Pm Press Conference

[Ric.ror]

Anyone know what time its on?
We could be heading for more restrictions

[theprof]

Regretfully, I can't answer your questions in detail at this stage Peter but I'll do what I can.

Seriatem then, yes I'm concerned about B.1.1.529 due to the number of changes present in the virion. Spike protein changes are of concern for obvious reasons but other substitution-deletion changes on the genome are of concern too as they've not been seen previously. These are key to understanding transmissibility, vaccine effectiveness etc of B.1.1.529.Listing these mutations would not be appropriate here.

The epitope (now known as the Antigenic Determinant), is indeed involved.

DeltaG or binding affinity is enhanced between B.1.1.529 and hACE2.

I'll let Sarah know she has admirer. I have to point out that the AZ vaccine development would have been seriously compromised in the absence of funding from external sources. It wasn't called Oxford-AstraZeneca for nothing. I'm sure you'll accept that university science parks have been at the forefront of scientific discoveries throughout recent decades thanks to investment and they make a profit for their shareholders. Having spent many years scratching for funding in my early years in academia, it's often necessary these days

My Covid laboratories have had government money provided in abundance to overcome this dreadful virus and I'm using state of the art technology and leading scientists in many disciplines that simply would not be available in academia. Don't knock the money aspect please Peter.

[Peter Pedant]

knock the moolah ?
i wish I had it!

[theprof]

Well, I've no intention of writing a book like "Vaxxers" because apart from anything else, my contribution would hardly be a blockbuster page turner for readers. They'd more likely fall asleep.