News COVID-19 pandemic

[Matias Saibene]

I don't know if this adds anything useful to this thread, but I learned from DW that a three-dimensional "scan" of the coronavirus was accomplished for the first time. It is a nano-tomography done at a very low temperature, which was colored to better see the parts of the infamous virus.

Source: https://nanographics.at/projects/coronavirus-3d/
DW news: https://www.dw.com/es/cient%C3%ADficos-logran-la-primera-fotograf%C3%ADa-tridimensional-del-coronavirus/a-56301270

 

[Urwumpe]

Here is a great German article about the dangers and fallacies in the pandemic, using Brazil and the town of Manaus as example:

Corona-Pandemie: Das Sterben in Manaus sollte der Welt eine Warnung sein

Das Gesundheitssystem in Manaus ist wegen Corona zusammengebrochen – was genau ist passiert?

www.spektrum.de

From a terribly biased statistic, scientists estimated that Manaus, after a really bad first wave, had reached herd immunity. 76% of the persons in the study had antibodies against COVID-19. Sadly, the study team offered this test as free COVID-19 antibody test, so mostly people came, who thought they had COVID-19 in the past or had been in danger of contracting it. Looks like the persons had been mostly right about their self-assessment.

Additionally, a new mutation seems to be immune against baseline COVID-19 antibodies and can reinfect people who should have been immune. It shares some traits with the mutations from UK and South Africa (suggesting that these mutations are evolutionary superior), but also another, that changes the structure of the spike protein so much, that antibodies can't fit to it anymore.

 

[N_Molson]

Right now, it seems that the virus adapts faster than we can develop and mass-produce vaccine candidates. This is not good at all, we're not out of the woods...

 

[Urwumpe]

Right now, it seems that the virus adapts faster than we can develop and mass-produce vaccine candidates. This is not good at all, we're not out of the woods...

Yes, thats sadly the price of stupidity. Because people did not react against the epidemic until the people are dying en masse, the virus did spread much faster, replicate much more often and had more chances to test mutations against the human immune system as if people had listened to the scientists.

It is no surprise, that all new virus variants had been first discovered in countries, where the epidemic is fully out of control already.

Germany is now planning to forbid entry of travellers from countries or regions with the new mutation. Nice try, but the virus is faster than the fax with the orders....

 

[Artlav]

Right now, it seems that the virus adapts faster than we can develop and mass-produce vaccine candidates. This is not good at all, we're not out of the woods...

Not really. Adapting the vaccine to a new variant is a week's job and does not require a year of testing.
So we really are only limited by manufacturing and logistics.

 

[jedidia]

So we really are only limited by manufacturing and logistics.

If life has tought me anything, then it's that there's no "only" to logistics...

 

[Urwumpe]

If life has tought me anything, then it's that there's no "only" to logistics...

"The amateurs discuss tactics: the professionals discuss logistics." - Napoleon.

 

[insanity]

I mean at this point, sars-cov-2 is endemic. It's a virus that has an animal reservoir so we're kind of stuck with it. I still think that vaccines and boosters are going to do a damn-good job at making the complications of covid-19 significantly less serious. If we train the body to recognize and prepare antibodies against a host of variants in the spike protein, then I think we're at least on our way to making the disease follow the seasonal patterns of the flu and requiring annual vaccinations to keep immunity in-tact but never really a silver bullet.

 

[mahdavi3d]

 

[dbeachy1]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1354768710586814465

 

[Arvil]

News item today . . . One health care facility here in the states said that in previous years they would see a hundred cases of flu in a week, this year, they saw only two. Seems the masking, distancing and all stuff we do for Covid is working well in other respects . . . but, I just got a cold so it doesn’t work for everything.

 

[Artlav]

Yeah. I usually get 2-3 colds a year. Been about a year since i last had a cold. Shit works.

 

[Urwumpe]

Another interesting aspect of the pandemic: For replacing the scientists who had been in the Antarctic station Neumeyer III, the German Lufthansa now does its own record distance flight, going from Hamburg to Port Stanley on the Falkland Islands nonstop, over 13000 km. In Port Stanley, the crew will directly transfer to the German icebreaker Polarstern.

The scientists are in quarantine for 2 weeks before and after the flight, a full terminal of the airport has been reserved exclusively for the scientists to prevent the virus from reaching the research station. On the Lufthansa side, 600 flight attendants volunteered for the special long distance flight, its considered a very prestigious event there.

Polarstern-Forscher fliegen mit ungewöhnlichem Langzeitflug Richtung Antarktis

Die Corona-Pandemie stellt vieles auf den Kopf. Das gilt auch für die gewohnten Anreisen für Antarktis-Expeditionen.

www.heise.de

 

[4throck]

making the disease follow the seasonal patterns of the flu

It's pure natural selection. The virus mutates randomly.
Eventually you will have one mutation tuned to the factors that maximize infection.
And it becomes dominant automatically.

 

[N_Molson]

It's pure natural selection. The virus mutates randomly.
Eventually you will have one mutation tuned to the factors that maximize infection.
And it becomes dominant automatically.

Yes keep in mind that those cells have a much shorter lifespan than we humans have, and there are many many many of them. So the evolution process is very fast.

Still no third lockdown in France, but frontiers out of the UE are now closed. The access to the biggest stores will be somewhat restricted (not like they can really enforce anything those days...).

 

[dbeachy1]

Good article on cnn.com about what you should and and shouldn't do after you get your COVID-19 vaccine:

I've had my Covid-19 vaccine -- now what can I safely do? Your questions answered​

 

[N_Molson]

In France we're still in a lockdown-not-lockdown kind of dance. What we currently have is a curfew at 6PM, and now rather drastic travel restrictions. Also the russian vaccine has been evaluated to 92% effective by The Lancet, and specialists pressure the governement (and the UE) in order to allow its use. Well I'm all for it, we're not in a situation where we can be picky...

 

[Sbb1413]

Sputnik V (or Gam-COVID-Vac to avoid confusion with a space mission) is currently not allowed to use in India. Only Covishield (produced in India by Seram Institute in behalf of Oxford and AstroZeneca) and Covaxin (produced by Bharat Biotech and Indian Council of Medical Research) are allowed in India so far. However, media speculated that the India govt. may allow Sputnik V for emergency use.

Also, I don't know whether Covaxin will be available to your countries, since there's a vaccine nationalism in India.

Edit: "Seram" is a typo of "Serum". I am sorry for not noticing this typo earlier.

 

[Urwumpe]

Sputnik V (or Gam-COVID-Vac to avoid confusion with a space mission) is currently not allowed to use in India. Only Covishield (produced in India by Seram Institute in behalf of Oxford and AstroZeneca) and Covaxin (produced by Bharat Biotech and Indian Council of Medical Research) are allowed in India so far. However, media speculated that the India govt. may allow Sputnik V for emergency use.

Also, I don't know whether Covaxin will be available to your countries, since there's a vaccine nationalism in India.

Sputnik V might get the permission to be used in the EU, there is now a peer-reviewed study of its effectiveness. Of course, there is still some mistrust on the Russian case numbers, but formally and methodically, all is fine for granting the permission.

No idea about Covaxin, it was not even attempted to buy doses of it by the EU. The latest news from India suggest, that the vaccine was rushed into production with only a very limited phase III testing, because only very few people in India volunteered for the study.

 

[mahdavi3d]