It is certainly worth doing trials (underway in both the UK and the USA) to establish whether transfusing serum from people, who have recovered from a Covid-19 infection, can help people struggling in hospital with the disease (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/20/uk-trial-coronavirus-treatments-using-blood-from-survivors). This is a long-established approach (depending on boosting the antibodies to the virus) and was reportedly trialled in the early stages of the pandemic in China with anecdotal success. The difficulty, of course, is that it would be ethically difficult to do a fully-controlled double-blind study in which some seriously ill patients received plasma from people who had not had the disease (and the physicians were initially unaware which serum had been given to which patient). We will have to rely on the percentages of recovery compared to groups receiving no transfusions. It will be difficult to ensure that the experimental and the 'control' groups are well-matched in other respects (in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, severity of disease and levels of medical and nursing care). I suspect that very large groups will be needed.
This blog may help people explore some of the 'hidden' issues involved in certain media treatments of environmental and scientific issues. Using personal digital images, it's also intended to emphasise seasonal (and other) changes in natural history of the Swansea (South Wales) area. The material should help participants in field-based modules and people generally interested in the natural world. The views are wholly those of the author.
Tuesday, 21 April 2020
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