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COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

We have ALL your misinformation, plus some TRUE FACTS and SCIENCE.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#101

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Exposure to one nasal droplet enough for Covid infection – study
Trial in which volunteers were given dose of virus is first to monitor people during entire course of infection

Hannah Devlin Science correspondent
Wed 2 Feb 2022 15.12 GMT

Exposure to a single nasal droplet is sufficient to become infected with Covid-19, according to a landmark trial in which healthy volunteers were intentionally given a dose of the virus.

The trial, the first to have monitored people during the entire course of infection, also found that people typically develop symptoms very quickly – on average, within two days of encountering the virus – and are most infectious five days into the infection.

The study was carried out using a strain of the virus before the emergence of the Alpha, Delta and Omicron variants.

The trial’s chief investigator, Prof Christopher Chiu, of Imperial College London, said: “Our study reveals some very interesting clinical insights, particularly around the short incubation period of the virus, extremely high viral shedding from the nose, as well as the utility of lateral flow tests, with potential implications for public health.”

The findings, published on Springer Nature’s pre-print server, and which have not yet been peer-reviewed, detail the outcomes in 36 healthy, young participants with no immunity to the virus. The volunteers were monitored at a specialist unit at the Royal Free hospital in London, and experienced no severe symptoms.

The study found that the infection first appears in the throat and that infectious virus peaks about five days into infection, by which point the nose has a much higher viral load than the throat. The study also suggested that lateral flow tests are a reassuringly reliable indicator of whether infectious virus is present. Swabbing the nose and throat makes it more likely to detect infections during the first few days, the work suggests.

“We found that overall, lateral flow tests correlate very well with the presence of infectious virus,” said Chiu. “Even though in the first day or two they may be less sensitive, if you use them correctly and repeatedly, and act on them if they read positive, this will have a major impact on interrupting viral spread.”



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... tion-study
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#102

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

https://update.lib.berkeley.edu/2020/05 ... rventions/
Did Masks Work? — The 1918 Flu Pandemic and the Meaning of Layered Interventions

Again, a discussion of a specific piece of technology by itself is not enough. This was not simply a question of “mask or no mask,” but of design, construction, supply, and use. The wearer needed to use a well-designed mask properly, and change masks frequently. Therefore, most of the expert complaints about masks around the Spanish Flu pandemic in the US seemed to be about the users and reliable access to steady supplies of properly constructed masks, not the concept of wearing a mask.

Indeed, that’s what the research team led by Howard Markel found when the Pentagon asked them to study the Spanish Flu pandemic. In 2007, they published their report on non-pharmaceutical interventions during epidemics and found that there was a “layered” effect of protection by using multiple techniques together: school closure, bans on public gathering, isolation and quarantine of the infected, limited closure of businesses, transportation restrictions, public risk communications, hygiene education, and wearing of masks.

So the key historical question here is not whether or not masks were useless. The broader, more troubling historical pattern that Erika Mailman revealed in her article is clear: the problem of public trust in public health. Some Americans, then as now, do not like being told what to do.

A public health technology such as a mask is not just a simple, inanimate object. It’s the care with which it is designed and constructed; it is the infrastructure that can assure a steady, sanitary supply; it’s the use of one technology and practice in conjunction with others, and it is especially the informed users who take responsibility for their own health and those of their fellow Americans. Going back to the graph near the beginning of this blog post, we see that the curve of the death rate was bent by this layering of multiple public health interventions. Masks were not used widely and well enough to make much of a difference, but public health authorities tended to believe in their effectiveness for front line workers exposed to the worst of the flu pandemic. If we invested more in public health research, primary health care, and public health education, we could improve even more the quality and quantity of these layered non-pharmaceutical interventions, which worked together in 1918-19 and which are working now. We can do better with building our communication and trust so that all of these measures can work together. But for them to work together, we have to work together.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#103

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CDC to expand wastewater monitoring to help track coronavirus trends
The agency plans to use the system to find other deadly pathogens

By Lena H. Sun
Yesterday at 3:05 p.m. EST

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to expand a system that detects the coronavirus in wastewater to better predict surges and declines of the virus and, eventually, wants to harness the network’s early-warning power to find other deadly pathogens and control outbreaks of food-borne disease.

FAQ: What to know about the omicron variant of the coronavirus
Research suggests that 40 to 80 percent of people infected with the coronavirus shed viral genetic material in their feces even if they don’t have symptoms. It’s one of the first signs of an infection.

Increases in wastewater virus levels generally take place four to six days before health officials see a corresponding rise in case counts or hospitalizations.

“These data are uniquely powerful because they capture the presence of infections from people with and without symptoms and are not affected by access to health care or availability of clinical testing,” Amy Kirby, who leads the agency’s wastewater surveillance system, said during a briefing Friday.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... ng-system/?
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#104

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N95, KN95 masks provide best protection against covid, CDC study shows

By Lenny Bernstein and Frances Stead Sellers
Yesterday at 1:00 p.m. EST|Updated yesterday at 1:07 p.m. EST

Wearing any kind of mask indoors is associated with significantly better protection from the coronavirus, with high-quality N95 and KN95 masks providing the best chance of avoiding infection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday.

In indoor public settings, surgical masks reduce the chances of testing positive by 66 percent, the CDC estimated. Top-of-the-line N95 and KN95 masks, the tightfitting face coverings often worn by health-care workers, cut the odds of infection by 83 percent, the health agency said.

Wearing a cloth mask appeared to lower the odds of testing positive by 56 percent, but the findings were not statistically significant.

“These data from real-world settings reinforce the importance of consistently wearing face masks or respirators to reduce the risk of acquisition of SARS-CoV-2 infection among the general public in indoor community settings,” the CDC said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... ctive-n95/
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#105

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New C.D.C. data adds to evidence that boosters’ protection against severe Covid plunges after four months.

Covid booster shots lose much of their potency after about four months, raising the possibility that some Americans — specifically those at high risk of complications or death — may need a fourth dose, data published on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest.

Preliminary research from Israel and Britain has hinted that protection from booster doses declines within a few months. The data released on Friday offer the first real-world evidence of the mRNA shots’ waning power against moderate to severe illness in the United States.

The analysis did not include a breakdown by age, and the researchers could not distinguish between a booster shot or a third dose given to an immunocompromised person as part of the primary series.

The study focused on people who sought medical care for symptoms of Covid, so if that population was skewed toward older adults or those who have weak immune systems, the booster shots may have seemed less effective than they really are.


https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/11 ... our-months
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/washi ... ar-AATQdYV
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced Monday that the city will end its requirement for people entering businesses to show proof of vaccination starting this week and will lift its mask mandate for businesses starting on March 1.

Bowser cited a sharp decline in cases in the omicron wave as justification for the loosening of restrictions. The mayor pointed to the protection of vaccines in saying the situation had changed.

"COVID is not as deadly as it was," she said, noting people can now get vaccinated. "Getting vaccinated and boosted, we can't emphasize enough."

The vaccination requirement for people entering businesses like restaurants will end starting Tuesday. That requirement had drawn resistance from some congressional Republicans who rallied behind a neighborhood bar, The Big Board, that defied the mandate.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#107

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Vaccination reduces chance of getting long Covid, studies find
UK health agency notes research that also suggests jabs can improve long Covid symptoms among unvaccinated

Linda Geddes
Tue 15 Feb 2022 19.38 GMT

Covid vaccination reduces the risk of developing long Covid, while current sufferers may experience an improvement in symptoms after getting jabbed, a comprehensive review by the UK Health Security Agency suggests.

The “rapid evidence briefing” drew together data from 15 UK and international studies, about half of which examined whether Covid vaccination protected against developing long Covid if someone had never been infected, while the rest looked at the impact of vaccination among people who already had long Covid.

It found that, as well as any benefit obtained by not catching the virus in the first place, those who do catch it are less likely to develop long Covid if they have received one or two doses of vaccine compared with unvaccinated individuals.

According to the two studies that measured individual long Covid symptoms, the fully vaccinated were less likely than unvaccinated people to develop medium- or long-term symptoms such as fatigue, headache, weakness in the arms and legs, persistent muscle pain, hair loss, dizziness, shortness of breath, loss of smell or scarring of the lungs.

“There is also evidence that unvaccinated people with long Covid who were subsequently vaccinated had, on average, reduced long Covid symptoms, or fewer long Covid symptoms than those who remained unvaccinated,” the review said.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... udies-find
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#108

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Vaccination during pregnancy may provide infants protection against coronavirus, CDC study finds

By Brittany Shammas and Amy Cheng
Yesterday at 5:09 a.m. EST

Coronavirus vaccinations given during pregnancy might provide protection to babies after they are born, according to a study released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study found that infants whose mothers were fully vaccinated with mRNA shots while pregnant were 61 percent less likely to be hospitalized for the virus in their first six months of life. That protection appeared to be stronger if the vaccination occurred after the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.

It’s the first real-world evidence demonstrating that maternal vaccination generates coronavirus antibodies that could be passed on and become protective to the baby. This conclusion was previously theorized by scientists after antibodies were found in umbilical cords, which act as a conduit for nutrients and waste between the mother and the baby.

“The bottom line is that maternal vaccination is a really important way to help protect these young infants,” said Dana Meaney-Delman, chief of the CDC’s infant-outcome monitoring, research and prevention branch. The news “is highly welcome, particularly in the backdrop of the recent increase in hospitalizations among very young children.”



https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/ ... cy-babies/
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... rder-study
Having Covid-19 puts people at a significantly increased chance of developing new mental health conditions, potentially adding to existing crises of suicide and overdoses, according to new research looking at millions of health records in the US over the course of a year.

The long-term effects of having Covid are still being discovered, and among them is an increased chance of being diagnosed with mental health disorders. They include depression, anxiety, stress and an increased risk of substance use disorders, cognitive decline, and sleep problems – a marked difference from others who also endured the stress of the pandemic but weren’t diagnosed with the virus.

“This is basically telling us that millions and millions of people in the US infected with Covid are developing mental health problems,” said Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research and development at the VA St Louis Healthcare System and senior author of the paper. “That makes us a nation in distress.”
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#110

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AndyinPA wrote: Fri Feb 18, 2022 3:14 pm https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... rder-study
Having Covid-19 puts people at a significantly increased chance of developing new mental health conditions, potentially adding to existing crises of suicide and overdoses, according to new research looking at millions of health records in the US over the course of a year.

The long-term effects of having Covid are still being discovered, and among them is an increased chance of being diagnosed with mental health disorders. They include depression, anxiety, stress and an increased risk of substance use disorders, cognitive decline, and sleep problems – a marked difference from others who also endured the stress of the pandemic but weren’t diagnosed with the virus.

“This is basically telling us that millions and millions of people in the US infected with Covid are developing mental health problems,” said Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research and development at the VA St Louis Healthcare System and senior author of the paper. “That makes us a nation in distress.”
This is why I have no sympathy for antivaxxers who think covid isn't real, or if they get covid, they will recover and have immunity. Yeah, short term immunity. Meanwhile, there is lasting damage to multiple organs, including the lungs, heart, kidneys, liver and brain. And the damage worsens over time.

Early in the pandemic, hundreds of thousands Americans who had covid were applying for social security disability. Most were denied back then, but now there is a continuing flood of applications. There's a covid tidal wave heading our way.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#111

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... cine-doses
Some people getting Pfizer or Moderna Covid vaccines should consider waiting up to eight weeks between the first and second doses, instead of the three or four weeks previously recommended, US health officials said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday quietly changed its advice on spacing the shots.

CDC officials said they were reacting to research showing that the longer interval can provide more enduring protection against the coronavirus. Research suggests that 12- to 64-year-olds – especially males ages 12 to 39 – can benefit from the longer spacing, the CDC said.

They also say the longer wait may help diminish an already rare vaccination side effect: a form of heart inflammation seen in some young men.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#112

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/i ... p_pandemic
While coronavirus shots still provided protection during the omicron wave, the shield of coverage they offered was weaker than during other surges, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The change resulted in much higher rates of infection, hospitalization and death for fully vaccinated adults and even for people who had received boosters.

:snippity:

Before delta struck the United States in July, there were five to 10 cases of covid-19 for every 100,000 fully vaccinated adults each week, while the rate for unvaccinated people was 50 to 90 cases.

In the delta wave, unvaccinated people were five times as likely to get infected as vaccinated people. With omicron, that difference dropped to less than three times as likely.

Omicron caused unprecedented hospitalization along with infections.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#113

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-i ... study/#app
COVID infection increases risk for dangerous heart problems, study finds

In the year after contracting COVID-19, patients are at an increased risk for developing 20 cardiac problems, a new study found.

Those problems include stroke, heart attack, myocarditis and irregular heart rhythms, according to the study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Study authors estimate COVID infections have led to 3 million cases of heart disease in the U.S.

Even younger, healthier people were at risk, as were those who were not hospitalized for COVID, according to the study.

After a COVID infection last year, Dr. Evelina Grayver became a patient in her own heart program at Northwell Health in New York. Grayver, a marathon runner, couldn't even make it up a flight of stairs.

"I literally felt like I just ran a marathon, that my heart was just racing," she told CBS News. "I decided to no longer play my own doctor and actually seek medical help."

Grayver had long-haul COVID and was diagnosed with myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle. Her heart was failing to pump normally.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#114

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Vaccine protection against moderate illness waned among adolescents, new C.D.C. data suggest.

Five months after immunization, two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine appeared to offer virtually no defense against moderate illness caused by the Omicron variant — as measured by visits to emergency departments and urgent care clinics — among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, according to data published on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But booster shots drastically increased the protection, lending support to the agency’s recommendation of booster shots for everyone 12 and older.

The findings must be interpreted with caution. The agency’s study did not exclude unvaccinated adolescents who had some immunity from a prior infection, which may have made vaccination seem less effective than it was.

And the researchers offered only limited data on hospitalizations, a more reliable proxy for severe disease than emergency room and urgent care visits.

“One limitation of this data is that parents may bring their children to an urgent care or emergency department for a variety of reasons, and vaccine effectiveness by immunocompromised status, underlying health status, or vaccine product have not yet been examined,” the C.D.C. said in a statement.

Several studies have shown that even though vaccine efficacy against infection wanes over time, the immune response remains highly protective against hospitalization and death, even against the highly contagious Omicron variant.



https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/01 ... ss-omicron
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#115

Post by raison de arizona »

But tell me again about how the vaccine doesn't do anything.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#116

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:shock: :o
The coronavirus invades cells in the penis and testicles of monkeys, researchers discover.

By Roni Caryn Rabin
March 1, 2022

The coronavirus may infect tissue within the male genital tract, new research on rhesus macaques shows. The finding suggests that symptoms like erectile dysfunction reported by some Covid patients may be caused directly by the virus, not by inflammation or fever that often accompany the disease.

The research demonstrated that the coronavirus infected the prostate, penis, testicles and surrounding blood vessels in three male rhesus macaques. The monkeys were examined with whole body scans specially designed to detect sites of infection.

Scientists — who expected to find the coronavirus in spots like the lungs but did not know where else they would find it — were somewhat surprised by the discovery.

“The signal that jumped out at us was the complete spread through the male genital tract,” said Thomas Hope, the paper’s senior author and a professor of cell and developmental biology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “We had no idea we would find it there.”

When his team initially reviewed a scanned image from the first animal, one of the scientists asked, “What sex was the animal again?” Dr. Hope recalled.

“I said, ‘I think female.’ She said, ‘I don’t think it’s a female.’ I went down to the bottom of the image, which was almost cut off, and the testes were brightly lit up. And the signal in the penis was off the radar,” Dr. Hope said.

The paper was based on findings in just three monkeys, but the findings were consistent, Dr. Hope said. The study has not yet been peer reviewed for publication in a journal, and was posted Monday on the site bioRxiv.



https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/01/heal ... ction.html
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#117

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Better than the vaccine chip, amirite?
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#118

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one again for the deaf in writing
Study finds that ivermectin failed as COVID treatment

By: Scripps National
Posted at 4:47 PM, Mar 30, 2022 and last updated 1:03 AM, Mar 31, 2022

The antiparasitic drug ivermectin was found to show no signs of alleviating symptoms of coronavirus infection, according to a large clinical trial published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study involved 1,300 participants in Brazil infected with COVID-19, who either received the drug ivermectin as a treatment, or a placebo.

Dr. David Boulware, a University of Minnesota infectious-disease expert, “There’s really no sign of any benefit.”

He added, “Now that people can dive into the details and the data, hopefully, that will steer the majority of doctors away from ivermectin towards other therapies.”

Results of the study were presented in August during a presentation by the National Institutes of Health, the New York Times reported.

The study authors wrote:"The active-drug and placebo pills were packaged in identically shaped bottles and labeled with alphabetic letters corresponding to ivermectin or placebo. Participants who were randomly assigned to receive placebo were assigned to a placebo regimen (ranging from 1 day to 14 days) that corresponded with that of a comparable active-treatment group in the trial. Only the pharmacist who was responsible for randomization was aware of which letter referred to which assignment."

The study conclusion states:

Treatment with ivermectin did not result in a lower incidence of medical admission to a hospital due to progression of Covid-19 or of prolonged emergency department observation among outpatients with an early diagnosis of Covid-19.

Skeptics have highlighted that previous experiments with the drug's use as a treatment in humans were done with high concentrations of the drug, which were shown to be at levels that are not safe for people, according to the New York Times.


https://www.krtv.com/news/national/stud ... g-pandemic
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#119

Post by Sam the Centipede »

I was listening to a podcast as I drove yesterday: This Week In Virology*, episode 882 with Vincent Racanniello (virologist) and Brianne Barker (immunologist).

Implicit and sometimes explicit in their rather detailed discussions of techniques unfamiliar to me (I haven't been in a biosciences lab this century!) was the chronic issue of T-cells and their huge importance.

Antibodies (proteins that recognize and grab onto the virus, either disabling it directly or flagging it up for destruction by other components of the immune system) are easy to assay, which leads to them being treated as the measure of immunity. Indeed, they mentioned that the trials for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine didn't measure T-cell responses.

Antibody levels reduce with time, as we have seen, quite rapidly. The ability to produce more remains in memory B-cells but it takes a little longer to ramp up production to high levels on the-exposure.

T-cells persist longer and have a broader ability to respond to the virus (antibodies can be very specific). They are very important in the body's response to SARS-CoV-2.

What does this mean? (This is not their analysis, they were discussing experimental techniques.) That boost, boost, boost to maintain antibody levels is an expensive but not necessarily well-targeted tactic. People might not receive much extra protection from yet another booster. Am I saying "so don't take a booster?" NO! I would/will when offered. Just that it is all very complex.

I worry slightly that other barely addressed issues might emerge. For example, there is"immune imprinting": if the body has seen one variant of the virus – or vaccine – it might use that defense against a new variant of the virus with our results rather than diversify its response to be better targeted. Is this a problem? I certainly don't know, and I don't know if anyone does — but the point is: it's all very complicated and it's not all about antibodies.
_______
* This Week In Virology is an excellent podcast but very heavy if you don't have some knowledge of virology and immunology; if the terminology is unfamiliar you'll get lost quite quickly although it will come clearer as you persist – they realise that a lot of their audience will need reminders of what things are, epitopes, capsids, replicases, etc. and give a few seconds to explanation.

Perhaps of more interest to Fogfolk than their general virology (there are other viruses out there!) are their Clinical Update With Dr. Daniel Griffin episodes. These are shorter, only 45 minutes, in which Dr. Griffin takes through what's happening and planned to happen in hospitals and wider healthcare, including what looks promising, what is disappointing, and so on.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#120

Post by p0rtia »

From today's COVID task force presentation:
Screen Shot 2022-04-05 at 3.21.06 PM.png
Screen Shot 2022-04-05 at 3.21.06 PM.png (134.21 KiB) Viewed 1637 times
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#121

Post by sugar magnolia »

p0rtia wrote: Tue Apr 05, 2022 3:25 pm From today's COVID task force presentation:

Screen Shot 2022-04-05 at 3.21.06 PM.png
"Morality" rates?
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#122

Post by p0rtia »

sugar magnolia wrote: Tue Apr 05, 2022 4:56 pm
p0rtia wrote: Tue Apr 05, 2022 3:25 pm From today's COVID task force presentation:

Screen Shot 2022-04-05 at 3.21.06 PM.png
"Morality" rates?
Fauci is branching out! :biggrin:
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#123

Post by northland10 »

p0rtia wrote: Tue Apr 05, 2022 6:37 pm
sugar magnolia wrote: Tue Apr 05, 2022 4:56 pm
p0rtia wrote: Tue Apr 05, 2022 3:25 pm From today's COVID task force presentation:

Screen Shot 2022-04-05 at 3.21.06 PM.png
"Morality" rates?
Fauci is branching out! :biggrin:
Oh, the anti-vaxxers will be up in arms about that. They despise morality.
101010 :towel:
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AndyinPA
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#124

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The Allegheny County Health Department is no longer releasing daily COVID case numbers, a change signaling a shift in how the agency is monitoring the pandemic in the region.

Acknowledging factors that complicate the accuracy of official case counts, Dr. Debra L. Bogen, director of ACHD, announced at a March 16 press conference that the health department has begun to move away from viewing case numbers as a primary metric to assess the extent of community spread of COVID-19.

“As our case data becomes less usable because more and more people are, fortunately, able to test themselves at home, we are less able to rely on that as a source of information,” Bogen said at the press conference, “and hospitalizations lag so we can’t use that in real time.”

“We are really switching from trying to prevent all cases to trying to prevent severe outcomes — hospitals and deaths — and trying to protect the health care system so that they can do the other important work out there,” Bogen told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on March 17.

:snippity:

Wastewater is a wonderful opportunity to look at our population as a whole and how much virus we are shedding into our sewershed,” said Bogen. She added that ACHD has been collecting samples of the county’s wastewater three times a week and sending them to a Fla. lab for analysis, although they plan to develop local testing capacity.

ACHD hopes wastewater monitoring can help bypass some of the problems presented by official COVID testing data. In contrast to official case numbers, which require individuals to go out and get a COVID test in order to make it into health department data, individuals don’t have to opt into wastewater monitoring. Wastewater also captures the viral shedding of asymptomatic people, who may never think to get tested for COVID in the first place.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
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AndyinPA
Posts: 9859
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:42 am
Location: Pittsburgh
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#125

Post by AndyinPA »

https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh ... d=21423898
The Allegheny County Health Department is no longer releasing daily COVID case numbers, a change signaling a shift in how the agency is monitoring the pandemic in the region.

Acknowledging factors that complicate the accuracy of official case counts, Dr. Debra L. Bogen, director of ACHD, announced at a March 16 press conference that the health department has begun to move away from viewing case numbers as a primary metric to assess the extent of community spread of COVID-19.

“As our case data becomes less usable because more and more people are, fortunately, able to test themselves at home, we are less able to rely on that as a source of information,” Bogen said at the press conference, “and hospitalizations lag so we can’t use that in real time.”

“We are really switching from trying to prevent all cases to trying to prevent severe outcomes — hospitals and deaths — and trying to protect the health care system so that they can do the other important work out there,” Bogen told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on March 17.

:snippity:

Wastewater is a wonderful opportunity to look at our population as a whole and how much virus we are shedding into our sewershed,” said Bogen. She added that ACHD has been collecting samples of the county’s wastewater three times a week and sending them to a Fla. lab for analysis, although they plan to develop local testing capacity.

ACHD hopes wastewater monitoring can help bypass some of the problems presented by official COVID testing data. In contrast to official case numbers, which require individuals to go out and get a COVID test in order to make it into health department data, individuals don’t have to opt into wastewater monitoring. Wastewater also captures the viral shedding of asymptomatic people, who may never think to get tested for COVID in the first place.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
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