News COVID-19 pandemic

[n72.75]

I mean, I play violin, but I'd take a free guitar pedal.

 

[jedidia]

I'm really bad at reading electric diagrams, but even I understand that there's probably no convenient 2 Volt outlet in my bloodstream...
I mean, bloody hell, it didn't even change the labels. A footswitch in a microchip, seriously? This looks like it's a joke gone wrong, and the one that made it is probably horrified by the fact, given that he couldn't have made it much more obvious...

 

[Urwumpe]

I'm really bad at reading electric diagrams, but even I understand that there's probably no convenient 2 Volt outlet in my bloodstream...
I mean, bloody hell, it didn't even change the labels. A footswitch in a microchip, seriously? This looks like it's a joke gone wrong, and the one that made it is probably horrified by the fact, given that he couldn't have made it much more obvious...

If you can read such diagrams and see quite many potentiometers around it, its way more funny than just the footswitch...

And I mean...did somebody really care looking how such a NE5532 transistor looks like?

https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/ne5532a.pdf?ts=1609833728056

 

[Notebook]

And if you want to build your own...

The XL741 Discrete Op-Amp Kit - Elektor

 

[Urwumpe]

BTW, to get to the real thing.... I know of another death in our ~1500 soul village, an old man from the middle of the old village died of COVID-19 over the christmas days, I had last seen him alive watching out of his open window (as usual) a week before christmas.

 

[Sbb1413]

I can't be able to adapt with the outside environment due to the 9-month stay in my home due to COVID-19 lockdown.

I went outside my home like about 100 times per year till 2020. However, it is reduced to about 35 times in 2020.

 

[Urwumpe]

I can't be able to adapt with the outside environment due to the 9-month stay in my home due to COVID-19 lockdown.

I went outside my home like about 100 times per year till 2020. However, it is reduced to about 35 times in 2020.

The advantage of living outside the big cities and having a dog... always a reason to leave.... and if its bad weather, you have to go anyway.

We also have to do something for preventing cabin sickness for our kids. On sunday, we drove ~10 km further into the mountains to one of the highest places around, so they can play in the snow there. While we had essentially nothing (except on the cars), there you had 30 cm of snow, merely 200m higher than we live - and we had been far below the top of the mountain: There was a small local ski area, that was overcrowded with people, so staying lower made sure we had only few other people in sight. And luckily, this was also closed by police the next day, along with all big ski areas in Germany.

 

[mahdavi3d]

I'm really bad at reading electric diagrams, but even I understand that there's probably no convenient 2 Volt outlet in my bloodstream...
I mean, bloody hell, it didn't even change the labels. A footswitch in a microchip, seriously? This looks like it's a joke gone wrong, and the one that made it is probably horrified by the fact, given that he couldn't have made it much more obvious...

And what is the purpose of an audio level power transistor in output of a circuit which is "supposed to" work at 10s of Gigahertz? to be a dead short to the source?

==================

news-medical.net: Study shows durable specific humoral immunity against SARS-CoV-2 after mild or asymptomatic infection

 

[N_Molson]

4 CoVid deaths reported in the next village nursing home.

 

[Sbb1413]

COVID-19 is far from over, and I'm not sure which vaccine should I use to protect from the pesky virus around which I am orbiting in a spaceship for more than a year. In India, we have Covishield (by Oxford and AstroZeneca) and Covaxin (by Bharat Biotech and Indian Council of Medical Research). Covaxin is cheaper than Covishield, since the former is produced by Indians. I am questioning about its effectiveness and side effects, however.

Russian vaccine Sputnik V (or Gam-COVID-Vac if you don't want to confuse the vaccine with a real space mission) will be available to India as well, but I am questioning about its effectiveness and side effects as well.

 

[Urwumpe]

The EU has permitted the Biontech/Pfitzer vaccine and the vaccine by Moderna so far, if that helps you. AstraZeneca might get the EU permission in January.

Not sure also how the infrastructure in India is currently - the Biontech and Moderna vaccines requires cooling to -70°C for transport and storage, The "Oxford vaccine" by AstraZeneca requires only -20°C.

The BionTech vaccine ("Tozinameran") is currently the one with the highest reliability, reaching an average of 95% in tests, Moderna is just a few permille behind. AstraZeneca only is 70% reliable, but easier to use.

No such information about Sputnik V at all, while the Chinese producers at least produce normal looking test reports, though there are some doubts about the quality of their tests. The behavior how they tested the vaccine in Turkey or Brazil is pretty dubious and they only released results in a strangely selective way. Pretty much in a way like "9 out of 9 patients never caught COVID with our vaccine.", when initially starting with 100 test persons and little is known about the other persons or how long they had been monitored....

 

[dbeachy1]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1350163852948856835

 

[Urwumpe]

Here, rumors are talking about stricter lockdown measures, including banned long-distance travel and requiring FFP2 masks in public.

Despite the improving numbers in general, the situation is locally dire, especially the retirement homes are hit really bad now. Also, we discover the first appearances of new strains in Germany, any of which would likely mean that the current real execution of the social distancing here (as compared to what the laws say, that can't be enforced against all stupidity) will not be enough to prevent a disaster.

 

[4throck]

Here we are currently ranking as the country with more cases per population in the world.
But that doesn't seem to trouble politicians....
There's an election going on, and you have people waiting in cues for voting:

 

[Sbb1413]

Don't take Covishield if you are immuno-compromised or allergic with the ingredients of the vaccine.

 

[Urwumpe]

Looks like COVID-19 took Larry King from us, with 87 years.

Lets pray that Queen Elizabeth II (And the only slightly younger heir, too) does not get it, despite all attempts of the British government to kill all old people....

 

[N_Molson]

France is about to be locked down for the 3rd time, its a matter of days... Should already be the case, politics are waiting we see a surge in new daily cases to justify it...

 

[dbeachy1]

On the subject of how to wear a mask properly:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1353081590281285633

 

[jedidia]

How did they even get that thing on the dog??

 

[Urwumpe]

And remember: Contrary to DIY masks or surgery masks, FFP2 masks are single-use only. You can attempting to reuse them, but as German scientists and the US CDC have tested in experiments, its very complicated to achieve any significant reduction in the contamination: You can dry them for a day in a place with really dry air in your house (not the bath room or basement) and then place them into the oven at 80°C (no forced air circulation!) for some minutes. Or into a rice cooker at 80°C, if you place them on top of a dry towel to ensure even heat distribution.

But usually, you are supposed to only wear them once. Also, you should NEVER wear them longer than for 75 minutes and then take a 30 minute break - those masks limit your breathing much more than DIY masks. Unless you are used to breathing with gas masks or oxygen bottles, take the 75 minute rule really as the final red line.