THE POSITIVE PROFESSOR

SOCIAL media’s voice of calm Karol Sikora has been signed up by the Daily Express. Readers can now enjoy his soothing advice in these troubled times that have won him hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. If you need reassuring everything’s going to be all right read Professor Positivity.

I REMEMBER all the way back in March and April when I would try to find some positive stories to share. To be honest it wasn’t easy, they were dark days indeed.

It’s easy to forget quite how perilous the situation was, but now there is encouraging news wherever you look. In our fight against the virus, we are progressing across so many different fronts.

The fantastic vaccine news, developments in the treatment of the virus, key statistics all continuing to fall.

There is no doubt that the past few months have been for some the worst in living memory, but our situation has improved drastically.

As readers of the column will know I have been a huge advocate of T cells for some time now. It was all the way back in April when I conducted our own antibody tests I first suspected there was more at play.

To see that the vaccine induces a strong T cell response is so encouraging. We’ve seen studies recently where people still have T cell protection 17 years after first being infected and this bodes extremely well for any long-lasting immunity from Coronavirus.

There is a long way to go with the vaccine, partly slowed down because the incidence of the virus is so low in the UK, but these initial signs are promising.

And there are over 120 vaccine candidates now entering clinical trial globally. A huge achievement especially as different strategies are being explored.

And isn’t it fantastic to see a British research team lead the way on the search for a vaccine?

We have some of the best scientists in the world working on our shores and we should all be enormously proud of the work they are doing.