Member Info for AgentB

‘Sovereign supply’ for the post Brexit era.

(Briefly)

Brilliant! As I read that we turned blue! Cheers Indy.

Update on Paraytec lft
https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/BRH/further-update-re-paraytec-limited-qhlyr9bit9bq5hm.html

Although this week has felt as though we have been sailing through the Wide Sargasso Sea (with its treacherous currents and seaweed thong detritus) the cameraderie has remained indomitable. I love the way that shipmates here are ready to pun and joke at any opportunity. I certainly get more belly laughs on here in any given week than I would do if you put all the BBC’s current comedy output back to back and made me watch that!
Here’s hoping that we get out on the high seas this afternoon.

“The round of testing will also help to tackle the one in three who have the virus but do not have symptoms, so could be spreading the disease unknowingly.”

Interesting! They sound pretty confident that there will be a test available in the New Year that can detect Covid in the asymptomatic?

ZB, he didn’t say blood, but ‘Blödsinn’ = German for rubbish!
Mart, that film is frightening! Regardless of the fact that he was using apple juice, it seemed that one test gave a positive reading and the other a negative to the same sample.

Now it’s going to become a game amongst the kids -what weird and wonderful substance can we find to run through a lateral flow device and film ourselves watching it give a false positive?

Worrying. No wonder people are losing faith.

Don’t rise to the bait. The best way to attack is to ignore.

If you want something to really get angry about, take a look at this

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/936794/serco-group-confirms-profits-to-soar-helped-by-test-and-trace-contract-936794.html

Serco added it is to pay a bonus of £5mln or £100 each to staff for their efforts over the past year, while some £3m in furlough payments will be returned to the government along with £38m in deferred taxes.

Galling!

I had to cancel Christmas with my daughter yesterday on the grounds that she was persuaded by her flatmates not to have a Covid-19 test before coming home to me. Their rationale was that the testing is faulty - throws up too many false positives. So if she were to test positive, they 1) wouldn’t know whether to trust it and 2) would ALL have to cancel Christmas with families. (And this logic is coming from a group of graduates!!!)

So if the elderly won’t get vaccinated and the young won’t get tested, what’s the solution?

In my view, we need a testing reset with new technology. It needs to be ‘sovereign’, exquisitely specific, and bulletproof having gone through all the scientific hurdles that could possibly be set for it and passing everything with flying colours. When the big Affimer reveal happens, it will set the gold standard for Covid detection. But, as we all know, Affimers can also assist with therapeutic diagnosis in hospital AND neutralise Covid-19.

The future is bright here and it’s all being choreographed for the New Year IMO
GLA

It’s also worth remembering this from Perdita Barran

“Mass spectrometry helps scientists understand how the virus interacts with the host by investigating the nature of the viral protein and the proteins found at the back of people’s throats – this practice is normally an important step when developing vaccines or therapeutics.
Professor Barran heads up the COVID-19 MS Coalition team at Manchester, leading a £1.8 million grant funded by UK Research and Innovation, which involves five other universities and combines the mass spectrometry capabilities of the Michael Barber Centre and the Stoller Biomarker Discovery Centre.
This project is using mass spectrometry to find prognostic biomarkers to guide clinical decisions and also catalogues all mass spectrometry research data into a single web catalogue. Data scientists around the world can then access the information to see how people are affected by the disease.”

In other words the ambition is greater than simply developing a test to ‘detect’ COVID-19, but also to evaluate the likely progression of the disease in each individual.

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/coronavirus-response/science-engineering-coronavirus-projects/mass-spectrometry-coalition/

https://theanalyticalscientist.com/fields-applications/the-mass-spec-covid-check
This article claims that MS could be key to improving COVID-19 testing accuracy and capacity.

“Millions of PCR-based tests are performed each day. Although these are efficient, automatable, and acceptably cheap, the world cannot rely on one technology alone. Not only are reagents in short supply, but the test is also difficult to validate, and false results (positive and negative) may go undetected.”

The article also explores some of the challenges faced by those seeking to develop an MS-based Covid diagnostic test.

Indeed, on such low volume, the SP could be quite volatile, and we may still see the FOMO Friday effect later on.

It’s a different kind of mining, but have you seen how ARB is motoring?

Clinical trials found that Ellume's home test correctly identified 96% of positive samples and 100% of negative samples in people with Covid symptoms. In people without symptoms, the test correctly identified 91% of positive samples and 96% of negative samples.

And there is an app/QR code attached. This is the new ‘gold standard’.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/12/16/fda-approves-ellume-home-covid-test-how-it-works-and-antigen-accuracy.html

Pointless and illiterate ramping (grately excepted ???) = just as bad as MerchantBanker’s efforts in my view. How many times per day are you going to post this kind of vacuous tripe?

Perhaps AVCT were asked to develop a nasal swab test to prove that saliva is just as good a sample as the nasal swabs that everyone has become accustomed to seeing? A sort of belt and braces approach so that when the big reveal comes (and turns out to be a saliva test after all) they can publish figures to show that affimers plus saliva is just as accurate as affimers plus nasal swab?
(Pure speculation on my part.)

‘Sideways movement’ = spot on Tilly! Looks like Elvis has left the building.

Happy to read all you have to say AP. Like I said, I really appreciate your posting here.