Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Thanks Fort' ....on now see https://ukhealthradio.com/blog/program/healthtech-hour/
On 31st - see https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/ABDX/notice-of-results/15890598
No worries Karean. Seems to me we can't do much about NHS capacity but we can as individuals do our best to avoid making additional demands. I don't want the sniffles or long term sniffles so still chose to wear an FFP3 mask as does my immunocompromised wife...so far so good. That said when our friends recover we will have our new years eve get together. Each to their own but think about it.
When the UK approved Evushield last March they said “ There is not yet enough data to know how effective Evusheld is against Omicron or the duration of its effect against this variant...." See https://www.gov.uk/government/news/evusheld-approved-to-prevent-covid-19-in-people-whose-immune-response-is-poor
In December this study at https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(22)01531-8 reported “Unfortunately, both BQ and XBB sublineages are now completely resistant to bebtelovimab, leaving us with no authorized antibody for treatment use. In addition, the combination of mAbs (Monoclonal antibodies) known as Evusheld that is authorized for the prevention of COVID-19 is also completely inactive against the new subvariants. This poses a serious problem for millions of immunocompromised individuals who do not respond robustly to COVID-19 vaccines. The urgent need to develop active mAbs for clinical use is obvious.”
Thanks Kaeren - https://twitter.com/tryangregory - seems like FFP3 masks might be a good idea to stave off the worst and the need to call upon the NHS.
New year but Covid still a problem just read https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(22)01531-8? and if nothing else read final paragraphs repeated below. Being ill is no fun whether you end up with long Covid or very ill and die. To me it makes sense to track “What is going on” and if you have any concern use an FFP3 mask, as they are variant agnostic. Ducking a wave may help afford time for science and medics to get on top of things or into sunnier days. Stay healthy everyone and reduce load on NHS.
“Unfortunately, both BQ and XBB sublineages are now completely resistant to bebtelovimab, leaving us with no authorized antibody for treatment use. In addition, the combination of mAbs known as Evusheld that is authorized for the prevention of COVID-19 is also completely inactive against the new subvariants. This poses a serious problem for millions of immunocompromised individuals who do not respond robustly to COVID-19 vaccines. The urgent need to develop active mAbs for clinical use is obvious.
Lastly, we found that the spikes of BQ and XBB subvariants have similar binding affinities to hACE2 as the spikes of their predecessors (Figure 5), suggesting that the recently observed growth advantage for these novel subvariants is likely due to some other factors. Foremost may be their extreme antibody evasion properties, especially considering the extensive herd immunity built up in the population over the last three years from infections and vaccinations. BQ.1, BQ.1.1, XBB, and XBB.1 subvariants exhibit far greater antibody resistance than earlier variants, and they may fuel yet another surge of COVID-19 infections. We have collectively chased after SARS-CoV-2 variants for over two years, and yet, the virus continues to evolve and evade. This continuing challenge highlights the importance of developing vaccine and mAb approaches that protect broadly and anticipate the antigenic trajectory of SARS-CoV-2.”
Should be interesting to see https://www.boursorama.com/cours/1rPALNOV on Monday....Guess what we are staying in tonight as friends now down with Covid...best wishes to LTH's for 2023.
We know that Covid came out of the Wuhan lab, probably by lax security – a concern expressed in a Nature report in 2017 – see https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2017.21487. The China harsh lockdown policy has always made me wonder what they know about Covid that the rest of us don’t? Either way we are stuck with ongoing mutations and the work of first responders is far from over with Jo Public now used to home testing.....
Seems to me if someone was interested in joining a company with a great R&D team and several million in the bank they might be inclined to do some research before joining. If so they could assess the downside risk (given all the tests approved subsequently) and weigh up the chances. At the current valuation it seems to me there could easily be more upside. As an engineering I love R&D, But just R&D makes companies go broke. Having studied business as well as international marketing I have enjoyed turning round engineering companies that couldn’t spell the word marketing. So just need a new CEO who sees things similarly with experience and thus self-confidence to take on the job and the DHSC. I’ve always seen recessions as a time of turmoil and survival and growth of those well managed with a positive offering…and a bit of cash in the bank. Now…where is that CEO?
Kaeren thanks. Hurray for the tweet! I’m trying to understand how bad Strep infections are in the UK and overseas. It’s not easy to assess
It could peter out - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63915308
Serious fear of overwhelming the NHS - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11508079/GPs-warn-danger-overwhelmed-Strep-A.html
If Strep A wasn’t bad enough Strep B looks worse https://inews.co.uk/news/strep-b-baby-boy-died-test-saved-life-2014871? If true that it "kills about one newborn child a week" – that’s 52 avoidable infant deaths a year! How tragic is that.
How can we be cutting down on antibiotics unless we know its a bacterial or viral infection - https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/medical/antibiotics-could-have-saved-my-child-says-father-of-seven-year-old-strep-a-victim/ar-AA14QkJ3
So POC testing is a must but I just don’t have any feel for the size of market(s)....
Rising level in France - https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/french-health-directorate-warns-of-increase-in-strep-a-bacterial-infection/2757855
Canada doesn’t seem to have a problem https://globalnews.ca/news/9332460/uk-strep-a-explainer-canada however https://globalnews.ca/news/9097564/4-seniors-dead-after-strep-a-outbreak-montreal-care-homes so not to be messed with in care homes. Sound familiar?
Regardless it would be great to see Novacyt tests readily available and are in use.
OK gang, from time to time there are great suggestions here from sensible people and I wonder if Novacyt are actually aware of these thoughts? How best might we feed ideas into Novacyt?
Direct e-mails to Consultants in Infectious Diseases was something mooted earlier this week....their NHS e-mails seem easy to find. Poidster suggested using Amazon and that made me think....Novacyt seems to like social media (not my forte) but how about using Mumsnet www.mumsnet.com to reach concerned mothers?
Before we get into debate over e-commerce sites Novacyt could tie up with Abingdon Heath who make LFTs and have their StrepA LFT on the AbingdonSimplyTest site – see www.abingdonsimplytest.com.
Brainstorming ideas – it’s about pooling and encouraging ideas so let's stop the insults and start helping encourage UK plc.
P100 Maybe we won’t buy so much from China in future. Seems to me allowing money to circulate through pockets in the UK is probably a better idea.... if you simply buy overseas it will do little for the UK economy. Spending more at home gives a chance some of it will go back to the taxman every time it gets spent. Further you might wish to note that UK Government has decided to spend £700m to get the Chinese out of the Sizewell nuclear project. You never know lessons might have been learnt from buying cheap tests in recent years and we now have some as PM who knows Primer’. Perhaps I will drop him a line about Strep A testing ...
I really think we do need to get tests out for Strep A. My wife had Strep A when we lived in the States and it didn’t get picked up that quickly – it took weeks to sort and we even had a doctor visit her at home as really poorly. He threw so much antibiotic at it my wife has been allergic ever since. So not to be messed. We need timely diagnosis and thus easier treatment/pressure on the NHS. It’s a tragedy when kids die and not great for any parent having to take time off work to look after when an early home test could speed action.
Hi Kaeren, my wife and I are still doing the ONS survey and in an update earlier this month the ONS wrote to say "Over the winter, we will be running a small pilot to find out whether CIS could be used as an early warning system for flu and another respiratory virus called respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in the community. We will do this by testing a small number of the swabs you provide each month for these two viruses as well as COVID-19.
We will also try to read the letters of the genetic code of any seasonal or emerging influenza virus that we find, which may help us work out how well the flu vaccine might work. This is called sequencing.
This is a pilot programme testing less than 1% of samples selected at random, so you will not be notified or receive results if your swab is tested for flu or RSV.
This pilot data should give the NHS an early warning of the levels of these viruses circulating the community, helping them prepare to face these potential pressures and ensure our healthcare services can cope over the busiest time of their year."
I may have previously said my neighbour, a pensioner who has had Covid in the past, recently fell ill with RSV which she thinks was caught whilst flying. Now flying off to Europe so will probably come back with flu next!
Hi KT, probably worth referencing the statement from the Government - see https://www.gov.uk/government/news/industry-responds-to-call-to-arms-to-build-british-diagnostics-industry-at-scale and reminding folks of Abingdon's involvement ..."One such group has already launched to meet the fourth of these challenges. A business consortium, UK Rapid Test Consortium (UK-RTC), including Oxford University, Abingdon Health, BBI Solutions and CIGA Healthcare has launched, in order to design and develop a new antibody test to determine whether people have developed immunity after contracting the virus. " Perhaps Matt Han**** is better suited to hanging around with monkeys in the jungle....
Biscuit, Lymes is on the increase as the tick's used to gey killed off in winter...that's not happening now hence the spread in USA and Canada. It's also long since present in the UK and not always detected in time; so not a thing to be played with. In Sweden they get vaccinated against it.