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

Yes, herd immunity is not all or nothing. As John Campbell it is on a continuum, the more that are protected, the less the spread in a population.

Oh joy,I see the people who can't read the thread title are back! No worries,here's some more good news for everyone who IS interested in good news.
www.standard.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-deaths-toll-lowest-before-lockdow-a4527331.html

Infections start to fall when 20% are positive for antibodies. This has been observed too many times for it to be a coincidence. That level of cases seems to be enough to slow transmission down considerably.

I think what you have is a portion of people who don’t or can’t socially distance (key workers and those who choose to continue to mix socially regardless), and I can see that a considerable degree of herd immunity will build amongst that group, causing infections to level off... and another portion who are socially distancing, either very assiduously or enough to prevent transmission chains from developing. Amongst the latter group, which will likely include the vulnerable (with the notable exception of care home residents), infections will likely to be very low. The 20% or so with immunity is probably mainly comprised of the former group.

@Layladylay234

Good news is great - and there is a fair bit of it - but when that includes stuff that is misleading or incorrect, then don’t expect it to go unchallenged.

If I came on here and said “great news! A doctor says you can be cured from Covid by eating cheese”, I’d hope I’d be called out on it!

And if people believe that we have herd immunity as a population as a result of a story (the fact it was in the Daily Express should say enough), and act accordingly, that could be dangerous if they are, or live with, people with health conditions.

I'd rather have Covid than be as miserable and negative as some of the fuckers who bring their negative shit to this thread 😅

Thanks for all the positive stuff today guys. Much needed on this rainy day

@TJ17. Amen to that!

@Derbygerbil oh did you mean hotpots In UK have 50%? I misread, thought you were referring to other countries. That is interesting I haven't heard that.

[quote vera99]How's this for good news when you have a world beating track and trace - Wuhan pool party this week !

[/quote] I saw this haha someone on my FB was banging on about how disgraceful It is. There's a pandemic dont you know? I am glad there's some fun back in people's lives

...did you mean hotpots In UK have 50%? I misread, thought you were referring to other countries. That is interesting I haven't heard that.

No, I didn’t mean the U.K. I was referring to places like certain Mumbai slums and Iquitos in Peru. I believe London has the highest levels in the UK at around 15%. It’s probable that this is higher still in inner-city areas. In those places, I’m guessing there’ll be a pretty high - possibly very high - level of immunity in those areas amongst those parts of the community who wouldn’t or couldn’t socially distance, and enough to have a significant impact on infection growth.

Ah right! I misread again haha. Yeah the slums have really high levels. They seem to have done the screening whilst they are still in the thick of it all. I wonder if that's why it was so high as well. NY and London both had higher levels that then seemed to drop in the next surveys

Have not rtwt but I see reported today that only 152 deaths this week had a CV contributing factor, the lowest since March, and that there are 8x more deaths from flu and pneumonia.
Given that people have been mixing much more, and SD and mask wearing is diminishing (on a long drive today went to several petrol/service stations snd hardly any masks seen) surely this is news to be shouted from the rooftops!

Not health related, but a more positive news story following a survey comparing the UK economy with others across the world.

www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/08/20/uk-racing-ahead-world-reopening-fires-economy/

[quote cathyandclare]Not health related, but a more positive news story following a survey comparing the UK economy with others across the world.

www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/08/20/uk-racing-ahead-world-reopening-fires-economy/[/quote]
I can't read the whole article but that is good news. I think stuff like the 'eat out to help out' and the fact the government was so good with the furlough to start. Let's hope all the kids get jobs.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/20/coronavirus-hospital-admissions-inflated-height-pandemic-investigation/amp/

Not good news in sense that the reporting has been bad... But hospital admission data been inflated. Has included people admitted for other things but tested positive on arrival, people who had tested positive previously but admitted for another reason later, and people already in hospital for an unrelated reason and caught in hospital. Perhaps it wasn't QUITE as bad as it seemed at the time

Deaths keep falling, 2 on the 16th August in the whole England’s hospitals

www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/COVID-19-total-announced-deaths-20-August-2020.xlsx

There is evidence from Singapore that shows a less dangerous strain of the virus is becoming prevalent. mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN25H0O1?

The latest ONS infection survey looking at coronavirus infection in the community is out. Numbers were rising in July, which is what triggered the Boris/Whitty press conference saying that we were at the limit of social interaction. However, they've definitely stabilised in August. This week's figures estimate 2400 are getting it daily compared to 3800 last week. Small numbers now, but still very promising.

[quote blametheparents]There is evidence from Singapore that shows a less dangerous strain of the virus is becoming prevalent. mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN25H0O1?[/quote]
That is super news

There is evidence from Singapore that shows a less dangerous strain of the virus is becoming prevalent

I think that’s becoming obvious in lots of places. Infection levels rising, but hospitalisations/deaths remaining much lower than anticipated.

Great news on the mutation with implications for vaccine development as it says in the article

Anyone else get really annoyed when they come on here to post a really encouraging article and find they’ve been beaten to it?

@MarcelineMissouri - Sorry! Was that me?

This is very encouraging the vaccine and antibody immunity
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-salmon-fishermen-landed-a-vital-clue-on-immunity-222ggdxfp

There is evidence from Singapore that shows a less dangerous strain of the virus is becoming prevalent.

I read the article hoping it would be better news than it seems to be... Unless there are other evidence alongside this, the article simply says that a less dangerous strain had been isolated that had its source between January and March in Wuhan, so not exactly “new”, and nothing at all about it becoming more prevalent. I really hope that it is, but the article didn’t say so.

Hospitalisations and deaths are down, which is great, but I suspect that is due to much better testing (of people with mild or no symptoms who would never have been tested in March/April) and better treatment now that the disease isn’t so novel.