Lots of good news at the moment!

[FrugiFan]

www.bbc.com/news/health-53467022
A trial of a drug which could reduce ICU admission by 79%, and is already in use for other things so doesnt need human trials for side effects etc.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53469839
Promising news about one of the many vaccines in production.

Hospital admissions have not increased, more than 2 weeks after pubs and restaurants reopened.

Lots of reasons to think positive at the moment

Thanks for that post @Pomegranatepompom Please do stay on here if you have time (and if you can stand those bloody made up threads!). We need posters like you to balance things and keep us sane!

@Jrobhatch29

Yes
PHE were counting out of hospital deaths and anyone who had ever tested positive was counted as covid death, even if they had covid months before, recovered, and then died of something else.
5000 is a lot and it is worth noticing that it isnt 5000 evenly spread across the pandemic, but mainly in the last few months. So the numbers now and recently are lower than had been announced.

Furthermore many of the hospital deaths announced are from much earlier (see photo)

So panicking that (e.g.) 50 people per day are dying. Half of them probably didnt even have covid anymore and another half were deaths which actually occurred weeks ago.

@KitKatastrophe yeah I read the 5000 and odd deaths they have removed were recent,so it has looked worse than it actually is in the last month or so. I expected it to be a few hundred removed not thousands to be honest

I just wanted to say, I hope my post didn't seem dismissive, I know ITU was absolutely awful.
National data as well as data from Europe, demonstrates low rates of infections in vulnerable children within 3 specialities (this includes the period before strict isolation was in place).

So if I’d murdered someone who’d previously tested positive for covid, PHE would have recorded that as a covid death? That’s actually bonkers! I read the article by Carl Heneghan one of the Oxford people who discovered this PHE madness and couldn’t believe PHE hadn’t actually realised the problem themselves.

I cannot imagine why they have been recording the data like this - why on earth would they add so many more deaths than there have been?!

Interesting article in Science magazine

www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/08/designer-antibodies-could-battle-covid-19-vaccines-arrive

'Designer antibodies could battle COVID-19 before vaccines arrive
By Jon CohenAug. 4, 2020 , 4:50 PM'

While the world is transfixed by the high-stakes race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, an equally crucial competition is heating up to produce targeted antibodies that could provide an instant immunity boost against the virus. Clinical trials of these monoclonal antibodies, which could both prevent and treat the disease, are already underway and could produce signs of efficacy in the next few months, perhaps ahead of vaccine trials. “If you were going to put your money down, you would bet that you get the answer with the monoclonal before you get the answer with a vaccine,” says Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

www.bbc.com/news/health-53772459

*Children made up a very small proportion – just 1 per cent – of confirmed Covid-19 cases in England during the first wave of the virus despite large numbers of them being tested, a new British Medical Journal study has revealed.

The findings, which follow months of speculation about the virus risk among children, confirms that under-16s are not an important source of Covid-19 infection, researchers said.

Of the 540,305 people who were tested in England between 16 January and 3 May, around one in four (24 per cent) were found to have the virus.

Children under the age of 16 made up 15 per cent of the total number of people tested but accounted for just 1 per cent of positive results."

www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-children-test-figures-deaths-british-medical-journal-study-a9667296.html

[quote MarcelineMissouri]www.bbc.com/news/health-53772459[/quote]
That is good that hospital cases continue to decline even in hotspots

science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6505/752.full

Info here about an antibody treatment. Looks promising.

Someone on another thread posted this but thought I'd add it onto here

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53781140

Also from a personal point of view,I've managed to find some baby classes reopening in Sept for me to attend with my 3 month old when my son starts secondary school. So things are getting back to normal a bit for us x

@Layladylay234

Someone on another thread posted this but thought I'd add it onto here

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53781140

Also from a personal point of view,I've managed to find some baby classes reopening in Sept for me to attend with my 3 month old when my son starts secondary school. So things are getting back to normal a bit for us x

Same. My little girl is 3 months too and we have been to hartbeeps and yoga. I didnt think I would get to so it is really nice

Hospitalizations continue to decrease. No sign of a second wave caused by pubs opening (5 weeks ago).

Test positivity rate remains low. Far below the 5% threshold suggested by WHO.

Mild and asymptomatic cases negative for antibodies had robust T cell immunity in this study.

www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)31008-4
X
Highlights
1.
Acute phase SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells display an activated cytotoxic phenotype
2.
Broad and polyfunctional SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses in convalescent phase
3.
Detection of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses also in seronegative individuals

"Our collective dataset shows that SARS-CoV-2 elicits robust, broad and highly functional memory T cell responses, suggesting that natural exposure or infection may prevent recurrent episodes of severe COVID-19"

Don't let climb dad on here his negative posts bring me down I need this ha

Thank you for this lovely thread. It's a real tonic.

Oxford Coronavirus Vaccine Update: Phase III Trials To Conclude By November, Mass Production Expected By 2021

www.google.com/amp/s/m.timesofindia.com/life-style/health-fitness/health-news/oxford-coronavirus-vaccine-update-phase-iii-trials-to-conclude-by-november-mass-production-expected-by-2021/amp_etphotostory/77538743.cms

Trials starting soon in India too!

So say we do have antibodies and that is the reason deaths are decreasing, the government have spent millions on a vaccine! I hope it’s not wasted.

@Theluggage15

So if I’d murdered someone who’d previously tested positive for covid, PHE would have recorded that as a covid death? That’s actually bonkers! I read the article by Carl Heneghan one of the Oxford people who discovered this PHE madness and couldn’t believe PHE hadn’t actually realised the problem themselves.

My husband said we could have a Dr Shipman having the time of his life right now, and no one would suspect a thing.

@Aposterhasnoname that is a scary thought 😮

My mum has just got out of hospital in one of the new northern restriction zones and asked about Covid whilst in. She was told that across the whole hospital trust (4-5 hospitals) there isn’t one Covid patient!

Some caution required, as small numbers involved and not yet peer reviewed, but "SARSCoV2 study by
@GreningerLab provides first direct evidence that neutralizing antibodies are a correlate of protection against #COVID19 in humans. "

Thread explaining the study:
mobile.twitter.com/jbloom_lab/status/1294378350782414850

Link to study (preprint):
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.13.20173161v1

Provides hope that an initial infection should provide immunity at least in the short term and that a vaccine should too?

Working Twitter link
mobile.twitter.com/jbloom_lab/status/1294378350782414850