The biology of coronavirus COVID-19 - including research and treatments

Ugh, the nasal flu vaccine is trash. It's not approved for use in Australia for good reason!
The rest of the article is not totally coherent, mentioning non specific "baseline inflammation" without explanation.

The claims that the vaccine won't work for the older population is still pure speculation at this point. Strong immune responses to the virus (which is necessary for the claim of greater inflammation) itself suggest that the generalised efficacy of vaccines to SARS-2 isn't going to be particularly unique.

What they're really hinting is that they want the vaccine to be universal (mandatory) for children.

 

I agree I think this is just Arne Akbar bidding for money for his research programme into immune system ageing. A sideshow.

 

So if our immune system as ancient and decrepit people is so crap, why do they insist on offering us flu vaccine every year? OK, I get that flu isn't Covid, and maybe the Covid vaccine will act differently to flu vaccine, but article seems to be arguing that it's pointless giving any oldies any vaccine? Because our immune systems are useless because we're ancient and decrepit.

 

Mounting clues suggest the coronavirus might trigger diabetes
Evidence from tissue studies and some people with COVID-19 shows that the virus damages insulin-producing cells.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41...OzDijaNvkdqK_eF8qgRKC_GLtktnx0LWYXt4jUuLOfXSU

 

FT
Human genetics provides clues about mysteries of coronavirus

full article
https://www.ft.com/content/50006fa2-f99c-4da8-b817-abb2379565ce

 

https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2420

 

Coronavirus isolated from covid toes
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/spanish-researchers-isolate-coronavirus-in-covid-toes/1890247#

 

I spoke to a person from outside my family circle about coronavirus and she mentioned suffering from fatigue after buying groceries, and having different symptoms appear randomly on different days. She did not have a known coronavirus infection but it sounded a lot like a very mild form of the post-covid syndrome.

I also learned that the butcher where I often buy meat had proper covid-19 and has been left with a lot of joint pain.

This seems to align with my suspicion that in my family we already had coronavirus exposure and just had fairly mild symptoms. For those that don't know, I live in Lombardy.

 

I'm not exactly sure where to put this but this should do.


Neurological and neuropsychiatric complications of COVID-19 in 153 patients: a UK-wide surveillance study

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30287-X/fulltext

It's a long paper but it is frankly adding a lot of weight to the possibility that a significant % of what we consider psychiatric diseases may be pathogenic in origin. At least if a virus can have the same outcome, it's a distinction without a difference.

This is in an elderly population, median age 71, so it's not clear if this is particular or a general pattern, or even if it's specific to some of the organ damage like blood clots. Given how prevalent cardiovascular disease is, maybe there's a connection to psychiatric symptoms.

 

My toe, which had apparent gout in February for a month (never had before) is still slightly red.

 

Basically I suspect that coronavirus is causing a lot of nonsevere symptoms in a lot more people than is currently believed because the existing diagnostic tests are inadequate.

This suspicion is based in part on what people in my area are telling me about their health, and the example of people with covid toes testing negative on blood tests yet having coronavirus in their "covid toes".

This could be an opportunity to make some very significant progress in understanding the actual causes of a lot of health problems, but I fear that the usual psychobabble may prevent that.

The psychogenic theorists are going to go wild seeing all these symptomatic but coronavirus negative people.

There is still hope that it will be just too obvious that the virus is somehow causing these problems that people might overcome the psychogenic dogma and become curious.

 

Of course they're already blaming covid toes on "inactivity" and "lifestyle changes".

 

I can't take that level of dumb. I expect better from a group of teenagers doing a school project. This is easily falsifiable, even more so considering the latest beauty from the RCGP about "lifestyle" choices, including being sedentary, that imply this should be common among a population of sedentary people. The excuses are so pathetic. "Walking barefoot" in your house? WTH?

Everything to avoid blaming a pathogen. It's pathological at this point. The BPS religion has fried their brains. This is madness.

 

Adding an 's' to make searching easier: toes.

 

Karolinska Institutet, Sweden: "Immunity to COVID-19 is probably higher than tests have shown"

https://news.ki.se/immunity-to-covid-19-is-probably-higher-than-tests-have-shown

 

I wouldn't personally put any weight on this finding.T cell responses are notoriously difficult to interpret. Antibody responses are 100 times more reliable across the board. Antibody tests are the gold standard. There seem to be a proportion of scientists motivated to show that things are not as bad as is thought.

The one disease where T cell responses are the standard is TB and in that case they show previous exposure but do not show immunity.People with positive T cell tests are given treatment on the assumption that they cannot get rid of the bacteria themselves.

 

It's a massive understatement to say that this virus is freakin weird. This will be paywalled but you should be able to read it in incognito mode if it's blocked.

Coronavirus autopsies: A story of 38 brains, 87 lungs and 42 hearts

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/07/01/coronavirus-autopsies-findings/

 

Merged thread

Radio progs on Covid tonight (2nd July 2020)

There are 2 BBC World Service programmes on Covid tonight, one at 22.00 and one at 22.30, but you can listen to them now.

The first one looks at the origin, bringing up the possibility that it escaped from a laboratory: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csz6l7

The second one looks at loss of taste and smell: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszjq1

 

It's curious that Swedish epidemiologists keep trying to find ways of claiming far more people have been infected than have tested positive.

 

We already suspected much of this from SARS-1 (consequences of ACE-2 being targeted), but I guess some people want to rediscover the wheel. Also, the problem isn't merely clotting, but rather the difficulty the body has in clearing those clots, hence blood thinners aren't necessarily going to solve the problem. Also, brain related infections (and clotting) are rare for COVID patients, but when you have over 300,000 cases, a few are bound to show up! Damage due to oxygen deprivation is not unusual in those who have died of severe respiratory infections.