We thank Mr Peter Seymour of Hertfordshire for drawing our attention to a truly remarkable piece of journalism from the Telegraph, written by Rozina Sabur.

For it raises the following questions, to which we shall be returning again in the next blog. Essentially, Rozina asks

What does Recovered mean? What tests were done initially? Are the same tests used now? How reliable are tests? Does the disease come back? Or can you be infected again? If so, why? What exactly are the tests picking up? And how many people have not been “re-infected”-if that is what is truly going on?

Questions, questions, and more questions. Yet the article is trying to explain what we may expect in the next couple of years. With massive implications for movement of people, and how quickly we can resume economic activity. And remember this- South Korea is our example of best practice. What happens when this thing hits poorer countries?

I post this article below. I beg you to read it. We shall try to look at some of the issues raised in due course.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/coronavirus/recovered-coronavirus-patients-test-positive-again-in-blow-to-immunity-hopes/ar-BB12rSb0?ocid=msedgntp

#SouthKorea #coronavirustesting #reinfection #SARSCOVID2 #RozinaSabur

What wine did Jesus and his disciples drink at the last supper? Did they really drink wine? Would you like it if you tried it today?

Below, we link to two excellent articles which give a delightful insight into what must have really happened. For me, the key points are that wine making was such an old tradition in Jerusalem-it preceded Jesus by at least 2000 years. Secondly, that the Roman Empire possessed a vast network of vineyards, grape varieties and wine trading. And that the rich imagery of the Bible, which abounds in metaphors of wine, lambs and harvests evokes a simple Mediterranean agricultural economy-wine, bread, cheese, olives, and abundances of fruits and vegetables. Rather like we find when we go on holiday to Greece or Spain today. (well…yesterday!) Spoiler alert: the wine may well have been flavoured with herbs and spices, a bit like Vermouth or Dubonnet!

here are your references. Happy Reading

Robin Shreeves at Mother Nature Network suggests the wine was a bit like modern Italian Amarone

https://www.mnn.com/food/beverages/blogs/what-wine-did-jesus-drink-last-supper

Kashmira Gander of the Independent also has a charming article, and has really gone to town on the experts.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/last-supper-wine-serve-easter-jesus-apostles-jerusalem-grapes-bread-miracle-blood-transubstantiation-a7681516.html

and if you want a good discussion on wine in the Roman Empire, there’s always good ol’ Wikipedia, one of the great institutions of the twenty first century

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Rome_and_wine

#LastSupperwine #Roman wine

It is not often that we see an article so well written , passionate and scintillating that you HAVE to read it. Yet such is the case of Dr Richard Horton (editor of The Lancet) who writes in today’s Guardian. See link below.

It is not our place to agree or disagree with every point which Dr Horton makes. But every concerned citizen should think about these points that he makes.

Were repeated warnings ignored? (1994, 1998, 2004(Sars), 2013, 2014(Ebola)

Was the famous policy of Austerity to blame for fatally undermining the public realm?

Did UK Government Committee Nervtag make a fatal wrong call on 21st February 2020?

Have NHS workers been pushed too far, both physically and psychologically?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/09/deadly-virus-britain-failed-prepare-mers-sars-ebola-coronavirus

#coronavirus #sars #RichardHorton #Lancet

we wish all tigers who have caught corona virus a speedy recovery

#tiger #coronavirus

For technical reasons the link we provided to Graham’s superb article didn’t seem to work. here it is again

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/how-did-the-coronavirus-start-where-did-it-come-from-how-did-it-spread-humans-was-it-really-bats-pangolins-wuhan-animal-market

apologies to him and all our readers

#wuhanwetmarket #bats #origins corona virus #pangolin

It’s really important to know about the origins of the SARS Coronavirus 2. If only to predict the next one, and avoid another crash. Zoonoses(diseases that jump from animals to humans) have been occurring for thousands of years. We will be returning to this theme in future blogs. To get the ball rolling, here is an excellent article from the Guardian by Graham Redfearn. Excellent for the clarity of writing. Excellent for the questions it asks

Was it the Wuhan Animal Market?

What is the role of bats? And pangolins?

How easily does it jump species?

Will it hit cats? Pigeons? Sheep? What else?

Is it still evolving? And where?

Graham gives a superb kick off for anyone who wants to follow these questions

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/how-did-the-coronavirus-start-where-did-it-come-from-how-did-it-spread-humans-was-it-really-bats-pangolins-wuhan-animal-market-how-did-it-spread-humans-was-it-really-bats-pangolins-

#Coronavirus #Pangolins #WuhanWetMarket #OriginsCoronavirus

all our images are from the excellent Pixabay site check it out!

Spoiler alert: my IT people have asked me to run this again

The stunning advances in antibiotic research of the nineteen forties and fifties were followed by stagnation as resistance developed, and funding dried up. Now we have to look desperately for new ones. There is some hope of this. However, is there a chance that we could also recycle some from our existing stocks? AntibioticResearch UK seem to think so. Below is a summary of their work, beautifully presented.

#Antibiotics #AntibioticResearch #ResistanceBreakers

Antibiotic Resistance Breakers (ARBs)

The breakthroughs on new antibiotics, like penicillin were spectacular. All too soon, however, resistance kicked in, funding dried up, and here we are in a fine old mess. But-can we reuse any of those old antibiotics? The people at antibiotic research UK seem to think so. Here is a summary of their work on resistance breakers. See what you think.

#Antibiotics #AntibioticResistance #AntibioticResearch

Antibiotic Resistance Breakers (ARBs)

Recently, friend of mine bought a house near London which has quite a tidy sized stream running through the garden. Being possessed of a number of children, this friend is anxious to do something about climate change wherever and whenever he can. Being furthermore a rather gifted engineer and mathematician, he began to make the measurements and plans necessary to create his own hydroelectric power station in his own back garden-a noble aim indeed. He estimated a potential yield of 7000 kw per year- a useful contribution to running an electric car, to say the least.

Just like a government building a dam, he called in consulting engineers. And here come the problems. Installation costs-£50 000. Licence to proceed-£1500. And much, much more. Enough to make the eyes water of all but the richest, And however, ever, ever would you extract enough power to pay back the investment?

At this point, an unreflective person would throw up their hands, decry a brutal, inflexible bureaucracy, and perhaps turn to the comforts of alcohol.

If we are going to cure global warming, we must get everyone onside, welcome their new ideas, and help them to decentralise power production. Surely? Huh? Common sense, guvnor?

But as our man dug down, he realised the true explanation is deeper, and actually more problematic. The power grid systems of advanced countries were designed long ago, when electricity was pulsed out from huge central generating systems. The poor old cables will let you bleed off power, but they cannot cope when we are all feeding in from our little solar , hydro and biomass schemes. If local power is going to work, we shall have to dig out all those old cables, and put in new ones. And that will mean big bucks.

Developing countries who are still putting in their systems, should be able to avoid the worse of these sunk costs. Which means Britain will have to find the money from somewhere. Or fall behind.

Does too much stress make us ill? Intuitively, most of us would say yes. (confession: most of my nineteen nineties, trying to run two jobs were just cold after fever after cold!) Now I am no medical man, but the team at the top-The Prime, Minister, Messrs Cummings, Gove et al have all been working incredibly long hours under appalling conditions of stress, and we cannot be surprised they have succumbed (see news media). However, if you are reading this, you are probably the curious sort who wants a proper scientific explanation of what’s going on. If you don’t, you have just wasted sixteen years in school and University.

Now a team ay Nagoya University led by Kazuhiro Nakamura, have come up with a well defined link which seems to bear how and why our suspicions are true (Marta Pulido Salgad Investigacion y Ciencia– How Stress can provoke Fever see English ref. below and article)

They have found that, in rats, stress stimulates the sympathetic nervous system ,which affects both cardiac function and body temperature. They have even identified a key area of the neuronal cortex, called the Dorsal peduncular cortex and the Dorsal tenia tecta( I bet you suspected they were going to be in there somewhere) According to Nakamura, they link directly to parts of the hypothalamus that control the functioning of brown fat-the one you use to control temperature. And their tests in stressed rats showed higher temperatures in regions like the back and the abdomen-where we mammals keep a lot of our brown fat.

It’s always good to have guessing knowledge confirmed. The team have given us an important new piece of the jigsaw puzzle. This way we may be able to better control stress, design it out, or treat it with drugs, if we really have to. And how much money could that save the Health Service in the long run?

A central master driver of psychosocial stress responses in the rat N Takoaka et al Science 367 (6482) 1105-1112 6 3 2020

https://www.investigacionyciencia.es/noticias/cmo-el-estrs-puede-provocar-fiebre-18502