Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
You need the toilet handy. The trouble with oral covid-19 given orally is diarrhea in almost 100% of cases. It can also cause bone marrow suppression. That is why I used to treat acute gout with one dose of IV cochinine. The other problem is that an avaricious equity firm managed to patent a drug used for hundreds of years and hold everyone to a king's ransom for it. Dexamethasone is a much better, safer and cheaper drug. It is one of the cheapest drugs in the hospital pharmacy.
I see. Thanks. I now remember reading a comment that colchicine – outside the USA – is a very low priced drug.

So, to be extremely optimistic, colchicine might be useful only for wealthy people if they wanted to avoid hospitalization for Covid-19 while also preparing for a colonoscopy.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
I would have thought that Minnesota could have done better than this Dog's Dinner. I think there needs to be a strong Federal program for this roll out. If not the weird patchwork of programs the states are coming up with, and implementing, will make to US a bigger laughing stock than it is already on the world stage.
I completely agree.

I'm experiencing a different, but equally chaotic, vaccine distribution system in Maryland. At least Maryland is attempting something like a system, even though it fails to be systematic. It seems Florida has abandoned any efforts at being systematic or fair. In that state, whoever swings the biggest club, or the most money, gets vaccinated.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
I completely agree.

I'm experiencing a different, but equally chaotic, vaccine distribution system in Maryland. At least Maryland is attempting something like a system, even though it fails to be systematic. It seems Florida has abandoned any efforts at being systematic or fair. In that state, whoever swings the biggest club, or the most money, gets vaccinated.
The Florida distribution is a total disgrace.
 
GO-NAD!

GO-NAD!

Audioholic Spartan
I completely agree.

I'm experiencing a different, but equally chaotic, vaccine distribution system in Maryland. At least Maryland is attempting something like a system, even though it fails to be systematic. It seems Florida has abandoned any efforts at being systematic or fair. In that state, whoever swings the biggest club, or the most money, gets vaccinated.
While the public health systems run by provincial and territorial governments are administering vaccines on a priority basis, one couple manage to jump the que:
Former casino CEO, actress identified as couple who flew to Yukon, got COVID-19 vaccines | CBC News

They may have been vaccinated against COVID-19, but they are now social lepers...
 
GO-NAD!

GO-NAD!

Audioholic Spartan
That is nothing new, that just reaffirms what we know. The UK have traced that variant to an individual in Sheppey. The patient was a severely immunocompromised individual, who had a chronic Covid-19 infection. I did not know that could happen.
I understand that the UK variant isn't new and that it is more easily transmissible. The article just seems to paint an even bleaker picture than I had already envisaged.
 
M

Mr._Clark

Audioholic Samurai
This may be a coincidence, but I know a guy in his mid 40s who had COVID last summer. He mentioned that COVID caused his gout to flare up (I believe he said in his foot, but my memory is not 100%). Fortunately he recovered (mostly) after a week at home on the couch. Last I heard he still has a few bouts of fatigue that seem to kick in randomly from time to time.

Given that gout is not that common, it seems unlikely that the 40% reporting "unusual signs on the palms of their hands or soles of their feet" in the article is due to solely to gout.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
This may be a coincidence, but I know a guy in his mid 40s who had COVID last summer. He mentioned that COVID caused his gout to flare up (I believe he said in his foot, but my memory is not 100%). Fortunately he recovered (mostly) after a week at home on the couch. Last I heard he still has a few bouts of fatigue that seem to kick in randomly from time to time.

Given that gout is not that common, it seems unlikely that the 40% reporting "unusual signs on the palms of their hands or soles of their feet" in the article is due to solely to gout.
Actually gout is quite common. It affects at least 4% of the population being more common in men than women. It is an independent risk factor for vascular disease and hypertension. It also has a significant incidence of chronic renal failure and the need for renal replacement therapy. Gout is actually a very significant health problem
 
M

Mr._Clark

Audioholic Samurai
According to the CDC, as of 1/25/21, of the 293 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant in the U.S., 90 are in California and 92 are in Florida.

California lifted restrictions on Monday, and Florida appears to be continuing it's Sergeant Schultz approach to the pandemic ("I see nothing! I hear nothing! I know nothing!"). This does not bode well.

Having said that, it is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.

 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
According to the CDC, as of 1/25/21, of the 293 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant in the U.S., 90 are in California and 92 are in Florida.

California lifted restrictions on Monday, and Florida appears to be continuing it's Sergeant Schultz approach to the pandemic ("I see nothing! I hear nothing! I know nothing!"). This does not bode well.

Having said that, it is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.

Yes, but those are only the ones we know about. Due to US incompetence the numbers will be in the thousands by now. I think unless the vaccine rolls out faster than predicted, we will be in a really bad crisis in six weeks.

Meanwhile the EU is in a row with the UK and Astrazeneca. The EU are demanding 75 million doses of the Oxford vaccine they have not even approved yet, be provided from UK factories. This is certain to be rejected and a major row will worsen.

As with everything the EU touches, they have made a total mess of vaccine acquisition and roll out, and are now looking for someone else to blame.

Despite Brexit, the EU wanted the UK to join the EU vaccination acquisition program. The UK wisely refused. So this issue will certainly raise anti EU feeling in member EU states. This fiasco seems sure to stoke it.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
I think ramping up vaccine production is the biggest challenge. My wife and I signed up for the Minneota vaccine lottery for those over 65 years old.
Any how it turns out that only 8000 doses are allocated for all of the mega centers that are supposed to deliver the vaccines. 205,000 individuals registered.

My youngest sister who is a retired nurse volunteered to help vaccinate in Rochester and did Tuesday last week. She has just Emailed me today that she was told not to report yesterday, as they have no vaccine.
 
T

trochetier

Audioholic
At least Moderna should be required to out-license and transfer technology for the manufacture (at a reasonable cost) to other manufacturers not just in US and Europe but other parts of the world. Moderna is using the tax payer funded NIAD (NIH) developed platform. Voluntary out-licensing should be required for other vaccines coming through if not then as part of their approval process. That's the only way we and the world can scale-up the manufacturing and hopefully get the pandemic under control.

Moreoever, with the new variants popping up, I am increasingly convinced we will live with this virus just the flu. Just like the flu the Covid vaccine will have to customized each year for the prevalent strains. Flu vaccine does not have a patent so should some of the Covid vaccine technologies. Alternately, WHO should buy out the patent/s with IMF money.
 
T

trochetier

Audioholic
Brazilian and likely the South African variants are apparently worse than UK - the current vaccines do not fully/effectively offer protection, apparently.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
At least Moderna should be required to out-license and transfer technology for the manufacture (at a reasonable cost) to other manufacturers not just in US and Europe but other parts of the world. Moderna is using the tax payer funded NIAD (NIH) developed platform. Voluntary out-licensing should be required for other vaccines coming through if not then as part of their approval process. That's the only way we and the world can scale-up the manufacturing and hopefully get the pandemic under control.
Both Moderna and Pfizer would be smart to license out their vaccines to sub-contractors for increased production. Moderna was founded, in part, based on research that was funded with money from NIAID. I don't know any details, but there may already be such an agreement between Moderna and the US government.
Moreoever, with the new variants popping up, I am increasingly convinced we will live with this virus just the flu. Just like the flu the Covid vaccine will have to customized each year for the prevalent strains. Flu vaccine does not have a patent so should some of the Covid vaccine technologies. Alternately, WHO should buy out the patent/s with IMF money.
I agree we will have to live with this virus. It doesn't seem like it will go away on it's own.

Corona viruses are different from influenza viruses in one important feature. Corona viruses have a single strand of RNA as their genome. All of the virus's genes are encoded on that one piece of RNA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus#Genome

Influenza A viruses have their genes on 8 different pieces of RNA. Different influenza viruses have different hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) proteins on the surface of the virus particle. For example, the H5N1 virus designates an influenza A subtype that has a type 5 H protein and a type 1 N protein. There are 18 known types of H and 11 known types of N, so, in theory, 198 different combinations of these proteins are possible. But usually H1, H2, H3, N1 and N2 are commonly found in humans. These H and N proteins are usually the targets for host cells to bind and trigger an immune response.

The genes for the H and N proteins are located on different pieces of the influenza virus genome. Usually there are more than one strain of influenza virus around in any single season. It is easy for a single host cell to be infected with more than one strain at a time. The virus particles created during the infection must have all 8 pieces of the virus genome, but it doesn't matter if 8 pieces come from the same or different strains. As a result, it is much easier for new influenza strains to develop each year. These new strains aren't simple point mutations, they have fully different H and/or N proteins in combinations that our immune systems haven't seen before.

In comparison, the point mutations we've seen in corona virus since the pandemic began were much slower to occur. And these mutations result, so far, in Spike proteins that can still be recognized from vaccines based on the original strain.
 
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Irvrobinson

Irvrobinson

Audioholic Spartan
At least Moderna should be required to out-license and transfer technology for the manufacture (at a reasonable cost) to other manufacturers not just in US and Europe but other parts of the world. Moderna is using the tax payer funded NIAD (NIH) developed platform. Voluntary out-licensing should be required for other vaccines coming through if not then as part of their approval process. That's the only way we and the world can scale-up the manufacturing and hopefully get the pandemic under control.

Moderna is partnered with Lonza Ltd. for production inside and outside the United States. Fill-finish services are provided by Catalent Inc. in the U.S., and by ROVI and Recipharm outside the U.S. The U.S. Government has agreed to purchase 200 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine with options for potential purchase of 300 million additional doses. The Canadian Government has agreed to purchase 40 million doses.
 
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