Generic Virus Thread

[darrenm]

Really, really positive news. The current mutations are taken care of by T cells from vaccines* as long as you've have the 2nd dose.

Quote

The discovery that people who have recovered from Covid-19 and those who have received at least one dose of vaccine possess T cells capable of responding to the new variants is encouraging, because it suggests the T cells are recognising different regions of the spike protein to the antibodies. It could imply they will be more resilient to future variants. “It doesn’t promise you won’t get ill from the new variants, but it does suggest there’s something to work from and that your immune system can respond to them,” said James

The Guardian: Pfizer vaccine found to give strong immune response to new Covid variants.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/11/pfizer-vaccine-strong-response-new-covid-variants

* This article is about them testing response from the Pfizer vaccine but the T cell response should be universal across all

[Davkaus]

I've not been following the news much over the last few days, I'm just catching up.

10 year prison sentences introduced by the "it's ok to drive to Barnard Castle to test your eye sight party"?

Unironically, unapologetically, tories are scum.

Edited February 11, 2021 by Davkaus

[HanoiVillan]

Just now, Davkaus said:

I've not been following the news much over the last few days, I'm just catching up.

10 years in prison prison sentences introduced by the "it's ok to drive to Barnard Castle to test your eye sight party"?

Unironically, unapologetically, tories are scum.

The funny thing is that maximum 10 year prison sentence is for lying on the declaration about your prior whereabouts.

The maximum penalty for simply not filling the declaration in at all is a £500 fine.

[Davkaus]

1 minute ago, HanoiVillan said:

The funny thing is that maximum 10 year prison sentence is for lying on the declaration about your prior whereabouts.

The maximum penalty for simply not filling the declaration in at all is a £500 fine.

Well, at least the bastards aren't clever.

[HanoiVillan]

1 minute ago, Davkaus said:

Well, at least the bastards aren't clever.

Learned that factoid from a very interesting Twitter thread:

containing among other things a report from this lady for the Institute of Government (https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/hotel-quarantine.pdf)

Highlights loads of problems with the hotel quarantine plan, of which that loophole (which seems likely to be closed) is just one. Others include:

• How to prevent people from arbitraging the different quarantine regimes for the home nations (eg Scotland want to quarantine all foreign arrivals, but you could arrive in England and drive to Scotland), and indeed how to prevent people from arriving in Dublin and then travelling to England (apparently already happening with Emirati citizens, who are required to quarantine in the UK but not in Ireland);
• Why Test and Trace are the given as the email address to ask for questions with the scheme;
• Whether they will hire an appropriately trained and qualified workforce to manage the quarantine hotels (poorly trained workers have been a vector for transmission back into the community in 5 of 6 Australian states);
• How they're going to manage numbers when demand inevitably massively outstrips supply;
• How they're going to know where new variants are coming from at sufficient speed to add new countries to the mandatory quarantine list before the variant has already arrived in the UK

. . . and several others besides. As policies go, it looks like a disaster in waiting. The UK isn't really like Australia, and definitely not like New Zealand - we have 7x the number of international arrivals that Australia gets per year.

 

[StefanAVFC]

'Vaccine passports'

**** off, just another way to discriminate against the young and healthy who've been locked down to protect the people who will be allowed to swan off to wherever they want.

[Genie]

12 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

The maximum penalty for simply not filling the declaration in at all is a £500 fine.

If they introduce the proposed £500 payment to self isolate its cost neutral.

[sidcow]

37 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

'Vaccine passports'

**** off, just another way to discriminate against the young and healthy who've been locked down to protect the people who will be allowed to swan off to wherever they want.

In what way does that discriminate against young people? 

[Mozzavfc]

1 minute ago, sidcow said:

In what way does that discriminate against young people? 

Because young people won't get the vaccine for a long time. So we could see a summer where the over 60s can go on holiday, but the under 30s cannot

[sidcow]

4 minutes ago, Mozzavfc said:

Because young people won't get the vaccine for a long time. So we could see a summer where the over 60s can go on holiday, but the under 30s cannot

Every adult is scheduled to be jabbed by end of May but in reality probably April. 

And sorry if prioritising those who are at genuine risk of death has ruined your holiday plans. 

[HanoiVillan]

15 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Every adult is scheduled to be jabbed by end of May but in reality probably April. 

And sorry if prioritising those who are at genuine risk of death has ruined your holiday plans. 

Your first sentence is not correct. Young adults are not expected to have received the jab - certainly not the second dose - until the autumn.

And the second sentence frankly is why 'vaccine passports' are largely unnecessary. Since most groups are not at 'genuine risk of death' in large number, once those groups are vaccinated, we should move towards removing travel restrictions to as large an extent as possible.

As a broader point, I am not in favour of linking 'borders' and 'health' in this way, and I think the politics that is likely to come out of viewing foreigners and travellers suspiciously as vectors of disease is not going to be pretty or edifying, and I don't think it will be easily undone either.

Edited February 12, 2021 by HanoiVillan

[StefanAVFC]

19 minutes ago, sidcow said:

And sorry if prioritising those who are at genuine risk of death has ruined your holiday plans. 

Incredibly stupid comment. Being locked down for 18 months due to a virus that likely won't kill you has done/will do immense harm to people's mental health.

5 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Your first sentence is not correct. Young adults are not expected to have received the jab - certainly not the second dose - until the autumn.

And the second sentence frankly is why 'vaccine passports' are largely unnecessary. Since most groups are not at 'genuine risk of death' in large number, once those groups are vaccinated, we should move towards removing travel restrictions to as large an extent as possible.

As a broader point, I am not in favour of linking 'borders' and 'health' in this way, and I think the politics that is likely to come out of viewing foreigners and travellers suspiciously as vectors of disease is not going to be pretty or edifying, and I don't think it will be easily undone either.

Bang on. Young people have been shit on and will continue to be shit on for this entire pandemic.

[Genie]

1 minute ago, StefanAVFC said:

Bang on. Young people have been shit on and will continue to be shit on for this entire pandemic.

I’m interested about how young people were shit on?

[StefanAVFC]

1 minute ago, Genie said:

I’m interested about how young people were shit on?

The situation with students is a pretty big one. Schools. Less likely to be furloughed. 

[Genie]

Just now, StefanAVFC said:

The situation with students is a pretty big one. Schools. Less likely to be furloughed. 

From the start the handling of schools and university has been shambolic. Even early days when they completely **** up the grades. Like most of the things the government have completely botched, everybody saw it coming a mile off. The still did it, then eventually moved towards the expert advice they ignored at the beginning.

I don’t know about furlough though. From what I’ve seen in my work there’s been no preference to furlough older people. If there is then it’s probably sensible given they are more likely to need hospital treatment or die if they picked up the virus.

 

 

[Xela]

1 hour ago, StefanAVFC said:

'Vaccine passports'

**** off, just another way to discriminate against the young and healthy who've been locked down to protect the people who will be allowed to swan off to wherever they want.

I think most countries will introduce them in the not too distant future. 

[StefanAVFC]

1 minute ago, Genie said:

From the start the handling of schools and university has been shambolic. Even early days when they completely **** up the grades. Like most of the things the government have completely botched, everybody saw it coming a mile off. The still did it, then eventually moved towards the expert advice they ignored at the beginning.

I don’t know about furlough though. From what I’ve seen in my work there’s been no preference to furlough older people. If there is then it’s probably sensible given they are more likely to need hospital treatment or die if they picked up the virus.

 

 

Exactly and that shambolic handling has disproportionate affected young people. 

Quality of education has declined, both in schools and in (very expensive) universities. They've been robbed of their best years, and then very publicly had their wrists slapped and fined if they dared step out of line.

This idea of a vaccine passport would just be another slap on the face for millions for have obediently put their lives on hold to protect other people, for months. If they see that those people who they've locked down for will be allowed out galivanting before them, how much of a kick in the teeth would that be? 

[StefanAVFC]

2 minutes ago, Xela said:

I think most countries will introduce them in the not too distant future. 

I think that would be the end of compliance of lockdown to be honest. 

[OutByEaster?]

11 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Exactly and that shambolic handling has disproportionate affected young people. 

Although, the y'know, not dying thing helps to even that up a bit so...swings and roundabouts eh?

I think it's fair to say it's been shit for everyone.

 

[bannedfromHandV]

28 minutes ago, Genie said:

I’m interested about how young people were shit on?

Because you’re only 18 once, you’re only 21 once, you only have your first year at Uni once, a lot of people have missed out on some pretty major events. 
 

With all due respect it’s easy to lock yourself indoors when your 40+ years old, but putting myself in the shoes of my 18 year old self - I don’t know how I would have managed myself during this past year. 
 

We’ve hit pause on life but time has continued, and it’s time people will never get back.