COVID-19

They should just wash there bats in chlorine. Problem solved.

 

Thanks for the laugh. Most refreshing.

 

The testing that counts is one that tells you your immune and there hasn’t been a working one yet

 

Some Brilliant news today a good friend of my wife’s adopted Down’s syndrome son who beat meningitis when he was younger today came out of hospital after 17 horrible days where it was touch and go and he has now beaten COVID-19

 

Yep, on my phone today the sky news app tells me " Currently no evidence that covid-19 survivors have immunity, WHO warns"
O bugger, great news.
Dr maria van kerkhove mentions they have no evidence that an individual has immunity or is protected from re-infection.

Getting away from the macabre daily death rate, the figures are approx 108,000 have caught the virus(will be nowhere near the factual amount) out of our current population of 66.5 million(geez, that is damn close to 666) so this herd immunity is going to take some time as they haven't even reached a million yet.
So getting a green card to say you have had the virus will be worthless?

At least we will all be getting used to this queuing lark, it is in our british nature.

 

The most common type of cold, for example, is a rhinovirus:

'Scientists today identify seven virus families that cause the majority of colds: rhinovirus, coronavirus, influenza and parainfluenza virus, adenovirus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and, finally, metapneumovirus, which was first isolated in 2001. Each has a branch of sub-viruses, known as serotypes, of which there are about 200. Rhinovirus, the smallest cold pathogen by size, is by far the most prevalent, causing up to three-quarters of colds in adults. To vanquish the cold we will need to tackle all of these different families of virus at some stage. But, for now, rhinovirus is the biggest player.'

And they now believe a cure may be possible. May.

 

I've just been reading Marcus Du Sautoy's book on symmetry. It has been sitting on my shelf for years and now I've finally got around to reading it. It is fascinating although I can't pretend that I comprehend it all.

Late on in the book, there is a chapter on symmetry and how it applies to viruses. I am not even going to attempt to paraphrase the science and mathematics he was explaining. However, it did really bring home to me just how difficult it will be to determine a vaccine that might be effective against this virus.

I believe that we will be needing to adapt the way we live for a long time before any medical solution to the pandemic appears.

 

Just change your nationality to American, they're going back to normal in a few weeks. Trump says it only affects the poor and those that don't have medical insurance (made the last bit up but wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if he actually did say it).

 

Ha the wonderful words of a genius of our time. I wish a journo had said to Trump "Is the virus as cunning as a fox whose just been appointed Professor of cunning at Oxford University?" Then watch Trumps head explode.

 

American Politics is surely at its lowest ever ebb? Worse even than after Watergate. the president in open, twitter spats with multiple state governors, behaving like a child at press conferences. It really is disgraceful stuff.

 

If they are going to close their wet markets are they going to do the same over here for the farmers markets, and fish stalls in Bradford market?

 

no but we store the fish/meat and products out In the open and neither do a lot of them in China since most provinces banned it in the 90s

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/apr/16/what-is-a-wet-market-coronavirus

 

It's true that we might struggle for a vaccine for Covid19.

However, with Covid19 being more similar to SARS (indeed it's name is SARS-CoV-19) and MERS than the common cold, it's not impossible the virus dies off naturally.

The key to defeating SARS was simple confinement and good hygiene. Once it died down, it died full stop. It couldn't bounce back, it couldn't reinfect the populace, it couldn't gather momentum.

Again, it looks like there is a predictable arc to Covid19, but until we reach the 'other side', we won't know for sure. It hasn't taken very long for countries to reach a plateau in terms of new cases and deaths, which doesn't suggest it's got an extremely long life span like the common cold or influenza. If we're already not far from seeing those numbers decrease, I can't see this one being a perennial threat.

 

Interesting post, but I wouldn't be comparing it to the common cold in my opinion. There aren't many similarities beyond a specific portion of what we call the common cold (a total misnomer) being a coronavirus. Calling something the common cold is a smaller umbrella than using the wider term 'virus', but still a pretty far-reaching and non-specific term (it covers seven types of virus, all completely different just with similar symptoms).

I wouldn't discount the virus failing if or when numbers start to lower, as similar things have happened with previous and similar versions of coronavirus.

I'm not tempted to say 'agree to disagree', though, as I do accept a lot of what you write as absolute fact; but we seem to differ slightly on projected longevity and what we should be comparing the virus to, which, like you say, is all up in the air anyway.

 

Which is why at this minute testing is vital because the virus isn't going away and social distancing is impossible for 12-18 months unless we continues a world lockdown for that period which isn't going to happen.

Like it or not it would seem many will catch this virus and more than likely a second, thrird or even fourth lockdown will happen.

The more we test and the more testing equipment we have then the better chance of moving forward.

No vaccine might not ever be found for this.