Hello it is Triska again. ProfB has asked me to talk about the anti-body tests that are out there. These are currently relevant to how people are being tested to see if they have had a COVID-19 infection, but the principles are the anti-drug antibody tests that we have been doing in the Lab Lateral flow test A lateral flow immunoassay, also referred to as a rapid diagnostic test is a simple to...
Detecting #MSCOVID19 infection. SPIN and SNOUT
Hello my name is Triska. I am working with DrAngry and ProfB and was due to do my student Lab project on anti-drug antibodies in MS. I have been told that the subject matter is top secret. However, things have changed and I have been doing a COVID-19 related study. You may know that you can detect the virus is you are infected. However, after you have been infected, you will make an anti-COVID-19...
Guest post: social distancing
Dear everyone. As an infectious disease epidemiologist, at this point feel morally obligated to provide some information on what we are seeing from a transmission dynamic perspective and how they apply to the social distancing measures. Like any good scientist I have noticed two things that are either not articulated or not present in the “literature” of social media. Specifically, I...
Speedy recovery
We hope the MD1 (Mouse Doctor 1) makes a speedy recovery. He is unfortunately in self-isolation with a high fever and dry cough. He and his wife have both contracted COVID-19. Ware Village Speakeasy, Hertfordshire, linked to spread of COVID-19. Public Health England epidemiologists have tracked down a large cluster of COVID-19 cases to an illegal speakeasy in the Hertfordshire village of Ware...
Guest Post: Dr Richard Nicholas
The impact of COVID-19 in multiple sclerosis: a substudy of the UK MS Register We need to understand more about COVID-19 urgently, and you can help. COVID-19, the coronavirus infection, is devastating the health and jobs of millions around the world, and is now in increasing in the UK with a major impact on all of our lives. People with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) are a susceptible group both due...
#COVIDMS – Guest post
These are trying times. The increasing number of Covid-19 cases worldwide and the rapidly expanding hotspots around the globe are only a part of our concern; it is what we don’t know, nor fully yet understand, that scares us the most and remains the focus of research. We’re concerned about the brain in the context of the Covid-19 infection; the potential involvement of the brain can...
COVID-19 put into perspective
A short video putting the COVID-19 epidemic into perspective.
Coronavirus
Dear UK person with MSWe are getting a lot of queries regarding coronavirus. Once we have more information we will update you. At the moment the NHS advice is not to book a GP appointment, attend your GP Practice or local hospital if you’ve visited or travelled through mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, or Thailand and have symptoms of cough...
The third reviewer
Prof G has been working all weekend responding to reviewer’s comments to a large and very important grant application for the Barts-MS group. Despite us all reassuring him that it will be okay and that the third reviewer has been neutralised he is having sleepless nights. What can we do to help him? We have suggested he watch this parody on YouTube, about scientific peer review, to lift his...
Guest Post…Do No Harm
Primum non nocere A guest post from Dr James Stankiewicz, Boston. One of the fundamental tenants of medicine is “Primum non nocere”—First, Do No Harm. In theory this sounds quite easy to accomplish. And at times it can be. A surgeon should not, for example, amputate the left foot when the right foot is problematic one. But at other times it can become quite complicated to know what to do when...