Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

2 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

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

It varies by health board but GGC are using AZ at GP surgeries on the whole. 

[s_dog]

Just now, welshbairn said:

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

Do you know if they have the -70 freezers to store them, or are they getting so many supplies per week to store and use from a standard freezer? 

I was arguing with someone last week about this, some of the health centres with multiple GP practices will have them but there's no way every single GP practice will be able to use an industrial freezer. Which limits the amount of vaccine they can store.  

[Lex]

We’re doing care homes first, right?

[Sergeant Wilson]

4 minutes ago, Bert Raccoon said:

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 

Tech savvy mourners are putting funerals on line. I asked her what she was watching recently and it was a relative of a friend's funeral. If I'd known I'd have got her a sausage roll and a Blue Riband.

[bendan]

1 hour ago, TheJTS98 said:

 

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.

 

This is true - we can't do things in the way China does - but they weren't welding people in their homes. 

 

[welshbairn]

5 minutes ago, s_dog said:

Do you know if they have the -70 freezers to store them, or are they getting so many supplies per week to store and use from a standard freezer? 

I was arguing with someone last week about this, some of the health centres with multiple GP practices will have them but there's no way every single GP practice will be able to use an industrial freezer. Which limits the amount of vaccine they can store.  

I doubt it, they probably get a supply in the morning that they store in normal fridges and dole out the same day. Just guessing though. The practice has around 8 GPs and covers a fair sized portion of Inverness so the minimum batch sizes wouldn't be a problem, which is probably key to who gets what.

Edited January 24, 2021 by welshbairn

[Cyclizine]

15 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.

Because before we start firing  random drugs into critically unwell patients, we need to know if they're effective or not. Not all morbidity and mortality in Covid is caused by inflammation and not all "anti-inflammatories" work in the same way and some could potentially cause worse outcomes. There's no point in a drug reducing your risk of dying from Covid if it increases your risk of dying from something else.

For example, we used to give anti-arrhythmic drugs to everyone who had a heart attack, because we knew that many people who died later died because they had an arrhythmia. This was common practice, but we stopped when someone actually did a randomised trial and we found that you actually had a higher chance of dying if you were given the anti-arrhythmic than not. Just because there's plausible reasons why something might work, doesn't mean it will in practice. It's the same issue in Covid. Lot's of drugs have potential benefits, but they need to be actually studied properly.

There are massive trials going on at the moment, like the RECOVERY trial (https://www.recoverytrial.net/) which has recruited and randomised tens of thousands of patients (an amazing achievement in the current circumstances) and has given us great data on what is and isn't effective. Things like dexamethasone (effective), convalescent plasma (waste of time), azithromycin (no benefit), hydroxychloroquine (more likely to kill you than save you).

[Cyclizine]

Just now, welshbairn said:

I doubt it, they probably get a supply in the morning that they store in normal fridges and dole out the same day. Just guessing though.

The vaccine is stored at regional centres, usually big hospitals. Once thawed the vaccine is stable for several days, so enough time to distribute it to local centres. It's Raigmore where the central store is in Highland.

[welshbairn]

2 minutes ago, Cyclizine said:

The vaccine is stored at regional centres, usually big hospitals. Once thawed the vaccine is stable for several days, so enough time to distribute it to local centres. It's Raigmore where the central store is in Highland.

That's what I thought, you may have just broken the official secrets act though. 

[101]

2 minutes ago, Cyclizine said:

The vaccine is stored at regional centres, usually big hospitals. Once thawed the vaccine is stable for several days, so enough time to distribute it to local centres. It's Raigmore where the central store is in Highland.

If that's true, I'm not sure you should a, know about it and b, stick it on a football forum

[Honest Saints Fan]

This is from our GP...

[Miguel Sanchez]

4 minutes ago, Honest Saints Fan said:

This is from our GP...

You'd be fucked if you needed to wash your hands.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

6 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

That's what I thought, you may have just broken the official secrets act though. 

Only if he’s signed it or been informed that he’s bound by it. Tbh despite the UK government’s clamour for ‘secrecy’ its no great secret where vaccines are being stored when it gets to health board level, its more a common sense deduction... Where they are being stored prior to distribution is quite rightly a secret. 

 

[welshbairn]

5 minutes ago, Honest Saints Fan said:

This is from our GP...

Might nip round to see if I can blag one from the angel's share, they should be getting at least 6 from each vial, it would be a shame to see it going to waste.

[vikingTON]

13 minutes ago, Cyclizine said:

Because before we start firing  random drugs into critically unwell patients, we need to know if they're effective or not. Not all morbidity and mortality in Covid is caused by inflammation and not all "anti-inflammatories" work in the same way and some could potentially cause worse outcomes. There's no point in a drug reducing your risk of dying from Covid if it increases your risk of dying from something else.

For example, we used to give anti-arrhythmic drugs to everyone who had a heart attack, because we knew that many people who died later died because they had an arrhythmia. This was common practice, but we stopped when someone actually did a randomised trial and we found that you actually had a higher chance of dying if you were given the anti-arrhythmic than not. Just because there's plausible reasons why something might work, doesn't mean it will in practice. It's the same issue in Covid. Lot's of drugs have potential benefits, but they need to be actually studied properly.

There are massive trials going on at the moment, like the RECOVERY trial (https://www.recoverytrial.net/) which has recruited and randomised tens of thousands of patients (an amazing achievement in the current circumstances) and has given us great data on what is and isn't effective. Things like dexamethasone (effective), convalescent plasma (waste of time), azithromycin (no benefit), hydroxychloroquine (more likely to kill you than save you).

First of all, they wouldn't be 'critically unwell'. They would be fired the anti-inflammatories that we know have an impact at critical level at them as soon as they test positive. That's two to three weeks of treatment when they're not seriously ill, to try and prevent that outcome from ever happening.

Secondly, there's a fundamental difference between conducting trials for new treatments under normal pressures and dealing with a pandemic that is filling ICU units, burning the economy to the ground and being fucking shite as well. Wait and see does not actually minimise harm right now because by doing nothing you are accepting greater harms from almost every other illness and long-term harms as well. 

[Cyclizine]

15 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

That's what I thought, you may have just broken the official secrets act though. 

 

15 minutes ago, 101 said:

If that's true, I'm not sure you should a, know about it and b, stick it on a football forum

It's not exactly top secret, it's even been in the paper! https://www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/news/highland-hospitals-chosen-as-storage-bases-for-covid-19-vaccines-220837/

[Moomintroll]

7 minutes ago, virginton said:

First of all, they wouldn't be 'critically unwell'. They would be fired the anti-inflammatories that we know have an impact at critical level at them as soon as they test positive. That's two to three weeks of treatment when they're not seriously ill, to try and prevent that outcome from ever happening.

Secondly, there's a fundamental difference between conducting trials for new treatments under normal pressures and dealing with a pandemic that is filling ICU units, burning the economy to the ground and being fucking shite as well. Wait and see does not actually minimise harm right now because by doing nothing you are accepting greater harms from almost every other illness and long-term harms as well. 

You are arguing with a Medical Professional, stop pretending you know everything there is to know about everything that has ever been because you spent a few years at Uni studying fucking History.

[tamthebam]

4 minutes ago, Cyclizine said:

 

It's not exactly top secret, it's even been in the paper! https://www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/news/highland-hospitals-chosen-as-storage-bases-for-covid-19-vaccines-220837/

Cue Carry on Matron hi jinks at Raigmore as a couple of P&B posters dress up as nurses to get an angel's share of the vaccine...

[vikingTON]

2 minutes ago, Perkin Flump said:

You are arguing with a Medical Professional, stop pretending you know everything there is to know about everything that has ever been because you spent a few years at Uni studying fucking History.

Sit down and shut up, you Tory voting clown.

[welshbairn]

We should have started pumping people full of hydroxychloroquine and bleach instead of fannying about testing stuff to see if it brings a net benefit.