COVID CORNER
Dogs can sniff out Covid, but having sex doesn’t stop you from catching the virus
SNIFFING OUT COVID
In a bid to speed up Covid testing at airports and other public buildings, research has been carried out to see if dogs can be trained to detect people infected with Covid-19 by smell alone. Sniffer dogs have already been trained to detect the distinctive odours of diseases like cancer, malaria and Parkinson’s, picking up scents that are far below the level at which humans can smell them (see FT339:22-23, 378:24). Six dogs were given socks, face masks, T-shirts and other items that had been worn by Covid sufferers to accustom them to the smell, then given rewards when they correctly identified whether a test item belonged to someone with Covid or not. In the tests, dogs were found to pick up 88% of infections, including ones where the patient was asymptomatic, which is almost as good as PCR tests, which pick up 96% of cases, and significantly better than lateral flow tests, which are around 72% accurate. They were also able to identify infections whichever variant was involved. While dogs alone would not be able to confirm that a person was infected, they could be used as a first line of defence, as two dogs can screen 300 people in half an hour. Any they give a positive result for could then be given a PCR test to confirm the diagnosis. While these initial tests have been very successful, it will need further, more detailed laboratory work before dogs can be deployed to check people at mass gatherings. BBC News, 24 May; Times, 2 June 2021.
DOUBLE COVID
The first known case of someone being infected with two Covid strains simultaneously has been reported from Belgium. A 90-yearold woman who died in March was found to have had both the Alpha and Beta strains, it was reported in a press conference at the 2021 European Congress on Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID). Normally people have only one strain of a virus. It is not clear how the woman became infected, but it is possible that she could have caught the infection from two different people at around the same time. Molecular biologist Anne Vankeerberghen said that even though there are no other published cases of similar co-infections, researchers believe the case shows that it is possible to catch two Covid-19 variants simultaneously and that the “phenomenon is probably underestimated”. On admission to hospital, the woman’s condition was initially stable, but then deteriorated quickly and she died five days later. Vankeerberghen said that it was difficult to tell whether the co-infection played a role in the patient’s rapid deterioration. sciencealert.com, 12 July 2021.
YOU WISH!
South Africa’s National Health Department has been forced to issue a warning that sex does not prevent Covid after a fake “official government document” went viral on social media in the country. The document’s text read: “The only way we can beat this Coronavirus! Note let’s keep everyone indoors at least four to six hours a day we confirm that sex is the only medication we can use for now. Let’s try to make many rounds as we can at least four to five per day until further notice. This is for elders only a health and strong. Together we conquer.” Despite poor grammar, spelling mistakes (including misspelling “Department of
Health”) and factual errors, the document was widely believed. Commenting on the idea of sex protecting you against Covid, Dr William F Marshall of the Mayo Clinic in the US said that, far from protecting you, “coming into contact with a person’s spit through kissing or other sexual activities could expose you to the virus,” and, clearly warming to his theme in a definite case of “too much information”, added that as the virus can also spread through contact with fæces, “it’s possible that you could get Covid-19 from sexual activities that expose you to fæcal matter”. dailystar.co.uk, 12 July 2021.
INDONESIAN IMPOSTOR
As Indonesia found itself in the grip of the worst surge in Covid infections in Asia, a man with the virus boarded a domestic flight from Jakarta to Ternate disguised as his wife, wearing a niqab to cover his face and carrying her ID and a negative PCR test result. The man was rumbled when a flight attendant caught him changing clothes in the lavatory. Ternate police arrested him on landing, took him for a Covid test, which came back positive, and confined him at home in self isolation while they continued their investigation. [AP] 22 July 2021.
UNMASKED CRIMINAL
Drug courier Paul Green was busted by police after he was stopped at Wigan station for not wearing a face mask on the train. Under questioning, he raised suspicions by being evasive about his destination, so police searched him, finding £60,000 worth of heroin and crack cocaine about his person. He was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for possession of class A drugs with intent to supply. BBC News, 19 June 2021.
NAKED AUSTRALIANS
Two Australian men were fined $1,000 for breaking lockdown restrictions in New South Wales after they went “nude sunbathing” on a beach south of Sydney. While sunbathing they were apparently startled by a deer and fled into the bush behind the beach to escape the animal, quickly becoming lost. Police sent out a helicopter to search for them, eventually locating a 30-yearold man naked and carrying a backpack in the Royal National Park and a partially clothed 49-year-old nearby. At a press conference, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said it was “difficult to legislate against idiots.” He was asked if sunbathing naked on a remote beach constituted outdoor recreation, which is allowed in the Australian lockdown, but his answer was interrupted by a man claiming he was the “prime creator of this Earth” who issued Fuller with a “notice of cease and desist”. theguardian.com, 28 June 2021.
PROTEST FIASCO
Anti-vaccine protesters, including Piers Corbyn, angered by what they see as the BBC’s “promotion” of covid vaccines, gathered outside Television Centre in west London with the aim of storming the building and disrupting news operations. They live streamed the event, which had been promoted widely in advance as a major protest against the BBC. On the live stream Corbyn can be heard to say, “We’ve got to take over these bastards,” while other protestors accused the media of being the real virus and chanted “shame on you” while scuffling with police, who needed to bring in reinforcements and a helicopter to contain the protest. Unfortunately, the BBC had largely moved out of the building in 2013, and its news operation is now run from Broadcasting House in central London. Television Centre is now mainly flats, with a private members club and three residual studios that are mostly rented to other broadcasters. While protesters battled to get in, the ITV programme Loose Women was the only thing being filmed there. Co-host Charlene White said: “Not sure what protesters were hoping to achieve, but all they would’ve found was me, Jane, Nadia and Penny… talking about the menopause”. irishtimes.com, 10 Aug 2021.
FAKE VACCINE NURSE
Thousands of Germans have been urgently advised to get another Covid shot after it was discovered that a Red Cross nurse in Friesland had injected them with saline solution instead of a real vaccine. Many of the estimated 8,600 people affected were elderly and in high-risk categories for Covid infection. The nurse’s motive for delivering fake vaccinations was not completely clear, but police found that she had made vaccinesceptical posts on social media. German broadcaster NDR said the case had been handed to a unit that investigates politically motivated crimes. Guardian, 11 Aug 2021.
SHAFTED