Coronavirus Updates

Sovereignty

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Did a little more checking on what MLB is doing. They have a test that uses saliva and send the samples from all across the country to a lab in Utah. The goal is to get a test result back the next day. Sometimes the test results get delayed by a day.

The idea proposed by Michael Mina (Harvard School of Public Health) is to get a daily test result in about 10 minutes so that theoretically parents would (!) test their kids before sending them to school. That is a lot different from what MLB is doing. The 24 hours before MLB test results come back plus skipping the previous day allows someone with a fulminating SARS-CoV-2 infection time (about 48 hours) to infect lots of other people in a team organization who don't wear masks, distance, wash hands.

TWIV (This Week in Virology) is trying to start a letter writing campaign to promote daily, fast-result testing . They collect letters people have sent to congress types (or whatever I guess). Here is what they have so far. I'm not too sure about some of these letters' effectiveness. Maybe people on here have experience with such letter writing campaigns and could offer feedback.
 

Sovereignty

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Since the studies on Vitamin K are still indicating there's some protective value, I've been forcing myself to sit outside for about 10-15 minutes every day. Can't hurt, might help.
Do you mean D?

ETA: Your body needs vitamin D in winter as well, so sunlight is not a reliable source year-around.
 

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Well that's...interesting.

Young kids can carry 100 times more coronavirus in their noses than adults, study finds
The general consensus on children and the novel coronavirus is that they neither play as large a role in spreading it as adults, nor do they contract the disease as often.

But new research says children younger than 5 years old can hoard up to 100 times more of the virus in their noses than older children and adults, suggesting kids could be a significant driver of viral spread.
 

Innula Zenovka

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Some good news at last, especially for the UK


More details here:


ETA:

But some experts were surprised by the government’s decision, saying the particular tests were not well-known. No data had been published concerning their evaluation. The government had made mistakes in buying tests that turned out to be sub-standard in the past, they said.

“Repeatedly through the pandemic the government has raced ahead purchasing tests on the basis of manufacturer’s claims, and have found later when independent studies are done that the tests do not have adequate performance for use in the NHS,” said Professor Jon Deeks from Birmingham University, part of a team who have been evaluating tests of this sort.
 
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Jolene Benoir

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Trump's national security advisor Robert O'Brien has coronavirus.

Oh, man, I've been leaning toward dark thoughts. The first time I thought upon reading this was the wish that Robert O'Brien would go plant a big kiss upon the lips of our fearless leader. Not just your garden variety kiss but a full throated french kiss.
 

Myradyl Muse

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I'm wondering if these symptoms or disorders are possibly secondary to long intensive care and intubation. Artificial lighting, time distortions, constant noise and machinery have been shown to dramatically alter our stress/coping levels. Such conditions impair restful sleep, affect healing processes, distort social supports, and can contribute to depression and ptsd responses. Understandably, fears about life and death when that severely ill wreak their own anguish.
 
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Aribeth Zelin

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I'm wondering if these symptoms or disorders are possibly secondary to long intensive care and intubation. Artificial lighting, time distortions, constant noise and machinery have been shown to dramatically alter our stress/coping levels. Such conditions impair restful sleep, affect healing processes, distort social supports, and can contribute to depression and ptsd responses. Understandably, fears about life and death when that severely ill wreak their own anguish.
That's possible - I'm pretty sure some of my existing psych issues got worse when I had all the 'fun' with my broken jaw, including issues with opiates.
 

PaperB

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Oh, man, I've been leaning toward dark thoughts. The first time I thought upon reading this was the wish that Robert O'Brien would go plant a big kiss upon the lips of our fearless leader. Not just your garden variety kiss but a full throated french kiss.
Fortunately oral to anal transmission doesn't seem to be a thing.. so... carry on?
 

Sovereignty

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Q/A on How to Fix COVID-19 Testing with Dr. Mina: Cheap, At Home, Rapid Antigen Tests

Michael Mina MD, PhD, Harvard School of Public Health.

Biggest obstacles to implementing these tests are regulatory. Responsibility currently falls to the FDA for regulating these public-health tools, but the FDA tries to apply standards of sensitivity not relevant to the public health problem: finding out who is transmissable.

Meanwhile manufacturers won't produce the tests because according to current FDA rules that would be illegal. Consequently, no one is willing to invest money in their sale and production, people as a rule never hear about them, and we sit around twiddling our thumbs fretting about how highly sensitive diagnostic tests cannot be produced[/administered] at the scale needed to address the public health problem.

Assuming that people have these tests and use them as Mina envisions, we would no longer need contact tracing.