new deadly human-to-human-transmissible coronavirus emerges out of China
POSTED BY: 1KIKI
UPDATED: Tuesday, May 5, 2026 22:21
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Listening to KNX1070 again last night I caught some interesting information.
The British COVID-19 variant is more deadly BECAUSE it's more transmissible. People who have it 'deliver' a higher 'dose' of virus particles. And that makes the recipient have a worse case of COVID-19.
It also said that the experts expect the vaccine effectiveness to drop because of the variants, but that it should be effective 'enough' even if ti's only @ 70%.
One interesting tidbit that I caught was that when people who've had 'regular' COVID-19 had their antibodies tested against the SA variant, 50% had reduced biding, but the other 50% had no effect at all.
So this hesitation in the news to say that variants are more deadly, and that vaccines may not work, is going to end up as decidedly misleading in NOT THE NEWS.
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... the effort to snuff out COVID-19 is becoming an ever more urgent race between the vaccine and the mutating virus.
Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, ... said she is concerned that the more contagious variants of the virus could lead to a deadly resurgence later this year. “I think we were on track to have a good — or a better, at least — spring and summer, and I’m worried that the variants might be throwing us a curveball,” she said.
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-us-update-29c07f020bca0aa4a48a8
5dae5aa1457
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Signy
This might be helpful information for you.
You can check out N95s (and variations thereof like P100s) here:
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/topics/respirators/cel/default.html
and here
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/topics/respirators/disp_part/respsourc
e.html
Apparently there are many, many, many counterfeits:
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/usernotices/counterfeitResp.html
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This is not about COVID-19, but about the (claimed) problems of focusing on SARS-CoV-2 infection to the exclusion of other infections: NYTimes
Quote:
With All Eyes on Covid-19, Drug-Resistant Infections Crept In
The spread of other dangerous germs is surging — a result, in part, of the chaotic response to the pandemic.
By Matt Richtel
Jan. 27, 2021 Updated 1:25 p.m. ET
As Covid-19 took hold over the last year, hospitals and nursing homes used and reused scarce protective equipment — masks, gloves, gowns. This desperate frugality helped prevent the airborne transfer of the virus.
But it also appears to have helped spread a different set of germs — drug-resistant bacteria and fungi — that have used the chaos of the pandemic to grow opportunistically in health care settings around the globe.
These bacteria and fungi, like Covid-19, prey on older people, the infirm and those with compromised immune systems. They can cling tenaciously to clothing and medical equipment, which is why nursing homes and hospitals before the pandemic were increasingly focused on cleaning rooms and changing gowns to prevent their spread.
That emphasis all but slipped away amid an all-consuming focus on the coronavirus. In fact, experts warn, the changes in hygiene and other practices caused by the Covid-19 fight are likely to have contributed to the spread of these drug-resistant germs.
“Seeing the world as a one-pathogen world is really problematic,” said Dr. Susan S. Huang, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California at Irvine Medical School, noting that the nearly singular focus on the pandemic appears to have led to more spread of drug-resistant infection. “We have every reason to believe the problem has gotten worse.”
A few data points reinforce her fears, including isolated outbreaks of various drug-resistant infections in Florida, New Jersey and California, as well as in India, Italy, Peru and France. Overall figures have been hard to track because many nursing homes and hospitals simply stopped screening for the germs as resources were diverted to Covid-19.
When even modest screening picked up again early in the summer, the results suggested that certain drug-resistant organisms had taken root and spread. Particularly troublesome have been growing case counts of a fungus called Candida auris, which authorities had tried to fight before the pandemic with increased screening, isolation of infected patients and better hygiene. Some strains of C. auris are resistant to all three major classes of antifungal drugs.
These intensive efforts had limited the spread of C. auris to a handful of cases in Los Angeles County. Now there are around 250, said Dr. Zachary Rubin, who leads the county’s infection control efforts at health care facilities.
“We saw a blooming in Candida auris,” said Dr. Rubin, who attributed the change to a handful of factors, notably the challenges in testing for the germ when so many testing resources went toward Covid-19.
Noxious drug-resistant bacteria are surfacing too, including Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, which is considered an “urgent health threat” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In December, the C.D.C. reported a cluster of Acinetobacter baumannii during a surge of Covid-19 patients in an urban New Jersey hospital with about 500 beds. The hospital was not identified. And hospitals in Italy and Peru saw the spread of the bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae.
In an acknowledgment of the issue, three major medical societies sent a letter on Dec. 28 to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services asking for a temporary suspension of rules that tie reimbursement rates to hospital-acquired infections. The three groups — the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists, and the Association for Infection Control and Epidemiology — feared that the infection rates may have risen because of Covid-19.
“Patient care staffing, supplies, care sites and standard practices have allNOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
This is so brain-dead simple, why doesn't Fauci see it?
Quote:
Opinion: Everyone should be wearing N95 masks now
Joseph G. Allen is an associate professor and director of the Healthy Buildings program at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He co-wrote “Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity.”
We are rightly grateful to the front-line health-care workers who put their lives on the line each day. Their relative risk of death rose 20 percent in 2020 over previous years.
We should also be grateful for the bakers and cooks, whose risk of death rose more than 50 percent. And for maids and truck drivers, who saw a 30 percent increase in death risk. And construction workers and shipping clerks, up more than 40 percent.
Those numbers come from a new report out of California that shines a light on the shocking risk to covid-19 by occupation. It also shows how necessary it is that we ramp up protections for essential workers. The best way to do that: better masks.
In the scrambling for information and tools in early days of the pandemic, it was acceptable to just say any cloth mask will do because it’s true. Any face covering is better than none.
But we’ve learned so much since then, and we need to adjust our strategy. A typical cloth mask might capture half of all respiratory aerosols that come out of our mouth when we talk, sing or just breathe. A tightly woven cloth mask might get you to 60 or 70 percent, and a blue surgical mask can get you to 70 or 80 percent.
But there’s no reason any essential worker — and, really, everyone in the country — should go without masks that filter 95 percent.
The masks I’m referring to, of course, are N95s. These are cheap — pre-pandemic they cost about 50 cents — and easy to manufacture. Yet our country has failed to invoke the Defense Production Act to produce enough masks for health-care workers and other essential workers. That needs to change, as my colleagues at Harvard Medical School have written
To see the true power of masks as a public health tool, we have to examine them in the context of everyone wearing them, where the power of each mask doubles. That’s because the particles have to pass through the material twice — once after being emitted and again before someone breathes them in. Take the example of two 70 percent efficient masks, which combine to reduce 91 percent of particles. Not bad. But two N95s result in greater than a 99 percent reduction in exposure.
Think about that for a minute. We could reduce exposure by 99 percent for what should be $1 a mask. (Prices are higher now because of the failure to produce an adequate supply.) Throw in better ventilation and some distance between people, and you have hospital-grade protections.
How well a mask works isn’t just about filtration; it must also fit well. A mask with a good set of filters doesn’t do much good if your breath can escape out the sides or top. The mask needs to go over the bridge of your nose, down around your chin and be flush against your cheeks.
Americans should become familiar with ways to test a mask’s fit. Every time you put on a mask, do a “user seal check.” Put your hands over the mask to block the air moving through it, and exhale gently. You shouldn’t feel air coming out the side or up toward your eyes. Then, test to make sure it stays in place by moving your head side to side and all around. Read passages of text, like the “Rainbow Passage” that’s commonly used for respirator fit testing, and see whether the mask slides around too much when you talk.
Beyond the basics of filtration and fit, consumers will need to navigate a confusing market. Is a KN95 mask acceptable? How about KF94? Does country of origin matter? What about counterfeits? A formal federal program could help by offering clear guidance on hi-fi masks.
Until that happens, here’s my cheat sheet: If you can find an N95, go for it. These are certified in the United States. Barring that, I’d go for the certified mask used in South Korea,NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Signy, here's a non-technical explanation re different masks and standards. It does have some useful tips and alternatives to N and KN.
https://www.salon.com/2021/01/27/covid-19-face-masks-how-filtration-ma
sks--like-the-kn95-n95-and-kn94--differ/
"The number on all of those refers to its filtration efficiency, so the percentage of articles that it stops from getting through"
"The N in N95 stands for NIOSH [The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health], and that's the U.S. standard, and it's an occupational standard," Volckens said. "KN95 is a Chinese standard that is close to the U.S. standard and KF94 is a Korean standard."
"N" is also a NIOSH-rating for masks that are non-resistant to oil.
KF literally stands for "Korean filter." Notably, a study published in 2020 showed that KF94 masks are comparable to the N95 in blocking SARS-CoV-2 particles, and more effective than a surgical mask. However, the study was quite limited as only seven patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection participated in it.
"KF94s seem to be more readily available than the N95, less expensive [generally under $2 each] and easier to use for many people," Sonali Advani, an assistant professor of medicine at Duke University, told NPR. "KF94 is actually intended for public use. In Korea they are often worn by ordinary citizens to filter out dust or pollution."
Volckens explained that N95 masks are only certified by one lab that is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and that is partly why supply can't meet demand right now.
"They're very stringent on who they let become an N95, which is why you don't see a lot of them on the market anymore because they've all been purchased," Volckens said. "The problem with KN95 and KN94s is that there are a lot of imposters on the market, and we don't know what you're buying."
When it comes to N95 masks, each mask has a stamp that states it was certified by NIOSH with a certification number that you can look up online. Volckens added there are also masks that have ASTM [American Society for Testing and Materials] standards that are "nearly equivalent" to N95 masks— like the FFP2, which stands for "filtering face-piece two level" mask.
In some parts of Europe, like Germany, the federal and state governments are mandating that FFP2 masks are used in stores and on public transportation now. According to NPR, Austria is making similar recommendations. In France, the High Council for Public Health announced it is also recommending people wear surgical masks in public— instead of fabric masks.
In the U.S., the CDC continues to recommend fabric masks for the general public, as long as they have at least two layers.
Volckens said people should buy masks from a supplier that has been filter tested. Regarding the fit of the mask, that can be reconciled by double masking.
"That's why you can double mask because you can buy a mask that doesn't fit well but then use something else to hold that mask closer to your face," Volckens said. "That's what we talk about double masking being effective on fit."
Or get those mask-fitting add-ons you posted above.
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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/los-angeles-california-cov
id-cases.html
Los Angeles County is at an extremely high risk level.
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Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine appears safe and effective, according to new study
https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2021-02-02/study-russia-sputnik-
covid-vaccine-appears-safe-effective
This is an AP-based story that may be behind the LATimes paywall. If it's behind a paywall, here's some alternate AP-based links:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russias-sputnik-v-covid-vaccine-a
ppears-effective-study-finds/ar-BB1djUCD
https://nypost.com/2021/02/02/russias-covid-19-vaccine-is-91-percent-e
ffective-study/
https://www.stltoday.com/news/world/study-russias-sputnik-v-vaccine-ap
pears-safe-effective/article_38d1edb8-3630-57a8-8772-e60fd01892c7.html
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After months of ignoring it when not outright belittling it, western media finally has to admit Russia's COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V is an international hit.
Putin’s Once-Scorned Vaccine Now Favorite in Pandemic Fight
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-06/putin-s-once-scorne
d-vaccine-is-now-a-favorite-in-pandemic-fight
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"Our initial findings suggest that introduction through an intermediary host species is the most likely passway and one that will require more studies and more specific targeted research ... The findings suggest that a laboratory incident hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus into the human population," the WHO expert said.
https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/world-int/18671-coronavirus-laboratory-in
cident-hypothesis-extremely-unlikely-who.html
As always, this requires some research and verification, not just that the reporting is accurate, but also that it's complete, and important caveats and disclaimers weren't left out.
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