During the pandemic crisis of what is now over a year long, there have been many life-changing events that dare I say, almost all of us, have had to face. These include for some the devastating news of the loss of loved ones and family members or friends and neighbours, people we knew well and who used to live next door. It’s something which many of us will probably never get over, not to mention adapt to the changes that this crisis brings.
We've heard lots and lots of advice about how we should behave and act to stop the spread of the virus. The wearing of face masks, social distancing and then of course the 'lockdown' periods, put in place to literally physically stop/restrict and reduce our movements amongst each other.
As the vaccine program continues apace and the infection rates start to drop we have started to see changes of a more positive nature in our social lives, allowing us to be a little more free to move about again, though obviously we still need to do so with caution and apply some 'common sense' to make sure we're not unintentionally posing a risk to others.
From a technical point of view, there may have been many rapid advances in various technologies relating to lots of aspects of dealing with a pandemic. Many of these are within the 'clinical ' field itself and relate to controlling the virus and reducing the spread of the infection.
The rapid development of the vaccines themselves has been an incredible achievement in what I understand is essentially a very short period of time, with lots of resources utilised to analyse and develop formulas that will be effective in helping our bodies resist the virus.
There has necessarily been a lot of 'testing' of individuals who think they might have been exposed to someone who has the virus or who are perhaps showing symptoms of the virus, with testing done at various places up and down the country. The rapid development and subsequent deployment of new forms of diagnostic equipment that can be easily used for 'mass testing' have been implemented to enable the health services to try and increase the rates of detection and stem the spread of the virus by ensuring, as best as possible, who is and isn't infected.
Fairly recently we've been working with a client on a new class of molecular diagnostic device that aims to simply and very rapidly provide detection of infections so that clinical staff can take immediate treatment decisions for the patient concerned. We're excited to see the changes that this will bring and the increasing part we are sure a device of this nature will play on the continuing and growing response to the challenge of the global pandemic.
