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When will this shit end?


Chrisp1986

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2 minutes ago, Radiochicken said:

Can anyone summaries what it said?

the press release Melvin sent out says...

FULL CAPACITY PLAN


CALL FOR INCREASED TESTING THROUGH INCENTIVES

 

NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO
RESTART THE LEISURE ECONOMY

 

 

Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic has called for the increase of testing in the UK as leisure industries (recreation, entertainment, sports) cannot operate with the measures that are currently in place.

The Full Capacity Plan is an incentive based scheme that will increase public use of the NHS Trace App and increase the participation rates for population tests. This is about restarting the leisure sector of the economy at full capacity.

Working in partnership with the government, a test would allow the public to access the entertainment and leisure sectors e.g. pubs, theatre, gigs and sporting events, creating a personal incentive for the public to be tested and traced. This is a genuine alternative to social distancing.

Melvin Benn said:
“We are currently in a position where the government has capacity to test 1.4 million people a week but testing less than 700k because there is no incentive. My plan is to create incentive, to test at least double the current capacity and be aiming for 12-15 million people a month being tested minimum.  I am proposing The Full Capacity Plan to stimulate the debate about getting back to normal opening rather than partial opening because partial opening is financial disaster opening. I am proposing The Full Capacity Plan because it's simple and easy, inexpensive in comparison to the subsidies that the government is currently paying and very achievable with good organisation.” 

The Full Capacity Plan can be seen here in more detail.

ENDS

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3 minutes ago, Neil said:

the press release Melvin sent out says...

 

 

Slight aside, but do the government really have the capacity to test 1.4m people a week? I mean they say they do, but they clearly struggle to get the 200k daily without being very very creative with the numbers.

Edited by Deaf Nobby Burton
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9 minutes ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

Slight aside, but do the government really have the capacity to test 1.4m people a week? I mean they say they do, but they clearly struggle to get the 200k daily without being very very creative with the numbers.

here's what I tweeted....

 

 

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2 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

air pollution is back to pre-covid levels in China, so that's good. Way to go humans!

with Minimal use of public transport its unfortunately always going to happen here too  unfortunately  :( 

Edited by crazyfool1
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25 minutes ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

Slight aside, but do the government really have the capacity to test 1.4m people a week? I mean they say they do, but they clearly struggle to get the 200k daily without being very very creative with the numbers.

That's what boris promised: 200k a day, 1.4 million a week. That's why the figures picked I assume....

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This is actually the sort of proposal that at the very least deserves to be debated right now as a whole swathe of the economy and more importantly social fabric is currently being decimated.

Sadly it does depend on the government chipping in with a fully functional and trustworthy app, the ready availability of tests as well as their speedy expedition. All these things look unlikely at them moment, but there must come a point when they run out of mistakes to make and eventually get stuff right.

Well done to Melvin for coming up with a constructive proposal, I sincerely with him every success.

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He has certainly got a point. For so many hospitality type businesses there is no incentive to consider re opening at partial capacity.

the country’s mood is moving towards getting things back towards normality so its time to talk seriously about how we achieve it.

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Skimmed through bits of it and it certainly sounds interesting. The road map strikes me as a bit ambitious but hey, that kinda thinking is needed at the minute. It would be a bitter pill to swallow having to download the dodgy app to attend Glastonbury mind you. 

I certainly feel much more confident now than a few months ago that 2021 will see the return of gigs and festivals. Whether it's this plan or another, I feel fairly confident something will be in place with or without a vaccine.

 

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4 minutes ago, jparx said:

The road map strikes me as a bit ambitious

but probably less ambitious than trying to create 3M+ new jobs in other sectors cos live music and eating out has died.

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Just now, Neil said:

but probably less ambitious than trying to create 3M+ new jobs in other sectors cos live music and eating out has died.

Absolutely - hence why we need that sort of thinking! We're in a period where crazy solutions are absolutely necessary.

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10 hours ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Just had a thought about vaccines. This is a question for professor @Toilet Duck

Let's say we get this Oxford vaccine in October and it mainly stops the virus from killing those of us that have it, but it doesn't offer full protection and doesn't have much of an impact on infectivity, but still much better than nothing so we get the jab.

Then in, say January, we get access to another vaccine that does stop it properly, kills the viral load everywhere and stops the spread.  How are the different vaccines likely to interact? Will we end up with confused antibodies? Will the efficaciousness of one vaccine be degraded by the other? Or are they more additive and we just have effectively double protection?

In other words, is there any scenario where getting the Oxford vaccine could be a bad move if it stops something much better from working properly soon afterwards?

Howdy, apologies for the delay, Wednesday mornings are busy, we have our lab meeting! 

So, in theory, inter-vaccine interference can influence how one vaccine impacts on another, but in general, these things are tested as part of the vaccine development and it's not a widespread phenomenon. Many vaccines can be combined safely and routinely are. All sorts of things can influence how well a vaccine works (interference from the actual virus you are trying to protect against, drugs, even the immunological makeup of the individual). The antibodies that we make are generally "polyclonal" i.e. they are directed at different parts of the virus (and even those generated via vaccination tend to be like this), so while potential for interaction exists, it's more likely that the immunological response elicited would just add to the pool of antibodies targeting coronaviruses. This can be a good thing, for example, repeated flu vaccinations with different strains builds up a pool of anti-influenza immunity in an individual (this is exactly why swine flu turned out to be less dangerous than it might have been since high risk populations had loads of prior flu shots). So, if the Oxford vaccine is safe and protects against potentially fatal complications and another more protective vaccine comes along later, then I wouldn't be too worried about getting the new one. My suspicion is though that in the timeframes outlined, access to both would be unlikely. High risk individuals would be more likely to get the first vaccine, with the rest of us getting the newer one later on. That's a scenario that would work though, since high risk individuals would have protection from serious disease, which would be bolstered by herd immunity in the general population gained via the next vaccine. 

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6 minutes ago, Toilet Duck said:

Howdy, apologies for the delay, Wednesday mornings are busy, we have our lab meeting! 

So, in theory, inter-vaccine interference can influence how one vaccine impacts on another, but in general, these things are tested as part of the vaccine development and it's not a widespread phenomenon. Many vaccines can be combined safely and routinely are. All sorts of things can influence how well a vaccine works (interference from the actual virus you are trying to protect against, drugs, even the immunological makeup of the individual). The antibodies that we make are generally "polyclonal" i.e. they are directed at different parts of the virus (and even those generated via vaccination tend to be like this), so while potential for interaction exists, it's more likely that the immunological response elicited would just add to the pool of antibodies targeting coronaviruses. This can be a good thing, for example, repeated flu vaccinations with different strains builds up a pool of anti-influenza immunity in an individual (this is exactly why swine flu turned out to be less dangerous than it might have been since high risk populations had loads of prior flu shots). So, if the Oxford vaccine is safe and protects against potentially fatal complications and another more protective vaccine comes along later, then I wouldn't be too worried about getting the new one. My suspicion is though that in the timeframes outlined, access to both would be unlikely. High risk individuals would be more likely to get the first vaccine, with the rest of us getting the newer one later on. That's a scenario that would work though, since high risk individuals would have protection from serious disease, which would be bolstered by herd immunity in the general population gained via the next vaccine. 

You never need to apologise to us!  Great answer, thank you very much.

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27 minutes ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

It’s not that crazy: https://ajn.timesofisrael.com/israel-invents-one-minute-coronavirus-breath-test/

Surely an instant test would make festivals completely viable? There would be some logistical issues in terms of queues, sure, but not beyond the realms of possibility.

Very interesting! I work with a group that has been developing tests using exhaled breath condensate for cancer detection (It works very well!). I actually reviewed a submission by them to use this approach for detecting coronavirus (since they wanted to work with the virus in the university, it had to pass through our biosafety committee) and they are testing it at the moment. It's a different approach to this one in that it actually runs a rapid PCR, so it detects viral nucleic acids, whereas this one is based on resonance (which would be even quicker), so validation of the accuracy of this test is the key to it working, but it's exactly the type of game changer we need!. I guess the key question once accuracy is proven is whether you are infectious if you are below the detection threshold...if not, game on!

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43 minutes ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

It’s not that crazy: https://ajn.timesofisrael.com/israel-invents-one-minute-coronavirus-breath-test/

Surely an instant test would make festivals completely viable? There would be some logistical issues in terms of queues, sure, but not beyond the realms of possibility.

What would happen if you failed the test in the queue at something like Glastonbury though? Not allowed in at all?

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1 minute ago, ModernMan said:

What would happen if you failed the test in the queue at something like Glastonbury though? Not allowed in at all?

You would be sent to Barnard Castle for a jolly instead. 

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1 minute ago, ModernMan said:

What would happen if you failed the test in the queue at something like Glastonbury though? Not allowed in at all?

I guess that would be the idea, yeah. Then there's a question of refunds.

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3 minutes ago, crazyfool1 said:

PMQs .... ive remembered its on this week :) 

Just got back from a bike ride - timed it to get back in time! Should be interesting.

Go in with Cummings first to get him on the back foot, then get stuck in re track and trace, testing figures, etc.

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