Main Coronavirus / Covid-19 Discussion Thread

[Frutos]

770 Students test positive at Northumberland University.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...ersity-as-770-students-test-positive-12088042

My partner is a lecturer there (Northumbria btw, not Northumberland).

Thankfully he's working and teaching exclusively from home for health reasons until at least Christmas, but the attitude of the university toward staff and student wellbeing has been appalling - a total and utter failure of leadership on the part of those at the top.

 

[Mellotron]

All true.
However it would be nice to know where the efficacy bar has been set. For flu vac efficacy is around 50% ("21 CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the current influenza vaccine has been 45% effective overall against 2019-2020 seasonal influenza A and B viruses. Specifically, the flu vaccine has been 50% effective against influenza B/Victoria viruses and 37% effective against influenza A(H1N1)pdm09")

However, the FDA and WHO set the effectiveness bar at only 30%

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31821-3/fulltext

"WHO recommends that successful vaccines should show an estimated risk reduction of at least one-half, with sufficient precision to conclude that the true vaccine efficacy is greater than 30%. This means that the 95% CI for the trial result should exclude efficacy less than 30%. Current US Food and Drug Administration guidance includes this lower limit of 30% as a criterion for vaccine licensure"

Call me innumerate but this suggests that the Covid Vac that get approved first (and will corner the market) could end up being not all that super.

My understanding is they will accept 50% efficacy and above. However, that doesn’t mean one of these front runners won’t be rather more....efficacious (that’s the best word I’ve ever successfully used).

Also, even a 50% effective vaccine would make a humongous difference to the spread, when you add on existing immunity and (even if it’s low percentage) people who have existing T-Cells etc.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

My understanding is they will accept 50% efficacy and above. However, that doesn’t mean one of these front runners won’t be rather more....efficacious (that’s the best word I’ve ever successfully used).

Also, even a 50% effective vaccine would make a humongous difference to the spread, when you add on existing immunity and (even if it’s low percentage) people who have existing T-Cells etc.

Fair enough.

Fingers crossed

 

[Mellotron]

Fair enough.

Fingers crossed

If however your underlying point is that this is all gonna take a longer than a lot of people hope to get back to “full normal” I’d probably agree, reluctantly.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

If however your underlying point is that this is all gonna take a longer than a lot of people hope to get back to “full normal” I’d probably agree, reluctantly.

It was.

 

[A1X]

It strikes me that the two major issues which have driven up the cases and the shortages of testing etc. have been the return of kids to school and the return of students to university. Both completely planned events with set dates that any credible setup could have seen coming months before they did and planned accordingly. It's frankly outrageous that these things have caused so much trouble.

 

[Driver8]

It strikes me that the two major issues which have driven up the cases and the shortages of testing etc. have been the return of kids to school and the return of students to university. Both completely planned events with set dates that any credible setup could have seen coming months before they did and planned accordingly. It's frankly outrageous that these things have caused so much trouble.

And pubs.

 

[Deportivo Seagull]

It strikes me that the two major issues which have driven up the cases and the shortages of testing etc. have been the return of kids to school and the return of students to university. Both completely planned events with set dates that any credible setup could have seen coming months before they did and planned accordingly. It's frankly outrageous that these things have caused so much trouble.

But it’s a great way to kick off herd immunity ..... it’s al,OST if it was planned to happen.

Daughter in isolation as a couple have tested positive in her flat. Son has only been back a week so cases won’t go mad for another week.
Through work I know someone who works at a uni and is involved with accommodation etc and apparently the guidance from government is ‘****ing useless’. They have basically hung the uni’s and students out to dry.


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[beorhthelm]

But it’s a great way to kick off herd immunity ..... it’s al,OST if it was planned to happen.

Daughter in isolation as a couple have tested positive in her flat. Son has only been back a week so cases won’t go mad for another week.
Through work I know someone who works at a uni and is involved with accommodation etc and apparently the guidance from government is ‘****ing useless’. They have basically hung the uni’s and students out to dry.


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why does a university, with all the mental ability at their disposal, need guidance? one thing seen in this event is many organisations supposedly having contingency plans, have nothing and rely on government departments to tell them everything.

 

[Deportivo Seagull]

why does a university, with all the mental ability at their disposal, need guidance? one thing seen in this event is many organisations supposedly having contingency plans, have nothing and rely on government departments to tell them everything.

Because any process they put in place will be at the guidance of government. There is no point it putting in processes if they are going to be overridden at a later date. This is exactly the time for government to step up to the mark. They’ve bottled it and shifted both students and unis. Not difficult.


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[Tom Hark Preston Park]

'How universities tricked students into returning to campus - Students were promised face-to-face teaching, but as soon as their fees and rents were secured, institutions turned their backs on them'

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/02/universities-students-campus-teaching-fees

 

[Chicken Run]

'How universities tricked students into returning to campus - Students were promised face-to-face teaching, but as soon as their fees and rents were secured, institutions turned their backs on them'

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/02/universities-students-campus-teaching-fees

Tbf Tom my son is one of the above, he started a four year business management degree last week, he’s fairly pragmatic about it, his words, a few months out of four years is no great shakes and in four years the world will be a better place for him to re enter the job market.


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[Argartu]

12,872 cases today and a notice at the top of the COVID dashboard stating "Due to a technical issue, which has now been resolved, there has been a delay in publishing a number of COVID-19 cases to the dashboard in England. This means the total reported over the coming days will include some additional cases from the period between 24 September and 1 October, increasing the number of cases reported."

Sake. I had a feeling they'd be fluffing the numbers after we started levelling off over the past week.

 

[darkwolf666]

12,872 cases today and a notice at the top of the COVID dashboard stating "Due to a technical issue, which has now been resolved, there has been a delay in publishing a number of COVID-19 cases to the dashboard in England. This means the total reported over the coming days will include some additional cases from the period between 24 September and 1 October, increasing the number of cases reported."

Sake. I had a feeling they'd be fluffing the numbers after we started levelling off over the past week.

Piss ups and breweries springs to mind.

The data collection has been a disaster from the very start and clearly isn’t getting any better!

 

[atomised]

Small things for most but a circus due in Preston park this week have just been told they can't go ahead leaving 70 unemployed. A covid secure event with all the measures in place and all of a sudden I'm losing hope

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Cineworld shutting - 6000 more jobs gone

 

[atomised]

Cineworld shutting - 6000 more jobs gone

Terrible news. The model of showing old films whilst waiting for new releases to trickle through obviously not sustainable

 

[LamieRobertson]

Terrible news. The model of showing old films whilst waiting for new releases to trickle through obviously not sustainable

I imagine Bond being delayed yet again was the final nail in the coffin

 

[RossyG]

I imagine Bond being delayed yet again was the final nail in the coffin

They think it was although I wonder if consumer confidence has largely gone. Tenet is currently the only game in town and even taking socially distanced seating into account isn’t playing to anything like full houses. Would Bond have done any better, I wonder?

I can see Odeon going the same way, too. It really wouldn’t surprise me if the Duke of York was the only cinema in Brighton by next Spring, although there’s a chance a company like Amazon will swoop in and snap up the Odeon or Cineworld or maybe even both.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Cineworld shutting - 6000 more jobs gone

Sad to hear that. I hadn't realised until I saw it on the BBC today that Cineworld are the parent company of Picturehouse, whose cinemas include the Duke Of York's and Duke's @ Komedia. Not good news