Coronavirus thread

Started by JBS, March 12, 2020, 07:03:50 PM

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Todd

The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

MusicTurner

#2801
Quote from: MusicTurner on August 11, 2020, 01:58:31 AM
Some info on the announced, new Russian vaccine, called Sputnik V, apparently to be used for mass distribution within a couple of months.
The news should be taken with a grain of salt, or more, though.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/08/11/putin-announces-worlds-first-coronavirus-vaccine-a71112
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/russia-registers-virus-vaccine-putins-daughter-72300985?cid=social_twitter_abcn

The report about the vaccine says, according to the Russian newspaper Fontanka, that 'Sputnik V' can only be given to people between 18 and 60 years of age, not to pregnant or breast-feeding women, that 144 side-effects have been identified among 38 studied test persons, etc.
And as it has already been mentioned, the Phase 3 with mass testing, took place on a very limited level.

Experts here say that any initial vaccines may have to be substituted later on with new, updated or improved ones, but that they will very likely be available at least in 2021.

MusicTurner

#2802
Quote from: BasilValentine on August 13, 2020, 06:22:30 AM
Anecdotally, that is, from interviews with front line doctors in ICU wards in the U.S., treatment measures are considerably more effective now than at the onset of the plague. Notable is the use of two drugs, a corticosteroid, dexamethasone, and an antiviral, Remdesivir, effective at mitigating symptoms, shortening hospitalizations, and reducing the rate of fatality. It seems there have been other innovations that make a difference as well, including something as basic as patients being kept lying on their stomachs rather than on their backs and keeping non-hospitalized patients on supplemental oxygen.

Yes, I mentioned that myself earlier, but when you go down from say 30 to 1 patient in intensive care, some other factors must be at play.

Quote from: MusicTurner on May 23, 2020, 09:24:39 AM
Some generally positive news:

- The press and doctors here are very glad about it, calling it incredible news etc.: a series of studies of Remdesivir, though still not concluded, seem to suggest that the lives of no less than up to 80% - and not just 20% - of the patients can be saved, when Remdesivir is used at the right time during the treatment. The main study source is https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2007764?query=featured_home

(...)

- ECMO machines are now said to be able to cure people who have been confined to ventilation machines; the problem is however that ECMOs are very costly.

- The Norwegian professor Terje Andersen is quite certain, that old blood from SARS-patients is able to stop Corona from developing further
https://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/i/wPGJp5/ny-medisin-kan-sette-koronaviruset-sjakkmatt-jan-terje-andersen
(...)

Quote from: MusicTurner on June 21, 2020, 02:29:19 AM

Dextamethason is now being used in Danish hospitals, it is available, cheaper and apparently more effective than Remdesivir.

Quote from: MusicTurner on June 30, 2020, 09:39:55 PM
Hydrocortisone is also promising, cf. results from the UK, reducing fatalities with at least 1/3 among the very ill, and it will now be introduced at hospitals here.

(etc.)

MusicTurner

#2803
Quote from: MusicTurner on August 04, 2020, 06:00:31 AM
(...)

  Regarding countries, only Norway seems to have experienced a decidedly positive economic development during the virus however. Contrary to some predictions, Swedish economy apparently hasn't benefited a lot from the chosen strategy; BNP shrunk by 8.6 % in the second quarter of 2020, compared to the same quarter last year.

BNP (=GNP) shrunk with 7.4 % here in Denmark, compared to the same quarter in 2019, official calculations say today. Biggest drop since WW II years.

EDIT: However, it turns out that the drop was in the first period & there's been growth again, which is expected to continue rather quickly.

Que

#2804
Interesting numbers on excess deaths... though please note this data is from end of July/early August.



We can see that from the point of view of deaths, the US has now surpassed France but is still below several other European countries. And we can clearly see how badly the UK has done.

Keep in mind that now there are some effective treatments available, the relation between the infection rate and mortality rate has changed. This will benefit the US in a comparison with Europe, where the spread of the infection was ahead  and peaked without any effective treatments available.

Q

Que

#2805
And then there is this.... the development of the number of deaths amongst diagnosed patients.
Non diagnosed are not accounted for. Which probably results in an underestimation of numbers in countries in which people have limited access to sophisticated health care.

And then there are of course countries that tweak the numbers... Like Iran and Russia.

All the Americas are on the rise, Europe is holding up... for now.


71 dB

Latin America has 45 % of global deaths now. Coronavirus seems to be quite deadly in Catholic countries where several generations tend to live under the same roof as large families. Catholic way of life doesn't seem to go well with the social distancing requirement of Covid-19. Or is it just a coincidence? I even suspect some of the coronavirus deaths in Catholic countries are actually suicides classified as coronavirus deaths because suicide is a sin in Catholicism.
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Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
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Que

You can't be serious..... heat stroke, Poju?  8)

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

Quote from: 71 dB on August 15, 2020, 03:21:05 AM
Latin America has 45 % of global deaths now. Coronavirus seems to be quite deadly in Catholic countries where several generations tend to live under the same roof as large families. Catholic way of life doesn't seem to go well with the social distancing requirement of Covid-19. Or is it just a coincidence? I even suspect some of the coronavirus deaths in Catholic countries are actually suicides classified as coronavirus deaths because suicide is a sin in Catholicism.

The population size of a nation is not controlled, thereby influential, on the indicator. For intensity and tendency, death per capita would be more relevant indicator.

Que

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 15, 2020, 06:49:40 PM
The population size of a nation is not controlled, thereby influential, on the indicator. For intensity and tendency, death per capita would be more relevant indicator.

That's where my post with the three tables comes in. Though the size of a country still creates bias since a large country can "absorb" a large number of cases with a relatively lower average before the infection (which tends to start in more densely populated areas) spreads over time over its entire territory. Brazil and the US are examples.

The absolute numbers per region over time, gives you an idea over the geographical development of the spread of the infection. See my post with the graphic.

Q

Florestan

#2810
Quote from: 71 dB on August 15, 2020, 03:21:05 AM
Coronavirus seems to be quite deadly in Catholic countries

Such as USA, UK, Sweden and Iran.

On the other hand, Protestant countries such as Ireland, Austria, the German Catholic Lander and the Swiss Catholic cantons coped much better with the pandemic, proving once again the superiority of enlightened Protestantism over backward Catholicism.






Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

Quote from: Que on August 15, 2020, 11:01:17 PM
That's where my post with the three tables comes in. Though the size of a country still creates bias since a large country can "absorb" a large number of cases with a relatively lower average before the infection (which tends to start in more densely populated areas) spreads over time over its entire territory. Brazil and the US are examples.

The absolute numbers per region over time, gives you an idea over the geographical development of the spread of the infection. See my post with the graphic.

Q

Yes the absolute numbers can exhibit temporal change within, if not across, nations. However, per capita numerals do the same within, and across, nations. Per capita indicators can be used for comparing the velocity of increase/decrease across the nations.

drogulus


     Population immunity is slowing down the pandemic in parts of the US

Natural infection also turns out to be extremely efficient at reducing virus transmission—even more effective than an equal number of people getting a vaccine. The reason is that the virus has been finding and infecting precisely those people who—whether because of behavior, circumstances, or biology—are most likely to be part of transmission chains.

Perhaps they are college students on spring break, or hospital nurses, or people who touch their face all the time. Whatever the reason, once these individuals become infected and are removed from the equation through death or immunity, the effect on the pandemic is outsized. By contrast, vaccinating a sheltered older person might protect that individual but does relatively less to stop transmission.
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Todd

The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

71 dB

Quote from: 71 dB on August 10, 2020, 01:23:23 PM
Two more coronavirus deaths in Finland: Now the count is 333.

The last week saw one new corona death in Finland and the count is now 334.
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Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
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Karl Henning

Italy shutters nightclubs, mandates masks as coronavirus case numbers rise again.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

drogulus


    Scientists See Signs of Lasting Immunity to Covid-19, Even After Mild Infections

Although researchers cannot forecast how long these immune responses will last, many experts consider the data a welcome indication that the body's most studious cells are doing their job — and will have a good chance of fending off the coronavirus, faster and more fervently than before, if exposed to it again.

"This is exactly what you would hope for," said Marion Pepper, an immunologist at the University of Washington and an author on another of the new studies, which is currently under review at the journal Nature. "All the pieces are there to have a totally protective immune response."


     I read somewhere that even common cold virus exposure might be enough to confer immunity for some people, which would explain why so many people are asymptomatic and many more get mild cases.

     I found a somewhere, a different one:

     Can the common cold give you immunity to Covid-19?

"One of the characteristics of T-helper cells is that they are not only activated by a pathogen with an 'exact fit,' but also by pathogens with 'sufficient similarity,'" explained Claudia Giesecke-Thiel, head of the Flow Cytometry Facility at the Planck Institute and a lead author of the study.

As such, the researchers hypothesized in the study that the healthy participants "probably acquired [the T cells]" that reacted to SARS-CoV-2 after fighting an infection from a similar coronavirus, such as those that can cause the common cold. The researchers said those T cells' "memory" of the similar infection likely resulted in what's known as "cross-reactivity" to SARS-CoV-2, CNN reports.
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Karl Henning

Quote from: drogulus on August 17, 2020, 11:00:55 AM
    Scientists See Signs of Lasting Immunity to Covid-19, Even After Mild Infections

Although researchers cannot forecast how long these immune responses will last, many experts consider the data a welcome indication that the body's most studious cells are doing their job — and will have a good chance of fending off the coronavirus, faster and more fervently than before, if exposed to it again.

"This is exactly what you would hope for," said Marion Pepper, an immunologist at the University of Washington and an author on another of the new studies, which is currently under review at the journal Nature. "All the pieces are there to have a totally protective immune response."


     I read somewhere that even common cold virus exposure might be enough to confer immunity for some people, which would explain why so many people are asymptomatic and many more get mild cases.

     I found a somewhere, a different one:

     Can the common cold give you immunity to Covid-19?

"One of the characteristics of T-helper cells is that they are not only activated by a pathogen with an 'exact fit,' but also by pathogens with 'sufficient similarity,'" explained Claudia Giesecke-Thiel, head of the Flow Cytometry Facility at the Planck Institute and a lead author of the study.

As such, the researchers hypothesized in the study that the healthy participants "probably acquired [the T cells]" that reacted to SARS-CoV-2 after fighting an infection from a similar coronavirus, such as those that can cause the common cold. The researchers said those T cells' "memory" of the similar infection likely resulted in what's known as "cross-reactivity" to SARS-CoV-2, CNN reports.


Tentative good news.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

71 dB

Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot