the new virus news & virus dark humor thread

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A Supercomputer Analyzed Covid-19 — and an Interesting New Theory Has Emerged
A closer look at the Bradykinin hypothesis[/b]

https://elemental.medium.com/a-supercomputer-analyzed-covid-19-and-an-interesting-new-theory-has-emerged-31cb8eba9d63

Earlier this summer, the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee set about crunching data on more than 40,000 genes from 17,000 genetic samples in an effort to better understand Covid-19. Summit is the second-fastest computer in the world, but the process — which involved analyzing 2.5 billion genetic combinations — still took more than a week.
When Summit was done, researchers analyzed the results. It was, in the words of Dr. Daniel Jacobson, lead researcher and chief scientist for computational systems biology at Oak Ridge, a “eureka moment.” The computer had revealed a new theory about how Covid-19 impacts the body: the bradykinin hypothesis. The hypothesis provides a model that explains many aspects of Covid-19, including some of its most bizarre symptoms. It also suggests 10-plus potential treatments, many of which are already FDA approved. Jacobson’s group published their results in a paper in the journal eLife in early July.
According to the team’s findings, a Covid-19 infection generally begins when the virus enters the body through ACE2 receptors in the nose, (The receptors, which the virus is known to target, are abundant there.) The virus then proceeds through the body, entering cells in other places where ACE2 is also present: the intestines, kidneys, and heart. This likely accounts for at least some of the disease’s cardiac and GI symptoms.

But once Covid-19 has established itself in the body, things start to get really interesting. According to Jacobson’s group, the data Summit analyzed shows that Covid-19 isn’t content to simply infect cells that already express lots of ACE2 receptors. Instead, it actively hijacks the body’s own systems, tricking it into upregulating ACE2 receptors in places where they’re usually expressed at low or medium levels, including the lungs.
In this sense, Covid-19 is like a burglar who slips in your unlocked second-floor window and starts to ransack your house. Once inside, though, they don’t just take your stuff — they also throw open all your doors and windows so their accomplices can rush in and help pillage more efficiently.
The renin–angiotensin system (RAS) controls many aspects of the circulatory system, including the body’s levels of a chemical called bradykinin, which normally helps to regulate blood pressure. According to the team’s analysis, when the virus tweaks the RAS, it causes the body’s mechanisms for regulating bradykinin to go haywire. Bradykinin receptors are resensitized, and the body also stops effectively breaking down bradykinin. (ACE normally degrades bradykinin, but when the virus downregulates it, it can’t do this as effectively.)
The end result, the researchers say, is to release a bradykinin storm — a massive, runaway buildup of bradykinin in the body. According to the bradykinin hypothesis, it’s this storm that is ultimately responsible for many of Covid-19’s deadly effects. Jacobson’s team says in their paper that “the pathology of Covid-19 is likely the result of Bradykinin Storms rather than cytokine storms,” which had been previously identified in Covid-19 patients, but that “the two may be intricately linked.” Other papers had previously identified bradykinin storms as a possible cause of Covid-19’s pathologies.
As bradykinin builds up in the body, it dramatically increases vascular permeability. In short, it makes your blood vessels leaky. This aligns with recent clinical data, which increasingly views Covid-19 primarily as a vascular disease, rather than a respiratory one. But Covid-19 still has a massive effect on the lungs. As blood vessels start to leak due to a bradykinin storm, the researchers say, the lungs can fill with fluid. Immune cells also leak out into the lungs, Jacobson’s team found, causing inflammation.
And Covid-19 has another especially insidious trick. Through another pathway, the team’s data shows, it increases production of hyaluronic acid (HLA) in the lungs. HLA is often used in soaps and lotions for its ability to absorb more than 1,000 times its weight in fluid. When it combines with fluid leaking into the lungs, the results are disastrous: It forms a hydrogel, which can fill the lungs in some patients. According to Jacobson, once this happens, “it’s like trying to breathe through Jell-O.”
This may explain why ventilators have proven less effective in treating advanced Covid-19 than doctors originally expected, based on experiences with other viruses. “It reaches a point where regardless of how much oxygen you pump in, it doesn’t matter, because the alveoli in the lungs are filled with this hydrogel,” Jacobson says. “The lungs become like a water balloon.” Patients can suffocate even while receiving full breathing support.
The bradykinin hypothesis also extends to many of Covid-19’s effects on the heart. About one in five hospitalized Covid-19 patients have damage to their hearts, even if they never had cardiac issues before. Some of this is likely due to the virus infecting the heart directly through its ACE2 receptors. But the RAS also controls aspects of cardiac contractions and blood pressure. According to the researchers, bradykinin storms could create arrhythmias and low blood pressure, which are often seen in Covid-19 patients.
The bradykinin hypothesis also accounts for Covid-19’s neurological effects, which are some of the most surprising and concerning elements of the disease. These symptoms (which include dizziness, seizures, delirium, and stroke) are present in as many as half of hospitalized Covid-19 patients. According to Jacobson and his team, MRI studies in France revealed that many Covid-19 patients have evidence of leaky blood vessels in their brains.
Bradykinin — especially at high doses — can also lead to a breakdown of the blood-brain barrier. Under normal circumstances, this barrier acts as a filter between your brain and the rest of your circulatory system. It lets in the nutrients and small molecules that the brain needs to function, while keeping out toxins and pathogens and keeping the brain’s internal environment tightly regulated.
If bradykinin storms cause the blood-brain barrier to break down, this could allow harmful cells and compounds into the brain, leading to inflammation, potential brain damage, and many of the neurological symptoms Covid-19 patients experience. Jacobson told me, “It is a reasonable hypothesis that many of the neurological symptoms in Covid-19 could be due to an excess of bradykinin. It has been reported that bradykinin would indeed be likely to increase the permeability of the blood-brain barrier. In addition, similar neurological symptoms have been observed in other diseases that result from an excess of bradykinin.”
Increased bradykinin levels could also account for other common Covid-19 symptoms. ACE inhibitors — a class of drugs used to treat high blood pressure — have a similar effect on the RAS system as Covid-19, increasing bradykinin levels. In fact, Jacobson and his team note in their paper that “the virus… acts pharmacologically as an ACE inhibitor” — almost directly mirroring the actions of these drugs.

By acting like a natural ACE inhibitor, Covid-19 may be causing the same effects that hypertensive patients sometimes get when they take blood pressure–lowering drugs. ACE inhibitors are known to cause a dry cough and fatigue, two textbook symptoms of Covid-19. And they can potentially increase blood potassium levels, which has also been observed in Covid-19 patients. The similarities between ACE inhibitor side effects and Covid-19 symptoms strengthen the bradykinin hypothesis, the researchers say.
ACE inhibitors are also known to cause a loss of taste and smell. Jacobson stresses, though, that this symptom is more likely due to the virus “affecting the cells surrounding olfactory nerve cells” than the direct effects of bradykinin.
Though still an emerging theory, the bradykinin hypothesis explains several other of Covid-19’s seemingly bizarre symptoms. Jacobson and his team speculate that leaky vasculature caused by bradykinin storms could be responsible for “Covid toes,” a condition involving swollen, bruised toes that some Covid-19 patients experience. Bradykinin can also mess with the thyroid gland, which could produce the thyroid symptoms recently observed in some patients.
The bradykinin hypothesis could also explain some of the broader demographic patterns of the disease’s spread. The researchers note that some aspects of the RAS system are sex-linked, with proteins for several receptors (such as one called TMSB4X) located on the X chromosome. This means that “women… would have twice the levels of this protein than men,” a result borne out by the researchers’ data. In their paper, Jacobson’s team concludes that this “could explain the lower incidence of Covid-19 induced mortality in women.” A genetic quirk of the RAS could be giving women extra protection against the disease.
The bradykinin hypothesis provides a model that “contributes to a better understanding of Covid-19” and “adds novelty to the existing literature,” according to scientists Frank van de Veerdonk, Jos WM van der Meer, and Roger Little, who peer-reviewed the team’s paper. It predicts nearly all the disease’s symptoms, even ones (like bruises on the toes) that at first appear random, and further suggests new treatments for the disease.
As Jacobson and team point out, several drugs target aspects of the RAS and are already FDA approved to treat other conditions. They could arguably be applied to treating Covid-19 as well. Several, like danazol, stanozolol, and ecallantide, reduce bradykinin production and could potentially stop a deadly bradykinin storm. Others, like icatibant, reduce bradykinin signaling and could blunt its effects once it’s already in the body.
Interestingly, Jacobson’s team also suggests vitamin D as a potentially useful Covid-19 drug. The vitamin is involved in the RAS system and could prove helpful by reducing levels of another compound, known as REN. Again, this could stop potentially deadly bradykinin storms from forming. The researchers note that vitamin D has already been shown to help those with Covid-19. The vitamin is readily available over the counter, and around 20% of the population is deficient. If indeed the vitamin proves effective at reducing the severity of bradykinin storms, it could be an easy, relatively safe way to reduce the severity of the virus.
Other compounds could treat symptoms associated with bradykinin storms. Hymecromone, for example, could reduce hyaluronic acid levels, potentially stopping deadly hydrogels from forming in the lungs. And timbetasin could mimic the mechanism that the researchers believe protects women from more severe Covid-19 infections. All of these potential treatments are speculative, of course, and would need to be studied in a rigorous, controlled environment before their effectiveness could be determined and they could be used more broadly.
Covid-19 stands out for both the scale of its global impact and the apparent randomness of its many symptoms. Physicians have struggled to understand the disease and come up with a unified theory for how it works. Though as of yet unproven, the bradykinin hypothesis provides such a theory. And like all good hypotheses, it also provides specific, testable predictions — in this case, actual drugs that could provide relief to real patients.
The researchers are quick to point out that “the testing of any of these pharmaceutical interventions should be done in well-designed clinical trials.” As to the next step in the process, Jacobson is clear: “We have to get this message out.” His team’s finding won’t cure Covid-19. But if the treatments it points to pan out in the clinic, interventions guided by the bradykinin hypothesis could greatly reduce patients’ suffering — and potentially save lives.

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[zn]

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Is Now Linked to More Than 250,000 Coronavirus Cases
One study estimates the public health cost of the super-spreading event is near $12 billion.

link https://www.motherjones.com/coronavirus-updates/2020/09/sturgis-motorcycle-rally-is-now-linked-to-more-than-250000-coronavirus-cases/?fbclid=IwAR24G8QatR_xcWBOEgVVcxy5YxoOVuQZivu6z6JfAKgfRVWLjXl3iCcnsFA

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Sturgis Motorcycle Rally May Have Caused 250,000 Coronavirus Cases, Economists Say

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/09/08/sturgis-motorcycle-rally-may-have-caused-250000-coronavirus-cases-economists-say/?fbclid=IwAR24G8QatR_xcWBOEgVVcxy5YxoOVuQZivu6z6JfAKgfRVWLjXl3iCcnsFA#7abb66c345fa

According to Andrew Friedson, associate professor of Economics at the University of Colorado, over 250,000 Covid-19 cases reported nationwide between August 2 and September 2 are due to the rally, which would account for approximately 19% of cases in the U.S. during this timeframe.

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A radiologist with ZERO credentials for this role who was denounced by his colleagues for his “falsehoods and misrepresentations of science” is helping guide our #COVID19 response.

This isn’t parody.

This is exactly why the US has completely failed in our response to COVID19. https://t.co/vPKyMZMus2

— Craig Spencer MD MPH (@Craig_A_Spencer) September 12, 2020

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zn wrote:

A radiologist with ZERO credentials for this role who was denounced by his colleagues for his “falsehoods and misrepresentations of science” is helping guide our #COVID19 response.

Former Stanford colleagues warn Dr. Scott Atlas fosters ‘falsehoods and misrepresentations of science’

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/stanford-colleagues-warn-dr-scott-atlas-fosters-falsehoods/story?id=72926212

A group of 78 researchers and doctors from Stanford Medical School took aim this week at Dr. Scott Atlas, the expert President Donald Trump recently added to the White House pandemic response task force, for embracing and peddling what they described as “falsehoods and misrepresentations of science” in his public musings about the coronavirus.

Atlas, a neuroradiologist by training with no background in treating infectious diseases, joined the president’s medical advisory staff last month. Before doing so, he made frequent appearances on Fox News, where he often cast doubt on the efficacy of wearing masks and pushed for schools to reopen with in-person learning – positions in line with Trump’s own public sentiments.

In a “Dear Colleagues” letter penned Wednesday, the Stanford experts wrote that they have a “moral and ethical responsibility” to push back on Atlas’ controversial claims about mitigating the spread of the coronavirus, which they characterized as “opinions and statements [that] run counter to established science” and “undermine public health authorities and the credible science that guides effective public health policy.”

The rebuke from experts at Stanford’s medical school, where Atlas was once chief of neuroradiology, marked a significant backlash against one of the president’s top advisors. At a White House press briefing in August, Trump introduced Atlas as a new member of the coronavirus task force, calling him “a very famous man who is also highly respected.”

In their letter, however, the Stanford experts tick through a set of widely accepted medical conclusions in conflict with Atlas’ public statements and alleged private policy suggestions.

Without explicitly tying their list to Atlas’ past statements, the set of conclusions — which are based on a “preponderance of data,” according to the letter — include information about the use of face masks, asymptomatic spread and the risk posed to children.

Their last point, for example, denounces the use of natural “herd immunity,” the notion of allowing the disease to tear through the population to build up natural immunity, as “not a safe public health strategy.”

Last month, the Washington Post reported that Atlas advocated for the administration to embrace natural herd immunity, citing five unnamed sources. Atlas vehemently denied the report.

“There is no policy of the President or this administration of achieving herd immunity. There never has been any such policy recommended to the President or to anyone else from me. That’s a lie,” Atlas said in a statement released by the White House.

Even so, both Trump and Atlas have pushed the concept of letting the virus circulate widely — at least among young health people — without using the term “herd immunity.” Last month, the president expressed interest in exploring the option of allowing the disease to spread quickly and allow the populace to build up resistance.

“Well, once you get to a certain number, you know, we use the word ‘herd,’ right, once you get to a certain number, it’s going to go away,” Trump said on Fox News. “So — you know — it doesn’t have to be…”

Atlas has also drawn ire for controversial statements about returning children to schools. He has questioned whether children can transmit the virus and complained that the U.S. is “the only country … this hysterical about opening schools.”

The Stanford experts noted that, “while infection is less common in children than in adults, serious short-term and long-term consequences of Covid-19 are increasingly described in children and young people.”

They concluded their letter by emphasizing the need to exercise “science-based decision-making,” and warning that any policy proposals that fall short of that standard could undermine progress in combatting the disease.

“Failure to follow the science – or deliberately misrepresenting the science,” the letter continues, “will lead to immense avoidable harm.”

Atlas is a senior fellow at Stanford’s conservative Hoover Institution.

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It's tempting to laugh, but this is absolutely terrifying.

This isn't the leprechaun video–that was harmless. This is the reason the virus will continue to spread and a return to normal looks more and more distant. How can we reach people who don't care about facts? https://t.co/tAWUXq3qWy

— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) September 14, 2020

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COVID is not a great equalizer

link https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/05/covid-is-not-a-great-equalizer.html?xid=fb-md-cbtm-onc-opd&fbclid=IwAR18HuWb_SDBCM9H4VJyJ6dp7ZHwaYDf-diMekOEQtbvF8fBvtYtzdgDuXc

Some media outlets and public figures have heralded the ongoing pandemic as a great equalizer, referencing the pathogen’s indiscriminate spread and disregard for national borders and tax brackets.

The sobering mortality statistics, however, dispense any notion of an equal-opportunity crisis, revealing a familiar theme among public health challenges in America: significant racial disparities exist, and communities of color are disproportionately affected.

CDC data show that blacks account for 29% of confirmed infections despite comprising 14% of the general population. An Associated Press analysis of 3,300 deaths in early April found 42% of the victims were black, and a recent study estimated the mortality rate for blacks at 2.7 times that for whites.

What explains this dramatic difference in outcomes? It is a complex question that hints at a series of economic, environmental, and health care realities, reinforced by bias, that have plagued black Americans long before the novel coronavirus emerged. This crisis is a microcosm of historical racial disparities in society, forged by decades of systemic racism and discriminatory public policy. Given this milieu of health-associated inequalities, the strikingly lopsided death rate by ethnicity is not just predictable, but inevitable.

Any discussion of health disparities must begin with economic factors, which contribute heavily to the outsized impact of the pandemic on minorities. Black families earn 71 cents of take-home income and hold 32 cents in liquid assets per dollar compared to white families, and 22% of those under the federal poverty level are black.

Given the higher poverty rate, lower-income status, and wealth deficit faced by the black community, a crippled economy can make compliance with stay-at-home orders financially unviable. Furthermore, blacks are overrepresented among low-wage and “gig” workers relative to their share of overall employment, are more often paid hourly, and infrequently benefit from sick leave policies relative to whites. While non-essential staff can “telecommute” and earn wages remotely, self-isolation is unrealistic for many essential workers, who must weigh the threat of infection against the possibility of termination.

Environmental influences further exacerbate the vulnerability of black Americans, who commonly reside in urban settings and represent a higher proportion of public housing residents.

Such areas are often overcrowded and under-funded, with major environmental hazards such as air pollution, poor water quality, lead, pests, and mold. Predictably, blacks have higher rates of chronic lung disease and die nearly thrice as often from asthma as whites.

Growing literature on COVID-19 has established that patients with underlying health conditions are subject to a higher risk of hospitalization and adverse outcomes. Additionally, the high population density in housing projects, shelters, and jails—inhabitants of which are predominately black in the U.S, a legacy of discriminatory housing practices, racist policies such as redlining, and deep-seated inequities in our criminal justice system—make social distancing virtually impossible.

Finally, inadequate access to food due to issues with location, transportation, or infrastructure further compromises health in black communities. Even before coronavirus caused mass unemployment and overwhelmed food pantries, black households were twice as likely to suffer from food insecurity versus the national average. Greater exposure to food deserts and hazardous, cramped living conditions that preclude appropriate distancing make communities of color uniquely susceptible to outbreaks like this one.

Health-wise, blacks are more likely to have chronic conditions and limited access to care. Studies show that “black patients are 40% more likely to have high blood pressure, twice as likely to have heart failure … three times more likely to have chronic kidney disease, twice as likely to be diagnosed with colon and prostate cancer.”

A CDC report found that a startling 89% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients had one or more pre-existing conditions. It is then especially troublesome that black Americans are less likely to have adequate insurance or receive employer-sponsored coverage.

The inability or unwillingness to pursue testing or evaluation portends advanced presentation, hospitalization, and poorer outcomes with infection.

While features of the economy, the built environment, individual health, and access to care render black Americans more susceptible to the novel coronavirus, bias — implicit and explicit — has long driven health disparities among minorities. Consider the curious concept of “allostatic load,” i.e., the physiological cost of chronic stress on the human body over time. Persistent activation of hormone-driven homeostatic mechanisms can overload vital organs, impair the immune system, and generate systemic pathology.

Discrimination and bias are significant stressors, and studies have linked them to higher rates of inflammation among black adults, perhaps also contributing to over-representation among confirmed coronavirus cases. Furthermore, there is robust literature suggesting that black patients are not treated equally once hospitalized, getting less pain medication, undergoing fewer procedures, receiving less explanation, and experiencing poorer quality of care compared to white patients.

One concerning study found a substantial number of white people, from laymen to residents, believe biological differences between races yield differing pain thresholds. Racism and unconscious bias have undergirded the policies and practices that allowed latent racial inequities in health care to fester, and the uneven COVID death toll reminds us as a medical community that there is a long way to go.

Rather than level the playing field, the coronavirus pandemic has exposed and intensified race-based inequities inherent in our health care system and society, fossilized over decades of neglect, de-prioritization, and otherization of communities of color. I have endeavored to highlight inextricable economic, environmental, health-related, and psychological forces that drive poorer health outcomes for black Americans overall and may provide a framework to discuss the disproportionate numbers testing positive and dying during this crisis. These factors engender higher vulnerability through increased risk of exposure and transmission, decreased immunity from stress, acute presentations due to underlying conditions and subpar access to care, and possible discrepancies in treatment upon hospitalization.

Perhaps there is a silver lining. With the pandemic throwing the differential experience of black people in terms of health and health care into sharp relief, the issue may achieve the critical mass of attention necessary to meaningfully address these deep-seated disparities. Only then can we truly dub this coronavirus a great equalizer.

[wv]

This how my little town does virus-algebra
link:https://www.dominionpost.com/2020/09/16/covid-positive-wvu-students-isolated-at-arnold-apartments-will-count-as-1-case-for-mon-countys-map-status/?fbclid=IwAR1EKWkDCHbILlD89N3wsA0z72MFpS0WNnibMWxkfABtdvPERXehwjH4LhQ
COVID-positive WVU students isolated at Arnold Apartments will count as 1 case for Mon County’s map status

MORGANTOWN — WVU students isolated in Arnold Apartments for COVID-19 will be counted as a single COVID case.

The was the bottom line of lengthy discussion offered by Gov. Jim Justice, COVID-19 Czar Clay Marsh, Monongalia County Health Officer Lee Smith and Higher Education Policy Commission Chancellor Sarah Tucker on Wednesday.

Justice first posed the idea of finding a way to ease Monongalia County out of the red by counting WVU’s on-campus COVID-positive students in the same way as congregate jail and nursing home cases on Monday. Wednesday’s announcement was the result of talks among his advisory team on the topic.

Marsh said Wednesday the talks focused on providing for public health while safely opening opportunities to get K-12 kids back into classrooms – Mon schools haven’t opened their door yet as Mon’s been in the red on the School Alert System map since Sept. 8 when school resumed.

Smith said they’ve been examining the data to understand WVU’s impact on community spread. The chief reason Mon has been red, he said, is the high number positive cases in the 20-29 age group – anywhere from 60%-90% of the daily positives.

And the cases are concentrated in Morgantown, not the rural western half of the county, he said. There’s also no evidence that surrounding counties are seeing any spread, including Preston, where more residents come to work in Mon than stay in Preston.

WVU has realized its role in ensuring the health of the community he said. That, combined with the data indicated students isolated in Arnold Apartments should count as a single case.

Looking at WVU and at colleges and universities across the state, Tucker said that a key provision of counting all on-campus isolated cases as one is that those settings are monitored and secure. At WVU, the Arnold residents have 24/7 access to nursing; the building is guarded and entry is accomplished with swipe cards which provides accountability.

They are also looking at offering incentives statewide for off-campus students to come isolate on campus, Tucker said.

And “We’re paying very close attention to the mental health needs of our students who are in quarantine and in isolation,” she said. They will be offering remote counseling services and safe opportunities for those students to get outside…..see link

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"Don't be afraid of the shark. Don't let it dominate your life." pic.twitter.com/g4baXySmF5

— Sam Benshoof (@Samshoof) October 5, 2020

[wv]

Covid said "It's Miller time!"

Strangely, Americans popped bottles of champagne.

— Beau of The Fifth Column (@BeauTFC) October 7, 2020

[wv]

“plague comfort” – i like it.
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Plague Comfort: Empty streets during long bike rides https://t.co/5OP5hLEC5J

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) October 7, 2020

[Zooey]

Undefeated. The internet.

You’re welcome…pic.twitter.com/9P2rcPJOxt

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) October 7, 2020

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Arkansas Republican County Chair Dies of COVID-19 Weeks After His Committee Hosted Maskless Gathering
* https://mashupmd.com/arkansas-republican-county-chair-dies-of-covid-19-weeks-after-his-committee-hosted-maskless-gathering/

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Fauci says growing number of COVID-19 cases among White House staff is ‘not a hoax’ and ‘could have been prevented’
https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-says-white-house-covid-19-cases-are-not-hoax-2020-10

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White House Quietly Told Vets Group It Might Have Exposed Them to COVID
https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-quietly-told-vets-group-it-might-have-exposed-them-to-covid

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New COVID-19 cases in past week:

Vietnam – 5
Taiwan – 9
Yemen – 10
New Zealand – 25

White House – 34

— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) October 8, 2020

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Fauci is not fighting with Trump

he’s doing his job as a non-partisan public health professional

Trump is fighting against reality https://t.co/W9zwHyHtwU

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) October 13, 2020

[wv]

Japanese supercomputer shows how humidity affects the aerosol spread of coronavirus https://t.co/5W3bB0qbl5 pic.twitter.com/ZJrHttN0wd

— Reuters (@Reuters) October 14, 2020

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New Zealand:

Winston Peters — deputy PM of New Zealand addresses an American COVID-19 denier at a press conference.

“Sit down. Sorry sunshine, wrong place.” pic.twitter.com/8MSsFgWVoL

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) October 16, 2020

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President Trump three times yesterday FALSELY told the American people that a study showed 85% of people who wear masks catch the virus. IT’S NOT TRUE. And health officials say it’s the exact opposite message he should be sharing during a pandemic. https://t.co/NSbeaKWfih

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 16, 2020

[Zooey]

The Upper Midwest and Sturgis, likely America's largest superspreader event
870 infections per million people in ND is an unprecedented peak in the US pandemic and around the world (2nd is SD/Czech Republic, currently 740) 2/ pic.twitter.com/3EN7dL2Kyj

— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) October 18, 2020

[nittany ram]

Remdesivir and interferon fall flat in WHO’s megastudy of COVID-19 treatments https://t.co/TRhuqsOlJo

— Kathleen Hefferon, PhD (@KHefferon) October 20, 2020

[Zooey]

Confirmed cases in the last 7 days per 100,000 people.
[Source ⁦@BBK_Bund⁩] pic.twitter.com/9q3zwV2Og3

— Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) October 16, 2020

[nittany ram]

how do you even do contact tracing in a country where no one picks up unknown numbers because the FTC spent hyears doing nothing about scammers and robocalls

— young pikliz (@lilpoolish) October 13, 2020

[zn]

Earlier today Dr. Fauci was asked “when was the last time Trump was at a coronavirus task force meeting”….mind you yesterday the country recorded the largest number of daily cases since the start at almost 80K

Dr. Fauci’s answer👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/qQO9LtAdyZ

— Icculus The Brave (@FirenzeMike) October 23, 2020

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from Daily Covid-19 cases will hit six digits soon, expert warns, as US reports a one-day high of more than 83,000 infections

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/24/health/us-coronavirus-saturday/index.html

The US just marked a harrowing milestone: It recorded its highest one-day number of Covid-19 infections Friday at more than 83,000 — more than 6,000 higher than the country’s previous record set in July.

And as the fall surge continues, the daily numbers will get worse, experts warn.
“We easily will hit six-figure numbers in terms of the number of cases,” Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told CNN Friday night. “And the deaths are going to go up precipitously in the next three to four weeks, following usually new cases by about two to three weeks.”

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from Fauci says it might be time to mandate masks as Covid-19 surges across US

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/23/health/fauci-covid-mask-mandate-bn/index.html

Covid-19 has been worsening across the United States, with cases rising in 32 states Friday and holding steady in 17 more. The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said the country was entering a winter surge as new infections passed 75,000 in a single day on Friday and more than 800 deaths were reported.

Mask mandates may be tricky to enforce, but it might be time to call for them, Fauci said.

“There’s going to be a difficulty enforcing it, but if everyone agrees that this is something that’s important and they mandate it and everybody pulls together and says, you know, we’re going to mandate it but let’s just do it, I think that would be a great idea to have everybody do it uniformly,” he said.

As cooler weather comes, people need to “double down” on measures that work, Fauci said. “Universal mask wearing” is one, he said, as is keeping a distance from others and frequent hand washing. “They sound very simple. But we’re not uniformly doing that and that’s one of the reasons we’re seeing these surges,” Fauci said.

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From Facebook

Suzanne Pfeil

“I was listening to Joe Biden’s speech in Warm Springs Georgia today when he talked about Franklin Delano Roosevelt and how he went there to aid in his recovery from Polio. As almost all of you know I am a Polio survivor. I got the polio virus in 1959, I was one of the last 2 people to be infected in San Diego County. My Grandmother and uncle were visiting from Montreal Canada, we think that they were asymptotic carrier’s as there was an epidemic in Canada at the time. I was 10 months old and not vaccinated because I always had a cold and it was against the Military Hospital’s policy at the time to vaccinate if you had a cold (after me it was changed to if you had a fever) my Dad was a Marine. Polio and Covid 19 are both RNA virus’s that can cause lasting effects like lesions on the brain, lungs, spine and in Covid‘s case the heart as well. The viral fragments that are left in the body can cause negative effects years or even decades later which is what has happened to me with Post Polio Syndrome causing ongoing muscle weakness, active denervation, chronic pain and in my case difficulty breathing. It just boggles my mind that a contagious virus has become politicized. People never thought that Polio was a hoax, they knew it was contagious, they quarantined, they wore masks, they avoided areas that had outbreaks. You don’t want to catch this virus, whatever your political persuasion is, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Please take it from me, RNA virus’s are not something that you want to mess with.”

[zn]

Mission Viejo, CA:

These two fake lawyers went to Frapys Frozen Yogurt and tried to intimidate a young attendant who politely asked them to wear a mask.

It never ends. Let’s make ‘em famous… pic.twitter.com/u1DrqmmNs8

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) October 28, 2020

[zn]

On the worsening of coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci tells @washingtonpost: “We’re in for a whole lot of hurt. It’s not a good situation.” Despite the upbeat assessment by @realDonaldTrump and his surrogates, Fauci added: “You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.”

— Wolf Blitzer (@wolfblitzer) November 1, 2020

[zn]

Fauci told Washington Post that Joe Biden’s campaign was taking the coronavirus “seriously from a public health perspective.”https://t.co/b9udnRmHRe

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) November 1, 2020

[Billy_T]

New Stanford study, out this past Friday:

The Effects of Large Group Meetings on the Spread ofCOVID-19: The Case of Trump RalliesB. Douglas Bernheim, Nina BuchmannZach, Freitas-Groff, Sebasti ́an Otero*October 30, 2020

Abstract:

We investigate the effects of large group meetings on the spread of COVID-19 by studying the impact of eighteen Trump campaign rallies. To capture the effects of subsequent contagion within the pertinent communities, our analysis encompasses up to ten post-rally weeks for each event. Our method is based on a collection of regression models, one for each event, that capture the relationships between post-event outcomes and pre-event characteristics, including demographics and the trajectory of COVID-19 cases, in similar counties. We explore a total of 24 procedures for identifying sets of matched counties. For the vast majority of these variants, our estimate of the average treatment effect across the eighteen events implies that they increased subsequent confirmed cases of COVID-19 by more than 250 per 100,000 residents. Extrapolating this figure to the entire sample, we conclude that these eighteen rallies ultimately resulted in more than 30,000 incremental confirmed cases of COVID-19. Applying county-specific post-event death rates, we conclude that the rallies likely led to more than 700 deaths(not necessarily among attendees).

[wv]

ferrets:https://portside.org/2020-11-06/nasal-spray-prevents-covid-infection-ferrets-study-finds
A nasal spray that blocks the absorption of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has completely protected ferrets it was tested on, according to a small study released on Thursday by an international team of scientists. The study, which was limited to animals and has not yet been peer-reviewed, was assessed by several health experts at the request of The New York Times.

If the spray, which the scientists described as nontoxic and stable, is proved to work in humans, it could provide a new way of fighting the pandemic. A daily spritz up the nose would act like a vaccine.

“Having something new that works against the coronavirus is exciting,” said Dr. Arturo Casadevall, the chairman of immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who was not involved in the study. “I could imagine this being part of the arsenal.”…

[Author]

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