The biology of coronavirus COVID-19 - including research and treatments

Covid-19 will be followed by a deconditioning pandemic
https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/06/15/covid-19-will-be-followed-by-a-deconditioning-pandemic/

 

The authors have obviously not tried to take a walk along the sea wall in Woodbridge. Or on Hampstead Heath. What is obvious to both my wife and I and my daughter in London is that in lockdown people are doing regular exr]
excise much more regularly than they normally would because they have nothing better to do - no pubs to go to etc.

 

this is also what my friends re all telling me, that they been exercising more out of sheer boredom & because for a long while that was the only allowable outdoor activity other than essential shopping

 

I can only point out the obvious - 14 days is smoother, but less responsive to new trends. There are also weighted moving averages to throw into the mix...

 

My otherhalf had something similar. Chemist thought it was gout. Also pink eye. All through February. Plus mildish flu symptoms. I had flu with breathing, chest pain, swollen glands, temperature etc.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53061281 report on dexamethosone

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53061281

Thoughts on this?

The headline is bad because it implies that we've found a way to stop people dying from Covid now, when really it just reduces the risk of death.

Obviously I'm glad they've found something to reduce deaths.

 

COVID-19 ANTIBODIES :WHY IS EVERYONE TESTING NEGATIVE?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuKAg52mz4s

I haven't watched the video myself, but some of his previous videos have been good:

https://www.s4me.info/threads/possibility-of-me-or-pvfs-after-covid-19.14074/page-20

 

I received a letter from the NHS a couple of days ago offering me a swab test for active coronavirus. I would have to register with a website online, then undertake some form of survey into any symptoms of Covid I might have as well as general health questions, then I would be sent a swab for my nose and my mouth which would be collected by a courier from my home.

Taking part is voluntary and I'm not keen on taking part.

So much of my medical information has been stolen by the government and given away or possibly sold to private healthcare companies already despite me opting out of as much data sharing as I can so I'm not keen on providing them with any more information at all. I don't care whether the NHS or the government says all data is anonymised. Their ideas of what constitutes anonymity have turned out to be totally absurd and laughable. The other thing that annoys me is that the data that has been taken is so inaccurate that it's just a sick joke. (I bought a copy of my GP records a few years ago, which is how I know.)

I haven't actually checked the sequence of events yet, but I suspect I would have to register to take part in the survey. But I want to know what information about my health they want before I register. I hate surveys I have to register for before I find out what the questions even are. If I don't want to answer any of their questions they will still have whatever info I gave them in the registration process.

Incidentally, in case anyone is interested, I don't have any symptoms of covid-19 at the moment and I suspect I probably haven't had it yet.

 

A lot of people on Twitter are frustrated that the dexamethasone researchers have sent out their press release without releasing their results to fellow scientists, for example in a preprint. I think COVID-19 has shown the importance of post-publication peer review.

One of the researchers has tweeted the main results:
https://twitter.com/user/status/1272868887428771842

 

Is this separate from the ONS survey? I've been part of that since the outset, but it started in early April. They were originally planning to extend the numbers taking part, and they may still be doing this, but as yours is a single sample it may be a different project. (I was swabbed every week for five weeks and had a blood test for antibodies, and now I'm going to do it once a month for a year.)

If you want to take part, maybe you could ask for a sample of the questions? I don't know how easy it would be to actually get in touch, but it may be published somewhere. I was only asked for basic details such as name, contact details, nationality, working status, etc – things they already know – and information related directly to coronavirus. During the course of the study all I've been asked is whether I've had symptoms, are currently self isolating, or have been in contact with anyone who's tested positive ('No' in every case, as I've hardly seen anyone).

 

I don't know anything about the ONS survey, so I don't know if what I've been asked to do is part of it. I have to do the swabbing myself, and only once as far as I can tell, so it doesn't sound the same.

 

Probably not, then – I got an 8-page leaflet explaining what they're doing and why, and it's all marked ONS. I've taken part in their surveys a few times before, which is presumably why they asked me.

I'm not hugely worried about the privacy aspect, but I am a bit disappointed that, whilst they inform GPs of any positive swabs, they won't tell us the results of the blood draw for antibodies. It's because the antibody test hadn't been fully validated by early April; however, the chances are that it would have been validated by the time they actually started doing them last week (if it had been shown to be unreliable, they would presumably have dropped it). I may have had atypical Covid-19, so I'd quite like to know about that.

 

OH got a message from our GP yesterday asking him to enrol in the Principle Trial on Covid. He filled in a form to sign up, then got told he wasn't eligible. Shrug and roll eyes.

 

Had he had gout before? Were his eyes like this? https://www.express.co.uk/life-styl...date-uk-news-symptoms-red-eyes-conjunctivitis

 

My eyes go like that when I'm in severe PEM - it's been like that for almost 30 years since I first got the symptoms of M.E.



Edit: I have anti-histamine eye drops on permanent prescription for this problem. They help a little but my eyes get better after a few days in bed, so it's directly related to PEM. I also get discharge from them if I've overdone things more than normal.

 

This article from the Washington Post is wide-ranging:

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/coron...ill-others/ar-BB15C7Wx?li=BBoPRmx&ocid=ASUDHP

 

I regularly think headline writers should be fired from their jobs!