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

I was going to write that I can't see what the problem is with this guy's research - presumably that's the point i.e. there isn't a problem with his research.

Remember that 5G has been controversial in the UK - for a small number of people it is considered a danger.

 

One for @Jonathan Edwards perhaps, because some strange cell signalling appears to be causing blood flow problems in the brain of covid-19 patients.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2776455

 

Except that a simple look at the graphs for all European countries suggests that opening schools in September, as expected, led to tens or hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths and a brought domestic and economic life to a halt again.

 

It is an interesting report. It looks as if megakaryocytes (platelet precursor giant cells) are getting into brain without being filtered out in lung.

I am not sure that I agree with the authors that the problem is likely to be endothelial signalling changes. I suspect that megakaryocytes are coming out of bone marrow because of hypoxia and macrophage activation in marrow as a sort of non-specific toxic response. Bone marrow is essentially open to the blood so endothelial interaction may not be involved. The failure of lung to filter these out on the way to brain seems likely to indicate shunting through bypass venules - which may occur if patches of lung are badly inflamed or vessels obstructed.

 

Hypothetical questions. Note that the quote below is about a hedgehog virus, not the current, or any, human corona virus.

1) But if a hedgehog corona virus can evolve this ability is it possible the human ones could do the same? Probably not all that likely given it doesn't seem to have happened (yet) in the older endemic human corona viruses - but possible?

2) And if it is possible, what would that mean for vaccine development?

More at https://scitechdaily.com/some-coron...eir-hosts-genes-to-elude-their-immune-system/

 

1)
It is extremely unlikely without engineering the virus.
2)
It would make vaccine development even more critical. If the body already has an adaptive immune response to the virus, it will have a much easier time.

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1362360855233499138

 

Encouraging real life results in Scotland from Edinburgh University for both AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines.

First study to describe effects across a whole country. Previous results have been from clinical trials.

https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2021/scottish-vaccine-roll-out-working-data-suggests

 

Massive Google-funded COVID database will track variants and immunity

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00490-5

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/gdpr-consent/?next_url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/02/24/johnson-and-johnson-vaccine/

Results of Johnson and Johnson single dose vaccine trial announced today.

Irish epidemiologist ( sorry- didn't catch her name) said vaccine was 100, yes 100% effective against death. She was beaming from ear to ear. UK has some on order. I didn't catch the amount.

edit: removed " serious illness" from line 3. Looking at results further, they are complicated to summarise, especially with nausea and light headedness. A focus on the benefits of single dose administration without such stringent temperature requirements as some other vaccines should probably be emphasised.

 

This is not true, the data specifically reports 19 severe/critical cases in the vaccine group. Two cases in the vaccine group were hospitalised. The sample size is not large enough for claims of preventing mortality in high-risk groups and we know from real-world UK data that there is still a significant rate of COVID-related death in vaccine individuals over the age of 80 (even with the Pfizer vaccine)

The primary outcome was not merely symptomatic infection, but efficacy against moderate to severe infection.

Nonetheless, comparable efficacy figures (including mild symptomatic cases) was reported as ~66%. Overall, I'd rate this as an 'also-ran' vaccine.

Here is @Hilda Bastian's take:
https://twitter.com/user/status/1364561482185199625

 

From the Washington Post article, link in post #1343


“We know this vaccine prevents 85 percent of the severe disease … It was 100 percent effective in preventing hospitalization and deaths, and that’s really what’s important,” said Nancy M. Bennett, a professor of medicine and public health sciences at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. “Those facts are the most important thing to recognize.”

 

I wonder whether they have even looked at the data. It isn't true and "what's most important" is preventing transmission in the first place!

 

If you look at recent press conferences , noticeably in UK, there is a definite reframing to the hospitalization and death angle.

If you don't / can't contain adequately, and zero COVID strategy is not on the cards then these are the aspects to push, especially when party politics and business push for lockdown to lift

 

And here is an overview from her, too; in a Vox interview:

The scientist who's been right about Covid-19 vaccines predicts what's next

 

COVID-19 Knowledge Graph

CovidGraph is a non-profit collaboration of researchers, software developers, data scientists and medical professionals.

We have built a research and communication platform that encompasses over 130,000 publications, case statistics, genes and functions, molecular data and much more.
https://covidgraph.org/


Webinar: Exploring CovidGraph with yWorks
Thursday, 4th March - 11:00 EST / 16:00 GMT / 17:00 CET

In this short 30-minute webinar, Sebastian will demonstrate how CovidGraph can help researchers around the world to intuitively and visually navigate through the publications, genes, patents and more that make up our knowledge graph. Sebastian will go into detail about the custom visualization application, specifically designed to meet the needs of end users and built by yWorks in just a few days. He will further introduce you to the tools and frameworks used by the CovidGraph project and show you how you can reuse this knowledge in your own projects. This webinar will start with a general introduction to the topic and the tools involved, and then briefly go into some technical aspects of the solution.

https://covidgraph.hubspotpagebuilder.com/webinar-exploring-covidgraph-with-yworks

 

Another article suggesting that blood group type may influence people's reaction to Covid-19:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/mi...id-19-risk/ar-BB1ecX69?ocid=ASUDHP&li=BBoPWjQ