Reasons to be cheerful-here’s two more Covid ones for Ian Dury

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Sad to recall, but songwriter Ian Dury (1942-2000) is no longer with us. If he were, he might have added today’s news stories to the lyrics of his song Reasons to be Cheerful.

Does sleep cure Covid-19? From James Hamblin The Atlantic

When Feixong Cheng started using AI to explore every possible angle on COVID-19 back in January, he little dreamed that his computer would throw up melatonin as a real candidate. This humble little hormone, involved both in sleep and the immune system may actually lower your odds of succumbing to an attack by the virus. And, get this, sleep may help you on the pathway to recovery. James tells it a lot better than we could:

How COVID-19 Changes Our Sleep – The Atlantic

So-is our current long hours culture making everybody ill?

Monoclonal antibodies could throw a defensive ring around patients Denis Campbell The Guardian

It’s quite an exciting example of how fruitful the partnership between Academia and the private sector can be if it’s done right. Dr Catherine Houlihan of UCL and AstraZeneca (of vaccine fame) are looking at how monoclonal antibodies with the catchy name of AZD7442 could be quickly injected into COVID-19 patients and the people who live around them. The drug may even help those poor souls whose immune systems are compromised by another illness. Denis looks at all of this, but we’ve also included a Wikipedia link on monoclonals for those who like a bit of background

UK scientists trial drug to prevent infection that leads to Covid | Coronavirus | The Guardian

Monoclonal antibody – Wikipedia

All we need now are really good track and test systems so we know who should get the drug!

We think that’s two more items to add to your list of Christmas good cheer. Happy? Well, you should be.

#melatonin #monoclonalantibodies #covid-19 #sars-cov-2 #coronavirus