Coronavirus

[Jocephus]

I've been cleared from quarantine by the Illinois Dept. of Public Health. So I have that going for me.

i think if you ever get questioned about anything again just say "the state of illinois has cleared me"

[heyzeus]

Illinois nazis.

[mikechamp]

Here is an in-depth interview discussing the variants being seen around the world, and the associated concerns:

How Worried Should We Be About the Coronavirus Variants?

Since the novel coronavirus first appeared in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, it has mutated thousands of times, resulting in countless variants. While this may sound alarming, it’s not that remarkable: All viruses mutate, and compared to other common viruses, the rate at which the coronavirus undergoes this natural process is pretty slow. But in the past few months, a number of notable variants have emerged, prompting researchers to raise the alarm for one reason or another: a British variant, a South African variant, a Brazilian variant, and a variant found in California.

While each of the aforementioned variants carries its own set of risks — both the British and the South African variants appear to carry significantly higher transmission rates, current research shows, whereas the Brazilian variant has caused a surge of cases where the virus previously infected huge numbers last spring — of utmost concern is whether the available COVID-19 vaccines are effective against the mutations. To better understand the variants and exactly how concerned we should be, the Cut spoke with Michael Worobey, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona who studies the evolution of flu viruses.

https://www.thecut.com/2021/02/coronavi ... we-be.html

[GeddyWrox]

In good news, it sounds like a promising antiviral theraputic has been identified. Sounds like it needs more testing. But hopefully they can speed this through, as it has previously been tested for treating a type of cancer.

Powerful Antiviral Treatment for COVID-19 Discovered That Could Change How Epidemics Are Managed

https://scitechdaily.com/powerful-antiv ... e-managed/

Researchers from the University of Nottingham have discovered a novel antiviral property of a drug that could have major implications in how future epidemics / pandemics — including Covid-19 — are managed.

The study, published in Viruses, shows that thapsigargin is a promising broad spectrum antiviral, highly effective against Covid-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2), a common cold coronavirus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and the influenza A virus.

Given that acute respiratory virus infections caused by different viruses are clinically indistinguishable on presentation, an effective broad-spectrum that can target different virus types at the same time could significantly improve clinical management. An antiviral of this type could potentially be made available for community use to control active infection and its spread.

The study is a collaborative project led by Professor Kin-Chow Chang and experts at the University of Nottingham (Schools of Veterinary Medicine and Sciences, Biosciences, Pharmacy, Medicine, and Chemistry), and colleagues at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), China Agricultural University and the Pirbright Institute.

In this ground-breaking study, the team of experts found that the plant-derived antiviral, at small doses, triggers a highly effective broad-spectrum host-centered antiviral innate immune response against three major types of human respiratory viruses — including Covid-19.

The key features based on cell and animal studies, which make thapsigargin a promising antiviral are that it is:

• effective against viral infection when used before or during active infection
• able to prevent a virus from making new copies of itself in cells for at least 48 hours after a single 30-minute exposure.
• stable in acidic pH, as found in the stomach, and therefore can be taken orally, so could be administered without the need for injections or hospital admission.
• not sensitive to virus resistance.
• at least several hundred-fold more effective than current antiviral options.
• just as effective in blocking combined infection with coronavirus and influenza A virus as in single-virus infection.
• safe as an antiviral (a derivative of thapsigargin has been tested in prostate cancer).

Here is a link to the research article:
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/13/2/234/pdf

[thrill]

In good news, it sounds like a promising antiviral theraputic has been identified. Sounds like it needs more testing. But hopefully they can speed this through, as it has previously been tested for treating a type of cancer.

Powerful Antiviral Treatment for COVID-19 Discovered That Could Change How Epidemics Are Managed

https://scitechdaily.com/powerful-antiv ... e-managed/

Got really excited and then remembered this article I read is about a bacteria...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/scie ... teria.html

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Congrats, man.

One of my dad's closest friends passed last night. No man spent more time throwing me into a pool. Great dude. Great family. He'll be missed.

Damnit man, sorry to hear.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Had an in person meeting with a ~80 year old guy today. Dude ignored all distancing, hand washing, and mask wearing guidelines. I kept a mask on. Didn't ask any questions and he didn't provide any details. I guess he's either vaccinated or has had the virus and survived, though I don't think the later is the case.

Regardless, progress? I don't know. He's one of the sharper guys I have had the fortune of interacting with over the past decade or so.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

So, J&J has a vaccine getting ready to be approved later in February it looks like.

Haven't followed it that closely. But, it looks like the main difference between the J&J vaccine and the Pfizer/Moderna vaccines is that it only takes one shot.

There are other important differences as well.

Namely, it's not an mRNA vaccine. There is a DNA strand engineered in the lab that once in the human cells will be read and then mRNA will be created by the human and that mRNA will lead to the formation of the spike protein. It's just an extra step, best I can tell. Whereas the mRNA vaccines are just an injection of the mRNA, the DNA vaccines rely on the dna to be read and produce mrna which then builds the proteins. Not really much of a difference, but a difference nonetheless...presumably these are a bit more difficult to make because they're making dna instead of rna but...idk about that.

But, it doesn't require special refrigeration which is nice.

Also, the efficacy apparently increases as time goes on. After day 49, the efficacy is 100% in the trial, that probably won't hold up overall. After a couple weeks apparently its in the 50-70% range. AFter a month, 85%.

Lastly, the adverse side effects are not near what the mrna vaccines are causing. According to J&J, there were more adverse reactions to the injection in the placebo group than in the vaccine group. So...take it fwiw.

All that to say, sweet. The more vaccines the better as far as I'm concerned. I'm ready for them to start opening up stadiums to mass inoculate tens of thousands of people every day all across the country so we can put this whole [expletive] [expletive] hole [expletive] stick of a pandemic behind us.

However, it looks like due to the lack of need for special refrigeration and being a single shot, the J&J vaccine will likely be used heavily for the developing nations. No idea how many they can produce but it might not be all that highly used in America at least in the next however many months/years.

[mikechamp]

I've been busy the past few days, but wanted to make sure to post this for the group. Click on the link to check out their charts/graphs, but the meat of the article is below:

Covid vaccine rollout gives US hope amid variant concerns

It's been a long winter for the US, with hospitals seeing more coronavirus patients than at any point in the pandemic and the average number of daily deaths topping 3,000 for the first time. But as spring approaches, the number of infections is now falling and the vaccination programme looks to have overcome some of its initial problems.

So is the US on track to get back to some form of normality in 2021 or do new variants of the virus mean further setbacks are ahead? We've taken a look at the data and spoken to an epidemiologist to assess the situation.

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Overall, there have been nearly 30 million confirmed cases in the US - the highest figure in the world. But as testing was so limited in spring last year, the true number is probably much higher. One study by scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested the real number was as high as 100m towards the end of last year.

Although the decline in cases is good news, it will be a few weeks before it has any major effect on the number of coronavirus patients in hospitals across the US. That number has been falling for a few weeks now, but more than 80,000 people are currently in hospital - that's still 20,000 more than during the two previous surges last year.

January was the deadliest month of the pandemic in the US, with 95,000 deaths reported - more than a fifth of the overall death toll of 460,000. The average number of deaths remains extremely high at 3,000 a day at the moment, but there are now signs of a small decline in recent days.
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The US is now averaging more than 1.3 million vaccinations a day and Mr Biden has upped his target to 1.5 million a day.

Recent research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a US healthcare charity, found that black people account for a smaller share of vaccinations compared to their share of cases and deaths in nearly all states reporting such data. By global standards, however, the US programme is going well. The country's average of nearly 12 vaccinations administered per 100 people is above Canada (3) and all of Europe apart from the UK (18). Israel has the highest rate of any country, with 63 per 100 people.
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"It will be many more months before we see not necessarily a return to normalcy, but the emergence of a new normal," according to Dr Keri Althoff, a professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr Althoff says that "new normal" will see public health officials continuing to recommend social distancing and face masks while warning against any large social gatherings, inside or out. "Many people in the US are feeling exhausted by this virus. It's totally normal and we need to be empathetic towards that, but this virus is not going to just go away," she said.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55952899

[mikechamp]

Here's a view into corporate America's stance on returning to work. I included two companies, but others are cited in the article:

CEOs to employees: Stay home until at least September

Many U.S. office workers are approaching a year of working from home. While vaccine distribution is accelerating and the number of new U.S. COVID-19 cases are falling, companies are taking a cautious stance on getting back to the office, with executives telling Yahoo Finance they’re targeting a September return date.

Salesforce grabbed headlines this week by outlining how it plans to return employees to the office, offering them a choice to continue to work from home or adopt a flexible, mixed schedule. But it’s far from the only large company to update employees on return-to-work plans.

“We’ve told them, ‘don’t plan to come back before September,’” Centene CEO Michael Neidorff told Yahoo Finance Live, Health insurer Centene, an administrator of Medicare and Medicaid plans, has more than 71,000 employees. When they do return, it won’t be all at once, he said. “We will do modifications. You may come in for a four-day work week. You may come in one week, stay at home one week. It will be a function of the job.”

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ceos-are ... 44030.html