Hej (Swedish today), - The Donald seems to think that nature understands the greatness of the US and has sped up the Covid-19 development there as a result. Apparently they are flattening the curve faster than anyone else and get back to normal pretty sharpish. He is an extraordinarily strange man. I really feel for all the US folk, MS or not, as his utter weirdness will make them suffer unnecessarily. All for the sake of his ego. - Bolsanaro 9brazil) seems to be trying to outdo him with a public walkabout, the highlight of one was where he wiped his nose with his hand and then got up in the grill of an old lady. I guess the virus knows not to mess with a Brazilian. Again, extraordinary arrogance and ego. -------- MS Stuff -------- It is interesting how things are changing. It is impossible to keep freaking out. The world in general and even us - the MS subset - are drawing breaths. The immediate concerns have been addressed. The information is all out there, just being repeated in different ways. - Yesterday I interviewed Dr Ruth Dobson (Barts) and Saturday it will be Dr Brandon Beaber in Los Angeles for the MS Reporters YouTube channel. The questions we are asking now have changed. With Ruth, we covered relapses and testing. Two areas that it seemed from the questions needed greater coverage. With Dr B we will be taking a more US p[perspective as in the last two years 40% of the traffic on here has come from the US, making it about 1/4 million separate visits. They can't all be from @itsmewithms ... ;) - If you've got MS you are probably familiar with the term NEDA as a measurement tool. I have heard people talk about NEDA (No Evidence of Disease Activity) in hush tones as if it the unquestionable signifier of everything. Simply not true. It is contested bt many with other proposed measures to replace it. Here is the latest article (paper) about this ongoing effort to get a less-flawed measure: "Five- and seven-year prognostic value of new effectiveness measures (NEDA, MEDA and six-month delayed NEDA) in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis" As ever, if you don't have academic library access then you can read the abstract here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022510X20301635 If you do then go to the Journal of the Neurological Sciences Volume 414, 15 July 2020 - A more general and interesting article is - Covid-19, the pandemic war: Implication for neurologists. It is Open Access so free to read https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0035378720304732 - The new normal for us with examinations.? Many stories coming out about how to do this and I am sure some funny blooper reels will emerge. A bit like the A+E docs who - perish the thought, it is vicious rumours, I have never seen these - stories of interesting objects lodged in interesting places, most of which dreadful accidents occurred while 'hoovering in the nude, honest, doc, I slipped" variety. https://multiple-sclerosis-research.org/2020/04/mscovid19-the-new-normal/ -------- Social Stuff -------- It is 1442h, I resolved to take a day off as I have been working the entire time (unpaid - volunteering I suppose though it feels like work) yet am here having spoken to a researcher into clinical trial design, had a long on call about the upcoming videos ( though @fiona_brown and I seem to be very easily distracted) and helping Mrs S circumvent the idiotic set-up of her school's IT bod. Over the years I have come to picture him as Lurch with a network cable. He is not very good at this and like many things, the pandemic has laid his uselessness and corner-cutting bare for all to see. - I have finished this and intend to hide in a corner and catch up on Better Call Saul and see if the new series of Bosch has dropped yet. - Sayonara peeps.