Can touching a barbell in the gym get you sick with the coronavirus?

[Michael Scally MD]

In this issue of JAMA, Wang et al present evidence that universal masking of health care workers (HCWs) and patients can help reduce transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections. Association Between Universal Masking and SARS-CoV-2 Positivity Among Health Care Workers

In the largest health care system in Massachusetts with more than 75 000 employees, in tandem with routine symptom screening and diagnostic testing of symptomatic HCWs for SARS-CoV-2 infection, leadership mandated a policy of universal masking for all HCWs as well as for all patients.

The authors present data that prior to implementation of universal masking in late March 2020, new infections among HCWs with direct or indirect patient contact were increasing exponentially, from 0% to 21.3% (a mean increase of 1.16% per day).

However, after the universal masking policy was in place, the proportion of symptomatic HCWs with positive test results steadily declined, from 14.7% to 11.5% (a mean decrease of 0.49% per day).

Although not a randomized clinical trial, this study provides critically important data to emphasize that masking helps prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

Brooks JT, Butler JC, Redfield RR. Universal Masking to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Transmission—The Time Is Now. JAMA. Published online July 14, 2020. Time for Universal Masking and Prevention of Transmission of SARS-CoV-2

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

[OA] A Stochastic Agent-Based Model of The SARS-Cov-2 Epidemic

Many European countries have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by implementing nationwide protection measures and lockdowns. However, the epidemic could rebound when such measures are relaxed, possibly leading to a requirement for a second or more, repeated lockdowns.

Here, we present results of a stochastic agent-based microsimulation model of the COVID-19 epidemic in France. We examined the potential impact of post-lockdown measures, including physical distancing, mask-wearing and shielding individuals who are the most vulnerable to severe COVID-19 infection, on cumulative disease incidence and mortality, and on intensive care unit (ICU)-bed occupancy.

While lockdown is effective in containing the viral spread, once lifted, regardless of duration, it would be unlikely to prevent a rebound. Both physical distancing and mask-wearing, although effective in slowing the epidemic and in reducing mortality, would also be ineffective in ultimately preventing ICUs from becoming overwhelmed and a subsequent second lockdown.

However, these measures coupled with the shielding of vulnerable people would be associated with better outcomes, including lower mortality and maintaining an adequate ICU capacity to prevent a second lockdown. Benefits would nonetheless be markedly reduced if most people do not adhere to these measures, or if they are not maintained for a sufficiently long period.

Hoertel, N., Blachier, M., Blanco, C. et al. A stochastic agent-based model of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in France. Nat Med (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1001-6

 

[Michael Scally MD]

[OA] Jackson LA, Anderson EJ, Rouphael NG, et al. An mRNA Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 — Preliminary Report. New England Journal of Medicine 2020. https://www.nejm.org/doi/abs/10.1056/NEJMoa2022483

BACKGROUND - The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in late 2019 and spread globally, prompting an international effort to accelerate development of a vaccine. The candidate vaccine mRNA-1273 encodes the stabilized prefusion SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

METHODS - We conducted a phase 1, dose-escalation, open-label trial including 45 healthy adults, 18 to 55 years of age, who received two vaccinations, 28 days apart, with mRNA-1273 in a dose of 25 μg, 100 μg, or 250 μg. There were 15 participants in each dose group.

RESULTS - After the first vaccination, antibody responses were higher with higher dose (day 29 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay anti–S-2P antibody geometric mean titer [GMT], 40,227 in the 25-μg group, 109,209 in the 100-μg group, and 213,526 in the 250-μg group). After the second vaccination, the titers increased (day 57 GMT, 299,751, 782,719, and 1,192,154, respectively).

After the second vaccination, serum-neutralizing activity was detected by two methods in all participants evaluated, with values generally similar to those in the upper half of the distribution of a panel of control convalescent serum specimens.

Solicited adverse events that occurred in more than half the participants included fatigue, chills, headache, myalgia, and pain at the injection site. Systemic adverse events were more common after the second vaccination, particularly with the highest dose, and three participants (21%) in the 250-μg dose group reported one or more severe adverse events.

CONCLUSIONS - The mRNA-1273 vaccine induced anti–SARS-CoV-2 immune responses in all participants, and no trial-limiting safety concerns were identified. These findings support further development of this vaccine.

 

[Warhorse]

IT'S JUST A MASK. IT'S JUST A VACCINE

“In 4 months, the U.S. transformed into an obedient socialist country. Government dictated what events are acceptable to attend. Violent protests that instill fear are OK but church services, family funerals and patriotic celebrations are dangerous. And you bought it without a fight.

Standing in a graduation line is a "safety hazard". Small businesses were forced to close but crowds to support the corporate money machine at WalMart, Lowes and Home Depot are OK.

Come on. It's "just a mask" & "safety precautions".

How about a little hush money. Here's $2,400 that we stole out of your pay check in the first place. Enjoy. Buy something with it. From a big corporation.

Cash is dirty. We can't give change. There's a coin shortage. Use your card. In 4 months, they convinced you to use a traceable card for everything.

In less than 4 months, government closed public schools then "restructured" education under the guise of "public safety". In less than 4 months, our government demonstrated how easily people assimilate to "guidelines" that have NO scientific premise whatsoever when you are fearful.

In less than 4 months, our government successfully instilled fear in a majority of the population in America that allows them to control every aspect of your life. Including what you eat, where you go, who you see and your toilet paper.

And the most dangerous and terrifying part? People are not afraid of the government who removed their freedom. They're afraid of their neighbors, family and friends.

And they hate those who won't comply.

It's absolutely terrifying to me that so many people don't question "authority". They are willing to surrender their critical thinking skills and independence. They just... gave up without thinking. Without a fight.

Do you know what's coming next?
"It's just a vaccine. Come on. It's for the greater good".

Wait until you're told that you can't enter any store or business without proof of the Covid-19 vaccine. Wait until you can't go to public events or get on a plane without proof of receiving the vaccine.

To everyone that doesn't believe this is possible - DO YOU UNDERSTAND that government successfully dictated to people WHEN they were allowed to be outside, where they were allowed to go, and how their children would be educated in less than 4 months? And that a majority of the population followed blindly because they were told to do so.

You're kidding yourself if you think this behavior won't be repeated with a vaccine. Or whatever the next step is.

"I don't follow politics."
"Who cares about that stuff?"
"I don't like to think about it."

They got you. Without a thought. Without a fight. Just like France. Just like Russia. Just like China. Welcome, comrade.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

By John M. Barry. Mr. Barry is the author of “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.”

When you mix science and politics, you get politics. With the coronavirus, the United States has proved politics hasn’t worked. If we are to fully reopen both the economy and schools safely — which can be done — we have to return to science.

To understand just how bad things are in the United States and, more important, what can be done about it requires comparison. At this writing, Italy, once the poster child of coronavirus devastation and with a population twice that of Texas, has recently averaged about 200 new cases a day when Texas has had over 9,000. Germany, with a population four times that of Florida, has had fewer than 400 new cases a day. On Sunday, Florida reported over 15,300, the highest single-day total of any state.

The White House says the country has to learn to live with the virus. That’s one thing if new cases occurred at the rates in Italy or Germany, not to mention South Korea or Australia or Vietnam (which so far has zero deaths). It’s another thing when the United States has the highest growth rate of new cases in the world, ahead even of Brazil.

In the United States, public health experts were virtually unanimous that replicating European success required, first, maintaining the shutdown until we achieved a steep downward slope in cases; second, getting widespread compliance with public health advice; and third, creating a work force of at least 100,000 — some experts felt 300,000 were needed — to test, trace and isolate cases. Nationally we came nowhere near any of those goals, although some states did and are now reopening carefully and safely. Other states fell far short but reopened anyway. We now see the results.

...

Had we done it right the first time, we’d be operating at near 100 percent now, schools would be preparing for a nearly normal school year, football teams would be preparing to practice — and tens of thousands of Americans would not have died.

This is our second chance. We won’t get a third. If we don’t get the growth of this pandemic under control now, in a few months, when the weather turns cold and forces people to spend more time indoors, we could face a disaster that dwarfs the situation today.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Well, it’s finally here – eight weeks to the day after press-releasing some top line results, the full paper is out on the Moderna mRNA vaccine candidate’s Phase I trial. I’m very glad to see it – it’s going to be very important for the full data sets on all the vaccine candidates to be made public.

So how’s it look? As we found out back in May, we’re looking at three groups of 15 volunteers each, 18 to 55 years old, getting 25 µg, 100 µg, or 250 µg of mRBA-1273 in two doses 28 days apart. The vaccine itself is an RNA sequence for a trimer form of the S (Spike) protein of the coronavirus (similar to the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine in that way).

It comes with a transmembrane anchor and the S1-S2 cleavage site between the subunits still intact, stabilized in the “prefusion” conformation that it will present in the wild-type virus before it infects cells. That stabilization is through the substitution of two residues at the top of the S2 subunit with proline residues, the “S 2P” form, and the same trick has been used to stabilize other surface proteins of other viruses entirely. (For those who aren’t into protein engineering, proline is unique among amino acid residues in forcing a much more limited conformation in the protein chain, particularly when you have two of them back-to-back). It’s in a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulation.

...

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[DrinkFlintWater]

Double pandemic? Lol were all fucked Doc.

 

[Warhorse]

“Don’t worry about Grandma, dying alone in the nursing home. She has dementia and is scared, but she surely understands. It’s for the greater good.”
“Don’t worry about losing your business, the dream business that you opened with a second mortgage on your house... oh, and don’t worry about losing your house. It’s for the greater good.”
“Don’t worry about your child’s depression because she can’t figure out how to navigate the online classes and she misses her best friend. It’s all for the greater good.”
“Don’t worry about your Aunt who can’t get treatment for her cancer. Her sacrifice is saving lives...just not hers. It’s for the greater good.”
“Make sure you call CPS on your neighbor for letting her kids go outside to play! Don’t worry when the stranger takes her kids while they cry out for their momma. It’s all for the greater good.”
“Don’t worry about the looters and people burning down your town. They’re peaceful. It’s all for the greater good.”

*****************************************

HOW DID THEY CONVINCE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO:

[emoji3502]social distance
[emoji3502]mask up
[emoji3502]have no funerals
[emoji3502]forcibly homeschool while still taxing us for public education
[emoji3502]stay in our homes
[emoji3502]stop going to church
[emoji3502]forfeit incomes and personal businesses
[emoji3502]turn on our friends and neighbors with a phone number
[emoji3502]hug our grandparents through plastic
[emoji3502]thoroughly have us on the verge of civil war with each other.

ALL TO TURN AROUND AND TELL US THAT MOST OF IT IS NIXED AND COMPLETELY NEGATED, IF WE WANT TO:

[emoji3502]protest
[emoji3502]riot
[emoji3502]kill even more people
[emoji3502]loot businesses (many already on the brink of bankruptcy)
[emoji3502]deface national monuments
[emoji3502]destroy our cities
[emoji3502]defund & disband our police
[emoji3502]set everything on fire

...and all the while, we're allegedly at tremendous risk of an oh-so-deadly virus that can be diagnosed without official testing, or with so-called testing being counted & reported dishonestly, and reported on death certificates even if we die by falling off a cliff...

...and even though it's super "dangerous", the things that actually keep us healthy, like:

[emoji3502]health food stores
[emoji3502]farmers markets
[emoji3502]garden nurseries/seeds
[emoji3502]gyms
[emoji3502]health facilities
[emoji3502]chiropractic centers
[emoji3502]naturopathic health centers
[emoji3502]outdoor activities and parks

are taken away. But:

[emoji3502]cigarettes/alcohol
[emoji3502]fast food joints
[emoji3502]Walmarts

were deemed Essential??

THINK ABOUT IT. THINK HARD. IT'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]