[News] The Coronavirus Good News thread

[Bozza]

Is this news from Pulse not a little presumptuous then?

It’s far from my field, but my reading of it is that it is just part of the NHS getting everything in place in the hope/assumption that a vaccine passes phase 3 trials by then, ie administrative stuff.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Interesting....I’m waiting for some LVT to be fitted. I expected it to be delayed now but spoke to them today and they said they are operating as normal. Not a big deal for us or the fitters in this case I guess as the room can be accessed from outside without going into any other rooms, no-one has been in it and there is nothing in there but that can’t be the case for a lot of what they are doing.

We are closing the showroom, however we are lucky in that we are now full booking wise until Christmas and beyond, admittedly 90% is new build work, and the domestic work we have booked in, we will do if the customer agrees and wishes it to commence, similar to your situation we enter via patio doors etc.
I understand why people which to proceed if they have paid a deposit etc, much in the same way wish to as we will have purchased the goods and would like the balance. All the fitters are self employed and because they probably don’t declare their full correct earnings would rather carry on earning rather than try and claim their version of furlough (or both).
What I don’t understand is old folk rushing to get work booked in, and risking their life on a bit of flooring they can get in a few months time, mainly it’s that and how rude and arrogant they are the expectation that fitters should have to risk their health, ah it was it is.

Hope your flooring is excellent and goes down trouble free.

 

[dazzer6666]

We are closing the showroom, however we are lucky in that we are now full booking wise until Christmas and beyond, admittedly 90% is new build work, and the domestic work we have booked in, we will do if the customer agrees and wishes it to commence, similar to your situation we enter via patio doors etc.
I understand why people which to proceed if they have paid a deposit etc, much in the same way wish to as we will have purchased the goods and would like the balance. All the fitters are self employed and because they probably don’t declare their full correct earnings would rather carry on earning rather than try and claim their version of furlough (or both).
What I don’t understand is old folk rushing to get work booked in, and risking their life on a bit of flooring they can get in a few months time, mainly it’s that and how rude and arrogant they are the expectation that fitters should have to risk their health, ah it was it is.

Hope your flooring is excellent and goes down trouble free.

Fair point.......those rushing have probably been mulling over doing something for years too.......now it’s ‘urgent’ [emoji2369][emoji2369]

 

[Poojah]

'Small chance' COVID jab will be ready before Christmas, Oxford vaccine boss says

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...e-christmas-oxford-vaccine-boss-says-12123325

Let us remind ourselves, Christmas is only 51 sleeps away!

 

[nickbrighton]

Looking like the peak has/is just about to be reached. 4 Weeks lockdown should help drive down R to below one. Encouraging signs from all parts of the UK

https://twitter.com/timspector/status/1323937293787406337

 

[jackalbion]

I'm no expert on this but have been following the Coronavirus in your area page on the BBC, and it seems that the infection rate in Brighton seems to be slowly creeping down since it peaked at 160-170 cases per 100,000 back down by 30 to 131 in the last two days which seems to be positive, obviously not out of the woods yet but seems that Brighton as a city is handling the crisis reasonably well.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

I'm no expert on this but have been following the Coronavirus in your area page on the BBC, and it seems that the infection rate in Brighton seems to be slowly creeping down since it peaked at 160-170 cases per 100,000 back down by 30 to 131 in the last two days which seems to be positive, obviously not out of the woods yet but seems that Brighton as a city is handling the crisis reasonably well.

The Zoe app is suggesting this too. Numbers just starting to come down

 

[Mellotron]

Lots of talk about a vaccine by Christmas which is obviously great, but what is this likely to mean for everyday life? How long until I can have 10 people in my house, watch football at The Amex or go in Sainsburys without a mask?

The aim is to have all “higher priority” groups vaccinated by Easter, if not earlier.

Given it sounds like it may not stop infections, more reduce severity, they will want to look at hospitalisations as a key metric. Once those start consistently and solidly dropping, we could hope to see restrictions gradually relaxed, I would hope?

This of course doesn’t take into account further potential advances in treatment and the differences mass testing may make.

So, hopefully spring/early summer, perhaps? So hard to know, isn’t it?

 

[Poojah]

Lots of talk about a vaccine by Christmas which is obviously great, but what is this likely to mean for everyday life? How long until I can have 10 people in my house, watch football at The Amex or go in Sainsburys without a mask?

I don’t think there’s a definitive answer to this, but I think it largely depends on two factors.

First, once we have a vaccine, we have the logistical challenge of manufacturing it, transporting it, storing it and in the context of the UK alone, administering it to the best part of 65m people. Not all vaccines are equal - some have to be frozen in transit, others merely refrigerated. Some require multiple doses, others just a single one. Those things, along with public willingness to receive the vaccine, will dictate just how long it takes to properly roll out.

Then there’s efficacy - how well does it work? Is it effective for people in all age groups and the clinically vulnerable? Does it prevent people from becoming sick, or merely reduce the severity of the symptoms? Does it stop people transmitting the virus to others? Clearly, all of things can have a massive impact on whether a vaccine unlocks the door to normality.

I’ve seen some pessimistic prognoses with regard to how quickly a vaccine is likely to make life normal again, the argument being that the first available vaccines are rarely the most effective. However, I’ve also seen reports that the Oxford vaccine is safe and effective in all age groups, which sounds very positive.

I also heard a scientist speaking on the radio the other day, suggesting that whilst the virus is mutating, it’s mutating very slowly - much slower than influenza and not in a way which is significant enough to change how the body needs to respond to it in order to overcome it. That’s potentially very good news for the long-term picture.

I’m a total laymen so please take my view with a pinch of salt, however my gut feel / opinion is that we’ll have a good if not perfect vaccine around the turn of the year, with a significant proportion of the population vaccinated by the end of Q1 / beginning of Q2. Others may disagree, but I am hopeful this will mean we can celebrate the end of this depressing period with a traditional summer BBQ.

 

[A1X]

In terms of going to the Amex, I think you might as well write this season off. That way if you can sneak in at the very back end it'll be a bonus.

 

[Poojah]

Thanks for the answers.

Sounds like we just need to trust the logistical side is in hand, in which case once all the high priority groups are vaccinated we will hopefully be able to get back to something like normal. It’s depressing to effectively write off another six months, but I’d take Easter if you offered it to me now. It would still be a remarkable triumph of science.

Easter Sunday is 4th April next year, so exactly five months away. It would also mark a little over a year since the start of the original UK lockdown.

Make no mistake, with what we now know about this virus, to go from there all the way back to normality in around twelve months would be one of the greatest, and possibly most significant, scientific achievements of all time. That gives you some context for just how big a challenge this has been, and remains.

However, in the spirit of this thread, it’s not an impossibility. Possibly likely to be ever so slightly later, not not impossible. And that, in itself, is fùcking remarkable.

 

[LamieRobertson]

I’ve found this guy pretty reliable...so maybe good news

https://twitter.com/fact_covid/status/1323939462771023879?s=21

Maybe Just stick to the facts and not the tweets after

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Is this news from Pulse not a little presumptuous then?

Not really. All the article is saying is that processes are being put in place in time. Personally, I still struggle to see how vaccine can be rolled out before the end of this year.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The aim is to have all “higher priority” groups vaccinated by Easter, if not earlier.

Given it sounds like it may not stop infections, more reduce severity, they will want to look at hospitalisations as a key metric. Once those start consistently and solidly dropping, we could hope to see restrictions gradually relaxed, I would hope?

This of course doesn’t take into account further potential advances in treatment and the differences mass testing may make.

So, hopefully spring/early summer, perhaps? So hard to know, isn’t it?

It’s also worth noting that Vaccines also reduce transmission as people will be less infectious.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Surely vaccine rollout will take many months.

The way I'm looking at it is that the rollout is a fixed amount of time so even if for argument sake that is two years to give everyone one dose, the sooner we start the sooner it's finished.
The summer is more or less a free hit with infections dropping away naturally so we just need to make it through the next 6 months of total shitness. After that will be a gradual return to our previous lives, fingers crossed.

 

[Mellotron]

Surely vaccine rollout will take many months.

The way I'm looking at it is that the rollout is a fixed amount of time so even if for argument sake that is two years to give everyone one dose, the sooner we start the sooner it's finished.
The summer is more or less a free hit with infections dropping away naturally so we just need to make it through the next 6 months of total shitness. After that will be a gradual return to our previous lives, fingers crossed.

They are hoping the rollout will take 6 months, and planning has been based on that timescale. But that is also based on probably around 50-60% take up.

 

[blue-shifted]

They are hoping the rollout will take 6 months, and planning has been based on that timescale. But that is also based on probably around 50-60% take up.

I'm confident it will be much more than that, though if they can get every taker over, say 40, done before this time next year then we should have a relatively normal winter 2021