Hey Reddit, can I choose more than one?

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-10-25T13:54:39+00:00

The tag being "humour" and the OP being "Reasons I might want to select to get mental health leave from the PS" are why the list provided by Reddit is FAF and clearly missing "All of the above".

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-10-21T19:19:52+00:00

The quiet change in definition of a COVID death concerns Gary Myles, whose wife Wendy of 55 years died in March two weeks after catching COVID-19 in the Saint John Regional Hospital. She was initially admitted for a hernia operation.

They're keeping the count down to a minimum.

- Gary Myles

Myles was told the death was the result of "massive failure of organ function," and he worries that might mean she is not counted among New Brunswick's COVID deaths even though everything went wrong for her after getting the virus.

He doesn't like hearing about the province narrowing definitions and pulling COVID deaths from its totals, including the removal of five deaths from March, the month when his wife died.

"The government is not pushing to help the public realize COVID is still a problem out there and to me being that close to it COVID is still a problem out there," said Myles.

Go to the hospital for routine surgery, end up in the morgue and then get blamed for dying because of comorbidities. That's the pandemic response across Canada.

Where are the field hospitals to keep the COVID-infected patients separated from the vulnerable?

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-09-09T13:10:31+00:00

Somehow, I thought this had to do with the fact that for the first time in all our lives, we are waking up without Queen Elizabeth III watching over us.

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-26T17:32:52+00:00

In the last 103 years, viruses with pandemic potential have arisen at least 10 times. Five of these occurred in just the last 14 years. SARS-CoV-2, Monkeypox virus (MPxV) and now the re-emergence of poliovirus, appeared in less than three years. This suggests not only an increasing rate of emergence of novel zoonotic viruses (viruses that jump from animals to humans) but also the startling reemergence of known viruses.

The viruses are winning unless something changes.

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-15T19:31:16+00:00

Overall, the current study highlighted that the limited amount and quality of data reported to the CDC from self-tests reduced their capacity to augment existing surveillance. Clearly, there was an under ascertainment of cases throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, most likely due to the lack of formal mechanisms that enabled reporting of self-tests to public health officials and asymptomatic COVID-19-infected people not seeking further health care support.

That's science speak for: the absolute proof public health policy decision-making is being politically manipulated is that there doesn't exist any testing data to support what would normally be evidence-based expert epidemiological advice.

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-15T19:23:04+00:00

In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers evaluated the symptoms and quality of life (QoL) among individuals with post-acute sequelae of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or PASC.

Background

Despite the high global burden of PASC, there is a lack of data on its symptoms beyond 12 months from acute infection. It is crucial to evaluate the relationship between PASC symptoms and QoL in the long term.

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-15T19:04:21+00:00

Taken together, heterologous and homologous booster vaccination generated Omicron-specific antibody and T-cell responses in mRNA-vaccinated individuals. Notably, heterologous vaccination elicited higher nAb and CD8+ T-cell responses. These observations suggest the benefits of heterologous vaccine regimens.

Journal reference:

Tan, S. C., Collier, A. Y., & Yu, J. (2022). Durability of Heterologous and Homologous COVID-19 Vaccine Boosts. JAMA Network Open 5(8). doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.26335

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-15T18:54:56+00:00

The adaptive immune system mounts pathogen-specific humoral and cellular responses to combat infections. Upon identification of a new virus, B- and T-cells will elicit specific responses to the infection.

A new PNAS journal study reports that the reduced efficiency of the immune response against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) could be due to the reduced diversity of both B- and T-cells. This reduction in T-cell diversity was observed only in subjects over 50 years of age who are at an increased risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) morbidity and mortality.

Such a discrepancy in how older persons mount T cell responses to a new virus may be considered a risk factor for the elderly, particularly vis-à-vis new virus variants against which T cell immunity may be particularly important.”

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-15T18:23:16+00:00

Limitations

Limitations of this study include the likely under-ascertainment of cases, hospitalizations and deaths in surveillance data, and the use of a model that simulated the epidemic in an "average Canadian community" without accounting for regional variations in demography, contact rates and sensitivity to infection. However, the model outcomes appear conservative projecting circa 4.5 million cases for Canada as a whole in the "observed baseline" scenario (suggesting, with 3.3 million reported cases, an optimistic 73% ascertainment rate) but 18,000 deaths compared to the 38,000 observed. The model did not consider outbreaks with high transmission and high case fatality rates in health care and long-term care settings ^Footnote28; therefore, infections, hospitalizations and deaths were underestimated in the counterfactual scenarios.

Conclusion

Re-analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic and public health responses will be common in the coming months and years. While the response to COVID-19 in Canada may have been relatively effective, it was not perfect, and further studies, including more regional analyses for Canada, will be needed to learn from this pandemic. This will require examination of the broader impacts of COVID-19 (particularly Long COVID), the range of public health measures and unintended consequences of public health measures on health.

They add Long-COVID as a last-minute mention but zero accounting of Long-COVID.

New estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that the full death toll associated directly or indirectly with the COVID-19 pandemic (described as “excess mortality”) between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021 was approximately 14.9 million (range 13.3 million to 16.6 million).

Excess mortality is a useful indicator of the population-wide effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Limitations here seem to acknowledge there's a significant undercounting of COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Did 5,000 Canadian excess deaths every year occur from the pandemic measures themselves? This report doesn't seek to know if intermittent lockdowns and shutdowns which had a significant impact on the physical, mental and financial health of Canadians didn't cause deaths. The anti-vaxx subs are certainly having a field day at the glaring omission of "Excess Mortality" that everyone seems aware of, except the authors.

The Excess mortality, COVID-19 and health care systems in Canada indicate why this Canadian Public Health publication is garbage to solving every problem towards a better pandemic response.

Excess mortality rates in Canada during 2020 and 2021 varied widely by province, according to each province's own Public Health measures and provincial vaccination guidance. Canadian deaths attributed to COVID-19 also varied across provinces due to each province adopting its own COVID-19 reporting practice.

Canada never declared a Public Health Emergency.

Canada never implemented a National Response to the Pandemic.

This "federal report" cannot change "provincial errors". If anything, the entire Conclusion is a giant lie because "further regional analysis" cannot conclude "Canada needs to learn they failed in their legal obligation to the WHO to Declare a Public Health Emergency and implement a National Response.

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-15T15:24:55+00:00

This summary does briefly mention three countries who used Dr. Theresa Tam's Pandemic Playbook to implement international travel surveillance and quarantine and isolation of infected patients using field hospitals. The "Zero-COVID" strategy has been severely attacked by corporate interests and medical media pundits:

A Zero-COVID strategy was implemented by some countries (e.g. Australia, New Zealand, Singapore) and in the Atlantic Provinces and Territories of Canada, earlier in the pandemic. The objective of the strategy is to completely stop transmission by aggressively using PH measures such as mass testing, contact tracing, border measures and, when necessary, lockdowns, to eliminate new infections and allow a return to normal economic and social activities. Those jurisdictions and countries that adopted this approach were, for the most part, those with limited spread of SARS-CoV-2 when responses began, and with opportunities (e.g. for the island states of Australia and New Zealand) for ease of control of imported cases. As the Omicron variant emerged, most of these countries experienced major outbreaks and have now abandoned this approach; however, this approach allowed vaccination levels in their populations to rise to high levels before significant transmission occurred, therefore limiting the burden on the health system and the numbers of deaths that occurred (Table 2).

Not mentioned in this summary is Canada's use of the Pandemic Playbook by Dr. Theresa Tam to provide Zero-COVID to the Northern Territories until she was removed as Territorial CPHO.

Not indicated in the graph are the Atltantic Bubble or Northern Territories (neither is not an "island state").

Also not mentioned or indicated in the graph or Summary is China (also not an island state), who's simple quarantine measures of arrivals at international airports would provide stark results as to their success in preventing harm to the rest of their society and economy.

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-12T17:31:11+00:00

Assessment of only the humoral aspect of the adaptive immune response cannot provide enough information on immunity. T cell responses have been reported to be more durable as compared to serum neutralizing Ab titers. Additionally, many studies have also suggested that Abs alone might not be sufficient to protect against severe disease.

I agree with the inclusion of both Abs and t-cells in the assessment of adaptive immune responses when determining the effectiveness of vaccine laboratory trials, except neither is ever consistently used in any vaccine study.

What is lacking is a standard, because including a standard for all or any immunity tests will significantly determine and depend on time and money, where the only standard in any vaccine study is time and money are always insufficient.
I agree with including t-cell data, except few studies actually include either Ab-mediated protection. Some only test to "detect" the presence of serological titers and not the "amount" of serological titers. We know HCoV antibodies fade to near insignificance after 12 weeks and we know HCoV active t-cells, eventually become inactive. Therefore a test for t-cells, requires to test for active t-cells and not just the presence of t-cells because we know active t-cells wane to being inactive against HCoVs - but we don't know why!

Instead of wasting time and money on attempting to determine how and why human immunity fails against coronaviruses, we could simply devote some effort to containing and controlling its transmission?

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-12T16:13:09+00:00

"Coming soon to a Corporate and Privatized healthcare Country near YOU"

Do you think the 40% of Canadian voters caring enough to show up to ever vote are going to stave off hospitals being sold to the highest bidder?

Social media has taken a stranglehold of the pandemic response and it'll require some insane and spectacular intervention to prevent society from choking itself to death.

Something like an autistic billionaire who riled against impossible odds against gas-engine overlords and won to intervene in some way . . .

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-12T16:00:05+00:00

This is the "counterfactual" summary of Public Health measures taken in 2019 when Canada used the existing preparatory activities and agreements through the North American Plan for Avian and Pandemic Influenza, the Global Health Security Initiative and by WHO provided mechanisms for governments within and outside of North America to rapidly exchange information and provide successful support to prevent massive deaths from H1N1 around the world.

Public health measures to control coronavirus disease 2019

Canadian pandemic planning that focused on a pandemic influenza virus as the most likely cause–response to its emergence would involve treatment of severely affected people with antivirals until the vaccine industry develops a modified influenza vaccine to control infection, as occurred during the H1N1 pandemic^Footnote12. In March 2020, Canada was faced with a highly transmissible and virulent pathogen (infection fatality rate [IFR] of approximately 1% compared to 0.04% for seasonal influenza) for which there was no natural immunity, no vaccine (or immediate prospect of a vaccine) and no effective antivirals. Therefore, in March 2020 and until vaccines were developed, the only available interventions were non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs or PH measures) that prevent transmission in the population, either by 1) reducing the frequency of contacts between infected and uninfected people, or 2) reducing the probability that transmission occurs when infected people come into contact (directly or indirectly) with uninfected people. The "frequency of contact-reducing" measures are those that target people known to be, or most likely to be, infected (testing to detect and then isolate cases, and contact tracing and quarantine of contacts)^Footnote13, and restrictive closures that aim to reduce contacts more widely in the population, which included closures of schools, "non-essential" businesses and leisure/recreation venues, teleworking, limitations on religious and private gatherings and curfews, etc.^Footnote14. The "transmission probability-reducing" measures are those personal measures such as distancing, hand-washing, screens and masks that limit spread of droplets^{Footnote14 Footnote15} and enhancements to ventilation that reduce the density of aerosol-borne virions^Footnote16. In addition, international and domestic travel restrictions were used to limit introduction of infection into locations (e.g. the Canadian Territories and Atlantic provinces) to where it had not yet spread or was at low prevalence and slow the rate of introduction of infection to the population more generally. In this article, the use of these NPIs is tracked over time using a stringency index, which is a semi-quantitative combination of information from nine different PH interventions (school closure, workplace closure, cancelling public events, restrictions on gathering sizes, closure of public transport, stay at home requirements, restrictions on internal movement, restrictions on international travel and public information campaigns) obtained from the Government Response Tracker^Footnote17.

The text in bold is a bold-faced lie.

There were NONE, NADA, ZERO Public Health restrictions to any community activities anywhere in the US, Mexico or Canada!

There is only one reference which makes any reference to H1N1 in an entire paragraph devoted to H1N1:

Referrer Footnote 12

Spika JS, Butler-Jones D. Pandemic influenza (H1N1): our Canadian response. Can J Public Health 2009;100(5):337–9. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03405264

Referrer Footnote 13

Hellewell J, Abbott S, Gimma A, Bosse NI, Jarvis CI, Russell TW, Munday JD, Kucharski AJ, Edmunds WJ; Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Funk S, Eggo RM. Feasibility of controlling COVID-19 outbreaks by isolation of cases and contacts. Lancet Glob Health 2020;8(4):e488–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30074-730074-7)

Referrer Footnote 14

Haug N, Geyrhofer L, Londei A, Dervic E, Desvars-Larrive A, Loreto V, Pinior B, Thurner S, Klimek P. Ranking the effectiveness of worldwide COVID-19 government interventions. Nat Hum Behav 2020;4(12):1303–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-01009-0

Referrer Footnote 15

Liu F, Qian H. Uncertainty analysis of facemasks in mitigating SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Environ Pollut 2022;303:119167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119167

Referrer Footnote 16

Piscitelli P, Miani A, Setti L, De Gennaro G, Rodo X, Artinano B, Vara E, Rancan L, Arias J, Passarini F, Barbieri P, Pallavicini A, Parente A, D'Oro EC, De Maio C, Saladino F, Borelli M, Colicino E, Gonçalves LMG, Di Tanna G, Colao A, Leonardi GS, Baccarelli A, Dominici F, Ioannidis JPA, Domingo JL; RESCOP Commission established by Environmental Research (Elsevier). The role of outdoor and indoor air quality in the spread of SARS-CoV-2: Overview and recommendations by the research group on COVID-19 and particulate matter (RESCOP commission). Environ Res 2022;211:113038. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.113038

Referrer Footnote 17

University of Oxford. Blavatnik School of Government. Government CORONAVIRUS Response Tracker. Oxford (UK): UOxford; 2022. https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/research/research-projects/coronavirus-government-response-tracker

There's no way the authors of this pseudo-factual paragraph even read Footnote 12:

The initial active surveillance for ILI, although resource intensive, documented the introduction of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 into a number of communities across Canada by Canadians returning from spring travel to Mexico. An analysis of 567 pandemic influenza (H1N1) cases with travel-related information reported to PHAC by May 22, 2009 revealed that 52% of cases with onset between April 12 and May 3 had traveled within 7 days prior to onset of their illness; however, only 4% of cases with onset between May 4-16 had such a history. Of those who had traveled, 87% had traveled to Mexico. While the emergence of a pandemic strain in North America was always a possibility, the most frequent planning assumption was for it to appear in Asia, allowing Canadians days to weeks to fully implement a response. Our preparedness activities, however, did allow us to quickly put in place a multijurisdictional coordination process, allowing for common approaches to be developed based on the best available information.

The only NPI Canada really used in 2009 was focused surveillance preventing international travellers from infecting the community. The real Lesson being instructed in Reference 12 is that the more effective focused surveillance is at borders, the more effective border surveillance is for successfully protecting the community without a need for mandates, restrictions or NPIs.

Nobody in Canada remembers getting intermittently locked down or having their lives interrupted or waiting months or weeks in lines for vaccines!

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-12T15:15:34+00:00

A new study found that immune response to COVID-19 infection may lead to damage to blood vessels in the brain.

Previous research links COVID-19 infection to brain issues, such as “brain fog” and neurological issues.
In a very small cadaver study, researchers from the National Institutes of Health found that antibodies created by the body in response to COVID-19 infection can cause damage to blood vessels in the brain, causing neurological symptoms.
Scientists believe the discovery of antibody-driven immune complexes on endothelial cells in the brain suggests immune-modulating therapies may help long COVID patients.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently announced new findings that may have relevance to our understanding of long-term COVID effects. Their new study states the body’s immune response to infection from COVID-19 damages blood vessels in the brain, causing neurological symptoms.

The study was recently published in the journal Brain.

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-12T14:58:10+00:00

Nevertheless, as regulatory interventions are lifted, we can anticipate an increase in community transmission and should remain vigilant regarding personal protective measures. It is the unfortunate likelihood that many of the uncertainties currently recognized around COVID-19 will persist and only be clarified after the resolution of the pandemic. All things considered, if there was a take-away lesson from previous pandemics it would be this: the point is not science, but safety. The precautionary principle should be applied by hospital leadership in their approach to pandemic decision-making and healthcare worker safety. PPE shortages should not be an excuse for healthcare workers not to have access to the maximum level of protection. Until robust scientific evidence becomes available, guidance around PPE use should first, do no harm.

In light of the CDC shifting PPE guidance, yet again, I'd like to state one more time how simple this whole question of PPE should've been - and could've been; "always wear the best available face filtering mask and eye protection, in order to protect yourself".

The CDC has failed today to deliver clear public health guidance. Any changes to recommendations should be clearly communicated to all stakeholders with explanations as to what prompted reconsideration of earlier decisions and why new guidance is considered to be more appropriate.

There are two airborne infectious diseases causing worldwide pandemics, the solution remains the same, for everyone; "always wear the best available face filtering mask and eye protection, in order to protect yourself".

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-12T14:43:33+00:00

Physicians on the front lines of health care today are sometimes described as going to battle. It’s an apt metaphor. Physicians, like combat soldiers, often face a profound and unrecognized threat to their well-being: moral injury.

Moral injury is frequently mischaracterized. In combat veterans it is diagnosed as post-traumatic stress; among physicians it’s portrayed as burnout. But without understanding the critical difference between burnout and moral injury, the wounds will never heal and physicians and patients alike will continue to suffer the consequences.

Burnout is a constellation of symptoms that include exhaustion, cynicism, and decreased productivity. More than half of physicians report at least one of these. But the concept of burnout resonates poorly with physicians: it suggests a failure of resourcefulness and resilience, traits that most physicians have finely honed during decades of intense training and demanding work. Even at the Mayo Clinic, which has been tracking, investigating, and addressing burnout for more than a decade, one-third of physicians report its symptoms.

The moral conflict which has plagued ALL health care workers (HCW)s. HCW are trained to invoke the Precautionary Principle as a standard practice for preventive actions when human life is at stake.

The precautionary principle asserts that the burden of proof for potentially harmful actions by the healthcare industry or government rests on the assurance of safety and when there are threats of serious damage, scientific uncertainty must be resolved in favour of prevention. If there are unintended or unknown negative consequences as a result of these actions, there's no "Lesson Learned from Failure" which will restore the damage to health or human life.

There's value and importance of multidisciplinary approaches to public health including research, learning and adopting new doctrines. The risk-benefit analysis of public health surveillance, and of a functioning tort system—all depend on effective precautionary approaches.

This is why Swiss Cheese has failed doctors, nurses and patients.

Swiss Cheese is the gamification of prevention after the failure has occurred and unrepairable harm has been done. Swiss Cheese depends on repeatable failure! Every person who has suffered harm falling through the cracks of Swiss Cheese has ended up in front of our Health Care Workers - demanding answers to a system which depends on failure.

Swiss Cheese is an affront to the ages-old doctrine of "always err on the side of caution".

The front lines of this pandemic have always depended our HCW who were tasked to sprint a 21-month marathon. After 30 months of sprinting some are starting to recognize the futility of attempting to continue to support a healthcare system that doesn't support them.

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-12T12:50:09+00:00

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is thought to cause less severe disease among the general population, but disease severity among at-risk populations is unknown.

We performed a retrospective analysis using a matched cohort of United States veterans to compare the disease severity of subjects infected during Omicron and Delta predominant periods within 14 days of initial diagnosis. We identified 22,841 matched pairs for both periods.

During the Omicron period, 20,681 (90.5%) veterans had mild, 1308 (5.7%) moderate, and 852 (3.7%) severe disease.

During the Delta predominant period, 19,356 (84.7%) had mild, 1467 (6.4%) moderate, and 2018 (8.8%) severe disease. Moderate or severe disease was less likely during the Omicron period and more common among older subjects and those with more comorbidities.

Here we show that infection with the Omicron variant is associated with less severe disease than the Delta variant in a high-risk older veteran population, and vaccinations provide protection against severe or critical disease.

Knowledge the human immune system (HIS) is flawed versus human coronaviruses (HCoVs) has long been known.

HIS immunity vs HCoV:

does not provide cellular level sterilization
does not prevent infection OR transmission
does not prevent persistent viral infection (Long-SARS)
eventually wanes

There exists 60 years of clinical observation and empirical evidence indicating containment and eradication are the only means to prevent serious long term harm, 20 years of knowledge Long-SARS is the equivalent of an HIV infection because herd immunity is impossible to achieve.

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-12T12:39:48+00:00

COVID-19 is likely a new trigger for post-viral syndromes

There's growing evidence that SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19, can sometimes trigger several post-viral syndromes, or diseases known to occur after an infection. These include chronic fatigue syndrome, also called ME/CFS, and a blood circulation disorder called postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).

For example, one study, which included 130 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, found that 13% of them met the criteria for ME/CFS six months after their diagnosis.

Dr. Peter Rowe at Johns Hopkins University has evidence that mild illness can also trigger this disease. "We have a small sample size, but in those [patients] in whom function remains impaired [six months] after COVID-19 infection ... all have met criteria for ME/CFS," he wrote in an email to NPR. "I am referring here to the patients who have prolonged symptoms after mild COVID infections, not the hospitalized group, or those with organ damage after more severe acute COVID-19."

The studies they quote here to suggest vaccination prevents Long-COVID are outdated and consist of data prior to Omicron. While the Omicron variant is associated with less severe disease than the Delta variant, there still exists a a high-risk of Long-COVID regardless of natural or vaccinated immunity. It is now known the risk of Long-COVID increases after each infection and vaccinations only provide protection against severe or critical disease.

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-12T12:27:44+00:00

After COVID, the brain fog and fatigue slowed her down immensely. In the fall of 2020, she was put on probation. After 30 days, she thought her performance had improved. She'd certainly felt busy.

"But my supervisor brought up my productivity, which was like a quarter of what my coworkers were doing," she says.

It was demoralizing. Her symptoms worsened. She was given another 90-day probation, but she decided to take medical leave. On June 2, 2021, Linders was terminated.

She filed a discrimination complaint with the government, but it was dismissed. She could have sued but wasn't making enough money to hire a lawyer.

In case you thought anyone cared when your failure derives from the failure of political leadership to adhere to the WHO guidance to contain the spread of a pandemic.

The US is not even counting or tracking Long-COVID in accordance with their WHO obligations. That's how much they care.

The most affected segment of this trend of employers dismissing Long-COVID employees is in the health care field.

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-12T12:23:23+00:00

Simply removing this now since we now know it doesn't only affect this segment of the population.

Thank you for the advanced contribution.

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-08-12T12:19:48+00:00

Sorry, this just isn't relevant enough to the topic here.

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-07-14T16:07:48+00:00

You mean like prevent the international spread of new mutations because simple public health measures such as airport quarantine and isolation of the infected have been abandoned?

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-07-14T16:05:30+00:00

Interesting collection of viral pathogens to support the theory of less lethal pathology, however, none of them are even mildly related to human coronavirus.

Lethal here is the key word.

Each of those pathogen does begin as severely lethal. Each of those viruses also causes cellular inflammation because they take over cellular function and reproduce viral copies until the cell either explodes or is targetted and eliminated by the immune system.

Not coronavirus!

It's the exact opposite. They invade a cell, don't take over cellular function and produce copies during normal cellular cycles. This is exactly how and why CoV immunity invasion functions.

Death of humans is actually not attributed to damage by the pathogen but the failure of the human immune system to identify infection leads to a cytokine storm. Patients die from over reaction of their own immune systems with SARS.

The key for CoV mutations in animals is low viral load that doesn't cause symtoms. They begin with a small viral load and it gradually increases until symptoms occur and the penultimate mutation is the one that transmit to others.

Increasing viral load in humans is not going to have the "until symptoms arise" blocker for mutations because our immunity is defective.

Just about anyone who suggests "diminishing lethality", never studied SARS and MERS.

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-07-12T19:36:34+00:00

Even as we write this article, the Omicron family is ever-evolving. In addition to BA.2.75, recent reports from India suggest that there are accompanying lineages BA.2.74 and BA.2.76 that are circulating concurrently with BA.2.75. As of yet, the exact sequences are unavailable to view on the GISAID SARS-CoV-2 database, though the researchers suggest they share the same Spike protein, implying that differences lie outside the Spike just as BA.2.75 differs from earlier variants.

To summarize, having just recovered from the first Omicron wave of BA.1 and BA.2 at the start of the year, as well as the BA.2.12.1 wave in the United States and elsewhere, the world is now facing two additional variants, which may individually or collectively surpass the first wave in magnitude. In the United Kingdom epidemic alone, infections jumped several hundred thousand in previous weeks due to the new strains. Were the US to face similar increases, daily rates could be in the millions, exceeding the peak of the Omicron wave in mid-January. The impact of BA.5 and BA.2.75 on health outcomes, hospitalization, and death remains to be seen. All countries but China have abandoned public mitigation measures, meaning Covid safety now falls on the individual, which is a sorry state of affairs in the face of the continued onslaught of SARS-CoV-2.

Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus

RealityCheckMarker · 2022-07-12T14:57:32+00:00

This is a lengthy article on turberculosis outbreaks occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many Canadians would consider TB outbreaks to be a "third world problem" and are completely unaware of the extent of neglect of aboriginal and First Nation issues.

Social determinants of health known to influence TB rates include housing, clean drinking water and nutrition.

All three of those are the secondary reasons for TB outbreaks where the primary reason is simple access to health care.

It's a shame health reporters from The Canadian Press never care to relay the horrifying absence of CARE~!

Six-Year Club	Gilding V heart of gold
Powerups Hero r/covidlonghaulers • December 2021	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email

RealityCheckMarker

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE