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.

 

[Retro]

So, it looks like covid could have come from a Wuhan lab after all. Have a read and see what you think. The Chinese government would definitely cover that up, if true.

Unfortunately, the article crucially doesn't say what that evidence is.

The US shared “gobsmacking” evidence with Britain at the height of the Covid pandemic suggesting a “high likelihood” that the virus had leaked from a Chinese lab, The Telegraph can reveal.

In January 2021, Five Eyes intelligence-sharing nations were convened to discuss the possibility of a lab leak as the US warned that China had covered up research on coronaviruses and military activity at a laboratory in Wuhan.

In a previously unreported phone call that month, Mike Pompeo, the former US secretary of state, presented evidence that supported the lab leak theory to Dominic Raab, then the Foreign Secretary, and representatives from Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Speaking to The Telegraph, two Trump administration officials accused Mr Raab and the UK Government of ignoring the lab leak theory because of resistance from government scientists who supported the explanation that the virus had jumped between animals and humans.

US shared ‘gobsmacking’ Covid lab leak file with UK

The US shared “gobsmacking” evidence with Britain at the height of the Covid pandemic suggesting a “high likelihood” that the virus had leaked from a Chinese lab, The Telegraph can reveal.

uk.news.yahoo.com

 

[Retro]

So, there was some truth to all those allegations of harm from covid vaccinations after all. However, this still isn't an argument for being anti-vax as the benefits outweigh the harms by several orders of magnitude and there would be hundreds of thousands, or perhaps even millions more dead people around the world without them.

After more than three billion doses, the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine is being withdrawn.

AstraZeneca said it was "incredibly proud" of the vaccine, but it had made a commercial decision.

It said the rise of new coronavirus variants meant demand had shifted to the newer updated vaccines.

Its vaccine was estimated to have saved millions of lives during the pandemic, but also caused rare, and sometimes fatal, blood clots.

In the race to lift the world out of pandemic lockdowns, the Covid vaccine was developed by scientists at the University of Oxford in record time. A process that normally takes 10 years was accelerated down to about 10 months.

AstraZeneca to withdraw Covid vaccine

The firm said the decision was taken because of a decline in demand for the vaccine.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Tiffany]

AstraZeneca has a good reason to discontinue their vaccine. Pfizer has well supported the Covid 19 vaccine and has remained the leader in distributing vaccines worldwide.


Aside from Covid-19 and all that it brought, there's another potential outbreak occurring in the US and that's the Avian Flu; H5N1-Bird flu.

Avian Influenza Current Situation Summary

Learn more about the latest avian influenza situation in the United States and globally.

www.cdc.gov

Long before Covid-19 was known, I would see scant news on a new virus in China. This was months before it hit the major headlines. This is why I'm watching H5N1. It's been infecting birds and wildlife for many years, but has now jumped to cattle. Recently, a man working on a dairy farm in Texas became ill with the H5N1. Since the virus has now mutated to humans there's more concern.

 

[Retro]

Long before Covid-19 was known, I would see scant news on a new virus in China. This was months before it hit the major headlines. This is why I'm watching H5N1. It's been infecting birds and wildlife for many years, but has now jumped to cattle. Recently, a man working on a dairy farm in Texas became ill with the H5N1. Since the virus has now mutated to humans there's more concern.

You're right to be concerned about it. Do you remember H1N1, swine fly, from 2009? Not sure if it hit America, but here there were mitigation measures in place like closed roads, having to wear wellington boots etc in certain places as it had started to spread. In the end, there was no pandemic, but I think it was a mild epidemic.

 

[Tiffany]

You're right to be concerned about it. Do you remember H1N1, swine fly, from 2009? Not sure if it hit America, but here there were mitigation measures in place like closed roads, having to wear wellington boots etc in certain places as it had started to spread. In the end, there was no pandemic, but I think it was a mild epidemic.

I remember H1N1 very well....that's probably the first time I made an effort to stock up on disposable masks, gloves and hand sanitizer. I should be the one known for making hand sanitizer cool....lol...anyway, yes, it did hit the states. We didn't have closed roads, wow and you had to wear boots too? Pretty serious mitigation.

 

[Retro]

Sorry, I think I wasn't very clear. Not everyone had to wear boots, only people walking around in contaminated areas.

So it hit America too, crikey.

 

[Tiffany]

Sorry, I think I wasn't very clear. Not everyone had to wear boots, only people walking around in contaminated areas.

So it hit America too, crikey.

Oh, no prob....thanks for clarifying, makes sense. My mom used to work for the EPA, so I know all about all of that boots and hard hat stuff.

Yes, it hit the US. I don't think many countries are spared anymore from any pandemics? People are so mobile flying to different countries all of the time, just doesn't seem possible to avoid it? I can recall when Ebola arrived in Dallas, Texas. That was a total, "Oh crikey" moment. We all were stunned that it arrived in Dallas.

 

[Retro]

Looks like a "super covid" vaccine could be on the way and can't come too soon.

This should get the rabid anti vaxxers foaming at the mouth with even more conspiracy theories.

Scientists have created a vaccine that has the potential to protect against a broad range of coronaviruses, including varieties that are not yet even known about.

The experimental shot, which has been tested in mice, marks a change in strategy towards “proactive vaccinology”, where vaccines are designed and readied for manufacture before a potentially pandemic virus emerges.

The vaccine is made by attaching harmless proteins from different coronaviruses to minuscule nanoparticles that are then injected to prime the body’s defences to fight the viruses should they ever invade.

Because the vaccine trains the immune system to target proteins that are shared across many different types of coronavirus, the protection it induces is extremely broad, making it effective against known and unknown viruses in the same family.

Scientists create vaccine with potential to protect against future coronaviruses

Researchers say experimental shot is step towards goal of creating vaccines before a pandemic has started

www.theguardian.com

 

[Retro]

This is a reminder that covid is still a thing, although not the killer infection that it once was. It's a good idea to keep a test kit or two at home if you suspect that you have it.

How are you feeling?

There has been a vibe in BBC HQ that friends, colleagues and family have been having a grottier year than usual – shaking off one cold only to rapidly catch another, rolling from infection to infection.

“The reality is we're lacking data and so we have got a lot of anecdote,” says Prof Jonathan Ball, from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

So what could be going on?

Are you feeling grotty all the time?

Why some people are saying they've been ill all year.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Tiffany]

Thanks for the reminder as I believe covid will always be with us now. I was just discussing long covid with a friend of mine the other day. Long covid is "a thing" now too, some people don't realize and affecting so many people, sad.

 

[live627]

Yep, it is here to stay, evolve, and reinfect, just like any other virus.

 

[Retro]

covid transfers to animals really easily and then back to us and be even more virulant. covid is still a thing, people.

The virus that causes COVID-19 is now ‘widespread’ in wildlife, particularly in areas with high levels of human activity.

The virus is spreading in animals including mice, rabbits and bats in one area of the US, researchers say - and there is no reason it is not spreading in other areas.

The animals showed off variants similar to those circulating in humans - but some animals showed off previously unseen viral mutations. Researchers warn that this could lead to changes that could potentially impact human beings and their immune response to the virus - or lead to a need for new vaccines.

COVID virus is ‘widespread’ in wildlife - here’s what that means

Some animals showed previously unseen viral mutations, which researchers warn could lead to changes that could impact humans.

uk.yahoo.com

 

[Tiffany]

It's a tragedy that Covid has infected so many animals. I have a wildlife camera and since this past March, the animals that I pick up on my camera are less than half of what I used to record last year. The coyote's are very thin, it's months before I see any rabbits and as far as all of the other creatures I used to see like skunks and opossums, I haven't recorded any of those for at least eight months. Birds, however, are bountiful. I've not seen any regress as they seem to thrive well. There has been a huge drop in animals and I've wondered what has happened to them? Our neighborhood has always been a refuge in our part of our city for these animals, along with the creek that they rely on and travel back and forth to the lake. Could it be that Covid has struck them this year?

 

[Retro]

I'm sad to hear that, Tiffs. Seems everywhere one goes, animals are suffering and dying out. While I don't know the reason for it round your way, I'd hazard that while covid may play a part in it, I think the biggest reason for this is likely to be climate change. With all this hot weather and also wild weather like hurricanes, it could really take out the local wildlife.