New Coronavirus threat

The covidiots are everywhere. In the past 24 hours I had to tell three people to quit spreading the 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory.

Thing is, I am in Indonesia. There is NO 5G in my country. Yet the virus exists and more than a thousand died here. Thus it should have been pretty obvious that any such theory is shit. But nope. Some people are too stupid to make that logical deduction.

hauritz said:

So much is pinned on a vaccine being quickly developed and distributed.

Then you read something like this.

How Effective is the 2019-20 Flu Shot?

Based on data from 4112 children and adults, vaccine effectiveness was estimated to be 37% against influenza A and 50% against influenza B viruses.

www.contagionlive.com

It appears that the overall effectiveness of a flu vaccine is only about 45% and by all reports, coronaviruses are even more resistant to vaccines. Quite possibly we might see people becoming complacent after a vaccine becomes available pretty much negating its benefits.

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Also remember that's for the northern hemisphere vaccine which is different to the southern hemisphere vaccine because of the different strains of the virus prevalent in the respective hemispheres. But even a 45% effective vaccine is better than no vaccine because it does lessen the impact of the virus on your system.

tonnyc said:

The covidiots are everywhere. In the past 24 hours I had to tell three people to quit spreading the 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory.

Thing is, I am in Indonesia. There is NO 5G in my country. Yet the virus exists and more than a thousand died here. Thus it should have been pretty obvious that any such theory is shit. But nope. Some people are too stupid to make that logical deduction.

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Haha, we've got idiots here burning down 3G & 4G cellphone towers because they don't want 5G networks installed here, which is happening the moment. Trouble is when they get caught, they'll get a smack on the hand with a wet bus ticket and told not to do it again, because the judiciary are so soft.

The 5G stuff is cringeworthy but not surprising. I teach twelves year olds who have a better grasp of the EM spectrum and the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation than numerous members of the adult population. It seems that much of the latter draw their understanding from Netflix and/or the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Todjaeger said:

Just read confirmation of something a regional health dept. contact of mine mentioned to me early this morning. There is apparently a specific segment of the population which is now actively avoiding testing, as well as resisting COVID-19 contact tracing, along with the unfortunately to be expected misinformation about what contact tracing is, how it is done, and why it is so important in responding to infectious disease outbreaks.

At this point I am wondering whether certain biologicals should have their human being statuses changed to walking meat sack.

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Call me old fashioned, but protesting during a pandemic against social distancing when covid 19 has already killed 100.000+ citizens is the utter epitome of stupidity. Flat earthers at least do little harm and are a source of amusement.

John Fedup said:

There is is a huge list of people that need to take 440V IMHO. An electrode where the sun never shines is one connection point I’d suggest.

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That would be the anode, wouldn't it?

ngatimozart said:

Also remember that's for the northern hemisphere vaccine which is different to the southern hemisphere vaccine because of the different strains of the virus prevalent in the respective hemispheres. But even a 45% effective vaccine is better than no vaccine because it does lessen the impact of the virus on your system.

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I’ve been religiously taking the annual flu shot for years.
Meeting and greeting passengers who mainly come from the southern winter exposes one to all sorts of ailments and I have never had an infection.
In most Australian jurisdictions the vaccine is free for those over 65. Everyone is aware however that there’s no point in taking the shot until April (in Darwin) when the current vaccine (produced from the previous northern hemisphere winter for the latest strain) becomes available.

ASSAIL said:

I’ve been religiously taking the annual flu shot for years.
Meeting and greeting passengers who mainly come from the southern winter exposes one to all sorts of ailments and I have never had an infection.
In most Australian jurisdictions the vaccine is free for those over 65. Everyone is aware however that there’s no point in taking the shot until April (in Darwin) when the current vaccine (produced from the previous northern hemisphere winter for the latest strain) becomes available.

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The wife and I also religiously get the flu jab each April. The reason how I know about the differences between the two hemispheres is that last week or the week before, at his daily presser the Director of Health said that he had to order in northern hemisphere flu doses because they're running out of the 2020 southern hemisphere flu vaccine and couldn't get new doses in time. He said that the northern hemisphere one had 2 of the 3 components of the southern hemisphere one and that 45% coverage was better than none at all.

Flu shots here are free at pharmacies and clinics. I recently learned that high dose vaccine shots for older people are recommended but these are only available from doctors, again these are free as well.

This paper reports people with dementia are 3 times more likely to develop severe symptoms from COVID-19. The researchers also mention two faulty copies of the APOE gene. This may partially explain the high death rates in nursing homes although in Ontario and Quebec, criminal neglect and incompetence are likely more significant.

John Fedup said:

This paper reports people with dementia are 3 times more likely to develop severe symptoms from COVID-19. The researchers also mention two faulty copies of the APOE gene. This may partially explain the high death rates in nursing homes although in Ontario and Quebec, criminal neglect and incompetence are likely more significant.

Large-scale Study Links Dementia Gene to Increased Risk of COVID-19

Researchers at the University of Exeter Medical School and the University of Connecticut School of Medicine analysed data from the UK Biobank, and found high risk of severe COVID-19 infection among European ancestry participants who carry two faulty copies of the APOE gene (termed e4e4).

www.technologynetworks.com

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The apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele is the most common genetic risk factor for dementia, it also predicts a worse outcome in models of traumatic brain injury and in particular has a very high correlation with folks who develop Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE = 'punch drunk'). Why it does this is not certain. I read the paper and I can't say I was convinced of causation, in the sense of malicious alleles aiding Covid19 in some specific way. Old demented people generally have significant other illness and their age, which increase the severity of Covid19. I would like to see some mechanism exposed in the laboratory to explain it. It's always hard to separate out causation from correlation in these population based studies.

NZ has one active COVID-19 left in the country Auckland the only remaining area with an active case of Covid-19 in New Zealand and that case is in Auckland. It's Queens Birthday weekend, which is a long weekend so every man and his dog will be away for the weekend. Many tourist businesses and accommodation outlets have some pretty good discounts going to entice Kiwis to visit their own back yard.

The battle may be just about over, but the war hasn't been won yet.

ngatimozart said:

NZ has one active COVID-19 left in the country Auckland the only remaining area with an active case of Covid-19 in New Zealand and that case is in Auckland. It's Queens Birthday weekend, which is a long weekend so every man and his dog will be away for the weekend. Many tourist businesses and accommodation outlets have some pretty good discounts going to entice Kiwis to visit their own back yard.

The battle may be just about over, but the war hasn't been won yet.

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Based on my walk up to the shops yesterday, for many people in the UK, lockdown already ended - back to normal for foot traffic and cars were up in number , plus the discipline for social distancing seems to have gone by the by.

I'm guessing everyone is chafing at the bit and wanting to get back to normal, which historically is how wave 3 usually starts.

Slow approach here for now with gradual relaxation. Federal and provincial governments will closely watch how things progress (or worsen) south of the border before proceeding much further. That being said, there have been a few lapses in proper social distancing with the arrival of some decent weather (finally!).

Meanwhile in the US you now have millions of protestors who seem to be mostly ignoring social distancing. My advice too Canada is to keep that southern border secure.

Most of the provinces here are not pushing for a border opening at the moment. Junior likely agrees but will face pressure from Trump to open up to in order to give his base the feeling everything is going to plan. If new US outbreaks start within the next few weeks, the border opening won’t happen.

In a number of the US states, particularly ones which have largely relaxed the mitigation requirements for the pandemic, the states have observed a spike in the number of confirmed cases, and/or the number of hospitalizations.

Some of this is likely due to expanded PCR testing, but given the number of people who are meeting others, not taking preventive measures like wearing a mask and social distancing, etc then it does seem that is also contributing. And that was before f*ckheads held parties like occurred at Lake of the Ozarks over Memorial Day, with crowds of hundreds packed pools during parties.

Now, with the unrest occurring across the US, depending on the group one might wear a mask, but little social distancing is being done. This could end up seeing a second, larger spike of cases.

Some more information that confirms why many are unhappy with China’s “openness”. A couple of weeks could have made a huge difference.https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/who-china-coronavirus-covid19-investigation-1.5594578

Ho Ching, has shared the following on her Facebook:

An interesting meta-study has been published.

This looks for all the research literature and then tries to combine their results in a systematic way to give us a sense of what all the data from different research are telling us.

These include studies in home settings, healthcare settings, etc.

Three key findings are covered.

The first is that safe distancing works.

Fair enough.

There seems a clear distinction between close contact, and safe distancing of 1m or more.

And every meter more of physical distancing, halves the risk of infection, starting from 1 meter.

Separately, wearing masks also reduces the risk of infection.

Likewise, having eye protection from face shields, goggles, or even glasses, would also reduce infection risks.

Question is what is the combined effect if we do all 3?

Logically, the mouth, eyes and nose are safe distanced by masks and any eye shields.

So perhaps having both masks and some form of eye shield would also reduce the infection further than using any single one?

Something to think about.

Well certainly seeing people walk around in face masks has become the new normal. I have been reading some interesting tech stuff myself.
AI glasses. Not only do they protect your eyes but they enable you to detect people who may be carrying the infection.

hauritz said:

Well certainly seeing people walk around in face masks has become the new normal. I have been reading some interesting tech stuff myself.

China is using AI smart glasses to detect people with coronavirus

The specs can monitor a person’s body temperature from up to a metre away

www.dazeddigital.com

AI glasses. Not only do they protect your eyes but they enable you to detect people who may be carrying the infection.

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China and AI, well colour me suspicious, very suspicious.