Mutating Corona Virus

[honeybee13]

I fixed your link, TJ.

 

It's starting to sound like what Pippa Crerar from The Mirror said.

 

'Ministers and officials are considering the trade-off between allowing an acute outbreak, from which the economy would rebound more quickly, or trying to save more lives by imposing restrictions on mass gatherings and transport.'

 

https://twitter.com/pippacrerar?lang=en

[tobyjugg2]

thanks HB

 

Also interesting that the briefs are stating that money for the 'infrastructure' projects will not be affected

 

So thats HS2 (well the first bit from London) and buying American tactical nuclear warheads safeguarded then ...

 

- mind you - HS2 could speed up the spread by 20 minutes or so on the next outbreak (or maybe the 7th or 8th after that) and I must admit that only rich school kids are likely to travel on that. So they aren't putting the poorer kids at direct risk of a faster outbreak by building it.

[tobyjugg2]

Action Plan

 

Coronavirus_action_plan_-_a_guide_to_what_you_can_expect_across_the_UK.pdf

[tobyjugg2]

Justin Tomlinson, the benefits minister, answered a question tabled by Mr Sobel, on what help gig economy workers could expect.

 

 

He said: “Those whose employers ask them to stay away from the workplace due to coronavirus concerns, who do not qualify for statutory sick pay, may be able to claim universal credit and/or new-style employment and support allowance.”

 

Nearly 2 million workers in the UK do not earn enough to qualify for statutory sick pay, trade union leaders say.

 

 

 

and If the fear of going through that doesn't keep people at work even if they have bubonic or pneumonic  plague, I dont know what will.

 

Mind you, if I thought I had cov I would of course go to those required interviews we see reported. 

 

 

Edited March 4, 2020 by tobyjugg2

[tobyjugg2]

Virology:

Wuhan-like virus discovered seven years ago

 

THE Covid-19 coronavirus is similar
to one detected in bats in China in
2013. But a failure to act on the
warnings of those who studied it
means we missed an opportunity
to protect human health.
While some are now saying the
Covid-19 virus passed to humans
from pangolins, it is likely that
pangolins are merely victims of the
infection, like us. “From the virology
evidence available to date, the virus
is almost certainly from a species
of bat,” says Andrew Cunningham
of the Zoological Society of London.
For years, Zheng-Li Shi and her
colleagues at the Wuhan Institute
of Virology have been isolating
coronaviruses from horseshoe bats
in caves in China’s Yunnan province.
In 2013, they found a coronavirus
that could infect human cells in the
lab. Last week, Shi reported that
this virus is 96 per cent identical
to the Covid-19 virus now
spreading in people.

 

In 2016, Wayne Marasco at
Harvard Medical School and his
colleagues found that the virus
discovered by Shi’s team could
replicate in human airway cells.
They described it as being “poised
for human emergence”. However,
they say further research on this
virus was hampered by the US
government’s ban on work that
alters viruses in ways that might
make them more dangerous.
Shi’s work has also revealed that
viruses can pass directly from bats
to people living near their caves.
Her findings suggest we didn’t need
pangolins to catch the Covid-19
virus, just as she previously revealed
that SARS can come directly from
bats without first infecting civets.
Last year, Shi warned that it
was highly likely coronavirus
outbreaks would originate in bats
in China. “The investigation of bat
coronaviruses becomes an urgent
issue for the detection of early
warning signs,” she wrote.
Now this opportunity has been
missed, Shi has made a plea for
increased efforts to develop drugs
and vaccines.  ❚
Debora MacKenzie

 

 

 

From New Scientist International - well worth a subscription

[honeybee13]

Is issuing updates on a weekly basis a good idea? It doesn't seem to be what other European countries are doing.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/04/move-to-weekly-uk-coronavirus-updates-criticised-by-experts

[tobyjugg2]

Just imagine it can't you

 

 

Latest update:

The number of deaths hit 50,000 4 days ago, and parliament shut down to protect the public school boys 6 days ago.

 

More details in a week.

 

 

 

 

[honeybee13]

I read that some local authorities have released information.

 

But as someone in the article said, leaving a government information void means that the space will be filled by fake news and conspiracy theories.

[tobyjugg2]

I hear that they are having to ration loo rolls in Australia (genuine) due to panic buying.

Surely the end of the world truly is nigh

 

 

Whats wrong with Koala tree leaves?

..  of course all the trees have burnt down haven't they 'despite the aussie gov being leading climate change deniers..

 

 

:-/

 

 

[tobyjugg2]

"Prime Minister Boris Johnson said measures such as closing schools and banning big events "don't work as well perhaps as people think".

He told ITV's This Morning programme another way of responding to the virus would be to "take it on the chin" and allow it to "move through the population without really taking as many draconian measures".

Mr Johnson said it would be "business as usual" for the "overwhelming majority" of people in the UK"

 

as:

"Downing Street has confirmed that Boris Johnson is in talks with the parliamentary authorities about a possible shutdown if the outbreak continues to get worse."

 

and:

""Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has been holding talks with medical experts and officials about the prospect of suspending Parliament until the worst of the virus blows over"

 

Edited March 5, 2020 by tobyjugg2

[honeybee13]

I read taking it on the chin as letting it affect a lot of people with more deaths rather than trying to save lives. That's what I posted higher up from Pippa Crerar.

 

Of course important people will probably be protected. 

[unclebulgaria67]

The issue is that, if you have one person with Corona virus in say a household of say 4 people,  the other three people are going to self isolate as well.  If it spreads and affects many households, then you have bus drivers, doctors, nurses, teachers etc etc who are not working.  So the impact is much greater than authorities may currently be basing plans on.

 

I am not sure there is much that can be done, which will avoid this being very disruptive.  It has spread and people are walking around  with the virus unknowingly spreading it to others.  

 

 

[tobyjugg2]

Health secretary Matt Hancock last night told a BBC Question Time audience the government were working with supermarkets to make sure food supplies were uninterrupted during the coronavirus outbreak.

 

But according to the BBC’s business editor Simon Jack, at least one supermarket executive is not convinced there has been any contact from the government.

Jack told BBC News: “They got touch saying they were slightly baffled by Matt Hancock’s remarks last night because they said they had heard nothing at all from government directly. And they had … rung around to others and they had the same story.”

He added: “In their words not mine, ‘Matt Hancock has totally made up that he has been working with supermarkets’.”

 

 

 

Tweeting about it after going on air, Jack said a supermarket source had got in touch to say Defra was “now in contact and trying to make it look like they are very actively engaged”.

 

- Adam Forrest

[tobyjugg2]

Two strains of the new coronavirus are spreading around the world, according to an analysis of 103 cases. But the World Health Organization insists that “there is no evidence that the virus has been changing”. So how many strains are there, and why does it matter?

 

Viruses are always mutating, especially RNA viruses like this one, coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. When a person is infected with the coronavirus, it replicates in their respiratory tract. Every time it does, around half a dozen genetic mutations occur, says Ian Jones at the University of Reading, UK.

 

When Xiaolu Tang at Peking University in Beijing and colleagues studied the viral genome taken from 103 cases, they found common mutations at two locations on the genome. The team identified two types of the virus based on differences in the genome at these two regions: 72 were considered to be the “L-type” and 29 were classed “S-type”.

 

 

 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2236544-coronavirus-are-there-two-strains-and-is-one-more-deadly/

[honeybee13]

So the Orange One has banned travel to the US from most of Europe but not from the UK?

 

Does that mean that anyone from Europe wanting to travel to the US will just pass through the UK? ETA It seems Ireland is OK as well.

[tobyjugg2]

Apparently he is refusing tests (or at least releasing the results) despite a number of people he has been in contact with testing positive .....

[no comment]

[citizenB]

2 recent articles which are quite interesting. 

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/13/uk/uk-coronavirus-response-boris-johnson-intl-gbr/index.html

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/14/coronavirus-safer-shopping-travel-trains-buses

[unclebulgaria67]

Until this happened. I did not know the difference between an anti-bacterial hand gel and hand sanitizer gel. 

 

Anti-bacterial is just something that might reduce bacteria and what is required to kill the germs is either liquid which contains at least 60% alcohol content or plenty of soap and hot water for at least 20 seconds.  And don't just clean your hands, you have to wash up to your elbows.

 

Not that I am an expert, just now a bit paranoid.  Every time someone coughs or sneezes, it sets you on edge 

 

Spain have just closed their airspace due to 1500 new cases in 24 hours.

[unclebulgaria67]

From 5am Tuesday 17th March US to suspend all UK travel !

 

Appears world is going to close down for a few weeks.

[honeybee13]

How sad, Americans won't be able to travel to Trump's golf resort in Scotland. Will it be his Irish resort next?

[cjcregg]

1 hour ago, honeybee13 said:

How sad, Americans won't be able to travel to Trump's golf resort in Scotland. Will it be his Irish resort next?

 

The ban is on Europeans entering the US, not Americans travelling to Europe.

[honeybee13]

I see what you're saying but the US has banned people coming in from the UK and Ireland now. What about Americans who travelled to either of them in the last few days?

 

I don't see the logic, but maybe I'm missing something.

[cjcregg]

1 minute ago, honeybee13 said:

I see what you're saying but the US has banned people coming in from the UK and Ireland now. What about Americans who travelled to either of them in the last few days?

 

I don't see the logic, but maybe I'm missing something.

 

Read here, it was published before the ban included UK & Ireland but the same applies https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/coronavirus-travel-ban-explained-trump-europe-travel-americans-leave-us-family-citizens-a9398856.html

[unclebulgaria67]

France now has 4,499 confirmed cases, up from 3,661 on Friday, officials say.

Some 91 people have died in the country after getting the virus, up from 79 on Friday

[unclebulgaria67]

Bizarre !  Shetland has had 11 confirmed cases and Bristol with a lot bigger population has only had 5 confirmed cases.

 

I do wonder about the origins and spread of this virus.