't.

If it’s the study I’m thinking if they used blood samples from (I think) 2018 for the ‘never infected’ samples. Still not a guarantee of course, but probable.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

If it’s the study I’m thinking if they used blood samples from (I think) 2018 for the ‘never infected’ samples. Still not a guarantee of course, but probable.

Ta. That makes sense. I was too lazy to go back and look.

 

[editor]

Yeah, we're all in it together

US secures world stock of key Covid-19 drug remdesivir

No other country will be able to buy remdesivir, which can help recovery from Covid-19, for next three months at least

www.theguardian.com

 

[kropotkin]

Study in nature yesterday showing the vo study outcomes - no difference in viral load between symptomatic and asymptomatic cases.
42% of the infected were asymptomatic.

Suppression of a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in the Italian municipality of Vo’ - Nature

The authors describe the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, viral load and the frequency of symptomatic versus asymptomatic and presymptomatic infection in an Italian town, before and after a strict 14-day lockdown.

www.nature.com

 

[teqniq]

This is really fucked up:

Austin Hospital Withheld Treatment from Disabled Man Who Contracted Coronavirus

After doctors withheld treatment including nutrition and hydration for six days, Michael Hickson died leaving his wife and five children behind.

thetexan.news

Michael Hickson, husband to Melissa and father of five children, died at age 46 on Thursday, June 11 at St. David’s South Austin Medical Center after the hospital withheld treatment from him, including hydration and nutrition, for six days.

His wife was not notified of his death until the next morning after his remains had already been transported to a funeral home without her permission....

 

[teuchter]

Local lockdowns in Melbourne

Victoria will enforce a local lockdown for 10 postcodes from Thursday. This is how it will work

An escalating number of coronavirus infections in some of the state's metropolitan areas has changed life again for residents.

www.abc.net.au

 

[MickiQ]

This is really fucked up:

Austin Hospital Withheld Treatment from Disabled Man Who Contracted Coronavirus

After doctors withheld treatment including nutrition and hydration for six days, Michael Hickson died leaving his wife and five children behind.

thetexan.news

This being America I suspect this (rather than his disability) is why they let him die

Mrs. Hickson is convinced that the Luling facility worked against her because, due to an error in filing insurance claims, the facility was not receiving the payments and a bill of $90,000 had accrued.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Excess deaths tracker here from The Economist may be of interest for stats nerds. Don't know if it's been posted before. It's pretty raw data, but I did a little dip after reading that US excess deaths, like here, are a good 30% higher than the official count. Unsurprisingly that does seem to be a general pattern. The official counts around the world probably all need to have an extra 20-30% added on to them.

TheEconomist/covid-19-excess-deaths-tracker

 

[phillm]

Worryingly Israel is now having a second wave worse than the first.

Coronavirus: Britain beware - Israel living the consequences of trying to return to normal

Daily COVID-19 cases have shot up since lockdown was eased, says Sky's Mark Stone, who warns the UK is only a few weeks behind.

news.sky.com

 

[elbows]

Theories on Japan:

Coronavirus: Japan's mysteriously low virus death rate

Japan had no lockdown, it has an elderly population - so why haven't more people died from Covid-19?

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[William of Walworth]

This is a UK story, but I thought this in yesterday's Guardian looked mildly encouraging about current vaccine development at Imperial College -- admittedly the piece is mainly about the lead researcher's take on it, but I didn't think he was over-hyping? :

'I'm cautiously optimistic': Imperial's Robin Shattock on his coronavirus vaccine
Team is using new approach that could be cheap and scalable and become the norm within five years

Any thoughts, elbows / anyone?

 

[elbows]

As is mentioned in the piece, wait for the data. Thats also why I dont join in with many discussions about vaccines and medicines at this stage, I dont want to go on the rollercoaster of hope and disappointment, I am content to wait for the time when I will be very happy to see solutions be proven to be effective and rolled out. I have no predictions for which vaccine candidates will work, or the exact timescale.

 

[phillm]

It looks like there are affordable and practical effective treatment protocols that are developing at pace.

https://www.evms.edu/media/evms_public/departments/internal_medicine/EVMS_Critical_Care_COVID-19_Protocol.pdf

 

[Anju]

I think mauvais suggested a custom wearable device would be a possible solution to UK tracing on another thread.

Why Singapore turned to wearable virus-trace tech

 

[mauvais]

I think mauvais suggested a custom wearable device would be a possible solution to UK tracing on another thread.

Why Singapore turned to wearable virus-trace tech

Yeah, sort of. I think a purpose-specific device has a lot more potential for success on a technical basis than trying to build anything on top of a consumer mobile phone platform.

I don't necessarily think it's a recipe for overall success though, and it's probably too late for the UK now anyway.

 

[Anju]

Yeah, sort of. I think a purpose-specific device has a lot more potential for success on a technical basis than trying to build anything on top of a consumer mobile phone platform.

I don't necessarily think it's a recipe for overall success though, and it's probably too late for the UK now anyway.

Sorry, probably didn't give an accurate idea of what you wrote.I just recall thinking it was a good idea when you posted about it.

 

[two sheds]

Was it a bell that you carry round, ringing while calling out "unclean"?

 

[teuchter]

Worryingly Israel is now having a second wave worse than the first.

Coronavirus: Britain beware - Israel living the consequences of trying to return to normal

Daily COVID-19 cases have shot up since lockdown was eased, says Sky's Mark Stone, who warns the UK is only a few weeks behind.

news.sky.com

I've noticed that when these 'second waves' are reported they nearly always seem to be in countries which had a very small 'first wave' (at least relative to the UK). This is what Israel looks like compared to the UK, adjusted for population:

 

[Buddy Bradley]

I've noticed that when these 'second waves' are reported they nearly always seem to be in countries which had a very small 'first wave' (at least relative to the UK).

Everywhere looks good when you compare it to the UK (or US), though.