Novel Coronavirus

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Trudeau said there will be no return to "full normal" until there is a vaccine.

World leaders are holding the event to raise at least 7.5 billion euros ($11.6 billion Cdn) for research into a possible vaccine and treatments for the coronavirus.

They aim to raise funds over several weeks or months, building on efforts by the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and wealthy benefactors supporting the effort.
 
Barry Mangione
May 1 at 1:02 PM
COVID19 is a continuum.
I want to hopefully shed some light amid the confusion. There is a continuum of COVID19 in between “you die” and “you get over it and return to normal.” Today is day 31 for me. I tested negative on day 27. Yesterday out of nowhere, I was hit with crippling fatigue and chills. My cough is almost gone, and I’ve been fever-free for two weeks, but when it comes to COVID19, testing negative doesn’t mean it’s over. For all who talk about wanting it to spread among the healthy to encourage “herd immunity,” let me ask you: if you get sick with COVID19, how do you know how sick you’ll get?” I’m a healthy 50 year old with no underlying medical conditions. Those of you who know me know that I am passionately devoted to developing and maintaining mental, physical, and spiritual health.
I’m a pediatric physical therapist. I work in homecare with infants and toddlers. Prior to COVID19, I would travel to people’s homes and work with up to ten children a day for 30 minutes each. Prior to COVID19, I struggled with insomnia, but I could still get up after a nearly sleepless night and rock my day job. Now, I can get a full night’s sleep and be wiped out after doing a couple of telehealth sessions with kids via Zoom. Let me repeat that. I used to travel to different homes, play with up to ten kids a day, and now some days I’m exhausted after sitting at a desk and talking to parents via a screen.
I talk to other COVID19 survivors who still experience symptoms after 30, even 40 days, symptoms like kidney pain, fevers, coughing, fatigue, shortness of breath, headaches, circulation problems, loss of smell, loss of taste, body aches, rashes, back pain...
This is not an all-or-nothing virus. It’s not “you die” or “you don’t die.” When we see the numbers of people who’ve “recovered from COVID19” posted to illustrate how it’s not that bad, those numbers don’t take the lingering health issues and symptoms into account.
Please think about this when you question social distancing. Please think about this when you question wearing a mask in public. Ask yourself, “Can I be sick for over a month or more? Can I deal with the uncertainty of when or if this sickness will go away if I get it?”
I’m not looking for sympathy or trying to scare anyone, and I don’t want to diminish the memories of those who’ve died or the pain felt by their loved ones. I grieve for them all. What I hope I’m doing is giving you another tool in addition to gloves, masks, and social distancing to keep yourselves, your loved ones, and all of us safe and healthy: knowledge that this is real, knowledge that we don’t know enough about it yet, and that the continuum of COVID19 is more complicated than dead versus “recovered.” Please stay safe, my friends.

Sounds a lot like Lyme Disease ... Perhaps Garry has been misdiagnosed.
 
I agree @Ritafee - I think it is a continuum. Sorry for Garry's ongoing health issues - must be challenging for you all.

I have found it interesting to read about the kidney damage being caused by COVID-19; dialysis equipment is not something that was anticipated to be needed in increased numbers. Seems to be caused by the 'cytokine storm' that the immune system launches. There is much we do not know - a bit humbling isn't it?
 
I would really like to know numbers of the positive COVID19 that have had 'FLU' Vaccinations in their past.

Is this not a legitimate question given that ...

The development of the 'Universal Vaccination' seems to be the touted 'Final Solution'

 
There is much we do not know - a bit humbling isn't it?

UCLA epidemiologist Anne Rimoin is not about to wait around for government support for something she thought could help crack some of the mysteries of the coronavirus and save lives.

Rimoin, an infectious disease expert who developed a healthcare worker monitoring program in Democratic Republic of the Congo, wanted to replicate that model here. Rather than write grant proposals and wait months to hear back, she went to a trusted colleague at UCLA — Dr. Grace Aldrovandi, a virology immunology expert who oversees 200 research labs in 18 countries — and together they started the UCLA COVID-19 Rapid Response Initiative.

If they can raise more money, they’d like to add 4,000 first responders to the study, along with 4,000 more healthcare workers from community hospitals.

“I’m a big fan of this and it’s going to give us some information we don’t currently have,” said Dr. Clayton Kazan, medical director of the L.A. County Fire Department, which is prepared to have a few thousand employees participate in the research as the UCLA effort ramps up.

Seems to be caused by the 'cytokine storm' that the immune system launches.

The story of Dr. Garrett Emery, the ER physician who took ill in Las Vegas ...

He’s a traveling ER doctor but lives in Las Vegas.

“I had difficulty breathing, a cough … some unusual sensations throughout my body and a burning in my chest. It almost felt like I could feel my lungs being damaged," said Emery, who also had a horrible metallic taste in his mouth.

A doctor prescribed hydroxychloroquine, the antimalarial drug that’s been in the news as a possible cure with potentially harmful side effects, and Zithromax, an antibiotic.

Emery only got worse.

An oximeter, the finger clip that measures the level of oxygen in the blood, showed that he was in the low 80s.

“It should be in the high 90s,” Emery said.

“My respiratory rate increased, I was breathing very quickly and at that point I realized, ‘I gotta go to the hospital.’"

That was on the morning of April 16. His lab work was not great and a chest X-ray showed moderate lung congestion.

He wanted to go home and nurse himself, but kept getting worse, to the point he feared he might have to be intubated and put on a ventilator.

Doctors tried high-flow oxygen for a day, then took another chest X-ray.

“It was one of the worst X-rays I have seen with this disease. Both my lungs were filled with gunk,” Emery said.

He continued to deteriorate, and his doctors recommended an infusion of convalescent plasma.

Marissa Li, a California-based pathologist with Vitalant, a nonprofit blood donation company that’s accepting and distributing plasma donations, located some plasma that matched Emery’s blood type at Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria.

On April 19 the infusion began around midnight.

“So the next day was the 20th and I was still bad, but in the afternoon things started to improve and I was requiring less oxygen,” Emery said.

“On the morning of the 21st, 36 hours after the infusion, I felt 30% to 40% better."

"I had no fever for the first day in two weeks. … I got my taste back and was able to get the oxygen turned all the way off.”

When someone recovers from COVID-19, it’s not clear why they improved, or whether they would have gotten better without medication.

Emery said he strongly believes the serum did the trick for him, and a phone conversation with Dr. Yu made him all the more certain.

Yu studied Emery’s lab work in collaboration with Emery’s doctors in Nevada.

Yu said Emery was in the midst of a cytokine storm, an often fatal condition in which the body attacks its own cells.

“As a lung specialist and critical-care specialist, I’ve never seen a turnaround like this,” Yu said.

“I’ve seen many cytokine storms, but I’ve never seen one progress to this stage and then make a U-turn.”

Emery went home a few days after receiving the infusion and planned to return to work the following Friday.

 
I expect over time we ar going to find out lots of unexpected things. Like whether a flu vacine was protective. It appears a tb vaccination is

and the role of obesity, diabetes........seems to mean that western countries, with higher rates of both , are hard hit

and other viruses. What about if you have had chicken pox, does it help to have varicella running around in your body? Does previous surgeries have any impact? So many men in North America have stents in for heart disease. Is it the heart disease or the stent that makes a difference. Diet? Are vegetarians as hard hit as meat eaters? Does that explain a lower rate in more vegetarian India.........

but most of that data will take time to emerge

i wonder if people who are fastidious clearers are more at risk, having less natural immunity to “stuff”. Much like kids who eat peanut butter have less allergies compared to kids whose parents are over careful. The concept of a bit of dirt never hurt you. Does that explain why poorer countries are doing better?

it will be interesting to look at risk factors after the fact. And hopefully be more aware for the next time
 
I know/ knew someone - a friend of a friend - who got Hep C tainted blood in the late 80s after a car accident. He has Hep C (but maybe better controlled now than years ago?). He had other issues, like alcohol abuse, that affected his wellness with the disease. Nice guy, sad circumstances. I hope he's doing okay these days. He was more of a danger to himself with his drinking habits.

I think it was part of the big scandal/ mistake back then, that affected a lot of people, and I think he got a settlement - if I remember correctly. I went to his home once with my other friend - I also remember being afraid of hugging him or shaking his hand or using his bathroom or drinking wine from his glasses (not sharing glasses - clean ones, but I was paranoid - but mostly he got too drunk and spouted off angrily - and I decided he wasn't someone I wanted to get to know too well - which is sad and maybe snobby or maybe self protective on my part).

My point of this long story really is that treatments are always a risk, but most often better than no treatments - including vaccines to stop the spread of viruses. In my mind - the risk depends on how serious and communicable (and acute and fast developing into a risk of death in days or weeks, like covid) the illness is.
 
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The numbers of covid where I live, today: 124 total cases, 105 recoveries, 25 'ever' hospitalized, 0 new cases in several days, 3 currently in hospital, 0 in ICU, 4 deaths (none in weeks). So that's 12 people - out of 794,000 - recovering at home? I don't find that too scary. If the news wasn't all covid all the time, I wouldn't be concerned at all. But I do hope the numbers stay down so there's no reason not to get on with life. One of the major, legitimate, concerns is with opening up tourism again too soon.

I ran into two teenage girls on my way home - sisters, former neighbours - walking. They said they were out looking for small potted plants at a couple of small shops. I asked if they checked the grocery store I had just come from. They said their mom won't let them go into any big stores. I told them better safe than sorry (don't want to contradict their mom, and she's a friend), and suggested that their parents might be interested checking the bccdc website for updates. I don't think everyone is doing that. They are watching/ reading the news, which is vague about where in BC the severe cases are. The news reports give a rundown on the country, and the whole province...but I think people assume it's worse here in this region, than it is. Maybe that's better for now? Or, is it?

p://www.bccdc.ca/Health-Info-Site/Documents/BC_Surveillance_Summary_May_5_2020_Final.pdf
 
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@Ritafee you're okay with blood transfusions, but not with vaccines? Why is that?
I'm not okay with Universal Mandatory Blood Transfusions ... or Mandatory Plasma Infusions ... get my drift?

Convalescent plasma therapy works differently than a vaccine (allegedly works).

Convalescent plasma therapy offers a short-term type of “passive immunity”.

The treatment is an infusion of antibody-rich plasma from people that have recovered from COVID-19, according to the Mayo Clinic.
 
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Omg! One more reason to go back to being vegetarian. I don’t want to support companies like this no matter where they are...but sweatshops like this should not exist in Canada. (Plus, it looks disgusting in there.)

A quote from the company president:

“If we need to feel the need to apologize, absolutely, we will apologize. We're a very humble organization, we feel bad about what happened but at the same time we're very confident in how we run our businesses, how we run our processes.”


:mad:Who even says stuff like that (besides Trump and terrible people)? “ If we need to feel the need to apologize”...wtf? Not only is it heartless, it doesn’t even make sense.
 
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Friends of Charles Eisenstein

This is the most lucid exposition of exosome theory that I have seen. I would add another wrinkle to it -- exosomes can be "contagious" as well, blurring the distinction between exosomes and viruses. In many situations it is good that they are contagious: basically, what is happening is that one cell or organism is "teaching" others how exactly to meet the environmental challenge. Because, exosomes are not generic. A specific configuration is necessary for each type of challenge. So, the genetic information spreads from organism to organism. For some, it is "too much information," and the infected person gets sick and dies. Bad news for them, but on the population level, that is what has to happen for the new information encoded in the exosomes to spread.

One of the hardest things for our polarized political culture to understand is that things are not usually black and white. When one learns that naive virus theory cannot explain Covid-19, there is a temptation to jump to a polar alternative and say there isn't a virus or even that no diseases are caused by viruses. That will make you sound silly to anyone who has studied virology. Viruses were discovered at the end of the 19th century BECAUSE of infection. The tobacco Mosaic Virus was the first discovered, when they took sap from infected plants and injected tiny amounts of it into healthy plants. The healthy plants got sick, and there were no bacteria present. It was originally called a "non-filterable virus".
So, I would challenge those who are promoting exosome theory to be less dogmatic, and look at the possibility that viruses and exosomes are on a continuum; that each offers a lens. In some cases the virus lens is more useful. In the case of Covid-19, I actually think the exosome lens is more useful. It would invite us to ask what is making our environment so toxic. it would invite different social responses. It would shift focus onto boosting overall health and immunity. And it would undermine the rampant fear of the world and other people that the virus lens plays into.
It is with that grain of salt that I am sharing the attached video. I don't agree with it 100%, but it adds crucial information to the conversation.
 
I'm not okay with Universal Mandatory Blood Transfusions ... or Mandatory Plasma Infusions ... get my drift?

Convalescent plasma therapy works differently than a vaccine (allegedly works).

Convalescent plasma therapy offers a short-term type of “passive immunity”.

The treatment is an infusion of antibody-rich plasma from people that have recovered from COVID-19, according to the Mayo Clinic.
It also requires a lot of blood donation which is needed for other things. Donated blood is a precious thing. It would require the consent of the recovered people to keep donating blood, wouldn’t it? (Or are they mandated to do it?) Vaccines, once they have one, can be produced without blood donation or using a human.
 
I find myself quite puzzled by some of the rules. Like the nimrod in Ottawa who said no waving through windows. Omg. Let’s get serious here. If visitors are standing too close to each other, then deal with that individual issue

and parks. I get that we don’t want people congregating. So you have a bylaw officer, not to ticket but to move people along. Beaches the same. People can be outside and be much further from each other than they ever are in a store

i feel like bureaucrats are just getting silly
I have heard that the infection chances are much lower if you’re outside. Many are upset by the park bans.
 
Does WC2 now need to spread misinformation that even youtube takes off because it is so wrong?
Youtube is notorious for censorship. They didn’t used to be. It started about two years ago. And it’s been gaining steam with the pandemic. It is not a reliable indicator of quality or accuracy. They are heavily favouring corporate content, CNN and so on.
 
That video has been taken down by YouTube for breaking their rules. Someone sent it to me and I couldn't watch it.
I actually didn’t even finish watching it. It starts with an avalanche of poorly presented statistics. Nothing written down, no charts, just the doctor reeling off figures.

One thing that bothered was that to make comparisons of two areas w.r.t. Covid, you typically want per capita data. What good are totals if the areas are wildly different in population?

Yet these doctors were going the opposite way, using per capita dats to arrive at totals. I don’t have time for that. I follow several doctors on Youtube and they are all clear and concise.
 
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