new deadly human-to-human-transmissible coronavirus emerges out of China
POSTED BY: 1KIKI
UPDATED: Tuesday, May 5, 2026 22:21
VIEWED: 203741
PAGE 241 of 283
I snickered when the US bought another 100M AstraZeneca doses, right after the new variant was announced. Yeah! AZ - dump those vaccines onto the market ASAP and get your money out of them just in case!
I don't know how the SA variant happened, but elsewhere it's been proposed that antibody treatment is the driving force behind the speedy virus evolution - which makes sense. Viruses that can be tagged by antibodies will be destroyed by the immune system. But a virus that resists being attached to by the cocktail of antibodies used against it will go on to reproduce more resistant viruses.
FWIW I've always maintained that vaccines need to be done in stages - first, a vaccination against pure viral (or bacterial) protein snippets that in themselves can never cause an infection. And those are the kinds of vaccines being administered now, no matter how those protein snippets are generated (mRNA, or adenovirus, or other). Second, a vaccine using whole killed viral (or bacterial) particles. And finally, a vaccine using weakened (attenuated) live virus (or bacteria).
And the US should put down travel barriers and begin testing for virus variants, like other modern countries do. But that won't happen, I'm pretty sure. Why the US won't institute travel restrictions is beyond me. But when it comes to testing, the US is literally incapable of scaling-up to the level required because it depends on for-profit and (therefore) under-funded, siloed, small-scale facilities.
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Buckle up.
We're all going to get it. It's never going to go away.
The first draft of anything is shit. :)
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Quote:I'm putting a political tag on this, because it's a chance for the incoming Biden* administration and democratic* congress to show me what they're made of.
Along with vaccine rollouts, the U.S. needs a National Hi-Fi (high filtration - 1kiki) Mask Initiative
https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/07/national-hi-fi-mask-initiative-nee
ded-with-vaccine-rollouts/
Unlike other masks which primarily protect others, these masks protect the wearer. So there would be no need to make them mandatory. If you want to protect yourself, just go ahead and wear them. If you have some objection, you can always go without.
If democrats* don't do any different, how are they any better?
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Quote:Been what I've been proposing all along.
Originally posted by 1KIKI:Quote:I'm putting a political tag on this, because it's a chance for the incoming Biden* administration and democratic* congress to show me what they're made of.
Along with vaccine rollouts, the U.S. needs a National Hi-Fi (high filtration - 1kiki) Mask Initiative
https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/07/national-hi-fi-mask-initiative-nee
ded-with-vaccine-rollouts/
Unlike other masks which primarily protect others, these masks protect the wearer. So there would be no need to make them mandatory. If you want to protect yourself, just go ahead and wear them. If you have some objection, you can always go without.
If democrats* don't do any different, how are they any better?
The hangup is supply. Apparently the wildfires caused a huge demand for firefighting.
MOST N95s are STILL made in China. And have you tried getting any from Amazon lately?? They will tell you that they're prioritized for healthcare and other "frontline" workers, so unless you want to lie and register yourself as a "company" (which may ultimately get your shopping privileges revoked) there's no joy there.
And there are a lot of counterfeits out there. The CDC has a whole webpage on how to tell counterfeits from good ones, plus another webpage of approved manufacturers that have been tested and have the required filtration efficiency. Fortunately, I did find an online supplier (that I'll keep to myself until I get family, neighbors, and friends stocked up) where the mfr was certified by both CDC and NIOSH. They feel a bit lighter and softer than the Benehal ones I had that I had earlier, but we've been using them and haven't gotten sick so far (knock on wood).
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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Signy - an alert:
'The virus is out of control': 1 in 5 COVID tests are positive in L.A. County
https://news.yahoo.com/virus-control-1-5-covid-200016023.html
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I keep waiting for this to die down so I can see my ENT surgeon, because the one thing you can't do masked is have someone poke a scope up your nose.
Another thing is going to the dentist. I keep getting notifications that I'm late for my cleaning. OTOH I have gotten three or four notices that the office is closed ... for 14 days... the exact incubation time for Covid-19, which makes me think she or her staff have had multiple exposures.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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CNN is the original source for the other stories reported in the news. It (claims it) obtained a 'report' from the Coronavirus Task Force, but provided no link to the original.
Quote:
White House task force says there could be a fast-spreading 'USA variant' of coronavirus
“Without uniform implementation of effective face masking (two or three ply and well-fitting) and strict social distancing, epidemics could quickly worsen as these variants spread and become predominant.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/08/politics/white-house-coronavirus-ta
sk-force-reports/index.html
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Quote:This is behind a paywall, so I can't provide a good URL, but it is from ConsumerLab
How to reduce air leakage around a mask
Mask fitters
Masks fitters are a "frame" that can be placed over masks to improve the fit and "seal" of the mask against the face to reduce air leakage and increase inhalation filtration efficiency. Using mannequins that could "breathe," researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that placing either of two marketed mask fitters over a variety of masks increased inhalation filtration efficiencies from just 7% without the fitter to 26% for a 4-ply cotton mask, from 52% to 63% for a 3-ply spunbond polypropylene mask, from 44% to 91% for a surgical mask, and from only 18% up to as much as 95% for a 3-ply disposable non-medical mask with a melt-blown polypropylene center. Sign in to learn make a mask fitter at home or buy either of the two used in the study.
Nylon stockings
Another way to reduce air leaks was suggested by a study at Northeastern University in Boston, which showed that pulling an 8 to 10-inch tube of nylon (cut from a queen-sized nylon stocking) down over a regular mask and to the top of the neck. This significantly prevented air leakage around the mask and improved particle filtration efficiency, making the combined masking nearly as effective as an N-95 respirator which, unlike a medical mask, has an electrostatic charge and is specifically designed to prevent air leakage (Mueller, medRxiv 2020 --preprint; Godoy, NPR.org 4/22/20).
Similarly, a study found that adding a sleeve of nylon hosiery over a medical procedural mask with ear loops (Cardinal Health Inc) increased its overall filtration efficiency from just 38.5% to 80%. Other techniques that created a better fit for the procedure mask to reduce air leakage included tying the ear loops and tucking in the side pleats (see video demonstration), which increased filtration efficiency to 60.3%, or securing the ear loops with ear guards (61.7%), a hair clip (64.8%) or placing three rubber bands across the front of the mask and looped on the ears (78.2%) (Clapp, JAMA Intern Med 2020).
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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This is what a mask-fitter looks like
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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‘Our New York Moment’: Virus Surges in Southern California
In the coming days, Los Angeles County will reach a level where one in 10 residents has tested positive for the coronavirus.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/us/california-coronavirus.html
To put that in perspective, the US has a tot al of 22,060,588 confirmed cases ( https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html) or about 6.8% of the population.
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