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Coronavirus Facts and Information thread:

Stevicus

Stevicus

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The 6-foot social-distancing rule is based on nearly 80-year-old science. Scientists at MIT and Oxford have created a traffic-light system to use instead.

  • The 6-foot rule for social distancing is based on science that's 80 years old.
  • Researchers say it's an antiquated way to think about how viruses move through the air.
  • Instead, we should be considering many facets of an interaction: where it takes place, how long it lasts, and whether it's going to be loud.
  • A new tool out from researchers at Oxford and MIT provides a traffic-light system for assessing risks during the pandemic so we don't always have to be on high alert.
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Their study measurements were never meant to be taken as hard-and-fast rules about how far we should stand from other people during a pandemic, though.

Nevertheless, these 3-to-6-feet rules of thumb have become easy-to-follow protocols for keeping potentially sick people at arm's length during the coronavirus outbreak.

"The dogma was born," the professor Lidia Morawska, a leading aerosol scientist in Australia, said of the 80-year-old 6-foot rule. "Like any dogma, it's extremely difficult to change people's minds and change the dogmas."

But as the coronavirus pandemic drags on for months on end, Morawska and other leading air and virus scientists and engineers are starting to lead a charge toward dismantling the old 6-foot rule and taking a more nuanced approach to managing the novel coronavirus' spread.

Instead of always being on super-high alert, or assuming that a distance of 6 feet (or wearing masks, or washing hands) keeps us 100% safe all the time, they say, we should be learning how better to assess the situations we're in every day, letting our guard down now and again when it's relatively safe and moving back onto high alert when it's appropriate.
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Stevicus

Stevicus

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Another way they're monitoring the virus is by analyzing wastewater at the college dormitories.

University of Arizona's wastewater testing halts potential surge in COVID-19 cases at dorm

University of Arizona officials say its researchers may have prevented a surge in COVID-19 cases caused by asymptomatic individuals inside one of its dorms through a research program that tests wastewater from campus housing sites.

Researchers from the UA Water and Energy Sustainable Technology Center testing wastewater from the Likins dorm found an increased concentration of coronavirus Tuesday. Those results led the UA to identify two cases of asymptomatic students.

“We did test — I think there are 311 individuals in that dorm — and we did the antigen test yesterday and found two positive cases there,” said President Robert Robbins. “We’re running down contact tracing their contacts, and those two individuals have gone to isolation yesterday morning.”


The students had to have tested negative for the virus before moving into the dorm.

For months, the researchers have been testing campus dormitories — home to around 5,000 students — student unions and administrative buildings several times a week before finding the virus at the dorm.

Ian Pepper, director of the WEST Center, said in April that “testing the wastewater gives you an idea of the number of cases within a community and if the numbers are increasing or decreasing. The approach can also be used to help determine if an intervention is working to reduce the transmission of the virus.”

Testing wastewater can identify the presence of the coronavirus even if the infected person is asymptomatic. To make sure the first case of the Likins dorm’s wastewater was positive, researchers completed five additional coronavirus diagnostic tests with them all coming back positive.
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Stevicus

Stevicus

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It appears the economic consequences of coronavirus will be with us for quite a while.

More than 70,000 airline jobs in jeopardy as coronavirus relief expires

Tens of thousands of airline employees are anxiously bracing for Oct. 1 when U.S. carriers are likely to lay off employees following the expiration of relief provided by the CARES Act.

U.S. airlines have already warned a tenth of their workforce -- at least 75,000 employees -- that their jobs are at risk as the industry struggles to weather the coronavirus pandemic. Passenger volumes are still down 71% compared to last year and experts predict it is unlikely they will return to prepandemic levels until 2024.


The airlines and unions representing those on the front lines are pushing for an extension of the payroll support program, but lawmakers and the White House have yet to reach an agreement.
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Stevicus

Stevicus

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CDC tells states: Be ready to distribute vaccines on Nov. 1

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The federal government has told states to prepare for a coronavirus vaccine to be ready to distribute by Nov. 1.

The timeline raised concern among public health experts about an “October surprise” — a vaccine approval driven by political considerations ahead of a presidential election, rather than science.

In a letter to governors dated Aug. 27, Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said states “in the near future” will receive permit applications from McKesson Corp., which has contracted with CDC to distribute vaccines to places including state and local health departments and hospitals.
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“CDC urgently requests your assistance in expediting applications for these distribution facilities and, if necessary, asks that you consider waiving requirements that would prevent these facilities from becoming fully operational by November 1, 2020,” Redfield wrote.

He wrote that any waivers will not compromise the safety or effectiveness of the vaccine. The Associated Press obtained the letter, which was first reported by McClatchy.

The CDC also sent three planning documents to some health departments that included possible timelines for when vaccines would be available. The documents are to be used to develop plans for early vaccination when the supply might be constrained, according to one of the documents, which outlined a scenario in which a vaccine could be available as soon as the end of October.

“The COVID-19 vaccine landscape is evolving and uncertain, and these scenarios may evolve as more information is available,” the document reads.

Another of the documents says that limited COVID-19 vaccine doses may be available by early November and that supply will increase substantially in 2021.

It also states that initially available vaccines will either be approved by the Food and Drug Administration or authorized by the agency under its emergency powers.
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Revoltingest

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
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A Supercomputer Analyzed Covid-19 — and an Interesting New Theory Has Emerged
Excerpted....
Earlier this summer, the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee set about "); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">crunching data on more than 40,000 genes from 17,000 genetic samples in an effort to better understand "); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">Covid-19. Summit is the "); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">second-fastest computer in the world, but the process — which involved analyzing 2.5 billion genetic combinations — still took more than a week.

When Summit was done, researchers analyzed the results. It was, in the words of Dr. Daniel Jacobson, lead researcher and chief scientist for computational systems biology at Oak Ridge, a “"); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">eureka moment.” The computer had revealed a new theory about how Covid-19 impacts the body: "); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">the bradykinin hypothesis. The hypothesis provides a model that explains many aspects of Covid-19, including some of its most "); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">bizarre symptoms. It also suggests 10-plus potential treatments, many of which are already FDA approved. Jacobson’s group "); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">published their results in a paper in the journal eLife in early July.
 
Stevicus

Stevicus

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Staff member
Premium Member
Revoltingest said:
A Supercomputer Analyzed Covid-19 — and an Interesting New Theory Has Emerged
Excerpted....
Earlier this summer, the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee set about "); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">crunching data on more than 40,000 genes from 17,000 genetic samples in an effort to better understand "); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">Covid-19. Summit is the "); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">second-fastest computer in the world, but the process — which involved analyzing 2.5 billion genetic combinations — still took more than a week.

When Summit was done, researchers analyzed the results. It was, in the words of Dr. Daniel Jacobson, lead researcher and chief scientist for computational systems biology at Oak Ridge, a “"); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">eureka moment.” The computer had revealed a new theory about how Covid-19 impacts the body: "); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">the bradykinin hypothesis. The hypothesis provides a model that explains many aspects of Covid-19, including some of its most "); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">bizarre symptoms. It also suggests 10-plus potential treatments, many of which are already FDA approved. Jacobson’s group "); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">published their results in a paper in the journal eLife in early July.
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I reformatted the quoted portion since it came out weird:

Earlier this summer, the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee set about crunching data on more than 40,000 genes from 17,000 genetic samples in an effort to better understand Covid-19. Summit is the second-fastest computer in the world, but the process — which involved analyzing 2.5 billion genetic combinations — still took more than a week.

When Summit was done, researchers analyzed the results. It was, in the words of Dr. Daniel Jacobson, lead researcher and chief scientist for computational systems biology at Oak Ridge, a “eureka moment.” The computer had revealed a new theory about how Covid-19 impacts the body: the bradykinin hypothesis. The hypothesis provides a model that explains many aspects of Covid-19, including some of its most bizarre symptoms. It also suggests 10-plus potential treatments, many of which are already FDA approved. Jacobson’s group published their results in a paper in the journal eLife in early July.
Click to expand...
 
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