I haven't read most of this thread, but flusurvey has done the first community testing in the UK. They tested ~1000 people and they found ~2% were infected and 20% of them were asymptomatic. This is yet another survey which points to a very low percentage of the population being infected (same in Austria and Iceland).

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Thank you very much for agreeing to participate in the self swabbing survey. The results have been analysed and have been feedback directly to the COVID19 National Response Team. They have been immensely helpful in understanding the true proportion of people infected with coronavirus in the community, the role of asymptomatic cases (people who are infected but not ill) and how coronavirus spreads in households.

 Almost one thousand participants sent swabs back, and approximately 2% were positive. Among those people who tested positive, 20% did not have any symptoms. Cough and fever were the most commonly reported symptoms among those positive for coronavirus. However the vast majority of people who reported cough, fever and loss of smell tested negative.

Whitty says the chance of a highly effective vaccine next calendar year (i assume he meant this one) is incredibly small. May get proof of concept.

With all due respect, this crap is boring.

It must be so easy to have all the answers, the tories are evil; without them everything would be utopian.

Definitely more business activity beginning to take place around here. For example, garden centres are opening for click and collect. I suspect the government's nudge unit is behind the change in mood. There have been subtle (and less subtle) noises about the need to get things moving again. Unless infection rates start increasing again I expect the lockdown to be organically lifted with gentle steering when necessary from the government..

I haven't generally agreed with what you've been saying but I do on this point. I have noticed that even low level key workers like shop assistants seem to think that being a key worker means they have in some God like way been protected. All of the services including the police need to understand that they are a high risk group for us to have contact with.

As long as you don't point out that Jesus was probably brown skinned.

I made that mistake once at a dinner party when I was living in Iowa

Again, no real surprise IMHO. 

Coronavirus: Malaria drug pushed by Trump as COVID-19 cure has no benefit, research finds

Donald Trump had hailed hydroxychloroquine as a "game changer" but a study has shown it has no beneficial effect.

A drug championed by the US president as a possible cure for COVID-19 has been shown to provide no benefit and possibly a higher risk of death.

Hydroxychloroquine had been championed by Mr Trump after anecdotal reports that the drug, which is also used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, could help coronavirus patients.

However the new study found it might actually be harmful to those with the disease.

The American research analysed the records of 368 male patients with confirmed coronavirus.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-malaria-drug-pushed-by-trump-as-covid-19-cure-has-no-benefit-research-finds-11976830

It’s a pretty sensible question actually and the US CDC explain the answer quite nicely here https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/vaccine-selection.htm

It is essentially a best guess to an extent which explains its sometimes limited success in any one season.

Hi John. Not sure on the science for this one. I think they identify the relevant strain and plan for the one that is likely to be the big one.

I think some years the vaccine is less effective than others, equally most people have some immunity to lesson the effects (I think)

I have no idea

All I know is what I saw in the Marr interview with Sarah Gilbert. She says they already have the Covid vaccine and it works in monkeys

Obviously we don't know how long that immunity will last for and if the virus can adapt

I agree.  It's odd though.  A couple of local pubs   are doing "dial and collect" food.   Last Thursday I had a first rate fish and chip meal from one - I intend to  use them again.  However,  other pubs in the area remain very shut in all respects. I think there is a bit of  moral hazard attached to opening.  The pub I went to to for the food is family run and I suspect  it is family members  doing the work.   Businesses who employ people might  not be sure that operating in reduced circumstances   is not as good a bet as remaining closed and the Govt picking up the tab for most wages.

I've given up trying to get my tooth sorted out.   It seems  that "emergency dental  service" is almost 100%   restricted to  dishing out antibiotics and painkillers - another ramification of the massive shortage of PPE.

He more than likely had similar overall features to present day Palestinians. Not that that matters in any way. 

Not many agree with me at the best of times Fairweather  but yes, there does seem to be curious double standards being applied when it comes to those wearing a uniform. 

There was also a very good article from journalist Neil MacKay in yesterday's Herald in which he says that Nicola Sturgeon should break free from following the approach of the UK government in tacking the Covid-19 pandemic in order to save more lives in Scotland.

Sturgeon must stop following UK and act to protect Scotland

Nicola Sturgeon needs to cut Scotland loose from Boris Johnson, and his failed government and its failed Covid-19 strategy, right now. She can't wait. Lives depend on it. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are following along on the coat-tails of a man, a party and a government that has catastrophically failed when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. The UK- from Belfast to Edinburgh and from Cardiff to London- is being led to disaster by Johnson and his fawning, weak-kneed team of incompetents, fantasists, liars and dissemblers.

You know the list of failures by Johnson's government without having them rehearsed at length. Johnson and Co have failed on planning, preparation, timing, delaying lockdown, oversight, management, protective gear, the health of NHS staff, testing, tracing, consistency of messaging. The list of failure keeps mounting, just as the dead mount. The concepts of dedication, service, care and intelligence seem alien to Team Johnson. You name the key area of decision-making when it comes to protecting us from Covid-19 and fighting the virus, and the only word to describe the behaviour and outcomes of the Johnson administration is this: failure.

But even that word doesn't suffice. 'Failure' cannot do justice to a government which looks to have squandered citizens' lives with his laissez-faire attitude towards sickness, suffering and death. This is the work of Nero, fiddling while Rome burns.

Any attempt to shield Johnson from the reckoning he's owed for his failures, behind the excuse of sickness is not only objectionable, it's wrong. The failures began long before Johnson contracted Covid-19...after knowingly shaking hands with coronavirus patients.

Johnson, and his sycophantic hagiographers who pose as commentators and pundits, seem obsessed by, fixated on, the idea that the Prime Minister is some national hero in waiting. The repitition of the word "Churchill" sounds like a cult incantation now rather then an historical reference point.

It will be interesting to see how history judges this man and his government. It's doubtful the word "Churchillian" will ever be used alongside the name Boris Johnson- unless future historians have a taste for bitter, dark irony.

The people are already judging Johnson- and their judgement is one of fury and damnation. In reaction to the news that the Prime Minister skipped five Cobra meetings as the outbreak began to spread around the world, here's how you- Herald readers- described Johnson.

One reader, Campbell Johnson, said: "This crumb of a PM enjoyed the best care the NHS could give but has had a personal hand in ensuring that NHS staff are sacrificing their lives in some instances through his government's criminal negligence in failing to adequately equip them. How does he sleep at night? Do the decent thing and resign".

Other readers talked of him "disappearing when the going gets tough", or described his as "the locker room joker". One said he was "at the helm of a ship of fools". Another added that "the levels of incompetence he displays is stratospheric". J. Williamson said "People have dies and people are still dying. Many more than would have dies because of the incompetence of the UK government. It won't be forgotten".

Ever in hock to Churchill's ghost, Johnson's crew of servile hangers'on and place-men have the temerity to invoke warmtime spirit. If the ghastly metaphor of war must be used then let's be frank: we're losing, and it's all thanks to Johnson and his government. Surely, the irony cannot be lost even on Team Johnson that many Britons would dearly like to be residents in Germany right now.

It's a grim and sick joke this government is playing on the British people. As one Downing Street adviser pointed out: "There's no way you're at war if your PM isn't there. And what you learn about Boris was he didn't chair any meetings. He likes his country breaks. He didn't work weekends. It was like working for an old-fashioned chief executive in a local authority 20 years ago, There was a real sense that he didn't do urgent crisis planning. It was exactly like people feared he would be".

Churchill? Try Marie Antionette.

The tragedy is that it didn't need to be this way. At the start of the outbreak, even Johnson's most implacable political enemies were more than ready to give him a chance, more than happy to stay silent if he just did his job and saved lives. If he'd  tried- if he'd really cared- perhaps the history books would have garlanded him with laurels. Now he's forever a figure of shame.

And yet, here were are in Scotland and in Wales and Northern Ireland tagging along behind this failure of a man and a Prime Minister and his failure of a government. There is little susbstantive between how the devolved governments and the Westminster administration are tackling the Covid-19 outbreak.

As the Institute for Government says: "There have been some small differences, in both policy and communications, in how the UK and devolved governments have responded to the crisis, but these have tended to be short-lived and mostly a matter of timing, as opposed to reflecting important differences in strategy".

Well change that now, First Minister. Sturgeon must use the powers devolved to Scotland- every power this country has at our disposal- to set us on a safer course. And leaders in Belfast and Cardiff should do the same.

This is not about the constitution. This is not a case for independence which is being made. Such petty political matters as Brexit and independence need chloroformed until long after the pandemic is over. Any politician trading in constitutional point-scoring at this time is unfit for office. This is a matter of life and death. We know that it's no exaggeration. More than 16,000 people are dead across the UK.

Sturgeon is not Johnson. She has character and decency. She cannot want to go down is history as the woman who walked along behind Johnson as he led Britain to tragedy. If she acts now, she may well not just help Scotland, but she may also show the people of Wales, Northern Ireland and England that there's a safer, wiser course to follow than the disastrous path laid by Boris Johnson's government.

It's ok, I realised that was a typo. I was just clarifying that it is the bacteria that mutates to become immune to the anti-biotic rather than our immune system becoming less effective.

Hmm - I've just had one of those "earn Avios by doing surveys" surveys come up as looking suspiciously like the NHS app!

Check out the questions below:

(Click to enlarge)

There were also questions asking about what do you think the most common symptoms are, how many times in the last week have you been out to see friends, out to shop for essentials, out to shop for nonessentials, out to work and out to help a vulnerable person, amongst others. They also asked if you thought you had it, and if immunity certificates were given as a result of an antibody test, would you mix more, would you keep your hygiene standards up... and oh yes, there was one asking whether the government should make wearing face-masks compulsory in public places.

It finished with some links to NHS pages.

FWIW I put down that I would use the app, but I have misgivings about the accuracy of the results, as people could lie about their status or simply turn Bluetooth off.

16 children today up 6 heard 2 mothers say I could have them at home but need a break  

Lockdown is slipping around here appears to be much more traffic and people sunbathing one even shouted out in the school grounds get a tan while you can,

Thanks I’m putting my self and family at risk for idiots.

Another rumour today I heard was when school does reopen a real possibility it will be a gradual thing probability early years to age 7 first.

You say it's a very good article.

It's an incredibly turgid piece of political rhetoric which, as usual with these journalistic pieces, is very strong on criticism of what has happened but studiously avoids making any constructive suggestions as to what the government should actually do next - in case it should turn out to be wrong and therefore attract criticism?- or because the journalist doesn't have a scooby?

Are there upcoming awards?

I'm afraid I agree, regardless of whether I agree with the article, the writing is borderline parody: "sycophantic hagiographers" ??! Nurse - I think someone just ingested a thesaurus!

It is a suprise, obviously obesity is a risk factor in alot of things. But not so much in viral pnemonia, let alone to the degree that COVID seems to like obese people. The fact that this particular virus is higher risk in fat people is something quite unique to it.