trendless

trendless, 7 months ago to random

The common cold being a civilization- or world-ending threat has been done enough times that it's become a trope.

Yet here we are.

trendless, 7 months ago to novid

> By both Ct value and antigen concentration measurements, median viral loads rose from the day of symptom onset and peaked on the fourth/fifth day. Ag RDT sensitivity estimates were 30.0-60.0% on the first day, 59.2-74.8% on the third day, and 80.0-93.3% on the fourth day of symptoms.

> In 74 influenza A PCR-positive individuals (55.4% women; median 35.0y), median influenza viral loads peaked on the second day of symptoms.

> In a highly immune adult population, median SARS-CoV-2 viral loads peaked around the fourth day of symptoms. Influenza A viral loads peaked soon after symptom onset. These findings have implications for ongoing use of Ag RDTs for COVID-19 and influenza.

https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciad582/7285011

@novid #CovidIsNotOver #LFT #RAT

trendless, 7 months ago to random

Hooray, we successfully flattened** the curve! #MissionAccomplished

(**the water's high as 🤬 and everyone's drowning, but..)

trendless, 2 years ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

Choose the right mask

Cloth 👎
Surgical 👎
Halloween 👎 🤪

N95 / FFP2 👍
N99 / FFP3 👍👍
N100 👍👍
P100 / elasto 👍👍👍

Wearing a mask doesn't stop COVID, not inhaling SARS2 stops COVID

If the mask you're wearing doesn't filter all the air you breathe, it can't protect you.

#MaskMeansRespirator #WearARespirator #N95OrBust #P100FTW

trendless, 7 months ago to random

> transplanting the gut microbes of people with Alzheimer’s disease into healthy rats causes the animals to develop symptoms of the disease.

> human patients were found to have higher levels of inflammation-promoting bacteria within their fecal samples, which correlated with their degree of cognitive impairment.

> “The memory tests we investigated rely on the growth of new nerve cells in the hippocampus region of the brain. We saw that animals with gut bacteria from people with Alzheimer’s produced fewer new nerve cells and had impaired memory,”

> the team corroborated their findings in human cell cultures, showing that serum from patients with Alzheimer’s disease impaired the growth and functioning of these cells.

https://www.iflscience.com/alzheimers-disease-memory-decline-transferred-to-healthy-young-brains-in-world-first-71211

Study: Microbiota from Alzheimer’s patients induce deficits in cognition and hippocampal neurogenesis (pub. 2023-10-18) ⤵️
https://academic.oup.com/brain/advance-article/doi/10.1093/brain/awad303/7308687?login=false

trendless, 9 months ago to random

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/leprosy-may-be-endemic-florida-cdc-rcna97567

“Although leprosy can spread person to person, it's not known precisely how. The disease does not spread through casual physical contact like shaking hands or sitting next to a person on the bus, according to the CDC. Rather, scientists' current thinking is that the bacteria gets transmitted via droplets from an infected person's coughs or sneezes during a prolonged period of close contact.”

Droplet dogma strikes again?

#MaskUp

trendless, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to novid

>SARS-CoV-2 is a protean virus. It seems designed to reinfect a previously infected host, changing its outer coat as well as some of its properties.

>We all remember Omicron and how it swept the world that had already experienced several waves of Covid cases. There were so many changes in the outer spike protein of Omicron that previous infections did little to protect from new infections. How much previous infection protects from disease still remains in question.

>BA.2… contained 54 amino acid mutations from the original Wuhan virus. The cause for concern with BA.2.86 is that it contains 41 amino acid mutations on top of the BA.2 mutations, totaling 95 mutations from the Wuhan virus.

>BA.2.86 is likely a common descendant of one of the original Omicron variants, BA.2, [?and a more recent variant, XBB?]. In the spike protein of BA.2.86, we see 60 amino acid mutations, including substitutions and deletions. For context, the Alpha variant, which fueled the second-largest surge of cases in the United States behind the initial Omicron surge, contained just ten spike amino acid mutations. Dr. Eric Topol describes BA.2.86 as "Omicron Squared."

>…the updated Covid vaccine set to be released this fall is designed to protect against the XBB.1.5 variant, but not BA.2.86. The hope is that the vaccine will protect against BA.2.86 should it widely circulate, but it would be unsurprising if the variant evaded booster protection, given the degree to which BA.2.86 is mutated in the spike is extreme.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2023/08/24/covid-19-the-shapeshifting-protean-virus/

#CovidIsNotOver #CovidIsAirborne #MaskUp #WearARespirator #BringBackMasks @novid

trendless, 8 months ago to random

Here we have two non-ID doctors saying things like,

> This is not just an acute illness.

> We now know the virus can cause longer-term impacts like long COVID.

> …we do need a public conversation about how the virus continues to evolve and what the real risks are — not just in the short term but for our long-term health.

> If we’re asking people to assess their own risks, they need to understand the virus is transmitted through the respiratory system by airborne measures so it can travel around corners and stay in the air.

> HIV doesn’t cause problems right away but later, when your immune system is depressed.

> We are worried about the number of people who have repeat infections.

> …you don’t expect to get infected with influenza once or twice a year, more like every five years.

> Alberta schools without mask mandates had three times more outbreaks than those with mandates.

> I’ve worked with kids for 30 years and they’re great vectors for transmission of airborne diseases.

> [Vaccines] clearly don’t prevent transmission but do reduce severity, hospitalization, death… they don’t prevent you from getting COVID over and over. And multiple infections contribute to the systemic manifestations of the disease down the line.

And an ID doctor saying things like,

> Even at the peak of the pandemic, public grade schools were among the safest environments for children because we knew who was coming and going and could isolate cases. I’m not aware of evidence that school environments amplified transmission. Schools were at or below levels of community transmission.

> Keep washing our hands too. Masks are another layer of defence but I’m not seeing a mask mandate in schools as necessary right now.

> COVID is endemic. We need to plan as a society how we will deal with it from cradle to grave.

Tell me why we've 🤬 ourselves without telling me…

https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/09/25/Health-Experts-BC-COVID-Strategy/

trendless, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

Client: "Will you mask for me?"

Service Provider: "I'm not required to."

What hath public health wrought?

trendless, 8 months ago to random

Otherwise we can look forward to yet another exponential increase in cases in November/December, once all the newly-boosted folk have unmasked.

trendless, 9 months ago to random

"...when you're sick."

Exactly how are people to know this?

Surely we aren't still assuming only those with symptoms are sick and/or can transmit.

So then, is there widespread access to testing that can be done anytime, anywhere, to ensure we catch the absolute glut of a-, presymptomatic, and maybe even persistent cases?

#CovidIsNotOver #WearARespirator #MaskUp #NoReally #Always #DontShareAir

A pandemic of little white lies

trendless, 9 months ago to random

The "COVID is airborne, mask up" to "vax+relax" to "I've got a cold, again" pipeline is real.

trendless, 9 months ago to random

If I'm a professional who's COVID cautious, I've long ago cut any/all ties with CDC and have been decrying their complete abandonment of long-established public health principles, up-to-date science, etc, for quite some time.

As I'm not, I'm incredulous at those who are and haven't.

trendless, 8 months ago to random

You're getting a new normal whether you like it or not. Dyou want the fake one that panders to your base selfishness and presses you into service as machinery for billionaires, or the real one that will be harder and more rewarding?

trendless, 8 months ago to random

377 cases of E. coli; that's gotta be immunity debt, yeah?

trendless, 4 months ago to random

Gotta love getting this when it's -40°C out.

Thanks for kiboshing all the renewable projects, UCP. Reliability really is priority number one 🤪

#ABLeg #ABPoli #ABwx

trendless, 1 year ago (edited 5 months ago) to random

A "well-fitting mask" that "fits well" is one that...

...provides adequate cover of one's face, neither being too small nor too large :drake_dislike:

...seals to one's face, completely encircling the nose+mouth such that no air can bypass the filtration material :drake_like:

#MaskUp #BetterMasks #MaskMeansRespirator #N95OrBust #P100IsEvenBetter #P100FTW #FitTestingForAll

trendless, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to novid

It's absolutely true that we're not in the same place as in 2020 — back then, most people actually tried not to get/give SARS-CoV-2. Case counts and community transmission were lower, too.

#CovidIsNotOver #ItDoesntEndUntilWeEndIt #PandemicGroundhogDay @novid

trendless, 9 months ago to random

“According to the World Health Organization, globally, infectious disease is a leading cause of death among children. Furthermore, children are more likely than adults to contract infectious illnesses.”

Orly? Who knew!? 🤯😱

/s

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-children-sick-interaction-safe.html

#CovidExceptionalism #SarsCov2IsNotNovel

trendless, 6 months ago to novid

Apparently Airinium's having a sale right now -- 50% of site-wide with the coupon PRE50. I'm not familiar, but they look interesting..

https://www.airinum.com/collections/pure-air

#MaskUp #COVIDisAirborne @novid

trendless, 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago) to random

:drake_dislike: "iMmUniTy dEbT"
:drake_like: immunity theft

“Severe Diarrhea Cases Surging Across UK, And Scientists Don't Know Why” https://www.sciencealert.com/severe-diarrhea-cases-surging-across-uk-and-scientists-dont-know-why

trendless, 3 months ago to random

People are inclined to hide a contagious illness while around others, research shows https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/01/240129182421.htm

> Across a series of studies involving healthy and sick adults, 75% of the 4,110 participants said they had either hidden an infectious illness from others at least once or might do so in the future.

trendless, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to WFH

https://fortune.com/2024/02/09/remote-work-jobs-disappearing-ringover-survey/

https://archive.is/ezLhk

> Across industries, U.S. work from home roles have shrunk by a quarter since 2021, new data from software firm Ringover finds.

> Forget the fact that nearly every expert insists that flexible work arrangements—guided principally by employee desires—are the way of the future. Disregard, too, the fact that many workers insist they’re more productive working from home—and more likely to feel empowered to do their best work under a boss who allows them to work where they want. And pretend you don’t know that return-to-office mandates are near-universally reviled and lead to rapid retention issues, bitter company culture, and swelling resentment—with worsened productivity to boot.

#RTO #WFH

trendless, 11 months ago to novid

This is perfect :chef_kiss:

When you define 50%+1 as "everyone" and dgaf about anyone else… that's what this is a pandemic of. Sorry 20M Canadians, 168M Americans, et al

See: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4071182-more-in-new-poll-say-pandemic-is-over-but-fewer-than-half-say-lives-are-back-to-normal/

ht https://med-mastodon.com/@rchusid/110622319860790935

#CovidIsNotOver @novid

trendless, 2 months ago to random

Biggest disappointment with :mastodon: 4.2 webUI thus far: can't hide link previews. At the very least, the card should be blurred (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/29431), but I'd still like the option back to not show it at all.