CV and mad panic behaviour

[cookie2]

Traffic back to sh1te today! ?

[LP]

Traffic back to sh1te today! ?

We are all heading to Phillip Island for the Long Weekend, it's only 25km!

[Thryleon]

Traffic back to sh1te today! ?

its been that way for a couple of weeks now

[LP]

Interesting findings coming out of the UK and Melbourne research about the efficacy of BCG vaccine in providing greatly improved resistance to COVID.

If this turns out to be true it's very very good news, and we have a genuine way out of this horrible situation in the absence of a dedicated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Masks will probably persist, but restrictions and borders could be opened as the chance of exponential rates of infection would be greatly reduced.

I have to wonder if this "Side-effect" of the traditional TB vaccine is a reason for kids showing less infection and transmission?

Many of us who were until recently regularly travelling up into SE Asia have probably already had TB boosters.

[kruddler]

For anyone listening to Dan Andrews press conference. The first question asked of him......yes from THAT female reporter was something like...
"Surely masks are only important if you are wearing them properly, i see a lot of people wearing them incorrectly."

Umm.....is she in grade 3? Duh. How can you answer that question without rolling your eyes.

Dan Andrews handled it pretty well, but fronting up day after day to those types of questions is why Dan is accused of hating females if he lets slip every now and then.
He's a more patient person than i am.

[LP]

I was quite buoyed by today's vaccine announcements, but perhaps it is a bit premature, there seems to have been little or no new peer review of the Pfizer vaccine developments since it's announcement back on the 5th of Nov.

That absence of qualified commentary is very strange to say the least, and should be a warning sign that the announcement is more about publicity and politics than good science.

Let's hope the unusually quiet peer review front is just an anomaly and there is real progress. I suspect at this stage pending reports of some real progress or a false dawn are equally likely.

[tonyo]

There is some value for the drug companies to go the early crow, but if they do, and it ends up going pear-shaped, they may miss the vaccine bus all together as they try to re-prove their product.

There are supposedly 100+ formulations in the pipeline, and someone(s) is going to make a s***load of money out of this.

Of note, CSL have yesterday commenced full-scale production of the Oxford/AstraZeneca formulation, with the University of Queensland formula not far behind.  The idea is they will ramp up production and have product manufactured early in 2021, with the (expected) outcome that one or both of the vaccines is effective.  If a vaccine doesn't work, or isn't safe, it the product will be poured down the sink. A gamble, but one which will put us 3-6 months ahead of the usual process.

Assuming the Oxford or UofQ vaccine gets the thumbs up, we will be lucky enough to have doses ready by Feb-Mar.  Probably frontline workers first, followed by vulnerable populations.

[Gointocarlton]

There is some value for the drug companies to go the early crow, but if they do, and it ends up going pear-shaped, they may miss the vaccine bus all together as they try to re-prove their product.

There are supposedly 100+ formulations in the pipeline, and someone(s) is going to make a s***load of money out of this.

Of note, CSL have yesterday commenced full-scale production of the Oxford/AstraZeneca formulation, with the University of Queensland formula not far behind.  The idea is they will ramp up production and have product manufactured early in 2021, with the (expected) outcome that one or both of the vaccines is effective.  If a vaccine doesn't work, or isn't safe, it the product will be poured down the sink. A gamble, but one which will put us 3-6 months ahead of the usual process.

Assuming the Oxford or UofQ vaccine gets the thumbs up, we will be lucky enough to have doses ready by Feb-Mar.  Probably frontline workers first, followed by vulnerable populations.

A calculated risk that given the circumstances has to be taken IMO.

[LP]

Sars-CoV-2 is a seriously complex viral infection, it affects many organs with the main short term issue being the lungs. But liver, kidney, heart are all affected, and there are signs that eyes, brain and nervous system might also be targets of infection. It is not trivial to determine what is a direct effect and what is a side-effect, these things take time, years in fact.

It looks like there are many potential drugs to treat it, either as a prophylaxis or as a remedy, it appears almost none of them work broadly to claim Sars-CoV-2 won't infect or have some side-effect on some part of your body. The main successful push appears to be one of developing managements, in effect stop it doing the really bad stuff in the short term to give your own body the time to fight the infection.

So the best defence is still not get it in the first place, there are no miracle cures.

Social distancing is king, do not go where crowds are unless you have to, and when you do wearing masks should be compulsory, they do not stop you getting it and the people around you without masks should be considered your enemy stay further away. Which includes Donald Trump, because masks do greatly reduce you giving an infection to somebody else, treat people without masks as contagious, treat them like they are zombies, give and request a wide birth from them!

Things could continue like this for several years, claims we will return to normal sooner than later are likely to be very very premature!

[flyboy77]

Sars-CoV-2 is a seriously complex viral infection, it affects many organs with the main short term issue being the lungs. But liver, kidney, heart are all affected, and there are signs that eyes, brain and nervous system might also be targets of infection. It is not trivial to determine what is a direct effect and what is a side-effect, these things take time, years in fact.

It looks like there are many potential drugs to treat it, either as a prophylaxis or as a remedy, it appears almost none of them work broadly to claim Sars-CoV-2 won't infect or have some side-effect on some part of your body. The main successful push appears to be one of developing managements, in effect stop it doing the really bad stuff in the short term to give your own body the time to fight the infection.

So the best defence is still not get it in the first place, there are no miracle cures.

Social distancing is king, do not go where crowds are unless you have to, and when you do wearing masks should be compulsory, they do not stop you getting it and the people around you without masks should be considered your enemy stay further away. Which includes Donald Trump, because masks do greatly reduce you giving an infection to somebody else, treat people without masks as contagious, treat them like they are zombies, give and request a wide birth from them!

Things could continue like this for several years, claims we will return to normal sooner than later are likely to be very very premature!

Some quality propaganda there LP. Gotta keep up the fear right....

Off the bat, why is it called SARC COV-2? Because it shares so much in common with SARS COV-1 - it really is not 'novel' at all.

There is no science to support the proposition the SARS COV2 has any more long term harmful effects than any other significant respiratory illness that overwhelms your immune system (if you let it). Zero.

There is also overwhelming evidence that there are several very cheap and highly effective treatments (if given early - pre hospitalisation - who would have thought to treat an illness early!) readily available but largely shunned by the powers that be - and the money machines that are Big Pharma.

Masks? Again, zero evidence that there is one iota of benefit to an otherwise healthy person wearing a mask. Zero. And a lot of evidence that wearing said masks can be, and are, harmful.

And heck, aren't we compelled to social distance any way?

It is self evident now (even if not back in March) that COVID19 is a very mild illness in the scale of pandemics over recent millenia. Indeed, in the scale of all things that kill us.

It's mortality rate continues to fall, suggesting the current mutation(s) are relatively benign (which again is the norm for these viruses).

The so called second waves in Europe and the US - nothing but casedemics. and that's there's something of a rise as Europe/US moves into winter just shows the seasonality of the bug.

A good read here by a very well respected Brit - https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...-19-biases

That we have to 'test, test, test' to even be aware that there's an issue says it all really (note the absence of data on the false positive rate of the infamous Beijing PCR test here in Victoria nor the number of cycle thresholds, amplifications, they're running with any given test).