Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Shadow Play]

8 minutes ago, TheJTS98 said:

On occasion the Chinese government were sealing people's homes to stop them leaving.

In the UK there was genuine complaining along the lines of 'What's the harm in me playing golf?', 'I need to go walking outside for my mental health', and 'Why shouldn't I go to the shops with my wife?'.

These are issues with varying degrees of validity. Of course it's better for the mind if people can get outside. But there's no sense in looking at Wuhan and wishing for what they've got unless you would genuinely be willing to put up with what they had to to get there.

The UK government simply could not do what was done in China. No Western government could. Neither could most Asian ones. So there's no point in comparing. Unless you'd like to live under an authoritarian regime.

Exactly this.  People complaining that XYZ are doing better but ignoring how XYZ got to where they are now*

*This of course is not limited to Covid-19.  It applies to most areas of life.

Edited January 24, 2021 by Shadow Play

[Thereisalight..]

1 hour ago, Aufc said:

Wonder if this shambles from the SG will have any impact on the election this year

As I’ve said before, NS could personally kill people’s grannies by hugging them and the SNP still win by a landslide, that’s how little opposition there is 

[Thereisalight..]

55 minutes ago, Shadow Play said:

That’s not the same location both photographs were taken 

On a more serious note I’d imagine the authorities in Wuhan were ruthless in enforcing Covid restrictions.  I don’t think the authorities there would be like they are in this country where it’s simply accepted someone not wearing a mask just because they say they are exempt / unable to wear a mask or flash a card printed off the internet saying they are exempt.  

 

I’m not saying folk should have been welded inside their houses, but certainly shutting the borders once the UK governments knew how this was spreading through Europe. I say it a lot but allowing anybody into the country untested or not having to quarantine, whilst we weren’t allowed to travel 5 miles is fcking madness

[superbigal]

Unsure why our governments are not publicising AZ delays as they have no problem getting official word out in Europe.  Note AZ has not even yet been approved by the EU yet they get more official news.

Belgium will receive only 650,000 doses of the new AstraZeneca vaccine in the first quarter of the year, instead of the 1.5 million doses contracted for, federal health minister Frank Vandenbroucke has confirmed.

“This is very bad news,” Vandenbroucke said, speaking on the RTBF.

AstraZeneca had previously warned that its deliveries would be less than expected, but the extent of the shortage has only now become clear.

“There are a lot of uncertainties and people need to understand that the vaccination task force will have to constantly review its strategy,” Vandenbroucke said. “But Pfizer and AstraZeneca are making this task extremely difficult,” he said on RTBF news.

 

Vandenbroucke lamented the dominant position of the pharmaceuticals companies in this crucial matter.

“On the market, they have a monopoly and we are totally dependent,” he said.

Edited January 24, 2021 by superbigal

[superbigal]

Good news regarding a new style of treatment from Canada.  A Pill that helps is a huge advancement.

 

An anti-inflammatory drug used normally on gout patients has proved effective in treating complications linked to the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), the Institut de cardiologie de Montréal (ICM – Montreal Institute of Cardiology) announced on Saturday on its website.

A study launched in March 2020 has provided clinically convincing results of the effectiveness of Colchicine in treating COVID-19, ICM said. This would make it the first oral medication in the world capable of treating Coronavirus patients in the pre-hospital phase.

 

The Colcorona study, conducted on 4,488 patients, shows that Colchicine reduces the risk of death or hospitalisation among COVID-19 patients by 21% compared to a placebo. “Among patients with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis, Colchicine reduced hospital admissions by 25%, the need for mechanical ventilation by 50% and deaths by 44%,” the ICM reported on its website.

It added that treating high-risk patients with the anti-inflammatory drug as soon as they test positive for COVID-19 helps to “reduce their risk of developing a severe form of the illness and thus reduce the number of hospitalisations.”

Prescribing Colchicine for patients could, moreover, “help attenuate the problem of bottlenecks at hospitals and reduce costs linked to governmental health systems both here and abroad,” it added.

“We are happy to offer the first oral medication in the world whose use could have an important incidence on public health and potentially prevent COVID-19 complications in millions of patients,” said Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, director of ICM’s Research Centre.

Edited January 24, 2021 by superbigal

[Ekhibee88]

15 hours ago, WATTOO said:

This happens in quite a few workplaces, in fact colleagues in my previous workplace used to be given a formal reprimand and then a warning for the next "late" offence, this quickly changed when I informed the senior management that I'd advised anyone who was likely to be even a few minutes late to just phone in and claim the full day sick as that way they'd avoid a warning and also be paid their full wage while being off.

As usual it was the power mad and half witted jumped up line managers who had dreamed up this "anyone late gets a warning" nonsense, but of course they had no authority and had never thought through the likely consequences of their idiotic scheme.

The result was that said Managers got their arses kicked, all minor timekeeping warnings were scrubbed and I got to act all smug.

I used to arrive a few minutes before my shift but clocked in early a few times, managers would always pass comment on that. Least im here.

[vikingTON]

28 minutes ago, superbigal said:

Good news regarding a new style of treatment from Canada.  A Pill that helps is a huge advancement.

 

An anti-inflammatory drug used normally on gout patients has proved effective in treating complications linked to the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), the Institut de cardiologie de Montréal (ICM – Montreal Institute of Cardiology) announced on Saturday on its website.

A study launched in March 2020 has provided clinically convincing results of the effectiveness of Colchicine in treating COVID-19, ICM said. This would make it the first oral medication in the world capable of treating Coronavirus patients in the pre-hospital phase.

 

The Colcorona study, conducted on 4,488 patients, shows that Colchicine reduces the risk of death or hospitalisation among COVID-19 patients by 21% compared to a placebo. “Among patients with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis, Colchicine reduced hospital admissions by 25%, the need for mechanical ventilation by 50% and deaths by 44%,” the ICM reported on its website.

It added that treating high-risk patients with the anti-inflammatory drug as soon as they test positive for COVID-19 helps to “reduce their risk of developing a severe form of the illness and thus reduce the number of hospitalisations.”

Why we have not been shoving the already approved anti-inflammatories at vulnerable groups as soon test positive has been mind-boggling throughout this second wave. A minority may develop other problems as a result but this is entirely acceptable compared to just waiting gormlessly until a chunk of them inevitably roll into hospitals across the country.

MHRA better get its finger out approving this one as well.

Edited January 24, 2021 by vikingTON

[maicoman]

This came up on my wife's Facebook page this morning.  It is a newsagents in Stranraer which displays on it's window the funeral intimations for the town and surrounding area.  In normal times, it just has maybe 3 or 4 at a time.... but I've managed to count 36!!! Crazy times! 

[Juanhourjoe]

https://t.co/htSVFHD6CD?amp=1

[101]

3 minutes ago, maicoman said:

This came up on my wife's Facebook page this morning.  It is a newsagents in Stranraer which displays on it's window the funeral intimations for the town and surrounding area.  In normal times, it just has maybe 3 or 4 at a time.... but I've managed to count 36!!! Crazy times! 

That's properly sad. Can't help but think that moving patients from the North West of England to Dumfries was the greatest idea in the world.

Edited January 24, 2021 by 101

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

5 minutes ago, virginton said:

Why we have not been shoving the already approved anti-inflammatories at vulnerable groups as soon test positive has been mind-boggling throughout this second wave. A minority may develop other problems as a result but this entirely acceptable compared to just waiting gormlessly until a chunk of them inevitably roll into hospitals across the country.

MHRA better get its finger out approving this one as well.

Surely that should be an easy one to approve given its already been approved for treating gout? If its as effective as that as a pre hospital treatment then its use along with vaccination could be incredibly effective. 

[tamthebam]

10 hours ago, Bairnardo said:

This a whoosh Tam?

No. People are commenting on problems in delivering the vaccine and I was asking what the logistics behind the delivery are out of curiousity.

It seemed pertinent to comment that Scotland's road infrastructure and topography is different from England, Wales and Northern Ireland as people were comparing the vaccine distribution efforts there to Scotland.

FWIW if Amazon, Tesco, Sainsbury's or whoever can get books or ham sandwiches to Thurso and Stornoway timeously perhaps they should be involved in vaccine distribution.

[Aubrey Maturin]

3 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

Surely that should be an easy one to approve given its already been approved for treating gout? If its as effective as that as a pre hospital treatment then its use along with vaccination could be incredibly effective. 

Its cheap too with 100 tablets coming in at around six quid.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

1 minute ago, Tynierose said:

Its cheap too with 100 tablets coming in at around six quid.

Uft get it bought! But seriously, cutting mortality by over 40%, cutting icu admission by 50%, thats absolutely incredible and hopefully a way of protecting people with autoimmune conditions who can’t be vaccinated etc. 

[s_dog]

13 hours ago, welshbairn said:

I'll be judging them by how many vaccines they have in storage when the next deliveries arrive, and how quickly the mass vaccination centres get going when we have sufficient supplies to keep them busy. Also on getting the slower job of getting care homes, the over eighties and housebound out of the way before supplies ramp up. Targets don't matter, if they meet them with vaccine supplies to spare they've fucked up.

How do you get reliable information on exactly what supplies they have though? Opposition of the Gov are so entrenched in the fight to criticise instead of asking about legitimate concerns, it's difficult to keep track of what is fact and what is bluster from opposition MP's and journalists. 

There was all that nonsense at the start of last week from Ruth Davidson going on about 400,000 doses sitting in warehouses. 

From what I can see, before Westminster told them not to release figures on vaccine supplies, as of 13 January, Scotland had been allocated 562,000 vaccine doses, with 365,000 delivered to vaccination centres, and a further 197,000 doses either in transit or in storage in England (either awaiting checks or waiting to be delivered). 

As of yesterday, 380,000 doses have now been administered. You'd assume those further 197,000 doses have also been delivered in the meantime. So that only leaves 180,000 not yet administered from what they had available. 

They were expected to get another 320,000 doses last week, but I think it's safe to assume that they will be have been in the process of getting checked and then sent to vaccination holding centres in Scotland and then sent onto health centres, and that is obviously not an instant process and will take a few days.

In addition to that, due to the freezer requirements of the Pfizer vaccine, it's most likely been used for vaccinating within hospitals and the NHS Louisa Jordan (though possibly in care homes too?). Anyone who works in a GP practice correct me if I'm wrong, but the vast majority of doses used within health centres are likely to be the Oxford/AZ vaccine. Up until the 18th they only had 80,000, it's only last week that a further 200,000 were due to be delivered. These 200,000 will probably be used to vaccinate the majority of the over-80's. 

Along with Wales we are a bit behind both England & Northern Ireland in our figures, but we should just look at why Northern Ireland are a bit ahead and seeing if we can replicate it. Or if they are doing the same as in England, not worry about it UNLESS we fail to increase our weekly numbers to the levels that are required to meet the various targets from end of Feb onwards.

 

 

[MP_MFC]

They'll be waiting for a newer more expensive drug that some Tory has a stake in before approving new treatments.

[Sergeant Wilson]

 Institut de cardiologie de Montréal (ICM – Montreal Institute of Cardiology) 

Thank the Lord they translated that, I was struggling a bit.

Edited January 24, 2021 by Sergeant Wilson

[101]

5 minutes ago, tamthebam said:

FWIW if Amazon, Tesco, Sainsbury's or whoever can get books or ham sandwiches to Thurso and Stornoway timeously perhaps they should be involved in vaccine distribution.

The thing is they can't. I had a look and same day delivery isn't available even in all of mainland Scotland for supermarkets. Of course this is probably down to cost effectiveness rather that purely logistical reasons, especially as some of the doses are being made in Stirling. But the Government have to build (and hopefully already have built) the biggest most resilient supply chain transporting, in the case of the Pfizer Vax, the most sensitive products imaginable. I would imagine that the vaccine would be flown to most of the islands rather than ferried across due to the time it takes.

[Bert Raccoon]

16 minutes ago, maicoman said:

This came up on my wife's Facebook page this morning.  It is a newsagents in Stranraer which displays on it's window the funeral intimations for the town and surrounding area.  In normal times, it just has maybe 3 or 4 at a time.... but I've managed to count 36!!! Crazy times! 

Waste of time when due to current restrictions you can't just turn up in your best funeral suit and get some free steak pie 

[welshbairn]

7 minutes ago, s_dog said:

In addition to that, due to the freezer requirements of the Pfizer vaccine, it's most likely been used for vaccinating within hospitals and the NHS Louisa Jordan (though possibly in care homes too?). Anyone who works in a GP practice correct me if I'm wrong, but the vast majority of doses used within health centres are likely to be the Oxford/AZ vaccine. Up until the 18th they only had 80,000, it's only last week that a further 200,000 were due to be delivered. These 200,000 will probably be used to vaccinate the majority of the over-80's. 

Our GP practice is quite big and using the Pfizer one, that's probably replicated across the country, the smaller ones getting AZ.