Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by glatt

Don’t lick the pizza box.

Don't lick the--Dammit!!

[Luce]

Originally Posted by glatt

Don’t lick the pizza box.

That's not living.

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

The number of living viruses begins plummeting almost immediately.

Unfortunately, those other viruses are not so contagious. And more people have immunity to many of them. Nobody has immunity to this virus that is also so contagious.

[xoxoxoBruce]

My question is do the folks that have recovered have immunity now?
I've heard yes and no.

Went to the drugstore, sign out front that they would bring it out to your car or to home if you felt sick.
Table right inside the door with instructions but I didn't get a chance to read them before the girl up front came over gave be a squirt of hand cleaner and ushered me back toward the pharmacy. She, like everyone, was wearing a mask, so I told her I was pretty deaf and read lips. She lifted her mask to apologize. I said gotcha. Fuck CVS, this pharmacy has personality.

[Luce]

Arizona still has very few cases, and people are generally acting right, so no lockdowns yet (though bars, restaurants, etc are closed and they are considering assigning times to people for grocery shopping and pharmacies.)

[Carruthers]

Perhaps it isn't the time for levity, but the title of this article made me smile.

We will have to get used to this.
Every afternoon the prime minister strides into a butterscotch room in Downing Street and stands at a lectern between two drooping flags to give the latest dolorous news to an uncertain nation.
How ironic that Boris, who instinctively loathes ‘doomsters and gloomsters’, is obliged to play the mortician’s bean--counter and recite the daily tallies of the infected and the dead.

He’s flanked by the best brains in the land. On the right, Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s top scientific adviser.
To the left, Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer. They wear the usual suit-and-tie uniform of reassuring officialdom. And both men stand a few inches taller than the Prime Minister.
Theatre directors call this the ‘stage picture’, meaning the visual contours that show the relative status of the characters in a scene.

Link. Five free articles are available.

[sexobon]

The Cellar: This is the dawning of the age of aquariums

Fearing coronavirus, Arizona man dies after taking a form of chloroquine used in aquariums

A Phoenix-area man is dead and his wife is under critical care after the two took chloroquine phosphate in an apparent attempt to self-medicate for the novel coronavirus, according to hospital system Banner Health.

It does not appear they took the pharmaceutical version of the drug, but rather "an additive commonly used at aquariums to clean fish tanks," Banner Health said in a statement. ...

[fargon]

Originally Posted by sexobon

The Cellar: This is the dawning of the age of aquariums

Some people are just smart enough to be dangerous.

[tw]

Touch a chicken to spread that chicken grease on your hands. How long does it take your soap to remove that grease? That is how long one must wash hands with that brand soap.

Many soaps are poor. Feel diluted. A test says which soaps will better remove that infectious protein. Many soaps from dispensers really do not clean very well.

Nobody is killing a virus. A virus really does not live. That protein must be damaged or it must be removed. Removing (with better and more abrasive soaps) does more.

[Undertoad]

Re-infection: best current information is looking like no, based on early rhesus monkey tests



although the virus is likely to mutate and come back somewhat differently if seasonal and let's just not think about that part of this right now

[sexobon]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

… although the virus is likely to mutate and come back somewhat differently if seasonal and let's just not think about that part of this right now

Let's hope this early assessment on that is right.

Scientists say the coronavirus is not mutating quickly and might respond to a single vaccine

Scientists studying the novel coronavirus' genetic code say it does not appear to be mutating quickly, suggesting any vaccine developed for it will likely remain effective in the long term.

Peter Thielen, a molecular geneticist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, told The Washington Post that the strains of the virus infecting people in the U.S. have only about four to 10 genetic variations between the strain that emerged in Wuhan, China.

"That's a relatively small number of mutations for having passed through a large number of people," he told the newspaper. "At this point the mutation rate of the virus would suggest that the vaccine developed for SARS-CoV-2 would be a single vaccine, rather than a new vaccine every year like the flu vaccine."

Thielen compared the eventual vaccine to those used for illnesses such as chickenpox or measles, which generally immunize patients long-term. ...

[be-bop]

I don’t know if anyone has seen the internet rumours about how the Coronavirus started but I’m sure the accounts of a fuck up in the Wuhan Institute of Virology seems to be a more believable story,( who according to articles I’ve read have been researching this virus since 2016’) than some Fucker eating a bowl of bat soup or something from a seafood market.


Any opinions?

[sexobon]

Et tu, Brute?

States say doctors are stockpiling trial coronavirus drugs — for themselves

Doctors are hoarding medications touted as possible coronavirus treatments by writing prescriptions for themselves and family members, according to pharmacy boards in states across the country.

The stockpiling has become so worrisome in Idaho, Kentucky, Ohio, Nevada, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Texas that the boards in those states have issued emergency restrictions or guidelines on how the drugs can be dispensed at pharmacies. More states are expected to follow suit.

This is a real issue, and it is not some product of a few isolated bad apples,” said Jay Campbell, executive director of the North Carolina Board of Pharmacy.

The medications being prescribed differ slightly from state to state, but include those lauded by President Trump at televised briefings as potential breakthrough treatments for the virus, which has killed more than 500 people in the United States and infected at least 43,000.

None of the drugs have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for that use. Some of them — including chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine — are commonly used to treat malaria, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and other conditions. ...

[DanaC]

@ Be-bop - I don;t think so. And it didn't enter the population via someone eating bat soup. Best current assessment based on gene studies is that it crossed species into bats who then rapidly cross infected each other ( bats immune systems don;t go into fatal meltdowns with the presence of new viruses) then crossed into another species, possibly pangolins who then infected humans,

We don't need a culprit for this - it was always going to happen sooner or later - it does happen periodically and always has (all the great plagues and pandemics are due to viruses jumping species) - what we have is a perfect storm of a disease that is highly contagious, spread through flu like mechanisms, and a global community jumping on planes and thronging city streets

[xoxoxoBruce]

I read a good case for the Pangolin link.
I read that China has put a ban on wet markets, but I doubt it because besides live animals and seafood they also sell veggies and other perishable food.

None of the drugs have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for that use. Some of them — including chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine — are commonly used to treat malaria, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and other conditions. ...

One guy figured out how to beat the system, he discovered there is hydroxychloroquine in his aquarium cleaner.
The virus won't bother him now because he's dead... and his wife is very close to it.