1

COVID-19 / Re: Are COVID-19 Vaccines safe for pregnant women (& their babies)?

« on: 29/04/2021 00:28:20 »

Have there been any studies on any differences between naturally occurring antibodies from infection and the antibodies generated by the mRNA shot?

2

COVID-19 / Re: When should people be revaccinated against Covid-19?

« on: 26/02/2021 19:36:41 »

the variants of concern ...must have occurred in reinfected people

You might have this backwards...
- The variants will appear about every 2-3 weeks in the chain of infected people.
- When the variant differs sufficiently from the original that it is no longer recognizable, then people will get reinfected
- The more people that are infected at once, the more chains of infection there will be, and the greater number of variants generated. This increases the chance that a sufficiently different variant will appear

There is another class of high-risk patients: Those with a chronic COVID-19 infection.
- These patients are probably in hospital, being treated with our most effective treatments (which are, unfortunately, few in number at this time)
- The virus is likely to develop resistance to our most advanced treatments.
- If these variants escape, that could lead to a very serious outbreak

3

COVID-19 / Re: Anyone know the details of the new coronavirus variant?

« on: 23/12/2020 09:04:16 »

UPDATE 23/12/20

The mutations identified in the new variant have been documented in this paper: https://virological.org/t/preliminary-genomic-characterisation-of-an-emergent-sars-cov-2-lineage-in-the-uk-defined-by-a-novel-set-of-spike-mutations/563

This is a screenshot of the reported changes:

COVID-MUTATIONS.JPG (59.66 kB . 511x621 - viewed 12033 times)

Current questions surround the suggestion, made by epidemiologist Professor Niall Ferguson, that the agent might be better at infecting children. This is speculation at this time and requires further analysis and biological confirmation. I'll address this question, and the argument that an immunocompromised patient with Covid-19 might have been the origin of this new variant, in my next post.

4

COVID-19 / Re: What happened to the Porton Down study?

« on: 30/04/2020 20:31:46 »

It may have been moved to Porton Down.
If you mean this
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-tests-never-heard-hold-key-exit-lockdown/
the reason you haven't heard the result is that it's a six month project.
It's not finished.
"The work at Porton Down should, within months, start to answer that vital question"