COVID Thread

Here we go:

"We estimate that for every reported case there are 7 unreported," Ali Mokdad, professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, wrote in an email.​
Other experts think the wave could be as much as 10 times higher than what's being reported now.​
"We're looking at probably close to a million new cases a day," Dr. Peter Hotez said Monday on CNN. "This is a full-on BA.5 wave that we're experiencing this summer. It's actually looking worse in the Southern states, just like 2020, just like 2021," said Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.​
That puts us in the range of cases reported during the first Omicron wave, in January. Remember when it seemed like everyone everywhere got sick at the same time? That's the situation in the United States again.​

 
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We're sort of pissed because they won't let my wife get a second booster yet. They haven't approved 2nd boosters for people under 60 without underlying conditions. That's the only way I got mine is all the health baggage I carry.

It's ridiculous. They're going to wait until people start dying in droves and THEN leap into action. All of it because they don't want to fund it anymore.

We can shit 50 billion every month for Ukraine, but not 5.2 billion to fund covid anymore.
 

Scientists from Chiba University said they discovered the protein--called myosin light chain 9 (Myl9)--rose in volume in blood vessels among patients with more serious signs of the novel coronavirus. Myl9 is one of the components that make up blood platelets.

The research was carried out primarily by a team headed by Kiyoshi Hirahara, an immunology professor at the university’s graduate school.

“If a simple kit could be developed that could measure the concentration of Myl9, the severity of patients’ conditions could be predicted,” Hirahara said at an Aug. 1 news conference. “That would help determine which patients to hospitalize first.”
 
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Damn. That could be game changing.

But it begs the question: would it really make any difference in the ability to treat those people with more serious infections?

I would hazard-guess that interfering in the process as it gets started may be more beneficial in the long run.

I've often advocated for a total MRI for the whole population to establish baselines for cancer and other diseases. In my advocation those identified as serious would move directly into therapy. Those who's cancer/diseases were just starting to look like they were progressing could then be scheduled next for therapy as getting those before they spread is a major step in cancer control. Lastly those who were identified as a minor cancer/disease start can be scheduled for theraputic removal before the other two stages begin.
Anyone found clean would be retested in 7 -10 years depending on age. Anyone found with unknown items would be rescheduled for follow up and anyone suspect could be moved to 3 - 5 years list for MRI reimaging.

I know it sounds expensive but like software the cheapest fixes are when the code is being designed and written...once it's out in deployment fixing gets real expensive.
 
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The problem with that here is the "for profit" hospital model.

In fact, it's causing a catastrophe in Atlanta right now.


That hospital services most of the south side of Atlanta, which is of course predominantly black. What it does is make Grady Memorial in downtown Atlanta the ONLY level 1 hospital there is in the Atlanta area. By comparison, we have 3 in Gwinnett County.

That has the trickle down effect of making 911 essentially useless. They're already "stacking" ambulances in the ER parking lots because there isn't enough service, which pushes that load down hill to where the typical wait for an ambulance is around 45 minutes.

Once that hospital closes, the only alternative within 40 miles will be Grady. That will make ambulance response go into the hours, not minutes, in response time.

It's a complete disaster in the making, all because of profits.
 
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It’s not clear right now. It’s important to note that this research was done in mice—not humans—although studies on the antibody are ongoing.

“This is very early-stage proof-of-concept work to illustrate that broadly neutralizing antibodies can be generated using a mouse model,” says Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “Such work, if replicated and expanded, could form the basis of new monoclonal antibody products as well as a vaccine.”

Experts say that a vaccine that could take out all variants of COVID-19 would definitely be welcome. “We’d love to have a vaccine that is active against all circulating variants, including those yet to come,” says Thomas Russo, M.D., professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York. “It’s the holy grail of vaccines.”

Interesting. Have to keep an eye on this.
 
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