Coronavirus - the new strain XI

[claire.foxx]

And Trump’s new, preferred Covid special advisor- a radiologist. One who’s main activity appears to be shouting down real infectious disease experts and pandering to Trump’s own scientific knowledge.

 

[stephen bennett]

My issue with the Guardian article is that a small scale proof of concept study in an animal model is only a tiny signal of a potentially successful treatment. The majority of compounds that ‘pass’ this test never go on to approval for prescribing in humans, either because they don’t work for the intended purpose, are inferior to existing treatments or are too toxic in a risk-benefit analysis.

Multiple drug candidates already approved for human use in other diseases have already gone through the same animal model, looking for signs of Covid anti-viral activity. They normally look for multiple markers of effect- viral and antibody titres, viral shedding through more than one route, clinical signs of disease and impact on disease severity of the experimental drug.

The article pointed to one- failure to detect viral transcripts in swabs taken from those animals exposed to the experimental compound. Perhaps this was just editorial pruning by the Guardian but I’m afraid this kind of shorthand article serves to raise unrealistic expectations among the public.

Succinct.

But not as funny as your other posts on this subject.

Stephen

 

[gavreid]

Government seeks to blame Vice-Chancellors now. Fee refunds will lead to wholesale redundancies if not funded from the Treasury...

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...08c8d290bc5c4a#block-5f73313e8f08c8d290bc5c4a

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

You do wonder how many intelligent and influential people the government will get to royally piss off before this all ends.

 

[wacko]

You do wonder how many intelligent and influential people the government will get to royally piss off before this all ends.

Do they care ? "F business" gave a clue. As long as they get re-elected they couldn't care less.

 

[droodzilla]

Government seeks to blame Vice-Chancellors now. Fee refunds will lead to wholesale redundancies if not funded from the Treasury...

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...08c8d290bc5c4a#block-5f73313e8f08c8d290bc5c4a

I suspect the government sees this as a potential benefit of the crisis. Cummings is no fan of widening participation and the idea that education as a public good is foreign to him so I doubt he’ll lose much sleep if financially unviable (“non-elite”) HEIs go under.

 

[stephen bennett]

I suspect the government sees this as a potential benefit of the crisis. Cummings is no fan of widening participation and the idea that education as a public good is foreign to him so I doubt he’ll lose much sleep if financially unviable (“non-elite”) HEIs go under.

Indeed.

I believe the plan is to get back to the levels of University access we had in the 1970s/'80s.

And bring back Grammar schools to feed them of course.

For now (until Cummings' tech utopia builds suitable robots) the Tories need fruit pickers rather than educated people.

As a bonus, fewer people with advanced critical skills = less criticism of the Conservative Government.

And here's the (possible) evidence. 2019 election survey. I'm sure the Conservatives are taking notice. I'd love to know how many of those 24% went to Grammar/Private school.

Stephen

 

[tiggers]

71 deaths and 7143 news cases recorded today, it's not going well!

 

[tqineil]

UK reports a record 7,143 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Tuesday, compared to 4,044 on Monday. (76% increase) More worryingly, 71 new deaths recorded vs 13 on Monday.

 

[gavreid]

I suspect the government sees this as a potential benefit of the crisis. Cummings is no fan of widening participation and the idea that education as a public good is foreign to him so I doubt he’ll lose much sleep if financially unviable (“non-elite”) HEIs go under.

I don't think they'll get away with that but they'll try to clear out HE like they've done to FE - and it won't be limited to smaller institutions. It'll have a knock on effect for p/g too because p/g surpervision (i.e. the time spent) is basically cross-subsidised from fee income.

 

[Tony L]

And here's the (possible) evidence. 2019 election survey. I'm sure the Conservatives are taking notice. I'd love to know how many of those 24% went to Grammar/Private school.

I refuse to believe five percent of intelligent people voted for the Brexit Party!

 

[Deej1992]

71 deaths and 7143 news cases recorded today, it's not going well!

A lot more people are being tested now than they were in April and May. We’re also seeing the usual weekend reporting lag kicking in on Tuesday.

I’d like to know how many people are dying of flu and pneumonia and other conditions.

 

[tiggers]

A lot more people are being tested now than they were in April and May. We’re also seeing the usual weekend reporting lag kicking in on Tuesday.

I’d like to know how many people are dying of flu and pneumonia and other conditions.

Yes, but compared to where it was 4 weeks ago.... it's not going well!!

 

[gavreid]

A lot more people are being tested now than they were in April and May. We’re also seeing the usual weekend reporting lag kicking in on Tuesday.

I’d like to know how many people are dying of flu and pneumonia and other conditions.

There is a seasonally adjusted excess in deaths showing up now, as I posted earlier. 71 is a very high number compared to recent weeks (and months even)

 

[Deej1992]

tiggers/gav,

The numbers have gone up but you’d expect that as society opens up again and winter approaches. What we as a society need to ask ourselves is, like with flu and other viruses, do we accept that it’s going to be around and people will get ill and die? We can’t live with restrictions forever and a vaccine may not be the magic cure some think it to be.

 

[gavreid]

tiggers/gav,

The numbers have gone up but you’d expect that as society opens up again and winter approaches. What we as a society need to ask ourselves is, like with flu and other viruses, do we accept that it’s going to be around and people will get ill and die? We can’t live with restrictions forever and a vaccine may not be the magic cure some think it to be.

No I don't. That's just an argument for eugenics. Most of the deaths will have been preventable I'm sure

 

[Deej1992]

No I don't. That's just an argument for eugenics. Most of the deaths will have been preventable I'm sure

It’s not an argument for eugenics, it’s an argument for the fact people die and should the rest of society have to be locked down and face such an erosion of freedoms and liberties over a virus that the overwhelming majority survive.

 

[Seanm]

It’s de facto eugenics, given who tends to die.

 

[SteveS1]

It’s not an argument for eugenics, it’s an argument for the fact people die and should the rest of society have to be locked down and face such an erosion of freedoms and liberties over a virus that the overwhelming majority survive.

That isn’t the sole point of restrictions. The NHS can barely cope with a modest influenza epidemic before patients are placed in corridors and wards overflow. COVID patients filling up hospitals with a need for much more intensive and isolated care will swamp the service even if levels reach a fraction of those in March/June.

Freedoms and liberties? Tell that to everyone involved not just those who think they are not at risk.

 

[tiggers]

It’s not an argument for eugenics, it’s an argument for the fact people die and should the rest of society have to be locked down and face such an erosion of freedoms and liberties over a virus that the overwhelming majority survive.

There are way too many unknowns right now and until we know more we should be doing a better job of balancing the economy and the health of the nation including shielding the most vulnerable and protecting those on the front line than we are doing currently. For instance, you say the overwhelming majority survive, but more and more people are reporting long term issues with the disease and that is before we decide that 1%-2% of those getting it dying is acceptable. We need to buy ourselves time to better understand the disease and how we can live with it, other countries are doing a vastly better job of that than we are and the government need to look at that rather than continually pretending they are doing a world class job!