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Best Posts in Thread: SERIOUS COVID

  1. Rye83

    Rye83 with pastrami Admin Secured Account Highly Rated Poster SC Connoisseur Veteran Army

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    Instead of all this nonsense about people discrediting the studies, guessing the motivations of others and going on about big pharma conspiracy theories why not just post the link and let the study speak for itself?
     
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  2. Notmyrealname

    Notmyrealname DI Forum Luminary Highly Rated Poster Showcase Reviewer

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    WARNING: This post contains science and Covid. Those not interested are advised to skip.

    From: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-54832563

    "Covid: Genes hold clues to why some people get severely ill"

    Briefer version:

    Why some people with coronavirus have no symptoms and others get extremely ill is one of the pandemic's biggest puzzles.

    A study in Nature of more than 2,200 intensive care patients has identified specific genes that may hold the answer. They make some people more susceptible to severe Covid-19 symptoms. The findings shed light on where the immune system goes wrong, which could help identify new treatments.

    These will continue to be needed even though vaccines are being developed, says Dr Kenneth Baillie, a consultant in medicine at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, who led the Genomicc project.

    "Vaccines should drastically decrease the numbers of covid cases, but it's likely doctors will still be treating the disease in intensive care for a number of years around the world, so there is an urgent need to find new treatments."

    'Angry' cells
    Scientists looked at the DNA of patients in more than 200 intensive care units in UK hospitals ........ to pinpoint any genetic differences, and a number were found - the first in a gene called TYK2. “It is part of the system that makes your immune cells more angry, and more inflammatory,” explained Dr Baillie. But if the gene is faulty, this immune response can go into overdrive, putting patients at risk of damaging lung inflammation.

    Too little interferon
    Genetic differences were also found in a gene called DPP9, which plays a role in inflammation, and in a gene called OAS, which helps to stop the virus from making copies of itself. Variations in a gene called IFNAR2 were also identified. IFNAR2 is linked to a potent anti-viral molecule called interferon, which helps to kick-start the immune system as soon as an infection is detected. It’s thought that producing too little interferon can give the virus an early advantage, allowing it to quickly replicate, leading to more severe disease.

    Interferon can be given as a treatment, but a World Health Organization clinical trial concluded that it did not help very sick patients. However, Prof Jean-Laurent Casanova said the timing was important: "I hope that if given in the first 2-4 days of infection, the interferon would work, because it essentially would provide the molecule that the [patient] does not produce.”


    But, the Genomicc study - and several others - has revealed a cluster of genes on chromosome 3 strongly linked to severe symptoms. However, the biology underpinning this is not yet understood.
     
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  3. Rye83

    Rye83 with pastrami Admin Secured Account Highly Rated Poster SC Connoisseur Veteran Army

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    I think that part of the problem isn't so much the growth, because there has been plenty of that, it is who is growing. Small businesses are going under and large corporations, many paying little too no taxes, are taking over. The more these massive corporations grow the faster people become slaves to these corporations.

    Another issue is all the debt governments are accumulating. Somebody has to pay for that.
     
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  4. Notmyrealname

    Notmyrealname DI Forum Luminary Highly Rated Poster Showcase Reviewer

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    The article writes of "a key mutation" when referring to both the UK new variant and the South African new variant - from what I have read recently, they are different mutations (it is said the SA one might be more dangerous). The N501Y mutation is the UK mutation - the SA one is 501.V2.

    These mutations in the genetic code appear to code for the spike protein, thus allowing easier attachment of the protein coat to the host cell membrane and so more likely the virus RNA will enter the host cell. It may also mean the variant virions evade the body's immune system more easily as they are less recognised. This means more people who inhale the virus would be infected, so more people then become spreaders. It is easy to see how this will raise the number of cases very rapidly.

    Another possibility to consider for the future is if the vaccines help virus mutation - those virions which are susceptible to the vaccine will perish and those which are not will survive and multiply (survival of the fittest). Thus the viral population becomes a resistant one! A lot depends here on how quickly enough people are vaccinated and so become firewalls to uncontrolled spread of any variants (IF their acquired immunity can actually neutralise that variant!). This is speculation - but the countries who can vaccinate only small numbers at a time may be more susceptible.
     
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  5. Toto

    Toto DI Senior Member

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    Old death count and different from my memory :smile: :
    [​IMG]
     
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  6. Jens K

    Jens K DI Senior Member

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    Just because there’s no or just little growth for a year or two doesn’t mean the end of the world.

    Actually, it’s giving the planet a break in quite few ways, and might even have positive effects in the long run (for example, less useless commuting to the office, more work from home, because hey, it works)
     
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  7. Always a Poppy

    Always a Poppy DI Senior Member Restricted Account

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    Rye's view on isolation of some parts of society has some merit in protecting the most vulnerable. Whether practical or not is another matter.

    However, where do you draw that line? On Rye's logic, kids should be the first to be let out the house as they have the strongest resistance. Then younger adults and so on until you reach your arbitrary cut-off point.

    The other consideration though is that the younger the group, the more gung ho they normally are. You see this in town every day - kids not wearing any mask; in the barangays - kids riding around on motorbikes 3/4 on board with no masks.

    It seems to me that Rye is probably an exception to the rule in terms of 'younger' people not following rules (no idea of his age, but likely not that young, or that old). Similarly, the tendency for 'old geezers' to gather at WhyNot, playing cards etc is not reflective of the age group generally, just a few westerners here that Rye has a seemingly low view of.

    The issue of care homes is clearly not relevant here, but I can tell you that despite isolating the residents of care homes as far as possible, the virus is still spreading via carers to the wider community. I can confirm this from first-hand accounts in the UK.

    My personal summation is that the Philippines has probably got it about right in terms of age groups, but that lack of enforcement (as always) lets it down, as does this perpetual view that some well-connected groups in society are immune from viral contraction and spreading. Other societies will have/need different rules; whatever is appropriate.
     
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  8. Notmyrealname

    Notmyrealname DI Forum Luminary Highly Rated Poster Showcase Reviewer

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    I agree - there are many studies on many drugs and other treatments for Covid-19. Some are rubbish and some may prove to be useful - this is no different from the way many useful drugs are discovered, by a process of testing some likely candidates and some unlikely ones and getting a few surprises.

    I have not seen anyone anywhere on this Forum rubbish ********** - like most drugs it has some good effects and some unpleasant ones.

    It would be up to an individual to try to persuade a doctor to administer a drug the patient thinks will help him (I have Baricitinib on the radar) and 'the proof will be (in part) in the pudding'. It makes you your own guinea pig but may be a risk worth taking.

    Better to think that way than to write a diatribe on what others will think, inaccurately-based on absence of truth and absence of information. But then, despots usually kill off those with knowledge as it seems to frighten them.
     
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  9. Edward K

    Edward K DI Senior Member Veteran Navy

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    Virtually everything in life depends on genetics in some way. For instance, the SUSCEPTIBLITY to cancer is genetic, if you don't smoke or abuse your body, you can last longer. Both my smoking parents died in their early 50's, i'm still here at 77. Susceptiblity and reaction seriousness to COVID is genetic, whether you get it or not and how serious depends partially on that, plus mask, crowds, surges, etc.
     
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  10. Toto

    Toto DI Senior Member

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    NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine appeared to work against a key mutation in the highly transmissible new variants of the coronavirus discovered in the UK and South Africa, according to a laboratory study conducted by the U.S. drugmaker.
    The not-yet peer reviewed study by Pfizer and scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch indicated the vaccine was effective in neutralizing virus with the so-called N501Y mutation of the spike protein.
    The mutation could be responsible for greater transmissibility and there had been concern it could also make the virus escape antibody neutralization elicited by the vaccine, said Phil Dormitzer, one of Pfizer’s top viral vaccine scientists.
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-new-coronavirus-variants-study-idUSKBN29D0DX
     
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