sunshinin13
Banned
Wow, some powerful tweets right there?!?![emoji848]
MESO-Rx
Anabolic Steroids
Can touching a barbell in the gym get you sick with the coronavirus?
- Thread starter Michael Scally MD
- Start date
Many will have heard Russia’s announcement that they have approved a coronavirus vaccine. I’ve already had several people ask me what I think of it, so let me be clear: I think it’s a ridiculous publicity stunt. If it’s supposed to make Russia look like some sort of biotechnology powerhouse, then as far as I’m concerned it does the opposite. It makes them look desperate, like the nation-state equivalent of a bunch of penny-stock promoters. The new airliner design prototype just got off the ground – time to sell tickets and load it full of passengers, right?
Why so negative? Look at what’s being claimed – the first coronavirus vaccine to receive regulatory approval. But “regulatory approval” is not some international gold standard, and these sorts of decisions show you why. Let’s be honest: there is no way that you can responsibly “approve” a vaccine after it’s only been into human trials for what numerous reports say is less than two months. That’s about enough time to do the first steps, a Phase I trial that gives you some idea of immune response across more than one dose. It is simply not enough time to do a reasonable efficacy workup as well, and absolutely not enough time to get any sort of reading on safety. Here’s a good article going into those timelines in more depth.
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They’re not using Hydroxychloroquine?
How come? Guys on this forum did the exhaustive research and have concluded it works.
Russia must be in on the conspiracy...
How come? Guys on this forum did the exhaustive research and have concluded it works.
Russia must be in on the conspiracy...
The large number of people already infected with the coronavirus in the US has begun to act as a brake on the spread of the disease in hard-hit states.
Millions of US residents have been infected by the virus that causes covid-19, and at least 160,000 are dead. One effect is that the pool of susceptible individuals has been depleted in many areas,. After infection, it’s believed, people become immune (at least for months), so they don’t transmit the virus to others. This slows the pandemic down.
“I believe the substantial epidemics in Arizona, Florida and Texas will leave enough immunity to assist in keeping COVID-19 controlled,” Trevor Bedford, a pandemic analyst at the University of Washington, said on Friday, in a series of tweets. “However, this level of immunity is not compatible with a full return to societal behavior as existed before the pandemic.”
The exact extent to which acquired immunity is slowing the rate of transmission is unknown, but major questions like school reopening and air travel may eventually hinge on the answer.
What is known is that after rising at an alarming pace starting in May, new cases of covid-19 in Sun Belt states like Florida have started to fall. Some of that may be due to social distancing behavior, but rising rates of immunity are also a factor, according to Youyang Gu, a computer scientist whose Covid-19 Projections is among 34 pandemic models tracked by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Immunity may play a significant part in the regions that are declining,” says Gu. At least until the fall, which is how far his models look forward, he says, “I don’t think there is going to be another spike” of infections in southern states.
The ACC and SEC have not altered their plans to play a fall season despite decisions to postpone by the Big Ten and Pac-12 on Tuesday.
In separate statements, the ACC and SEC said they continue to make decisions based on the advice of their own medical advisory groups, along with local and state health guidelines. The Pac-12 and Big Ten cited information from their respective medical advisory groups in postponing fall sports.
The 28 players now in or close to the clinical race to get a Covid-19 vaccine over the finish line are angling for a piece of a multibillion-dollar market. And being first — or among the leaders — will play a big role in determining just how big a piece.
Endpoints News writer Nicole DeFeudis has posted a snapshot of all the companies, universities and hospital-based groups now racing through the clinic, ranking them according to their place in the pipeline as well as the latest remarks available on timelines. And we’ll keep this lineup updated right through the end of the year, as the checkered flags start to fall, possibly as early as October.
Staying in the lead won’t be easy in this kind of competition.
With a huge demand in place for any vaccine that qualifies, at least initially, it will likely take a few successes to cover this market. Companies like Merck, which purposefully chose a slow-and-steady approach, will now see just how well the leading players can perform here.
Their speed will ultimately determine when the pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands and roiled the world economy can be contained and reined in. Then we can find out how much vaccine will be needed to keep the virus at bay in years to come.
Meanwhile, new vaccine technologies promise, or threaten, to disrupt the entire global vaccine R&D business. The stakes don’t get any bigger than this. And here’s who’s in the lead today.
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On Tuesday, as Florida set a daily record for covid-19 deaths, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods prohibited his deputies from wearing masks at work. His order, which also applies to visitors to the sheriff’s office, carves out an exception for officers in some locations, including hospitals, and when dealing with people who are high-risk or suspected of having the novel coronavirus.
In an email to the sheriff’s department obtained by the Ocala Star-Banner, Woods disputed the idea that masks are a consensus approach to battling the pandemic.
“We can debate and argue all day of why and why not. The fact is, the amount of professionals that give the reason why we should, I can find the exact same amount of professionals that say why we shouldn’t,” Woods wrote in the email.
A majority of epidemiologists and other health experts say face masks and social distancing are key to slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has ravaged Florida. The state, which has recorded more than 542,000 cases and more than 8,600 deaths, added 217 more deaths on Tuesday; Marion County also set a record for daily deaths on Tuesday, with 13.
Ode to COVID ...
You don't tug on superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim
You don't tug on superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim
With Covid-19 cases rising or remaining at extremely high rates in most states, many places in the United States need to immediately reinstate lockdowns to have a chance of regaining control over the epidemic.
We don’t call for new lockdowns lightly and recognize the serious damage they can cause for so many people already under extreme social, economic, and psychological duress. However, the pain millions of Americans are already facing cannot be resolved unless we get the epidemic under control. There are also several ways we can use what we’ve learned in the past few months to implement lockdowns in less restrictive and smarter ways.
The Case for a New Round of Lockdowns
While we have been strong proponents of measures such as better masks for the general population and instituting prevention strategies in workplaces and other venues to get our lives back, we also understand when those measures are not enough, and many places have passed that threshold. The data speaks loudly: More than 35 U.S. states have positivity rates higher than 5%, the World Health Organization’s threshold for reopening, and many are over three times this level; three states (Florida, California, and Texas) reported over 8,000 new infections in a single day at least once within the past week. With the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimating that we may only be detecting 10% of all infections, these cases are only the tip of the iceberg.
While cases are plateauing and even trending downward in some areas, this level of circulating virus will not be reduced quickly enough for schools, businesses, and other key institutions to safely open. Once colder weather sets in, people will spend more time indoors, and the flu and other seasonal respiratory illnesses — which cause symptoms similar to Covid-19 — will also begin circulating and further strain already-insufficient testing capacity. In addition, more and more evidence show that Covid-19 may cause serious and lasting health effects — even in younger people who have only mild infection.
New Approaches to Lockdowns
Consequently, a new round of lockdowns should be implemented to prevent the current worrisome situation from becoming much worse. But we believe that they should be applied in a way that is tailored to local conditions.
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