Coronavirus

[John Parks]

I don't know how many in total, but too many are getting caught loitering in Canada when they were supposed to drive straight through.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-u-s-border-closure-alaska-drive-americans-banff-fines-rcmp-1.5748611

The way it's looking right now, I'm not sure it makes any difference if Americans take their sweet time driving through. In August, Canada was averaging <500 cases per day. On Nov 1st, we had 3,244 cases. Yesterday we hit 5,500.

I don't know if the Atlantic Province Bubble will be able to withstand that kind of pressure. Yesterday, Nova Scotia reported no new cases after several days of worry over a mini-outbreak, when we accumulated about 20 new cases within a week. It'll be a few more days before we will know if we dodged another bullet. The advantage of having so few cases is that it enables rapid contact tracing and isolating where necessary.

Wait a second...

 

[Ponzio]

This is interesting, and I hate to admit stereotypical on my part, but Africa seems to have a handle on COVID-19.

Meanwhile we continue to flounder here in the USA.

 

[Mr._Clark]

This is interesting. Swerd's favorite immune cells may finally get the recognition they deserve!

>>>New Type of Test May Better Discern Immunity to the Coronavirus
The test detects the response of T cells to the virus — an arm of the immune system that may be just as important as antibodies to preventing reinfection.<<<

New Type of Test May Better Discern Immunity to the Coronavirus

The test detects the response of T cells to the virus — an arm of the immune system that may be just as important as antibodies to preventing reinfection.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Swerd]

This is interesting. Swerd's favorite immune cells may finally get the recognition they deserve!

>>>New Type of Test May Better Discern Immunity to the Coronavirus
The test detects the response of T cells to the virus — an arm of the immune system that may be just as important as antibodies to preventing reinfection.<<<

New Type of Test May Better Discern Immunity to the Coronavirus

The test detects the response of T cells to the virus — an arm of the immune system that may be just as important as antibodies to preventing reinfection.

www.nytimes.com

Thanks! That NY Times article is good. There aren't many reporters who understand immunology, much less understand T-cell immunology. I thought the article did a decent job explaining why such a lab test doesn't now exist – the present tests require complex lab manipulations that take time and expertise.

Antibody tests are quite easy, fast, and inexpensive to perform on many blood samples. In contrast, T-cell based tests have been too difficult to do on a widespread basis. The Times article said this:

Each of the trillions of T cells present at birth carries a unique receptor on its surface that can spot a different molecule, or antigen, from potential invaders. This enormous diversity among T-cell receptors enables the human body to recognize virtually any new pathogen that it may encounter (although a vast majority may never meet their match.) But it also makes it painfully onerous for scientists to identify the 20 or 30 T cells among the trillions that can recognize fragments of a specific pathogen like the coronavirus.

Adaptive Biotechnologies' idea seems very good. They're creating a lab-based test fast enough for testing the general public to identify prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, as well as a more sophisticated version for vaccine companies interested in tracking T-cell responses to their candidate vaccines. I hope it works.

That article also showed a good scanning electron micrograph of a T-cell. T-cells are menacing looking characters – hitmen of the immune system.

Even better are videos of activated T-cells as they attack & kill tumor cells. They use fluorescent antibodies that mark specific features of human killer T-cells and human tumors with different colors. It's all done real-time with live cells in fluorescent microscopes.

 

[Irvrobinson]

You guys should be listening to Trump's address on live now. He's hilarious. I especially enjoy his comments on Gov. Cuomo. NY won't be getting initial doses of the vaccines because Cuomo wants NY to separately approve them. His administration did an awesome job. I'm sure all y'all will agree.

 

[Swerd]

You guys should be listening to Trump's address on live now. He's hilarious. I especially enjoy his comments on Gov. Cuomo. NY won't be getting initial doses of the vaccines because Cuomo wants NY to separately approve them. His administration did an awesome job. I'm sure all y'all will agree.

I'm surprised you're wasting time over this petty stuff, when you should be calling your broker to buy Adaptive Biotechnologies.

 

[Irvrobinson]

I'm surprised you're wasting time over this petty stuff, when you should be calling your broker to buy Adaptive Biotechnologies.

Nah, I'd rather have laughs and amusement than fiddle with investments right now. You can't make this stuff up. I haven't seen this much chest-beating and sucking-up in a long time.

(Call my broker? Swerd, this is the 21st century. We don't call our brokers anymore, we just bring up a phone app. )

 

[Irvrobinson]

Moderna's vaccine is estimated to be 94% effective:

In new breakthrough, Moderna's Covid vaccine nearly 95% effective

US biotech firm Moderna on Monday announced its experimental vaccine against Covid-19 was almost 95 percent effective, a result hailed by the country's top infectious disease scientist as "stunningly impressive."

news.yahoo.com

 

[Swerd]

Moderna's vaccine is estimated to be 94% effective:

In new breakthrough, Moderna's Covid vaccine nearly 95% effective

US biotech firm Moderna on Monday announced its experimental vaccine against Covid-19 was almost 95 percent effective, a result hailed by the country's top infectious disease scientist as "stunningly impressive."

news.yahoo.com

That is very good excellent news.

Moderna's announcement, combined with Pfizer's interim analysis result of 90%, and 92% from the Russian vaccine, strongly suggest that targeting the S (spike) protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus coat is an effective way of mobilizing the immune system. This may seem obvious to those outside the world of vaccines and immunology, but there have been examples of other viral diseases where this seemingly obvious approach didn't work in the past. So, thank goodness.

Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are the first vaccines to use a strand of nucleic acid coding for a viral protein, instead of using the protein itself. As a general way of making vaccines without having to grow large amounts of the virus, this method shows promise. So for both reasons above, we can say thank goodness.

The Cambridge University/Astra Zeneca vaccine will soon announce results from it's interim analysis. It is also expected to be effective. It also targets the S protein, but goes about it with DNA coding instead of mRNA coding. There are good reasons to believe both types of platforms should work as vaccines.

Moderna's vaccine appears to be easier to store as it remains stable frozen at -20°C (-4°F, available in most standard freezers) for up to 6 months, and can be kept in liquid form in a standard refrigerator for up to a month.

Pfizer's vaccine needs ultra-cold storage at around -70°C (-94°F), and once thawed, it can be kept refrigerated in in liquid form for up to 5 days. FWIW, the Pfizer vaccine is said to be easier to manufacture than Moderna's.

 

[Mr._Clark]

That is very good excellent news.

Moderna's announcement, combined with Pfizer's interim analysis result of 90%, and 92% from the Russian vaccine, strongly suggest that targeting the S (spike) protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus coat is an effective way of mobilizing the immune system. This may seem obvious to those outside the world of vaccines and immunology, but there have been examples of other viral diseases where this seemingly obvious approach didn't work in the past. So, thank goodness.

Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are the first vaccines to use a strand of nucleic acid coding for a viral protein, instead of using the protein itself. As a general way of making vaccines without having to grow large amounts of the virus, this method shows promise. So for both reasons above, we can say thank goodness.

The Cambridge University/Astra Zeneca vaccine will soon announce results from it's interim analysis. It is also expected to be effective. It also targets the S protein, but goes about it with DNA coding instead of mRNA coding. There are good reasons to believe both types of platforms should work as vaccines.

Moderna's vaccine appears to be easier to store as it remains stable frozen at -20°C (-4°F, available in most standard freezers) for up to 6 months, and can be kept in liquid form in a standard refrigerator for up to a month.

Pfizer's vaccine needs ultra-cold storage at around -70°C (-94°F), and once thawed, it can be kept refrigerated in in liquid form for up to 5 days. FWIW, the Pfizer vaccine is said to be easier to manufacture than Moderna's.

I've been reading various news reports about this. I was not expecting the vaccines to be this effective.

 

[Mr._Clark]

Reuters is reporting on a study that seems to show that the virus was circulating in Italy as early as September, 2019:

>>>The new coronavirus was circulating in Italy in September 2019, a study by the National Cancer Institute (INT) of the Italian city of Milan shows, signaling that it might have spread beyond China earlier than thought. . . . It showed that four cases dating back to the first week of October were positive for antibodies, meaning they had got infected in September, Giovanni Apolone, a co-author of the study, told Reuters. “This is the main finding: people with no symptoms not only were positive after the serological tests but also had antibodies able to kill the virus,” Apolone said.<<<

Researchers find coronavirus was circulating in Italy earlier than thought

The new coronavirus was circulating in Italy in September 2019, a study by the National Cancer Institute (INT) of the Italian city of Milan shows, signaling that it might have spread beyond China earlier than thought.

www.reuters.com

This seems to be generally consistent with prior reports (based on wastewater testing) that the virus was circulating in Italy well before the first documented case in Italy:

SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating in northern Italy since December 2019: evidence from environmental monitoring

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the coronavirus disease COVID-19, a public health emergency worldwide, and Italy is among the world’s first and most severely affected countries. The first autochthonous Italian case of COVID-19 was documented on...

www.medrxiv.org

 

[Swerd]

Reuters is reporting on a study that seems to show that the virus was circulating in Italy as early as September, 2019:

>>>The new coronavirus was circulating in Italy in September 2019, a study by the National Cancer Institute (INT) of the Italian city of Milan shows, signaling that it might have spread beyond China earlier than thought. . . . It showed that four cases dating back to the first week of October were positive for antibodies, meaning they had got infected in September, Giovanni Apolone, a co-author of the study, told Reuters. “This is the main finding: people with no symptoms not only were positive after the serological tests but also had antibodies able to kill the virus,” Apolone said.<<<

Researchers find coronavirus was circulating in Italy earlier than thought

The new coronavirus was circulating in Italy in September 2019, a study by the National Cancer Institute (INT) of the Italian city of Milan shows, signaling that it might have spread beyond China earlier than thought.

www.reuters.com

This seems to be generally consistent with prior reports (based on wastewater testing) that the virus was circulating in Italy well before the first documented case in Italy:

SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating in northern Italy since December 2019: evidence from environmental monitoring

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the coronavirus disease COVID-19, a public health emergency worldwide, and Italy is among the world’s first and most severely affected countries. The first autochthonous Italian case of COVID-19 was documented on...

www.medrxiv.org

Thanks, that Italian INT paper looks good. They looked in the archived blood samples taken from volunteers in a lung cancer trial.

I had previously heard 2nd or 3rd hand reports of indirect evidence of Covid-19-like diseases in China as early as the summer of 2019. The Italian study makes it clear that the novel coronavirus was out & about both in Asia and Europe much earlier than the Wuhan outbreak in December 2019.

 

[davidscott]

Still mask wearing and social distancing will help slow the spread until the vaccine is available. Good for me I'm pretty much a loner.

 

[Trebdp83]

Still mask wearing and social distancing will help slow the spread until the vaccine is available. Good for me I'm pretty much a loner.

Preach Eeyore!

 

[Mikado463]

Still mask wearing and social distancing will help slow the spread until the vaccine is available. Good for me I'm pretty much a loner.

my grandson asked me the other day if he sneezed should he also cover his face even though he's wearing a mask, I said of course. Then he asked 'can COVID spread if I let out a fart', I said be sure to keep your pants up, I suspect the 'social distancing' component comes in there ........

 

[TankTop5]

my grandson asked me the other day if he sneezed should he also cover his face even though he's wearing a mask, I said of course. Then he asked 'can COVID spread if I let out a fart', I said be sure to keep your pants up, I suspect the 'social distancing' component comes in there ........

I guess I’m safe from Covid then

 

[John Parks]

On the radio this morning they were going to talk about "COVID and Santa this year" (I did not hear it because I arrived at my destination) and this immediately popped up in my brain:

Santi-Wipes!

Could not find the video for one of my favorite SNL episodes (Zappa and Killer Christmas Trees!)...

 

[mtrycrafts]

I just learned about this from my better half. Need help from the couple of experts here.
Sars-C0V2 in Italy July 2019?

SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class research journals

Subscription and open access journals from SAGE Publishing, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

 

[Swerd]

I just learned about this from my better half. Need help from the couple of experts here. Sars-C0V2 in Italy July 2019?

I saw no mention of July 2019, but the paper says the SARS-Cov-2 virus was already in Italy by September 2019. Their evidence is pretty good.

In an Italian-sponsored clinical trial of lung cancer screening methods, 959 people, without lung cancer symptoms, were enrolled. Blood samples were taken and archived. Later, these blood samples were tested for SARS-CoV-2, using a test specific for antibodies directed against the receptor binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2. These antibodies are said to be specific for SARS-CoV-2 and do not cross-react with antibodies directed against other corona viruses. The tests showed overall that 111 (11.6%) individuals out of 959 were positive for SARS-CoV-2. 14% of these positive blood samples were taken as of September 2019. None of these people had any known symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The Wuhan, China outbreak occurred at the end of December 2019. Now, there's good evidence for SARS-Cov-2 circulating among asymptomatic people in Italy several months earlier. We have to rethink the origins of this virus, and be open to reshaping the history of the pandemic.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I saw no mention of July 2019, but the paper says the SARS-Cov-2 virus was already in Italy by September 2019. Their evidence is pretty good.

....

My mistake. I thought spose told me Jul as I didn't dwell into it but she did say Sep.
Still, as you indicate, we need to rethink where this originated and that will take more research of similar blood samples of similar timeframe from many other countries.

Just like the Spanish flue that didn't originate there, just first publicly published there.
Interesting.