26251 replies to this topic

[amor de cosmos]

^ it got taken down because hydroxychloroquine is in fact not effective, it has nothing to do with trump
 

As of August 6, the percentage of people living on First Nations reserves who have tested positive for COVID-19 was one-quarter that of the general Canadian population. Of a total 422 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on reserves, more than 80% have recovered. Six people have died—a fatality rate one-fifth that of the general population. According to Indigenous Services Canada, "First Nations communities are flattening the curve."

British Columbia is a case in point—the province reported just 90 cases of COVID-19 among First Nations people in the first six months of 2020. Health officials attributed these low numbers to the "extraordinary" public health measures taken by Indigenous communities.

According to Dr. Nel Weiman, acting deputy chief medical officer for the First Nations Health Authority, the memory of past epidemics in which entire villages were nearly wiped out made people especially cautious about COVID-19. "Communities recognized the need to really take this seriously and install their own versions of public health measures," says Weiman.

*snip*

According to Dr. Nel Weiman, acting deputy chief medical officer for the First Nations Health Authority, the memory of past epidemics in which entire villages were nearly wiped out made people especially cautious about COVID-19. "Communities recognized the need to really take this seriously and install their own versions of public health measures," says Weiman.

etc
https://medicalxpres...ses-covid-.html
 

Identification of healthy people at high risk for severe COVID-19 is a global health priority. Scientists at Nightingale Health investigated whether blood biomarkers measured by high-throughput metabolomics could be predictive of severe pneumonia and COVID-19 hospitalization years after the blood sampling.

The researchers analyzed over 100,000 blood samples from the UK Biobank and identified a particular molecular signature in the blood that's common among people who get severe symptoms if infected by the coronavirus. Those with this molecular signature are five to 10 times more likely to be hospitalized. These findings are novel, as the blood biomarkers in the molecular signature have not been previously known as risk markers in healthy people for developing severe forms of COVID-19.

https://medicalxpres...ture-blood.html
 

In Washington, under the state's guidelines for personal service providers, that includes nail salons, clients "must self-screen for signs and symptoms of COVID-19 before arriving at the service provider location." Naturally, you might think that would mean if someone tested positive for COVID-19, they wouldn't knowingly make or keep an appointment with their manicurist within the recommended quarantine period.

But a nail technician named Taylor recently shared a since-removed Facebook post with a screenshot of a text-message conversation she says she had with a customer. In the screenshot, shared with Allure by Taylor, the client wrote, "I feel really bad and should not have shown up for my appointment but I desperately needed my nails done! I tested positive for the virus two days ago soooooo please quarantine yourself."

Taylor replied, reminding the client not only that she is immunocompromised, but that she would not have accepted her appointment if the client had revealed beforehand that they'd had any COVID-19 exposure. "I asked you before you even got here if you had been exposed to the virus and if you have had it at any point," she wrote.

The client, however, appeared to believe the condition of her nails justified exposing her unsuspecting manicurist to the highly contagious novel strain of coronavirus, offering more of an excuse than an apology. "I was just desperate to get out of the house! I was quarantine in two days I'm sorry! I needed my nails done sooooooo bad! You saw how bad they were!"

https://www.allure.c...irus-washington
https://www.boredpan...ure-roguemenai/

HS that suspended teen who tweeted photo of hallway has 9 COVID-19 cases
https://arstechnica....covid-19-cases/

No End in Sight as U.S. Cases Pass 5 Million
https://www.webmd.co...no-end-in-sight
 

The good news: The United States has a window of opportunity to beat back Covid-19 before things get much, much worse.

The bad news: That window is rapidly closing. And the country seems unwilling or unable to seize the moment.

Winter is coming. Winter means cold and flu season, which is all but sure to complicate the task of figuring out who is sick with Covid-19 and who is suffering from a less threatening respiratory tract infection. It also means that cherished outdoor freedoms that link us to pre-Covid life — pop-up restaurant patios, picnics in parks, trips to the beach — will soon be out of reach, at least in northern parts of the country.

Unless Americans use the dwindling weeks between now and the onset of “indoor weather” to tamp down transmission in the country, this winter could be Dickensianly bleak, public health experts warn.

*snip*

Epidemiologist Michael Mina despairs that an important chance to wrestle the virus under control is being lost, as Americans ignore the realities of the pandemic in favor of trying to resume pre-Covid life.

“We just continue to squander every bit of opportunity we get with this epidemic to get it under control,’’ said Mina, an assistant professor in Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and associate medical director of clinical microbiology at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

“The best time to squash a pandemic is when the environmental characteristics slow transmission. It’s your one opportunity in the year, really, to leverage that extra assistance and get transmission under control,” he said, his frustration audible.

Driving back transmission would require people to continue to make sacrifices, to accept the fact that life post-Covid cannot proceed as normal, not while so many people remain vulnerable to the virus. Instead, people are giddily throwing off the shackles of coronavirus suppression efforts, seemingly convinced that a few weeks of sacrifice during the spring was a one-time solution.

obviously
https://www.statnews...9-is-narrowing/
 

Miguel Sagastume has less than $2 until next week. When the enhanced unemployment payments of $600 each week expired on July 31st, his financial lifeline dried up. He now receives just $86.45 from the New York Department of Labor each week after taxes are removed from his unemployment checks.

The end of the Financial Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, which has not been renewed as the Republican-controlled Senate remains deadlocked over another stimulus bill, has left Sagastume facing financial uncertainty—again. As he, like others, waited more than a month to receive his first unemployment payment this spring, the Queens resident plunged into despair.

“I sat in my house, cried, prayed,” said Sagastume, who has been using SNAP benefits to buy food for others who have less financial assistance. “I was really thinking of checking out, because I couldn't take it anymore.”

As negotiations over another government stimulus bill appear poised to spill into next week, New Yorkers are grappling with dwindling funds and food insecurity, just as they were at the beginning of the pandemic.

etc
https://gothamist.co...k-to-square-one
 

Brazil's Covid-19 death toll shoots above 100,000 with no relief on sight

*snip*

The virus took three months to kill 50,000 people, and just 50 days to kill the next 50,000.

*snip*

The health ministry on Saturday reported 49,970 new confirmed cases and 905 deaths in the last 24 hours, raising the number of cases to more than 3 million and the death toll to 100,477.

Brazil's Supreme Court and Congress, institutions that have criticized Bolsonaro's handling of the pandemic, respectively declared three and four days of national mourning for the 100,000 dead. The president did not comment publicly.

“We don't know where it will stop, maybe at 150,000 or 200,000 deaths. Only time will show the full impact of COVID-19 here,” said Alexandre Naime, head of Sao Paulo State University's department of infectious diseases.

He said the only comparison may be diseases brought by colonizers, such as smallpox, that decimated indigenous populations when Europeans first arrived in the Americas.

While that history is long past, Urbaez said Brazil today seems equally resigned to the COVID-19 deaths to come. “The government's message today is: 'Catch your coronavirus and if it's serious, there is intensive care.' That sums up our policy today,” said Urbaez of the Infectious Disease Society.

https://en.mercopres...relief-on-sight

Israelis welcome in only four countries due to coronavirus spread
https://www.ynetnews...icle/H1711jhCZP

A well-known Hindu temple in India has seen more than 700 cases of COVID-19 among its staff in the past two months
https://www.channeln...tbreak-13007698
 

Scientists looking for a “signature” of COVID-19 in infected cases say it could reveal that even patients who have recovered develop disease risks they didn’t have before contracting the virus.

The research suggests that ­abnormalities detected in blood samples of infected patients are linked to diabetes, liver dysfunction, abnormal levels of cholesterol and higher risk of coronary heart disease.

The research, to be published shortly by the Australian National Phenome Centre, Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge in the UK and other agencies, may flag that COVID-19 infections could trigger a massive increase in the healthcare burden across the planet…

“We don’t know yet whether these long-term effects are permanent, but certainly there is evidence of long-term issues with lung damage and damage of the blood vessels around the body ­including the heart,” Professor Kelly said.

“This can be a very severe illness. Don’t take it lightly”…

In Australia, young people aged 20 to 29 are the most likely age group to contract the virus…

“We are very worried about the long-term effects of this coronavirus,” [Chris Moy] said. “The great fear in this is the unknown nature of this condition, which we haven’t really seen before. This is something that we could pay for later.”

https://www.macrobus...-of-disability/
https://www.nakedcap...disability.html
 

China's economy, as shown by multiple mid-year indicators, has ridden out its downturn due to COVID-19 strains and bounced back to growth in the second quarter (Q2). Economists believe that the country's V-shaped recovery is only getting started.

In Q2, China's gross domestic product expanded by 3.2 percent year on year, reversing a 6.8-percent contraction in the previous quarter. China's fiscal revenue marked the first expansion this year by gaining 3.2 percent year on year in June, while the contraction of the retail sector declined markedly.

http://www.ecns.cn/n...hw7469941.shtml

[dasmo]

So when is the emergency over here? When the number of deaths invert and we start having babies born with COVID? 

[Victoria Watcher]

good on russia.  in the wake of the global pandemic they have made bold steps to end it.

 

 

 

 

https://www.bbc.com/...europe-53735718

 

 

 

Mr Putin said the vaccine had passed all the required checks, adding that his daughter had already been given it.

 

Officials have said they plan to start mass vaccination in October.

 

Experts have raised concerns about the speed of Russia's work, suggesting that researchers might be cutting corners.

 

Amid fears that safety could have been compromised, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged Russia last week to follow international guidelines for producing a vaccine against Covid-19.

 

On Tuesday, the WHO said it had been in talks with Russian authorities about undertaking a review of the vaccine.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 11 August 2020 - 05:23 AM.

[spanky123]

^Experts who work for competing firms.

[Victoria Watcher]

good on russia.  in the wake of the global pandemic they have made bold steps to end it.

 

nobel prize for putin if it works.

[Mike K.]

Aren't they too busy throwing elections in the US?

 

There's a reason why you don't have a Lada in your driveway or a Bork fridge in your kitchen. And that's likely to extend to the quality of their vaccine.

[amor de cosmos]

^ one could just as easily say there's a reason physicists & students still use the landau & lifshitz series of textbooks, or that the caspian sea monster gave US state planners many sleepless nights

Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney advising PM on COVID-19 economic response
https://www.cbc.ca/n...ponse-1.5680765

Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau could lose his job amid disagreements with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over how to steer the economy through the coronavirus outbreak
https://www.channeln...atened-13010806

Ontario mining company 1st to try new mobile test that diagnoses COVID-19 in as little as an hour
https://www.cbc.ca/n...-test-1.5680526

Fraser Health is warning the public about a possible exposure to someone who tested positive for COVID-19 at a "night rave" in Surrey, B.C.
https://www.cbc.ca/n...urrey-1.5680673

Racial justice protests were not a major cause of COVID-19 infection surges, new national study finds
https://medicalxpres...jor-covid-.html
 

MONDAY, Aug. 10, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A simple blood test may predict which COVID-19 patients are likely to get worse and die, a new study suggests.

"When we first started treating COVID-19 patients, we watched them get better or get worse, but we didn't know why," said researcher Dr. Juan Reyes. He's an assistant professor of medicine at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, in Washington, D.C.

"Some initial studies had come out of China showing certain biomarkers were associated with bad outcomes. There was a desire to see if that was true for our patients here in the U.S.," Reyes said in a school news release.

For the study, Reyes and his colleagues evaluated nearly 300 patients with COVID-19 admitted to George Washington Hospital between March 12 and May 9, 2020.

Of these, 200 had all the biomarkers being studied, namely, IL-6, D-dimer, CRP, LDH and ferritin. Higher levels of these markers were tied with inflammation and bleeding disorders, and an increased risk of being admitted to the intensive care unit, needing ventilator support, and death, the researchers found.

https://www.webmd.co...-covid-19-cases

 

 

A new study from the Regenerative Bioscience Center at the University of Georgia is the first to suggest that COVID-19 does not directly damage taste bud cells.

 

Contrary to previous studies that have shown damage may be caused directly by the virus particle, the researchers, led by Hongxiang Liu, associate professor of animal and dairy science in UGA's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, found that taste loss is likely caused indirectly by events induced during COVID-19 inflammation.

https://www.eurekale...g-cdn081020.php
 

Researchers at Michigan Tech, TÜV SÜD UK National Engineering Laboratory and University of Edinburgh call for increased research on virus surface stability and interaction in "Surface Chemistry Can Unlock Drivers of Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 in Variety of Environmental Conditions" in the journal Cell Press. They highlight the need to understand the different environmental conditions that affect the surface chemistry of viruses like SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19.

Creating an Unfriendly Surface for Viruses

We're told to wash our hands with soap for 20 seconds to kill viruses. Why? Because the soap interacts with the surface chemistry of a virus, particularly the lipid, or fatty, casing around it, and essentially makes the virus explode.

Handwashing is a clear example of why understanding how viruses interact with surface environments is important. Increased research will better equip us to diminish how long viruses survive on surfaces or in the air, an important way to stop the spread.

"If the surface is not friendly, it's easier for the virus to fall apart. Where the virus has more friendly interactions with the surface, it's more likely to stay infectious," said Caryn Heldt, professor of chemical engineering and director of the Health Research Institute at Michigan Technological University.

etc
https://phys.org/new...-sars-cov-.html

Pasteurization inactivates COVID-19 virus in human milk, finds new research
https://medicalxpres...irus-human.html
 

Hamilton, ON (August 11, 2020) – Working together, researchers at McMaster University and the University of Waterloo are searching for how the SARS-CoV-2 virus infects the lungs – and they’re challenging what has become an accepted truth about the virus.

Previously, scientists have determined that entry of SARS-CoV-2 into cells occurs through a receptor on the cell surface, known as ACE2. But the McMaster-Waterloo team has found that the ACE2 receptor is at very low levels in human lung tissue.

“Our finding is somewhat controversial, as it suggests that there must be other ways, other receptors for the virus, that regulate its infection of the lungs,” said Jeremy Hirota, co-lead scientist of the team from the Research Institute of St. Joe’s Hamilton and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at McMaster.

“We were surprised that the fundamental characterization of the candidate receptors in human lung tissue had not yet been done in a systematic way with modern technologies.”

https://www.alphagal...y/ItemId/196105
 

Oaxaca, one of Mexico’s poorest and most ethnically diverse states, is home to numerous Indigenous communities, including the Zapotec people. I have spent many years in the central valleys of Oaxaca conducting anthropological research in rural Zapotec villages, documenting the people’s lives, migration patterns and food culture.

Now, my summer research in Oaxaca canceled due to the pandemic, I am learning from afar how the Zapotec are confronting the coronavirus given such complicating factors as chronic poverty, inadequate health care, limited internet, language barriers and a lack of running water.

Working with colleagues at Mexico’s Universidad Tecnológica de los Valles Centrales de Oaxaca and scouring online media resources, I find the Zapotec are surviving the pandemic by doing what they’ve always done when the Mexican government can’t, or won’t, help them: drawing on local Indigenous traditions of cooperation, self-reliance and isolation.

So far, it’s working. While infections and death are rising relentlessly across Mexico, many rural Zapotec villages remain largely insulated from the coronavirus. The Zapotec village of Santos Reyes Yucuná reported its first infection on July 17, for example – four months after COVID-19 reached Mexico.

https://theconversat...own-food-142537

Indonesia starts phase 3 trial for COVID-19 vaccine, Sinovac reports phase 2 details
https://www.channeln...onesia-13010044

First registered COVID-19 vaccine worldwide is named Sputnik V
https://tass.com/society/1188313

Philippines' Duterte has 'huge trust' in Russia COVID-19 vaccine, volunteers for trial
https://www.channeln...avirus-13010130

وزير الصحة الأردني: نجري اتصالات مع روسيا لشراء لقاح فيروس كورونا
jordan's health minister has contacted russia about buying their new vaccine

Stade Francais have '25 people in their camp test positive for coronavirus' as Top 14 team's plans descends into chaos... with training suspended and players in self-isolation until at least August 17
https://www.dailymai...ends-chaos.html

تماثل 40 نائبا للشفاء بعد اصابتهم بفيروس كورونا
40 iraqi MPs have recovered to date
https://www.almaalom...0/08/11/489510/
 

TAIPEI: COVID-19 might have been stamped out "easily" had it emerged in Taiwan or the United States instead of China, the US health secretary said on Tuesday (Aug 11) during a historic diplomatic trip to Taipei.

https://www.channeln...avirus-13011290
 

President Donald Trump on Monday claimed he wouldn’t have called for former President Barack Obama’s resignation if his predecessor had been in his shoes during the current coronavirus pandemic and more than 160,000 people in the country had died.

Speaking to reporters at a White House briefing Monday, Trump defended a staggering COVID-19 death toll and his own mismanagement of the virus by saying that he wouldn’t have blamed Obama if the Democratic leader had been leading the country through a pandemic that netted similarly dismal results.

“No, I wouldn’t have done that,” Trump said when a reporter asked if he would have called for Obama’s resignation. “I think it’s been amazing what we’ve been able to do.”

https://talkingpoint...-covid-response
 

The Trump administration is considering a move that could allow immigration officials to temporarily restrict U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents suspected of contracting COVID-19 abroad from entering the country amid the ongoing pandemic, according to multiple reports.

A U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident could be blocked from returning under the proposal if an official “reasonably believes that the individual either may have been exposed to or is infected with the communicable disease,” The New York Times first reported.

Federal agencies have been asked to submit their feedback on the proposed plan to the White House by Tuesday, according to the newspaper. It was not immediately clear when it could be approved or announced to the public.

https://thehill.com/...-of-contracting
 

Trump's executive order and presidential memoranda, introduced on Saturday (Aug 8), would temporarily extend enhanced unemployment benefits at a reduced amount of US$400 a week, defer payroll taxes for some workers, suspend federal student loan payments and potentially provide eviction relief. Even if he can overcome the legal questions surrounding his actions, the efforts may not pack much punch, economists say.

Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, calculated the orders could provide just over US$400 billion in total relief. JPMorgan Chase economist Michael Feroli wrote in an email note on Monday that the initiatives could contribute "less than US$100 billion" in stimulus.

That is versus the US$1 trillion aid package proposed by the Republican-led Senate or the more than US$3 trillion aid Bill passed by the Democrat-led House of Representatives.

Altogether, the president's orders would add up to 0.2 per cent of GDP, a "negligible amount", according to estimates from Lydia Boussour, senior US economist for Oxford Economics.

https://www.channeln...conomy-13011142

Andrew Yang is joining this philanthropic cash relief initiative giving away $1,000 checks
The $1K Project supplies in-need families with three months of $1,000 cash payouts from anonymous donors—and exposes the government’s failures in managing its own safety net.
https://www.fastcomp...way-1000-checks
 

More than 900 front-line health care workers have died of COVID-19, according to an interactive database unveiled Wednesday by The Guardian and KHN. Lost on the Frontline is a partnership between the two newsrooms that aims to count, verify and memorialize every U.S. health care worker who dies during the pandemic.

It is the most comprehensive accounting of U.S. health care workers’ deaths in the country.

As coronavirus cases surge — and dire shortages of lifesaving protective gear like N95 masks, gowns and gloves persist — the nation’s health care workers are again facing life-threatening conditions in Southern and Western states.

Through crowdsourcing and reports from colleagues, social media, online obituaries, workers unions and local media, Lost on the Frontline reporters have identified 922 health care workers who reportedly died of COVID-19 and its complications.

A team of more than 50 journalists from the Guardian, KHN and journalism schools have spent months investigating individual deaths to make certain that they died of COVID-19, and that they were indeed working on the front lines in contact with COVID patients or working in places where they were being treated. The reporters have also been investigating the circumstances of their deaths, including their access to personal protective equipment (PPE), and tracking down family members, co-workers, union representatives and employers to comment about their deaths.

Thus far, we have independently confirmed 167 deaths and published their names, data and stories about their lives and how they will be remembered. We are continuing to confirm additional victims and are publishing new names weekly.

https://khn.org/news...toll-is-rising/

Edited by amor de cosmos, 11 August 2020 - 08:42 AM.

[spanky123]

Aren't they too busy throwing elections in the US?

 

There's a reason why you don't have a Lada in your driveway or a Bork fridge in your kitchen. And that's likely to extend to the quality of their vaccine.

 

There was a decade in the late 70's and early 80's where US cars were no better.

[RFS]

Russia inherited a solid scientific legacy from the Soviet Union.  They are relatively good at this stuff.

[Victoria Watcher]

correct. they do have some top end labs and facilities and schools.

some of this might be a spillover from military use.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 11 August 2020 - 09:47 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

what a joke.





Start of school in B.C. will be delayed

Education Minister Rob Fleming confirmed the start date will not be Sept. 8, as previously announced. He says the start to school will be gradual, but an exact date has not been selected yet.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 11 August 2020 - 12:28 PM.

[spanky123]

what a joke.

Start of school in B.C. will be delayed

Education Minister Rob Fleming confirmed the start date will not be Sept. 8, as previously announced. He says the start to school will be gradual, but an exact date has not been selected yet.

 

Exactly what I said last week. On the one hand you have Dr. Henry telling youth that they cannot have gatherings over 50 without severe consequences while on the other suggesting that hanging out indoors with 1,000+ of your 'friends' is perfectly fine and poses no risk.

 

Ultimately it was probably the teachers union that blocked this but at least Dr. Henry can take a sigh of relief for now.

Edited by spanky123, 11 August 2020 - 03:36 PM.

[spanky123]

Dr. Henry and Mr. Dix confirming that schools operate in the same biological universe or the rest of the world and that kids can in fact get sick. Good for that. Now I just need to sort out why they think new classrooms are safe but old ones aren't.

 

https://www.timescol...pt-8-1.24184773

[Mike K.]

There was a decade in the late 70's and early 80's where US cars were no better.

And yet there are millions of American cars in Russia today.

[amor de cosmos]

Survey finds most parents nervous to take their kids for vaccinations due to COVID-19
https://www.eurekale...m-sfm080620.php

Shoppers at Vancouver store, 2 bars, restaurant and passengers on several flights warned of COVID-19 exposure
https://www.cbc.ca/n...virus-1.5682247
 

Sweden's policy of allowing the controlled spread of Covid-19 viral infection among the population has so far failed to deliver the country's previously stated goal of herd immunity. Commenting on recent antibody testing clinical and research findings, authors of a paper published by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, write that Sweden's higher rates of viral infection, hospitalisation and mortality compared with neighbouring countries may have serious implications for Scandinavia and beyond.

Rather than imposing a hard lockdown in March as most European and Scandinavian countries did, Sweden's strategy in dealing with the pandemic has been to rely on people's individual responsibility to curtail the spread of the disease. This follows the Swedish sociocultural concept of 'folkvett'; the common sense of the people as a collective.

The health authorities predicted that 40% of the Stockholm population would have had the disease and acquired antibodies by May 2020. However, the actual prevalence figure was around 15%. While clinical and research findings suggest that severely infected Covid-19 patients do acquire antibodies in the immediate and early recovery phase of their illness, antibodies are much less commonly found in only mildly ill or asymptomatic patients. This means they are very likely not to be immune, and so cannot act as a bulwark against further spread of infection amongst the community.

Lead author Professor David Goldsmith said: "It is clear that not only are the rates of viral infection, hospitalisation and mortality (per million population) much higher than those seen in neighbouring Scandinavian countries, but also that the time-course of the epidemic in Sweden is different, with continued persistence of higher infection and mortality well beyond the few critical weeks period seen in Denmark, Finland and Norway." He added that in these countries, rapid lock-down measures brought in from early March seem to have been initially more successful in curtailing the infection surge and thus the malign consequences of Covid-19 on the country as a whole.

https://www.eurekale...s-chi081020.php

A quick, cost-effective method to track the spread of COVID-19 through untreated wastewater
https://medicalxpres...ack-covid-.html

In an aerosol formulation they tested, dubbed “AeroNabs” by the researchers, these molecules could be self-administered with a nasal spray or inhaler. Used once a day, AeroNabs could provide powerful, reliable protection against SARS-CoV-2 until a vaccine becomes available.
https://www.ucsf.edu...gainst-covid-19
https://www.scienced...00811234951.htm

WASHINGTON, August 11, 2020 — In severe cases of COVID-19, damage can spread beyond the lungs and into other organs, such as the heart, liver, kidney and parts of the neurological system. Beyond these specific sets of organs, however, the virus seems to lack impact.

Ernesto Estrada, from the University of Zaragoza and Agencia Aragonesa para la Investigación Foundation in Spain, aimed to uncover an explanation as to how it is possible for these damages to propagate selectively rather than affecting the entire body. He discusses his findings in the journal Chaos, from AIP Publishing.

In order to enter human cells, the coronavirus relies on interactions with an abundant protein called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2.

“This receptor is ubiquitous in most human organs, such that if the virus is circulating in the body, it can also enter into other organs and affect them,” Estrada said. “However, the virus affects some organs selectively and not all, as expected from these potential mechanisms.”

*snip*

Taking these into account, Estrada developed a mathematical model that allowed him to find a group of 59 proteins within the lungs that act as the primary activators affecting other human organs. A chain of interactions, beginning with this set, triggers changes in proteins down the line, ultimately impacting their health.

https://publishing.a...ans-not-others/
https://www.scienced...00811120150.htm

Covid-19 “long haulers” are organizing online to study themselves
Slack groups and social media are connecting people who've never fully recovered from coronavirus to collect data on their condition
https://www.technolo...udy-themselves/
 

Northwestern University (NU) researchers have uncovered a new vulnerability in the novel coronavirus' infamous spike protein, pointing to a relatively simple, potential treatment pathway.

Using nanometer-level simulations, the researchers discovered a positively charged site, known as the polybasic cleavage site, located 10 nanometers from the actual binding site on the spike protein. The positively charged site allows strong bonding between the virus protein and the negatively charged human-cell receptors.

Leveraging this discovery, the researchers designed a negatively charged molecule to bind to the positively charged cleavage site. Blocking this site inhibits the virus from bonding to the host cell.

"Our work indicates that blocking this cleavage site may act as a viable prophylactic treatment that decreases the virus' ability to infect humans," said Monica Olvera de la Cruz, a professor of materials science and engineering in NU's McCormick School of Engineering. "Our results explain experimental studies showing that mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein affected the virus transmissibility."

http://www.ecns.cn/n...hw7470801.shtml
 

Some people get really sick from COVID-19, and others don't. Nobody knows why.

Now, a study by investigators at the Stanford University of Medicine and other institutions has turned up immunological deviations and lapses that appear to spell the difference between severe and mild cases of COVID-19.

That difference may stem from how our evolutionarily ancient innate immune system responds to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease. Found in all creatures from fruit flies to humans, the innate immune system rapidly senses viruses and other pathogens. As soon as it does, it launches an immediate though somewhat indiscriminate attack on them and mobilizes more precisely targeted, but slower-to-get-moving, "sharpshooter" cells belonging to a different branch of the body's pathogen-defense forces, the adaptive immune system.

"These findings reveal how the immune system goes awry during coronavirus infections, leading to severe disease, and point to potential therapeutic targets," said Bali Pulendran, PhD, professor of pathology and of microbiology and immunology and the senior author of the study, which will be published Aug. 11 in Science. Lead authorship is shared by Stanford postdoctoral scholars Prabhu Arnunachalam, PhD, and Florian Wimmers, PhD; and Chris Ka Pun Mok, PhD, and Mahen Perera, PhD, both assistant professors of public health laboratory sciences at the University of Hong Kong.

https://www.eurekale...m-ssr081020.php

Many care home residents who have COVID-19 infection are either asymptomatic or experience "atypical" symptoms—according to a new study from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and North Norfolk Primary Care, supported by UEA Health and Social Care Partners.
https://medicalxpres...l-symptoms.html

Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, have used machine learning to identify hundreds of new potential drugs that could help treat COVID-19
https://medicalxpres...tes-covid-.html
 

In a recent edition of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Christine M. Szablewski, DVM, of the Georgia Department of Public Health, and colleagues reported on a COVID-19 outbreak that occurred at a summer camp in Georgia, a state that has recently seen a spike in SARS-CoV-2 infections.

About three-quarters (76%) of the camp's attendees with available results (344 people) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Staff arrived at camp on June 17, followed by the children who were to attend the first session on June 21. On June 23, a teenage staff member left after developing chills one day prior. The staff member tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. On June 24, campers were sent home, and on June 27, the camp was closed. Ultimately, 260 attendees ended up testing positive for SARS-CoV-2.

https://www.medpaget...e/covid19/88012

NASA Prepares to Launch Internal COVID-19 Contact Tracing Program
https://www.nextgov....program/167618/
 

A Florida county sheriff has prohibited his officers from wearing masks while on-duty or in the office, despite the fact that the Sunshine State remains the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.

“My order will stand as is when you are on-duty/working as my employee and representing my Office – masks will not be worn," Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods told employees in an Aug. 11 email obtained by the Ocala Star-Banner.

Woods also says in the email that any residents that visit the sheriff's office will also be asked to remove their mask, or leave.

“We can debate and argue all day of why and why not. The fact is, the amount of professionals that give the reason why we should, I can find the exact same amount of professionals that say why we shouldn’t," Woods said in the email.

https://thehill.com/...ter-refusing-to
 

Over and over since the Federal Emergency Management Agency took over the country’s fractured coronavirus response on March 18, agency officials have insisted — publicly and in sworn testimony before Congress — that they were not in charge of the disjointed operation that came before, disavowing responsibility for what critics say were disastrous missteps that cost thousands of lives.

But according to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News and interviews with former agency officials, FEMA leaders were deeply involved in coordinating the government's coronavirus efforts with their counterparts at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), attending daily meetings and exchanging hundreds of emails on the topic.

The cache of emails, along with interviews, also show that FEMA officials wanted HHS to take the lead on the response, despite FEMA’s expertise in disaster management, because officials felt the agency was already stretched thin. One former supervisor, who was involved in coronavirus planning before leaving this spring, said that FEMA leaders also feared the White House’s complicated stance on the pandemic would make a coherent response impossible.

“Who the hell would want to own it. They knew this whole thing would be a shitshow,” said the former supervisor, noting that White House officials were viewed as both “incompetent” and “interfering.” “Who would want anything to do with it?” they said.

long
https://www.buzzfeed...e-new-documents

US childhood SARS-CoV-2 infections surging with the current peak
The last two weeks of July saw nearly 100,000 new cases in school-age kids and teens
https://arstechnica....e-current-peak/
 

The nurse with the Columbia County Health Department recorded the COVID-19 deaths at nearby hospitals — two at Albany Medical Center on May 4, another at the same hospital two days later; one at Columbia Memorial Hospital on May 17, and another there two days later — and, along with her boss, concluded there was a pattern.

The people dying at the hospitals had been residents of a local nursing home, the Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing at Barnwell in the tiny town of Valatie, New York. In all, the nurse counted 18 deaths of residents over five weeks. She didn’t have detailed medical records for the patients, but she noted that all had arrived at the hospital with orders saying no extraordinary measures were to be taken to keep them alive. As a result, she and the Columbia County health director developed a theory: “For me,” said Jack Mabb, the health director, “it appeared they were sending people to the hospital so they wouldn’t die in the facility.”

A change in the way New York tabulated nursing home deaths could have incentivized such behavior, he said, making homes’ records on COVID-19 containment appear better than they were.

long
https://www.propubli...ie-at-hospitals

Russia to start COVID-19 vaccine output within 2 weeks
http://www.ecns.cn/n...hw7471102.shtml

Russia plans to make 5 mln doses of COVID-19 vaccine per month in December-January
https://tass.com/society/1188727

Russian COVID-19 Vaccine Recommended for People From 18 to 60 Years Old, Health Official Says
https://sputniknews....-from-18-to-60/

WHO in contact with Russia on new COVID-19 vaccine: spokesman
http://www.ecns.cn/n...hw7470780.shtml


https://sputniknews....ts-and-details/

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will be a guinea pig for a controversial Russian coronavirus vaccine, his spokesman said on Wednesday
https://www.rawstory...as-talks-begin/
 

MANILA: Philippine scientists were set on Wednesday (Aug 12) to meet representatives of the Russian research facility that developed a coronavirus vaccine, to discuss possible participation in clinical trials and access to its research data.

The move comes as the Philippines on Wednesday reported 93 more COVID-19 fatalities, the highest daily increase in the Southeast Asian country since Jul 18. Its COVID-19 death toll now stands at 2,404.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has lauded the vaccine and offered to be "injected in public" with the Russian COVID-19 vaccine, to allay public fears about its safety.

https://www.channeln...deaths-13014052
 

Brazil’s Parana state is in talks to produce a COVID-19 vaccine approved by Russia despite not having completed mass clinical trials, but it was unclear if the state’s research institute would get regulatory approval in Brazil.

Tuesday’s announcement by the Parana Technology Institute (Tecpar) took Brazil’s regulators and health experts by surprise, with some raising doubts about the institute’s capacity to produce large volumes of a new vaccine from scratch.

The Parana government said in a statement that Governor Ratinho Júnior was set to meet the Russian ambassador to Brazil on Wednesday to discuss the terms of an agreement.

https://en.mercopres...ovid-19-vaccine

German Health Minister Jens Spahn on Wednesday (Aug 12) said Russia's COVID-19 vaccine had not been sufficiently tested
https://www.channeln...tested-13013778
 
SEOUL: South Korea has opened a high-tech new front in the battle against coronavirus, fortifying bus shelters with temperature-checking doors and ultraviolet disinfection lamps.
Ten advanced facilities have been installed in a northeastern district of Seoul, offering protection from monsoon rains, summer heat and the coronavirus.
https://www.channeln...-booth-13014060

[todd]

nobel prize for putin if it works.

Shouldn’t go to the scientists? ... ethical scientists

[amor de cosmos]

this is sure to hit 1,000,000,000 views

https://www.youtube....h?v=_T-QqU1TEUU

can anyone imagine anyone in the US doing this for fauci

[dasmo]

what a joke.





Start of school in B.C. will be delayed

Education Minister Rob Fleming confirmed the start date will not be Sept. 8, as previously announced. He says the start to school will be gradual, but an exact date has not been selected yet.

BC is the homeschooling capital of the world. If you haven't gotten the hint yet, maybe this will be the thing that does it.... 

[dasmo]

So Russia gets to take an injection of made up of exactly what that does what again? And it's proven to be safe and effective in a matter of months? OK.... you first Russia... 

What's the mortality rate of this virus again? Practically zero for those under 40 but everyone will have to get this injection multiple times every year? 

if they succeed that is trillions and trillions of dollars for who?. Oh, wait, I see what's happening. 

[GetLisaSomeHelps]

So Russia gets to take an injection of made up of exactly what that does what again? And it's proven to be safe and effective in a matter of months? OK.... you first Russia... 

What's the mortality rate of this virus again? Practically zero for those under 40 but everyone will have to get this injection multiple times every year? 

if they succeed that is trillions and trillions of dollars for who?. Oh, wait, I see what's happening. 

 

In the words of Randy Jackson: "It's a no from me, dawg"