SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

massachusetts revising covid death criteria and count:
39398221

 

TL;DR reduces the official count to date by about 15% in Massachusetts, relative to the previous method used there

 

might need to insert a macro function to keep up with the changing gas price !

 

might need to insert a macro function to keep up with the changing gas price !

 

yes, and it also shows that cause of death is nearly indeterminable, but some type of common standards need to be used.

 

The plural of ‘Standard’ is no standard at all. Goal posts on wheels.

Bob Wilson

 

agreed. it's a bit of a dilemma for medical scientists i think.

 

Famous quote from professor Tannenbaum (author of many electrical engineering texts), "The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from".

JeffD

 

i'm just glad they are going back and making some corrections as they learn more and study the data

 

Several cities now monitor their sewage wastewater to check for general Covid counts for the community. It can give an advanced indication of whether Covid counts are going up or down, before it is even noticed in the Covid test tracking counts and hospitalization.

In my area, they monitor several cities:
SARS-CoV-2 Sewage Monitoring Data - Emergency Operations Center - County of Santa Clara

All monitored towns show a big drop from the Omicron peak, though the town of Palo Alto is showing a recent small upward blip.

 

A reminder of how important vaccines are to society as well as a scary reminder of what childhood used to look like in America

https://www.voanews.com/a/measles-outbreak-kills-142-children-in-afghanistan-/6484362.html

"A week-long measles vaccination campaign is underway in Afghanistan where the World Health Organization (WHO) says the extremely contagious viral disease has killed 142 children and infected 18,000 since the start of the year."

Afghanistan: Measles poses deadly risk for malnourished children | Doctors Without Borders - USA

Many older people don't need reminders as they remember going to school with their peers who were suffering the scourges of polio.

Polio's Comeback in Ukraine as War Halts Vaccine Campaign | Time

 

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00471-2

COVID-19 researchers are rushing to understand why a relative of the main Omicron variant is displacing its sibling in countries around the world.

The variant, known as BA.2, has spread rapidly in countries including Denmark, the Philippines and South Africa in the past few weeks. It follows the initial spread of the BA.1 Omicron variant of the virus SARS-CoV-2, which was first identified in southern Africa in late November and quickly spread worldwide.

A laboratory study1 of BA.2 suggests that its rapid ascent is probably the result of it being more transmissible than BA.1. And other preliminary studies suggest that BA.2 can readily overcome immunity from vaccination and previous infection with earlier variants, although it is not much better than BA.1 at doing so.
. . .

. . .
Identifying the specific properties of BA.2 and the genetic mutations responsible for its growth advantage will be no simple matter, says Luban. In other fast-spreading variants, including Alpha and Delta, researchers have spotted mutations that seem to speed transmission, but these are unlikely to fully explain those variants’ behaviour.

And molecular mechanisms that seem important for other variants’ advantages — such as those that control the virus’s ability to bind tightly to human cells or to quickly fuse its membrane with those of infected cells — might be less crucial in distinguishing between BA.1 and BA.2, adds Luban. “Omicron really slapped a lot of people in the face who thought everything was clear,” he says. “It’s a puzzle.”​

Bob Wilson

 

a yearly covid shot will likely be hit or miss, like flu shots. hopefully the variants won't be too virulent

 

This is bad news:


China is shutting down whole cities leading to a lot of supply shortages.

Bob Wilson

 

i keep seeing varying reports on case numbers

 

I tend to use two sources that appear to use similar sources: Johns Hopkins and New York Times.

Bob Wilson

 

last couple of days, cases have been rising here, with the loosening of restrictions. i hope it's not a trend

 

aha, apparently "with the blessed religion of the rona" and "from the blessed rona " really are two different things.

shrug, I told Bob so

 

anybody seen Dr doom and gloom?

he still in hiding ?

lol this crap gets funnier every day. crazy conspiracy theorists ending up being right and making people mad is fun to watch.

 

Dr. Fauci says it won't be fwiw
.

 

there are no absolutes