Txzen

Catacombs. Went with my teenage son and found it more profound than macabre. Book in advance. We were there during record heat in July a few years back (115) and it was a great way to cool off for a bit.

Had to renew the passport for my minor child, so it was basically almost like a new passport application. Needed birth certificate, and both parents to be there, etc. Did the whole thing at the post office branch (which even offered on-site pictures). Appointment was on Dec 20th, and we paid for expedited service and express mail since we were nervous as we have a trip in February. Just received it today (January 6th). 17 days!

I get the argument about how the SEC may have put the playoffs in a headlock and how CFB is ‘stale’…but this game and the performance of a backup QB is the counter argument. CFB can be so wonderfully unpredictable.

Polish vodka talk not going away. Also the alternative name for that cocktail is ‘tatanka’ (yes, from ‘Dances with Wolves’).

The rule of plumbing is that if it’s too loose, it leaks. If it’s too tight, it leaks. Fuck plumbing.

Nice way to deflect your premise about differences in mRNA translation between a 12 year old and an adult. Or the impact said age on some processing of a proline substitution. There are no chops to insult.

You know enough legitimate science to write a few words, but not remotely understand the meaning. Could cell replication, DNA replication and RNA replication be different between children and adults and thus cause a reaction with the vaccine? This doesn't even make any sense. Please point to the legitimate science supporting this concern. It's not 'designed to create a representation of a 3D conformation'. It's a message to make a string of amino acids which make up a protein. The '3D structure' is built by your own cell machinery. Unnatural start and stop codons? Explain how this impacts the translated product, please. Intermediate stabilizing elements? Approximately 7.4 billion doses administered as of today.

That place looks great. I really prefer the Canyons side of PC. That's a nice base village with a great locker room and a nice bar for a sunny day. We usually stay in the middle of the two base areas, and use the free shuttle to move around - the fact that there's an open air gondola (of sorts) from the bus dropoff that then takes you to 20 steps from the Red Pine gondola is amazing - no hiking up stairs with your gear (why can't more places do that?). It's easy to take that free bus into Park City town proper (or Deer Valley, for that matter). When we had a developing intermediate, the long blue run under the Sun Peak Express was great - seemed out of the way and had a short line. The blues coming off os Saddleback (left when you exit) are fun too as you're sometimes on, or going under bridges through the aspens. Interesting terrain that's like a toboggan run.

Yeah, everyone else was jumping around and screaming and he really needed to just walk to the side and quietly contemplate the experience. It was clear he was pretty moved. Bezos looks like a villain from the next Austin Powers movie.

Yes, but we lost to that first half team.

No, and that whole West Shore area backs up into, and in some cases is surrounded by, forest land. You can't just chop down those trees regardless.

Caldor Fire in the Tahoe area has been laying waste to some of my favorite areas for hiking and camping, and is now threatening the Tahoe Basin it self. Most all of South Lake Tahoe and the West Shore are under a mandatory evacuation. There's been no stopping this beast. I hope I'm wrong, but it seems inevitable it's going to make it to these areas. Horrible. Tahoe Evacuation map

I think one comment brought up is that re-testing for COVID was voluntary, and the authors point out that the reports of people who had COVID saying they never got it again relied on them to get tested if they felt sick. It's a reasonable question to ask if you had it once, how likely would you be to get tested again if you develop symptoms, perhaps thinking 'no, I had it once no way I have it again'. The data are in disagreement with the other study posted yesterday (which is to be expected - we are learning about this month by month). Interesting though.

That paper also shows two other things. First, a naive person + a vaccine appears to generate more neutralizing Abs than someone with prior COVID infection. Second, a person with a history of a prior COVID infection who gets vaccinated has an ever greater response that someone who has only completed a standard vaccination. That's useful as a model for what a booster shot will do, and should provide evidence to those who think their natural immunity from having been infected is sufficient.

I've done several trips in France centered around short violent treks up HC Cols used by the Tour de France. As I'm not as young or as in shape as I used to be, more flatter scenic things are having some appeal. You want to look for the 'Voies Vertes'. I think some of them (or many of them) can turn into fairly primitive gravel paths in isolated rural areas, though. Voies Vertes : clickable map for planning I'll say there is great respect for cyclists there. Obviously you want to stay off busy roads, but cycling is very much a way of life there and it's quite safe. Huge tourism draw as well.

Mice are not normally considered a 'tox species'. Part of the preclinical data package in many instances, yes, but at least in oncology they are not used to show toxicity. That said, according to the Pfizer EAU memo the non-clinical tox studies were repeat dose studies in rats. Additional studies 'to support safety and efficacy' were in rhesus macaques and mice (so what do I know).

That's just an excellent breakdown. Needs to be a sticky on the top of every page going forward.

Maybe you weren't highlighting that one trial. For the second trial cited, it is thankfully a much larger trial of ~2500 people. There does appear to be a benefit in recovery, but like the other study, the benefit isn't massive in my opinion. For instance, 715/787 (91%) in the steroid group were not admitted to a hospital, while the number was 701/799 (88%) in the control group. Of those admitted, 7% needed supplemental oxygen in the control group, while 5% needed it in the steroid group. Oddly, a lower percentage in the control group needed mechanical ventilation compared to the steroid group (1 vs 2%, respectively), but I think the numbers are too low to mean much there. So, this stuff is being looked at, but I'm sure the complexity of the clinical situation with age, comorbitities, and now delta, makes it challenging. There's not an easy answer, searching clinicaltrials.gov you can find a study for pretty much anything you can think of, but the reason there isn't an answer for you is not because the CDC and NIH are twiddling their thumbs.

Your indignation at picking on one trial - with massive caveats - is interesting. In case you didn't read the study, patients who were in Oxfordshire UK and had mild enough symptoms to be at home were prescribed inhaled steroids. The study outcome was simply if they sought out urgent care. The data is encouraging for sure, and fits in with the finding that people with COPD (who use budesonide, among other things) appear to be under represented in patients with severe COVID. But the study was cut short by the national lockdown, which prevented the trial from recruiting outside the local region, and as such the study didn't reach the sample size needed for a power analysis. They tried to bootstrap some in silico predictions using a virtual trial with the same study design, but I think that's hard to hang your hat on to. There are a lot of caveats with the study, and even for the approved usage of dexamethasone, a very big steroid gun, the data is mixed and the potential side effects for those with mild cases makes it not so clear cut. You are of course ignoring all the other agents with emergency use authorization to keep patients alive, like dexamethasone, tocilizumab, remdesivir, the monocolonal antibody therapies (casirivimab, imdevimab, bamlanivimad, etesviumab, sotrovimab). Also all the other thousands of ongoing clinical trials around the world, some of whom like these at the NIH are looking to repurpose drugs to treat COVID. But you go rage against the CDC and the NIH. Sorry, in this case I guess the University of Oxford and the UK's National Health Research Authority.

There's just no reason to sort through that drivel to refute it. Here, try this instead : No sign COVID vaccine spike protein is toxic 4.5 billion doses administered. Four point five. Billion.

Staying in Hanalei is great, because a lot of the day traffic dies down a bit from people visiting from the south - it gets a little quieter for sure. That said, while we always stayed up north, we would take at least one trip to the sunnier Poipu area too. Have not been since they instituted all the restrictions driving to Ke'e. Can understand why, as it was getting to be a zoo, but as I understand you have to be on top of your reservations and hit your reservation window (often earlier in the morning that I would like on a vacation). Lots of decent to good food in Hanalei - I'm partial to Hanalei Gourmet (get whatever the fish special is), kalua pork nachos at Kalypso while sitting and looking at the rain on the mountain above, Tiki-Man pizza, and the Dolphin. Smith Family Garden Luau for the win - go as early as they let you and wander the gardens as long as you can before dinner, with a bag of birdseed for the peacocks.

These are all dumb ideas - the people that are dragging their feet will not be convinced if you say we're shipping it to India. You want to be a part of society, show your vaccine card. Or sit home and eat horse paste. It's a free country. (edit - sorry, meant to reply to the original post from Twitter)

Yes - and you can even see this with the antibody titer response to the vaccine. The older you are, the harder it is to generate a neutralizing titer, and the less effective the vaccine is. Young people have a more robust immune response.