Covid-19 miscellany

[scombrid]

This is interesting, taken out of context by a non expert in this (99.9% of people, of course including me) it looks bad, but probably not really

Audience: Individuals Performing COVID-19 Testing

Level: Laboratory Alert

After December 31, 2021, CDC will withdraw the request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, the assay first introduced in February 2020 for detection of SARS-CoV-2 only. CDC is providing this advance notice for clinical laboratories to have adequate time to select and implement one of the many FDA-authorized alternatives.

Visit the FDA website for a list of authorized COVID-19 diagnostic methods. For a summary of the performance of FDA-authorized molecular methods with an FDA reference panel, visit this page.

In preparation for this change, CDC recommends clinical laboratories and testing sites that have been using the CDC 2019-nCoV RT-PCR assay select and begin their transition to another FDA-authorized COVID-19 test. CDC encourages laboratories to consider adoption of a multiplexed method that can facilitate detection and differentiation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses. Such assays can facilitate continued testing for both influenza and SARS-CoV-2 and can save both time and resources as we head into influenza season. Laboratories and testing sites should validate and verify their selected assay within their facility before beginning clinical testing.


Online resources:

https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dls/locs/2021/07-21-2021-lab-alert-Changes_CDC_RT-PCR_SARS-CoV-2_Testing_1.html

They are replacing the RT-PCR that can only give a yes/no on Covid with a test(s) that can identify in one go Covid and more than one strain of flu. Cuts down the number of tests that have to be conducted. Notice they aren't phasing out the RT-PCR until the end of the year.

Yes, disinformation campaigns are deliberately taking the release out of context and claiming that PCR has been mis-diagnosing flu as Covid all along.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

CDC has a great link with so much data tracking cases, hospitalizations, % beds, % ICU beds, etc... for every county.

 

[repoman]

This is interesting, taken out of context by a non expert in this (99.9% of people, of course including me) it looks bad, but probably not really

Audience: Individuals Performing COVID-19 Testing

Level: Laboratory Alert

After December 31, 2021, CDC will withdraw the request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, the assay first introduced in February 2020 for detection of SARS-CoV-2 only. CDC is providing this advance notice for clinical laboratories to have adequate time to select and implement one of the many FDA-authorized alternatives.

Visit the FDA website for a list of authorized COVID-19 diagnostic methods. For a summary of the performance of FDA-authorized molecular methods with an FDA reference panel, visit this page.

In preparation for this change, CDC recommends clinical laboratories and testing sites that have been using the CDC 2019-nCoV RT-PCR assay select and begin their transition to another FDA-authorized COVID-19 test. CDC encourages laboratories to consider adoption of a multiplexed method that can facilitate detection and differentiation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses. Such assays can facilitate continued testing for both influenza and SARS-CoV-2 and can save both time and resources as we head into influenza season. Laboratories and testing sites should validate and verify their selected assay within their facility before beginning clinical testing.


Online resources:

https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dls/locs/2021/07-21-2021-lab-alert-Changes_CDC_RT-PCR_SARS-CoV-2_Testing_1.html

They are replacing the RT-PCR that can only give a yes/no on Covid with a test(s) that can identify in one go Covid and more than one strain of flu. Cuts down the number of tests that have to be conducted. Notice they aren't phasing out the RT-PCR until the end of the year.

Yes, disinformation campaigns are deliberately taking the release out of context and claiming that PCR has been mis-diagnosing flu as Covid all along.

Reading it again, it was there all along for me to see. Having an explicit statement that the current covid tests do not give a false positive from influenza would have been helpful in the current climate.

In addition to deliberate, malicious misinformation there are people just not looking into the full context until they are ready to pass the information on. Always jumping on these retweets as from evil people is counterproductive.

But once a simple reading miscomprehension is made obvious these tweets need to be retracted. Twitter letting users put their own retraction tags on their tweets would be excellent.

"I retract the above statement about RT-PCR tests. Upon further reading these tests do not show influenza as covid."

Same for other platforms. "

 

[TSwizzle]

FFS, this really is stupid;

US Capitol Police have been ordered to arrest visitors and staff who refuse to wear a mask on the House side of the Capitol complex. The policy, which goes into effect on Thursday, will not apply to members of Congress who refuse to wear masks, according to a police memo obtained by a lawmaker. Members of Congress who do not wear masks inside the complex will be reported to the House sergeant-at-arms, according to the memo. House Republicans blasted Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the 'tyrannical' directive, but the Democrat's office responded that she 'does not control the US Capitol Police.'

DailyMail

I'd like to see the Capitol Keystone Cops try, they were pretty ineffective on January 6th.

 

[Toni]

FFS, this really is stupid;

US Capitol Police have been ordered to arrest visitors and staff who refuse to wear a mask on the House side of the Capitol complex. The policy, which goes into effect on Thursday, will not apply to members of Congress who refuse to wear masks, according to a police memo obtained by a lawmaker. Members of Congress who do not wear masks inside the complex will be reported to the House sergeant-at-arms, according to the memo. House Republicans blasted Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the 'tyrannical' directive, but the Democrat's office responded that she 'does not control the US Capitol Police.'

DailyMail

I'd like to see the Capitol Keystone Cops try, they were pretty ineffective on January 6th.

This time, they do not have a ring leader/fuhrer and his keystone cronies hobbling and misdirecting resources.

I hope that we never have another attempted insurrection such as the one you so obviously supported but should there be another such attempt, please let your 4chan and 8chan buddies know that they weren't the only ones who got in some practice.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/565450-capitol-police-asked-to-arrest-the-maskless


...

Congressional aides and visitors to the House side of the Capitol will face arrest if they're not wearing masks, the head of the U.S. Capitol Police announced this week. In a Wednesday letter to his officer corps, Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger ordered that they enforce the new mask guidelines across the Capitol complex. Those new rules, installed by the Capitol physician earlier in the week, include a mask mandate on the House side of the Capitol and all House office buildings.
...

This is going to be fun. Who will be the first martyr to the cause. Who will refuse to wear a mask and get arrested to outrage the Trumpanzees? "Help! Help! I'm being suppressed! Come see the violence inherent in the system!"

The new policy has been hammered by House Republicans, who say it's merely an effort by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to exert control over half of the Capitol. Still, she has law enforcement now on her side.
....

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I thought Republicans were against The Right to Die.

 

[repoman]

Stole this quote, but it is accurate

The "take Tylenol and come back when you can't breathe" standard of care has DESTROYED our faith in US medical system.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

This is not good.

As of Thursday, 882 people were tied to the Provincetown outbreak. Among those living in Massachusetts, 74% of them were fully immunized, yet officials said the vast majority were also reporting symptoms. Seven people were reported hospitalized.

The initial findings of the investigation led by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seemed to have huge implications.

If this is confirmed, the unvaccinated have fucked America's chance of stopping Covid-19, and the only way this ends is everyone gets it.

Cloth masks don't cut it now.

 

[TSwizzle]

This is not good.

As of Thursday, 882 people were tied to the Provincetown outbreak. Among those living in Massachusetts, 74% of them were fully immunized, yet officials said the vast majority were also reporting symptoms. Seven people were reported hospitalized.

The initial findings of the investigation led by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seemed to have huge implications.

If this is confirmed, the unvaccinated have fucked America's chance of stopping Covid-19, and the only way this ends is everyone gets it.

Fucking rat licking Trump supporters. I’m guessing Provincetown is in Texas.

Cloth masks don't cut it now.

Were never effective in the first place.

 

[Swammerdami]

...
Congressional aides and visitors to the House side of the Capitol will face arrest if they're not wearing masks, ....

Although the same mask mandate applies to members of Congress, the same strict enforcement will not. Rather, Capitol Police are asked to report recalcitrant lawmakers to supervising officers "who will, in turn, refer the matter to the House Sergeant at Arms," wrote Manger, who took over as head of the Capitol Police just a week ago.

. . .

 

[Swammerdami]

In Missouri people are getting vaccinated, but begging that it be kept secret! They're afraid of retribution from their anti-vaccine (pro-Covid) friends and relatives.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

To hide it have to embed itself into genome and stay dormant, otherwise it's active and you are sick or at least viral load positive.
Hiding in the genome is the only way of hiding.

1) HIV can be driven to undetectable levels--but comes back if you quit taking the drugs.

2) In 1982 a mosquito bit me and I got malaria. In 2003? it came back--original infection, I haven't set foot in the malaria zone since then. Malaria certainly can't hide out in the genome.

Some viruses can and do insert themselves into part of human DNA and leave part of itself behind, causing a mutation which may or may not be edited out by our cells. Sometimes when the mutation remains, it can lead to certain kinds of cancer. An example of this is any of the more than 100 different HPV viruses.

HIV can be driven to undetectable levels through antiretroviral drugs. The anti-retrovirals work to suppress the replication of the HIV retrovirus.

Malaria is not a virus. Malaria is disease caused by one of several different plasmodium parasite species. It causes damage by breaking out of the cells it lives in. Anti-malarial drugs can suppress or even eliminate malaria from the body. Humans can be reinfected when they are bitten by another mosquito carrying any of the species of plasmodium parasite that causes malaria. I've known people who were re-infected multiple times. Because it is not a virus or a bacteria, the body does not really become more immune to malaria.

I was giving examples of infections hiding out clearly without inserting themselves into our genome.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Not unexpected type of contract between Pfizer and Albania that has been leaked. Should be not censored because that feeds the paranoia more than this firm, but sensible contract.

https://gogo.al/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/LEXO-KONTRATEN-E-PLOTE.pdf

And what are we supposed to be looking at?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

People who had been hospitalised and put on a ventilator saw the biggest deficit in the Great British Intelligence Test - equivalent to a seven-point drop in IQ. (summary snipped for brevity)

C'mon, anti-vaxxers. You have so little intelligence left to lose already.

I took that test - Great British Intelligence Test - some things I did well on, some things not so well.

Yup, it scored me pretty much as I expected it would.

They never responded when I pointed out a problem, though--one of the analogy questions had "Tile is to roof" as the first half--which is a perfectly good type-of to me as I live in a house with a concrete tile (commonly called "tile" here) roof.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

This is not good.

As of Thursday, 882 people were tied to the Provincetown outbreak. Among those living in Massachusetts, 74% of them were fully immunized, yet officials said the vast majority were also reporting symptoms. Seven people were reported hospitalized.

The initial findings of the investigation led by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seemed to have huge implications.

If this is confirmed, the unvaccinated have fucked America's chance of stopping Covid-19, and the only way this ends is everyone gets it.

Cloth masks don't cut it now.

If vaccines don't work everyone getting it won't work, either.

 

[Jarhyn]

This is not good.

As of Thursday, 882 people were tied to the Provincetown outbreak. Among those living in Massachusetts, 74% of them were fully immunized, yet officials said the vast majority were also reporting symptoms. Seven people were reported hospitalized.

The initial findings of the investigation led by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seemed to have huge implications.

If this is confirmed, the unvaccinated have fucked America's chance of stopping Covid-19, and the only way this ends is everyone gets it.

Cloth masks don't cut it now.

If vaccines don't work everyone getting it won't work, either.

Vaccines work. Anti-vaxx does not work.

 

[bilby]

People who had been hospitalised and put on a ventilator saw the biggest deficit in the Great British Intelligence Test - equivalent to a seven-point drop in IQ. (summary snipped for brevity)

C'mon, anti-vaxxers. You have so little intelligence left to lose already.

I took that test - Great British Intelligence Test - some things I did well on, some things not so well.

Yup, it scored me pretty much as I expected it would.

They never responded when I pointed out a problem, though--one of the analogy questions had "Tile is to roof" as the first half--which is a perfectly good type-of to me as I live in a house with a concrete tile (commonly called "tile" here) roof.

I'm not sure what you think is a problem here; Most British houses have tiled roofs, and the test is aimed at and written for British people.

They probably couldn't care less about picky Americans who perceive a problem that is entirely due to their being outside the target audience.

 

[barbos]

Just heard on CNN about leak about study which concluded that vaccinated are as contagious as unvaccinated (Delta variant).
I presume they are not implying that chances to get infected are equal too.

 

[repoman]

For immune compromised in areas with access to vaccine and others in areas where there is no vaccine yet, what about having a "covid pack" of medicine to use in case of infection?

Work out with your general practioner a schedule of medication to take and when as the virus goes through its paces.

Imagine having a plan ready and they neither you nor your doctor can meet and another doctor hems and haws while YOU ARE LOSING TIME AND THAT MAY KILL YOU!!

Not having medicine in your cabinet ready before covid infection for the first day of definite symptoms may be looked at in the coming years as a medical malpractice. You wanna wait three days or go to a strained emergency room? "Take two tylenol 3x day day and come back if you can't breathe"

Wouldn't you go to you doctor for a prescription for Valtrex and also buy Abreva otc if you are at risk of cold sores?

If your doctor said no to giving you valtrex before a cold sore outbreak, he/she would be an asshole. For cold sores hours matter. If at 7pm Friday night you feel that first lip tingle, basically you are fucked without valtrex on hand. Wait till monday to call your doctor and then you are guaranteed to have a whopper on your lip.

Why the fuck is covid, at this point, some mystical thing where preparation is verboten?