The Coronavirus Thread

[JimC]

Got the flu jab today.

I had mine a couple of weeks ago, and Bron had hers a couple of days ago. We both had very sore arms, but nothing more than that. There needs to be at least a couple of weeks delay before one has the Covid jab, apparently...

[pErvinalia]

So far no sore arm.

[rainbow]

The 'gain of function and the Wuhan lab' trope is a case in point. Understanding the range, scope, and mechanisms of zoonotic transmission as a vector for disease is a knotty, technical, specialist and specialised matter. But we all know that people are stupid and that politicians regularly do bad shit out of incompetence, or just for the chicks, the money, or just the lolz. For many people it's easier to believe that a stupid or venal person is responsible for 'releasing' the virus than digging into what zoonotic diseases are and how they operate. iif somebody then gives them reasons for thinking that stupid or venal people could have, and/or probably did 'release' the virus then their assumptions and feelings are reinforced. At the same time their outrage at the idea starts to appear more justifiable, their distrust in official or credible scientific info or statements from politicians appears more reasonable and grows, and their 'understanding' of the situation is shored up.

Yebbut Puckered said it on Fox news, so Cnut believes it.

[Cunt]

Never heard Pucker say it, Rainbow. But thanks for showing your thoughtfulness...

-----

No, BP. You didn't understand the guy either.

I don't blame you for not understanding me - I don't understand him very well.

But his approach to contact tracing is different in at least two important ways. One I can try to explain simply...

Most times, they ask to trace folks, and if you get the disease, you will be asked to self-isolate.

People don't like that. It creates a feedback loop with people reluctant to burn their freedom.

This one turns it around, and tells you what to steer away from, to avoid getting sick.

Not much more than a framing device, but a worthy one.

The other parts are too mathy for me to try.

[Tero]

Michael Lewis in The Preminition

[Tero]

Masks, again:
Our analysis was focused on respiratory particles and droplets with diameters smaller than 100 μm (traditional physical definition of aerosols (30)). Because of rapid gravitational settling, respiratory droplets larger than 100 μm are removed from the air within seconds, but they may still reach the upper respiratory tract of persons in close contact and cause infections by carrying large numbers of viruses in their very large liquid volume. For example, a single one-millimeter droplet may carry as many as ~50,000 viruses in case of a viral load of 108 per milliliter respiratory fluid, which is realistic and higher than the estimated infectious dose for SARS-CoV-2 (14). Such large droplets, however, are very efficiently (~100%) removed even by simple masks (Fig. 4 and supplementary text, section S3), further emphasizing the importance and efficacy of face masks for preventing infections. Because of the strong size dependence and to avoid ambiguities, we suggest that diameter range should be explicitly specified when discussing airborne transmission by fine respiratory aerosol particles or larger droplets.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/ ... ce.abg6296

[Tero]

Local news had done a good job.

We are in the county with 235 deaths in the SW area. I don't expect state deaths to go over 2600. Population 1.9 million. Probably typical of states with 2-5 million population. Missouri has 1400 deaths per million, ours comes to 1080.

[Tero]

Not SW, SE

[Cunt]

'Lab Leak Hypothesis' update from those kooky biologists.

12 minutes, for the short attention-span folk among us.

[Joe]

Don't need to watch it.

[Cunt]

Oh, I know.

[Joe]

And I'm sure you recall where I think our priorities lie, right?

[Hermit]

'Lab Leak Hypothesis' update from those kooky biologists.

12 minutes, for the short attention-span folk among us.

Can't see the video now, Seabass

Can't watch the video...

Can't see your video...

Seems to be a convenient pretext for not watching videos we link to while spamming us with links from the same site.

You're right.
I just won't. Sometimes I do, mostly not.

[pErvinalia]

Trolling 101.

[Brian Peacock]

'Lab Leak Hypothesis' update from those kooky biologists.

12 minutes, for the short attention-span folk among us.

The point not mentioned in the video is not whether the lab release hypothesis is a 'viable' explanation - that's just what a hypothesis is - but what the scientific community of qualified experts think of it. The claim is that the scientific community has discounted the hypothesis for dogmatic reasons. This is a moral charge, not a scientific one.

Scientific truths are always provisional, not because of the existence of competing, 'viable' hypotheses but because of the range, scope, and availability of evidences. The scientific method is a technical and intellectual process of systematically discounting competing hypotheses to arrive at the one that best integrates the available data.

That said, the fact that the scientific community are not even looking at whether the virus initially arrived on meteorites is an absolute scandal!