Off Topic Coronavirus

I've always believed that alcohol kills germs!

 

Finally Johnson comes out of hiding to give a Coronavirus press conference. Lots of stuff about hand washing and measures the government might take to limit the spread of the virus, but, unless I've missed it, there's still no governmental advice as to how to decide if you have the virus or what to do if you think you do have it. I had a text from my GP telling me that if I have a cough, fever or shortness of breath and have been to one of the infection hot-spots, I should stay away from the practice. Nothing to say what I should do instead.

 

My text said dial 111 for advice. That came through a couple of weeks ago. Apparently I might also qualify for a flu jab and the pneumonia vaccine which I shall look into tomorrow. Not as a response to the virus especially, but as a kind of virtual reality welcome to old age package.

My company has a travel ban in place which is likely to continue until at least May. However serious, or not, this thing is having a massive economic ripple effect.

 

Yanks eh? As moronic as ever

 

Derby firm develops test which it claims can ‘detect coronavirus in 10 minutes’
Surescreen Diagnostics comes up with blood test which it says can give quick diagnosis

• Share
• Comments

By
Robin JohnsonDerby Business Editor

• 03:00, 3 MAR 2020

Enterprise

please log in to view this image

Surescreen Diagnostics has developed a test which its claims can detect coronavirus within 10 minutes (Image: SureScreen Diagnostics)
We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see ourPrivacy Noticefor details of your data protection rights
A Derby firm claims it has developed a test that can detect coronavirus within 10 minutes.

Surescreen Diagnostics, which is based at Prime Enterprise Park, said its new test checks a patient’s blood in a simple procedure.

The firm said it has been working to produce a test that can provide a quick diagnosis, which can help save time and prevent the further spread of the disease.

Director David Campbell said: “We’ve been working hard to produce a coronavirus test (COVID19) that can be used at the patient side, with capillary blood, easily taken from someone’s fingertip and diagnose them within 10 minutes.

“There is a big problem with diagnosis of the disease currently, because the standard method of screening is to send blood samples to the laboratory, which takes a lot of time. Meanwhile, someone could be spreading the virus without knowing.

please log in to view this image

The firm has developed the test from an existing product used to detect influenza (Image: SureScreen Diagnostics)
“There is also a big bottleneck at the lab given the amount of screening that is going on to try to halt the spread of the disease.
“We have also heard there have been some problems with the screening methods at some hospitals which have not helped matters.

Read More

• Cannes property festival MIPIM is postponed amid coronavirus outbreak

“The other factor is the cost. Whereas the lab screen is expensive, our test will cost just a few pounds.”

Mr Campbell said that the new test has been developed from a product already made by the company to test for flu.

 

Maybe the 111 advice was cut off my GP's text, it did end 'Northern Italy, Thai...'. My son has a sore throat and a cough at the moment, so I've encouraged him to phone 111. Partly out of concern for him of course, but probably more because I'm curious as to what they will tell him.

Interesting that today's presser confirmed the 500,000 deaths worst-case scenario. Not in so many words of course, but 80% infected and 1% mortality adds up to that number.

 

All those Leave voters. Oh, the Humanity!

I thought you were better than that stroller
imagine believing something off of summit news
you old alt right troll you

 

please log in to view this image

 

Travel ban?
Over reaction surely?
It's only the same as ordinary flu after all eh?

 

I think it is an overreaction myself. Still, a few more flights not taken can’t be bad for the planet, can it?

 

World health organisation now saying that 3% of people who get the virus are dying. Much higher than previously thought and much higher than seasonal flu.
Seems the early dismissal of the seriousness of this outbreak may have been misplaced.

 

WHO now stating covid19 has a mortality rate of 3.4% of those who contract it. Seasonal flu is under 1%

 

Welcome to Britain 2020

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1583239028

 

The current reported infection figures for Germany are now over 200. NRW is the most affected with 104 known cases of which 84 are from Heinsberg (a small municipality near Mönchengladbach. There are isolated cases in neighbouring towns of ours. The Robert Koch Institute have worked out that the average Covid 19 sufferer transmits the illness to 1.3-2.2 other people, meaning around about the same infection rate as flu. The big killer is panic at the moment - the fact is that if you have a sore throat and a cough you are far more likely to have either a normal flu or a common cold, than the Coronavirus. But the panic is driving people into doctors waiting rooms where they are more likely to pick up everything which is going around. If there are 200 known cases here then you can bet there are many more unrecorded cases - a grey zone which could be as much as 5 times the reported figure. The problem with measuring mortality rates etc. is that different countries are recording in different ways. Germany has widened the net and is testing all patients coming in suffering from other ailments - all diabetics are being tested. China is only recording the more serious cases now, which explains why their death rate is higher. Here there are just over 200 cases, 19 who have recovered completely and no deaths so far. If the grey zone of unrecorded cases is taken into account the the Robert Koch institute have estimated the mortality rate to be between 0.3 % and 0.7%. Maybe this can be taken as a warning for the future - is it sensible for us to be dependent on medicines which come from China ? Or for us to have such an inbalanced reliance on Chinese markets and supply chains ?

 

There are massive geographical variations in that rate, it’s being driven by Hubei province in China and Iran, and for some reason Italy. Everywhere else the mortality rate is much less than 1%. South Korea has the second highest number of cases, over 5000, but with only 33 deaths, less than 1%. Its 0% in the UK. That won’t stay the same, but the bald statement that 3% is the current mortality rate is not a prediction. It’s likely to be much less as the number of people who have contracted the virus and have not been included in the figures because they think they just have a cold may be exponentially bigger than the official numbers.

The ‘early dismissal of the seriousness’ was by people who don’t count, like me. The media has been bigging this up hugely because they get more clicks through spreading fear, and the experts, as you yourself have pointed out have offered contradictory opinions throughout, but they enjoy the attention as well.

This is a full blown crisis Col, no doubt about that, it’s very serious. But not because it’s unusual or an especially dangerous epidemic -4,400 people died of TB yesterday, but they were mainly poor people in poor countries - but because the reaction to it increases stress, panic and unrest. Reading a headline stat without looking at what lies behind it contributes to this. The Chief Medical Officer of the NHS has just said on the radio that the absolute maximum fatality rate is expected to be 1% here, and it’s very unlikely to reach that. Who do you believe?

 

Popped into the local supermarket on the way home to pick up some beer
Noticed there was no bread or toilet paper
The panic buyers have been in as apparently toilet paper is one of the first thing the stockpilers collect

 

Fear getting the ****s!!!

 

This tells us more about the different countries health systems than it does about the virus Stan. The USA is also building up an unhealthy death rate in proportion to cases - but then surrendering yourself to medical care there can cost you an arm and a leg and so many people only seek medical care when they are already dying on their feet. Spain has just recorded it's first death - and then, as a footnote, added that he was only tested positive after his death ! Which suggests he either died from something else or somebody wasn't doing their job properly.

 

Poverty will be the biggest factor in mortality, as always. When this gets into the refugee camps it could be horrible. Some countries - Cambodia, India, Russia - are obviously under reporting what is going on within their borders.

But your point about the US is more appropriate for the politics thread.

 

I take your point on the last sentence Stan, but I'm not sure where the dividing line is - this appears to overlap with politics quite considerably. What is being placed under the microscope here are the differing responses of different health systems, and differing methods of reporting - which surely has something to do with the political structures of those countries. It also demonstrates the differing chains and links in supply and trade between countries (patterns of globalization) eg. why do Germany and Italy have so many more cases than India, which borders China but has very few trade connections with the place ? If German firms have been relocating whole departments to China (so many medical products), because it's cheaper to do it that way, and German car firms have been so desparate to sell their products on the Chinese market and have thus opened us more to the threat of possible epidemics from there, then it is very definitely a political theme. If a by product of capitalist globalization is also the globalization of epidemics then it has become political with a capital P.