Author: David Bradley

Coronavirus FAQ

UPDATE: 2020-03-03: I’ve not had time to update the FAQ, so here’s a link to a more current one elsewhere that’s got answers to some of the bigger questions too.

UPDATE: 2020-02-24: A vaccine against COVID-19 is now being manufactured in Australia ready for lab tests.

UPDATE: 2020-02-18: WHO’s latest epidemiology: Over 80% of patients have mild COVID19 and will recover. In just 14% of cases, the virus leads to pneumonia. For one in 20 patients, it causes potentially fatal respiratory failure, septic shock and multi-organ failure.

UPDATE: 2020-02-11: The WHO has given the viral disease an official name, based on COronaVIrusDisease, hence COVID-19.

UPDATE: 2020-02-10: Scientists now suggesting that coronavirus source may be pangolins, which are used in Chinese “medicine”. Details here.

UPDATE: 2020-02-02: Death toll in China now more than 300, first death outside China (Philippines), although infection was in China.

BREXITDAY UPDATE: 2020-01-31: Two cases confirmed in the same family of coronavirus infection in the UK (BBC)

UPDATE: 2020-01-30: WHO  declares coronavirus international emergency, says we must stop its spread to vulnerable countries

UPDATE: 2020-01-28: 106 deaths reported in China so far. 4000 confirmed cases. Virus present in at least eleven other countries and regions. WHO yet to declare international health emergency

What is a coronavirus?

Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that cause diseases in mammals, including humans, and birds.

Why are they called coronaviruses?

The name derives from the fact that the viral capsule has a crown-like halo surrounding it, when viewed under the microscope.

What do coronaviruses do?

In humans, the virus infects the airways giving rise to flu-like symptoms, a runny nose, cough, sore throat and fever, these are usually mild, but in rare cases can be lethal.

Is there a vaccine against coronaviruses?

No.

Are there any drugs to block or treat infection?

No.

When were coronaviruses first discovered?

In the 1960s

Any details?

The first one discovered was an infectious bronchitis virus in chickens. At about the same time, two viruses from the nasal cavities of human patients with the common cold were identified and dubbed human coronavirus 229E and human coronavirus OC43.

So coronaviruses cause the common cold?

They are usually present when someone has a cold, so yes, pretty much.

Why are we so worried about them?

Some coronaviruses cause serious respiratory tract infection that is far worse than the usual symptoms of the common cold. In the elderly, infants, people with compromised lung function (such as asthma patients, COPD sufferers, people with lung cancer), an infection can ultimately be fatal, often through the development of pneumonia.

Is the Wuhan coronavirus a dangerous form?

It has infected several hundred people that we know about so far and there have been a couple of dozen deaths, mainly among vulnerable people infected with the virus. The World Health Organisation is not yet endowing this virus with the same worrying global status of earlier epidemics. It may yet be contained and fatalities limited significantly. Nevertheless, China has quarantined 20 million people already. Wuhan is a city the size of London, England.

Where did this virus come from?

At the end of 2019, a new strain of coronavirus, scientists named 2019-nCoV, was first reported in Wuhan. It is by definition an “emergent” strain of the virus and is thought to have made the species leap from infected animals to humans, probably in an environment where diseases animals are in close proximity to people, such as a live-produce market.

Where is the virus going?

Already, there have been many cases outside Wuhan and China is locking down public transport. Air travel has allowed the virus to spread to Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and elsewhere, and it has already reached the USA.

How long do symptoms take to emerge?

Up to fourteen days. This makes it difficult to screen people because they may be infected and travelling with the virus without displaying a fever or other symptoms.

Will I catch it?

You are only likely to catch the virus if you have travelled to places where it is obviously present or if you have come into contact with people who have visited those areas. If you have and you think you have symptoms, stay at home, call your physician or local healthcare provider for advice. Do not go to the emergency hospital or your doctor’s surgery, you could end up spreading the virus to others who have other health problems.

Will they check me over at the airport?

Several US airports and other places have introduced screening of passengers arriving from Wuhan. If the disease spreads widely, screening is likely to be introduced at many other airports. Basic screening might involve measuring the temperature of travellers’ foreheads non-invasively to spot those with a fever.

Is it infectious before symptoms appear?

Yes, unfortunately, it seems that the virus can spread between people during its incubation period(up to two weeks) before they present with any symptoms, such as high temperature. Temperature screening would not find asymptomatic carriers, this means an epidemic could become a reality once a critical infection rate is passed even before we realise how many people have caught the virus. Many colds and influenza viruses are infectious even before symptoms appear.

What’s the latest news on this coronavirus?

2020-01-25: 22 Chinese provinces affected; billion+ people. 56 million people banned from travelling at epicentre of viral outbreak, Hubei. 41 dead, 1200+ infected, 237 critical.

Should we be panicking?

Scaremongering and sensationalist headlines abound, they’re usually wrong, but conversely, the voice of reason urging us to stay calm may well be wrong too. UCL virologist Jennifer Rohn has this to say: “…we need to treat any unknown emerging disease as if it has the potential to be a massive and devastating pandemic — because despite preliminary assessments of the rate of spread and how many people have died, the jury is still very much out.”

So, how do we cope?

Quoting Dr Rohn again: “We’ll never know when the ‘big one’ has arrived until it’s already too late. So let’s deal with each outbreak as if it could be our last.” Unfortunately, no nation is ready, unfortunately, the US has cut funding in the face of preparedness for such an outbreak that might kill millions worldwide, as earlier epidemics have done.

Should I wear a facemask?

Feel free, but the cheap ones won’t offer much protection as they don’t seal around your mouth and nose well. They will to some extent limit the degree to which you might spread infection if you are a carrier by trapping your nasal and oral fluids. Proper surgical masks are sealed, but uncomfortable to wear and harder to breathe and talk through.

Facemasks might reduce the spread of infection in enclosed spaces, such as public transport and in live-produce markets where infection may be present and animals are being slaughtered in public. But, they unnecessary in the open air where infections are not readily transmitted between people. Shoes tramping through spilled matter in a market are a more likely vector for viruses.

Most “airborne” viral infections are actually passed on through so-called fomites. Bodily fluids that land on door handles via coughs and sneezes or from an infected person’s hands where they have wiped their nose or coughed into their hand and the contaminated a surface are a much more efficient route for transmission of an infection. More about facemasks in the face of emergent pathogens here.

You can read a more detailed and technical FAQ on the coronavirus in Popular Mechanics.

An anecdote I’ve told for the longest time

Did I tell you about the time I had the solo opener with the choir TyrannoChorus at West Road Concert Hall in Cambridg? Really? I didn’t? Oh, come on, I must have, it was a few years ago now, admittedly. [6th August 2016, ed.]

Well, anyway, I did. We had a special guest compere for the whole of the event the wonderful John Suchet. I introduced him to my parents who had come along to the concert, I think my mother fell in love for the second time…with John. Charmed she was, didn’t wash the cheek he kissed for days afterwards.

Anyway, the concert opener, we’d been rehearsing it for weeks, John introduced the choir to a packed house hashtag #SoldOut. Our pianist, the amazing Tim Lihoreau also off of Classic FM fame, tickled the ivories to give us all our opening notes ready for Mrs L’s cue. And, then we’re in:

“Woah-oh-oh-oh-for the longest time”

We seemed to rattle through it, but I was shaking like a leaf at the front of the stage with a mic and no music or lyrics in front of me, and although the soloist leads the conductor who leads the choir, I made the big mistake of glance at Mrs L for vocal validation…and although this Billy Joel song follows a nice narrative arc, I stumbled over the opening to the third verse. Had to back pedal and just repeated a line that ought not to have been repeated until we were back into the chorus and I’m finishing on that octave leap to middle C.

Then, it was over. And most people applauded. It was fun. John thanked me, mentioned that I do a bit of science writing in between gigs. I still tell the tale…did you notice? Oh, oh, oh, I’ll be telling it forrrr the longest ti-i-i-ime…you can bet on it, Billy.

Wilding our gardens

In 2019, I reinstated our pond, well, a half-size version of the original that I filled when we moved to this house in the late ’90s with small children. The plants, water snails, and frogs thrived, it seems, the birds love it for a drink too, although, I did find a dead Goldfinch in there one day in the summer (victim of a neighbour’s cat, I think).

I also did some wilding of the gardens, front and back, with various seedlings (from RSPB Hope Farm), some packet seeds, and some Seedballs, which I blogged about at the time. I have masses of seeds collected to use this spring, including ones from some wildflowers that were not there deliberately but sprang up and were very attractive to some moth species.

This year, I am going to work with the good people from Seedball to cover a bigger area of the gardens with wildflowers. They have offered me various mixes and hopefully, there will be plants perfect for shade, some that will pull in the honey crowd (bees), and, of course, some for the Lepidoptera. I am hoping for great things from our garden this year, having ticked more than 300 species of Lepidoptera last year, I think that number might be exceeded quickly the more wildflowers.

The wilding of our gardens will benefit the birds, the amphibia, and the invertebrates species, hopefully, and make our small patch a little haven on the edge of farmland here in South Cambridgeshire.

Photographing soap bubbles on a frosty lawn

I have just spent an hour or so, much to the amusement of Mrs_Sciencebase blowing soap bubbles and crawling around on the frost-covered lawn in the back garden with a camera loaded with a macro lens. The bubbles were made with washing up liquid and water and a couple of drops of glycerine (suggested by Mrs “Sb”) to make them persist longer once formed.

Pre-freeze bubble nestling in the grass

We couldn’t find a proper bubble blower so a plastic spanner for some long-forgotten nut was substituted. There’s an art to blowing bubbles. You have to know how much soap solution to load into the bubbler, you have to know how hard to blow, at what angle to project your breath, and so much more. I got a few to form but most popped (silently) before they found a perch on the frozen lawn.

Frozen bubble

One or two landed only to pop, again completely silently, once I’d got the camera in place to snap them. Intriguingly, a couple of them had already started to freeze and rather than popping seemed to sag and deflate leaving a gelatinous husk on the hoary blades of grass.

Hoary blades of grass nudging the freezing soap bubble surface

After spending a good hour freezing in the garden, it occurred to me that I could’ve done the job indoors any time of year and simply used the food freezer. But, I’d persevered in the cold and was desperate to get at least one photo of a frozen bubble however transient the soapy sphere might be. And, in the end, I did, can’t say I’m lathered with the effort but then its absolutely cold out there.

Frozen bubble burst

Photographing the Andromeda Galaxy

That blurry smudge in the middle of my photo? I think…I think…that’s the Andromeda Galaxy. It’s the most distant object humans can see with their unaided eyes. Here, we’re aided, zoomed in quite a lot. There’s blur due to camera shake, unfortunately, or is an 8-second exposure too much to not get star trails with a 150 mm zoom…

If it’s not Andromeda I’d like to know what it actually is as it was definitely a barely visible smudge in the sky away from the big “arrowhead” of Cassiopeia and in a line from Mirach and Mu Andromedae in the constellation of Pegasus.

ISO 3200
f/6.7
t 8 seconds
150mm focal length

Owl spotting

Short-eared Owl at Burwell Fen, photographed mid-January

One evening in late November, I was once again, hoping to catch sight of the Starling murmurations that occur over the Broad Lane balancing pond. As mentioned in a previous, issue the local Starlings and their continental counterparts will often roost in the reed bed there, last winter there were literally thousands. At the time of writing, just a few hundred are roosting, but that can change on a wind as arrivals from Europe turn up when the weather changes. Anyway, reader Alison waved as she passed the pond on her dog walk. I later heard that she’d seen a scuffle between a Kestrel and a Barn Owl close to the Fen Bridge. Typical, I thought, for me to miss the avian action.

barn owlBarn Owl over a barn at Rampton

Anyway, there are quite a few barn owls to be seen on the outskirts of the village. These dusk hunters of silent flight will range along the Cottenham Lode (a fenland drain), across rough fields, and alongside roads. Often you will see a ghostly Barn Owl sidle up alongside hoping to home in on voles and other small rodents turfed out of the undergrowth by the rumbling of tires, even on the fresh tarmac of Beach Road.

There are other owls around; while videoing a starling murmuration over Rampton, I could see a Barn Owl in the field, but could hear a little owl in the hedge in which the starlings were hoping to roost. There was little chance that they would settle until the owls had departed, which eventually they did. The whole point of the murmuration, aside from the socialising, is to reduce the risk to the individual bird of being picked off by a bird of prey, such as a peregrine falcon, or perhaps an owl. The Little Owl is not a native species, it was introduced to the British Isles in the nineteenth century.

Rescued Tawny Owl at Fen Edge Festival 2019

Meanwhile, there are places around the village, such as The Green where there are tawny owls to be heard, and if you’re very lucky and keen-eyed, perhaps even seen. Like the Barn Owl the Tawny Owl has very dark eyes, which help it see even in low light, and coupled with its excellent directional hearing make it a mean night hunter. Tawnies pair up from about the age of one year and stick together, monogamously. Famously, their call – the stereotypical “too-wit, woo-ooh” is two birds calling almost in the style of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. The female calls “too-wit” and the male responds by wooing her.

Birders and Short-eared Owl

There are a few Long-eared Owls across East Anglia and the East Midlands although numbers are greater further north. Some readers may have been lucky to catch a glimpse of a vagrant Snowy Owl on the north Norfolk coast at RSPB Snettisham in March 2018. You have a greater chance of seeing the Short-eared Owl, however. This migratory species flies in from Scandinavia, Russia, Iceland, and we are lucky enough to have a patch of land not too far away where they can be seen hunting at dusk. Last winter, half a dozen or so “shorties” were often seen hunting at NT Burwell Fen and Tubney Fen, which are accessible by road from Burwell or on foot or cycling from Wicken Fen.

Long eared Owl
Long-eared Owl at RSPB Saltholme

One of last winter’s shorties suffered a wing injury, and spent the summer on the Fen; it can still fly well, but presumably it felt that a trip back to the Steppes was not on the cards. As I write, this I have visited the fen twice this winter to see the shorties and reckon that there are four or so present. The numbers may have risen by the time you read this in early February. But, if you are reading it later in the year, beyond March, early April, you will have probably missed the chance to see them until next winter. Birding is very much about chance, timing, weather, and plain-old luck.

Long-eared Owl roosting in an owl box in the Cambridgeshire countryside

Short-eared Owls and Burwell Bull

TL:DR – In the late autumn, Short-eared Owls often migrate from regions far to the north and reach sites, such as NT Burwell Fen in Cambridgeshire where they will spend the winter, hunting small mammals in scrubby fenland.

Here’s looking at youA frosty start to the day, clear skies, little wind, would that be perfect weather for hunting Short-eared Owls at NT Burwell Fen, I wondered. Did a few chores, made a coffee, drove the bumpy ride to the reach bridge parking at the back of the fen. Another quick snap of the 2D sculpture there that looks like a rendition of the weirdest “distracted boyfriend” meme ever.

Distracted Boyfriend Meme?

Too early for Shorties at the time I arrived so a short walk along the bank top that parallels Reach Lode. Lots of waterfowl and water birds and the water, as you’d expect (Mallard, Shoveller, Coot, Wigeon, Shelduck, Black-headed Gull, Cormorants, usual feathery fodder). A few large flocks spooked every now and then by a couple Marsh Harriers.

Burwell Bull

A tramp back to the bridge and then a walk across to our usual owl-spotting spot in the middle of the Fen. Hard-standing fossil of an old farm, with a drainage ditch and fencing to hem in the cattle and the Konik ponies, the deer don’t care about fences, of course.

HDR Ducks

Chatted to a couple who put me to shame with their endurance, my having arrived at about 12h15, they’d already been there more than four hours. They’d seen a single Barn Owl but no early morning shorties. The misidentified some Stonechats as Reed Bunts and endless contradicted by spartan field knowledge of the Shorties that spend the winters on this Fen. I told them that they’d be “up” no sooner than about an hour before sunset, they were insistent that people “on Facebook” had photographed them for weeks at all times of day. It wasn’t to be. So, with ever-patient labrador in tow, we all of us ended up snapping the cattle to pass the time.

Burwell Bullock

I also got a bizarre shot of some ghost Mallard where I’d accidentally put my camera into HDR mode, which never works well with moving subjects as the camera is programmed to take three bracketed shots quickly, but not instantaneously. One is exposed for the blacks, one the highlights, and one for the mid-tones. The camera combines all three and discards areas that are over or underexposed to create the high dynamic range of the final photo, usually.

The quality of light was lovely, the only “clouds” in tke sky were the loop-de-loop smoke trails of a wannabe Biggles, the only sound aside from his propellor a distant pheasant shoot I’d passed on the bumpy ride in that was still ongoing. Fowl play, you might say.

No Shorties yet, but lots of cameras on tripods pointed at the scrub expectantly. Word on the Fen was that there were five over-wintering here. We’d seen three, possibly four, on our last visit, but the light had been low and the photo quality similar. Today it would be different, just needed the owls to show.

Fairly sure I was first to spot the first, at 15h08, which true to my prediction was an hour before sunset, give or take ten minutes. So, here it is, first of probably five individual Short-eared Owls that I’d seen on the Fen by the time I left, just after sunset.

Short-eared Owl, NT Burwell Fen

There are five on the Fen, I cannot be sure if I saw all five, maybe just four of them, but definitely four. Two tussled with a Marsh Harrier and I saw a final one as I headed for the Sun.

Sundown over Burwell and Tubney Fen

The sun had almost gone when I looked back over the Fen after a chat with an old birder who didn’t seem to need binoculars nor ‘scope, and definitely didn’t have a camera. The light was fading fast and the resulting photo was at high ISO and so is very noisy, but it’s a record, so there.

Fading light on a final, fifth(?) Shortie
Reach Lode footbridge

 

How I met David Bradley

I tell this tale over and over again, I think most friends and relatives have heard it at least three times by now. Still, my Dad kindly laughs every time he hears it. Mrs Sciencebase just rolls her eyes…and not in a good way.

Anyway, we were on a camping trip to one of our favourite spots, Stiffkey, on the proper North Norfolk coast. It’s pronounced Stoo-kee by the locals although incomers and posh residents prefer it to be pronounced as it’s spelled. We were pitched just around the corner from the Red Lion pub, on the High Sands Creek campsite, where a couple of years later myself and artist friend Rog would almost drown trying to get that last rising tide photo. So, supping a Stiffkey Brew or too, erstwhile backing singer with my band C5, Jo, says, Oh look it’s that actor!

We all turned in concert to look where she was looking. Thankfully said actor had his head buried in his iPad and didn’t notice our less than discrete mass manoeuvres. That’s not just any old actor, Jo, I whispered loudly, that’s David Bradley, you know the guy who plays Argus Filch in the Harry Potter films?

Really? the others asked surprised. So, up I get, leaving my brew on the table, and head over to say hello to my namesake. Excuse me, I say, I’m David Bradley, just thought, I’d say hello to the more famous David Bradley. The far more famous DB stands up grabs my hand to shake it, looks me squarely in the eye and says, I know you, I’ve got your book! I was shocked, we both laughed, we didn’t do a selfie, proper famous people didn’t do selfies back then. But, I asked, might I have your autograph, it seemed the right thing to do. Certainly, of course, yes…but…only if I can have yours, David Bradley says to me.

So, we swapped autographs, said “tara”, like fellow Northerners do, and I went back to my friends waiting expectantly at our table with their brews (I think the ladies were drinking Hendricks G&Ts with slices of cucumber). I tell the tale, show them the autograph and they’re all fairly well stunned and pleased that I’d had a celeb encounter of that kind. I could almost hear Mrs _Sciencebase’s eyeballs rolling in their sockets in anticipation of years of repeated anecdote.

I should’ve asked him though whether, having had a copy of my book Deceived Wisdom, whether he’d read it or enjoyed it or even both. I doubt he’s the sort of fellow who posts on Amazon, and even if he did, there are so many other David Bradleys out there how would I know which…

David Bradley the actor is probably best known for his roles as Filch in the Harry Potter films, as William Hartnell in the Doctor Who biopic he plays alongside Brian Cox as TV producer Sydney Newman in An adventure in space and time. He’s also Walder Frey in Game of Thrones, he’s in both Hot Fuzz and The World’s End. Plays Jack Marshall in Broadchurch, he was Eddie Wells in Our friends in the north. Have a look at his IMDB page, he’s done masses. Not to be confused with Dai Bradley (formerly David Bradley) who plays Billy in Kes.

There’s an odd antefootnote to this tale. Before Mrs Sciencebase was Mrs and before Sciencebase even existed. She went with friends to Stratford-upon-Avon to see the RSC (not that one, the other one) performing Doctor Faustus with David Bradley as , Mephistopheles. They’d all had tickets in advance, I tagged along for the ride, but did a walking tour of the town while they watched the play.

So, second encounter with a David Bradley from the RSC after this DB from the RSC for the pre-Mrs Sciencebase.