Neverending Covid-19 Coronavirus

New variant. And this one has several people questioning if the vaccine will work on it.

Two days after the Los Angeles Public Health Department announced that the much-talked-about UK variant of Covid-19, known as B.1.1.7, had been identified in the region, the California Department of Public Health revealed that another lesser-known strain had been circulating in the county as well.

Known as L452R, the newly announced arrival was first identified in Denmark in March. It showed up in California as early as May.

Dr. Charles Chiu, a virologist and professor of laboratory medicine at UCSF who, in concert with state authorities, has been genetically sequencing test samples to identify new variants said early indications are the L452R might be less susceptible to the currently approved vaccines, but more investigation is needed.

deadline.com

Another New Covid-19 Variant Discovered In L.A. Might Be Vaccine Resistant, Researcher Says; Strain First Identified In Denmark

Known as L452R, the newly-announced strain was first identified in Denmark and now might account for up to 25% of the cases in California.
deadline.com deadline.com
 
nolalady said:
New variant. And this one has several people questioning if the vaccine will work on it.

Two days after the Los Angeles Public Health Department announced that the much-talked-about UK variant of Covid-19, known as B.1.1.7, had been identified in the region, the California Department of Public Health revealed that another lesser-known strain had been circulating in the county as well.

Known as L452R, the newly announced arrival was first identified in Denmark in March. It showed up in California as early as May.

Dr. Charles Chiu, a virologist and professor of laboratory medicine at UCSF who, in concert with state authorities, has been genetically sequencing test samples to identify new variants said early indications are the L452R might be less susceptible to the currently approved vaccines, but more investigation is needed.

deadline.com

Another New Covid-19 Variant Discovered In L.A. Might Be Vaccine Resistant, Researcher Says; Strain First Identified In Denmark

Known as L452R, the newly-announced strain was first identified in Denmark and now might account for up to 25% of the cases in California.
deadline.com deadline.com
Click to expand...

Some of the variants are worrisome, but I wouldn't put too much worry into this one (yet at least).

From the article I posted above:

In California, for example, officials held a press conference Sunday to discuss the L452R variant, which has grown from accounting for 3.8% of samples sequenced in the state in the first half of December to 25.2% of sequences heading into January. “We do not know whether it’s more infectious yet,” UCSF virologist Charles Chiu said, though he added, “it is concerning that it may potentially be more infectious.”

Outside experts were quick to say that more evidence is needed before such a claim can be verified. The variant was first seen in California in May, and hovered at low levels while the state was at low levels of virus overall. Then, it started to increase as the state was suffering from major outbreaks. This can create the illusion that the variant — because it’s so much more prevalent — was perhaps driving the cases. But without more data, it’s just as likely the variant didn’t cause the wave, but simply “went along for the ride,” Goldstein said.
 
@Turbo am I reading this right?
This man got multiple strains of the virus over a half a year or so. From the article:
Although most immunocompromised persons effectively clear SARS-CoV-2 infection, this case highlights the potential for persistent infection5 and accelerated viral evolution associated with an immunocompromised state.

So are they saying that the virus evolved inside of him to present with different strains?

1611235606906.png

Shown in Panel A is a maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree with patient sequences (red arrow) at four time points with high levels of SARS-CoV-2 viral loads (T0 denotes days 18 and 25; T1 days 75 and 81; T2 days 128 and 130; and T3 days 143, 146, and 152), along with representative sequences from the state (U.S.: MA), country (U.S.: all), Asia, Europe, and Other (Africa, South America, and Canada). The scale represents 0.0001 nucleotide substitutions per site. The inset shows nasopharyngeal and bronchoalveolar-lavage SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values; the horizontal dashed line represents the cutoff for positivity at 40, and vertical red dashed lines represent days of viral sequencing (days 18, 25, 75, 81, 128, 130, 143, 146, and 152). Shown in Panel B are the locations of deletions and synonymous and nonsynonymous mutations in the patient at T1, T2, and T3 as compared with T0. CP denotes cytoplasmic domain, E envelope, FP fusion peptide, HR1 heptad repeat 1, HR2 heptad repeat 2, N nucleocapsid, NTD N-terminal domain, ORF open reading frame, RBD receptor-binding domain, RdRp RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, S1 subunit 1, S2 subunit 2, and TM transmembrane domain.

So the question becomes if he got multiple treatments against Covid and was supposed to be quarantining (thus limiting his exposure to community spread Covid), how did he present with multiple strains? Could it be that his condition plus the treatment somehow caused the virus to mutate? Are they thinking that the virus is mutating in humans with chronic Covid? Or am I reading this wrong?
 
nolalady said:
@Turbo am I reading this right?
This man got multiple strains of the virus over a half a year or so. From the article:
Although most immunocompromised persons effectively clear SARS-CoV-2 infection, this case highlights the potential for persistent infection5 and accelerated viral evolution associated with an immunocompromised state.

So are they saying that the virus evolved inside of him to present with different strains?

View attachment 84689

Shown in Panel A is a maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree with patient sequences (red arrow) at four time points with high levels of SARS-CoV-2 viral loads (T0 denotes days 18 and 25; T1 days 75 and 81; T2 days 128 and 130; and T3 days 143, 146, and 152), along with representative sequences from the state (U.S.: MA), country (U.S.: all), Asia, Europe, and Other (Africa, South America, and Canada). The scale represents 0.0001 nucleotide substitutions per site. The inset shows nasopharyngeal and bronchoalveolar-lavage SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values; the horizontal dashed line represents the cutoff for positivity at 40, and vertical red dashed lines represent days of viral sequencing (days 18, 25, 75, 81, 128, 130, 143, 146, and 152). Shown in Panel B are the locations of deletions and synonymous and nonsynonymous mutations in the patient at T1, T2, and T3 as compared with T0. CP denotes cytoplasmic domain, E envelope, FP fusion peptide, HR1 heptad repeat 1, HR2 heptad repeat 2, N nucleocapsid, NTD N-terminal domain, ORF open reading frame, RBD receptor-binding domain, RdRp RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, S1 subunit 1, S2 subunit 2, and TM transmembrane domain.

So the question becomes if he got multiple treatments against Covid and was supposed to be quarantining (thus limiting his exposure to community spread Covid), how did he present with multiple strains? Could it be that his condition plus the treatment somehow caused the virus to mutate? Are they thinking that the virus is mutating in humans with chronic Covid? Or am I reading this wrong?
Click to expand...

So it looks like the virus kept multiplying in his body because he couldn't clear it, which over time is what resulted in so many different strains present at the same time. There may have been some evolution because of the pressures from the different treatments or just from general fitness of the mutated variants (the most "fit" variants would have a natural competitive advantage over the others). So no re-infection to introduce new variants from the outside from what I understand. Is that how you were reading this?

It's pretty wild: certain immunocompromised people chronic COVID - at least those in which the virus remains present a long time and is multiplying and not those that just have persistent post-infection symptoms - could be super incubators for new variants. I wonder how sick they are?

New variants can arise any time a virus is replicated, so even in a standard infection, this is how new variants occur. I guess if it's kept unchecked for very long periods then you get a bigger soup of them in a single person. It's hard to tell how problematic that would be, but simple math alone suggest that the more variants there are, the more chances a given variant exists to counter a given evolutionary pressure.
 
Turbo said:
So it looks like the virus kept multiplying in his body because he couldn't clear it, which over time is what resulted in so many different strains present at the same time. There may have been some evolution because of the pressures from the different treatments or just from general fitness of the mutated variants (the most "fit" variants would have a natural competitive advantage over the others). So no re-infection to introduce new variants from the outside from what I understand. Is that how you were reading this?

It's pretty wild: certain immunocompromised people chronic COVID - at least those in which the virus remains present a long time and is multiplying and not those that just have persistent post-infection symptoms - could be super incubators for new variants. I wonder how sick they are?

New variants can arise any time a virus is replicated, so even in a standard infection, this is how new variants occur. I guess if it's kept unchecked for very long periods then you get a bigger soup of them in a single person. It's hard to tell how problematic that would be, but simple math alone suggest that the more variants there are, the more chances a given variant exists to counter a given evolutionary pressure.
Click to expand...
Yes, this is exactly how I was reading this. I just needed confirmation.

So people with chronic persistent covid could be variant producers because the initial variant never got cleared out so it reacted to the pressure of the treatment by mutating--sort of like what happened when MRSA started becoming antibiotic resistant because we didn't clear out the infection entirely. This is really interesting.
 
You guys must be really happy with Fauci's conference at the WH today. Needless to say, this is how the pandemic should have been handled from the start.

www.cnn.com

Fauci talks 'liberating feeling' serving under Biden versus Trump

When Dr. Anthony Fauci returned to the White House briefing room on Thursday, he did so without the sour reality of a hostile president watching him from feet away in the Oval Office.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com
 
Watching a story on the Today show about wealthy nations hoarding the COVID vaccine.

A small group of very wealthy nations are hoarding more than 50% of the worlds vaccine doses while making up only 1/7th of the worlds population. In fact, their orders have claimed all vaccine doses being produced this year. They are calling this vaccine nationalism. This could result in extended the pandemic by years.

Canada has ordered enough doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine this year to vaccinate its population 6 times over. The United states 5 times over. Both Japan and Australia have ordered more doses than all of Latin America combined even though they make up 1% of the words COVID-19 cases compared to Latin America making up 20% of the worlds cases.

Health experts are sounding the alarm about this. Being in the font of the line does not help you as much as getting everyone across the finish line. Vaccine nationalism will result in the poorer nations not getting enough doses for a couple years prolonging the pandemic where it can continue to mutate and travel back and forth around the world. Another major concern is if the poorer nations complete to get doses for COVID-19 they will fall behind on getting doses for Measles and Polio. Two diseases we have nearly eliminated may make a resurgence.


There is some good news to this though. Because of this there is an organization working on getting COVID-19 vaccine doses to 20% of the worlds poorest countries. So far they have raised $2 Billion to purchase doses. They need $17 Billion. They are calling on countries like the United States to fund this initiative. Unfortunately, the United States and other wealthy nations are pushing back saying it is too expensive. We need to focus on ourselves. The organization, I can't remember its name says it may cost you Billions today, but it saves you from paying Trillions tomorrow.

Even though this organization has raised $2 Billion for doses to date, they do not have any doses yet. And with the wealthy nations hoarding the vaccine orders for all production this year they may not be able to get their doses and start vaccinating the poorer nations until next year.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
Watching a story on the Today show about wealthy nations hoarding the COVID vaccine.

A small group of very wealthy nations are hoarding more than 50% of the worlds vaccine doses while making up only 1/7th of the worlds population. In fact, their orders have claimed all vaccine doses being produced this year. They are calling this vaccine nationalism. This could result in extended the pandemic by years.

Canada has ordered enough doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine this year to vaccinate its population 6 times over. The United states 5 times over. Both Japan and Australia have ordered more doses than all of Latin America combined even though they make up 1% of the words COVID-19 cases compared to Latin America making up 20% of the worlds cases.

Health experts are sounding the alarm about this. Being in the font of the line does not help you as much as getting everyone across the finish line. Vaccine nationalism will result in the poorer nations not getting enough doses for a couple years prolonging the pandemic where it can continue to mutate and travel back and forth around the world. Another major concern is if the poorer nations complete to get doses for COVID-19 they will fall behind on getting doses for Measles and Polio. Two diseases we have nearly eliminated may make a resurgence.


There is some good news to this though. Because of this there is an organization working on getting COVID-19 vaccine doses to 20% of the worlds poorest countries. So far they have raised $2 Billion to purchase doses. They need $17 Billion. They are calling on countries like the United States to fund this initiative. Unfortunately, the United States and other wealthy nations are pushing back saying it is too expensive. We need to focus on ourselves. The organization, I can't remember its name says it may cost you Billions today, but it saves you from paying Trillions tomorrow.

Even though this organization has raised $2 Billion for doses to date, they do not have any doses yet. And with the wealthy nations hoarding the vaccine orders for all production this year they may not be able to get their doses and start vaccinating the poorer nations until next year.
Click to expand...
I've been reading about this and all the politicking in the WHO.
The WHO wants to force vaccine makers to release their patented formulas so that they can start producing this in many more factories. As it stands, we don't look to vaccinate the poorest countries in the world until late 2022 and into 2023. It's an absolute travesty. People will die and it's all because Pfizer, Moderna, Astrazenica and the lot, don't want to see their profits go when they could either a)price gouge poor countries or b)use vaccines for poor countries as a tax write off and bargaining chip.

The World Health Organization set up a “COVID-19 Technology Access Pool” to promote the sharing of patents and other knowledge. Oxford stepped forward and said it would offer nonexclusive, royalty-free licenses for its vaccine, meaning multiple parties could sell it at a low cost.

“I personally don’t believe that in a time of pandemic there should be exclusive licenses,” Adrian Hill, director of Oxford’s Jenner Institute, which is developing the vaccine, told The New York Times in April.

Instead, little has changed. No vaccine maker has offered open licenses, although NIH is sharing key technology it developed with multiple vaccine companies. Governments are signing lucrative deals with manufacturers to ensure vaccines for their own populations. WHO has made no announcements about contributions to its COVID-19 shared technology pool since it launched in May, patent experts said. WHO officials did not respond to a reporter’s queries.

khn.org

They Pledged to Donate Rights to Their COVID Vaccine, Then Sold Them to Pharma - KFF Health News

Advocates of cheap and widely available vaccines thought the pandemic might change business as usual. They were wrong.
khn.org khn.org

Reading the whole article will make you feel sick BTW.
Now, before anyone says, "But the R&D" will likely remember that most of the research that created the basis of this vaccine (which was most of the work) was funded with PUBLIC MONEY.

The vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, which are likely to be the first to win FDA approval, in particular rely heavily on two fundamental discoveries that emerged from federally funded research: the viral protein designed by Graham and his colleagues, and the concept of RNA modification, first developed by Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó at the University of Pennsylvania. In fact, Moderna’s founders in 2010 named the company after this concept: “Modified” + “RNA” = Moderna, according to co-founder Robert Langer.

“This is the people’s vaccine,” said corporate critic Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program. “Federal scientists helped invent it and taxpayers are funding its development. … It should belong to humanity.”
www.scientificamerican.com

For Billion-Dollar COVID Vaccines, Basic Government-Funded Science Laid the Groundwork

Much of the pioneering work on mRNA vaccines was done with government money, though drugmakers could walk away with big profits
www.scientificamerican.com www.scientificamerican.com

There is a simple answer to this. The WHO outlines it on their website and in the article I linked to--promote the sharing of patents and other knowledge and create nonexclusive, royalty free licenses for vaccines.

Sorry if I'm a bit feisty about this topic, but it's because I believe VERY STRONGLY that the vaccine should not be a reason for a small group of people to control and get rich off of. It is morally wrong for these drug makers to not share the patent. It is going to leave us with a slew of vaccines that could be enhanced through data sharing but aren't (thus less effective--maybe against certain variants), limited supply, and a lot of people dead in the third world. And that is wrong.
 
I was talking to someone at work about this, and they said the reason the wealthy countries ordered so many doses is because they didn't know which manufacture would have the availability so they secured their orders from all manufactures. Once they get their doses they will give the extras back where other countries can buy up the stock.

Do we expect that to be the case?
 
RenegadeMonster said:
I was talking to someone at work about this, and they said the reason the wealthy countries ordered so many doses is because they didn't know which manufacture would have the availability so they secured their orders from all manufactures. Once they get their doses they will give the extras back where other countries can buy up the stock.

Do we expect that to be the case?
Click to expand...
Generally I would agree but that also would mean starting vaccination in the poorer countries once the wealthier countries are through
 
So potentially big news on the treatment front out of Canada. The colchicine double-blind clinical trial was successful. This would be the first oral treatment for COVID. Just getting press releases so far. Waiting to see if a pre-print gets published and what the reaction of the scientific community is about this, but this seems very promising.

In 4,159 patients proven to be diagnosed with COVID-19 using a PCR test, colchicine resulted in a 25% decrease in hospitalizations, a 50% decrease in the use of ventilation and a decrease in deaths by 44%. “It’s a major breakthrough,” says Dr Late.

Colchicine works to prevent the “major inflammatory storm” that affects the lungs and can send patients to hospital.

Colchicine is an anti-inflammatory drug commonly used in cardiology. It was discovered in the 19th century and initially used against gout. Some of its advantages are its low cost and few side effects.

thecanadian.news

Number of Covid-19 cases in Mexico as of October 23, 2021 - The Canadian

CORONAVIRUS INFOGRAPHIC DATA Coronavirus in Mexico: The Ministry of Health presented its daily technical report on the progress of the pandemic in the country, in which it detailed the number of new Covid-19 infections and the number of deaths. Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx thecanadianThe...
thecanadian.news thecanadian.news
 
Turbo said:
So potentially big news on the treatment front out of Canada. The colchicine double-blind clinical trial was successful. This would be the first oral treatment for COVID. Just getting press releases so far. Waiting to see if a pre-print gets published and what the reaction of the scientific community is about this, but this seems very promising.

In 4,159 patients proven to be diagnosed with COVID-19 using a PCR test, colchicine resulted in a 25% decrease in hospitalizations, a 50% decrease in the use of ventilation and a decrease in deaths by 44%. “It’s a major breakthrough,” says Dr Late.

Colchicine works to prevent the “major inflammatory storm” that affects the lungs and can send patients to hospital.

Colchicine is an anti-inflammatory drug commonly used in cardiology. It was discovered in the 19th century and initially used against gout. Some of its advantages are its low cost and few side effects.

thecanadian.news

Number of Covid-19 cases in Mexico as of October 23, 2021 - The Canadian

CORONAVIRUS INFOGRAPHIC DATA Coronavirus in Mexico: The Ministry of Health presented its daily technical report on the progress of the pandemic in the country, in which it detailed the number of new Covid-19 infections and the number of deaths. Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx thecanadianThe...
thecanadian.news thecanadian.news
Click to expand...

When I had pericarditis (inflammation of the sac around my heart) a couple of years ago, this was the medication that helped me recover when they prescribed it to me after a second hospital stay.
 
Just saw a segment on Mask Wearing by the Weather Channel.

According to a new survey, only 83% of Americans agree that wearing masks are necessary. However, in a study conducted from March 2020 though January 2021 shows that less than 40% of Americans are actually wearing masks at the proper time or wearing them properly.

One of the bullet points was many Americans are only wearing them in places where they are required. Such as the grocery store, gym and what not. But not wearing them in social interactions outside of the home. This includes dinner parties, activities with friends or family members outside of your own household or going to places like bars in states that do not have a mask mandate.

More than half of Americans are also wearing the mask incorrectly. Not covering up their nose, wearing it around their chin or have a mask that is too loose fitting to be effective.



One thing I noticed right away from this segment is mandates. If not required and left to personal choice, most Americans will not comply.
 
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