SARS-CoV-2; CoVID-19; Coronavirus; Updates and Information

Baal said:

The Wuhan lab got NIH funds because many coronaviruses are endemic to animals in China and other parts of east Asia, and people have been predicting for a long time that another one would jump to humans and this lab was established for the purpose of learning about them. Coronaviruses were specifically mentioned in the 2016 Pandemic Playbook created by the US National Security Council (which was sadly ignored). It is certainly possible that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from the facility through accident and negligence. I don't trust the people loudly making the claim. But it is possible.

Click to expand...

I'm inclined to believe it was due to natural causes, but am more or less agnostic in the absence of hard evidence. My purpose in posting these links was not intended to reinforce the idea it leaked from a lab.

Baal said:

I think they are not misrepresented at all. And it is a false choice. Are you willing to die for Dow-Jones? Should workers be required to work in hazardous conditions without legal and physical protections? This is my last comment that deals with something other than biology or medicine a d I shouldnt have made the last few posts.

Click to expand...

If you can find the video or article where Britt Hume says that people should be willing to die for the stock market, then I will take it back. It is more likely a misrepresentation of what he said by people who think that he is the scum of the earth because their political views don't align with his conservative ones. All the research I have done says he was simply explaining Dan Patrick's statement in the context of how grandparents are willing to do things to protect the future of their children.

I think if someone rejects the man-made theory, one should also reject the lab leak theory. There are ~1200 nucleotide difference between the most close bat coronavirus RaTG13 (corrected: collected in Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2013) and SARS-CoV-2. The average mutation rate of SARS-CoV-2 is 2 nucleotide per month (24 per year). If there were no man-directed experiments conducted on the bat coronavirus in the lab, it would not change that much in 6 years; if there were no such accelerated evolved coronavirus present in the lab, there was nothing to leak.

Several cases in Dec had no link to Wuhan's Huanan seafood market. The seafood market is just a place where cluster infections took place. The infected % is not comparable to Diamond Princess ship or nursing homes. Chinese first thought the wet market was a big deal because of the experience of SARS.

https://www.bfmtv.com/sante/coronav...-19-en-france-des-le-27-decembre-1906757.html
French doctor in Bobigny said they did COVID-19 PCR on the samples of pneumonia patients admitted in the hospital in Dec and Jan and found one patient admitted on Dec 27 tested positive. No travel history. You don't think it special then you miss it.

When Washington and California labs started to do COVID-19 PCR on samples in past influenza surveillance system to investigate how early the community spreading occurred, they never tested samples from 2019 when there was a unusually high peak of influenza-like illness peak (not necessarily influenza positive). When I discussed this with some friends, others always say if no positive was found in first weeks in Jan, there is no need to check 2019 weeks. Well, it is scientifically possible that someone got COVID earlier but just recovered without infecting a lot (all those infected recovered without knowing or died). Right now, there is no lab evidence that all COVID strains transmit the same. There are several reports of superspreaders, like the guy named Mattia in North Italy, the Jewish lawyer in NYC, etc. It is possible that certain mutations occurred when the viruses were replicated on these superspreaders and the mutated strains they carried were more contagious.

Edited: About rechecking influenza surveillance system, Wuhan rechecked from mid Oct 2019 and found no positive until first week of Jan. It indicated that community spreading occurred before the first week of Jan. French made a good point that the samples of pneumonia patients should be rechecked too to identify the earliest cases.

This clip has gotten enough views to make the news today.

Interesting points Rain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r__rOU2G_P8

Dr Aseem Malhotra being interviewed by Dr Mark Hyman on how metabolic disease is driving the pandemic. There is a discussion of a lot of medical issues that may be common knowledge for someone in the low carb world, but a lot of it will not sound like anything you have ever heard from your doctor if you live in the US - how many people have ever had their fasting insulin measured?

It's pretty long and as much about lifestyle choices and public health policy as about COVID19 - they even get into junk food being fed in hospitals. They make the case that the reason why older people are dying more from COVID19 is that metabolic issues just get worse with age especially if you are living a stressful lifestyle and eating the wrong things and that the worst of such issues can be changed in a relatively short time if you can make a few changes to your lifestyle.

Pulse oximeters are the big thing now in COVID19 because many people can't tell they are getting short of breath with the virus until it is too serious.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/well/live/coronavirus-pulse-oximeter-oxygen.html

NextLevel said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r__rOU2G_P8
...... if you can make a few changes to your lifestyle.

Click to expand...

NL, I totally get where you are coming from with all this carb-hating Nutritionism. But if you tell Americans to eat fewer carbs most of us will order a bacon double cheeseburger and leave the bun. The diabetes incidence here is an absolute slow-motion holocaust of amputated limbs, blindness, dementia and death. It makes Covid look like a walk in the park in a sunny day.

Nobody [statistically speaking] changes their lifestyle. Like my friends and I used to say when we were young and chainsmoking, Gotta die of something, right?

Brs said:

NL, I totally get where you are coming from with all this carb-hating Nutritionism. But if you tell Americans to eat fewer carbs most of us will order a bacon double cheeseburger and leave the bun. The diabetes incidence here is an absolute slow-motion holocaust of amputated limbs, blindness, dementia and death. It makes Covid look like a walk in the park in a sunny day.

Nobody [statistically speaking] changes their lifestyle. Like my friends and I used to say when we were young and chainsmoking, Gotta die of something, right?

Click to expand...

I am not sure why you think just omitting the bun would be a bad thing. One of my favorite meals is to get 4 beef patties from McDonalds or Burger King, sometimes with bacon. I cannot stand cheese, it inflames me, so I don't eat it. But people who can do well on dairy can go with it. I can't. While meat at fast foods restaurants likely isn't optimal, it is still better for most people than the crap they eat in terms of processed food.

If no one changes their lifestyle, that is okay. I did and there might be a few people who want to. I bought into a lot of marketing without being serious about my understanding of what lies beneath the surface when it came to nutrition. I worked at a company (the kind with a brand where you would think there were real experts) where a vegetarian/vegan program was promoted to reduce health issues and bought into it - meat got the blame for almost everything. I didn't realize when I started having autoimmune issues that this could be the driver and I spent too long on that road. I have started to look at the research more closely now and the research for low carb diets is strong. Doctors get people to change their lifestyle using this diet every day. Of course, they don't have 100% success, but it is hard for me to take your position seriously when I know what happened to me.

Here is an example of the kind of thing I am talking about. It shows you the disconnect between

1) official dietary guidelines and the medical establishment, and
2) what we knows actually cures diabetes.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ing-gift-1-500-Krispy-Kreme-donuts-staff.html

Do any official dietary guidelines have an RDA of Krispy Kreme? Statistically you and the many other people who do change their lifestyles are outliers. Of course you can't take my argument seriously if you ignore critical terms of it.

Good luck long-term with the four fast food beef patties and cheese (no bun). Nutritionism of all kinds is a delusion. Whether it is carbs that are evil, or fat, or added sugar, or HFCS, whatever. That reductionist mode of thinking owns the world today, but imo does much more harm than good. I'm sure you know the famous Duke Ellington quote about there being only two kinds of music. The same thing applies to food.

Interesting summary of various vaccine strategies for non-specialists. It also has nice and easy to understand diagrams of how SARS-COV-2 infects cells.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01221-y

https://topick.hket.com/article/2632942/【新冠肺炎】港大證雞尾酒療法可令病人提早5日出院　袁國勇籲市民勿對疫苗抱太大期望?mtc=20023
Yuen Kwok Yung, chair professor of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Hong Kong, believes that the vaccine developed by the University of Hong Kong will only become available one year from now at the earliest, which is still in the stage of animal testing. He further stresses that the public should not have high hopes for the vaccine because injecting a coronavirus vaccine in a large number of people has never been done before in human history and so cannot assess the consequences of the vaccine.

He admits that even if there were a vaccine now, he would not be willing to receive an injection, and would rather wear a mask instead. So when a vaccine is released a year later, he will wait for others to receive the injection to know whether it will make the condition worse or cause the side effects of Guillain-Barre syndrome.

As for antiviral drugs, Yuen revealed that the HKUMed will publish an article in the authoritative medical journal "The Lancet" next week, mentioning that the use of cocktail therapy can reduce the number of patients' hospital stays by about 5 days and can also reduce viral load by 100 to 1000 times, and that the Hospital Authority is actively procuring the related drugs. Even if there is no Ribavirin, other drugs can be substituted.

Brs said:

Do any official dietary guidelines have an RDA of Krispy Kreme? Statistically you and the many other people who do change their lifestyles are outliers. Of course you can't take my argument seriously if you ignore critical terms of it.

Good luck long-term with the four fast food beef patties and cheese (no bun). Nutritionism of all kinds is a delusion. Whether it is carbs that are evil, or fat, or added sugar, or HFCS, whatever. That reductionist mode of thinking owns the world today, but imo does much more harm than good. I'm sure you know the famous Duke Ellington quote about there being only two kinds of music. The same thing applies to food.

Click to expand...

If we were to follow your argument to its conclusion, people who die from any disease are statistical outliers because most people don't have the disease and most people don't die. We just accept the numbers without discussing causes, processes etc.

There are many reasons people don't change their diets or lifestyles (the addictive nature of some foods/habits), but as I have pointed out, the prevailing wisdom on diets almost never talks about insulin or leptin resistance as an outcome of dietary choices and how to manage these issues. When I say low carb, it is simply short hand for diet that combats metabolic syndrome. That you consider it reductionism is unfortunate but there are logical reasons why it is a good name and not just maligning a food group unfairly. Looking at the metabolic effects of lifestyle is not reductionism. And if the lifestyle is promoted by corporate interests and government policy to deleterious effect, the hope is that getting more people aware will eventually lead to the right person setting policy. The current head of the ADA (American Diabetes Association) uses low carb to manage her diabetes. For an organization whose policies have usually been to act as if diet variation doesn't impact the diabetic lifestyle significantly, the hope is that having that kind of person in a leadership role can bring about some changes.

The thing is that nutrition even impacts the effectiveness of vaccinations and treatments because it is all about the immune system. Unfortunately, people make it sound like one is independent of the other. IF you are one of the lucky healthy people who can tolerate high levels of carbohydrates, then I wish you the best. Some of us are not so lucky.

There are over 100 million USA people who are diabetic or pre-diabetic. This category has an overall lower immune system function... and are more likely to fall ill to virus/bacteria/fungus infections.

Individuals knowing what things contribute to this, avoiding them, and still making overall balance and variety are important for prevention, maintenance, or getting out of that condition.

There is blame on both individuals and Industrial/Govt. Blame doesn't get the job done, but such current conditions are not facilitating things well.

Keeping the immune system better well functioning helps everyone with a virus and should receive the proper individual attention.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

NextLevel said:

IF you are one of the lucky healthy people who can tolerate high levels of carbohydrates, then I wish you the best. Some of us are not so lucky.

Click to expand...

I probably eat 400 gms of carbs every day. Breakfast every day is 1.5 cups each of raw rolled oats and frozen berries soaked together overnight in the fridge like muesli. Cold breakfasts are goldin Florida. I also eat some dish made mainly of beans or lentils every day and those are loaded with carbs. And another two to four pieces of whole fruit during the day. Also a plain baked sweet potato almost every day. And usually a whole wheat pita with hummus. Carbs galore!

It's a miracle I am relatively healthy with a crazy diet like that. All those unprocessed whole plant foods will kill you.

Carbs do not equal carbs do not equal carbs. Same with proteins. I think we agree on this. But it's fun to dispute with you, livens up the quarantine.

OMG, I forgot about the brown rice that goes with my bean or legume meal. That is like the carbiest thing of all.

I was just on a zoom call with colleagues, one of whom is a pathologist. He mentions that the proper swabbing of the nasalpharynx area is really painful because the swab has to be pushed all the way back to the nose. If people don't sample correctly, it is likely to yield a false negative. His colleague had to have it done five times and says that he never wants to have that done again.

He also said that in our city to expect things to get really bad around August. This is a guy who is responsible for clinical laboratory testing at one of the largest hospital systems in Houston. He oversees the serological testing, various types of PCR testing, etc. To TTD members in the US, don't let don't let down your guard.

Brs said:

I probably eat 400 gms of carbs every day. Breakfast every day is 1.5 cups each of raw rolled oats and frozen berries soaked together overnight in the fridge like muesli. Cold breakfasts are goldin Florida. I also eat some dish made mainly of beans or lentils every day and those are loaded with carbs. And another two to four pieces of whole fruit during the day. Also a plain baked sweet potato almost every day. And usually a whole wheat pita with hummus. Carbs galore!

It's a miracle I am relatively healthy with a crazy diet like that. All those unprocessed whole plant foods will kill you.

Carbs do not equal carbs do not equal carbs. Same with proteins. I think we agree on this. But it's fun to dispute with you, livens up the quarantine.

Click to expand...

Yes you are right. Food is food. it isn't necessarily about the group.

It is weird to make no mention of fats if you mention carbs and proteins. You probably have a very low fat diet as that is how most people who do high carbs manage to survive - there are known issues with metabolizing high amounts of carbs and fats efficiently. High carb has it's own side effects as well especially in people with damaged metabolisms but many people in Africa do it to a decent age. I tell people that if their Coronary artery Calcium score is fine, they likely have nothing to worry about. High fat probably has issues too but the main benefit is that it doesn't stimulate insulin as much and there are essential fats but no essential carbs. But if your fats are crappy oils, it goes back to the same old crap.

It isn't a miracle to follow any ancestral diet and be in decent health. In Nigeria, in year round sunny weather, the bulk of the diet is carbohydrates. That said, quite a few people there get diabetes in old age. They are just treated as "outliers". With processed seed oils becoming more common, as well as the stress of modern life, heart disease, diabetes and cancer rates have gone up as well. Stories of people dying suddenly at young ages just get informed because it is that kind of society sometimes.

I have nothing against people doing things that work for them. I wish my body could still handle carbs. But I do get angry when I see people suffering because they listen to the popular messages on diet that can be misleading on how their diet is affecting their metabolic health. The Eat Less Move More movement is still making a lot of money off clueless people who are copying "healthy people " rather than figuring out what will make a sick person like themselves healthy. But the doctors who are supposed to be the experts are still encouraging people to eat things that negatively impact their insulin and leptin resistance.