Covid-19

[Mr Dee]

V.L.T. s 

Agreed. Virus Limiting Technology should be open to everyone. 🙃

[FrostyWinnipeg]

 

[Wideleft]

Getting An Antibody Test For The Coronavirus? Here's What It Won't Tell You

May 21, 202010:28 AM ET

 

Salvador Perez got really sick in April. He's 53 and spent weeks isolated in his room in his family's Chicago apartment, suffering through burning fevers, shivering chills, intense chest pain and other symptoms of COVID-19.

"This has been one of the worst experiences of his life," says Perez's daughter, Sheila, who translated from Spanish to English for an interview with NPR. "He didn't think he was going to make it."

Perez recovered and now wants to go back to work as a chef at a Chinese restaurant. But his boss told him he needs a test — an antibody test — first. So he found a place to get one and tested positive. His blood indeed has antibodies to the novel coronavirus — proteins that his immune system produced when it fought off the pathogen.

"He feels great that he can get ... back to work, since we haven't really paid our bills," Sheila Perez says. "And he feels great that he can start doing what he did before the virus again."

But her father is also nervous. His doctor told him the antibodies might give him some protection against catching the virus again but also stressed that's far from guaranteed.

"He's anxious that he doesn't want to get sick. He's kind of scared of going back to work because ... he might go through it again," his daughter says.

Salvador Perez is right to be worried. It's still not certain that antibodies measured by such a test would protect him from catching the virus again. And if the antibodies are protective, it's unknown how strong that protection might be or how long it might last. There are also questions about the reliability of many antibody tests being sold.

Researchers are urgently trying to answer those uncertainties and figure how best to conduct antibody testing.

Nevertheless, increasing numbers of people are getting the tests — many without recognizing how much is still unknown about what the results mean.

Some employers, such as Perez's restaurant, are requiring workers to take antibody tests if they want to continue working or return to their jobs. Others are getting employees tested to see how widely the virus has spread through their workforce and to try to find ways to improve worker safety. And some labor unions are helping workers get tested in hopes of offering them some sense of security against the virus.

In addition, some individuals are buying the tests themselves out of curiosity and to use as a basis for personal decisions, such as whether it's safe to start spending more time with close friends and extended family members who are outside the household.

But the idea of using antibody testing in these ways worries many doctors and public health authorities because there are many common misconceptions.

For starters, the antibody tests are only a sign of past infection. Whether the infection is actually gone can only be determined by a diagnostic test that identifies genetic material from the virus or viral particles.

Some people also falsely think testing positive on an antibody test proves they can't get infected with the virus again.

"I think people just want this to go away and want to resume their normal lives," says Kelly Wroblewski, director of infectious disease for the Association of Public Health Laboratories. "But my fear is [antibody tests are] going to be used as this sort of golden ticket to demonstrate immunity — when we just don't know if that's the case."

Still, Wroblewski and others acknowledge the results might offer at least some useful guidance in certain cases.

"If I had a household where I had a number of younger individuals in the household, one of whom had antibodies, I think that that individual would probably be the safest bet to be able to safely go to get the groceries," says Michael Mina, an assistant professor of immunology and infectious disease at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

But, Mina quickly adds, "I still wouldn't want that individual going to get groceries and then going the next day to a nursing home to see Grandma." Having antibodies against the coronavirus is just no guarantee that you won't pick up or pass along an infection, he says.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/21/857961304/getting-an-antibody-test-for-the-coronavirus-heres-what-it-wont-tell-you

[Mark H.]

47 minutes ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

 

No thanks.  We look after an abandoned gravel pit. Cans, bottles and broken glass are a constant problem.  Drinking in a public park is the last thing I would want see. 

[TrueBlue4ever]

Early results in on Sweden's herd immunity efforts (unless they've gone back to denying that was the reason for no lockdown). Short version, not great, and maybe no better than other countries that did lock down. And if the post 2 above is any indication, testing positive for antibodies is no guarantee of immunity anyway.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/21/health/sweden-herd-immunity-coronavirus-intl/index.html

[The Unknown Poster]

44 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

No thanks.  We look after an abandoned gravel pit. Cans, bottles and broken glass are a constant problem.  Drinking in a public park is the last thing I would want see. 

I wonder though, if they allowed it and provided increased garbage and recycling bins, if people would be more responsible to avoid losing it.  Send in the by law officers to hand out littering tickets.

[bustamente]

I need to find the company that makes these masks

[Tracker]

 

 

                                                          

[Tracker]

Trump: ‘I Tested Very Positively’ for COVID-19  I TESTED‘POSITIVELY TOWARD THE NEGATIVE’
Justin Baragona

President Donald Trump was apparently so proud that he still doesn’t have coronavirus that he attempted to put a sunny spin on his most recent test results, briefly claiming he tested “positively” for the virus before explaining “negative” means “positive.”

Telling reporters Wednesday that he thinks he has “another day” of his two-week regiment of the unproven anti-malaria hydroxychloroquine—which he says he’s taking as a coronavirus prophylactic—Trump then boasted about his latest COVID-19 test. “And I tested very positively in another sense,” Trump bellowed. “So this morning, I tested positively toward negative, right? So no, I tested perfectly this morning. Meaning I tested negative. But that’s a way of saying it: Positively toward the negative.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-boasts-that-he-tested-very-positively-for-covid-19

(As if we needed any more proof that Trump is almost as smart as dryer lint)

[Tracker]

Leaked Pentagon memo undercuts Trump's big promise: No vaccine until “at least the summer of 2021”

Trump and his defense secretary tout a vaccine by year's end. An internal Pentagon memo paints a different pic 

A leaked Pentagon memo obtained by the military news outlet Task & Purpose undercut President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Mark Esper's claims that a coronavirus vaccine would be widely available by the end of the year.

[do or die]

Trump says US won't close over second COVID-19 wave

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/499054-trump-says-he-will-not-close-country-if-there-is-a-second-wave-of

[FrostyWinnipeg]

The province is reporting no new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.

Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer, said there still have been 290 positive and probable confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the province.

Roussin said on Thursday one person is in hospital being treated for COVID-19 while no one is being treated in intensive care.

There were 582 people tested for the coronavirus, bringing the total number tested to 36,402.

[bustamente]

The very nice looking mask that the idiot was worried about his base seeing him wearing

[do or die]

1 hour ago, bustamente said:

The very nice looking mask that the idiot was worried about his base seeing him wearing

YOU'RE FIRED!!

[Mark H.]

7 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I wonder though, if they allowed it and provided increased garbage and recycling bins, if people would be more responsible to avoid losing it.  Send in the by law officers to hand out littering tickets.

In our case here, it’s a few idiots that ruin it for everyone.  I’ve already got two recycling bags full of beer cans just from this spring - that’s 288 cans.

 In an urban more controlled setting though, maybe it would work.  

[Mark H.]

19 hours ago, Tracker said:

 

 

                                                          

Well...they did needed to replace a third of the population. 

[FrostyWinnipeg]

8 hours ago, Tracker said:

 

 

                                                          

Wait, it was the same as the end of the Bombers drought?

[SpeedFlex27]

12 hours ago, Tracker said:

 

 

                                                          

Asking for a couple of friends? 

[Mr Dee]

A Wisconsin woman with lupus has taken hydroxychloroquine for 19 years and still got COVID-19

https://www.insider.com/woman-took-hydroxychloroquine-19-years-still-got-covid-19-2020-5?utm_campaign=sf-bi-main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com

 

 

[Tracker]

10 hours ago, Mark H. said:

Well...they did need to replace a third of the population. 

Well then, more for the rest of us.

[Tracker]

4 hours ago, Mr Dee said:

A Wisconsin woman with lupus has taken hydroxychloroquine for 19 years and still got COVID-19

https://www.insider.com/woman-took-hydroxychloroquine-19-years-still-got-covid-19-2020-5?utm_campaign=sf-bi-main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com

 

 

 

COVID-19 Drug Cocktail Trump Said He Is Taking Brings 45% Higher Risk of Death: Major Study

 

REUTERS / Leah Millis

A massive worldwide study of coronavirus patients has found that the malaria drug that President Trump has relentlessly promoted during the pandemic poses a significant risk of death, the Washington Post reports.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-coronavirus-drug-cocktail-linked-to-45-higher-death-risk-says-major-study?ref=home

[The Unknown Poster]

A bit off topic but I cant get over how Trump stands.  Does he have a back ailment?  I see people say he stands like a centaur without the hind part.  lol

Some speculate its due to wearing large lifts in his shoes (he claims to be 6'3" but is probably 6 feet.  Its just weird.  I dont think i could stand like that if I tried.

 

[bustamente]

32 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

A bit off topic but I cant get over how Trump stands.  Does he have a back ailment?  I see people say he stands like a centaur without the hind part.  lol

Some speculate its due to wearing large lifts in his shoes (he claims to be 6'3" but is probably 6 feet.  Its just weird.  I dont think i could stand like that if I tried.

 

That's the way geniuses stand

Edited May 22, 2020 by bustamente

[do or die]

10 minutes ago, bustamente said:

That's the way geniuses stand

Stable leadership

[The Unknown Poster]

1 minute ago, do or die said:

Stable leadership

There has to be something going on there.  Either a back brace or spanx or something.