SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Yes, fortunately the mRNA vaccine pipeline is very adaptable too but the numbers game is not in our favor yet.

 

Vaccination appointment canceled. Apparently, the doses promised for the cite was scratched. Don't know when and if it is going to be rescheduled.

 

My wife got her second Pfizer shot this morning. Mild injection site tenderness but that's all. No reactions or side effects.

 

Where in NE? My second dose (Moderna) in CT is scheduled for 3 weeks from yesterday.

JeffD

 

Bet it is MA. Their Governor told all the over 75 group to sign up on the Internet (!) but there are essentially no available slots (yet?) due to serious problems with vaccine deliveries. I heard NH roll-out has gone much more smoothly.

 

shots don't begin until monday. it's very early in the game, people need to chillax

 

I had already decided to choose places where my mask and distancing accepted. But it is still a 'crap shoot'. The cold wind in Dixie makes wearing a mask easy.

Bob Wilson

 

A technical detail, we already know the various flu strains and have some idea of what is or isn't covered. But COVID-19 has variants (and more to come.) We seldom have much choice in vaccines but understanding which is covered gives some confidence. So the question is:

How do we identify the strains of COVID-19? Country of origin is better than nothing but what is the scientific identifier?

Bob Wilson

 

'...ought to continue to assume that taking their lungs outdoors should still include all the onerous stay-safe measures all have come to hate'
can you elucidate? the only safety measure i take outdoors is social distancing.

 

Tochatihu lives under a authoritarian government that has ordered an enforced "stay at home" regime to fight the Corona virus. We, in the US, cannot be ordered (except under martial law) to isolate us so severely. Besides, we are safer, in general, when outdoors from the virus assuming we keep physical distance from others due to the dilution of the viral load with ventilation.

JeffD

 

Same here, masking only when separation can't be maintained. This state never mandated masks when adequately separated outdoors. As many indoor rules were repeatedly modified and tightened, and outdoor sports team measures also tightened (practices and training only now, no competitions), the separated individual outdoor exercise & recreation rules have never been tightened to include masking. And I have seen no indication that such unmasked outdoor activity has been a meaningful contributor to sustaining the pandemic here.

By outdoors, I don't mean downtown sidewalks where there are lots of people out and about. Here, it means single family suburban neighborhoods so most places we are walking in the street (or if sidewalks are present, then stepping into street to maintain distance when passing others), wide open parks, forest trails, thinly used bicycle trails, etc.

As JeffD alludes to, I'm feeling much safer when unmasked outdoors in these activities, than when masked in any indoor public places.

 

perhaps china is different, even the streets of ny are quiet

 

Strains of the virus are identified by sequencing their genomes; each is marked by a unique constellation of mutations that defines a strain (and its evolutionary history).

The place where a strain is first identified (by sequencing) may have little relation to where it first emerged, given the way these strains move rapidly around the globe. Scientists are trying to avoid using country/place designations as those can lead to xenophobia (e.g. the Spanish Flu), and instead have developed naming systems that indicate evolutionary history. So B.1.1.7 is a name that places this variant in relationship to others for scientists in the know.

is a twitter post by a leading virologist what will give you a glimpse into how this all works.

 

A stiff cold wind makes wearing a mask much easier. Only the faint scent of one's SO is better.

Bob Wilson

 

and sound

 

Both U.S. CDC measures I'm following now show more than 3.3 Million all-cause deaths for 2020.

As of today, the Provisional Count page, an actual but lagging count of reported death certificates, now shows 3,316,186 all-cause deaths in 2020. This is a 17% jump from the 2017-2019 average. This count is updated each business day as new reports are processed and tallied.

The Excess Count page, an estimated count that is refined weekly as history-based placeholder estimates are replaced will current counts, shows 3,341,000 all-cause deaths (my rounding from pro-rated weekly data). This is nearly a half million more deaths than in 2019.

 

The study, published in Viruses*, shows that thapsigargin is a promising broad‑spectrum antiviral, highly effective against Covid-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2), a common cold coronavirus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and the influenza A virus.

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/thapsigargin-covid-19

https://doi.org/10.3390/v13020234