Coronavirus Status Updates

[Voice Of Reason]

Cover your noses

Johns Hopkins scientists examining weird side effects of COVID-19 suggest one way coronavirus ‘gains a foothold in the body’

The findings could offer one reason why COVID-19 is so infectious and potentially offer clues to more effective treatments, researchers say.

www.marketwatch.com

In a study published in the European Respiratory Journal on Wednesday, the researchers found extremely high levels of “angiotensin converting enzyme II,” or ACE-2, only in the area of the nose responsible for smelling. The ACE-2 enzyme is thought to be the gateway that allows coronavirus to enter the cells of the body and cause an infection.

In fact, the levels of ACE-2 in these cells was between 200 and 700 times higher than other tissue in the nose and trachea, Chen said, and they found similarly high levels in all the samples of olfactory epithelium. The ACE-2 enzyme was not detected on olfactory neurons, the nerve cells that pass information about smells to the brain.

“The olfactory epithelium is quite an easy part of the body for a virus to reach, it’s not buried away deep in our body, and the very high levels of ACE-2 that we found there might explain why it’s so easy to catch COVID-19,” Chen said. Lane added that this research may enable doctors to tackle the infection with antiviral therapies delivered directly through the nose.

Got it covered

 

[Huskerwisdom]

 

[Huskerwisdom]

(PDF) Emerging of a SARS-CoV-2 viral strain with a deletion in nsp1

PDF | Background: The new Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which was first detected in Wuhan (China) in December of 2019 is... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

 

[BleedinHuskerRed]

Post removed.

 

[Voice Of Reason]

Why the United States is having a coronavirus data crisis

Political meddling, disorganization and years of neglect of public-health data management mean the country is flying blind.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02478-z

 

[Huskerwisdom]

Funny, and relevant:

 

[Huskerwisdom]

 

[Huskerwisdom]

also, this chart really highlights the kind of cases that are being captured by testing now. The chart is from Spain, but it's similar to charts in the US that show higher cases, but much lower deaths. Lots of reasons for this:

- much expanded testing is catching cases that were never found earlier
- younger positives ages
- better treatment strategies
- maybe some mutation in virus. I haven't seen anything solid on that so tend to discount it.

What does it mean: likely much higher spread earlier in the year than anyone expected, much lower real IFR than calculated as well. Also likely means that "track and trace" never had a chance to work

 

[HuskerSuperGenius]

Lockdowns and masks do not lead to reduced Covid transmission or death.

Lockdowns and Mask Mandates Do Not Lead to Reduced COVID...

"The paper’s conclusion is that the data trends observed above likely indicate that nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) – such as lockdowns, closures, travel restrictions, stay-home orders, event bans, quarantines, curfews, and mask mandates – do not seem to affect virus transmission rates...

www.aier.org

This study is interesting because it reflects the more complex interactions in society rather than the simple minded "close the bars and restaurants and nobody will get Covid" decisions that are occurring now.

By extension then, playing and watching football is not going to make a difference, hello Big Ten office........

 

[HuskerSuperGenius]

Experts: US COVID-19 positivity rate high due to 'too sensitive' tests

Up to 90 percent of people tested for COVID-19 in Massachusetts, New York and Nevada in July carried barely any traces of the virus, a new report says.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Zephyr88]

University of Alabama reports 1,052 COVID-19 cases since in-person classes began

 

[Zephyr88]

Emails Show Chaos and Confusion at Ole Miss Over Coronavirus Exposure

 

[Kobayashi Maru]

I know there is a link to this in Coronavirus Status Updates, but I think this information is really at the crux of governmental and business decision-making, including allowing sports to be played. As we learn more and more about the virus and how to best handle it, we are now finding that our tests have been unnecessarily over-sensitive. With some adjustment, we can pare down our numbers and have more useful data for planning purposes, including playing sports. This has huge implications.

Your Coronavirus Test Is Positive. Maybe It Shouldn’t Be. (Published 2020)

The usual diagnostic tests may simply be too sensitive and too slow to contain the spread of the virus.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Red Reign]

Threads merged

 

[Huskerwisdom]

University of Alabama reports 1,052 COVID-19 cases since in-person classes began

laughing that 1,052 positive test results among college students are being called "cases".

'Bama has about 38K students, so this is a tiny minority of the overall student population, and I checked NONE have been hospitalized and none were due to in-class instruction