It is you who is being lazy and arrogant.
The one person in my street who has had Covid locked herself in on the very first day of the lockdown back in March and relied totally on deliveries. Two months later according to her neighbours she started to "cough all the time", then was taken into hospital where she remained for a few weeks and is now home, but looking incredibly frail. One of the few facts about Covid-19 is that the incubation period is 2-3 weeks. The only human contact she had in the previous two months were the succession of delivery drivers, and at least one of our local supermarkets early on in lockdown had to stop deliveries for a time due to having had an outbreak in its delivery drivers......

Well, look who's changed his tune:
In post 101462 you stated

Strange, I read something somewhere that coronavirus was unusual in that it did not mutate, it had a parity check or something.

So now you accept that the virus does mutate. Hurray, you agree with science and statements that have been made almost universally for a good few months.

That means it's far easier for us to keep up with any changes it makes.

That means also that there is a better chance of any future vaccine being rolled out broadly to the population at large. And working, if any of us live that long.

Chill, everyone, and have a listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6f734MDffs. It's chilling, but beautiful. The guy singing is a former Professor of Sociology at Sheffield University: it's a modern retelling, but the history is accurate. Enjoy, and learn.

I guess having worked as a nurse for over 30 years and having experience reading research papers and judging their worth makes me biased. It must be liberating to not understand these things and be able to choose videos of the interweb that chime with one's political leanings.

Interesting headline, and an even more interesting article.
The article itself does not claim "immunity", and "reactivity", two very different things.
My brother reacts very badly to certain tree pollens, but is far from immune to them, quite the reverse in that his breathing and eyes are hit really badly. In much the same way a T-cell can react to a virus in a beneficial manner (kill or protect against), or the opposite (trigger something like, but not the same as anaphylactic shock). There's a lot to learn from this study but, sadly, the headline used in the news article is sensationalist and does not properly reflect the science of the study.

Having gone out with a number of nurses and doctors over the years has taught me to be somewhat sceptical of any "magic bullet" when it comes to cures for illnesses.
Stay safe - 30 years as a nurse is a long time and a lot of experience.

Discussion is fine, but keep the personal attacks and swear words out of it.
Thank you.

Play nice. :-)
Use the correct name when quoting or replying.

Stay safe - 30 years as a nurse is a long time and a lot of experience.

Thanks, took early retirement a few years ago and started practising as an aromatherapist. But that has gone base over apex in the current pandemic. (Not a major problem as main income is NHS pension.) I am keeping busy packing organic veg boxes, keeping bees and playing with computers in any order you like.

Yes, and they took some very basic precautions which restricted the spread.
The real controlled evidence is that there is at most less than 1% of the human population that have natural immunity.
As you seem to believe these FACTS come from governments are wrong I would refer you to independent sources like the BMJ, Lancet which are not influenced by governments.

https://bestlifeonline.com/coronavirus-immunity/

"This evidence is backed up by previous research that discovered COVID-19-reactive T cells in 40 to 60 percent of unexposed individuals."

Stop being such a worry wart. The weak will die, the strong will survive. It's called evolution and we're screwing it up. It's high time we reduced the overpopulated world anyway. Imagine a world where everyone had twice the land!

Are you volunteering?

Glory: we don't have a total lockdown in NL
Grumble: but it's close. All bars and restaurants were already closed - but for take-out - now add to that all the museums, theaters, cinemas, zoos, swimming pools and theme parks. It's already forbidden to buy any alcohol or soft drugs between 20:00 and 06:00h, you can't have it on you as walk out on the street during those hours either.
Maximum group size on the street is now two people.
Visiting: you can have two people per 24 hours visiting you.
We're not allowed to go abroad, unless it's absolutely necessary, this restriction lasts until middle of January.
If we go on vacation, it's only allowed in our own country and not to go far from where we stay. Do small local sight-seeing trips only.

The rest of the time: work from home, stay at home as much as possible. Don't go fun shopping, you're allowed to go out and have a stroll, just don't overdo it. Stay away from crowds ... well, other small groups of max 2 people.

Schools stay open.
Gyms stay open.

It's possible we'll get regional total lockdowns with a curfew between 22:00 and 04:00 hours, closing of high schools and universities (still, not the primary schools), closing of all stores excluding supermarkets.

Good luck all.

PS: since middle March 24,430 people were fined because they didn't adhere to measures to stop corona. 3,034 fines were given to people not wearing a mask in public transport. Fines were initially €390.- which due to the amount automatically gave you a note on your criminal record, but the fine has been reduced to €95.- to stop the latter from happening.

On the mutations front, Virus strain 'traced back to farm superspreading event' 30th Oct at 12:08

A strain of coronavirus that originated in Spain accounts for the majority of new Covid-19 cases in several European countries including the UK, according to a new study.

A team of international scientists say they have been able to trace back the virus strain to a "superspreading event" among farm workers over the summer.

It was then able to jump into the local population and start moving more generally around Spain, lead study author Emma Hodcroft told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The evolutionary geneticist from the University of Basel said "three failures" had allowed the virus mutation to spread so widely.

"First, the cases were rising in Spain earlier than in most of Europe, but we still allowed people to go travel there," she said.

"On top of that, we didn't really do much screening of passengers at airports."

Hodcroft said it was then "very likely" that people didn't follow quarantine rules properly, adding: "Finally, if the variant did get back to another European country, those countries weren't able to cut that off quickly with just a few people and instead it had a good environment where it could spread more widely."

There was a very interesting small-scale study reported a few days ago, but I can't find the reference quickly. (I'll try to find it)

It is now possible to examine the genetic sequence of virus samples taken via single test swabs. Testers collected multiple samples (~100) from single sites on a single day, so they were directly comparable.

One sample-set was taken at a food processing factory. Another sample-set was taken from a general hospital.

The first sample-set turned out to be closely self-similar: all the individual samples had the same genetic sequence. Conclusion - this outbreak was caused by a virus circulation within the workforce. They didn't have to worry about the wider community.

The second sample-set turned out to have wide variation - different patients had picked up widely varying mutations of the virus. Conclusion - the outbreak was not the result of cross-contamination within the hospital, but the patients had been infected in the community before admission.

Once that kind of research can be validated and rolled out more widely, it should - I sincerely hope - be possible to trace and contains local cluster spreaders, without resorting to regional or national lockdowns.

Latest from HMG (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-when-to-wear-one-and-how-to-make-your-own/face-coverings-when-to-wear-one-and-how-to-make-your-own)

Enforcement measures for failing to comply with this law

Premises where face coverings are required should take reasonable steps to promote compliance with the law.

The police can take measures if members of the public do not comply with this law without a valid exemption and transport operators can deny access to their public transport services if a passenger is not wearing a face covering, or direct them to wear one or leave a service.

If necessary, the police and Transport for London (TfL) officers have enforcement powers including issuing fines of £200 (reduced to £100 if paid within 14 days) for the first offence.

Repeat offenders receiving fines on public transport or in an indoor setting will have their fines doubled at each offence.

After the first offence, there will be no discount. For example, receiving a second fine will amount to £400 and a third fine will be £800, up to a maximum value of £6,400.)

So somewhat more than a "normal" speeding fine, no mention of what happens if one is foolish/arrogant enough to exceed the 6 offences to reach the maximum fine (and remember the fine is for the particular offence, not the total of fines for all offences)

I do tend to agree with you in your assumption that HMG needs to claw some money back, but this is one where there is a reasonable way to avoid the penalty, and one will know at the time of the offence that there is a fine on its way unlike many speeding offences when the first the offender knows about it is the letter on the doormat...

Looks like I'm in one of the provinces that's going to get a curfew and strict total lockdown. Yay.

Looks like I'm in one of the provinces that's going to get a curfew and strict total lockdown. Yay.

I'm so happy for you!