Some common colds apparently but never flu, which is an entirely different type of virus. Whether the mass-produced Lateral Flow kits are picking up the coronaviruses responsible for these common colds is the big question.
As for Covid infections, I'd guess there's no way cheap tests are ever going to distinguish between variants.
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
savid javid says we are going to have to learn to live with it like flu which kills 20,000 a year.well covid isn't flu and 150,000 in 18 months is a little more than 20,000.its still here.
We need to remember though that covid 19 is a new disease that we didn't have any immunity to. Flu in contrast has been around long enough for everyone to have at least some immunity and therefore in general we can recover from it. Once covid 19 has circulated through the population multiple times we will hopefully have more immunity (plus the excellent vaccines) and therefore be in a position where we can carry on normally.
A local uea professor Paul Hunter (at least I believe it was him and hopefully aren't misquoting) said that future deaths from covid, flu and pneumonia would probably still make up around the same proportion of winters deaths that we normally saw with just flu and pneumonia in the past. Essentially there will just be a slight shift in the cause of mortality but the numbers wouldn't be higher. Of course that's in an ideal scenario but we don't know what will happen with new variants.
Thats good to know then, I assume they are modified as each new strain comes to light.
As per my post above
"... Following a Positive PCR test the swabs are further tested to check for which variant it is. We may not be told, but that's how the variants are picked up and tracked."
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
The LFT tests have a specific monoclonal antibody placed on the test line. This is tagged with a molecule that changes colour when the antibody reacts with its specific antigen (in this case says covid 2 or covid 19 as we all call it. ) As already said influenza is an entirely different family of virus.
The LFT tests have a specific monoclonal antibody placed on the test line. This is tagged with a molecule that changes colour when the antibody reacts with its specific antigen (in this case says covid 2 or covid 19 as we all call it. ) As already said influenza is an entirely different family of virus.
Wow, thanks for that. I was wondering how the little colour line worked. The chromatography 'plate' seems so small and crude it made me dubious about it's accuracy, but then it's a few years since I've done any chromatography.
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
Did the sars cov 1 come to Europe, I can’t remember anything about it or being told about any precautions in place. Similar to this one started in China probably from bats.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Posts
As for Covid infections, I'd guess there's no way cheap tests are ever going to distinguish between variants.
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
We need to remember though that covid 19 is a new disease that we didn't have any immunity to. Flu in contrast has been around long enough for everyone to have at least some immunity and therefore in general we can recover from it. Once covid 19 has circulated through the population multiple times we will hopefully have more immunity (plus the excellent vaccines) and therefore be in a position where we can carry on normally.
A local uea professor Paul Hunter (at least I believe it was him and hopefully aren't misquoting) said that future deaths from covid, flu and pneumonia would probably still make up around the same proportion of winters deaths that we normally saw with just flu and pneumonia in the past. Essentially there will just be a slight shift in the cause of mortality but the numbers wouldn't be higher.
Of course that's in an ideal scenario but we don't know what will happen with new variants.
"... Following a Positive PCR test the swabs are further tested to check for which variant it is. We may not be told, but that's how the variants are picked up and tracked."
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Thankyou. That's all I wanted to know.
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
Wow, thanks for that. I was wondering how the little colour line worked. The chromatography 'plate' seems so small and crude it made me dubious about it's accuracy, but then it's a few years since I've done any chromatography.
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
Similar to this one started in China probably from bats.