https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/24/coronavirus-mutate-contagious-study-us-cases

Cases are mutating to become more contagious, BUT they're not becoming more lethal, per the study.

This is excellent news since this was a concern a while back.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another vaccine candidate enters Phase 3:

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/fourth-large-scale-covid-19-vaccine-trial-begins-united-states

And this is a one-dose vaccine!

More good news on this vaccine candidate: it doesn’t need to be stored at sub-zero temperatures. Would make it a lot easier for more clinicians to use.

Yep, that's huge. Could be stored in a fridge.

Anonymous wrote:Another vaccine candidate enters Phase 3:

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/fourth-large-scale-covid-19-vaccine-trial-begins-united-states

And this is a one-dose vaccine!

More good news on this vaccine candidate: it doesn’t need to be stored at sub-zero temperatures. Would make it a lot easier for more clinicians to use.

Anonymous wrote:Another vaccine candidate enters Phase 3:

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/fourth-large-scale-covid-19-vaccine-trial-begins-united-states

And this is a one-dose vaccine!

Was going to post this. Pace of the main candidates is evening up a bit. J&J entering the mix.

Also of note, Pfizer and Moderna have expanded their trial pool to account for more minorities to address the racial disparity of the initial trial demos. They are now up to 18-25% (roughly) of the total trial pop being minorities. Also, they've (I think only Pfizer) expanded their trial pool and lowered the age to 16.

Anonymous wrote:Virginia's 7 day moving average of new case rate per 100,000 has been trending down and today is at 890. Would be nice to be able to travel to NYC to see my daughter.

Is she, or you, high-risk?

Virginia's 7 day moving average of new case rate per 100,000 has been trending down and today is at 890. Would be nice to be able to travel to NYC to see my daughter.

Anonymous wrote:Another vaccine candidate enters Phase 3:

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/fourth-large-scale-covid-19-vaccine-trial-begins-united-states

And this is a one-dose vaccine!

Follow this

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html

Another vaccine candidate enters Phase 3:

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/fourth-large-scale-covid-19-vaccine-trial-begins-united-states

And this is a one-dose vaccine!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/09/pandemic-improved-friendship/616398/

Interesting article about how this pandemic improved friendships/relationships

I will say that I’ve gotten WAY closer to my children. You don’t realize how busy you are until you are forced to stop those activities. I hope that I look back on this time when it’s long past with fondness for that time. Right now, I can’t have that perspective though.

Same. My husband and 14 year old son never spent time together before but since summer have a common hobby and spend significant time together. It’s been great to watch.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/game-changing-coronavirus-breakthrough-discovered-4537472.amp

'Game-changing' coronavirus breakthrough discovered by scientists that could stop it spreading

Scientists from Bristol have made what they have described as a ‘game-changing’ discovery in the fight against coronavirus.

They said that in the short-term, their discovery could lead to better treatment of Covid-19, and in the longer term, it could mean they are able to stop the virus being infectious altogether and ‘stop the virus in its tracks’.

The team at the University of Bristol have released their findings in the journal Science, and describe the study that they undertook as ‘ground-breaking’.

The team was headed by Prof Christiane Schaffitzel from Bristol’s School of Biochemistry, and Prof Imre Berger from the Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology - effectively teaming up biochemists with another team that use powerful microscopes that freeze the virus and enable it to be looked at in tiny detail.

The team discovered that buried deep within the spikes that the SARS CoV-2 protein uses to latch onto the inside of people’s bodies was a small molecule called linoleic acid.

This fatty acid is what the virus uses to bind itself together and spread - and the team have described this discovery as important because it now means there is a way to disrupt that binding fat, and potentially render the virus not infectious.

The discovery of this fatty acid is described as a ‘druggable pocket’ by scientists - a way in for drugs to take on the virus and disarm it.

“Our discovery of a druggable pocket within the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein could lead to new anti-viral drugs to shut down and eliminate the virus before it entered human cells, stopping it firmly in its tracks,” she added.

The discovery of the 'druggable pockets' is the second major breakthrough in the fight against coronavirus Covid-19 involving the University of Bristol. Last month, a team from Bristol were part of a global study that proved the use of a cheap £5 drug cut death rates for Covid-19 patients by a fifth.

Anonymous wrote:https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/09/pandemic-improved-friendship/616398/

Interesting article about how this pandemic improved friendships/relationships

I will say that I’ve gotten WAY closer to my children. You don’t realize how busy you are until you are forced to stop those activities. I hope that I look back on this time when it’s long past with fondness for that time. Right now, I can’t have that perspective though.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/09/pandemic-improved-friendship/616398/

Interesting article about how this pandemic improved friendships/relationships

Anonymous wrote:Advances In ICU Care Are Saving More Patients Who Have COVID-19

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/09/20/914374901/advances-in-icu-care-are-saving-more-patients-who-have-covid-19

This makes me so happy. The article also said this is one of the reasons the death rate isnt as high

Advances In ICU Care Are Saving More Patients Who Have COVID-19

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/09/20/914374901/advances-in-icu-care-are-saving-more-patients-who-have-covid-19

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.justgivemepositivenews.com/

Moderna CEO expects to know if it's covid vaccine works by November

I have not seen this website, but decided to click on it today and found this awesome piece at the top. It's just one persons idea, but I am on board with it!

Your article (‘Confounding’: Covid may have already peaked in many African countries, 16 September) hints that there may be natural immunity in African countries where Covid-19 has settled down. This is likely to be true, and not just in Africa. If the evidence is closely examined, up to half of the worldwide population may have natural immunity. In none of the natural “experiments” of Sars-CoV-2 exposure within a closed group has the infection rate risen above 50%. In Lombardy, a study of 5,484 individuals who had been exposed by close contact with an infected individual were tested for antibody positivity, with 51.5% testing positive.

This hints at pre-existing natural immunity in the population. This has been convincingly demonstrated, with a study in Nature showing that 35% of a population cohort using historical samples had demonstrable CD4 T cell activity against Sars-CoV-2, never having been previously exposed to the new virus.

The implication is that 35%-50% of the population is naturally immune, and up to 25% antibody prevalence is being approached in some areas of the world (17.5% in London). We could already be approaching 75% immunity in those regions, well within the estimated 60%-80% needed for herd immunity. So, where death rates have settled to historical norms, this would be explicable by natural immunity. We may be closer to the end of this pandemic than we think.

Prof Moin Saleem

University of Bristol

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/sep/16/confounding-covid-may-have-already-peaked-africa

Oh wow, I hope this is the case!