Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): The Disease & Its Spread (Per Se)

[Vardoger]

First person vaccinated in Norway today, while the second wave of Corona is going strong.

 

[Ghost In The Machine]

COVID-19 virus enters the brain, research strongly suggests

Source: sciencedaily.com
Date: 17 December, 2020

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, like many viruses before it, is bad news for the brain. In a new study, researchers found that the spike protein, often depicted as the red arms of the virus, can cross the blood-brain barrier in mice. The spike proteins alone can cause brain fog. Since the spike protein enters the brain, the virus also is likely to cross into the brain.

More and more evidence is coming out that people with COVID-19 are suffering from cognitive effects, such as brain fog and fatigue.

And researchers are discovering why. The SARS-CoV-2 virus, like many viruses before it, is bad news for the brain. In a study published Dec.16 in Nature Neuroscience, researchers found that the spike protein, often depicted as the red arms of the virus, can cross the blood-brain barrier in mice.

This strongly suggests that SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19, can enter the brain.

The spike protein, often called the S1 protein, dictates which cells the virus can enter. Usually, the virus does the same thing as its binding protein, said lead author William A. Banks, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a Puget Sound Veterans Affairs Healthcare System physician and researcher. Banks said binding proteins like S1 usually by themselves cause damage as they detach from the virus and cause inflammation.

"The S1 protein likely causes the brain to release cytokines and inflammatory products," he said.

In science circles, the intense inflammation caused by the COVID-19 infection is called a cytokine storm. The immune system, upon seeing the virus and its proteins, overreacts in its attempt to kill the invading virus. The infected person is left with brain fog, fatigue and other cognitive issues.

[...]

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201217154046.htm

LOL. Tell me about it. I spent five minutes trying to remember the word "sill", today. (Window sill). I'm still writing for a "living" but of course, have plenty of time to look up synonyms or whatever when am writing. When I'm talking, it's very different. (And before All This, some of my income was made from just, er, talking, so this might represent quite a hit on my income, when life does get more back to normal).

 

[Ghost In The Machine]

If of interest, Sky News have just published a related online article:

Loss of smell is a coronavirus symptom, but some with long COVID are detecting unpleasant odours months after catching the virus.

Source: Sky News
Date: 27 December, 2020

People suffering from 'long COVID' are reporting a strong smell of fish, sulphur and a sweet sickly odour, as further symptoms of the virus emerge.

The unusual side-effect is known as parosmia - meaning a distortion of smell - and may be disproportionately affecting young people and healthcare workers.

Ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeon Professor Nirmal Kumar called the symptom "very strange and very unique".

Unpleasant smells like burnt toast and sulpher have been reported too.

Prof Kumar, who is also the president of ENT UK, was among the first medics to identify anosmia - loss of smell - as a coronavirus indicator in March.

He urged Public Health England to add it to the symptom list months before it became official guidance.

[...]

https://news.sky.com/story/long-cov...g-smells-of-fish-burning-and-sulphur-12173389

Yep, I just had full anosmia for months and months but slowly some kind of sense of smell was returning, sporadically, unreliably, but kind of there. Then, only yesterday, I started smelling shit. Thought I'd stood in something. Nope. The dog was the next suspect - nope. Rona is the gift that keeps on giving.

Around the time I was ill, husband had a few days of driving us all nuts, insisting he could smell fish everywhere, and all day... But he was fine a few days later. His only other symptom was a low grade, intermittent fever. Husband had phantosmia during covid but doesn't have long covid.

As for this:

...He urged Public Health England to add it to the symptom list months before it became official guidance

I ran my anosmia past a GP in March. He said it meant I probably didn't have the rona as it was not a known symptom. LOL. A couple weeks, maybe less, after that it was mentioned in The Lancet and the very next dr I spoke to was all over the idea I had rona, the second I mentioned the anosmia. I'd already read reports coming out of China that rona patients were saying they had lost their sense of smell way back in Jan or Feb... Medics can be slow to accept what the "anecdotal" evidence is shouting.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Yep, I just had full anosmia for months and months but slowly some kind of sense of smell was returning, sporadically, unreliably, but kind of there. Then, only yesterday, I started smelling shit. Thought I'd stood in something. Nope. The dog was the next suspect - nope. Rona is the gift that keeps on giving.

Around the time I was ill, husband had a few days of driving us all nuts, insisting he could smell fish everywhere, and all day... But he was fine a few days later. His only other symptom was a low grade, intermittent fever. Husband had phantosmia during covid but doesn't have long covid.

As for this:

...He urged Public Health England to add it to the symptom list months before it became official guidance

I ran my anosmia past a GP in March. He said it meant I probably didn't have the rona as it was not a known symptom. LOL. A couple weeks, maybe less, after that it was mentioned in The Lancet and the very next dr I spoke to was all over the idea I had rona, the second I mentioned the anosmia. I'd already read reports coming out of China that rona patients were saying they had lost their sense of smell way back in Jan or Feb... Medics can be slow to accept what the "anecdotal" evidence is shouting.

I think it's really difficult for GPs to keep up with all the latest information. I've noticed that a few GPs I've had over the years have been poorly informed/have out of date ideas, etc. It's not all their fault I guess.

 

[Swifty]

I see we have branding in the vaccine. In my youth, they used to have topless ladies on cans of lager. Perhaps they could use this as a marketing tool to encourage take up.

Or like Big D peanuts .. peel of testing kits to see the bikini tits .. or perhaps scratch cards with the prize being a testing kit. We need to reach the thick pricks by all means necessary ..

 

[maximus otter]

Or like Big D peanuts .. peel of testing kits to see the bikini tits .. or perhaps scratch cards with the prize being a testing kit. We need to reach the thick pricks by all means necessary ..

Proceeds from the assumption that the only people who don’t want to receive this new vaccine are “thick pricks”.

l disagree.

maximus otter

 

[Trevp666]

I couldn't possibly go near a jab due to my trypanophobia, not through being intellectually deficient, lol.
The last time I was in a situation whereby it was vitally important to endure such a procedure I ended up with PTSD!
And I really don't feel that getting an injected treatment for C19 is anywhere near as important as the last time I got the needle.
Especially as I have already had the 'rona, and also that in the UK this year, only 377 people have died under the age of 60 with no pre-existing conditions, due to 'rona.
And as I recall from my youth, an attempt to stick something in me against my will turned me all....er....'punchy'.

 

[maximus otter]

...only 377 people have died under the age of 60 with no pre-existing conditions, due to 'rona.

Before anyone scoffs, correct: Article.

maximus otter

 

[Trevp666]

Sorry, I was wrong, not 377.... now 388 apparently.
That's what happens when you use data that is 3 weeks old.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Russia has admitted its COVID-19 death toll is circa three times as great as previously reported, but authorities are avoiding lockdown measures in the hope their Sputnik V vaccine will turn the tide.

Russia admits to world's third-worst Covid-19 death toll

Russia said on Monday that its coronavirus death toll was more than three times higher than it had previously reported, making it the country with the third-largest number of fatalities.

For months, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has boasted about Russia’s low fatality rate from the virus, saying earlier this month that it had done a better job at managing the pandemic than western countries.

But since early in the pandemic, some Russian experts have said the government was playing down the country’s outbreak.

On Monday, Russian officials admitted that was true. The Rosstat statistics agency said that the number of deaths from all causes recorded between January and November had risen by 229,700 compared with the previous year.

“More than 81% of this increase in mortality over this period is due to Covid,” said the deputy prime minister, Tatiana Golikova, meaning that more than 186,000 Russians have died from Covid-19.

Russian health officials have registered more than 3m infections since the start of the pandemic, putting the country’s caseload at fourth-highest in the world.

But they have only reported 55,265 deaths – a much lower fatality rate than in other badly hit countries. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...third-worst-covid-19-death-toll-underreported

 

[Beresford]

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use in the UK.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55280671

 

[Ghost In The Machine]

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use in the UK.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55280671

Let's hope it's manufactured by people who manufacture vaccines not you know, someone's neighbour whose friend makes umbrellas.

 

[Trevp666]

Oi! There is nothing wrong with Colin and Georginas home-made covid vaccine!
Okay so it hasn't been cleared for use yet, and the way the dosage is administered with a large umbrella-shaped hypo with their phone number emblazoned around the rim is a little bit unorthodox, but I'm told (by the test subject who got carted away in an ambulance after turning bright green) that it works perfectly well!

 

[Mythopoeika]

Oi! There is nothing wrong with Colin and Georginas home-made covid vaccine!
Okay so it hasn't been cleared for use yet, and the way the dosage is administered with a large umbrella-shaped hypo with their phone number emblazoned around the rim is a little bit unorthodox, but I'm told (by the test subject who got carted away in an ambulance after turning bright green) that it works perfectly well!

I've heard that the test subject is still doing a thumbs-up... but that might just be rigor mortis...

 

[Ghost In The Machine]

Oi! There is nothing wrong with Colin and Georginas home-made covid vaccine!
Okay so it hasn't been cleared for use yet, and the way the dosage is administered with a large umbrella-shaped hypo with their phone number emblazoned around the rim is a little bit unorthodox, but I'm told (by the test subject who got carted away in an ambulance after turning bright green) that it works perfectly well!

I know this is bugger all help for needle phobia (I had one too, years ago) but can truly say I haven't even felt a needle for umpteen years - things have moved on. Or if you feel it, it's nothing to write home about. Truly. I got over my needle phobia right about the time I had babies and the needles kept coming and I realised - you know what - there's nothing to it. I know that's no comfort. But it is true.

My husband is OK with needles, but he will faint if they take blood. I don't get this at all. Just shut you bloody eyes, you fool, is what I have to say to him every time. Am sure I'd faint too if I looked. So I don't look. I'd have a blood test or needle any day (had flu and tetanus one in each arm a couple weeks back) - but the thought of that swab test for covid makes me heave... Can't see myself doing it! I dunno how footballers etc have it done daily.

ETA: One hour of covid - well the earlier variant with the shortness of breath as this new one sounds different - is worse than a thousand needles a day, honest! (Unless you are one of the lucky ones to get it asymptomatically).

ETA2: And of course I realise you don't have the "childbirth cure" option for needle phobia that I had!

 

[maximus otter]

...this new one sounds different - is worse than a thousand needles a day, honest!

"Government scientists are studying it...but there is no evidence to suggest it is more likely to lead to serious illness."

maximus otter

 

[Ghost In The Machine]

"Government scientists are studying it...but there is no evidence to suggest it is more likely to lead to serious illness."

maximus otter

Yes, just anecdotal, but what Im seeing people on long covid groups saying is... those who have caught it again, recently and are down South so they think it may be the new variant... that for them it is much more snotty, more like a really bad cold. And they're not all experiencing the shortness of breath. These are people who will have some level of immunity, possibly, as like me they had it back in March and April - antibodies worn off but maybe not T cells. It could be much, much worse for people who never caught it the first time round but for people catching new variant after having had old, it seems milder, with a slight shift in symptoms. (Nothing is as scary as that shortness of breath).

We won't know for several weeks til we see its impact on the mortality rates, and of course, it may well seem milder to this group of folk as they already had covid. But the symptoms seem more cold-like than before. The tens of thousands who end up with long covid may or may not get the same symptoms we've had. That too, won't be known for months.

Mutations often make these things milder - and so far they are saying it doesn't look dramatically worse or better, but I think we'll have a better picture in three weeks or so when those who caught it xmas shopping etc are in hospital and they start dying off. Or not... Interesting, though, that the symptoms aren't quite the same. There's also the possibility it is having more symptoms in children than the earlier versions.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I know this is bugger all help for needle phobia (I had one too, years ago) but can truly say I haven't even felt a needle for umpteen years - things have moved on. Or if you feel it, it's nothing to write home about.

Needles have got thinner, thanks to advances in manufacturing technology. Also, people using the needles have (mostly) become better at doing it.
I remember needles in my youth. They were gigantic and always hurt. I have to self-administer an injection twice daily now, with a needle that is only 4 mm long - if I'm careful, I barely feel it.

 

[Trevp666]

I dunno how footballers etc have it done daily.

I'll let you in on a secret.

The truth is.....they don't.
If ever.

 

[Ghost In The Machine]

Needles have got thinner, thanks to advances in manufacturing technology. Also, people using the needles have (mostly) become better at doing it.
I remember needles in my youth. They were gigantic and always hurt. I have to self-administer an injection twice daily now, with a needle that is only 4 mm long - if I'm careful, I barely feel it.

The only needle I have felt, was one dental one in the roof of mouth that dentist warned me I'd feel. (Normally I don't feel a thing). It's a difficult site to get a needle into or something... and I did feel it. It felt like the very, very mildest end of biting into a crisp that is slightly too sharp and briefly scratches the inside of your mouth. The way the dentist was acting, I was expecting agonising pain and although I felt it, I have had more trauma eating a crisp...

My brother had to be injected every day at home, in the 1960s and we all knew about it. They'd shut me out of the room when they injected him because I'd laugh so hard at the screams... (I'd stand listening at the door and laugh there, instead. I was a little shit!)

The needles now bear no resemblance to the ones they used then, gotta say.

 

[Mythopoeika]

My brother had to be injected every day at home, in the 1960s and we all knew about it. They'd shut me out of the room when they injected him because I'd laugh so hard at the screams... (I'd stand listening at the door and laugh there, instead. I was a little shit!)

The needles now bear no resemblance to the ones they used then, gotta say.

Poor kid! I think the needles back then were made from a sheet of metal that was rolled and then welded along the seam.
Now, I think they're made differently - they take a metal pipe and draw it down through reducing plates until it's a really fine pipe.

 

[Beresford]

I'll let you in on a secret.

The truth is.....they don't.
If ever.

At certain levels of football the players are tested regularly, though you are right that it won't be on a daily basis.

 

[Stormkhan]

Having had a thrombosis just over a decade ago, and having to have repeated blood samples taken, I can honestly say that injections aren't as bad as one anticipates.
I got to a point where I was grading the phlebotomist's on their performance, speed and lack of pain.
I recently had my 'flu jab and was amused by it's size and lack of even minor irritant. Frankly, I could've administered it myself.

 

[Stormkhan]

The only needle I have felt, was one dental one in the roof of mouth that dentist warned me I'd feel.

I've had that 'un. Also a dental one where the needle has to go into one's nostril!
My worst felt one, though, was from a particularly sadistic nurse, taking a blood sample, when she used quite a "wide" cannula up in the 'web' between my index and second finger of my right hand.
Now that hurt!

 

[Analogue Boy]

Wait till you get one in the eye.

 

[Analogue Boy]

Well, we’re back in a Tier 4 Lockdown here again. Fuck. Fuck. Fuckitty Fuck.

 

[SketchyMagpie]

Tier 4 here, too. I'm one of those fortunate enough to not have to make any major changes to their lifestyle to adjust to lockdown (I'm a self-employed introvert) but it breaks my heart seeing all the shops and small business around the country suffering through this. I already live in a town that was full of empty, boarded-up shop locations before this year so I'm dreading seeing how it will look in a year or two from now.

 

[Analogue Boy]

To be fair, the shops around our town morphed into coffee shops, barbers, betting and charity shops well before lockdown. A few have claimed increase in rents forced general shop closure. Then I noticed ARTWORK on the windows of people inside wandering around luxurious goods. That seemed more bizarre to me than this dystopian lockdown closure.

 

[Mythopoeika]

To be fair, the shops around our town morphed into coffee shops, barbers, betting and charity shops well before lockdown. A few have claimed increase in rents forced general shop closure. Then I noticed ARTWORK on the windows of people inside wandering around luxurious goods. That seemed more bizarre to me than this dystopian lockdown closure.

Eventually, that artwork will have to be replaced with pictures of people browsing for goods on computers.

 

[charliebrown]

The U.S. wanted 20 million Americans vaccinated by December 31, 2020.

Only 2 million have been vaccinated.

So much for “ Operation Warp Speed “ .