Ciao Ciao (in solidarity with our Italian friends), - Apologies for the lateness. 3 key things have happened at Chez Shadbolt 1- It is an amazingly sunny day near Oxford (UK) 2- We went for a 10km walk by the Thames and over some hills, it was utterly lovely 3- I forgot to eat breakfast so upon getting home my big guts were eating my little ones. This meant I had to cook a massive stack of North American style pancakes, crisp up a load of streaky bacon and drench the lot in an unholy and massively unhealthy amount of proper maple syrup and blueberry syrup, both from my home country of Canada. I can hardly move and think I may throw-up ;) ----------------- MS Stuff ----------------- It is here - the interview with Aaron Boster MD - http://tiny.cc/MSvid3 - We cover MS and Covid-19 symptoms and the importance of the rapidly growing research registers. - There is the most up-to-date drug-specific video - from Dr Boster for Shift.ms later today. - We have kind of ground to a halt about panicking over the potential effects of DMTs and MS with it being covered extensively and repeatedly on the forum here and many other places on the Internet. A good way tell is the teleconference I attended yesterday was Prof B Sharrak from Sheffield addressing the concerns for AHSCT (stem cell transplant) patients. A tiny minority of the MSers. - The remaining confusion in my humble view, entirely understandable, is from the fact that many people are unsure as the 'General' guidelines are just that. General. They make no allowances for any specific knowledge nor the huge range of ways that MS may affect someone nor the fact that the knowledge about the risks or otherwise about DMTs has changed markedly from immunosuppressants must equal greater danger to likey no difference in risk with a few (very few) exceptions and possibly even be helpful. - Fingolimod is even being used as an experiment to see if it aids the healing in some Covid-19 patients! - Things move fast. Government guidelines are - necessarily - a sledgehammer to crack a nut. We (the MS community) are but one of the hundreds of special interest groups. The government must take a blanket approach, it has no choice. It is u to us to navigate through it. - The words agile and responsive do not sit easily in my head with the words government, bureaucracy and the adminisphere. T'was ever thus. --------- Social Things --------- I hate folding. My idle PC, on the other hand, excels at it, especially the folding of proteins. Apparently. If you want to help, your PC is on, connected and idle, then check this out https://foldingathome.org/iamoneinamillion/ Do good whilst doing something else. - NHS volunteers. It seems that y'all heeded the call. Well, 1/2 a million of us did and signed up - in one day! - to help out. I maintain that most of us are pretty decent people. We think there are more twits as they are the only ones that ever make the news. If you signed up then take a hand, raise it up and reach over the opposite shoulder and pat yourself on the back. If you are missing out then sign here: https://www.goodsamapp.org/nhs - Yikes - already 1300h. Still full. Still can't move. - You've got this. Take it easy.