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SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by tochatihu, Jan 26, 2020.

  1. jdenenberg

    jdenenberg EE Professor

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    To quote a famous comedian, "I resemble that statement". I am one of those SS folks (but still here) and our culture should respect the past contributions that the elderly made to society. In the Oriental cultures, the elderly are respected and even revered. We should do the same.

    JeffD
     
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  2. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Concur wholeheartedly.

    Unfortunately, rhino-bugs don't CARE about people's feelings....and they've always been hard on the elderly.
    That's why back in the long ago, people used to have the same sort of discussions about the Flu-shot.......albeit less politically obfuscated.

    That's why the initial mistake that we made with old people's homes were so tragic.
    Everybody always looks at the Sunshine State (GOD's waiting room) as an example of "Don't let this happen to yooze guys" but IIRC New Joisey was spectacularly mishandled, and New YOWK! had it's little problems too.
    Of course if one points this out to "the usual suspects" then we shift away from deaths per 100,000 and look at total deaths.

    Nobody could or should point fingers at actions taken back when we didn't know what we didn't know.
    HOWEVER (comma!)
    Directing state employees to obstruct an investigation is something else...... ;)
     
    #4382 ETC(SS), Aug 6, 2021
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2021
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  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    if that room has a doc i need to see, the choice isn't difficult, but it is unsettling. i tape my n95 mask to my face
     
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  4. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    We need to label it "Equine Ivermectin," put $30 price tags on it and leave it on a shelf at Tractor Supply stores.

    A sign saying "PLEASE do not use this on humans to defend against hoaxes" wouldn't hurt.
     
  5. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Yeah....I'm digging the snark...but.
    That may or may not be as big a numbers driver as you might think.

    Remember when the California had to clamp down on THEIR anti-vaxers???
    No?
    Neither does anybody else....
    (think: Typhus)
    I wasn't aware that Marin county hot-tubbers frequented TSC....or minorities in Broward county....or Lake County..
    They have TSC stores in Harris county TX, but the vax-hesitant there are more Telemundo viewers than FNS - even tough BOTH networks broadcast multi-lingually.

    Like I sad before.
    It's a little more complicated if you really look at the numbers agnostically.....

    One can understand some communities' reluctance to make contact with the feds.
    Other communities people have other reasons....some of them heart-felt, others are fan-based.

    YMMV
     
    #4385 ETC(SS), Aug 6, 2021
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2021
  6. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    Hopefully not too snarky, honestly. I just can't think of any other way to help my countrymen. Such is my current embarrassing lack of imagination.

    I realize that once the disease and its vaccine were politicized, it was always going to be one group embracing the vaccine and another distrusting it. I feel fortunate to be in the group that has trusted it, but that only goes so far. I still have to make some pretty big concessions in the way I work and live in order to keep my infant daughter safe. As such, I've lost hope that there will be a "return to normal" simply because it's already been too long. "Adapt or die" is playing its role and isn't done yet. Too many people lost, and too many of their replacements have already arrived fresh.

    I've made it to the point where I think it's time to replace some other traditions and touchstones- with a cultural upset this big, it's time to unapologetically update for new opportunities around us.
     
  7. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Still deciding whether that sounds vaguely ominous or ominously vague.
     
  8. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    I get it that some people distrust the vaccine and that I could well have been one of them.

    There's some oppositional defiance out there: I really think some will only accept the vaccine if their need for it is not shared with anyone they don't like, or unless their ability to obtain it is linked to a perceived enemy's shortage. Somebody out there needs to use this as a point of differentiation from everyone else, to support their ego. My creative mind fails me here; I can't think of anything other than using subterfuge to trick the "anti" camp into inoculation.

    I'm long past caring about the secondary traits of the vaccine-hesitant. I don't care who they voted for, if or where they worship, how they manage their money or family dynamics, favorite color, sportsball team or anything. None of that is important to me anymore. I just want shots in arms. Honestly that stuff was little more than a curious distraction in the beginning, but now there's just no time.

    I see many people making terrible choices and sacrifices every day. I'm willing to coddle the hesitant however they need. Heck, I'm willing to coddle them and then spend 10x more putting on a theatrical production to make it look like nobody had to coddle them in the first place if that's what they need.

    I think we are on the verge of wrecking a second school year, along with the economic damage that will result from kids staying home and working parents having to make changes to care for them, all while people are still getting sick and dying unnecessarily.

    @ChapmanF apologies if my last post was too negative and vague. The idea that I lacked the energy to articulate then is that if we are going to trash the school year and holiday calendar again, let's put it back together in a better way that solves other problems and works for more people.

    edit: adding:

    My comments are perhaps best taken as exasperated lament. I don't really think there can or will be a change, and I'm not even going to back up a "should."

    I believe we are faced with a biomedical emergency which demands a unified response. Yet I remain ultimately respectful that (speaking as an American in a home-country context) our individual freedoms mean that at best we can only muster a partial response with consequences for all, even those outside our borders.

    If I had better ideas I wouldn't be saving them for a car forum.
     
    #4389 Leadfoot J. McCoalroller, Aug 6, 2021
    Last edited: Aug 7, 2021
  9. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    It still seems too early to rank COVID among historical leaders. Vaccinations are not done everywhere and not all high-octane. Lung-communication controls have been befuddled by 'political' concerns. As large playing fields remain open, the underlying virus may continue to stumble towards higher effectiveness.

    With all the money spent and revenues lost from this one, we ought to be able to shut it down. But not yet eh?

    ==

    If our next zoonotic is a Coronavirus, that might actually be a good thing because that gang is now so well researched and gene-sequenced. If instead it is a something-else-virus, months at least will be lost in biomedical catch up.

    ==
    Human enterprise strives to make this whole planet 'ours', and pushback takes several forms. I do not find it well to dawdle on the biomedical side (with whatever political paint gets applied there) while larger matters require attention.
     
  10. SFO

    SFO Senior Member

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  11. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    UNfortunately, lack of historical perspective has not kept the “experts” from making some pretty wild decisions…..
    THAT is why I’m super exited to watch them “solve” AGW. :cautious:

    I’m a little curious though….will not the mRNA juice work on at least one or more of the “something else” viruses?

    28 Devastating Infectious Diseases | Live Science

    One presumes that if a REALLY BAD critter gets loose in the world then all of the mask Karens and vax-deniers will probably start singing from the same sheet of music.
     
  12. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i have yet to meet an anti-vaxxer whose politics didn't tend toward the extreme. maybe they're just the verbal ones.
     
  13. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    "will not the mRNA juice work"

    Simplest answer is yes, human immune system can be trained against any antigen by mRNA instructions. Assuming that human cells start to produce the antigen. List provided includes viral and bacterial diseases, which require different work. But if you know the bad guys' genomes and what each part does, mRNA can follow.

    List provided includes CJD and prion diseases may be different because the only thing mRNA could 'make' is the misfolded protein itself (which seems existential suicidal to me). Smallpox is already gone except for two (known :eek:) lab freezers. So let's scrub those two off the list, and see which mRNA shops chose to invest in looking at the others.

    ==
    It may be widely known that smallpox is different in another way also. US has 200 million vaccine doses in storage already, maybe more? and maybe other countries have some also?
     
  14. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Related and recommended:

    The Delta Variant Has Warped Our Risk Perception | WIRED

    In particular this link contains a video with Doudna (CRISPR) and Moore (Moderna). Explaining their particular uses of RNA.

    I am in the middle, not even to Q&A section yet, but this is worth half hour or your attention.
     
  15. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    seems like comon sense to me, but perhaps uncommon
     
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  16. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Common sense is not common, and I'll say why. Biology (including all of us) is complicated. Much more complicated than was taught to my age group while in the pipeline. It is no small thing to 'catch up',and a risk persists that some prefer still thinking as they were taught to think before.

    The WIRED video I linked was entirely optimistic. It might be balanced by consideration of how genomic technology could go wrong. I cannot imagine how to construct that well. This subject is complicated for seeming to impinge on politics. It lacks full consideration on how other earth biology can be affected.

    It would be great if now was the time to advance the human enterprise, and no current challenges spoke, and no politics spoke oddly against, and we were all in it for success.

    ==
    It may seem that COVID rules us now. I suggest that it does not, rather, that accepting and managing our role as a planetary breakout species is the thing.

    It's time to be big and to clean up clutter nagging against big. Prior common sense is an interesting antique item that might decorate our future display shelves.
     
    #4397 tochatihu, Aug 9, 2021
    Last edited: Aug 9, 2021
  17. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    even stronger than politics may be human emotion. it can cloud the judgement. we are not computers, unlike mr. spock
     
  18. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    you mean
    DATA.

    .
     
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  19. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Would you make me some of that plomeek soup?