Coronavirus Pandemic Update 43: Shortages, Immunity, & Can a TB Vaccine (BCG) Help Prevent COVID-19? - YouTube found this site pretty informative, first part is lastest stats, then in this video he explains how the immune system works and a possible old drug that studies have showed that may boost the immune system.Sister-in-law is a nurse, she said it was a good site FWIW
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Yes, excellent site. Iâve used that site to get up to speed on other complicated medical topics. Those drawings really help. Per your video, in a nutshell, tuberculosis vaccine maybe the reason why young adults seem to be so little affected. (Vaccines wear off with time.) I think in another video, explains why fever reducer meds arenât a good idea unless fever is really high as its one of the bodies best defenses against viral infections. Better to suck it up, drink lots of liquids and rest than realize short term relief of symptoms. Not sure if on that site or not, but quite a bit evidence showing up that the anti-malaria drug is likely useless against the virus just like it is against flu viruses. For instance, that was the conclusion on Chinese studies that were done. Wonât know for sure until larger, better controled studies done.
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Heard a appalling stat last night. 46 Italian doctors have died so far of the virus. Wonder how many are sick and canât work, then multiply that to nurses and first responders. On a more inspiring note, I watched how companies small and large are chipping in to help out. From the largest breweries here(Labattâs) to micro breweries and wineries are switching over to making hand sanitizers Most of them donating it for free to hospitals.A medium sized fabrication firm was just finishing building a line to produce hand sanitizer in big volumes. They were building it for free and were willing to pass on their drawings and pictures to anyone that wanted it.I find it appalling that politicians around the world have dithered and wasted time to ready their country to build up supplies of PPE for the people who will be laying their lives on the line for others. Even a dumbass retired logging contractor could see a storm brewing in January. All IMO
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Call to Action: My Pillowâs Mike Lindell Announces Heâs Making Medical Masks to Help Combat Wuhan Coronavirus Outbreak.
CEO Mike Lindell says about 75% of MyPillowâs production will now be making cotton face masks for health care workers. He says about 90% of the companyâs sewers will be working on the masks.
âWe have capacity to make a lot of things at big rates and weâre going to be going hopefully from 10,000 units a day to 50,000 units a day in a very short period of time,â said Lindell.
Lindell says it took about three weeks to shift production as it was difficult at first to get a supply of elastics needed to create the masks. At this time, he says components are not available to make other types of masks, so his company focused on making the 100% cotton masks. He says MyPillow worked with a coalition from President Donald Trumpâs administration to get the proper design.
âSomething is better than nothing to get [health care workers] through,â he said.
I thought this headline was of interest.
Whatâs essential? In France: pastry, wine. In US: golf, guns.
On a side note ; I gardening. I found when I went on line for some more garden seeds, the old fashion staples, cabbage, squash, onion, rona tomatoes, pumpkins, are mostly sold out.
Along with beer making supplies. 
Maybe some are getting back to basics?
Well take care all. Good luck with all your projects.
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For those that are conscientious about doing all you can do to âstay safeâ Dr VanWingen in Michigan posted this video a few days ago. Michigan is having a very serious virus bloom. He emphasizes techniques to keep from contaminating things in your house when bringing in necessities from outside or shopping. If youâre feeling un-threatened and are already practicing up to date safety measures you probably donât need to watch this. If you are trying to minimize your risks I found this presentation useful, especially if you are watching out for the loved ones around you. I especially like when the doctor said to imagine that the Covid-19 virus is like glitter you need to scrub off items youâre bringing in from outside.
Thanks for sharing
New - very clear and useful information coming from Johns Hopkins Hospital:
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON THE VIRUS FROM JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITALâŚ
The following is from Irene Ken physician, whose daughter is an Asst. Prof in infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University, quite informative.
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The virus is not a living organism, but a protein molecule (DNA) covered by a protective layer of lipid (fat), which, when absorbed by the cells of the ocular, nasal or buccal mucosa, changes their genetic code (mutation) and converts them into aggressor and multiplier cells.
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Since the virus is not a living organism but a protein molecule, it is not killed, but decays on its own. The disintegration time depends on the temperature, humidity and type of material where it lies.
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Since the virus is not a living organism but a protein molecule, it is not killed, but decays on its own. The disintegration time depends on the temperature, humidity and type of material where it lies.
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The virus is very fragile; the only thing that protects it is a thin outer layer of fat. That is why any soap or detergent is the best remedy, because the foam CUTS the FAT (that is why you have to rub so much: for 20 seconds or more, to make a lot of foam). By dissolving the fat layer, the protein molecule disperses and breaks down on its own.
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HEAT melts fat; this is why it is so good to use water above 25 degrees Celsius for washing hands, clothes and everything. In addition, hot water makes more foam and that makes it even more useful.
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Alcohol or any mixture with alcohol over 65% DISSOLVES ANY FAT, especially the external lipid layer of the virus.
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Any mix with 1 part bleach and 5 parts water directly dissolves the protein, breaks it down from the inside.
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Oxygenated water helps long after soap, alcohol and chlorine, because peroxide dissolves the virus protein, but you have to use it pure and it hurts your skin.
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NO BACTERICIDE OR ANTIBIOTIC SERVES. The virus is not a living organism like bacteria; antibodies cannot kill what is not alive.
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NEVER shake used or unused clothing, sheets or cloth. While it is glued to a porous surface, it is very inert and disintegrates only:
- between 3 hours (fabric and porous),
- 4 hours (copper and wood)
- 24 hours (cardboard),
- 42 hours (metal) and
- 72 hours (plastic).
But if you shake it or use a feather duster, the virus molecules float in the air for up to 3 hours, and can lodge in your nose.
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The virus molecules remain very stable in external cold, or artificial as air conditioners in houses and cars. They also need moisture to stay stable, and especially darkness. Therefore, dehumidified, dry, warm and bright environments will degrade it faster.
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UV LIGHT on any object that may contain it breaks down the virus protein. For example, to disinfect and reuse a mask is perfect. Be careful, it also breaks down collagen (which is protein) in the skin.
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The virus CANNOT go through healthy skin.
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Vinegar is NOT useful because it does not break down the protective layer of fat.
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NO SPIRITS, NOR VODKA, serve. The strongest vodka is 40% alcohol, and you need 65%.
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LISTERINE IF IT SERVES! It is 65% alcohol.
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The more confined the space, the more concentration of the virus there can be. The more open or naturally ventilated, the less.
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You have to wash your hands before and after touching mucosa, food, locks, knobs, switches, remote control, cell phone, watches, computers, desks, TV, etc. And when using the bathroom.
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You have to HUMIDIFY HANDS DRY from so much washing them, because the molecules can hide in the micro cracks. The thicker the moisturizer, the better.
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Also keep your NAILS SHORT so that the virus does not hide there.
-JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL
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I donât mean to downplay the virus. But did yaâll take past influenza seasons this seriously? Sure, itâs not the flu, but the numbers arenât worthy of the sensationalism/alarmism Iâm seeing.
USA has had about 17000 hospitalizations so far. On the above chart this puts us under the â10â line thus far. sure, it will continue to go up, but worse than other years? I Wonder why I didnât hear more about 17-18, or 14-15 flu seasons. I pray this doesnât become an annual trend.
The flu is a serious and deadly killer. (The sickest Iâve ever been in my life was when I caught the flu when I was a kid.) That is why there is countless public service announcements made about it every year and always a huge push for vaccinations especially since it never clear just how bad a particular flu season will be.
However, If you use the current CDC numbers, the coronavirus is 30 times more lethal than the seasonal flu and is expected to infect 60% of the population prior to a vaccine being developed without good social distancing being followed.
The coronavirus is a zoonotic virus(the flu is a human virus) that nobody has immunity to. It hasnât adjusted to living in people yet; hence the high death rate. It is easier to catch than the flu or even the common cold. It deserves the respect it is now getting. Maybe at the end of the day, it wonât have been that big a deal but it will only be because containment efforts were effective.
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Perhaps worldwide 30 times worse. But here in the states itâs been much closer to seasonal flu territory. Itâs also never clear if the vaccination is going to be effective. Viruses are tricky, they deserve our respect and certainly taking precautions is in order. But at what cost? And will we do this every year now? Sounds terrible.
Here in Michigan; the virus mortality is at 2.8% currently with 1000 new cases just today. We must not wash our hands here or something?!! (Detroit has very tough demographics; perhaps worse in some ways than Italy. Still, low rates of testing for the less serious cases is skewing the numbers by at least 50% or more.)
Exactly. The mortality rate would certainly be less than 2.8% if we knew all the cases. We dont. You might have 10000 new cases but only 1000 of them were tested and were positive. We may never know the true mortality of cv19.
They will know. They will do random antibody tests to determine the number that actually got infected and look at changes in the average historical death rate among other things.(For instance, Italy review of historical data shows drastic undercounting of the dead as many are dying in their homes that are never tested.) They do have some more broad datasets already such as for Iceland and Princess cruise ship. I believe that about 50 percent dont show symptoms but test positive to give you an idea.
FYIâŚsimple chart on why masks work. They arenât perfect as the thousands of infected medical workers can attest to but better than nothing.
Note CDC will be recommending masks be worn in the near future:https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/cdc-considering-recommending-general-public-wear-face-coverings-in-public/2020/03/30/6a3e495c-7280-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html
As was noted in an earlier post, confusing case-fatality rate with mortality is not a valid predictive model. Such early prediction based on limited data collection lacks widespread testing of the population. Added to the confusion is the so-called âdeath rateâ that is properly a retrospective percentage of the population that was infected, and usually not available until some years after an outbreak is fully analyzed. As more and more data is collected, multiple problems requiring input with multiple variables will deliver a variety of more accurate solutions. The predictive models are changing daily with the increasingly more complexity, so stay tuned to reliable sources of information.
Note that Abbottâs rapid testing platform that is becoming widely available is an RT-PCR viral test. We were clearly behind on our available testing, but rapidly catching up. We have yet to have available the other half of the solution, a rapid antibody testing platform that is needed to separate the sick, from the recovered sick with antibodies that eliminate the virus, and those that have not yet caught the COVID-19 virus in the population. Such an antibody test is being developed through collaborative efforts around the world. Here is an excerpt from a very long article why the most common method of testing, RT-PCR tests, are not always reliable. Read the entire article if you would like to understand the full context:
COVID-19 testing
The RT-PCR tests are just one way to test for the virus â and it only detects it when people are still acutely infected, and the virus is still making all that RNA to make all the proteins it needs to make more of itself and infect more cells.
Once the virus is âconqueredâ by a personâs immune system, that viral RNA isnât there anymore; however, evidence of the proteins made from it is â the immune response that allowed the body to fight off the virus involved making little proteins called antibodies that recognize specific pieces of the viral proteins as âforeignâ and trigger an immune response.
After the initial infection, it takes a while for the body to develop antibodies against it â the process involves the viral proteins getting chopped up and their pieces placed âon display,â held by proteins jutting out from immune cells. Your body goes through a random âtrial and errorâ approach to making antibodies that recognize (bind to) those viral protein pieces and then make more of the matching antibodies. More here: Antibodies â production, types & uses in the lab â The Bumbling Biochemist
Some of these antibodies stick around after the infectionâs over to âkeep watchâ so that, if that same virus tries again, the immune system doesnât have to go through the trial and error phase of finding an appropriate antibody. So, tests that look for antibodies can see if someone previously had the virus, even after theyâve recovered, and this can be used to trace cases back to see the line of transmission even if the transmitters are no longer symptomatic and donât have the RNA that the RT-PCR tests could detect.
The antibody tests are quicker and theyâre typically done on blood samples, but a downside with them is that, since they come from the immune response finally gaining some ground on the virus, they canât detect the virus as early in an infection, while the RT-PCR way can.
Thereâs another fascinating story that Iâll post a link to for those who may be interested on how RT-PCR testing was even developed. Here is some excerpts from âthe storyâ with the link included and a brief explanation of how it works:
Key ingredient in coronavirus tests comes from Yellowstoneâs lakes
Today, those enzymes are a key component in polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, a method used widely in labs around the world to study small samples of genetic material by making millions of copies. This technique, which would have been impossible without the discovery of heat-resistant bacteria more than half a century ago, is now being used to boost the signal of viruses in most of the available tests for COVID-19.As the novel coronavirus sweeps around the world, testing has become the crux of trackingâand hopefully slowingâthe pandemicâs advance. While authorities have been slow in making COVID-19 tests widely available in the U.S., the PCR process that is the vital backbone of the test is relatively simple and quick, thanks to a cluster of bacteria thriving in the thermal pools of Yellowstone.
Since the discovery of DNAâs elegant double helix in 1953, scientists have grappled with the challenge of studying these tiny genetic molecules. To see and understand different types of DNA, scientists needed large scale samples.
For years, PCR testing was âsuper laborious, it took forever,â says Julie Huber, an oceanographer at Woods Hole. âBut now itâs so easy and routine.â
The COVID-19 test uses this same processâbut with a few additional steps. The genetic material of the novel coronavirus is RNA, rather than DNA, which is similar but encodes its genetic instructions with different building blocks in just a single strand. The RNA of the virus is converted to DNA first. The test also includes a fluorescent tag that highlights the copies of the virusâ genetic material in a nasal swab. The more copies that are made with PCR, the brighter the sample.
Key ingredient in coronavirus tests comes from Yellowstoneâs lakes
But what I really wanted to post is a major part of the âgame changerâ by Abbott labs. One should also note the system we had in place until very recently was tightly controlled centrally by the CDC, which is largely a data collection agency and policies regulated by the FDA. It is now decentralized into FDA certified commercial labs (private enterprise) and state health agencies, which are proving to be a much more efficient and logical solution for rapid large scale population testing:
ABBOTT LAUNCHES MOLECULAR POINT-OF-CARE TEST TO DETECT NOVEL CORONAVIRUS IN AS LITTLE AS FIVE MINUTES
The Abbott ID NOW⢠COVID-19 test brings rapid testing to the front lines
Test to run on Abbottâs point-of-care ID NOW platform - a portable instrument that can be deployed where testing is needed most
ID NOW has the largest molecular point-of-care installed base in the U.S. and is available in a wide range of healthcare settings
Abbott will be making ID NOW COVID-19 tests available next week and expects to ramp up manufacturing to deliver 50,000 tests per day
This is the companyâs second test to receive Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA for COVID-19 detection; combined, Abbott expects to produce about 5 million tests per month
Apologies again for a much too long post, but I have not had access to my home computer for some time! There is so much information available and things are going to scare the daylights out of much of the uniformed public, as well as those who are informed! Much of the âinformationâ is just opinion and unreliable. I urge all of you to stay well informed, take precautions, and stay safe.
One more if you care to watch an investigative youtube from an Australian 60 Minutes feature, it is very scary!:
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Who?? that decided that the World Health Organizationâs decision to name the disease caused by the virus, COVID-19. The name does not clearly designate its origin in China, allowing the Chinese regime to whitewash its bungled response to this outbreak.
**⌠Donât be afraid to call this virus for what it is, The CCP virus.
*** Letâs all remember ** Throughout history, the key events of a crisis are thought by those living through them in the moment to be indelibly seared into everyoneâs minds. In reality, though, it is often the case that even in the most cataclysmic of times, many people forget some of the most important facts.!!! Sure, historians who study this in the future will recount that it was the Chinese government that bears the lionâs share of culpability for the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic.
But there is no reason to assume that the preeminent view among these historian will translate automatically to the common knowledge â ânow or in the futureâ.
This is why it is so important, to reinforce this essential fact in the casual terminology we use to describe the disease: By calling it the âCCP Coronavirus,â people will never forget whose malevolent negligence it was that started the fire that eventually engulfed the entire world.
C.S.
You might find this interesting. Discovery of Patient Zero in Wuhan and Chinaâs sloppy attempts at covering it up. I Found The Source of the Coronavirus - YouTube
The bat virus research center 280 meters from the wet market in Wuhan is well documented.(Is there any possible way that this could be a coincidence?) Here is a mainstream story about the bat lady who worked there but who has since retired. I believe a researcher hired to replace her is Patient Zero. (She and others were splashed with urine/blood samples from the bats.) https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-chinas-bat-woman-hunted-down-viruses-from-sars-to-the-new-coronavirus1
Good point C.S. Before the virus was first given itâs official cover-up name it was referred to as the Wuhan virus. Itâs a result of a decision in 2015 by our not so wonderful WHO to be PC. The WHO wanted to discourage names that refer to geographic places in order to avoid stigmatizing a region or itâs people. âCCP Coronavirusâ is a much more appropriate name than COVID-19. Now try to get that put into a peer reviewed paper or scientific journal!
I liked the American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tysonâs ad into to your media clip. Very good video report!
Did anyone catch the following coming out of the general media, or am I so bored at home that Iâm the only one that still scans the ânewsâ and media? What passes as news and which is actually fact?
Despite previous reports that coronavirus had been traced to bats, most likely the kind that could be found in wet markets like the one in Wuhan, a new report from Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao of the South China University of Technology suggests that thereâs a more likely scenario â a leak from a lab.
The report detailed the tracing of COVID-19 to the intermediate horseshoe bat â a bat that they confirmed was not available at the Wuhan wet market and did not live locally. In fact, the report noted that native populations were no closer than 600 miles away from the first known cases, making a natural transmission from bat to human appear more unlikely.
The only place those particular bats existed locally was inside a research facility â which was just several hundred yards from the Wuhan wet market â and the paperâs ultimate conclusion was that the coronavirus pandemic had likely been the result of a leak from the lab: âThe killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan.â
The U.S. Intelligence Community reportedly presented President Donald Trump with a highly classified report last week that confirmed that communist China lied to the world about the number of cases and deaths itâs suffered from the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, which originated in China.
âChinaâs public reporting on cases and deaths is intentionally incomplete,â Bloomberg News reported, according to three U.S. officials that it spoke to. âTwo of the officials said the report concludes that Chinaâs numbers are fake.â
âThe reality is that we could have been better off if China had been more forthcoming,â Vice President Mike Pence told CNN in an interview on Wednesday. âWhat appears evident now is that long before the world learned in December that China was dealing with this, and maybe as much as a month earlier than that, that the outbreak was real in China.â
CNNâs Jake Tapper highlighted a report yesterday from Radio Free Asia that stated that the number of deaths that China reported is significantly lower than the truth. RFA reported:
Wuhan resident Chen Yaohui told RFA that city officials have been handing out 3,000 yuan in âfuneral allowancesâ to the families of the dead in exchange for their silence.
âThere have been a lot of funerals in the past few days, and the authorities are handing out 3,000 yuan in hush money to families who get their loved onesâ remains laid to rest ahead of Qing Ming,â he said, in a reference to the traditional grave tending festival on April 5.
Chen said nobody in the city believes the official death toll.
âThe official number of deaths was 2,500 people ⌠but before the epidemic began, the cityâs crematoriums typically cremated around 220 people a day,â he said.
âBut during the epidemic, they transferred cremation workers from around China to Wuhan keep cremate bodies around the clock,â he said.
Bloomberg Newsâ report comes after The Daily Mail reported last week that scientific advisers reportedly told British Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the communist China downplayed the true extent of the coronavirus outbreak in their country and that the real number could be â15 to 40 timesâ higher than what China has reported.
âMr Johnson has been warned by scientific advisers that Chinaâs officially declared statistics on the number of cases of coronavirus could be âdownplayed by a factor of 15 to 40 times,ââ The Daily Mail reported. âAnd [the British government] believes China is seeking to build its economic power during the pandemic with âpredatory offers of helpâ [to] countries around the world.ââ
A recent Washington Post analysis warned against viewing the numbers out of China as being truthful. The Washington Post reported:
An article in the journal Science estimates that 86 percent of Hubeiâs cases were undocumented by the time authorities extended the lockdown to Wuhan and other cities on Jan. 23.
It is also likely that officials reported lower numbers of deaths from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Especially once the central governmentâs propaganda mission to win the âpeopleâs warâ against the virus became clear, numbers shifted to achieve that vision. Such shifts would probably be subtle â not hundreds or thousands of hidden deaths, but instead excluding deaths that could be attributed to other types of pneumonia or heart failure, for instance.
China also has a history of lying about epidemics that originate within its borders.
On April 21, 2003, during the SARS outbreak, The New York Times reported that China admitted to under-reporting the total number of SARS cases:
In a rare public admission of failure, if not deception, the Chinese government disclosed today that cases of a dangerous new respiratory disease were many times higher than previously reported, and stripped two top officials of their power. [âŚ]
Admitting to the existence of more than 200 previously undisclosed SARS patients in military hospitals, the official, Deputy Health Minister Gao Qiang, said that as of Friday Beijing had 339 confirmed cases of SARS and an additional 402 suspected cases.
Ten days ago, Health Minister Zhang Wenkang said there were only 22 confirmed SARS cases in Beijing. Last Wednesday, the World Health Organization caused a stir here by estimating that there could be as many as 100 to 200 cases.
If anyone is looking for a good book to read while in lockdown.
It has to do with âEffect on marketsâ. Stealth War
How China Took Over While Americaâs Elite Slept
by Robert Spalding
Narrated by Ray Porter
When will this end? When will the economy restart? What might be lurking around the corner?
The virus prediction models that have been floating around lately have been modeled around the initial first wave this Spring and donât show what will happen next winter. What happens if you run them till they complete? These all show a super second wave to hit next Winter. The author of this article suggests that the several months of social distancing will actually cause the peak to be much worse next Winter as it would have been otherwise muted by seasonality effects if the peak had occurred over the Summer. The virus will not stop till everyone is infected or a vaccine is produced. See link below. The peak being experienced now is barely a blip compared to what is coming next Winter?! How long can people stay locked in their homes to prevent the second wave without the economy falling back to the stone age?https://medium.com/@wpegden/a-call-to-honesty-in-pandemic-modeling-5c156686a64b https://medium.com/@wpegden/a-call-to-honesty-in-pandemic-modeling-5c156686a64b