The COVID-19 thread

[Retro]

Also, this is flu season; covid did not eradicate it but its now just another flu strain that's permanently with us. I predicted in June 2020 that this would likely happen (not online).

Alas, yes, covid is now just one of the many coronaviruses vying to hurt us. What especially gets me is the damned legacy that it tends to leave with long covid. Other viruses are beaten and one is normally back to full health fairly quickly, but not this one.

 

[Tiffany]

Alas, yes, covid is now just one of the many coronaviruses vying to hurt us. What especially gets me is the damned legacy that it tends to leave with long covid. Other viruses are beaten and one is normally back to full health fairly quickly, but not this one.

Like long covid there are also several "latent" viruses that once you've been exposed, will last a lifetime, such as Epstein Barr (Mono) and CMV (which affects the elderly). I have friends with long covid now.

https://www.summahealth.org/flourish/entries/2023/05/5-viruses-that-can-cause-complications-later

 

[Retro]

Take this with a pinch of salt, the proverbial kind, not literal.

Being vegan could lower your risk of catching Covid, a study has suggested.

A plant-based diet reduces the chance of infection by more than a third, the research found, with scientists believing chemicals in plants could boost an individual’s immune system.

Researchers from the University of Sao Paulo studied more than 700 people with a variety of diets in the summer of 2022.

More than a third had vegetarian diets. A total of 191 were true vegetarians or vegans, while 87 were flexitarians that ate meat three times or fewer a week.

Some 47 per cent of participants went on to develop Covid, but the proportion rose to 52 per cent for meat-eaters.

However, it fell to just 40 per cent for vegetarians. Omnivores were also more likely to have a severe infection, researchers found.

Going vegan ‘could lower your risk of catching Covid’

Being vegan could lower your risk of catching Covid, a study has suggested.

uk.style.yahoo.com

 

[Tiffany]

Take this with a pinch of salt, the proverbial kind, not literal.

Going vegan ‘could lower your risk of catching Covid’

Being vegan could lower your risk of catching Covid, a study has suggested.

uk.style.yahoo.com

Hmmm.....trying to take this all in with as much as I know about a plant based diet. I can see where you might get more vitamins and minerals with a very specific vegan diet, but the vegan diet is lacking in the perfect amino acid profile that only meat can provide, which is why vegan's have to supplement with methionine.

I think anyone can improve their health with a good well balanced diet, but the vegan diet alone with out complete study, a mentor perhaps and the occasional lab work has a certain risk in my opinion. Any vegan I've ever known, including myself, and especially athletes have had to abandon the vegan diet, due to more frequent illnesses or lack of muscle strength etc. Perhaps in some way, the nature of eating more fruits in vegetables purposely is helpful enough to keep some people from getting too many colds or covid?

 

[Retro]

Turns out that covid can be killed off with UV light and now there are suggestions of using it in public places. Thing is, UV light is harmful to human vision, but this critical point wasn't addressed. The article is short, so I've quoted all of it here.

Scientists have discovered how to “deactivate” infectious coronavirus particles such as Covid-19 using ultraviolet (UV) light, which could help develop methods to disinfect public spaces.

Researchers from the University of Southampton investigated how UV laser light can target the genetic core of the virus as well as the proteinous spikes sticking out, both of which are necessary for infection.

A university spokesman said: “By using a specialised ultraviolet laser at two different wavelengths the scientists were able to determine how each viral component degraded under the bright light.

“They found the genomic material was highly sensitive to degradation and protein spikes lost their ability to bind to human cells.”

Professor Sumeet Mahajan, who led the study published in the journal ACS Photonics, said that the use of UV light to decontaminate could be useful where conventional liquid-based deactivation methods were not suitable.

He added that Sars-CoV-2, which caused Covid-19, had amongst the largest of genomes for RNA viruses, making it especially sensitive to genomic damage.

Prof Mahajan said: “Light deactivation of airborne viruses offers a versatile tool for disinfection of our public spaces and sensitive equipment that may otherwise prove difficult to decontaminate with conventional methods.

“Now we understand the differential sensitivity of molecular components in viruses to light deactivation this opens up the possibility of a finely tuned disinfection technology.”

Scientists discover how UV light degrades Covid-19 particles

UV laser light can target the genetic core of the virus as well as the proteinous spikes sticking out, experts found.

uk.style.yahoo.com

 

[Retro]

Here's a great example demonstrating that covid vaccines are safe.

Scientists have reported the case of a “hypervaccinated” man who has reportedly received 217 Covid-19 jabs.

The man from Germany had dozens of vaccines “for private reasons” over a period of 29 months, according to a study published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The 62-year-old, from Magdeburg, Germany, had “no signs” of ever being infected with the virus that causes Covid-19 and had not reported any vaccine-related side-effects, the researchers from University of Erlangen-Nuremberg said.

Scientists report on ‘hypervaccinated’ man who has had 217 Covid jabs – study

Academics in Germany heard about the 62-year-old in a newspaper report and asked if they could study his body’s response to the multiple vaccinations.

uk.news.yahoo.com

 

[live627]

Now we are pushing hypochondriacs? What is going on!?

 

[Retro]

No, the point is that even with a severe overdose of vaccine it still did no harm, illustrating that vaccines are safe. That's quite clear, really.

Obviously, I don't recommend that anyone actually overdose like this.

 

[Retro]

This is a what-if scenario, so don't freak out.

If another pandemic struck, would we have to lock down again - and how would it be different?

Sky News asks scientists and disaster experts whether we would ever be told to stay at home again, what lockdown measures would involve - and whether the public would comply.

'Next pandemic is around the corner,' expert warns - but would lockdown ever happen again?

Exactly four years ago today, Boris Johnson announced the UK's first COVID lockdown, ordering people to "stay at home". With a public inquiry under way into how the UK approached COVID-19, many have criticised when and how we went in and out of lockdowns. Sky News asks scientists and disaster...

uk.news.yahoo.com

 

[Tiffany]

Too soon to even consider another pandemic for me, though I think it's safe to say, we are all more prepared for it having been through Covid-19.

Nice to see a bit of honesty in your article on the reflection of what decisions were good or bad during the pandemic.

 

[Crims]

Too soon to even consider another pandemic for me, though I think it's safe to say, we are all more prepared for it having been through Covid-19.

Nice to see a bit of honesty in your article on the reflection of what decisions were good or bad during the pandemic.

Definitely. Covid or not I find it highly unlikely with the government here and it's positive any conversation exists as it was so censored beforehand. We could discuss positive angles this time around. Dark as it was at the time, the way that discussion was held was unacceptable.