Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
I got curious about this photo
I found it here

The caption under the photo said:
December 1918. The 39th regiment on its way to France marched through the streets of Seattle, Washington. Everyone was provided with a mask made by the Seattle chapter of the American Red Cross.
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
Didn't the Spanish flu originate here anyway?
From the article:
Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify with certainty the pandemic's geographic origin, with varying views as to its location.
To maintain morale, World War I censors minimized early reports of illness and mortality in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. Newspapers were free to report the epidemic's effects in neutral Spain, such as the grave illness of King Alfonso XIII, and these stories created a false impression of Spain as especially hard hit.
So probably not Spain, but it seems we really don't know where it started!
That seems surprising because it seems the communicability between the US and Europe at the time would give a clear indication of which had it first. Certainly confusion between Germany and France is easy to understand!
 
Trell

Trell

Audioholic Spartan
I'll just chime in to say that I very much appreciate the knowledge and effort that some posters put in to make this pandemic more comprehensible to the rest of us.
 
Mikado463

Mikado463

Audioholic Spartan
perhaps a 'doobie' ...........

 
JerryLove

JerryLove

Audioholic Samurai
So probably not Spain, but it seems we really don't know where it started!
That seems surprising because it seems the communicability between the US and Europe at the time would give a clear indication of which had it first. Certainly confusion between Germany and France is easy to understand!
Think about how much confusion there is over COVID-19 death counts.

Now imagine there's a war going on. (on your soil, not being in the US while we conduct a war overseas)
And no computers.
And no CDC, NIH, WHO, etc.
And no actual test.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
Now I am wondering if he is dumping the stocks?
We were joking about this the other day.

Moderna unveiled encouraging coronavirus vaccine results. Then top execs dumped nearly $30 million of stock

"Moderna's chief financial officer and chief medical officer executed options and sold nearly $30 million of shares combined on Monday and Tuesday, SEC filings reviewed by CNN Business show."
… …
Charles Elson, a corporate governance expert at the University of Delaware, said the Moderna stock sales underscore why he has always believed executives should not sell stock while they are at the company.
"Even if it can be done legally, the optics are terrible because it shows you have a better place to put your money," said Elson. "It shows a lack of confidence in your company going forward."
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
We were joking about this the other day.

Moderna unveiled encouraging coronavirus vaccine results. Then top execs dumped nearly $30 million of stock

"Moderna's chief financial officer and chief medical officer executed options and sold nearly $30 million of shares combined on Monday and Tuesday, SEC filings reviewed by CNN Business show."
… …
Charles Elson, a corporate governance expert at the University of Delaware, said the Moderna stock sales underscore why he has always believed executives should not sell stock while they are at the company.
"Even if it can be done legally, the optics are terrible because it shows you have a better place to put your money," said Elson. "It shows a lack of confidence in your company going forward."
Wondering no more. :D

Thanks.
 
G

Gmoney

Audioholic Ninja
Momma said, drink your milk ! I could be wrong but I also thought exposure to Sun (moderation) is also important to Vitamin D absorption.
Scientist have found out that Vitamin D from drinking milk was a lie. The Star in the center of the Galaxy, third rock from the sun, humans couldn’t Survive without it’s Radiation. So Soak up as much vitamin D as you possibly can you skin and you Health depends on it. Or continue you’re drinking of cows milk and become the Moocow you want to be.
 
G

Gmoney

Audioholic Ninja
We were joking about this the other day.

Moderna unveiled encouraging coronavirus vaccine results. Then top execs dumped nearly $30 million of stock

"Moderna's chief financial officer and chief medical officer executed options and sold nearly $30 million of shares combined on Monday and Tuesday, SEC filings reviewed by CNN Business show."
… …
Charles Elson, a corporate governance expert at the University of Delaware, said the Moderna stock sales underscore why he has always believed executives should not sell stock while they are at the company.
"Even if it can be done legally, the optics are terrible because it shows you have a better place to put your money," said Elson. "It shows a lack of confidence in your company going forward."
Funny when the Rich realize that the wealthy are getting ready to take it away from them and try to dump as much as possible so the working rich don’t have to be there slaves anymore. One thing about being poor no way to go but up. Hard Ladder to climb down on just gotta watch out for who you step on less it be one passing you up that ladder and you pushed off. But than Probably get pardoned from a president.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
I continue to see widespread confusion in the news media about just what a virus test is, as well as what a positive test result means. I see the same confusion among people I know. It’s a quiet, warm Saturday afternoon, Memorial Day weekend, and I had promised (or threatened) to ‘splain virus testing to interested readers here at Coronavirus Central at AH. So today is a good day for that.

Here are diagrams of an infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus particle. On the left is an external view, and on the right is a cut-away with labels showing the various S, M, HE, E, and N viral proteins, the envelope (in red), and the coiled RNA inside. The S, M, HE and E proteins are located in the envelope layer, and the N protein is packaged with the RNA on the inside. The RNA is what's infectious, but only if it gets inside a cell. The purpose of the envelope and it's collection of proteins, is to deliver the RNA inside a host cell, and to protect the RNA while it's still outside of a host cell.
1590270133013.png


Virus RNA
Viral RNA, the virus’s genetic material, is measured by a technique called Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). It’s a sensitive assay capable of measuring extremely low levels of viral RNA. And it’s highly specific for SARS-CoV-2; it does not confuse other coronaviruses for SARS-CoV-2. It’s easily automated, allowing large numbers of samples to be run. However, the RT-PCR assay cannot tell us if the RNA is packaged in infectious virus particles or not. During the assay process, all protein and envelope material is stripped away, leaving the RNA bare for the next steps in the assay. The RNA could be contained in various non-infectious forms such as neutralized virus particles coated with a patient’s antibodies, incompletely assembled virus particles, or other non-infectious fragments of viral RNA.

ELISA
Without going into details, it is possible to measure the different virus proteins by Enzyme Linked Immune Absorbent Assays (ELISA). These assays, also easily automated, are sensitive and specific for each of the various virus proteins. As with the virus RNA assay, the results only tell us how much protein is present. It does not tell us anything about how much infectious virus is in a sample.

Antibody Tests
These tests detect antibodies directed against a virus in a patient’s blood sample. They don’t directly measure the virus itself, but might be useful if they reliably show whether a patient has been previously exposed to a virus. The problem with SARS-CoV-2 virus is that it’s similar enough to other coronaviruses, that antibodies against one will cross-react with antibodies against another. A patient may have been previously exposed to one or several other coronaviruses, at least 4 of which are known to be relatively harmless, causing common cold-like symptoms. The results appear as positive tests, false positives, in samples from people who were never exposed to SARS-CoV-2. About 40% of positive antibody tests are false positives, said to be caused by cross reactions like this. To be useful, antibody tests must be developed with false positive results brought down to a manageable level. This can certainly be done, but it requires a diligent validation effort, something that the FDA should always require.

Plaque Formation Assay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_quantification)
Plaque-based assays are a standard method used to determine infectious virus concentration. It measures a biological function, not the physical presence of viral RNA or proteins. Viral plaque assays determine the number of plaque forming units (PFU) in a virus sample, a direct measure of infectious virus quantity. This assay is based on a microbiological method conducted on host cells grown in petri dishes or multi-well plates. Specifically, a confluent monolayer of host cells (a lawn of cells) is infected with the virus at varying dilutions and covered with a semi-solid medium to prevent the virus particles from spreading too far.

When a single virus particle infects a single cell within the lawn of cells, the infected cell lyses (bursts open) and allows the viral projeny to spread to adjacent cells, where the infection/lysis cycle is repeated. This infected cell area creates an empty area, a plaque, surrounded by the lawn of living uninfected cells. Plaques can be seen after adding crystal violet to dye the cytoplasm of living cells, but not the plaque area where the virally lysed cells had been.

1590270504684.png


Plaques can take 3–14 days to form, depending on the virus being analyzed. Plaques are generally counted manually and the results, taking into account the dilution factor used to prepare the plate, are used to calculate the number of plaque forming units per milliliter (mL) of sample (PFU/mL). The PFU/mL result is the number of infective particles within the original sample and is based on the assumption that each plaque formed is representative of one infective virus particle.

This whole process (see the diagram) is tedious and labor intensive. Compared to the automated RNA or viral protein assays, it is much more difficult to do, especially if there are many samples taken from Covid-19 patients at various times during the course of their illness.
1590270603960.png


The bottom line to this story is that there is no simple way to correlate the viral RNA, viral protein, or PFU assay results. To find out a fudge-factor to estimate one assay result from another requires doing them all. There are no short cuts.

I hope this helps you to see the source of confusion between these different types of virus tests. It becomes especially important if, for example the viral RNA result is positive after someone recovers from Covid-19. How much of that viral RNA is actually actually infectious?
 
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M

Mr._Clark

Audioholic Samurai
Here's an article about one volunteer who had a bad reaction to the Moderna vaccine. Given that the severe effects were only seen in the high doses, this doesn't concern me all that much

>>>In the 45-person Moderna study, four participants experienced what are known as “Grade 3” adverse events — side effects that are severe or medically significant but not immediately life-threatening. . . .

The severe effects were only seen at high doses that are not being taken forward. The other vaccine for which early data are available caused fever in almost half of recipients. <<<

 
M

Mr._Clark

Audioholic Samurai
Here's an interesting article about how the corona virus interferes with the human immune system. It seems like this could explain a lot of the issues with the immune system.

>>>The first group of genes produces interferons. These proteins, which infected cells release, are biological semaphores, signaling to neighboring cells to activate some 500 of their own genes that will slow down the virus’ ability to make millions of copies of itself if it invades them. This lasts seven to 10 days, tenOever said, controlling virus replication and thereby buying time for the second group of genes to act.

This second set of genes produce their own secreted proteins, called chemokines, that emit a biochemical “come here!” alarm. When far-flung antibody-making B cells and virus-killing T cells sense the alarm, they race to its source. If all goes well, the first set of genes holds the virus at bay long enough for the lethal professional killers to arrive and start eradicating viruses.

“Most other viruses interfere with some aspect of both the call to arms and the call for reinforcements,” tenOever said. “If they didn’t, no one would ever get a viral illness”: The one-two punch would pummel any incipient infection into submission.

SARS-CoV-2, however, uniquely blocks one cellular defense but activates the other, he and his colleagues reported in a study published last week in Cell. They studied healthy human lung cells growing in lab dishes, ferrets (which the virus infects easily), and lung cells from Covid-19 patients. In all three, they found that within three days of infection, the virus induces cells’ call-for-reinforcement genes to produce cytokines. But it blocks their call-to-arms genes — the interferons that dampen the virus’ replication.

The result is essentially no brakes on the virus’s replication, but a storm of inflammatory molecules in the lungs, which is what tenOever calls an “unique” and “aberrant” consequence of how SARS-CoV-2 manipulates the genome of its target. <<<


 
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