Coronavirus, Monkeypox, and Other Contagious Diseases

[pnwguy]

Mar 31, 2022 17:04:39 GMT LFC said:

Maybe my next booster should be Pfizer since I'm 3 Modernas in.

The mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have proven highly effective at priming our immune systems to fight the pandemic coronavirus—preventing substantial amounts of infection, severe disease, and death throughout several waves of variants. But despite their similar design and efficacy, the two vaccines are not exactly the same—and our immune systems don't respond to them in the same way.

An early hint of this came from some real-world data that found startling differences in the effectiveness of the two vaccines, despite both shots performing nearly identically in Phase III clinical trials, with efficacies of 95 percent and 94 percent. Amid last year's delta wave, a Mayo Clinic study found that Pfizer's effectiveness against infection dipped to 42 percent while Moderna's fell to 76 percent.

According to a new study in Science Translational Medicine, such differences might be explained by evidence that the two vaccines spur the immune system to produce slightly different antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.

Both vaccines generate strong levels of neutralizing antibodies, which can bind to the virus and prevent it from infecting cells. But according to the study, the vaccines generated different antibody profiles overall. Specifically, the antibody response to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine skewed to a class of antibodies called IgG and IgM, which are often found in the blood. The Moderna vaccine, meanwhile, generated relatively elevated levels of IgA antibodies, a class of antibodies generally found on mucosal surfaces, such as the respiratory tract—where SARS-CoV-2 infections begin. Additionally, the Moderna vaccine spurred relatively higher levels of antibodies that activate immune cells called natural killer cells. It also generated higher levels of antibodies that activate immune cells called neutrophils to ingest and kill (phagocytize) invading germs.

I'm considering the same "cross vaccination".  Three Pfizers for me, so will make my 4th shot a Moderna.

[LFC]

Too soon? Yes. Hard yes.

[LFC]

Apathy and burnout is now a problem.

If the United States has been riding a COVID-19 ’coaster for the past two-plus years, New York and a flush of states in the Northeast have consistently been seated in the train’s front car. And right now, in those parts of the country, coronavirus cases are, once again, going up. The rest of America may soon follow, now that BA.2—the more annoying, faster-spreading sister of the original Omicron variant, BA.1—has overtaken its sibling to become the nation’s dominant version of SARS-CoV-2.

Technologically and immunologically speaking, Americans should be well prepared to duel a new iteration of SARS-CoV-2, with two years of vaccines, testing, treatment, masking, ventilation, and distancing know-how in hand. Our immunity from BA.1 is also relatively fresh, and the weather’s rapidly warming. In theory, the nation could be poised to stem BA.2’s inbound tide, and make this variant’s cameo our least devastating to date.

But theory, at this point, seems unlikely to translate into practice. As national concern for COVID withers, the country’s capacity to track the coronavirus is on a decided downswing. Community test sites are closing, and even the enthusiasm for at-home tests seems to be on a serious wane; even though Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a new deal on domestic pandemic funding, those patterns could stick. Testing and case reporting are now so “abysmal” that we’re losing sight of essential transmission trends, says Jessica Malaty Rivera, a research fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital. “It’s so bad that I could never look at the data and make any informed choice.” Testing is how individuals, communities, and experts stay on top of where the virus is and whom it’s affecting; it’s also one of the main bases of the CDC’s new guidance on when to mask up again. Without it, the nation’s ability to forecast whatever wave might come around next is bound to be clouded.

We can’t react to a wave we don’t see coming. “I keep thinking back to this idea of If we don’t measure it, it won’t happen,” says Shweta Bansal, an infectious-disease modeler at Georgetown University. (As President Donald Trump once put it, “If we stop testing, we’d have fewer cases.”) In reality, “it’s very well happening, and we just don’t see it yet.” There is still no guarantee that the next wave is nigh—but if it is, the U.S. is poorly positioned to meet it. Americans’ motivational tanks are near empty; the country’s stance has, for months, been pretty much whatevs. The next wave may be less a BA.2 wave, and more a so what? wave—one many Americans care little to see, because, after two years of crisis, they care so little to respond.

[goldenvalley]

Long COVID is horrible. My husband's co worker has a 21 year old son who contracted "original" COVID in September 2020 when his university tried to return to in person attendance (with Covid testing).  He immediately had a very severe case...heart, brain, and vascular issues.  To this day he has severe symptoms, the virus never really cleared from his body. He is in great pain at times plus a myriad of physical sequela which leads him to contemplate suicide frequently.  He was a normal healthy kid before this.

We forget, in our vaccinated status and our "so done with it" malaise just how horrible the virus is..writing it off as only affecting old people or those with the poor discipline that can lead to diabetes or high blood pressure or whatever.  Stories like this kid's just dropped off media attention so people got complacent.

[LFC]

A lot of people just aren't taking it seriously anymore.

At least 72 of the over 600 people who attended the mostly maskless Gridiron Dinner—an exclusive annual event frequented by high-profile Washington, DC, elites—have since tested positive for COVID-19. The dinner took place on April 2.

The growing tally may herald a nationwide rise in infections from the BA.2 omicron subvariant amid relaxed health measures. BA.2 is now the dominant variant circulating in the US and is more transmissible than the initial ultra-transmissible omicron subvariant, BA.1.

So far, over 20 states and Washington, DC, are reporting upticks in cases over the past two weeks, and nearly 10 states are seeing an increase in hospitalizations, according to data tracking by The New York Times. Over half of the country's wastewater sites monitoring for SARS-CoV-2 levels have also detected rises in the past two weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The monitoring is intended to act as an early warning signal for case surges.

Still, the undercount of COVID-19 cases is expected to be more severe now than ever during the pandemic. Testing generally misses a large chunk of infections. But testing for COVID-19 has fallen sharply since the BA.1 surge in January, which saw over 2 million tests per day at its peak. Average daily testing is now down to less than 600,000 per day and is on a downward trajectory, according to CDC data. Many people have opted to use at-home COVID-19 tests instead, the results of which are often not reported to health departments. Moreover, people who catch the virus and experience only mild or asymptomatic cases—particularly those who are vaccinated and boosted—may not get tested at all.

We just did a weekend in Virginia and we never popped in anyplace where mask wearers were the majority. It was a lot closer to maybe 1/4 of people at any given place. (Other than dinner in one half empty restaurant we didn't spend much time around people.)

[pnwguy]

Apr 11, 2022 17:42:55 GMT LFC said:

A lot of people just aren't taking it seriously anymore.

At least 72 of the over 600 people who attended the mostly maskless Gridiron Dinner—an exclusive annual event frequented by high-profile Washington, DC, elites—have since tested positive for COVID-19. The dinner took place on April 2.

The growing tally may herald a nationwide rise in infections from the BA.2 omicron subvariant amid relaxed health measures. BA.2 is now the dominant variant circulating in the US and is more transmissible than the initial ultra-transmissible omicron subvariant, BA.1.

So far, over 20 states and Washington, DC, are reporting upticks in cases over the past two weeks, and nearly 10 states are seeing an increase in hospitalizations, according to data tracking by The New York Times. Over half of the country's wastewater sites monitoring for SARS-CoV-2 levels have also detected rises in the past two weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The monitoring is intended to act as an early warning signal for case surges.

Still, the undercount of COVID-19 cases is expected to be more severe now than ever during the pandemic. Testing generally misses a large chunk of infections. But testing for COVID-19 has fallen sharply since the BA.1 surge in January, which saw over 2 million tests per day at its peak. Average daily testing is now down to less than 600,000 per day and is on a downward trajectory, according to CDC data. Many people have opted to use at-home COVID-19 tests instead, the results of which are often not reported to health departments. Moreover, people who catch the virus and experience only mild or asymptomatic cases—particularly those who are vaccinated and boosted—may not get tested at all.

We just did a weekend in Virginia and we never popped in anyplace where mask wearers were the majority. It was a lot closer to maybe 1/4 of people at any given place. (Other than dinner in one half empty restaurant we didn't spend much time around people.)

Here in Portland, people are remaining masked on their own, in probably 50% or more acceptance.  It's down in restaurants but when there is little inconvenience like stores and such, there seems to be no social push back on mask wearing.  

[goldenvalley]

Apr 12, 2022 0:40:46 GMT pnwguy said:

Apr 11, 2022 17:42:55 GMT LFC said:

A lot of people just aren't taking it seriously anymore.

We just did a weekend in Virginia and we never popped in anyplace where mask wearers were the majority. It was a lot closer to maybe 1/4 of people at any given place. (Other than dinner in one half empty restaurant we didn't spend much time around people.)

Here in Portland, people are remaining masked on their own, in probably 50% or more acceptance.  It's down in restaurants but when there is little inconvenience like stores and such, there seems to be no social push back on mask wearing.  

In Sacramento I've noticed a drop off in mask wearing just in the last week.  It's a little over 50%.  I've been trying to look for age and in supermarkets it seems that younger people wear masks less than older folks do.  I have noticed that people with young kids along tend to wear masks more.  I suspect the kids are under 5 and can't be masked.

[LFC]

Philadelphia just reinstated the indoor mask mandate effective this coming Monday. The news interviewed some whiner that they want the city to just pick a position, revealing their staggering ignorance of how a pandemic functions. To use an internet meme, "That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works." My patience for the stupid and ignorant grows shorter by the day.

[pnwguy]

Apr 12, 2022 15:51:20 GMT LFC said:

My patience for the stupid and ignorant grows shorter by the day.

Ditto - hence my serious look at other countries to retire in over the next few years.  Of course, Vlad the Missile Impaler might eliminate the need for such decisions in a blaze of glory.

[LFC]

An already popular, more readily available treatment for COVID?

From the outset of the pandemic, the prospect that weed might be used to fight COVID-19 was tantalizing. After all, many people across the planet were getting high to pass the time during lockdown, and there is a long history of governments shunning the idea that cannabis might have health benefits, research be damned.

Still, the FDA and other health authorities were quick to say as far back as April 2020 there was no science to back up claims that weed was going to be useful in warding off the deadly disease.

That may have been premature. New, peer-reviewed research published Thursday in Science Advances suggests the popular non-psychoactive compound in cannabis known as cannabidiol, or CBD, can help prevent the novel coronavirus from replicating in human cells, reducing the chances of a full-blown infection. Another arm of the study also found that real-world patients who were prescribed CBD experienced lower rates of COVID-19.

“We just wanted to know if CBD would affect the immune system,” Marsha Rosner, a cancer biologist and expert in cell stress at the University of Chicago and a senior author of the new study, said in a statement. “No one in their right mind would have ever thought that it blocked viral replication, but that’s what it did.”

Rosner and her colleagues don’t yet recommend consuming CBD products—nor do they believe CBD could be a substitute for vaccination (still by far the best way to protect yourself). But the authors do advocate launching clinical trials soon to more rigorously probe whether it could be used as an additional therapeutic to prevent or slow down breakthrough COVID, an especially urgent task in light of the Omicron variant’s seemingly relentless spread.

W...T...F? They don't recommend it yet? They want to do rigorous clinical trials? That's not how this is supposed to work! We need screeching nutjobs and medical quacks making broad claims and being parroted across the right-wing noise machine. THAT's the way science is done in 'Murica these days.

[Bact PhD]

Apr 13, 2022 15:17:20 GMT LFC said:

An already popular, more readily available treatment for COVID?

From the outset of the pandemic, the prospect that weed might be used to fight COVID-19 was tantalizing. After all, many people across the planet were getting high to pass the time during lockdown, and there is a long history of governments shunning the idea that cannabis might have health benefits, research be damned.

Still, the FDA and other health authorities were quick to say as far back as April 2020 there was no science to back up claims that weed was going to be useful in warding off the deadly disease.

That may have been premature. New, peer-reviewed research published Thursday in Science Advances suggests the popular non-psychoactive compound in cannabis known as cannabidiol, or CBD, can help prevent the novel coronavirus from replicating in human cells, reducing the chances of a full-blown infection. Another arm of the study also found that real-world patients who were prescribed CBD experienced lower rates of COVID-19.

“We just wanted to know if CBD would affect the immune system,” Marsha Rosner, a cancer biologist and expert in cell stress at the University of Chicago and a senior author of the new study, said in a statement. “No one in their right mind would have ever thought that it blocked viral replication, but that’s what it did.”

Rosner and her colleagues don’t yet recommend consuming CBD products—nor do they believe CBD could be a substitute for vaccination (still by far the best way to protect yourself). But the authors do advocate launching clinical trials soon to more rigorously probe whether it could be used as an additional therapeutic to prevent or slow down breakthrough COVID, an especially urgent task in light of the Omicron variant’s seemingly relentless spread.

W...T...F? They don't recommend it yet? They want to do rigorous clinical trials? That's not how this is supposed to work! We need screeching nutjobs and medical quacks making broad claims and being parroted across the right-wing noise machine. THAT's the way science is done in 'Murica these days.

B…b…but it CAN’T work! That would go against our dogma that Weed Is EEEVIIILLL!!!

In all seriousness, they may well be on to something with CBD, given some of the applications as an anti inflammatory. Without reading the paper and looking at the concentration used versus any toxicity profiles, I’ll reserve judgment on whether it is actually decreasing the viral load after human infection.

[LFC]

Apr 13, 2022 15:35:16 GMT Bact PhD said:

In all seriousness, they may well be on to something with CBD, given some of the applications as an anti inflammatory. Without reading the paper and looking at the concentration used versus any toxicity profiles, I’ll reserve judgment on whether it is actually decreasing the viral load after human infection.

Man, you sure do make a shitty MAGAt. You ain't hardly reactionary a t'all.

[pnwguy]

Apr 13, 2022 15:41:45 GMT LFC said:

Apr 13, 2022 15:35:16 GMT Bact PhD said:

In all seriousness, they may well be on to something with CBD, given some of the applications as an anti inflammatory. Without reading the paper and looking at the concentration used versus any toxicity profiles, I’ll reserve judgment on whether it is actually decreasing the viral load after human infection.

Man, you sure do make a shitty MAGAt. You ain't hardly reactionary a t'all.

Yes, a true MAGAt sticks to the "Kill them all and let God sort it out" philosophy of political opposition.  "Unless you promote Ivermectin, you're a pedophile groomer and foe of Freedom!" 

[Bact PhD]

Interesting NPR piece regarding those seemingly just plain resistant to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/04/07/1091466181/why-hasnt-my-daughter-caught-covid-2-factors-likely-protect-her-and-maybe-you-to

Over the past year, several studies have offered a tantalizing hint: Some people, even before being vaccinated, are really good at clearing the coronavirus from their respiratory tract and do it so quickly that the virus never reaches detectable levels. And the immune system accomplishes this coup with two key tools: immune cells originally made to fight another coronavirus — four key ones are out there — and an arm of the immune system that gets little attention in the media but is doing a huge amount of work to protect us all from SARS-CoV-2.

[goldenvalley]

The truth at last. COVID 19 is a synthetic version of snake venom that evil forces are spreading thru remdesivir, the mRNA vaccines, and drinking water to make us hybrids of Satan. Oh and monocloidal antibodies are actually anti venom which is why the government doesn’t want you to take it anymore.
www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/apr/19/watch-water/stew-peters-film-watch-water-ridiculously-claims-c/

[andydp]

Apr 21, 2022 16:34:23 GMT goldenvalley said:

The truth at last. COVID 19 is a synthetic version of snake venom that evil forces are spreading thru remdesivir, the mRNA vaccines, and drinking water to make us hybrids of Satan. Oh and monocloidal antibodies are actually anti venom which is why the government doesn’t want you to take it anymore.
www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/apr/19/watch-water/stew-peters-film-watch-water-ridiculously-claims-c/

Its always good to hear the latest news from the Planet Twilo.

[LFC]

Decades from now as those who were infected get older they'll be studying the rise in all sorts of ailments.

By February of this year, 58 percent of the US population -- or more than 190 million people -- had been infected with Covid, according to an antibody survey carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published Tuesday.

The figure is far higher than the 80 million officially recorded cases, with the majority of infections undiagnosed, asymptomatic or unreported.

Roughly 75 percent of people under 18 had been infected, according to a paper based on a nationally representative study of antibody levels.

There was a huge surge during last winter's Omicron wave, particularly among children.

[goldenvalley]

Kevlar vests don't protect against COVID. Read this for the story of a Newark NJ officer who was too fit and young to need a vaccination.  His story is part of the larger one revealed below.

Though police work inherently carries with it the possibility of violent or lethal encounters, for the last two years Covid-19 has been the leading cause of death for law enforcement officers in the United States.

When Covid vaccines were first offered in December 2020, law enforcement officers — frontline workers who, like doctors and nurses, are required to interact closely with people in crisis — were prioritized for shots that have since been proven to significantly lower the risk of serious illness and death.

But over the next year, as some police unions tried to block vaccine mandates, at least 301 police, sheriff and correction officers died of complications from Covid-19, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, a nonprofit that tracks line-of-duty fatalities. Since January, Covid has continued to outpace other top causes of line-of-duty deaths.

“It’s not just a little bit above firearm fatalities and traffic fatalities,” said Troy Anderson, a retired Connecticut State Police sergeant who is now director of safety and wellness for the memorial. “It’s heads and shoulders above.”

“It’s unthinkable that we’re still in this place,” he added.

In Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, nine police employees have died of Covid-19. But there have been no Covid fatalities since the city’s vaccination mandate was implemented in September after an unsuccessful legal challenge by the police and fire unions.

Roughly 96 percent of Newark’s public safety officers have now had at least two shots of either the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or one shot of Johnson & Johnson’s, said Brian O’Hara, Newark’s public safety director.

[andydp]

[LFC]

Here's a description of the state of Americans' view on COVID as "capitulation." I tend to agree. Josh Marshall says it's mostly accurate but at this point no longer pertinent.

This morning I was browsing through the COVID list and I found my way to this post by Eric Topol. Topol is a physician generalist who heads up a biomedical institute at the Scripps Research Center in California. He’s not an epidemiologist or virologist. But COVID has been his focus since the beginning of the pandemic. The post is entitled The Covid Capitulation. And it is part of that genre of COVID writing in which a COVID expert bemoans the fact that the whole country has decided the epidemic is over when in fact it’s clearly not.

I have an ambivalent response to these pieces. On the one hand I agree to a significant extent. (I’m that guy who is still wearing a medical grade mask in indoor public spaces. I don’t mind it and I’d prefer not to get COVID.) And yet, it’s all so much water under the bridge. Spitting into the wind. You might as well be holding out for a Beatles reunion. The particular issue Topol focuses on is the continuing evolution of Omicron. For a while we were in a cycle of novel variants and surges. But Omicron is different. It has kept evolving on its own trajectory, at a faster rate and its new subvariants seem to have much less immune crossover.

He then makes the point that the only track that we can hope for is faster delivery of treatments. The will to prevent is dead and dies with each variant. In my view America has surrendered and now it's all about treating the wounded.

[goldenvalley]

May 18, 2022 14:50:10 GMT LFC said:

Here's a description of the state of Americans' view on COVID as "capitulation." I tend to agree. Josh Marshall says it's mostly accurate but at this point no longer pertinent.

This morning I was browsing through the COVID list and I found my way to this post by Eric Topol. Topol is a physician generalist who heads up a biomedical institute at the Scripps Research Center in California. He’s not an epidemiologist or virologist. But COVID has been his focus since the beginning of the pandemic. The post is entitled The Covid Capitulation. And it is part of that genre of COVID writing in which a COVID expert bemoans the fact that the whole country has decided the epidemic is over when in fact it’s clearly not.

I have an ambivalent response to these pieces. On the one hand I agree to a significant extent. (I’m that guy who is still wearing a medical grade mask in indoor public spaces. I don’t mind it and I’d prefer not to get COVID.) And yet, it’s all so much water under the bridge. Spitting into the wind. You might as well be holding out for a Beatles reunion. The particular issue Topol focuses on is the continuing evolution of Omicron. For a while we were in a cycle of novel variants and surges. But Omicron is different. It has kept evolving on its own trajectory, at a faster rate and its new subvariants seem to have much less immune crossover.

He then makes the point that the only track that we can hope for is faster delivery of treatments. The will to prevent is dead and dies with each variant. In my view America has surrendered and now it's all about treating the wounded.

So now the panic is over, the anti maskers won, and we just wander around hoping a more dangerous version of COVID does not evolve.  It's in God's hands...just like it was before science helped us figure out how to prevent disease.

[LFC]

May 18, 2022 22:53:04 GMT goldenvalley said:

So now the panic is over, the anti maskers won, and we just wander around hoping a more dangerous version of COVID does not evolve.  It's in God's hands...just like it was before science helped us figure out how to prevent disease.

Vaccines and treatments have dropped us to a rate of death and hospitalization that much of America finds acceptable. It's now viewed more or less like the flu. If a more virulent strain that is resistant to current vaccines and treatments crops up we're screwed.

[jackd]

There's also the problem of long Covid and later developing problems from apparently mild infections. Much as everyone would like to hope so, we're not out of the woods yet.

[LFC]

May 19, 2022 15:04:54 GMT jackd said:

There's also the problem of long Covid and later developing problems from apparently mild infections. Much as everyone would like to hope so, we're not out of the woods yet.

Agree 100% but I was just speaking about perceptions, not reality. The true cost of long COVID likely won't appear for decades.

[Bact PhD]

May 19, 2022 15:04:54 GMT jackd said:

There's also the problem of long Covid and later developing problems from apparently mild infections. Much as everyone would like to hope so, we're not out of the woods yet.

Worse, at least one study carried out by the VA suggests that vaccination does little to nothing to fend off long COVID in the event of a breakthrough infection.

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/05/25/long-covid-vaccines-slight-protection/

Six months after their initial diagnosis of covid, people in the study who were vaccinated had only a slightly reduced risk of getting long covid — 15 percent overall. The greatest benefit appeared to be in reducing blood clotting and lung complications. But there was no difference between the vaccinated and unvaccinated when it came to longer-term risks of neurological issues, gastrointestinal symptoms, kidney failure and other conditions.

“This was disappointing,” said Ziyad Al-Aly, lead author and chief of research and development service at VA Saint Louis Health Care System. “I was hoping to see that vaccines offer more protection, especially given that vaccines are our only line of defense nowadays.”