Best Posts in Forum: COVID-19

The regulation disallowing certain age groups or those wearing slippers to go around the city or enter malls or supermarkets is a clear example of discrimination existing in this country. The prolonged isolation of seniors is akin to imprisonment. It is a violation of their constitutional rights. We can understand the concern. Of course, seniors know all that jazz. They could have bade farewell to this earth if they didn't know. I wonder what is going to happen to this world if seniors weren't around to make major decisions as almost all of the world leaders are in their senior years. This aspect of the guidelines is flawed and stupid. I hope all these discriminatory regulations will be corrected soon.

 

There seems to be mixed views with regards to quarantine.

But I am happy (at present) that I am on an island in the Philippines, rather than in Europe or almost anywhere else.

I am also happy with not being able to travel and am pleased that other people cannot travel (although many will disagree with me, this is essential for the benefit of society). Some write that quarantine/lockdown, whatever it is called, is bad for business and bad for food and medical supplies, but I do not imagine for one moment that the government intends to shut off supplies of food and medicines - however, I would insist no person bringing those items into a 'quarantined' island does so without wearing a face mask and is made to sterlilise hands at point of entry.

The case of the Councillor from Tayasan is a sad one, but that area could have been isolated in some form for the 14 days assumed to be necessary for contacts to show symptoms.

If travel is eliminated or reduced onto Negros and precautions are taken with those who essentially need to enter the island, plus any area with a suspected case is isolated, then we may get through this with minimum casualties.

I have been following this along with most of you since the early days and have read some amazing amounts of complacency - people arguing more for their personal freedom than for the good of the masses, poo-pooing the ideas of face masks (even some experts, who justify it on the grounds that wearing a face mask will encourage people to touch their face - as if not wearing one will stop what is a habit with everyone!), dismissing ideas of viral mutation when no-one has a clue at present and comparing this virus to influenza, when they are NOT the same.

I have specialist training and experience in this field and I understand the dangers - I just wonder why, when everything is still a puzzle, that people with no knowledge seem to dismiss things that just MIGHT help.

I will be wearing a face mask every time I leave my house as well as if anyone has to enter my house and I will go into self-isolation if the virus cases start to rise locally.

If in 3 months time the complacent tell me I had nothing to worry about and they were right all along to dismiss the potential of this outbreak of an unknown INCURABLE lethal pathogen then I will consider nominating them for a Nobel prize for being fully aware of the unknown. But I will not regret for one moment my decision to take this extremely seriously - not with panic but with a considered view.

Since the early 70's I have, along with others of course, known that one day a viral outbreak of this nature would occur - there have been false alarms, but now it is here. We would be unwise as individuals to fail to take it seriously enough to protect ourselves, our loved ones and the people around us where we live.

 

Might be age related with Sinovac as as a more mature member at 74 I had fatigue and a few headaches on day 2 after my second Sinovac... feel fine now. Think another third shot of Sinovac (or better still a higher quality vaccine) within 3 months might finally really kick those antibodies into business!

 

That cannot be correct as we have not yet met "every virus [that] ever will be".

And if the "tools" are insufficient to stop the host dying then they are definitely NOT "the required tools". The set of tools required by an immune system are to prevent infection of the host or to keep it at a low enough level to prevent the death of the host - this is what the host requires (also the virus).

The passive immunity we possess is simply not enough when we meet new pathogens and many of these new ones have crossed species and so are unknown to our immune systems. Also, any new pathogen will subvert the body's first lines of defence as a result of natural selection (those which can get into the cell will be the fittest and those which cannot will not be replicated). So the next battle between the host and pathogen is one of bringing in second lines of defence when the first have failed (if they succeed then there is no reproduction of the pathogen and no need for response from the second line of defence - such as natural antibody production). Again, survival of the fittest means that those pathogens knocked out by naturally produced antibodies will not go on to infect others and those which evade the antibodies will be the ones to pass to other hosts (meaning the next hosts have a harder task of dealing with them).

Also, there is an obvious connection between success in any battle of being forewarned and so forearmed - if the body had already met something akin to the pathogen then perhaps it can be ready to knock it out before is subverts the immune system in place. The best way to achieve this is to give the host a harmless equivalent of the pathogen - either by making it weak (attenuated), killing it (but retaining those features which elicit an immune response) or using parts of the pathogen (parts of the coat or cell wall, e.g. spike proteins; parts of the nucleic acid, e.g. mRNA). These will teach the host how to make the antibodies in a much faster way than relying solely on the body's own natural system.

How long this acquired immunity lasts depends on how strong it was in the first place and whether or not the pathogen mutates regularly - influenza virus has antigenic drift and so the outer coat changes, the body's immune system fails to recognise it sufficiently and so it causes an infection which can harm or destroy the host. Covid is acting in a similar way - mutating so that the body is less able to tackle the new variants.

I wrote the above from my own knowledge but will quote the following as it gives some figures (from https://www.livescience.com/why-lifelong-immunity.html)

"A 2007 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that it would take more than 200 years for even half of your antibodies to disappear after a measles or a mumps infection. The same study found similar results for Epstein-Barr virus, which causes mono [mononucleosis]. Still, antibody responses don't always last a lifetime. That same study found that it takes around 50 years to lose half of our chickenpox antibodies, and 11 years to lose half of our tetanus antibodies. That means that without a booster shot, you could theoretically become infected with one of these diseases as an adult. "

The evidence to date is overwhelming that Covid (a new virus without the history of mumps or measles to quote) is not sustaining a strong artificial immune response (some vaccinated individuals lose that immunity after just 3 months) and this is probably a mixture of a weak initial immunity and the tendency of Covid to mutate. In the same way that if a child or dog fails to understand an important instruction we know it is necessary to repeat it to reinforce it - the body seems to need to have the 'message' (the ability to produce effective antibodies against Covid) reinforced, but this will vary with individuals.

The evidence exists worldwide that two doses of vaccine (one dose for certain vaccines) are not sustaining a sufficient antibody level for long enough and so either we allow the virus to continue circulating the human population (evolving more dangerous variants) or we vaccinate as often as required. As I wrote recently, the existing (natural) immunity of the body is very clearly not sufficient - or else we would not have had vast increases in Covid infections pre-vaccines.

On this point, it is known that vaccination is reducing serious illness and death - that can be due only to the production of antibodies as the vaccines don't introduce antiviral chemicals or other antiviral products. The article https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8319587 states "In SARS-CoV-2 the initial rapid waning of antibodies is thought to be due to the loss of short-lived plasma cells, while the plateau in antibody levels occurs due to establishment of long-lived plasma cells. The underlying causes of waning were investigated in a recent paper by Kaneko et al., which found the absence of germinal centres in the thoracic lymph nodes of deceased SARS-CoV-2 patients. They proposed this lack of germinal centres was due to defective Bcl6+ follicular T-cells, which are unable to activate memory B-cells (MBCs). In turn this would impair the production of long-lasting and high-affinity antibodies, which could explain the rapid waning of antibodies in SARS-CoV-2. A similar mechanism for rapid waning of antibodies was proposed in SARS-CoV, where it was found that the virus depleted key lymphocytes involved in immune signalling and affected germinal centre responses. However, since both studies were done on deceased patients, these mechanisms only explain waning in the most severe cases."

Therefore, if we allow antibody levels to wane then we are back to February 2020 (or near) and all the procedures having been introduced since then will have been wasted as the body count climbs again. This may be seen by some as a serious illness mostly of the elderly and ill but there is no reason why the virus cannot eventually evolve to be a serious threat to the young - even those who regard the elderly and the ill as dispensable will probably accept that economies will crumble if we start to lose the young, the fit, the workers. That is why this virus has to be defeated (defeat being that it may remain circulating but at a low level) and all the vaccines necessary to maintain a sufficient level of antibody have to be given - even it is every 6 months. Antiviral drugs and monoclonal antibodies may be a great help in the future to supress this virus but currently vaccination is the only means on a large scale - with the alternative of going out very rarely and then wearing a face mask (for the benefit of self and others) and a faceshield for the additional benefit of the self. This is fine if you are a person who has no major economic role but if people want to be out and about - and working - then what is the alternative to retaining some level of immunity through vaccination?

 

My son in Austin Texas and my grandson there had Covid. Both healthy and fit. My son also had his prostate removed, unrelated. I am not sure if age is as big of a concern as believed. Old and weak will die of something, sooner or later. Keeping us locked up and alcohol free is not healthy or helpful.

 

Add one cap full of liquid dishwashing soap (Dove for example) per sack of cement. The water required to make the concrete will be reduced by almost 50%. The result is concrete that is almost twice as strong.
The dishwashing soap reduces the surface tension between the water molecules and allows it to spread more easily with the mix.

 

I am so sick of all this Covid19 , I could just . I am one of the old folks and the common cold could just as easily kill me as the North Vietnamese in 1966. But at 18 & 19 I was bullet proof. Now at 73 I have chronic coronary heart disease, diabetes and a host of other life threatening elements. On the out side I look quite well. When I get this Covid19 (notice I said WHEN)it will bring all my troubles to a quick END. Would I like to live longer, sure just as long the quality of life, is still in me. Do I fear death, HeII no, why you may ask. Because I have absolutely no control over when or where this old men will no longer get any OLDER. So covid19 can kiss my ey old .
My 5centavos.