Immunity or not to immunity?

[Wandering Monk]

People who contracted SARS Covid 1 in 2003 still have the memory T-cells now, 17 years later. This virus is more similar to SARS Covid 1 than to other corona viruses.

 

[Valjean]

Yet the Covid variety exhibits epidemiologically significant differences.
Today's news: Covid: Antibodies 'fall rapidly after infection'

 

[shunyadragon]

Yet the Covid variety exhibits epidemiologically significant differences.
Today's news: Covid: Antibodies 'fall rapidly after infection'

post #14

 

[Milton Platt]

A study of hundreds of thousands of people across England suggests immunity to the coronavirus is gradually wearing off - at least according to one measure.

Still, not enough is known to determine if antibodies provide any effective level of immunity to Covid-19, or how long people may be immune to reinfection with the coronavirus.

"This very large study has shown that the proportion of people with detectable antibodies is falling over time," Helen Ward, who is on the faculty of medicine at the school of public health at Imperial College London, said in a statement.
"We don't yet know whether this will leave these people at risk of reinfection with the virus that causes COVID-19, but it is essential that everyone continues to follow guidance to reduce the risk to themselves and others," added Ward, who worked on the study.

Study shows evidence of waning immunity to Covid-19 - CNN

Obviously it would be insane to not hear what the leading "scientist" on Covid have to say, so we know what is really going on.

Very few diseases produce a permanent immune response.

 

[Nimos]

Very few diseases produce a permanent immune response.

I know, what one can wonder about or fear, is that we are most likely going to have to deal with this virus for a long time. Even if they manage to make a vaccine, what are the chances that it will work the next time it mutates, sort of like the flu?

How are society going to handle that, when it's so contagious. We can't walk around with masks all year round, hardly anyone is travelling anymore, we are restricted to seeing each other.

 

[Valjean]

I know, what one can wonder about or fear, is that we are most likely going to have to deal with this virus for a long time. Even if they manage to make a vaccine, what are the chances that it will work the next time it mutates, sort of like the flu?

How are society going to handle that, when it's so contagious. We can't walk around with masks all year round, hardly anyone is travelling anymore, we are restricted to seeing each other.

That's why we're working on a vaccine.

 

[Milton Platt]

I know, what one can wonder about or fear, is that we are most likely going to have to deal with this virus for a long time. Even if they manage to make a vaccine, what are the chances that it will work the next time it mutates, sort of like the flu?

How are society going to handle that, when it's so contagious. We can't walk around with masks all year round, hardly anyone is travelling anymore, we are restricted to seeing each other.

Sorry for the delay. Yes, the virus will likely never be eliminated. It is very likely to remain active in the human population indefinitely.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Sorry for the delay. Yes, the virus will likely never be eliminated. It is very likely to remain active in the human population indefinitely.

Good news is we've learned much and have gotten better at treating it. We still have a long ways to go, but if things go well full reopening is drawing near. And with less effort spent on a vaccine we may get more spent on developing even better treatments.
So, while it may happen that sometimes a place will have to mask up and respond to Covid-19, I just don't see it being this disastrous.

 

[Milton Platt]

Good news is we've learned much and have gotten better at treating it. We still have a long ways to go, but if things go well full reopening is drawing near. And with less effort spent on a vaccine we may get more spent on developing even better treatments.
So, while it may happen that sometimes a place will have to mask up and respond to Covid-19, I just don't see it being this disastrous.

Seems we have continued to politicize and bicker instead of coming together and tamping it down. A fair share of the population believes that their right to not wear a mask trumps (pun intended) other's right to protection from a disease that is sickening and killing people at the rate of over a thousand people per day at the moment. I think we have at least 4 to 5 months to go before things can begin to return to normal in any sense of the word, and that hinges on people actually getting vaccinated.

 

[shunyadragon]

The conservative rural world is being slammed by COVID-19 and the Dakota's are shinning examples of how this is accomplished. Trump's gift of no masks and social distancing.

Source: COVID in the Dakotas: A look at how coronavirus is 'as bad as it gets'

The Dakotas are 'as bad as it gets anywhere in the world' for COVID-19

Joel Shannon

South Dakota welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors to a massive motorcycle rally this summer, declined to cancel the state fair and still doesn't require masks. Now its hospitals are filling up and the state's current COVID-19 death rate is among the worst in the world.

The situation is similarly dire in North Dakota, with the state's governor recently moving to allow health care workers who have tested positive for COVID-19 to continue working if they don't show symptoms. It's a controversial policy recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a crisis situation where hospitals are short-staffed.

And now — after months of resisting a statewide mask mandate — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum changed course late Friday, ordering masks to be worn statewide and imposing several business restrictions.


“Our situation has changed, and we must change with it,” Burgum said in a video message posted at 10 p.m. Friday. Doctors and nurses “need our help, and they need it now,” he said.

Both North and South Dakota now face a predictably tragic reality that health experts tell USA TODAY could have been largely prevented with earlier public health actions.

Pandemics require people to give up some of their freedoms for the greater good, University of British Columbia psychiatry professor Steven Taylor told USA TODAY. In conservative regions like the Dakotas and elsewhere in the world, it's common to see push back like an “allergic reaction to being told what to do,” said Taylor, author of "The Psychology of Pandemics".

But months of lax regulations have contributed to a growing public health crisis in the Dakotas.
How widespread is COVID-19 across North and South Dakota?


The current rates of infection and deaths per capita in South Dakota and previously restriction-free North Dakota are what Dr. Ali Mokdad would expect to see in a war-torn nation — not here.

“How could we allow this in the United States to happen?" asked Mokdad, a professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle. “This is unacceptable by any standards.”

North Dakota's COVID-19 death rates per capita in the past week are similar to the hardest hit countries in the world right now — Belgium, Czech Republic and Slovenia — according to Saturday New York Times data. That data also places South Dakota's recent per capita deaths among the world's highest rates.

And there's currently nowhere in the U.S. where COVID-19 deaths are more common than in the Dakotas, according to data published by The COVID Tracking Project.

It's a situation “as bad as it gets anywhere in the world," Dr. William Haseltine told USA TODAY.
How did it get so bad?

© Copyright Original Source

 

[shunyadragon]

Human tragedy compounded by the devotion to misinformation and lack of leadership from above.

Source: South Dakota nurse says many dying patients still insist COVID-19 'not real'


South Dakota nurse says many dying patients still insist COVID-19 'not real'

BY ALICIA COHN

A South Dakota emergency room nurse on Monday expressed frustration that many of her patients don't believe they are dying of COVID-19.

Jodi Doering's tweet went viral on social media over the weekend after she tweeted about patients who "don’t believe the virus is real ... while gasping for breath on 100% Vapotherm."

"It wasn't one particular patient, it's just a culmination of so many people," Doering told CNN's "New Day." "And their last, dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real.’ "

South Dakota nurse says many dying patients still insist COVID-19 'not real'

A South Dakota emergency room nurse on Monday expressed frustration that many of her patients don't believe they are dying of COVID-19.

Jodi Doering's tweet went viral on social media over the weekend after she tweeted about patients who "don’t believe the virus is real ... while gasping for breath on 100% Vapotherm."

"It wasn't one particular patient, it's just a culmination of so many people," Doering told CNN's "New Day." "And their last, dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real.’ "

South Dakota reported 821 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, with 62,521 current confirmed cases statewide. The state health department reports 20 percent of hospital beds are currently occupied with COVID-19 patients.

"People want it to be influenza, they want it to be pneumonia," Doering said. "We've even had people say, 'You know, I think it might be lung cancer.' ... Even after positive results come back, some people just don't believe it."

Doering said multiple patients target nurses like her with their "anger and hatred."

"They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that 'stuff' because they don’t have COVID because it’s not real," she tweeted on Saturday.

"I think it's just a belief that it's not real and nursing happens to be on the receiving end of that," she told CNN.

"It just makes you sad and mad and frustrated and then you know that you're just going to come back and do it all over again," she added.

Doering also noted on Twitter that some patients argue with her that President-elect Joe Biden "is going to ruin the USA."
Biden has indicated that as president he will ask governors and mayors to institute mask mandates, in keeping with CDC recommendations for preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

South Dakota's Republican Gov. Kristi Noem did not issue a statewide lockdown order earlier this year, unlike most other states, and continues to criticize statewide mask mandates.

"It's a good day for freedom. Joe Biden realizes that the president doesn't have the authority to institute a mask mandate," Ian Fury, communications specialist for Noem, told South Dakota's The Argus Leader on Friday. "For that matter, neither does Governor Noem, which is why she has provided her citizens with the full scope of the science and trusted them to make the best decisions for themselves and their loved-ones."

© Copyright Original Source

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Also, the other more cynical reason: you don't get COVID-19 twice if the first time kills you.

It's certainly not the only factor, but a major factor in the change in case fatality rate for the disease is that a lot of the truly vulnerable people who were in a position to be exposed to the disease were already dead by the time the second wave hit.

I have a few friends in Sweden, and one was stating exactly this when their case numbers showed a dip, and lots of people were assuming it was due to increased immunity.