The COVID-19 Science and Medicine Question Thread

Full blood draw
Not a finger prick

Hope you’re doing well Cap. Not a fan but wishing you well and everyone in your circle. This is a crime. No one deserves this.

Agreed no one deserves any of this

I’m ok
My circle is healing

hope you and yours are well, also

don’t worry about not being a fan

I don’t have a fan club, and I’m not looking for any

Full blood draw
Not a finger prick

Attsa mo'betta. The finger prick, self-performing, fast assay is a real POS, that's my professional opinion, verified by my old gang. False positives are rampant on this test.

The blood draw assays that are run on instruments far more reliable and accurate. You'll have results in a few days.

What are your thoughts on Moderna ?

*"the US government stepped in and picked our platform as one of the major investments that Tony Fauci and the team are making in. And I think if you stay in tuned, you should expect to see us be able to deliver on that."

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/01/us/coronavirus-moderna-vaccine-invs/index.html[/URL]*

Moderna is one of 3 companies looking at a novel vaccine technology, utilizing messenger RNA. One of the other companies is funded by Bill Gates. This technology eliminates an internal "middle man" in eliciting an immune response. Conventional vaccines inject someone with bits of inactivated virus or viral proteins grown in fermenters. Then their body recognizes an infection and makes the nucleic acids necessary to make antibodies against the infection. Moderna's vaccine contains the already prepped nucleic acid, mRNA, that will tell the cells how to make the antibodies.

It will be interesting to see how this progresses. Unfortunately, there are no licensed mRNA assays, so there is a lot of regulatory ground to make up here so people become familiar with the technology.

Same, same

I figured that I would ask the question in this thread rather than the other one; looking for an informed opinion. Outside of curiosity, what is the practical value in having a Corvid19 ‘antibody test’. My understanding is that the question of immunity is still somewhat of a work in progress.

1 if you have anti bodies you may be a plasma donor
2 of you have anti bodies you’ve at least proven to yourself that you have the ability to fight it
3 of you have anti bodies you may be immune for a period of time
4 if you don’t have them it could change an individuals calculus on risk and activities they would be comfortable doing
5 It’s simple more data provided to the scientist

I figured that I would ask the question in this thread rather than the other one; looking for an informed opinion. Outside of curiosity, what is the practical value in having a Corvid19 ‘antibody test’. My understanding is that the question of immunity is still somewhat of a work in progress.

TS covered that well with:

1 if you have anti bodies you may be a plasma donor
2 of you have anti bodies you’ve at least proven to yourself that you have the ability to fight it
3 of you have anti bodies you may be immune for a period of time
4 if you don’t have them it could change an individuals calculus on risk and activities they would be comfortable doing
5 It’s simple more data provided to the scientist

My comments to the above. It's especially important for the Antibody Test is for the epidemiologists to look at the overall infection rates from people who were sick and never knew it.

I would caution folks on #2 above, based on #3, we just don't know how long you would be protected for a reinfection of COVID-19, so if you're Antibody Positive, it's not a license to forget all the social distancing, hygiene and cautions we've been instilled with. It would be foolish to think you're safe and you need to consider that you could still get a sub-symptomatic infection, kept in check by your Abs, BUT you're still very capable of transmitting that infection to someone else.

I'll expand on the use of Antibody testing a bit, as time passes there will be more different Antibody (Ab) tests. Some will measure Immunoglobulin G (IgG), some IgGM and maybe even IgA and IgE. G & M are the biggies and if you look at both separately you'll get an idea of the stage of infection in that your body raises IgM first, IgG later. There maybe another future blood (serology) test, a test for Antigen (Ag), besides the current diagnostic, Nucleic Acid Test (NAT). As these markers wax and wane, doctors get a better idea of what's going on in your body.

Here's a table to help you understand this, days are variable, numbers below just representative based on other viral infections...

[TABLE]
[TR]
[TD]INFECTION STAGE[/TD]
[TD]TIME[/TD]
[TD]NAT TEST[/TD]
[TD]Ag TEST[/TD]
[TD]IgM TEST[/TD]
[TD]IgG TEST[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]NEVER INFECTED[/TD]
[TD]N/A[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]INITIAL INFECTION[/TD]
[TD]~ 0 - 2 Days[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]EARLY INFECTION[/TD]
[TD]~ 2 - 5 Days[/TD]
[TD]POSITIVE[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]INFECTION[/TD]
[TD]~ 3 - 7 Days[/TD]
[TD]POSITIVE[/TD]
[TD]POSITIVE[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]INFECTION W/ANTIBODY ACTIVATION[/TD]
[TD]~ 7 - 14 Days[/TD]
[TD]POSITIVE[/TD]
[TD]POSITIVE[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]INFECTION W/FULL Ab RELEASE[/TD]
[TD]~ 12 - 30 Days[/TD]
[TD]POSITIVE[/TD]
[TD]POSITIVE[/TD]
[TD]POSITIVE[/TD]
[TD]POSITIVE[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]RESOLVED RECENT INFECTION[/TD]
[TD]~ 1 - 2 Months[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[TD]POSITIVE[/TD]
[TD]POSITIVE[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]PAST, RESOLVED INFECTION[/TD]
[TD]> 2 - ? Months**[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[TD]NEGATIVE[/TD]
[TD]POSITIVE[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

** - How long IgG persists and is this remaining IgG is effective in fighting off another infection is the billion dollar question right now, along with what specific IgG - Antigen reaction is key to resolving an infection. This is the heart of vaccine work at this moment.

I could go on for pages, but info above is a good start on Immunology 101...

I knew you’d put the fine point on it , and that’s not a Knock

My words were chosen very carefully
To include
May in number 2
And period of time in 3

Wife goes to her gp today

it’ll be interesting to see if she pops positive

Dumb question Is it ok to use hand sanitizer on my latex gloves so I dont have to throw them away every time I use them when touching bills ETC when I have to deal with the public

Good question. During the ebola scare we were trained in health care to don and doff our PPE using hand sanitizer every step of the way including on outer surface of gloves. Number 2 mode of transmission of viruses is touching your face with dirty hands or gloves. Number 1 remains droplet spray. Really dont need to wear gloves in public at all as long as you use proper hand washing sanitizing . Touch anything and you must wash or sanitize. And dont touch your face at all. Its good practice all the time although hard to do.

I knew you’d put the fine point on it , and that’s not a Knock

My words were chosen very carefully
To include
May in number 2
And period of time in 3

Yes, I noted that, nicely done!

Just wanted to make sure that those who read it without catching those nuances were clearly informed...

Antidote as opposed to a vaccine ?

[URL unfurl="true"]https://in.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-israel-treatment/israel-isolates-coronavirus-antibody-in-significant-breakthrough-minister-idINKBN22H07T[/URL]

Yes, I noted that, nicely done!

Just wanted to make sure that those who read it without catching those nuances were clearly informed...

its what scientists do

Antidote as opposed to a vaccine ?

[URL unfurl="true"]https://in.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-israel-treatment/israel-isolates-coronavirus-antibody-in-significant-breakthrough-minister-idINKBN22H07T[/URL]

either will do nicely

Antidote as opposed to a vaccine ?

[URL unfurl="true"]https://in.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-israel-treatment/israel-isolates-coronavirus-antibody-in-significant-breakthrough-minister-idINKBN22H07T[/URL]

Yes, but if it works, the question of semantics is almost moot. Vaccines result in a person raising their own antibodies to fight off an infection, usually a future infection. Injecting antibodies into an infected person is a treatment. The problem is a vaccine can extinguish an epidemic, treatment doesn't, but both save lives...

R7 If you can watch I would appreciate your opinion as I always do. This is starting to get confusing. By the way, super jealous after seeing mr whiskers. Nice catch!
[MEDIA=youtube]sOLnfe6U_fM[/MEDIA]

The title and

R7 If you can watch I would appreciate your opinion as I always do. This is starting to get confusing. By the way, super jealous after seeing mr whiskers. Nice catch!
[MEDIA=youtube]sOLnfe6U_fM[/MEDIA]

With all due respect, the title and platform (YouTube) speaks volumes and I choose not to invest 26 minutes of my life that I'll never get back for some conspiracy theory blog. I'm busy with some COVID-related consulting now so those 26 minutes would come out of my fishing time and that ain't gonna happen.

I understand the person involved includes Tony Fauci as part of the "Plan" and if true, that infuriates me. Tony, a person I've met a few times during the early AIDS days, has always risen above the fray and stands as a paragon of scientific virtue. He doesn't say what's popular, he repeats what the data say, as any good scientist does. To even think that Tony would "plan" to spin things around a predetermined agenda is just an anathema. Don't forget, Tony is one of the few people in Washington who uses data to demonstrate that some politicians are just spewing "hunches" with no valid medical nor scientific merit. My best hypotheses remained as hunches until I had the data to prove they were either good or dumb chit ideas. The data do all the talking in science, not the spin masters...

From an epidemiological perspective, here's an active case MESA (flat curve). Maine only has 360 ICU beds, but currently 162 of them are available, as well as 218 available ventilators out of a state-wide number of 218 so this rate of active cases is well below the number our medical infrastructure can handle.

During the past week most of Maine's iconic summer and fall fairs and events have been cancelled for 2020, truly Draconian Measures. It goes without saying that the economic impact of these cancellations in a state hugely dependent upon tourism will be brutal.