News Worldwide impact of the novel coronavirus (covid-19)

[blackemerald1]

Yes! Now NZ only needs one person to fly to Aus in the 'bubble' and you'll be in negative growth again. :wtf: :hilarious: :) :oops: :cautious:

 

[DharmaGirl]

David Hogg on an expert panel about vaccines?

What about Fox and Dr. Phil, Dr.Oz, and I can't remember the third expert on Covid. It's a both sides. Be nice if it were just black and white, but it's not. Money means a lot to the republicans.

Fact check:
Greta Thunberg defends place on expert COVID-19 panel after widespread ridicule

 

[whiteraven]

I honestly don't know what to think about all this. It seems really dangerous to be opening up again - we are doing it gradually (I guess), but certainly not within the guidelines given by the federal government. Many people are deciding just not to go out or to be sure they are protected. Some places I see NO masks, others everybody is wearing one.

I just got 2 new cloth masks and will likely start going out for essential stuff - grocery, laundry, vet.

 

[Innordinate]

I'm definitely not an expert on viruses or pandemics.
I also kinda stopped reading most main stream articles about a week or so ago.
I have my own questions and theories I've been searching out.
My ex is into this stuff deeply so I get some first hand knowledge from her, nothing that really hasn't been said.
The biggest thing is they just don't know. A lot.
What I find very curious is- I can't find a single expert that doesn't agree that fall/spring (depending which side of the equator you're on) will see another uptick of cases, and probably be worse than this first spike.

Makes me wonder if govt. already played their trump cards. Their aces.
Can we afford to shut down economies for months again in September/October/November? Doubtful.
Will govt. pay offs be as large? As encompassing?

Be interesting to see in a few months.

Also interesting is that it's a Corona virus, not a flu, which is what most experts expected, studied, monitored etc.

We actually got lucky with this one in some ways.

And again- I think the majority of people out there are missing the point of lock downs/shut downs. The virus isn't deadly on it's own. The purpose isn't to stop people from contracting it at all. Most people, at some
point (now or 2 years or 30 from now) are going to catch this cold, barring a vaccine which..... realistically..... there is no cure for the common cold.

:meh:

 

[siniang]

Also interesting is that it's a Corona virus, not a flu, which is what most experts expected, studied, monitored etc.

The more I read about, especially with the recent reports of inflammation in children, the way it inflames the alveoli in the lungs, and the EXTREME discrepancy between cases, from asymptomatic and mild cases for the majority and really f*cking severe cases for another some...

... I can't shake that feeling how it reminds me of FIP in cats.

Normally, corona viruses in humans cause pretty much a "common cold" for most parts. Nothing like the flu. SARS back in 2003 was different, so was MERS, but other than that, there's a really broad range of coronaviruses in humans of which none causes severe disease.

Most cats are naturally infected with feline corona virus (estimates range from 80-90% of the cat population). It causes mild respiratory and/or GI symptoms or remains asymptomatic. In some (a really small number) unlucky cats, this virus mutates and causes a severe inflammatory disease called FIP, that's always fatal. It usually affects young cats because of their weakened immune system and those with weakened immune systems due to sickness or age. Plus a really really small number of unlucky healthy ones. Sounds familiar?

I know they've already identified different strains of SARS-CoV-2, but I do keep wondering if something similar is happening here, that the virus mutates again AFTER the rather non-virulent strain has infected someone. By any chance, has anyone seen something along those lines? I've become really overwhelmed with information regarding all this.

Also....just thinking out loud here, not a virologist or microbiologist or anything...but considering that most if really not pretty much all human coronaviruses really only cause a "mere common cold", I do wonder if those started out similar with a much higher virulence, but humans managed to adapt their immune responses/systems over time (talking evolutionary time frames here, not weeks or months).

Don't judge me, but as a biologist, I still find this whole thing utterly fascinating. :oops:

 

[Justmehere]

I wonder how this will shake out.

Austrian Study Finds 'Sign Of Human Intervention' In Coronavirus

I am not at all sure if this is credible but it keeps showing up in the news... I really hope its refuted.

Edited to add: turns out to be a news article with more errors than it should have, so I removed the link.

 

[siniang]

I wonder how this will shake out.

Austrian Study Finds ‘Sign Of Human Intervention’ In Coronavirus

Considering that the article says it's an Austrian study, while Flinders University is in Australia (the meme world is lolmao'ing right now), I take the entire article with a BIG dose of salt. Professor Nikolai Petrovsky - Flinders University

I obviously haven't read the original study, but the entire article felt very stretching a lot.

For anyone who's interested, this is the original: In silico comparison of spike protein-ACE2 binding affinities...

Of the species studied, the next highest binding affinity after human was pangolin, which is most likely explained by a process of convergent evolution.

It's actually been widely hypothesized by now that pangolins are the actual origin, not bats. They provide no argument as to why it would be convergent evolution...

ETA: not pangolins. I’m not up to date. My apologies.

Pangolins were not involved in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, study suggests

but it is believed that the virus may have spilled over to humans from another, as yet unknown, intermediate host.

coronaviruses, pangolins were quickly labelled as one of the prime suspects. However, a genetic analysis of a coronavirus found in pangolins carried out at the Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources in China has determined that this is unlikely to be the case.

My main point stands. It’s kind of interesting that we have two options:

“Unidentified intermediate host”

and

“Lab-made”

The scientist in me cringes that Professor Petrovsky jumps to the conclusions he did solely based on some modeling.

Frankly, is not very parsimonious, considering what we’ve seen with other animal-human virus jumps before, including coronaviruses, and has a highly political flair to it - which as a scientist he should know better/be more careful.

ETA2:

Animal source of the coronavirus continues to elude scientists

Finding the source is important for preventing further reinfection, but scientists’ investigations — which include modelling, cell studies and animal experiments — are revealing how tricky pinpointing the source might be.

“It is quite possible we won’t find it. In fact, it would be exceptionally lucky if we land on something,” says Lucy van Dorp, a geneticist from University College London (UCL).

 

[Justmehere]

@siniang - That's great information and solid analysis. (I'm also scratching that news outlet as a credible source and going to note it as such in my post above.)

Other more credible resources do continue to raise questions about origin, but I think it's more like EVERYTHING about the virus, no one knows for sure. Even the best studies have not had the time to go through peer review. In the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, it was much like this. Fear, misinformation, stigma, chaos... and now? Things are so different.

I think a lot will change by the time this is all over.

Meanwhile, Trump is taking malaria drugs preemptively to fight off the virus. I'm guessing he's doing this because Fauci and others are on semi-quarantine and he's sick of having a swab shoved wayyyyy up his nose. He's foolishly increasing hoarding by followers of meds and his own risk of a heart attack.

I'm happy that another medication shown to possibly be effective for the drug, Famotidine, is still fillable in my area. I take it daily for an autoimmune condition. Without it, life becomes a bit more difficult.

 

[DharmaGirl]

Covid has caused my chicken business to explode! I just sold another 9 chicks for 3 times what I normally sell chicks for. I was trying to keep my old prices, but my overhead has increased so much. I even ordered rooster chicks since I don't have a rooster. I buy fertile eggs usually, but it is hard to do that now. I am selling hens for $40 for purebreds, and $60 for rares. @blackemerald1, I finally caught up with the pricing over there. If you want chicks from the feed store, you have to stand in line an hour before they open. Yikes. I found a private breeder that I'm ordering eggs from now.

 

[The Albatross]

What about Fox and Dr. Phil, Dr.Oz, and I can't remember the third expert on Covid. It's a both sides. Be nice if it were just black and white, but it's not. Money means a lot to the republicans.

Money means a lot to EVERYBODY. Interesting that two of the people in your quote actually are recipients of a doctorate of some sort... whilst of course Greta and David Hogg aren't. Enjoy your pap... but please don't expect me to elevate the uncredentialled. You'd be surprised how black and white things really can be.

 

[Justmehere]

This is interesting to read. I'm glad the surge is not as high as feared.

But one researcher at the IHME at the University of Washington, who program the model, said that fewer people are forecasted to die in certain parts of the country.

"We were pretty surprised," said Chris Murray, the chairman of the school's Health Metrics Sciences department. "We were expecting to probably go up because of the big surge in mobility." Death toll in US passes 90,000 but influential coronavirus model lowers its prediction - CNN

"
They attribute it to wearing masks and social distancing.

My bank today gave me free hand sanitizer while keeping everyone out and forcing us all to go through the bank. Life is weird. I feel exhausted with it all.

Some people are now getting charged with terrorism for spreading covid 19 or the fear of covid 19 in the US. Texas Teen Booked on Terror Charge for COVID-19 Snapchat Video

 

[DharmaGirl]

You'd be surprised how black and white things really can be.

Hmm, I don't think they are, but Phd's don't make one an expert on science, and she was NEVER touted as an expert on a panel.