Coronavirus

[Jocephus]

appears to be new case record today, over 185k (2k death).

200k by weekend?

[pioneer98]

[Freed Roger]

my boss's (that looks weird) HS aged son was going to go on a china trip over spring break but that got cancelled. i don't think they were going to one of the "hot spots" but nonetheless it was deemed too risky. she mentioned something where the state dept must have elevated the risk of travel to "level 3" so that's what cancelled/delayed the trip. the school is now looking at a June trip for the students.

Mesa County was mentioned on NPR news today. Get that dispensary post-haste

[GeddyWrox]

Fascinating article about how the various vaccines were conceived and designed to work. I don't think there's much new here, it's just a really well written explanation.

https://www.cnet.com/news/coronavirus-m ... s-forever/

The accelerated development and testing are a spectacular and unprecedented achievement. Vaccines can take over a decade to create, but the two firms have built them in just 10 months. Their successes arise in part due to how they designed their new vaccines.

Both use synthetic messenger RNA, or mRNA, a molecule that tells cells how to build proteins. With it, you can trick cells into producing proteins usually found in SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and stimulate the immune system -- without making patients sick -- to provide protection against infection.

These are the first two vaccines to use this pioneering technology. If they are as effective as early data suggests, they could herald a new era in vaccine and therapeutic design. With significant refinement, mRNA vaccines could treat not just viral diseases like COVID-19, but inherited diseases, allergies or even cancer. "I think we'll see some pretty incredible breakthroughs based on these technologies in the future," says Larisa Labzin, an immunologist at the University of Queensland, Australia.

And if another pandemic catches our immune systems off-guard in the future, mRNA vaccines have the potential to put a stop to things faster than ever before.

As soon as the genetic blueprint for SARS-CoV-2 was known, in early January, scientists and researchers homed in on the spike protein. After the previous SARS pandemic in 2002-03, studies showed the protein would be a great target for vaccine development, because of its critical role in infection. SARS-CoV-2's spike is very similar to the spike found in the SARS virus, with a couple of tiny genetic tweaks.

Early research showed that when immune cells identify the spike, some produce antibodies to neutralize the virus and others are recruited to kill any cells already infected. Importantly, some immune cells remember their interactions with the spike, allowing any subsequent infection to be fought off. The spike protein became a viable target for vaccines and development began in earnest.

There are several different ways to create a vaccine, but they all have the same goal. "We're trying to trick the immune system into thinking that it's seen the virus before," says Labzin.

In the past, vaccines have utilized weakened versions of a virus or specific pieces of a virus to stimulate immunity. The human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine, for instance, contains pieces of four different HPV strains. Similarly, some COVID-19 vaccines in development are using inactivated virus or weakened versions of SARS-CoV-2. In these vaccines, the virus has been manipulated to stimulate the immune system -- but it has been altered to ensure it does not make the patient sick.

Another high-profile vaccine candidate, developed by Oxford University and pharma company AstraZeneca, uses a different method again. "They basically get the virus and take out all the dangerous parts of it," says Labzin. The chimpanzee virus becomes a courier, delivering DNA instructions to a human cell.

Pfizer's and Moderna's vaccines are completely different. They deliver synthetic mRNA to cells, and they're the first vaccines ever built to fight infectious disease this way.

Can we end all pandemics?
We're yet to see how well these vaccines will hold up over the long term. The end of the current pandemic is still a ways off. The results that have been so positively received are preliminary and require extensive peer review. Even if they pass that process and the distribution and storage problems are ironed out, it will still be some time before COVID-19 is behind us.

Still, initial results show the two mRNA vaccines are safe and surprisingly effective. Analysis and follow-up over years will be required to understand how long the vaccinations last and how robust they are: Can they prevent disease altogether, giving us a chance to eradicate the disease? Or will they merely help slow the spread?

But the small successes do signify a leap forward for vaccine development. If mRNA vaccines can become truly plug-and-play and we can throw any instructions we like at them, we can begin to think about other diseases where they could be beneficial. We have found the keys to the protein factories -- so what will we build?

One line of study is cancer research. Dozens of clinical trials are underway or completed, evaluating how mRNA might be used to combat different types of cancers. Some cancers express very specific proteins the body recognizes as foreign. By decoding the mRNA that produces these proteins, researchers can produce tailor-made vaccines against cancer -- a lofty goal, but one that has demonstrated positive benefits in prostate cancer, lung cancer and bladder cancer.

That's not to say Moderna or Pfizer and BioNTech can pivot their COVID-19 vaccine to cancer tomorrow and have a working prostate cancer fix. It's here where the plug-and-play analogy breaks down a little. Even with certified hardware, each vaccine requires its own evaluation process.

[thrill]

Seems like covid is going to be a transformational event for medicine. The vaccination development response is going to be pretty high up there in terms of human achievement and the discoveries made by necessity could be a huge leap forward akin to the discovery of antibiotics.

[Freed Roger]

.

[Freed Roger]

Fascinating article about how the various vaccines were conceived and designed to work. I don't think there's much new here, it's just a really well written explanation.

https://www.cnet.com/news/coronavirus-m ... s-forever/

The accelerated development and testing are a spectacular and unprecedented achievement. Vaccines can take over a decade to create, but the two firms have built them in just 10 months. Their successes arise in part due to how they designed their new vaccines.

Both use synthetic messenger RNA, or mRNA, a molecule that tells cells how to build proteins. With it, you can trick cells into producing proteins usually found in SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and stimulate the immune system -- without making patients sick -- to provide protection against infection.

These are the first two vaccines to use this pioneering technology. If they are as effective as early data suggests, they could herald a new era in vaccine and therapeutic design. With significant refinement, mRNA vaccines could treat not just viral diseases like COVID-19, but inherited diseases, allergies or even cancer. "I think we'll see some pretty incredible breakthroughs based on these technologies in the future," says Larisa Labzin, an immunologist at the University of Queensland, Australia.

And if another pandemic catches our immune systems off-guard in the future, mRNA vaccines have the potential to put a stop to things faster than ever before.

As soon as the genetic blueprint for SARS-CoV-2 was known, in early January, scientists and researchers homed in on the spike protein. After the previous SARS pandemic in 2002-03, studies showed the protein would be a great target for vaccine development, because of its critical role in infection. SARS-CoV-2's spike is very similar to the spike found in the SARS virus, with a couple of tiny genetic tweaks.

Early research showed that when immune cells identify the spike, some produce antibodies to neutralize the virus and others are recruited to kill any cells already infected. Importantly, some immune cells remember their interactions with the spike, allowing any subsequent infection to be fought off. The spike protein became a viable target for vaccines and development began in earnest.

There are several different ways to create a vaccine, but they all have the same goal. "We're trying to trick the immune system into thinking that it's seen the virus before," says Labzin.

In the past, vaccines have utilized weakened versions of a virus or specific pieces of a virus to stimulate immunity. The human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine, for instance, contains pieces of four different HPV strains. Similarly, some COVID-19 vaccines in development are using inactivated virus or weakened versions of SARS-CoV-2. In these vaccines, the virus has been manipulated to stimulate the immune system -- but it has been altered to ensure it does not make the patient sick.

Another high-profile vaccine candidate, developed by Oxford University and pharma company AstraZeneca, uses a different method again. "They basically get the virus and take out all the dangerous parts of it," says Labzin. The chimpanzee virus becomes a courier, delivering DNA instructions to a human cell.

Pfizer's and Moderna's vaccines are completely different. They deliver synthetic mRNA to cells, and they're the first vaccines ever built to fight infectious disease this way.

Can we end all pandemics?
We're yet to see how well these vaccines will hold up over the long term. The end of the current pandemic is still a ways off. The results that have been so positively received are preliminary and require extensive peer review. Even if they pass that process and the distribution and storage problems are ironed out, it will still be some time before COVID-19 is behind us.

Still, initial results show the two mRNA vaccines are safe and surprisingly effective. Analysis and follow-up over years will be required to understand how long the vaccinations last and how robust they are: Can they prevent disease altogether, giving us a chance to eradicate the disease? Or will they merely help slow the spread?

But the small successes do signify a leap forward for vaccine development. If mRNA vaccines can become truly plug-and-play and we can throw any instructions we like at them, we can begin to think about other diseases where they could be beneficial. We have found the keys to the protein factories -- so what will we build?

One line of study is cancer research. Dozens of clinical trials are underway or completed, evaluating how mRNA might be used to combat different types of cancers. Some cancers express very specific proteins the body recognizes as foreign. By decoding the mRNA that produces these proteins, researchers can produce tailor-made vaccines against cancer -- a lofty goal, but one that has demonstrated positive benefits in prostate cancer, lung cancer and bladder cancer.

That's not to say Moderna or Pfizer and BioNTech can pivot their COVID-19 vaccine to cancer tomorrow and have a working prostate cancer fix. It's here where the plug-and-play analogy breaks down a little. Even with certified hardware, each vaccine requires its own evaluation process.

thanks for sharing this .

and major thanks to scientists working together, and people that participated in the trials.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

I was pretty skeptical due to ignorance (incorrectly thinking it affected the recipients rna) about the mRNA vaccine early on, but I've come around lately after learning how it works (just delivers virus rna in a different manner).

It is pretty cool. And, while it's been around since before covid, there's no doubt covid has really given the technology a shot in the arm (no pun intended) by amplifying its demand.

No doubt it will have implications moving forward. One thing the article didn't get into, or I missed, was where is the line between vaccines and disease prevention and re-writing the body's code, so to speak, as the Crisprcas 9 technology can do? It's a pretty interesting question, one that I don't have an answer to. But, the mRNA vaccines simply introduce mRNA to have the body produce viral proteins thereby creating an 'immune response'. It doesn't take much imagination to see where that mRNA could be coded to...create any number of proteins that have nothing to do with viral proteins.

Getting back to the 'immune response', I've started to see articles calling for education that both mRNA vaccines produce quite a strong response and as such recipients will probably have a response similar to a mild infection (headache, fatigue, aches, etc). The data the companies released back this up (shown in a previous medcram video in this thread). The concern is if people are expecting a response similar to the flu shot, people may be leery of getting the 2nd dose, especially if they are knocked down for a day or two and it causes concern.

Reading through the internets, so take it fwiw, I've seen a couple first hand anecdotes (again take it fwiw) that the vaccine really packs a punch and at least in some cases represents the same as mild covid would.

Lastly, I'd be cautious about reading a lot into the high efficacy of the mRNA vaccines that were presented. I personally am enthusiastic that they will be a long lasting and effective tool given my very, very limited understanding. I think i've shared that in here before. That said, there are reasons for caution as well:
1. The studies did not follow up test recipients but instead relied on recipients to present with symptoms, be evaluated, and follow up with a test if it was determined one was required. Converesly, AstraZeneca regularly swabbed their recipients.
2. Given the time frame (I think we're 2-3 months into the study when results were released), and given the mechanism the body uses to fight the spike (antibodies), and given that antibodies are known to fade, while you can be pretty confident the vaccine does something good, you can't be confident in the long lasting effect or if it even prevents infections, let alone infectiousness. I think it will, but that's simply not shown yet. The long lasting portion all comes down to how effective the memory cells will be at preventing infecitons/infectiousness. Again, there's reason to be optimistic. Way more reasons to be optimistic than pessimistic. But...nothing is certain.

All that said, it's essentially the same argument for/against rather a person can be reinfected as it is for a vaccine. If you are optimistic natural infection will lead to long lasting immunity, then all those reasons apply to a vaccine as well. And, if you're pessimistic a vaccine will long lasting immunity, then it's tough to think a natural infection would provide any more protection.

[Freed Roger]

Getting back to the 'immune response', I've started to see articles calling for education that both mRNA vaccines produce quite a strong response and as such recipients will probably have a response similar to a mild infection (headache, fatigue, aches, etc). The data the companies released back this up (shown in a previous medcram video in this thread). The concern is if people are expecting a response similar to the flu shot, people may be leery of getting the 2nd dose, especially if they are knocked down for a day or two and it causes concern.

Reading through the internets, so take it fwiw, I've seen a couple first hand anecdotes (again take it fwiw) that the vaccine really packs a punch and at least in some cases represents the same as mild covid would.

A friend in KC area that was part of Moderna trial echoed this. He said he was glad to feel aches etc. Felt nothing like it does after a flu shot --seems like it was somewhat expected- and he was pretty sure he was receiving vaccine rather than placebo. participants kept a journal about it.
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As far as willingness to get the vaccine not once, but twice, -due to adverse side effects and fear of unknown - sadly the way we are trending with cases and deaths, it may be where enough people will be begging for it.

And Side note - I heard a story about getting people vaccinated for polio back in 50s. the main reluctant demographic group were young people. they (whoever ran the education/vaccine program) scored when they were able to film Elviis getting his shot, and he followed up as part of vaccine campaign. it worked

Not sure if that works so easily now, with love-hate with pop icons. What 6- 10 people could be recruited that have singular mass appeal of one Elvis.

[Popeye_Card]

Not sure if that works so easily now, with love-hate with pop icons. What 6- 10 people could be recruited that have singular mass appeal of one Elvis.

Probably plenty of options, though the politicization of celebrities makes it a bit tougher. Elvis wasn’t exactly beloved by older generations in the 50’s.