Coronavirus: social, economic and other changes as a result of the pandemic

[Pulcinella]

Money has been found to boost participation in Horizon Europe:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/apr/01/uk-pledges-extra-250m-for-hi-tech-research-collaboration-with-eu

PS: Wrong thread, since not Covid related as such. Should probably have posted on the Trade deal/no deal thread.

[french frank]

Money has been found to allow us to stay in Horizon Europe:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/...ration-with-eu

"The cost of participation was previously part of the UK’s EU membership fees."

So that's another quarter of a billion to deduct from the 'savings' we gained by leaving the EU.

[teamsaint]

"The cost of participation was previously part of the UK’s EU membership fees."

So that's another quarter of a billion to deduct from the 'savings' we gained by leaving the EU.

Maybe a quarter of a billion less to spend on the roll out of domestic “ vaccine passports” the dangers of which obviously don‘t need spelling out.Hopefully incompetence and public and political dissent will stop them being fully implemented.
The alternative , especially for our young people , is not nice to contemplate.

[LHC]

"The cost of participation was previously part of the UK’s EU membership fees."

So that's another quarter of a billion to deduct from the 'savings' we gained by leaving the EU.

I think the Government had always claimed that they would 'match' the previous contributions to the Horizon programme with additional funding to be provided domestically through the research councils. I suspect that this £250m will simply be redirected from domestic research funding, and so is not actually 'extra'. Nevertheless, this is good news. The UK was one of the biggest beneficiaries from the Horizon programme, and we always received much more funding back than we put in. That may still change in future, as I suspect the ERC will still be more reluctant to fund projects where a UK university is the lead partner than before Brexit (when we more often than not the lead partner).

[oddoneout]

Money has been found to boost participation in Horizon Europe:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/...ration-with-eu

It provides a breathing space for now, but as always it remains to be seen to what extent there is a follow through, and also also where the money comes from - announcements of this kind tend to mean that funds somewhere else have been raided, or that existing fund allocation money has been repackaged as "new".
Still on research matters, something I hadn't realised was that the cuts to overseas aid weren't cuts to future aid but have involved hefty cuts to existing projects so that proposed/planned projects have had to be cancelled and projects already up and running have had funding pulled, threatening their continuation. https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...jects-in-peril

[oddoneout]

Well it'll certainly be different...

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/apr/02/boat-race-oxford-cambridge-river-great-ouse

[vinteuil]

Well it'll certainly be different...
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...ver-great-ouse

... but the move to the Ouse is not because of covid - it's because of the unwillingness of the government to fund the necessary repairs to Hammersmith Bridge : at the moment no boats are allowed under it. Pure politics - London has a Labour mayor and Hammersmith a Labour administration, and a Tory government doesn't want to help in an election year...


.

[Serial_Apologist]

... but the move to the Ouse is not because of covid - it's because of the unwillingness of the government to fund the necessary repairs to Hammersmith Bridge : at the moment no boats are allowed under it. Pure politics - London has a Labour mayor and Hammersmith a Labour administration, and a Tory government doesn't want to help in an election year...


.

I'll pay for it!!! Seriously though...

[Anastasius]

All part of the inconsistency that arises from police forces across the country making their own judgements about when and how to act? Once schools went back it all became a bit murky anyway since it meant a significant increase in the mixing and contacts situation.

Maybe. I can think of anther reason.

[oddoneout]

... but the move to the Ouse is not because of covid - it's because of the unwillingness of the government to fund the necessary repairs to Hammersmith Bridge : at the moment no boats are allowed under it. Pure politics - London has a Labour mayor and Hammersmith a Labour administration, and a Tory government doesn't want to help in an election year...


.

Not entirely unconnected with Covid though? Easier to prevent large crowds assembling out in the middle of the fens than in central London.

[teamsaint]

Just bumping this in case any goalposts move without us noticing........

[Dave2002]

Is so-called "Long Covid" now established as a definite disease, and is it related to, or caused by having had the Coronavirus Covid-19? For quite a while it seemed to be treated as a separate entity - with not necessarily a direct connection with Covid-19.

What is the latest scientific and medical view on this?

[oddoneout]

Is so-called "Long Covid" now established as a definite disease, and is it related to, or caused by having had the Coronavirus Covid-19? For quite a while it seemed to be treated as a separate entity - with not necessarily a direct connection with Covid-19.

What is the latest scientific and medical view on this?

It's the shadow left in some people who've had the covid virus. The severity of the initial infection doesn't seem to be related to the severity of the aftermath. Problems with post-viral effects are nothing new but haven't generally received much attention in the medical community much to the distress of sufferers(as I know myself) but the pandemic has changed that.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's the shadow left in some people who've had the covid virus. The severity of the initial infection doesn't seem to be related to the severity of the aftermath. Problems with post-viral effects are nothing new but haven't generally received much attention in the medical community much to the distress of sufferers(as I know myself) but the pandemic has changed that.

Is long covid less likely having had one or the other of the vaccines? We're told if you do then get it the symptoms will not be severe - but, does that apply to long covid??

[Dave2002]

It's the shadow left in some people who've had the covid virus. The severity of the initial infection doesn't seem to be related to the severity of the aftermath. Problems with post-viral effects are nothing new but haven't generally received much attention in the medical community much to the distress of sufferers(as I know myself) but the pandemic has changed that.

Isn't that tricky to verify? Clearly if someone has definitely had Covid then if it takes a long time to recover that could reasonably be called Long Covid. In the relatively early days of what was known about the pandemic, some people reported what is now being called long covid, but they had not obviously had the coronavirus. Now we know that some people - a proportion of the total sufferers - have had asymptomatic or near asymptomatic Covid - so do some of these also now identify with what is being called long covid?

It could be that so-called long covid is viewed with some scepticism in some quarters, just as ME was years ago - and I still don't know whether ME is now generally accepted as a medical condition.

Are there any tests to verify that such people really have had Covid, and to justify the use of the term long covid? Perhaps not, as there are it seems few tests which can actually determine whether people have had such diseases in the past.

So - assuming that there really is such a thing as Long Covid - what diagnoses and what treatments are there for it? Another possibility is that it is yet another condition, and not directly related to Covid-19 at all.