Coronavirus

[Dougie Do'ins]

GMB TV just reported that a Swiss company have developed an antibody test that's 100% accurate to tell if anyone has had the virus or not.

[Bobby Hundreds]

Well that's good news.

 

I wonder if I'll be able to book a hospital place they infect me, look after me and if I survive I leave and go about my shit.

[Scott_M]

6 minutes ago, Dougie Do'ins said:

GMB TV just reported that a Swiss company have developed an antibody test that's 100% accurate to tell if anyone has had the virus or not.

‘Twas just about to post that myself. Potentially great news. 

[Mudface]

10 minutes ago, Dougie Do'ins said:

GMB TV just reported that a Swiss company have developed an antibody test that's 100% accurate to tell if anyone has had the virus or not.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/13/public-health-england-approves-roche-test-for-coronavirus-antibodies

 

Public Health England approves Roche test for coronavirus antibodies

The accurate Covid-19-specific test can be quickly processed using existing equipment


 The Roche-developed test for coronavirus has been evaluated at the PHE lab at Porton Down, Wiltshire. 
Public Health England has approved an antibody test, made by the pharmaceutical company Roche, which may now be used to determine how much of the population has been infected by Covid-19.

Antibody testing could be hugely useful as the country emerges from lockdown as the presence of antibodies to the virus in a person’s blood proves they have had it. However, whether the person is immune and if so, how long that immunity lasts, are still very open questions.

The test is likely to be used to find out whether particular areas of the country, or people in certain professions, have had Covid-19, but it will not give individuals an immunity passport to let them restart their social lives.

This Roche antibody test is not the home finger-prick test that created a wave of excitement when Prof Sharon Peacock from Public Health England told a committee of MPs on 25 March it would be available to buy within days. Oxford University was testing several versions of the home antibody tests, which look like pregnancy tests, at the time. All, however, failed to come up to standard. The best were said to have been 70% accurate and most no more than 50%. Health secretary Matt Hancock, who had bought 3m of them, was said to be seeking the government’s money back.


Roche’s test was approved at the start of May by the EU and by the Food and Drug Administration in the USA as being 99.8% specific for Covid-19 – so it is not confused by antibodies against other coronaviruses which cause colds – and 100% sensitive, so it will pick up any antibodies that are present. It will work on blood samples taken by a healthcare professional at least 14 days after the person developed Covid-19.


The Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 serology test is processed in laboratories using Roche analysers that hospitals already have. Roche says its fully automated systems can provide results in approximately 18 minutes for one single test, with a capability to do 300 tests an hour, depending on the analyser.

Prof John Newton, national coordinator of the UK coronavirus testing programme, told the Telegraph that experts at PHE’s Porton Down labs had evaluated the test and confirmed the 100% accuracy.

“This is a very positive development, because such a highly specific antibody test is a very reliable marker of past infection,” he said. “This in turn may indicate some immunity to future infection, although the extent to which the presence of antibodies indicates immunity remains unclear,” Newton said.


Scientists will hope to obtain very valuable data on the spread of the pandemic through mass antibody testing, which could reveal how many people have had the virus but without experiencing any symptoms. Looking at those particular groups will help in the search for vaccines and treatments.

Roche, based in Switzerland, already has orders from around the world, following the US approval and the granting by the EU of a CE kite mark. It had “already started shipping the new antibody test to leading laboratories globally and will ramp up production capacity to high double-digit millions per month to serve healthcare systems in countries accepting the CE mark as well as the US”, it said in a statement on 3 May.

“Roche is deeply committed to supporting the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Timely availability and fast access to reliable, high quality tests are essential for healthcare systems,” Dr Thomas Schinecker, CEO of Roche Diagnostics, told the Guardian.

“The antibody test is an important next step in the fight against Covid-19 and Roche’s antibody test can be quickly scaled and made broadly available as more than 40,000 of our instruments are already in use in many laboratories around the world.”

[Dougie Do'ins]

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-new-100-accurate-covid-19-antibody-test-approved-for-use-in-uk-11987924

 

[Spy Bee]

Sorry lads, but I posted this a few days ago. They now seem to have rounded up 98.9% to 100% though.

[Bjornebye]

7 hours ago, skaro said:

 

When stagecoach travelling is allowed again, at least passengers can feel safe when they are robbed... 

 

TK and the Ants

 

"Stand and deliver, you're new face-mask and one for your wife" 

[s(k)aturation]

 

Nowhere near safe enough to be out stagecoach-robbing any time soon.

 

 

[SasaS]

1 hour ago, Mudface said:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/13/public-health-england-approves-roche-test-for-coronavirus-antibodies

 

 

First the cuckoo clock now this, the Swiss are on a roll.  

[JohnnyH]

I just read a New York Times article about all the different labs doing multiple tests (thousands in some cases) on existing drugs, and one in Asia has found 4 existing drugs for treating things like cancer and osteoporosis also kill the coronavirus, and the dosages required are acceptable for a human.  

 

But then I read the'll only have a vaccine at the earliest next May/June.

 

So if the NYT article is correct, then is that what we should be concentrating the work on?  A cure instead of a vaccine?  Get the cure first and treat as we go, but then get a vaccine after?

 

Or is all that bolox?

 

Very confusng.   

[JohnnyH]

2 hours ago, Dougie Do'ins said:

GMB TV just reported that a Swiss company have developed an antibody test that's 100% accurate to tell if anyone has had the virus or not.

 

2 hours ago, Scott_M said:

‘Twas just about to post that myself. Potentially great news. 

Why is it great news though?  If you have the antibodies it doesn't mean you can't catch it again, so whats the positive in me finding out I had it 2 months ago?

 

Very confusing x 2

[JohnnyH]

By the way, sorry if my last 2 posts are asking everyone to rehash stuff already discussed.

 

This thread has descended into a mess of people arguing over who knows more, and who wants to be the self-appointed Subject Matter Expert, with added daft abuse, as so many big threads do, so I just stopped reading.  But the two bits I read today were big steps I thought?  So I thought I'd ask you lot of cunts.

[Bjornebye]

5 minutes ago, JohnnyH said:

By the way, sorry if my last 2 posts are asking everyone to rehash stuff already discussed.

 

This thread has descended into a mess of people arguing over who knows more, and who wants to be the self-appointed Subject Matter Expert, with added daft abuse, as so many big threads do, so I just stopped reading.  But the two bits I read today were big steps I thought?  So I thought I'd ask you lot of cunts.

Can anyone sum this up for Johnny H? 

[sir roger]

14 minutes ago, SasaS said:

 

First the cuckoo clock now this, the Swiss are on a roll.  

I was amazed they never declared themselves neutral when C19 was first identified,  and tried to buy it off with Nazi gold.

[s(k)aturation]

11 minutes ago, JohnnyH said:

By the way, sorry if my last 2 posts are asking everyone to rehash stuff already discussed.

 

This thread has descended into a mess of people arguing over who knows more, and who wants to be the self-appointed Subject Matter Expert, with added daft abuse, as so many big threads do, so I just stopped reading.  But the two bits I read today were big steps I thought?  So I thought I'd ask you lot of cunts.

 

I don't know.

 

 

[sir roger]

11 minutes ago, JohnnyH said:

 

Why is it great news though?  If you have the antibodies it doesn't mean you can't catch it again, so whats the positive in me finding out I had it 2 months ago?

 

Very confusing x 2

I dont think it has been fully established , but the suggestion seem to be that there will be some level of immunity if it is in line with similar family viruses , and the original stories about reinfection have now been countered by the South Koreans suggesting that it was faulty testing. 

[Scott_M]

24 minutes ago, JohnnyH said:

 

Why is it great news though?  If you have the antibodies it doesn't mean you can't catch it again, so whats the positive in me finding out I had it 2 months ago?

 

Very confusing x 2

It’s expected that if you have it, you won’t be able to get it for X period of time.

 

If you could catch it again, considering at least 5m people word wide have had it, I’d have assumed by now it’d have been widely reported if you can be re-infected.
 

All the stories so far of re-infection have been shot down to false positives or that people hasn’t fully overcome the initial infection.

 

If more people have had it & are significantly less likely to catch it again in X period, then there is more chance of life returning to normality for larger numbers of people faster, while a vaccine is developed.

 

Still talk that the vaccine being developed in Oxford could be available as early as September.

[Spy Bee]

5 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

It’s expected that if you have it, you won’t be able to get it for X period of time.

 

If you could catch it again, considering at least 5m people word wide have had it, I’d have assumed by now it’d have been widely reported if you can be re-infected.
 

All the stories so far of re-infection have been shot down to false positives or that people hasn’t fully overcome the initial infection.

 

If more people have had it & are significantly less likely to catch it again in X period, then there is more chance of life returning to normality for larger numbers of people faster, while a vaccine is developed.

It may also last a lot, lot longer than that, based on what we know about SARS. It may not.

[Scott_M]

On the back of my above posts, I do feel though that our best hope may have gone...

 

[JohnnyH]

Ok, none of that was helpful.

 

What about the vaccine v’s cure thing? If possible cures are out there with existing drugs, why not concentrate on that instead of the vaccine, and get to work on the vaccine once the cure is a available?

 

New York Times article below. 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/magazine/can-team-science-yield-a-covid-19-treatment.html

[Mudface]

6 minutes ago, JohnnyH said:

Ok, none of that was helpful.

 

What about the vaccine v’s cure thing? If possible cures are out there with existing drugs, why not concentrate on that instead of the vaccine, and get to work on the vaccine once the cure is a available?

 

New York Times article below. 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/magazine/can-team-science-yield-a-covid-19-treatment.html

Neither is guaranteed to succeed, so you'd hope there are multiple teams working on both a vaccine and treatments in parallel.

[Dougie Do'ins]

1 hour ago, JohnnyH said:

But then I read the'll only have a vaccine at the earliest next May/June.

I really wouldn't pay much attention to that. It nothing but speculation based on hope.

 

We might never find a vaccine. 

 

 

[Bjornebye]

50 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

On the back of my above posts, I do feel though that our best hope may have gone...

 

Wannabe. 

[Pureblood]

4 minutes ago, Dougie Do'ins said:

I really wouldn't pay much attention to that. It nothing but speculation based on hope.

 

We might never find a vaccine. 

 

 

Have we looked down the side of the sofa?

[JohnnyH]

7 minutes ago, Dougie Do'ins said:

I really wouldn't pay much attention to that. It nothing but speculation based on hope.

 

We might never find a vaccine. 

 

 

You’re not helping my mood.