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General Coronavirus (COVID-19) chat

Regarding viral load, what Supine said. With some extra unknowns, such as how that test determines viral load, how much difference how effectively the swab test is administered makes to what the test results say about viral load.

If viral load is the same or related to amount of viral shedding, there is also a whole topic about reasons why different people can shed very different amounts of the same virus. Including some stuff that I havent explored to the extent that I could safely claim I know it to be a solid fact, but that sounds plausible, such as children in general shedding more virus, or people with certain conditions being more prone to shedding a lot more virus than normal (eg type 1 diabetics).

I say all of this as general stuff rather than anything specific to this particular virus. In this pandemic I've tended to see more stuff come up about the possible consequences of being on the receiving end of a lot of virus, and whether thats one of the issues that make the pandemic more risky for healthcare workers. I dont know how sure they are about that because there are other potential factors including the changes of being exposed to multiple different varieties of the same virus in a short space of time.

It certainly seems reasonable to think that how much virus you were exposed to is a factor, combined with how well your body fights it off and other aspects of your health. But really the whole thing is a big complex picture where our understanding goes further than scratching the surface, but often not too much further. Like so many other aspects of the pandemic, scientific study and the quest for knowledge is so often hampered by our inability to view factors in isolation, so many variables making a difference, maybe truth is lost when trying to simplify etc. And when it comes to our immune systems which are obviously a rather important part of how different people react differently to this virus, there are so many genes involved and even things like our own personal array of gut flora can make a difference to how our immune system is balanced.
 
I lived close to the Hellshire Chat-Bout when I was a mature student. Luckily I didn't end up in a barrel off Beachy Head.
 
Mostly I was just pondering whether us wearing masks the majority of the time probably did help. Being immunosuppressed with shite lungs and a heart condition it feels like a miracle to have got off so lightly - and the others I know from this possible cluster have all got off lightly too, though none of them had risk factors.

teuchter said:
Some people don't have space for a washing machine, or live in shared accommodation where one isn't provided.
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Yep, that too. They definitely are essential. I just noticed them because dry-cleaners were included and I saw that as being listed as a laughable exception on another thread, but a lot of dry cleaners also provide other laundry facilities so it'd be hard to ban them while allowing launderettes.
 
My d-i-l is back at work as a nursery teacher, despite being amongst the most medically vulnerable groups. She (and my youngest) are concerned with the longer-term implications of losing their jobs, to even risk being furloughed. In my lad's firm, those who remained on furlough over summer have been the first to be let go...and d-i-l is acutely aware that she has pushed the nursery support to the limit, having had a lengthy absence (because thyroid cancer). As renters in an insane market, they are already living hand to mouth. Back to being frantic again.
 
I've been doing some volunteering the last few weekends, things were much busier today than I've seen them before, and a lot of fairly busy eateries.

I note huge, crammed crowds outside Harrods yesterday - but of course that is the place where selfish morons would choose to shop. :rolleyes:

I'm not going to make any advance plans for February through to Easter, there's clearly going to be another peak starting a month or so after Christmas.
 
Hyperdark said:
Have there been any more reports of people catching it twice?
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Yes, quite a few afaik. Anecdotally (based on symptoms/positive PCR) quite a lot but also actual confirmed reinfections with the high hurdle of whatever needs to be done to prove it (genome sequencing from both?).

Again anecdotally (for example, someone yesterday on Independent Sage), in some (thought to be rare) cases the illness is worse second time around.

This article from November in Forbes states 25 confirmed and 421 "well-documented" cases.

Obviously very much still an area of study, but with the second wave well under way and immunity from spring potentially waning, we will probably learn lots more about it soon.
 
Cloo said:
How bizarre - if it was supposed to be some kind of thing to do with nightlife, I'm not sure what that's got to do with Harrods of all places. :confused:
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Most of the crowd in that incident were travellers, I think describing their dress as such was meant to be a way of implying that.
 
Reassuringly, in that (interesting!) article :

Science article said:
David Baltimore, a virologist at the California Institute of Technology who won the Nobel Prize for his role in discovering RT, describes the new work as “impressive” and the findings as “unexpected” but he notes that Jaenisch and colleagues only show that fragments of SARS-CoV-2’s genome integrate. “Because it is all pieces of the coronaviral genome, it can’t lead to infectious RNA or DNA and therefore it is probably biologically a dead end,” Baltimore says. “It is also not clear if, in people, the cells that harbor the reverse transcripts stay around for a long time or they die. The work raises a lot of interesting questions.”
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Also :

Zandrea Ambrose, a retrovirologist at the University of Pittsburgh, adds that this kind of integration would be “extremely rare” if it does indeed happen. She notes that LINE-1 elements in the human genome rarely are active. “It is not clear what the activity would be in different primary cell types that are infected by SARS-CoV-2,” she says.
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:)
 
Near my house, there are 3 nail bars within 50 metres of each other. All of them were still operating at 7pm...and all of them were full - every station occupied (between 8-14) with numerous people waiting. While the workers all wore masks, around half of the customers were not bothering. Came home feeling despairing and appalled.
 
I don’t remember which thread we were discussing it in, but there was discussion of the possible interaction of ACEIs (angiotensin conversion enzyme inhibitors - blood pressure control drugs) and other similar medicines with covid infections, given ACE2 is the target of both the drug and the virus.

Just published metaanalysis suggests no effect on infection rates or severity https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(20)30289-2/fulltext which is good news.
 
Had a friend from London show up on our doorstep last night - she'd jumped in the car to drive up to Cambridgeshire to deliver presents before Tier 4 prevented them from leaving the city. Was all masked and properly distanced, but still; if you're just giving the kids money for Christmas, you could transfer it online. :rolleyes: At least she didn't get the train, I suppose.
 
a trip which was not permitted under the existing Tier 3 restrictions of course.
so rushing to make it before the Tier 4 kicked in was a futile exercise.

I wish a month ago the post office had run a campaign: "even if you're planning to visit for xmas, best post your gifts early just in case you have to cancel last minute" but a snappy 3 word slogan
 
prunus said:
I don’t remember which thread we were discussing it in, but there was discussion of the possible interaction of ACEIs (angiotensin conversion enzyme inhibitors - blood pressure control drugs) and other similar medicines with covid infections, given ACE2 is the target of both the drug and the virus.

Just published metaanalysis suggests no effect on infection rates or severity https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(20)30289-2/fulltext which is good news.
Click to expand...

Good news. Tbh as an ace2 inhibitor user I was hopeful it would make me less susceptible. I'll take no difference as a reasonable outcome.
 
Don't think I've ever had this sort of message before :(

Due to staff sickness affecting the surgery all week please be aware call wait times may be long and please be patient, our staff are working as hard as possible and working extra shifts to keep the surgery running efficiently. You may find your appointments could be moved, we will only do this if absolutely necessary. Can we kindly ask you only to call if the need is urgent and cannot wait until after Christmas. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
 
One of my colleagues has just been posting photos from her holiday in Mexico (seems she just beat the flight cancellations and whatnot though I'm still really surprised she got there.) Think it's massively irresponsible but everyone else is like 'have a great holiday!', 'lucky you' etc. (Maybe I'm just old and bloody miserable though.)
 
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