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

Is that simply because the virus is itself replicating at huge rate, and you need to be reducing it much faster than it can replicate?

 

yes

 

Landmark coronavirus study to trial inhaled Imperial and Oxford vaccines

https://mrc.ukri.org/news/browse/la...ines/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

 

With regards to inhaled vaccinations, I note that the nasal Influenza vaccine has inferior efficacy compared to the intramuscular vaccine.

Despite all the claims that there is no mucosal immunity induced by intramuscular immunisation, this is simply not true, IgA was induced by the moderna vaccine for example and IgG play a key role in the respiratory mucosa. It is the gut which has less protection from intramuscular immunisation, but this basically means a few days of asymptomatic infection in the gut until significant class-switching and lymphocyte migration to the gut occurs. The intramuscular polio vaccination is enough to prevent serious symptoms in the gut for example.

With regards to the adenovirus vector and mRNA vaccines, since there is no exposure to the spike protein until after the vector has infected the cell and the DNA or RNA has been transcribed, the dosages need to be much larger than a live influenza nasal vaccine or intramuscular immunisations. This increased dosage requirement could lead to poor efficacy or increase risk of side effects.

 

The Guardian summarises some of the things we've learned about Covid-19 in the intervening 6 months:

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/what-we-actually-know-about-covid-19/ar-BB195XPb?ocid=ASUDHP

I wasn't aware that the virus was actually found in saliva. I'll be a bit more proactive about challenging people who are going around using their mask as a chin hammock now.

 

You see them on the TV news all the time. I scream at them, but of course they can't hear me since they're on TV and I'm in my bedroom. But just as bad are the ones whose noses aren't covered, and whose mouths are covered but not well (you can see their upper lip). I noticed an awful lot of that with people complaining about how they couldn't get a test for their kids. I haven't used a mask yet, since I haven't been out of caravan/car/house/garden.

I'm shocked that while we're (in England) told to wear masks in public transport and in shops and hairdressers etc that we haven't had any public service adverts telling people how to put masks on and off (very important!!!), and how important it is to cover nose as well as mouth. They should at least put out some joke about how "leaving yer nose out is like leaving yer bits out of yer underwear"? People don't understand how masks work - it's important to educate them.

 

Can Corona be exhaled through the nose?

So assuming a Corona+ person isn't sneezing, can they spread it when they don't talk?

I see the nose-free version in public transport and thought about mentioning it to them. But if I make them talk back to me I might put myself more at risk..

 

My guess would be that the virus is not expelled from the nose except when sneezing. But if someone is infected they will almost certainly tough their nose and then wipe virus of the rails and seat handles.

 

Yes, both bacteria and viruses have been found in nasal breath samples and this has been known for a long time.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5286249/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19626609/

 

Remember Russia's Sputnik V vaccine? Summary data for phase I and II testing were published in The Lancet. Now other researchers have published an open letter to those authors, also referenced in Nature. Some of the questions they ask are fairly standard, but I'm bothered by the finding of duplicate data points. This is very unlikely to occur by chance, and often shows up in cases of fraud.

Their call for access to raw data is reasonable, but I would bet against them getting it.

 

There were lots of problems with the methodology of the Sputnik V vaccine trial. The data presentation was far poorer than the similar Chinese (Sinovac) adenovirus vector based vaccine trial. I don't know why it was published in The Lancet...

In particular, the Chinese study tested participants for adenovirus-5 antibodies and then performed analyses to see whether this would reduce the performance of vaccine - and indeed they found that prior adenovirus antibodies did lead to significantly lower spike-RBD antibodies.

The Russian study also used an adenovirus-5 based vector, but seemingly, they decided not to utilise this additional test. Likewise, the lack of randomisation on the crossover was another sloppy omission.

 

The Scientist - The Immune Hallmarks of Severe COVID-19 by Katarina Zimmer

Researchers are trying to make sense of immune systems gone haywire and develop biomarkers to predict who will become the sickest from a coronavirus infection.

 

The usual hype around cytokines.

I liked the response by Manu who likened it to a “cytokine breeze”. Fortunately there was mention of studies that found that patients who died, did not have elevated cytokines compared to those who lived.

The impaired interferon response early in the infection probably does play a role (allowing the virus to gain a strong foothold), but it is not the whole story. Notably, this hypothesis predates COVID19.

It seems strange that many researchers are hyper focused on lymphocytes and immune signalling without considering the overall physiological picture - the diminished clearance of immune complexes and the role of the vascular system, especially given the risk factors (high blood pressure) and the known role of the spike protein interacting with factors that affect the regulation of blood flow, such as ACE2, heparan sulfate etc.

 

I can't remember the details, so many things have come and gone over the years, but it was suggested that blood thinners could be useful for ME.

There have also been studies which have found problems with the lining of blood vessels and suggestions that a vasculitis could account for some of the symptoms. I have strange blistering which appears on my fingertips and other symptoms in my nails and fingers that are suggestive of vasculitis.

Any research into these things for covid could give insight into ME

 

According to a study at Danderyd's hospital in Sweden, four out of five people keep their SARS-CoV-2 antibodies for at least four months.

Danderyds Sjukhus: Fyra av fem behåller antikroppar mot SARS-CoV-2
https://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/dande...-behaaller-antikroppar-mot-sars-cov-2-3035673

Google Translate, English

 

Reuters has a roundup of some of the latest findings:

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...rus-spread/ar-BB19bf87?li=BBoPWjQ&ocid=ASUDHP

 

An interesting new tack:

Scientists find Covid-19 weakness which could be beaten with small molecule anti-viral drugs

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newsl...iral-drugs/ar-BB19h6DM?li=AAnZ9Ug&ocid=ASUDHP

 

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/09/18/science.abd3255

I usually reserve a bit of extra skepticism on research about omega-6 fatty acids...

They speculate that it stabilises the spike protein conformation, but do not provide any conclusive evidence. The "pocket" also seems to be a part of most other human coronaviruses too.

It will be years before this could lead to approved treatments and by then, I'd hope that we'd already have a vaccine by then...

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1309044054773116930

 

That's quite alright. All normal proprieties seem to be temporarily suspended. We haven't been told why or for how long or on whose authority.