I got a letter from the NHS in the UK asking me to take a test as part of a research study. They would send the kit and it would be picked up by courier. Someone is making a load of money on that.
I will be using it the line my cats’ litter box.
It said they got my details from my GP which is utter bollocks as I have not been registered with a GP for over 10 years (it was surely from the entry document I had to fill out which had a list of dozens and dozens of exempt professions for people who would not need to self isolate).
It also said, the ‘test results are not 100% accurate’.
As I have been saying from April, don’t trust the numbers!
It’s back with a vengeance in Italy. Italy was praised for having it under control after getting hit hard unlike their EU neighbors. But now they’re having another wave again.
All that cheek kissing.
Did you actually make it to the U.K. for study. It gone nuts here again now, although the south east isn’t too bad for now. It’s going through the university halls like wildfire.
I think the possible long-term effects on health should be highlighted more than the risk of death. Everything is indicating that the IFR is miniscule, so many people are rightly not panicking over their risk of getting sick and dying because the average person isn’t going to die.
But if you read about myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, you’ll probably want to wear a mask. Being bed-ridden for days because doing something as simple as taking a shower causes you to be exhausted is pretty scary.
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It may seem that way if measured by cases alone. But there’s virtually no deaths this time around.
Ivor Cummings explains this in the video below. He has labeled it a ‘Casedemic’.
Is it taking out the lecturers/professors. Shirley they are dropping like flies. Academia is dead!
I don’t work in academia anymore, but my wife does. Basically they have shifted everything online where possible. Lecturers seem to be ok for now.
Wednesday night I had dinner with some friends and one of their nephews came along who just started his first year at imperial. Lectures are online, but tutorials are face to face for now.
Enrolments are actually the same at my wife’s uni as they were last year, so they haven’t suffered so bad, but they’re obviously missing their forecasts. There also been a big drop in Chinese students who are more fearful of the virus, but other nationalities seem less bothered.
The mid level unis are suffering the worst from what I’ve been told. Mainly the ones who are still transitioning to the current business model.
The unis need more of this:
Yup. It’s not bad where I am for now. It looks like maybe new restrictions will come next week.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-africa-five-reasons-why-232059451.html
Chart is pretty interesting:
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Eh I posted that like two weeks ago…
Sorry. Just appeared in my feed now with a pubdate of Oct 8. I don’t read every thread here religiously.
It’s going to come back this winter. That’s why I’m staying holed up at home in India.
Just kidding. As long as there is someone not affected by the plague, it is good news. We need some of that.
From Barron’s…hopefully good news:
Gilead study shows drug speeds up COVID-19 recovery
Last Updated: Oct. 9, 2020 at 3:43 p.m. ETFirst Published: Oct. 8, 2020 at 5:49 p.m. ET
By
Wallace Witkowski
Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD, +0.82% said late Thursday that a late-stage study of its experimental COVID-19 treatment showed it shortened time to recovery. The company said a study of remdesivir, which goes by the trade name Veklury, plus standard of care shortened the time of recovery by an average five days, compared with a placebo and standard of care. Patients were also 50% more likely to have recovered 15 days after treatment compared to those given a placebo, the company said. Results of the study were published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Remdesivir was reportedly one of the medications recently prescribed to President Donald Trump for his COVID-19 infection. Gilead shares were up 0.5% after hours, following a 0.8% rise in the regular session to close at $63.32. Shares are down nearly 3% for the year, versus a 7% rise in the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.87%.
Also from Barron’s
There’s remdesivir from Gilead Sciences (GILD), which began this year as an experimental antiviral and was quickly repurposed for Covid-19. This past week, Gilead’s chief said that the drug is in ample supply. Then there’s dexamethasone, a cheap, generic steroid.
The third drug, REGN-COV2, an antibody cocktail made specifically for Covid-19 by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN), hasn’t been approved yet. In a video shot on the White House lawn and tweeted on Thursday, the president touted the drug as a “cure” with the same zeal he has shown for malaria pills and other dubious treatments. Critics rolled their eyes. The Lincoln Project, comprised of anti-Trump Republicans, edited the video with 1980s timeshare infomercial music, VHS-tape static, and a flashing “CALL NOW.”
Truth-telling is important, the episode reminds. To add to the distraction, the president listed Regeneron and Gilead shares among his assets a few years ago (but not recently).
I’m not a doctor. But SVB Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges is, and he wrote this past week that Regeneron’s antibody cocktail and a single antibody from Eli Lilly (LLY) are likely to receive emergency-use authorization soon from the FDA, with a Lilly cocktail following several months later. Both cocktails appear early on to be “highly effective” in nonhospitalized patients and could eventually be validated for hospitalized ones, he says. He expects Regeneron to dominate sales of the new cocktails this year and next by getting a jump on production.
These are not cures. Perhaps it’s even too early to call them breakthroughs. But Regeneron had recent success in a race to develop an antibody cocktail for Ebola, and it’s using the same technology for Covid-19. Whatever suspicion the president’s Regeneron endorsement has raised among the embellishment-weary, we should take it more seriously than his past Covid-19 pitch work.
One word: Re-infection
I’m not going to suggest that herd immunity is the right strategy but William Haseltine’s argument would be a lot stronger if we had the answers to the following questions:
- What percentage of people are re-infected?
- Are re-infections possible with the same strain, or does this only occur with a different strain?
- On average, do people who are re-infected get sick, sicker or less sick on the second infection?
- How contagious are the re-infected versus the newly infected?
Seems we don’t have enough information yet to totally panic about re-infections.
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In the US they estimate less than 10% infected and already have 200 thousand dead. No thanks.
Even with well known stuff like measles you have people that react really badly to the disease and die. With chickenpox you get shingles the second time. With these, you have the chance to avoid leaving your health up to chance. So better not.
There are many diseases where you do not have herd immunity, it is not a given. Dengue comes to mind.
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Uhhh dengue is spread by infected mosquitos, not from person to person.