Covid, Phase II. Commonsense is the order of the day. | Page 57 | Vital Football

Covid, Phase II. Commonsense is the order of the day.

Fur farming is banned in the UK but 22 EU countries have fur farms as does the USA and China..China is the worlds biggest producer of finished fur garments.

China these days is the biggest for just about every rotten practice you can think up.

I continue to check the country of origin - a labourious task - and if I identify that it is from China or has content/parts I can identify from China, I don't buy it - unless I have absolutely no choice.
 
China these days is the biggest for just about every rotten practice you can think up.

I continue to check the country of origin - a labourious task - and if I identify that it is from China or has content/parts I can identify from China, I don't buy it - unless I have absolutely no choice.

Yeah I bet that is near impossible when it comes to smartphones, tv's, computers etc.


We will only start to find out if this new lockdown has an impact in about 2 weeks. I've made it clear that I don't think it will and the decision to shut education down will have to be taken.

We were a couple of weeks into the first national lockdown when we started seeing daily death numbers at the levels we are seeing now. The ONLY difference between then and now is we have a better idea of the symptomatic infection numbers now.

Over 6 months on it means we will likely see more and more second time infections and during the time of year when virus spread with much more ease. Plus we have more conspiracy theories that are meaning more people are ignoring all the safety measures, including the idiots who think all of this is some kind of attack on their freedoms by a Government who stand to gain NOTHING and lose a hell of a lot from locking people down the nation.
 
I also think the partying that went on by the Brits last night before lockdown and bars shutting just showed how pathetic we are as a nation. The acceptance that it is OK just to spread the virus for one more big night is alarming when you think about it. I just wish we could tax those idiots more than those of us that follow the protocols.
So true there muttley, but as an old timer lol! I think the attitude of ignorance, no respect, cant touch me and being generally thick is getting stronger in this country building into a very large minority, this can be seen everywhere and by this the smaller majority is suffering.
 
Exclusive: 'Mink virus' alert as hospitals ordered to keep suspected cases in isolation

Doctors, nurses and GPs told to take 'immediate action' against new Covid strain feared to be resistant to vaccines

By Bill Gardner and Laura Donnelly, Health Editor 8 November 2020 • 9:00pm

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A worker at a mink farm in Denmark, which is culling thousands of the animals following the discovery of a new virus strain Credit: Mads Claus Rasmussen/AFP


Every hospital in the country has been ordered to isolate suspected "mink virus" patients amid increasing efforts to prevent a mutant strain of Covid from spreading to Britain.
Jonathan Van Tam, the deputy chief medical officer, has told doctors, nurses and GPs to take "immediate action" against a new strain of the virus feared to be resistant to vaccines.
In a letter circulated to health chiefs, co-signed by the NHS medical director, Professor Steve Powis, hospitals have been told that any coronavirus patients who recently travelled to Denmark must be isolated, treated in specialist centres and gene tested for the new strain.
The measures are similar to those taken in early March, when the Government tried to prevent Covid from spreading into the UK from China and mainland Europe.
Meanwhile, vets in Denmark began the grim task of gassing and burning 17 million mink in a bid to halt further spread of the "cluster five" mutation, so far detected in 12 people after jumping from the animals to humans.
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Mink across Denmark will be culled following the discovery of the virus mutation Credit: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP
Over the weekend, the UK banned entry to all non-resident foreigners coming from Denmark, while UK citizens, along with their household, must isolate for 14 days. Passenger planes, ships and lorries carrying freight from Denmark will also not be allowed across the border, it was announced on Sunday, threatening the UK's supplies of pork and bacon.
In the NHS alert, seen by The Telegraph, hospitals and GPs are warned that the new virus strain appears to show "less sensitivity for neutralising antibodies" and therefore greater resistance to a vaccine.
The letter says any person who travelled to Denmark within the last two weeks must not be offered "routine outpatient, ambulatory or primary care" during their isolation period, while non-urgent procedures should be delayed.
Anyone who needs urgent hospital treatment should be separated from other patients and "managed in strict isolation in a single room with en-suite bathroom facilities". If the person subsequently tests positive for Covid, they should immediately be transferred to a "specialised infectious diseases centre" for further treatment.
Positive samples must be sent to Public Health England's main laboratory in Colindale for "whole genome sequencing", the letter adds.
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The Department for Health and Social Care estimates that between 300 and 500 people have arrived in the UK from Denmark in the last 14 days.
Denmark was the first to record the new mutation, described as the "cluster five variant" by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and has reported 214 human cases of Covid linked to mink farms, of which 12 are thought to be "cluster five". Four were found in the local community rather than on farms, suggesting human-to-human transmission.
New coronavirus cases linked to mink farms have been discovered in six countries including Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, the WHO has said. Mink farming in Britain ended in the early 2000s, although there are thought to be around 112,00 of the animals in the wild.
Professor Fiona Mathews, the chair of the Mammal Society and Professor of Environmental Biology, University of Sussex, urged the Government to fund a study into whether the virus might already be spreading in the UK's mink population.
"There's a chance it might have jumped to cousins of the mink, like otters," she said. "We know the virus came from animals, so it would be foolish not to look at whether it is already here. And of course there's a small chance that it might pose a risk to humans."
Danish authorities have revealed that the mutated coronavirus has not been found in humans since September.
"Either it is in circulation without us having discovered it… or otherwise it may have died out," said Tyra Grove Krause, the head of department at the Statens Serum Institut.
Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, denied that the Denmark travel ban and restrictions on trade were "draconian".
"I wouldn't describe it as draconian taking a precautionary measure that if and when we come up with a vaccine it can't be sidestepped by a mutation in the virus that the Danes have found through their mink population," he told the BBC. "I think that's a common sense measure that the public would expect us to take."
A further 156 people have died after testing positive for Covid in the UK, the Government said on Sunday. It brings the UK death toll to 49,044, while a further 20,572 positive cases of coronavirus have been recorded.
 
Putin has turned Russia into a pariah state.

GCHQ in cyberwar on anti-vaccine propaganda
Spies tackle disinformation linked to Russia

Lucy Fisher, Defence Editor | Chris Smyth, Whitehall Editor
Monday November 09 2020, 12.01am, The Times



GCHQ has begun an offensive cyber-operation to disrupt anti-vaccine propaganda being spread by hostile states, The Times understands.
The spy agency is using a toolkit developed to tackle disinformation and recruitment material peddled by Islamic State, according to sources.
It is the latest move by cyberagents to counter activity linked to Moscow whose aim is to exploit the pandemic in order to undermine the West and boost Russian interests.


The government regards tackling false information about inoculation as a rising priority as the prospect of a reliable vaccine against the coronavirus draws closer. A government source said: “GCHQ has been told to take out antivaxers online and on social media. There are ways they have used to monitor and disrupt terrorist propaganda.”
These tactics are understood to focus on taking down hostile state-linked content and disrupting the operations of the cyberactors responsible for it, including encrypting their data so they cannot access it and blocking their communications with each other. The British government confirmed in 2018 that it had an offensive cyberarsenal to take on Isis.


Russia is behind a high proportion of disinformation about the coronavirus, according to another Whitehall source who emphasised that GCHQ was able to gain permission to tackle disinformation that originated only from state adversaries. It is not legally permitted to disrupt online content written by ordinary citizens. “You wouldn’t get authorisation to go after cranks. People have a right to say batshit stuff online,” the source said.
Last month a Times investigation uncovered a Russian disinformation campaign designed to undermine and spread fear about the Oxford University vaccine. Pictures, memes and video clips depicted the vaccine as capable of turning people into monkeys because it used a chimpanzee virus as a vector.
Managing threats from hostile nations is one of GCHQ’s core missions. However, the ease with which it can tackle state-led disinformation varies depending on the geographic location of the servers on which that content is based. It is understood that Britain cannot attack websites based in the United States or the other Five Eyes nations — Australia, Canada and New Zealand — where it must instead defer to partner agencies.
Another option open to British officials is to contact servers and social media platforms directly to inform them that they are hosting hostile state propaganda. Robust free speech rights in America make it difficult to force companies to take action, however.
“The real problem is what you do about the social media platforms,” a British security source said. “All the stuff that’s out there legitimately. That’s much more difficult in the West. It is a civil liberties issue.” In addition to GCHQ’s efforts, a secretive army unit specialising in information warfare is involved in countering fake narratives about the coronavirus.
General Sir Nick Carter, the chief of the defence staff, has publicly confirmed that 77 Brigade is “helping to quash rumours about misinformation but also to counter disinformation”. The Berkshire-based unit, established in 2015, has been working with a rapid response team based in the Cabinet Office to tackle damaging narratives, including fake cures and conspiracy theories about the source of the virus.
Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, has also highlighted Russia’s role in mounting misinformation campaigns during the pandemic.
The US State Department published a report this summer on Russian state disinformation and propaganda that identified numerous fake narratives about a coronavirus vaccine that had been sown by Kremlin-aligned proxies.
Russia was jointly accused this summer by Britain, the US and Canada of trying to hack western coronavirus vaccine research. Attempts were identified in Britain by the National Cyber Security Centre, an operational division of GCHQ, which had pre-emptively erected a digital shield around British pharmaceutical laboratories and research institutions. The Russian government denied the allegation.
British ministers have declared it “almost certain” that Russian actors tried to influence last year’s general election by amplifying online “illicitly acquired” documents on UK-US trade talks.
Last month Sir Mark Sedwill, the former cabinet secretary, confirmed that Britain had carried out covert attacks on Russian leaders and their interests. He told Times Radio: “We will use different techniques. We need to play to our strengths and focus our attention on their vulnerabilities.”
GCHQ declined to confirm or deny its involvement in an offensive cyber-operation tackling anti-vaccine disinformation.
The Kremlin’s army of conspiracy theorists
The US State Department has identified a series of websites and organisations aligned to the Kremlin pushing false narratives about coronavirus vaccines.
South Front A disinformation website that focuses on military and security issues. In March it published an article headlined: “The fight for a cure: one gigantic western pharma rip-off.” It suggested that vaccines were unnecessary and were pushed for profit motives. Another said that vaccines could contain “a brain debilitating agent, or a gene that renders women infertile”.
News Front
Claims to provide an “alternative source of information” for western audiences. In March it posted an article claiming that Covid-19 vaccines were a fraud spearheaded by Bill Gates and “Big Pharma” and said it was “a matter of luck” for patients which substances were injected into them.
Geopolitica.ru
The Russian ultra-nationalist platform said in April that vaccines were a plot by Bill Gates and Microsoft to control humans by inserting microchips into them.
Source: Pillars of Russia’s Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem, a report by the US State Department’s global engagement centre, August 2020.
 
Covid-19 vaccine candidate is 90% effective, says manufacturer
Interim analysis of vaccine by Pfizer/BioNTech far exceeds expectations of most experts
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A healthcare worker with a syringe of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech at a hospital in Ankara, Turkey, in October. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Sarah Boseley Health editor
Mon 9 Nov 2020 11.47 GMT
Last modified on Mon 9 Nov 2020 11.49 GMT

A vaccine against Covid-19 is in sight, with the announcement of the first interim results in large-scale trials showing the Pfizer/BioNTech candidate is 90% effective, according to the manufacturers, whose analysis shows a much better performance than most experts had hoped for.
The high percentage of those protected makes the findings compelling. Regulators have said they would approve a vaccine that is just 50% effective – protecting half those who get it. The company says there are no serious side-effects.

“Today is a great day for science and humanity. The first set of results from our Phase 3 Covid-19 vaccine trial provides the initial evidence of our vaccine’s ability to prevent Covid-19,” said Dr Albert Bourla, Pfizer chairman and CEO.
“We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen.”
The trial will continue until there have been 164 confirmed cases so there is potential for the efficacy rate to change, but a finding that 90% of infections were prevented will excite politicians and public health leaders alike and brings into view a potential end to the pandemic.
The phase 3 trials have involved more than 43,000 people. People from black and ethnic minority backgrounds appear to have been as well protected as everyone else, the company says.
Gathering the required safety data will take until the third week of November, says the company. The dossier will then be submitted to the regulators for approval. Speedy licensing could mean the first doses in healthcare workers by the end of the year
 
Good afternoon all, just thought I would tell you something Mrs PY's mate, a Matron at the QA our local Hospital, said to her yesterday, it seems nobody is saying anything about the amount of "holidays! n sick leave being taken" by staff/Nurses/Doctors since Lockdown measures were re-brought in, makes you think eh!
 
Boris has said we've accumulated 40 million vaccines.

They are working on getting it distributed in december.

But we must in the meantime adhere to restrictions, to fight the current wave.

next year might even be 'normal' after the end of Q1.

Day 1 - you get the shot.

after 14 days you are partially immune.

day 28 - booster.

14 days after that, full immunity.

So 6 weeks from the shot before you are immune.
 
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Roll out of the vaccine begins in December.

Health workers and front line workers in care homes first.

Then anyone over 80/the vunerable, then age groups from 75, the 65 and so on and so on.

Just think we might all be at our new stadium come the spring for our last game against Villa that clinches us the PL title!! (ok, I'll stop the happy pills in due course).
 
How safe will this vaccine be?

I'm worried about the lack of long term trials.

Vaccines take 10 years plus to be licensed for a reason. A few months of trials is not enough evidence.

I will watch from a far and watch the lab rats take the risks.

Goes to show though when the world comes together vaccines and medicines can be achieved.

Can the world come together and find a cure for cancer? For me this is the one that really needs attention.
 
Roll out of the vaccine begins in December.

Health workers and front line workers in care homes first.

Then anyone over 80/the vunerable, then age groups from 75, the 65 and so on and so on.

Just think we might all be at our new stadium come the spring for our last game against Villa that clinches us the PL title!! (ok, I'll stop the happy pills in due course).

It would be nice, but I'm not sure it will be that easy. The Pharma companies will over commit and under deliver and there will be the inevitable procrastination.

Also, surely nobody knows how long the immunity lasts for after taking the vaccine.

Then there is RD's point. A large percentage of the population will refuse the vaccine because it hasn't been tested over a number of years.

I'm not ready to declare victory yet.
 
How safe will this vaccine be?

I'm worried about the lack of long term trials.

Vaccines take 10 years plus to be licensed for a reason. A few months of trials is not enough evidence.

I will watch from a far and watch the lab rats take the risks.

Goes to show though when the world comes together vaccines and medicines can be achieved.

Can the world come together and find a cure for cancer? For me this is the one that really needs attention.

You have to remember, that almost 90% of teh work had already been completed by the time this thing hit.

Sarah Gilbert (Professor, and a friend) at Oxford has had her and her team working on a SARs vaccine that long - the other centres across the World were doing the same - we were very very lucky that they'd done so much and that all that was left was testing.

We have followed (as have the others, except the Russians) the Globally agreed standards for drug trials protocols to the letter.

Don't let the negativity from the wackjobs overwhelm you or even get into your head.

The AR's for this vaccine have been less than for the flu vaccine.

It is highly effective. At teh beginning of this thing we were talking about one being 50% effective as the gold standard.

We also hear today that a licence for the antibody blocker has been granted in the states - it's effectively the drug that saved Trump, and soon it will also be widely avialable across the World. It works.

As for the cure for cancer, I'm with you all the way, the problem is it doesn't threaten our way of life or risk the end of the World as we know it, it just takes our loved ones away sooner than they should go, but I am hopeful some of the incredible leaps forward in understanding our immune system and the way it works may yet be useful to cancer research.
 
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It would be nice, but I'm not sure it will be that easy. The Pharma companies will over commit and under deliver and there will be the inevitable procrastination.

Also, surely nobody knows how long the immunity lasts for after taking the vaccine.

Then there is RD's point. A large percentage of the population will refuse the vaccine because it hasn't been tested over a number of years.

I'm not ready to declare victory yet.

It only has to last long enough to kill the transmission down to almost zero, this vaccine and the new drugs also annouced will be the end of this virus, in a year you'll hear little - except of course those nations who haven't had their vaccines yet.

No Pharma's have overcommmitted, the known capacity (currently) for production is well know, new manu plants are coming on stream in the next 12 months as well.

Of course standard will have to be maintained, every production run will have to pass a battery of tests before being shipped. But these protocols are like bread and water to this sector of our global industry.

A large percentage of the population are pretty dumb, but I wouldn't let that sway my judgement.
 
It only has to last long enough to kill the transmission down to almost zero, this vaccine and the new drugs also annouced will be the end of this virus, in a year you'll hear little - except of course those nations who haven't had their vaccines yet.

No Pharma's have overcommmitted, the known capacity (currently) for production is well know, new manu plants are coming on stream in the next 12 months as well.

Of course standard will have to be maintained, every production run will have to pass a battery of tests before being shipped. But these protocols are like bread and water to this sector of our global industry.

A large percentage of the population are pretty dumb, but I wouldn't let that sway my judgement.

So perhaps I'm not getting it. Unless the t-cells are the dominant reason why the Covid virus is fought by the body, then the anti-bodies will always die out, just like they do with the winter flu jab. So the percentage or the population that don't get given the vaccine or very realistically refuse it, can re-infect the folks whose vaccine has expired and antibodies gone. That is, unless we're prepared to keep vaccinating a significant amount of the population for a long time.

Perhaps I'm being dumb.
 
So perhaps I'm not getting it. Unless the t-cells are the dominant reason why the Covid virus is fought by the body, then the anti-bodies will always die out, just like they do with the winter flu jab. So the percentage or the population that don't get given the vaccine or very realistically refuse it, can re-infect the folks whose vaccine has expired and antibodies gone. That is, unless we're prepared to keep vaccinating a significant amount of the population for a long time.

Perhaps I'm being dumb.

No you're not and you know it.

A repeating vaccine very year is very much on the cards - in this form - but the RNA ones that come next year are likened to the pneumonia jab - a once a lifetime dose that stops the virus stone dead.

Next year even if you do get it the new intervention drugs will stop you becoming hospitalised and you will be under no threat of dying, at all.

So this vaccine is good enough to set us on it's way and may yet be good enough full stop - we will find out, the data will be collected and soon we'll know.

We have every reason to be highly optimistic that this is the end of the beginning of the end for this virus.
 
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