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Txzen

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Everything posted by Txzen

  1. Can totally understand the fears of a 'new' vaccine - though my fears are more around the logistics and handling of it as it's so new (though apparently Moderna has some shit figured out, so bravo). The important thing to remember is that mRNA vaccines are by their very nature transient - this doesn't integrate into your genome, rather it hangs around in your cells and spits out protein. For me the only other fear is that being vaccinated does not make you COVID 'sterile' - this is particularly the case when you have a respiratory disease and vaccinate intramuscularly, rather than intranasal. There's good evidence from the flu and other similar diseases that while you may be vaccinated, you could still harbor and carry it. I think this is a far lower spreading risk than the unvaccinated asymptomatic carrier, but it's a thing. Not sure what that means going forward with COVID protocol in nursing homes, for instance. Great review of mRNA vaccines here : mRNA vaccines — a new era in vaccinology (Nature)
  2. On the national news, there was an interview with someone (didn't catch if she was an actual representative from CVS or just some random yahoo - perhaps the latter) who stated that they'd have to resort to dry ice for the Pfizer vaccine, which I think is not going to work. Sounds like Moderna has it figured out, though it would be great to learn more.
  3. I've done a little of all of those at different stops in industry. More years than I'd like to admit to at this point. For Moderna, I'm really curious about the 'special sauce' with regard to their formation which they claim allows them to store at 4C for up to 7 days. Something to do with their nanoparticle formulation, though that explanation doesn't quite do it for me (sounds like some other alternations to the mRNA itself?). I think storage and distribution for the Pfizer one is a logistical nightmare. I'd be concerned that you'd need to re-train all the staff handling it as their normal SOP is so different. Why Does Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine Need To Be Kept Colder Than Antarctica? Moderna Announces Longer Shelf Life for its COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate at Refrigerated Temperatures
  4. Cancer drug development. Immunology background.
  5. Participants with pre-existing autoimmune diseases were excluded from the Pfizer study, at least. Probably the Moderna one as well.
  6. I mean, I'm seeking a supermodel to be my mistress, so. . .
  7. A few weeks ago I was looking at air B&B rentals in southern Oregon to escape the smoke in the Bay Area. Jobs and school are remote, and we're all on our devices anyway. Just awful to see it - looks like Paradise/Santa Rosa all over again. And still at least a month or two before we really start taking about rain in these parts.
  8. Totally. Life on Mars today.
  9. Mid day in the Bay Area was like a hour before dusk - except not pretty. Thick marine layer and heavy smoke above it has given us a brown-orange DARK sky all day. There really aren't words to describe the feeling. link
  10. Having just spent the long weekend along the Russian River up north (and the ocean beaches it reaches to), an additional issue right now is with the number of parks and beaches closed for COVID, the areas that are open get utterly swamped. PCH1 looked like the 405 on Sunday. That area is one my favorites, and kayaking in that kelp field off the shore of the Aquarium in Monterrey is amazing. Just be prepared as to say the current situation is dynamic is an understatement.
  11. Frankly, you might want to wait a bit - it's all on fire right now, from Santa Cruz to Healdsburg. Something like 1mil acres in a 100 mile radius of San Francisco. Air quality is unreal (except at the SF coast) all the way to Tahoe, there's no rain in the forecast until probably late October (if we're lucky). Most of our favorite wine spots in Healdsburg are closed now or had to evacuate. We have reservations in Guernville for Labor Day, and seeing as how the entire town is evacuated I seriously doubt we're going. Looking at a two week rental in Oregon to try and escape the smoke. Fuck 2020.
  12. It depends what you want, and it probably dependent on how this Fall goes. Likely no indoor attractions are going to be operational, and as noted other than sporadic sidewalk seating fine dining is a no-go. Some of the 'big' touristy stuff may be open - i.e. Pier 39 recently reopened. Outdoor tastings are popping up in wine country as well It could be a good time to do outdoorsy things, but the variable is you don't know if the parks will be open. For instance, some were closed to car traffic, but then access was pretty glorious by foot/bike. That said, San Mateo county was so fed up with people during the initial days of the lockdown they were stopping cars and asking for proof of residency in the area, and even cyclists were ticketed riding down from SF. In general, or at least at first, CA didn't suffer fools - we locked down. You certainly could still walk around the city, and some sites will always be accessible, but boy these are strange time - a lot of what makes SF the tourist draw is not open at the moment. As noted, great for us 'locals', though.
  13. That seems like a strange choice. I probably read too much in to it, but Yeager is such a strong presence in the movie and certainly was a huge influence on Wolfe's writing of the book. Will there be young girls and cookies in the Disney version?
  14. Putting aside the source of the information (or at least the vehicle), I watched the first talk by the woman who is stated to be an ER doc in California. She recited results from a J of Virology paper which shows that chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS coronovirus, with the claim that as it was a 2005 publication that the 'cure' has been known for some time and it's all a coverup. I read the paper. It's an in vitro study using immortalized neonatal monkey kidney cells with chloroquine - it's all on cells. The maximum inhibition of the virus achieved was with an in vitro concentration which bears little relevance to clinically relevant exposures in people actually taking the drug. Touting this as a proof of a cure shows such a meager understanding of science and medicine, it brings forth the adage 'do you know what they call the person who graduated last in medical school?'. Let's just say we cure cancer in a dish all the time - patients are a bit harder. Surprisingly, no zinc was included in the assay, which based on the current diatribe also is stated as being crucial. I guess when you effectively paste on chloroquine at supra-physiological levels you don't need it?
  15. Unsurprisingly, a creepy crackpot who has problems forming sentences. Appearance on TV
  16. Well, nature has a way of dealing with those people. For the mRNA based Moderna vaccine it seems likely to require multiple hits. Not sure it’s necessary for the attenuated AstraZeneca/Oxford one.
  17. I'll admit, this is in Lake Tahoe, where anchoring = being close to shore, where there are big boulders. They'd much rather you float out in the 600'-1500' deeps...
  18. I think that's what the Swiss paper is arguing - children rarely infected the household. But honestly, we're dealing with such minuscule information at this stage, I think it's hard to understand all the permutations. Maybe Orange County will be the test case.
  19. Link to the above paper : https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/early/2020/07/08/peds.2020-1576.full.pdf?download=true It's a study from Switzerland, looking at families and family transmission from March to April of this year, 'the clinical presentation of the first 40 pediatric cases of COVID-19 in our city'. The positive read to the data is that ~80% of the time it appeared that the adults in the household appeared COVID positive first, and 'only' 8% of the time were the children positive. Note that in Switzerland schools closed in March and only just reopened in May (link). The potential conclusion here is that children are less likely to be the primary vector of transmission, I suppose. But if the schools were closed, does this really tell us much? And 'only' 8%, in a situation where perhaps the children are mostly sequestered, may underreport the risk (and they ackloedge as much in the paper). A longer rebuttal to my argument here, with additional global examples which may suggest that the potential transmission from child to adult is rare : COVID-19 Transmission and Children: The Child Is Not to Blame
  20. I'm hopeful as anyone else, mostly because mRNA vaccines may be the best approach from a scalability standpoint for a global pandemic. It's great to see there's a titer raised, but we don't yet know if it is effective (or protective). The adverse events with the 250ug injection mirror some of the moderate to severe reactions seen in previous trials with this approach in a cancer setting. Still a lot to understand with this system.
  21. Having rented a few boats on local lakes recently, none of them came with an anchor. I can somewhat understand it as there can be a bit of an art to property anchoring a boat in wind and current, let alone accounting for what it may be sticking in (sounds like this lake/reservoir had lots of submerged foliage). I'm going to guess she was not a super experienced boater, and it is often surprising how much even a big pontoon boat can drift in the breeze. Agreed the whole scenario has some strange components to it, though.
  22. Lovely place, but (and no offense to your SIL) unfortunately it's full of Swiss people.
  23. It will be interesting to see if the inhaled form has even greater benefit.
  24. That's probably a fair interpretation of the data, the question then is how many particles (and how unlucky) do you have to be to contract it. But it's measuring the actual number of viral particles (titer), and note that we're starting with a pretty large number, and that's a log scale graph. These are all mechanically-generated aerosols, and there are other studies out there which say you've got measurable virus farther out to 16h : link There's some additional consideration that aerosols are not always so easily generated in real life, and the dynamics of a normal room (like an OR) could be different: Link
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