Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
IT’S LIKELY YOU have a rough idea of how much time you spend using your phone. Since they’re with us every day, it’s likely you’re regularly checking Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat or any number of apps in-between moments.
But those constant checks add up and in some cases you might want a more specific idea of how often you use certain apps, maybe to help you reduce the number of times you check for something.
If you’re an Android user, you have a few options. You could get Quality Time which tracks all of your app usage. It gives you a breakdown of all the apps you’ve used each day, the amount of time spent on each one and your overall time spent on your phone over the week or month.
It’s comprehensive in how it collects and it presents your phone habits in an easy to understand manner. If some of your app habits are particularly bad, you can set up limits to help curb your usage, or schedule specific breaks for important moments.
Alternatively, you could go for the literally named BreakFree Cell Phone Addiction, which offers the same tracking features but with more tools to help you stay focused.
iOS doesn’t really have the same capabilities unless you don’t mind tracking general usage (or if you jailbreak your phone but that’s another story entirely).
In that case, it’s worth getting Moment which will at least track how long you’re using your phone every day. If you also have an iPad or family members with iPhones, you can track their usage as well and set usage limits to keep things in check.
It doesn’t have the same level of detail as Quality Time, but it will likely tell you the amount of time you spend on your phone is higher than you think.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
This is great news as it means that Covid 19 is susceptible to a vaccine, something that could not be taken for granted.
There are 170 trials going on worldwide so the odds are very much in favour of an effective vaccine being found.
@Justin Gillespie: tremendously good news.
@Justin Gillespie: Great news, just read an article last week about a promising vaccine in America. It was that promising the stock markets jumped. In trials it produced antibodies so your body can fight the disease. All those on trial recovered and the only side effect was a fever which lasted one day at most.
@Justin Gillespie: excellent can we go back to Brexit now
@Justin Gillespie: Jaysis I nearly burst into tears readin’ this little thread. I so hope you’re right
@Justin Gillespie: dont hold your breath… they said the same thing about Aids !
@Francis Sally: they have a vaccine in the oven in Queensland too. There are so many clever humans on this and some lab rats https://advance.qld.gov.au/vaccine
@Pat Kelly: Jesus Pat, have you any more feel-good stories for us?
If the pubs were open I’d defo take you out for a pint.
@Justin Gillespie: Great news indeed. I’ve kept an eye on Oxford’s vaccine project for a few months now, crossing my fingers that stage 3 yields something good for us all.
@Pat Kelly: what did they say about AIDS?
@James Brady: LOL
@Justin Gillespie: It’s great news. Think they’re running a bigger trial in Brazil hopefully will have similar or better results.
@Pat Kelly: Comparing AIDS with this virus is like apples and oranges. This virus affects us all and effects our breathing. The aids virus was borne out of ignorance and a choice a person made to have unprotected sex at a time of an epidemic and sharing needles. While it’s regrettable that many people contracted HIV and died, it didn’t have the same financial clout behind it and carried a huge stigma with it. You could probably count on one hand the amount of states or institutions who got behind the HIV vaccine program and those that did threw pocket change at it. It didn’t lead to lockdowns and economic hardship.
@Pat Kelly: HIV is unusual because the virus seeks out and infects immune cells called T-helper cells (also called a CD4 cells).
Making a vaccine for HIV is very difficult, because simply teaching immune cells to identify and seek out the virus will in fact help the virus infect more cells. This is called immune enhancement or antibody-mediated disease enhancement. So it’s a catch-22
“Vaccine development for lentivirus infections in general, and for HIV/AIDS in particular, has been little successful. Certain experimental lentiviral vaccines even proved to be counterproductive: they rendered vaccinated subjects more susceptible to infection rather than protecting them.”
Huisman, W., Martina, B.E.E., Rimmelzwaan, G.F., Gruters, R.A. and Osterhaus, A.D.M.E., 2009. Vaccine-induced enhancement of viral infections. Vaccine, 27(4), pp.505-512.
@Robert Clifford: You are a tosser Robert Clifford. “Borne out of ignorance and a choice a person made to have unprotected sex…”. What about all the infected blood products that were used on haemophiliacs and continued to be used even after it became known that they were infected?
@Justin Gillespie: 99.74 % survive with their own immunity
Well done. Keep going. We need this more than we’ve needed any other vaccine in a very very long time.
@2thFairy: There is a scientist from Kildare at the heart of this team. We were friends at school. She was always super bright. Lovely girl too.
At the end of the day science and intelligence will beat this not just mindlessly staying away from each other forever.
@Winston Smith: Paradoxically they probably need a vast amount of infected people to speed up their trials which is probably why a lot of the stages are being conducted in Brazil. Great news though all the same.
@Winston Smith: It’s not mindless. Staying away from each other has helped us keep the numbers down. It has saved countless lives and will continue to save lives if we keep doing it until a vaccine is found. Now that we know we won’t be waiting in vain, it’s all the more reason to be positive about keep restrictions in place for a while. More patience = fewer patients
@Winston Smith: they don’t need a sanple size of 7 billion, so let’s just keep the infections at a minimum..
@Winston Smith: it was science and intelligence that advised the government to keep people away from each other. Keep up.
@Robert Clifford: they are being conducted in Brazil cos there is little or no comeback if this vaccine kills or maims.
Praise be! With only a 99.98% survival rate this can’t come quick enough!
@TierneyJP: The overall fatality rate in the UK is 1.1%, calculated by the MRC Biostatistics Unit at Oxford UK. The fatality rate is >2.7% in people over 65 and >17% in people over 75. For people between 45 to 64 years, the fatality rate is 0.41%. This is approx. 4 times worse than Seasonal Flu.
https://i.imgur.com/3ekGdB8.jpg
https://www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/now-casting/report-on-nowcasting-and-forecasting-26th-june-2020/
Click on the tab IFR under Epidemic summary. And Given we have an aging population like the UK, the fatality rate for COVID-19 would be similar to the UK.
Also, the average fatality rate globally is about 0.68%, but can be higher or lower depending on the average age / proportion of elderly, underlying heath and access to medical care.
Meyerowitz-Katz, G. and Merone, L., 2020. A systematic review and meta-analysis of published research data on COVID-19 infection-fatality rates. medRxiv.
@TierneyJP: Well, you clearly lack the intelligence to understand the statistics of this virus. Gemma OD is looking for you over on Twitter, she will back you up with more lies and quackery.
@David Jordan: I love this”…fatality rate globally is about 0.68%, but can be higher or lower depending…” It reads like you could almost just make up numbers to suit! Kind of like certain bankers did in 2008!
@Ian Breathnach: Aren’t you the special one!
@Ian Breathnach: The way deaths were attributed to COVID in the UK was a running joke (recording corpses as having died of the virus without even testing in some cases), and we don’t know how widespread this misbehaviour is/was. For those of us under the age of 70, the rate of death is positively flu-like, and I think it should be treated that way.
The “much work to be done” part of the quote tactfully excluded from the grabbing headline.
Trump will take credit for this.
@Uncle Montys oaf: That’s the thing. The next hurdles in the search are going to be down to hoarding vaccines and worse still, trying to flog fake ones to the poorer nations. I mean how do you vaccinate Yemen or Syria or parts of Venezuela without mass profiteering?
@Robert Clifford: And it’s already hard to vaccinate for polio and other older diseases we already have in those types of areas
@Robert Clifford: lift the sanctions , that’s how .
@Isabel Oliveira: Agreed Isabel.
Excellent. Let’s end this lockdown, green list crap and get on with our lives. Give this vaccine to old folks and those who need it most first. I’m booking my flights to lake garda today!
@Tommy Fitzgerald: When it’s ready, yes. My guess is it’ll be another 12 months at least before it’s distributable. That’s if it even works so hold tight. Having said that, I’d be astonished if they didn’t find a workable vaccine.
@Tommy Fitzgerald: It’s not as simple as that, there are many people in vulnerable category who can never receive a live Vaccine, so they will depend on everyone else being vaccinated to be safe, of course the conspiracy theorists and anti vax brigade will try to ensure enough people are suitably indoctrinated into believing their BS so that it becomes a battle to achieve the quota vaccinated to ensure protection for everyone
@Tommy Fitzgerald: Italy is unlikely to be on the green list so you wont be insured in any form whatsoever. The flights are pretty good value to Milan all the same but Im a responsible citizen so I wont be doing anything like that. Lake Garda is nice but its full of ‘old folks’ but sure you dont notice them at all do you.
@Tommy Fitzgerald: me me me me me!!!!
@Tommy Fitzgerald: Selfish or what?.
This is a funding push, there will be no vaccine.
@Mark: The vaccine will be made by Astrazeneca (AZ) and other partner companies around the world e.g. Serum Institute of in India.
AZ promised to make the first 400 million doses for free, they hope to have the first 30 million doses ready by September and more by the end of the year. They already started manufacturing the vaccine at an industrial scale, the first 200 liter batch of vaccine was made several weeks ago and other manufacturers around the world now preparing to make the vaccine.
Interview with Professor Sarah Gilbert: https://youtu.be/MKNavonhXyk?t=2364
@David Jordan: yep, but it doesn’t work.
@Mark: Look on the bright side Mark
@Mark: No. The study found that the vaccine works and is safe.
It produced an antibody response showing that immunity to the SARS-COV-2 virus was created. A larger Phase III trial will be undertaken to see just how effective the vaccine is among older people.
“Interpretation ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 showed an acceptable safety profile, and homologous boosting increased antibody responses. These results, together with the induction of both humoral and cellular immune responses, support large-scale evaluation of this candidate vaccine in an ongoing phase 3 programme.”
Folegatti, P.M., Ewer, K.J., et al. 2020. Safety and immunogenicity of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2: a preliminary report of a phase 1/2, single-blind, randomised controlled trial. 13. https://marlin-prod.literatumonline.com/pb-assets/Lancet/pdfs/S0140673620316044.pdf
@David Jordan: longevity of immunity response not yet measured therefore not yet a viable vaccine.
@David Jordan: I’m all for vaccine and positive but starting production prior to community testing seems a bit rushed to me.
@Mark: The vaccine uses ChAdOx1, an Adenovirus. They added added the spike protein from the SARS-COV-2 to ChAdOx1. ChAdOx1 is not able to replicate. It’s been used before to make other vaccines e.g. for Rift Valley fever, MERS, and Influenza A.
ChAdOx1 provokes a stronger an immune response than the SARS-COV-2 virus, and this means it is more likely to provide a longer last immunity than SARS-COV-2.
@David Jordan: Everyone is an immunologist now…
Great news ,let’s hope
Ireland need to get the finger out and put in an order if possible. Other than that when we will be at the back of the queue when the vaccine is rolled out. The UK most be fairly confident if they have ordered millions of doses.
@Jim Power: we’ll be making it as we are a leading producer of medicines in the world
@Jim Power: The UK is clearly going through a period of unhinged lunacy with Boris at the helm, I would take their “confidence” with an enormous pinch of salt.
@Ian Breathnach: Thats what all the lunatics would say…
Rushing a vaccine can be more harmful than the virus… ask the lab in China that made the virus for the vaccine!!!!!
As we border the UK will we get access to the vaccine after tbe UK?
Hope so
@Patrick Guerin: what will happen is that the recipe, for lack of a better word, will be patented by the company that figures it out. They will then sell the use of the patented recipe to the various labs around the world, including here (Pfizer & FMC in cork for example) , who will then presumably manufacture it en mass.
@Big Smokey: I thought the European Medicines Agency said they won’t be accepting UK manufactured medicines as the UK has left the EU & will have to get their drugs tested & certified in the EU? The UK can’t cherry pick they need to know leaving the EU has consequences said Barnier
@Big Smokey: I thought the European Medicines Agency said they won’t be accepting UK manufactured medicines as the UK has left the EU & will have to get their drugs tested & certified in the EU? The UK can’t cherry pick they need to know leaving the EU has consequences said Barnier
Encouraging news at last, we need it, not all doom & gloom, here’s hoping to the future
Where’s all the anti vaxxers worried George soros is going to be tracking their movements?
Great news . Speed it up as much as possible please .
Bring it ON!!
Promising news – a vaccine is badly needed
Trump will 100% take credit for this. The Trump vaccine will save the world!
Pardon the expression but I wouldn’t hold me breath
@WreckDefier: No please do give it a go for about 15 minutes and see how you get on
@Hugh McDonagh: you’re a gas man.
Imagine a virus so deadly you have to be tested to even know you had it…
Very good article. Lots of detail but tailored to the layman.
Safe? Was it tested against a true placebo? No.
Had a few weeks of voluntary staying indoors, with most business not closing here in Japan. No liberty-destroying lockdown needed. No vaccine required. Life has been normal here, apart from troublesome masks which less and less people are wearing, with full classrooms since early May. Deaths are being attributed to their actual causes, too, rather than the dishonest attributions that have happened in the West.
Better get the orders in ASAP before Drumpf buys it all for himself and charges obscene amounts of money for the vaccine.
have your say