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[News] The Coronavirus Good News thread









Yoda

English & European
Dr John Campbell with another video with good news with data confirming the CFR & IFR decreasing all the time and a Study from Germany showing that this is not just fuelled by younger people getting infected.

 




blue-shifted

Banned
Feb 20, 2004
7,645
a galaxy far far away
Face masks could be giving people Covid-19 immunity, researchers suggest

Face masks may be inadvertently giving people Covid-19 immunity and making them get less sick from the virus, academics have suggested in one of the most respected medical journals in the world.

The commentary, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, advances the unproven but promising theory that universal face mask wearing might be helping to reduce the severity of the virus and ensuring that a greater proportion of new infections are asymptomatic.

If this hypothesis is borne out, the academics argue, then universal mask-wearing could become a form of variolation (inoculation) that would generate immunity and “thereby slow the spread of the virus in the United States and elsewhere” as the world awaits a vaccine.

It comes as increasing evidence suggests that the amount of virus someone is exposed to at the start of infection - the “infectious dose” - may determine the severity of their illness. Indeed, a large study published in the Lancet last month found that “viral load at diagnosis” was an “independent predictor of mortality” in hospital patients.

MORE >>> https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-...-giving-people-covid-19-immunity-researchers/

I've thought this is true for a while now ... but not just mask wearing .... distancing in general. Loads more people getting a mild form of the virus could turn out to be the best thing that could happen
 








A1X

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Sep 1, 2017
20,525
Deepest, darkest Sussex






Postman Pat

Well-known member
Jul 24, 2007
6,972
Coldean
A new antibody treatment is to be trialled on Covid-19 patients in UK hospitals.

Monoclonal antibodies, which are potent, laboratory-made antibodies, will be given to about 2,000 people to see if they are effective against coronavirus.

It forms part of the UK Recovery Trial, which found that a cheap steroid called dexamethasone could save lives.

The first patients will be given the new drugs in the coming weeks.

Prof Martin Landray from the University of Oxford, who is co-leading the Recovery Trial, said: “This is the first type of treatment that's targeted for this specific virus.

“There are lots of good reasons for thinking it might well be effective - stopping the virus from reproducing, stopping the virus from causing damage, improving survival for patients.

“We need to know, and the way to know is to do the trials that will tell us whether that hope turns into reality.”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54120753
 






Mellotron

I've asked for soup
Jul 2, 2008
32,468
Brighton
A new antibody treatment is to be trialled on Covid-19 patients in UK hospitals.

Monoclonal antibodies, which are potent, laboratory-made antibodies, will be given to about 2,000 people to see if they are effective against coronavirus.

It forms part of the UK Recovery Trial, which found that a cheap steroid called dexamethasone could save lives.

The first patients will be given the new drugs in the coming weeks.

Prof Martin Landray from the University of Oxford, who is co-leading the Recovery Trial, said: “This is the first type of treatment that's targeted for this specific virus.

“There are lots of good reasons for thinking it might well be effective - stopping the virus from reproducing, stopping the virus from causing damage, improving survival for patients.

“We need to know, and the way to know is to do the trials that will tell us whether that hope turns into reality.”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54120753

They’re hoping this will be THE one, treatment wise.

The first new treatment specifically designed with Coronavirus in mind. If it works as hoped it could see the fatality rate in infections drop massively.
 


Albion Dan

Banned
Jul 8, 2003
11,125
Peckham
Really good news piece in tonight’s Evening Standard showing Sweden’s r rate, deaths and infections are now lower than Denmark and Norway and economy now thriving. Sweden government confident they have reached herd immunity. All achieved without shutting schools, bars, restaurants, anything and still allowing groups of up to 50 to meet throughout with sensible policy of getting vulnerable people to shield. Also explains how incorrect that clown Neil Ferguson was with his prediction for what would happen there with their strategy.

Let’s all prey they continue on this trajectory and demonstrate a far far better way out of this for all of us.

I’m actually really surprised a major publication like the Standard actually gave this 2 pages.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/sweden-coronavirus-covid19-lockdown-a4546976.html
 
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Poojah

Well-known member
Nov 19, 2010
1,881
Leeds
The lowest number of new cases reported since last Tuesday today, with the positive test rate below 1.2% for the first time in nearly ten days (it's been hovering around the 2% mark recently). Only one day's worth of data, so nothing to get excited about but the 227k tests processed in a single day is also a big positive amidst all the criticism our testing capability has been getting.

I also wanted to take a moment for anyone seeing graphs like the one below in the media and getting anxious about the apparently emerging 'second wave':

_114375509_optimised-uk_daily_cases_with_ra_14sep-nc.png

First and foremost, and I know this has been covered a lot already, an equivalent number of positive tests in April does not represent the equivalent number of actual cases (be they diagnosed or otherwise) due to the massive increase in testing since those darkest of days. I've seen that said a lot, albeit somewhat quietly by the media, but not a great deal about the true context of where we are versus then. Because the nature of who is being tested has changed so much in that time too (only the very sick at the beginning of April, versus anyone mildly symptomatic now) you can't use that test / case data to extrapolate out to give you that context.

What we can do however is look at data from other sources, such as the estimated but widely respected data provided by the Covid Symptom Study (https://covid.joinzoe.com/). This uses data from people reporting symptoms across the UK to establish a rough picture of how many actual cases there actually are at a given time. This is unlikely to be 100% accurate, but it does give you some semblance of where we are versus the Spring.

In a nutshell, its current estimate is that there are around 51,000 people with symptomatic Covid in the UK as of today. At its peak on 1st April, one week after lockdown officially began, this figure was estimated to be around 2.1m. In other words, we are at approximately 2.4% of the level we were at back then. Or to put it another way again, things were 40x worse then than they are now.

That, hopefully, offers some perspective. Of course, it's reasonable to read this and think "that's all well and good, but surely that only means that we'll be back where we were in a matter of time". I can only offer conjecture on this, but in my opinion the answer is a resounding 'no'.

Things are very different to how they were in the run-up to that peak in April - until 23rd March had continued with relative normality up until that point for the majority of us. In spite of the economy reopening, things are still very different. Public transport usage is way down. Few people are working in busy offices. Social distancing is widely in place. People are wearing face coverings in indoor public places. And so on, and so on. The numbers were always going to rise as we gradually opened up the economy, but the measures that we have in place right now will prevent them from doing so without the ferocious velocity that we saw back then.

We were almost completely blind back in January, February and March. We were also ignorant - we did not understand the true extent of asymptomatic transmission. The testing process is still far from perfect but this time around we know when, where and how fast cases are rising. We can ease off our economic throttle and gently apply the brakes in a targeted and localised way. We will know when we have to apply the brakes more firmly and when we are able to accelerate without having to endure another painful national lockdown.

I get that this will require organised and effective actions by the government; a government widely hammered by press and public and whom (without wanting to turn political) I do not like. But all the time there are advances which will make the job easier and more effective. More tests. Simpler, quicker tests. Track and trace apps. Better treatments for the sick. You can argue many of these things are overdue, but that is not the point of my post - it's simply that we have much more understanding and control over the situation than we did in the early phase of 2020, and that we are continuing to add to our arsenal of tools with which to manage it all the time.

The fact that cases are rising in graphs like the one above is not good news, but the fact that we are seeing those rises and have the ability to act upon the data in a tactical and less economically harmful way absolutely is. This is still a long way from over, but don't let anyone (especially the media) fool you that we're back to or close to square one. We ain't.
 
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LamieRobertson

Not awoke
Feb 3, 2008
48,406
SHOREHAM BY SEA
The lowest number of new cases reported since last Tuesday today, with the positive test rate below 1.2% for the first time in nearly ten days (it's been hovering around the 2% mark recently). Only one day's worth of data, so nothing to get excited about but the 227k tests processed in a single day is also a big positive amidst all the criticism our testing capability has been getting.

I also wanted to take a moment for anyone seeing graphs like the one below in the media and getting anxious about the apparently emerging 'second wave':

View attachment 128362

First and foremost, and I know this has been covered a lot already, an equivalent number of positive tests in April does not represent the equivalent number of actual cases (be they diagnosed or otherwise) due to the massive increase in testing since those darkest of days. I've seen that said a lot, albeit somewhat quietly by the media, but not a great deal about the true context of where we are versus then. Because the nature of who is being tested has changed so much in that time too (only the very sick at the beginning of April, versus anyone mildly symptomatic now) you can't use that test / case data to extrapolate out to give you that context.

What we can do however is look at data from other sources, such as the estimated but widely respected data provided by the Covid Symptom Study (https://covid.joinzoe.com/). This uses data from people reporting symptoms across the UK to establish a rough picture of how many actual cases there actually are at a given time. This is unlikely to be 100% accurate, but it does give you some semblance of where we are versus the Spring.

In a nutshell, its current estimate is that there are around 51,000 people with symptomatic Covid in the UK as of today. At its peak on 1st April, one week after lockdown officially began, this figure was estimated to be around 2.1m. In other words, we are at approximately 2.4% of the level we were at back then. Or to put it another way again, things were 40x worse then than they are now.

That, hopefully, offers some perspective. Of course, it's reasonable to read this and think "that's all well and good, but surely that only means that we'll be back where we were in a matter of time". I can only offer conjecture on this, but in my opinion the answer is a resounding 'no'.

Things are very different to how they were in the run-up to that peak in April - until 23rd March had continued with relative normality up until that point for the majority of us. In spite of the economy reopening, things are still very different. Public transport usage is way down. Few people are working in busy offices. Social distancing is widely in place. People are wearing face coverings in indoor public places. And so on, and so on. The numbers were always going to rise as we gradually opened up the economy, but the measures that we have in place right now will prevent them from doing so without the ferocious velocity that we saw back then.

We were almost completely blind back in January, February and March. We were also ignorant - we did not understand the true extent of asymptomatic transmission. The testing process is still far from perfect but this time around we know when, where and how fast cases are rising. We can ease off our economic throttle and gently apply the brakes in a targeted and localised way. We will know when we have to apply the brakes more firmly and when we are able to accelerate without having to endure another painful national lockdown.

I get that this will require organised and effective actions by the government; a government widely hammered by press and public and whom (without wanting to turn political) I do not like. But all the time there are advances which will make the job easier and more effective. More tests. Simpler, quicker tests. Track and trace apps. Better treatments for the sick. You can argue many of these things are overdue, but that is not the point of my post - it's simply that we have much more understanding and control over the situation than we did in the early phase of 2020, and that we are continuing to add to our arsenal of tools with which to manage it all the time.

The fact that cases are rising in graphs like the one above is not good news, but the fact that we are seeing those rises and have the ability to act upon the data in a tactical and less economically harmful way absolutely is. This is still a long way from over, but don't let anyone (especially the media) fool you that we're back to or close to square one. We ain't.

Thanks for that...wondered why case numbers didnt make the headlines on the radio
 












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