g = window.googletag || {}; googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || []; window.googletag = googletag; googletag.cmd.push(function() { var interstitialSlot = googletag.defineOutOfPageSlot('/17085479/redcafe_gam_interstitial', googletag.enums.OutOfPageFormat.INTERSTITIAL); if (interstitialSlot) { interstitialSlot.addService(googletag.pubads()); } });

SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)

BootsyCollins

Full Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2012
Messages
4,298
Location
Under the roof, above the clouds

Steven Seagull

Full Member
Joined
Aug 31, 2010
Messages
9,207
Location
The Clockwork Orange tulip technician.
The government is being exposed for the blunt instrument that it is on the education front.

Honestly I’d have expected it to reach out to television networks. Have a few STEM and PE tv programs rolled out, just 2 or 3 a week. Popular faces of tv rolled into the odd home existence.

- A science program to show 5-10 year olds how to make bouncy balls
- A popular footballer talking about keepy uppies
- An athlete talking about keeping fit and how walking is important
- Someone talking about phases of the moon, advising kids to look out the window every night.
- A musician talking about song structure, beats, how to play an instrument

I’m not saying the National Curriculum isn’t important.

But there’s also a chasm between Nothing, and 5 Days a week school.

1 Day a week seems to be waaaaay to close to the latter, than a sensible starting point.

Shit, weaponise this thing. Math and English is hard at a distance. Breed creativity. Get supermarkets selling 8 colour paint and paper at £1. Have a fcuking National Rainbow Unicorn painting competition. Collate responses. Put them on tv. Have a website that cycles through creations every 10 seconds. Get kids to record 15 seconds to a camera. Put that somewhere. Have some basic cooking shows on. Every kid should leave this with the ability to make an Omlette. Right now there are 14 year olds that can’t boil a fcuking egg. Have understandable 13 year olds read 5 year olds books on an approved .gov YouTube channel. Let kids help each other. Give them a structure outside of ‘When will school open mum’.

You can bring people together, help out parents and stop kids feeling isolated without gambling anyone’s health.

Trying to use existing structures right now is just so painfully stupid. Like, blood boiling stupidity.

I don’t need to see someone walk in their garden. I really don’t. I don’t care about it. It doesn’t help me. It doesn’t really help society. It reduces us all to look at one persons existence. It’s looking through the wrong end of the telescope. It’s generating ad revenue online and letting people consume more nonsensical shite.

Spanish with Aguero and History with Professor Danny Dyer
 

Wibble

In Gadus Speramus
Staff
Joined
Jun 15, 2000
Messages
89,353
Location
Centreback
@Dwazza Gunnar Solskjær
A small caveat is that I work with bacteria not viruses, but I think the same principles apply.

The way we do genetic changes is to target a particuar region of the genome and replace it. This could be an entire gene or a single letter at one position. Natural selection does not work like that.

During normal propogation of any species, there are random changes at random positions throughout the genome. Most of them don't stick - some are harmful, others have no fitness effect but simply disappear during random sampling to form the next generation. For this, imagine if a virus with some mutations that have no effect on its activity infected someone living totally alone. After that person fully recovers or dies that strain of the virus never gets a chance to spread, and that particular mutational strain vanishes. The same vanishing can happen for many many reasons.
Some of the mutations do stick - again, due to random sampling to form the next generation (say, a particular strain happens to infect a super-spreader), these become widespread. The rarest of mutations involve those that do impact the function of the virus in a positive way. This beneficial mutation at that same spot coud possibly be generated artificially in a lab studying the virus.

But because in natural evolution there are mutations everywhere compared to what you started with, this final extra-virulent virus will not resemble a lab strain, which will have only the mutation under study. In fact, if we study a particular mutation and accidentally create more mutations elsewhere, the study becomes invalid since we can't say for sure which mutation is doing what.

Because we know the background rate of mutations per generation and we know roughly how many generations per year, we have a rough estimate of how much the total number of mutations should be. That's how that professor was able to give an estimate of 50 years.


I hope this makes sense!
Duck evolution over time

Duck evolution with genetic engineering


I may be skimming over the detail slightly ;)
 
Last edited:

Wibble

In Gadus Speramus
Staff
Joined
Jun 15, 2000
Messages
89,353
Location
Centreback
"Just in case you don't know. Dr Montagnier has been rolling downhill incredibly fast in the last few years. From baselessly defending homeopathy to becoming an antivaxxer. Whatever he says, just don't believe him," tweeted Juan Carlos Gabaldon.

And as far as I know his claims that parts of HIV and Malaria (not an actual virus BTW) have been found in the SARS-CoV-2 virus genome are baseless. I think we can file this one under Tin foil hat/Batshit crazy and move on.
 

Camilo

Full Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2014
Messages
2,944
In a worldwide pandemic with everyone being equal in front of the virus, you'd think people would show some form of unity.
Unity?! Not for something as annoying as a virus. I'm feeling far more irritable than normal, not the other way around.
 

11101

Full Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2014
Messages
21,363
It’s the 1000 cases new a day in Lombardy that has me curious. In a region under total, very strict, lockdown. Could that realistically all still be spread within households? Or is something else going on?
I think it's the tail end of household transmission, but also some new cases. The government estimated cases were 10x higher at one point, down to about 5x now, so it's likely there will still be a few people passing it around. Ministers keep complaining that whilst people are respecting the rules for the most part there are still too many people around at certain times, and care homes are still popping up with new outbreaks.
 

Shakesy

WW Head of Recruiting
Joined
Feb 23, 2016
Messages
9,990
Location
Directly under the sun... NOW!
@Dwazza Gunnar Solskjær
A small caveat is that I work with bacteria not viruses, but I think the same principles apply.

The way we do genetic changes is to target a particuar region of the genome and replace it. This could be an entire gene or a single letter at one position. Natural selection does not work like that.

During normal propogation of any species, there are random changes at random positions throughout the genome. Most of them don't stick - some are harmful, others have no fitness effect but simply disappear during random sampling to form the next generation. For this, imagine if a virus with some mutations that have no effect on its activity infected someone living totally alone. After that person fully recovers or dies that strain of the virus never gets a chance to spread, and that particular mutational strain vanishes. The same vanishing can happen for many many reasons.
Some of the mutations do stick - again, due to random sampling to form the next generation (say, a particular strain happens to infect a super-spreader), these become widespread. The rarest of mutations involve those that do impact the function of the virus in a positive way. This beneficial mutation at that same spot coud possibly be generated artificially in a lab studying the virus.

But because in natural evolution there are mutations everywhere compared to what you started with, this final extra-virulent virus will not resemble a lab strain, which will have only the mutation under study. In fact, if we study a particular mutation and accidentally create more mutations elsewhere, the study becomes invalid since we can't say for sure which mutation is doing what.

Because we know the background rate of mutations per generation and we know roughly how many generations per year, we have a rough estimate of how much the total number of mutations should be. That's how that professor was able to give an estimate of 50 years.


I hope this makes sense!
I have a few questions, which you with a background in microbe evolution might be able to answer.

My limited understanding leads me to believe that bacteria/viruses evolve constantly in small ways. Does that mean there and hundreds of thousands of different COVID-19 strains currently circulating? Or must there be X amount of mutations in a single virus for it to be classified as a new strain?

Also, if there are more than one strain, does that mean a potential vaccine needs to be adjusted so that it can safeguard someone against all these different strains? If so, doesn't that mean scientists have an impossible task on their hands, because by the time a vaccine hits the market the viruses have mutated yet again?
 
Last edited:

11101

Full Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2014
Messages
21,363
In a worldwide pandemic with everyone being equal in front of the virus, you'd think people would show some form of unity.
Human nature goes the other way. Retrenchment and look after yourself. I mean look at supposedly friendly countries squabbling over equipment. Is it any surprise the citizens are at it too?
 

Sky1981

Fending off the urge
Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
30,109
Location
Under the bright neon lights of sincity
Human nature goes the other way. Retrenchment and look after yourself. I mean look at supposedly friendly countries squabbling over equipment. Is it any surprise the citizens are at it too?
Is it a surprise? Always was always has been. When the stake is down it's dog eat dog. The only question is how far down you'd have to go before you eat the dog next to you.
 

Ady87

Full Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2011
Messages
8,493
Location
Now Accepting Positive Reps.
Quick thanks to everyone for the comments on the situation I posted about. I won’t quote them all but the ideas and thoughts are appreciated.

On the last day that my team admitted patients, we got a guy that tried to commit suicide via organophosphate ingestion. Even though I’m not psych, I usually still talk to these people and try to find out what pushed them to this. This particular guy, in his 30s or so, said that he simply had no money remaining, no money coming in, nothing, so he tried to commit suicide.

Locking things down is very essential, but there is the dark side of it, things like this, and I think it will get more frequent the longer this goes on.
My mum works in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and spends her days assessing young people that have attempted to commit suicide amongst other things. I think knowing this and knowing she would try and get inside his head to help, it’s cemented the fact that he hasn’t spoken about it with my sister, although I suppose most considering suicide don’t speak about it and that’s the issue. My mum has been giving my sister some ways to subliminally acknowledge what’s going on and ways to make things better.

He’s been in the garden making it a project the last week so we’ve all chipped in and had a decent BBQ delivered which he was apparently emotional over. Anyway, this will hopefully be the last time I reference the situation!
 

Wibble

In Gadus Speramus
Staff
Joined
Jun 15, 2000
Messages
89,353
Location
Centreback
I have a few questions, which you in a background in microbe evolution might be able to answer.

My limited understanding leads me to believe that bacteria/viruses evolve constantly in small ways. Does that mean there and hundreds of thousands of different COVID-19 strains currently circulating? Or must there be X amount of mutations in a single virus for it to be classified as a new strain?

Also, if there are more than one strain, does that mean a potential vaccine needs to be adjusted so that it can safeguard someone against all these different strains? If so, doesn't that mean scientists have an impossible task on their hands, because by the time a vaccine hits the market the viruses have mutated yet again?
I'm not fully across what constitutes a new strain but although I have seen reference to 2 or more strains of SARS-CoV-2 I'm not sure that this is correct as I've seen references to clusters of genetic variation (which i'm assuming is less that that required to call something a new strain). Whatever the case everything I've read this weeks seems to suggest that the virus is evolving slowly enough to allow a general vaccine to be developed.
 
Last edited:

Shakesy

WW Head of Recruiting
Joined
Feb 23, 2016
Messages
9,990
Location
Directly under the sun... NOW!
I'm not fully across what constitutes a new strain but although I have seen reference to 2 or more strains of SARS-CoV-2 I'm not sure that this is correct. There are some genetic variations but I think this is less than that which is required to designate them as different strains. Whatever the case everything I've read this weeks seems to suggest that the virus is evolving slowly enough to allow a general vaccine to be developed.
Thanks, so a new strain is then probably similar to a whole new species in evolutionary lingo? It happens over a very long time (much quicker for microbes obviously) after multiple mutations.
 

Wibble

In Gadus Speramus
Staff
Joined
Jun 15, 2000
Messages
89,353
Location
Centreback
Thanks, so a new strain is then probably similar to a whole new species in evolutionary lingo? It happens over a very long time (much quicker for microbes obviously) after multiple mutations.
I think in virology species is higher up. I'm not sure how much genetic divergence is necessary to classify something as a new strain as strain isn't part of the official nomenclature hierarchy. I'm sure this is my ignorance rather than any problem with the term strain. I'm nt sure how much this diagram helps but I'm thinking that strain may = Individuum. That is a guess BTW.

 

kouroux

45k posts to finally achieve this tagline
Joined
Apr 25, 2007
Messages
96,418
Location
Djibouti (La terre des braves)
Human nature goes the other way. Retrenchment and look after yourself. I mean look at supposedly friendly countries squabbling over equipment. Is it any surprise the citizens are at it too?
Thankfully not everyone is like that, I've always seen some incredibly sefless gestures too. I suppose tough times always bring out the true nature of people. Assholes will be assholes or something
 

Wibble

In Gadus Speramus
Staff
Joined
Jun 15, 2000
Messages
89,353
Location
Centreback
I think that strain means the it has differences in physical make up (phenotype) from other strains e.g. the antigen is different which isn't necessarily correlated to the degree of genome variation i.e. genetic variation alone isn't enough, there needs to be a physical differences for it to be called a new strain. Which may mean that strain = Individuum. I'm still not 100% clear if there are more than 1 strain of SARS-CoV-2 or if the variations being called strains are in fact genetic differences but not with enough phenotype differences to be a new strain.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3535543/

"a (natural) virus strain is a “variant of a given virus that is recognizable because it possesses some unique phenotypic characteristics that remain stable under natural conditions” [emphasis added by the authors]. Such “unique phenotypic characteristics” are biological properties different from the compared reference virus, such as unique antigenic properties, host range or the signs of disease it causes. Importantly, as Van Regenmortel points out, a virus variant with a simple “difference in genome sequence…is not given the status of a separate strain since there is no recognizable distinct viral phenotype”
 

Cardboard elk

Full Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2019
Messages
697
Supports
Rosenborg
What is bothering me most about this, is the fact that for many viruses we never manage to develop a working and lasting vaccine. Like HIV, Ebola etc. So maybe mutation like Spanish Flu to H1N1 or something might be what lets us return to normal. Hoping for a vaccine but more and more "experts" are saying in media that one can not guarantee that we will succeed with that, so getting skeptical. Good that we have internet in these times though :lol:
 

sullydnl

Ross Kemp's caf ID
Joined
Sep 13, 2012
Messages
34,063
So what's going on in Sweden then?

On the one hand I see this:


On the other hand I see this:


I note that a country like Belgium which locked down early has more deaths than Sweden but I also note that Belgium include nursing home and non-hospital deaths in their figures, with hospital deaths making up less than half their total, so I'm not sure what the figures in Sweden represent exactly.
 

11101

Full Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2014
Messages
21,363
Italy is outlining today how to start coming out of lockdown from 4 May:

- manufacturing will open first, followed by construction, then offices, all with big restrictions. bars and restaurants are considered highest risk and no chance of opening them any time soon.

- increasing public transport services so distance can be kept between people, and everybody needs to have their temperature scanned before boarding a bus or a train.

- outdoor exercise to be allowed. You will need to carry a certificate with the time you left home on it.

- elderly to stay with the same restrictions as before.

- any hotspots will be designated as red zones and totally closed off with nobody able to enter/leave.


There was also a nice story coming out of Ferrari who i wouldn't necessarily think of as a generous company - the board of directors have given up their entire salary for the rest of the year in order to pay for food packages and teaching equipment for the local town.
 

Grinner

Not fat gutted. Hirsuteness of shoulders TBD.
Staff
Joined
May 5, 2003
Messages
72,287
Location
I love free dirt and rocks!
Supports
Arsenal
There was also a nice story coming out of Ferrari who i wouldn't necessarily think of as a generous company - the board of directors have given up their entire salary for the rest of the year in order to pay for food packages and teaching equipment for the local town.

I think their annual F1 budget is 400 million so they can afford it.
 

onemanarmy

Full Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2013
Messages
4,718
Location
Belgium
I note that a country like Belgium which locked down early has more deaths than Sweden but I also note that Belgium include nursing home and non-hospital deaths in their figures, with hospital deaths making up less than half their total, so I'm not sure what the figures in Sweden represent exactly.
168 deaths yesterday in Belgium, 62 died in the hospital, all of them confirmed corona cases. 103 people died in nursing homes, of which 3 percent confirmed cases and the other 97 percent suspected cases.

So this explains the above. it doesn't look good when Belgium is being compared to the rest of the world though. All countries should at least have the same way of counting the deceased.
 

Hansa

Full Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2017
Messages
1,037
So this explains the above. it doesn't look good when Belgium is being compared to the rest of the world though. All countries should at least have the same way of counting the deceased.
Fair play to Belgium for not downplaying anything. While there surely are countries that downplay the numbers for political reasons, I think we just have to accept that some countries/regions/cities, like Northern Italy and Madrid, have been completely overwhelmed and can't keep track. The numbers will surely be adjusted by statisticians when everything has calmed down. The annual influenza deaths, for example, are usually not counted specifically, but estimated after the fact.
 

Pogue Mahone

The caf's Camus.
Joined
Feb 22, 2006
Messages
134,320
Location
"like a man in silk pyjamas shooting pigeons
Why such a negative response?
Just seemed like you were nit-picking. 50%, 40%, whatever. Sweden has an unusually high proportion of single person households, which gives their gamble a better chance of paying off than other countries. That’s the point I was making.

I still think their strategy is based on wild assumptions based on very little evidence (see tweet below) but their demographics might save them from disaster.


The 0.1% mortality/50% already infected stats seem to have been plucked out of thin air and his claim that the flattening of the curves we’re seeing is down to running out of vulnerable peope left to infect is ludicrous. Even the grimmest death rates, anywhere in the world, would represent only a small % of the total pool of vulnerable people in that country.
 
Last edited:

11101

Full Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2014
Messages
21,363
168 deaths yesterday in Belgium, 62 died in the hospital, all of them confirmed corona cases. 103 people died in nursing homes, of which 3 percent confirmed cases and the other 97 percent suspected cases.

So this explains the above. it doesn't look good when Belgium is being compared to the rest of the world though. All countries should at least have the same way of counting the deceased.
It's impossible in some places but will all be accounted for once things settle down.

Take Lombardy as possibly the hardest hit place in Europe - they have published total mortality data irrespective of cause. They can't add these to official figures yet but data like this will be pored over by statisticians later on:

https://public.flourish.studio/visu...e=showcase&utm_campaign=visualisation/1870425

In places like Bergamo there have been more than 4 times as many deaths as normal and only a fraction are attributed to Covid. When they're having to ship them out overnight in Army trucks because they have no more space to keep them, who dies of what slips down the priority list.
 

massi83

Full Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2009
Messages
2,596
Just seemed like you were nit-picking. 50%, 40%, whatever. Sweden has an unusually high proportion of single person households, which gives their gamble a better chance of paying off than other countries. That’s the point I was making.

I still think their strategy is based on wild assumptions based on very little evidence (see tweet below) but their demographics might save them from disaster.


The 0.1% mortality/50% already infected stats seem to have been plucked out of thin air and his claim that the flattening of the curves we’re seeing is down to there not being enough vulnerable peope left to infect is ludicrous. Even the grimmest death rates, anywhere in the world, would represent only a small % of the total pool of vulnerable people in that country.
Wasn't my intention. UK seems to be 29,5%.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...019-there-were-82-million-people-living-alone
 

Alabaster Codify7

New Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2015
Messages
6,553
Location
Wales
The only way around it is a lock-in...at the pub!

I mean, pubs are pretty low down the pecking order in terms of importance and priority I know (and I love a drink), but if this is true then I think we can safely say that we'll possibly lose pubs for good. As in, the vast majority of them. And when this is all over, starting up a pub will be seen as a dangerous proposition because 'something like this could happen again' and it will all have been for nothing.
 

Jippy

Sleeps with tramps, bangs jacuzzis, dirty shoes
Staff
Joined
Nov 19, 2009
Messages
57,528
Location
Jet fuel doesn't melt steel beams
Italy is outlining today how to start coming out of lockdown from 4 May:

- manufacturing will open first, followed by construction, then offices, all with big restrictions. bars and restaurants are considered highest risk and no chance of opening them any time soon.

- increasing public transport services so distance can be kept between people, and everybody needs to have their temperature scanned before boarding a bus or a train.

- outdoor exercise to be allowed. You will need to carry a certificate with the time you left home on it.

- elderly to stay with the same restrictions as before.

- any hotspots will be designated as red zones and totally closed off with nobody able to enter/leave.


There was also a nice story coming out of Ferrari who i wouldn't necessarily think of as a generous company - the board of directors have given up their entire salary for the rest of the year in order to pay for food packages and teaching equipment for the local town.
Sounds a good plan, but struggling to see how that would be viable in London with the tube. The queues would be huge and it would be risky, as a lot of the stations are built in places that can't accommodate massive two metre spaced queues, eg on major roads etc...Would need to be a massively staggered return to work over weeks potentially, maybe with the young and healthy first, then those in their 40s, 50s, 60s etc...No quick way out of this I can see.