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Thread: COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus pandemic

  1. #901
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    https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-...ases-reported/

    LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Nevada reported 2,542 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday and a record-high 1,440 hospitalized patients, according to data released Thursday. This is the third-highest one-day total number of new cases reported in Nevada so far.

    Nevada’s previous record was set yesterday, with 3,159 positive tests reported on Tuesday.

    This is the sixth day in a row Nevada has reported more than 2,000 COVID-19 cases.

    Nevada is reporting 22 deaths, with 16 coming from Clark County. More than half of the cases reported Tuesday — 1,658 — are from the state’s most populous county.

    There is now a total of 144,781 confirmed COVID-19 cases statewide, with 111,485 in Clark County.

    More than 1,000 coronavirus cases have been reported in Nevada in 22 of the past 23 days.

    Nevada also reported a record-high for hospitalizations on Wednesday, with 1,440 confirmed/suspected cases. The previous record — 1,414 — was reported Tuesday.

    For the sixth week in a row, Clark County was flagged for elevated disease transmission. Clark County remains in the red on Nevada Health Response’s “county criteria tracker.” The county was flagged for elevated disease transmission after meeting the criteria of high case rates and high test positivity. Clark is one of 15 counties flagged in the tracker, updated daily on the DHHS Dashboard.

    Clark County has a case rate of 1,306 per 100,000, and a test positivity of 15.2 percent.

    Below is the full COVID-19 report for Wednesday, Nov. 25.

    NEVADA HOSPITALIZATIONS
    NOTE: The state is not updating hospitalization data, including the number of patients in ICU units or on ventilators, on Sundays or holidays.

    Nevada is continuing to see a resurgence in COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to the Nevada Hospital Association (NHA). The state has broken its record for hospitalization cases three times this week.

    According to the state’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the number of hospitalized patients in Nevada was UP on Wednesday, according to data released Thursday.

    The number of hospitalizations increased by 26 on Wednesday, bringing the current total to 1,440 — the highest number of hospitalized patients the state has recorded since the pandemic began.

    In its Nov. 24 report, the NHA noted: “Nevada continues to experience exponential increases in COVID-19 hospitalizations in the metropolitan areas.” The majority of hospitalized patients are adults. Currently, seven of the patients are kids, with four in Northern Nevada and three in Southern Nevada.

    “Approximately, 15-20% of all emergency room visits are now related to COVID-19 chief
    complaints. Hospitals are now receiving new monoclonal antibody therapeutics that can be
    administered via an intravenous (IV) route to some of these patients, keeping them from
    requiring hospitalization,” NHA stated in its most recent report.

    The organization says that if the current pattern of hospital demand continues, “the current wave will peak in the first half of December and will persist through the first half of February.”

    More data from the Nevada Hospital Association (as of Nov. 24):

    Statewide hospital occupancy rates: 82%
    ICU units occupancy rate: 68%
    Ventilators in use: 36%
    The state set a record high for hospitalized patients on Nov. 25 with 1,440 cases.

    Top 5 Number of Hospitalizations (statewide) Date reported
    1 1,440 Nov. 25
    2 1,414 Nov. 24
    3 1,399 Nov. 23
    4 1,288 Nov. 18
    5 1,283 Nov. 19
    Click HERE to see the DHHS dashboard, page 6
    ICU/VENTILATOR DATA FOR WEDNESDAY, NOV. 25:

    There were 306 patients in intensive care units (ICU) across the state Wednesday, down six from the previous day.

    The DHHS report showed 162 patients on ventilators, down seven from the previous day.

    NEVADA CASES, TESTING, DEATHS
    There are now 144,781 confirmed cases and 2,093 COVID-19-related deaths in Nevada, with 2,542 new cases reported in the last day. This the sixth day in a row more than 2,000 cases were reported statewide.

    More than 1,000 cases have been reported in Nevada in 22 of the past 23 days.

    The DHHS is reporting 22 new COVID-19-related deaths statewide. The state is reporting a 14-day rolling average of 13 deaths daily.

    It is important to note there is a delay in death reporting by both the state and county.

    “Please keep in mind that the death rates we are seeing correspond to cases diagnosed up to 5 weeks ago,” Nevada Health Response stated in a news release.

    A recent update to the state’s COVID-19 daily death graph (Mortality Trends, page 3 of DHHS dashboard) shows Aug. 6 had the highest count of fatalities with 27, followed by 26 deaths on Aug. 5.

    The Nevada DHHS says it is important to note that there is often a delay in death reporting. Cumulative daily death counts are displayed by the date of death, rather than the date the death was reported to the state. The total count for statewide deaths on the first tab may not equal the sum of the cumulative daily death counts because of cases where exact date of death is unknown or pending report.

    The state set a record for COVID-19 cases on Nov. 24 with 3,159.

    RELATED CONTENT
    NEW: Nevada sees 2nd consecutive day of record-breaking cases and hospitalizations, 3,159 positive tests reported
    WATCH: Gov. Sisolak issues 3-week ‘statewide pause’, will take effect Nov. 24 at 12:01 a.m.
    Here are the largest single-day increases for COVID-19 cases in Nevada:

    Top 5 Number of COVID-19 cases (statewide) Date reported
    1 3,159 Nov. 24
    2 2,853 Nov. 23
    3 2,542 Nov. 25
    4 2,416 Nov. 18
    5 2,339 Nov. 22
    You can find this data on Nevada’s DHHS coronavirus dashboard, page 2
    The state’s health experts say as more COVID-19 tests are conducted, the state will see a rise in cases.

    As of Wednesday, a total of 1,592,915 tests have been conducted in Nevada, with an increase of 18,658 in the past 24 hours. According to the state, a transition to a “testing encounters” methodology to account for people who receive both a rapid and PCR test on the same day will result in an overall decrease in the total reported number of tests by 3.8%.

    With new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations rising over the past several weeks, Nevada’s test positivity rate has risen above 10 percent. The test positivity is now being reported as a 14-day average, which puts it at 16.5% as of Wednesday. It reached 10% on Oct. 24 but before then, Nevada had not recorded a test positivity at or above 10% since September 1.

    *NOTE: Daily lab data from DHHS and SNHD reports is updated every morning for the previous day.

  2. #902
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    A bar up the street from me made the national ABC news for people congregating there without social distancing or wearing masks. Im embarrassed.

    "The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man" -Charles Darwin

    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    Chelsea, if you are a ghost and reading mds, I command you to walk into the light.

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    The Bleach cult strikes again

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    South Korea spy agency says North Korea executed people, shut capital due to Pandemic

    https://fox40.com/news/national-and-...-shut-capital/

    If this really happened then expect Kim Jong Un to be paranoid for the obvious.

    SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered at least two people executed, banned fishing at sea and locked down the capital, Pyongyang, as part of frantic efforts to guard against the coronavirus and its economic damage, South Korea?s spy agency told lawmakers Friday.

    Kim?s government also ordered diplomats overseas to refrain from any acts that could provoke the United States because it is worried about President-elect Joe Biden?s expected new approach toward North Korea, lawmakers told reporters after attending a private briefing by the National Intelligence Service.

    One of the lawmakers, Ha Tae-keung, quoted the NIS as saying Kim is displaying ?excessive anger? and taking ?irrational measures? over the pandemic and its economic impact.

    Ha said the NIS told lawmakers that North Korea executed a high-profile money changer in Pyongyang last month after holding the person responsible for a falling exchange rate. He quoted the NIS as saying that North Korea also executed a key official in August for violating government regulations restricting goods brought from abroad. The two people weren?t identified by name.

    North Korea has also banned fishing and salt production at sea to prevent seawater from being infected with the virus, the NIS told lawmakers.

    There are few ways to independently confirm the reported fishing ban and other information given by the NIS to the lawmakers. Ha didn?t say whether the ban applied to all North Korean waters or whether it was still in effect.

    North Korea recently placed Pyongyang and northern Jagang province under lockdown over virus concerns. Earlier this month, it imposed lockdown measures in other areas where officials found unauthorized goods and foreign currencies that were brought in, Ha cited the NIS as saying.

    North Korea also made an unsuccessful hacking attempt on at least one South Korean pharmaceutical company that was trying to develop a coronavirus vaccine, the NIS said.

    The agency has a mixed record in confirming developments in North Korea, one of the world?s most secretive nations. The NIS said it couldn?t immediately confirm the lawmakers? accounts.

    North Korea has maintained that it hasn?t found a single coronavirus case on its soil, a claim disputed by outside experts, although it says it is making all-out efforts to prevent the virus?s spread. A major outbreak could have dire consequences because the North?s health care system remains crippled and suffers from a chronic lack of medical supplies.

    The pandemic forced North Korea to seal its border with China, its biggest trading partner and aid benefactor, in January. The closure, along with a series of natural disasters over the summer, dealt a heavy blow to the North?s economy, which has been under punishing U.S.-led sanctions.

    North Korea?s trade with China in the first 10 months of this year totaled $530 million, about 25% of the corresponding figure last year. The price of sugar and seasoning has shot up four times, Ha quoted the NIS as saying.

    North Korea monitoring groups in Seoul said the North Korean won-to-dollar exchange rate has recently fallen significantly because people found few places to use foreign currency after smuggling was largely cut off following the closure of the China border.

    According to the NIS briefing, North Korea ordered overseas diplomatic missions not to provoke the United States, warning their ambassadors of consequences if their comments or acts related to the U.S. cause any trouble in ties with Washington.

    North Korea?s government has remained silent over Biden?s election victory over President Donald Trump, with whom Kim held three summits in 2018-19 over the North?s nuclear arsenal. While the diplomacy eventually stalled, the meetings helped Kim and Trump build up personal ties and stop the crude insults and threats of destruction they had previously exchanged.

    Lawmaker Kim Byung-kee cited the NIS as saying that North Korea is displaying anxiety as its friendly ties with Trump become useless and it has to start from scratch in dealing with the incoming Biden administration.

    Experts have been debating whether North Korea will resume major missile tests soon to try to get Biden?s attention. During past government changes in the U.S., North Korea often conducted big weapons launches in an attempt to increase its leverage in negotiations with a new U.S. administration.

    The NIS expects North Korea will hold a military parade ahead of a ruling party congress in January in a show of force timed with Biden?s inauguration. North Korea is also likely to use the Workers? Party congress to lay out its basic policies toward the U.S., Kim Byung-kee cited the NIS as saying.

    Kim Jong Un has said the congress, the first of its kind in four years, will set new state objectives for the next five years. In a highly unusual admission of its policy failure in August, the Workers? Party said North Korea?s economy had not improved due to severe internal and external barriers and that its previous developmental goals had been seriously delayed.

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    https://fox40.com/news/political-con...fer-virus-aid/

    SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) ? Faulting inaction in Washington, governors and state lawmakers are racing to get pandemic relief to small-business owners, the unemployed, renters and others whose livelihoods have been upended by the widening coronavirus outbreak.

    In some cases, elected officials are spending the last of a federal relief package passed in the spring as an end-of-year deadline approaches and the fall COVID-19 surge threatens their economies anew. Democrats have been the most vocal in criticizing President Donald Trump and the GOP-controlled Senate for failing to act, but many Republican lawmakers are also sounding the alarm.

    Underscoring the need for urgency, the number of new COVID-19 cases reported in the United States reached 205,557 on Friday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University ? the first time its daily figure topped the 200,000 mark. Its previous daily high was 196,000 on Nov. 20.

    The total number of cases reported in the U.S., since the first one in January, has topped 13 million.

    The Democratic governors of Colorado and New Mexico convened special legislative sessions in the closing days of November to address the virus-related emergency. Earlier this week, the New Mexico Legislature passed a bipartisan relief bill that will deliver a one-time $1,200 check to all unemployed workers and give up to $50,000 to certain businesses.

    Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the state took action to help residents ?who have real issues about keeping food on their table, a roof over their head.?

    ?While the United States of America is on fire, the Trump administration has left states to fight this virus on their own,? she said, noting state efforts alone simply are not enough. ?It is clear no help is coming ? not from this president, not from this administration. As we have done every day this year, New Mexico will step up.?

    In Colorado, a special session scheduled for Monday will consider roughly $300 million in relief to businesses, restaurants and bars, child-care providers, landlords, tenants, public schools and others.

    ?Even as cases have exploded across the country, Congress and the president have not yet passed much-needed relief for people,? Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in announcing the session. ?Here in Colorado, we want to do the best with what we have to take care of our own.?

    In New Jersey and Washington state, Republicans who are a minority in both legislatures were the ones pushing for special sessions. They want to direct more money to struggling small-business owners.

    Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin, who control both houses of the Legislature, are considering whether to return in December to address effects of the latest coronavirus wave after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers put forward a $500 million COVID-19 relief bill earlier this week. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, plans to convene lawmakers in December to contend with the virus, partially at Republicans? urging.

    ?Senate Republicans are committed to recovering our economy that has been harmed by broad and prolonged shutdowns,? Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka said in a statement. ?We will work with anyone to find solutions.?

    State government leaders want Trump and Congress to extend the Dec. 30 deadline for spending virus relief money already allocated under the CARES Act, which was approved in March, and to provide more federal funding to deal with the consequences of the latest surge.

    ?It?s just heartbreaking what they?re allowing to happen with no federal government intervention,? said Washington state House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, a Democrat.

    In making his decision to call the Minnesota Legislature into special session, Walz cited ?a sense of urgency? around doing something on the state level due to the lack of a federal response.

    The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits reported that more than half of the state?s charitable organizations received forgivable loans through the CARES Act?s Paycheck Protection Program this year, while another $12 million from the CARES Act is going to organizations that provide food to the needy. But all that will be spent ? or lost ? by the end of December without congressional action.

    ?I would reiterate to our federal partners ? to the outgoing administration and to the incoming Biden administration ? please work together, please find a compromise in there, please. If you have to, move a package now with the idea that you will come back and move one later,? Walz said. ?COVID is not going to end at the end of the month. We are in an unrelenting spike.?

    In Ohio, where Republicans control every branch of government, Gov. Mike DeWine and legislative leaders pushed a $420 million pandemic spending package through a special bipartisan panel late last month. Funded through the CARES Act, it offered grants to small businesses, bars and restaurants, low-income renters, arts groups, and colleges and universities.

    Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, a Republican, gives credit to the federal government for the billions in aid previously sent out, but he said small businesses and people who have lost work need more federal assistance.

    ?The election?s over,? Benninghoff said. ?This is not a time for finger-pointing.?

    In neighboring New Jersey, the partisan divide over $4 billion in COVID-19 borrowing backed by the Democratic governor and Legislature prompted a court challenge by minority Republicans. The state?s high court sided with Gov. Phil Murphy?s administration, citing the unprecedented nature of the outbreak.

    Even so, Murphy has regularly pleaded with Congress for more aid.

    ?It?s shameful that they have not acted in Congress, especially (Senate Majority Leader Mitch) McConnell and the Republican Senate, to throw a lifeline to small businesses,? he said.

    Republicans have proposed a $300 million aid package to small businesses and nonprofits, but the legislation is stalled. GOP lawmakers told the governor if he does not call a special session to address the need, many businesses and charities ?might not survive the winter.?

    Lawmakers in one state, Illinois, threw up their hands and went home despite an unaddressed $3.9 billion budget deficit. They cited the health threat posed by the virus and hope for help from the nation?s capital.

    ?If the federal government doesn?t stand up and step in, we?re in a very bad situation ? for our schools, colleges and universities, health care programs, child care, senior services,? House Majority Leader Greg Harris, a Democrat, said. ?This isn?t like all the blue states are hurting and all the red states are humming along. Everybody?s in bad shape.?

  8. #908
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    Quote Originally Posted by Angiebla View Post
    I just got a text from my dentist's office. They had a COVID outbreak (they said "exposure") and cancelled my monday app. Im relieved bc I really didnt want to go, but I guess Im just going to chill here with the hole in my tooth. The shitty thing is my mom was just there and got her teeth cleaned.

    Sorry if Im posting personal stuff in this thread but most of my stories are COVID related.
    You should post stuff like this, it's COVID related and more interesting that dry news articles that no one is really reading anymore anyway.

    I hope your mom doesn't get it. Did anyone else get sick in your family after the recent cases in your extended family?

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    https://ktla.com/news/california/bay...el-quarantine/

    More counties in California announced new COVID-19 restrictions on Saturday to prevent rising caseloads from spiraling into a hospital crisis.

    San Francisco is joining a statewide curfew and Silicon Valley is banning all high school, collegiate and professional sports and imposing a quarantine for those traveling into the region from more than 150 miles away. Santa Clara County has the highest case rate in the Bay Area, leading to the stricter rules, said Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody.

    ?This pandemic is like a high-speed train, and our projections tell us that we are on target to derail by around the third week of December if we don?t apply the brakes right now with all our collective might,? she said.

    The changes in Santa Clara County are less strict than a statewide lockdown issued in March by Gov. Gavin Newsom but still ratchet up measures that aim to slow the exploding number of people who have become infected with COVID-19 and those winding up in hospitals. It stops short of a full business shutdown that could cripple the holiday sale season by reducing the number of people allowed in stores to 10% capacity.

    The order, which takes effect Monday and will last until at least Dec. 21, exempts church services and protests, which county health officials said are constitutionally protected.

    Health officers in other Bay Area counties expressed support for Santa Clara county?s tighter rules because they anticipate other parts of the region may eventually reach the same critical caseload level. A month ago, there were 262 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Bay Area; as of yesterday, that number had nearly tripled to 759, they said in a statement.

    The San Francisco 49ers and the San Jose Sharks hockey team may need to find a temporary new home after the county banned all contact sports from holding games and practices for the next three weeks. Stanford and San Jose State also have several sports in season.

    RELATED CONTENT
    San Francisco 49ers may need temporary home after county?s new coronavirus rules
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    More than 200 test positive for coronavirus at San Francisco Bay Area racetrack as California?s cases surge
    Meanwhile, an alarming surge of newly reported coronavirus cases pushed San Francisco and San Mateo counties to the most restrictive purple tier in the state?s pandemic blueprint for the economy, forcing most indoor activities to close by noon Sunday and placing the counties? residents under curfew starting Monday night.

    The new restrictions came a day after Los Angeles County imposed a lockdown calling for 10 million residents to stay home ?as much as possible,? prohibiting them from gathering with people outside of their household for public or private occasions, except for faith-based services and protests.

    Businesses already are operating under a recently-imposed nighttime curfew that covers much of the state, as are restaurants, which were recently barred from offering in-person dining.

    Public health officials have been urging people for weeks to avoid visiting family during the holiday season as COVID-19 cases spiral out of control in counties that include most of California?s population.

    Authorities began to see caseloads spiking this fall and blamed it, in part, on people ignoring mask and distance precautions when gathering, especially to celebrate holidays or special events such as the World Series victory by the Dodgers and NBA championship win by the Lakers.

    The state?s top public health official has referred to ?COVID fatigue? by people who are becoming lax about safety precautions after having been hit with sometimes confusing state and local health orders as the pandemic waxed and waned.

    Meanwhile, health officials are bracing for a wave of cases in the next two or three weeks that could follow gatherings at Thanksgiving. Officials have estimated that 1 in 145 Los Angeles County residents is infected with COVID-19. About 12% of those infected could wind up in hospitals, authorities say.

    ?The big unknown here is what actions were people taking over this long holiday weekend,? county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Saturday.

    If people engaged in high-risk activities, she said, ?we?re in for a very rough time because we will have a surge on top of a surge.?

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    https://fox40.com/news/national-and-...shots-in-days/

    LONDON (AP) — Britain said Sunday it has secured 2 million more doses of a promising coronavirus vaccine as it gears up to launch within days the country’s most ambitious inoculation program in decades.

    The U.K. has had Europe’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak, with more than 58,000 confirmed virus-related deaths. It now hopes to hit a more positive milestone by becoming one of the first countries in the world to start vaccinating its population against COVID-19.

    The U.K. government has agreed to buy more than 350 million doses of vaccines from seven different producers, should they prove effective, as it prepares to vaccinate as many of the country’s 67 million people as possible.

    The Department of Health said Sunday it had increased its order for a vaccine developed by U.S. firm Moderna from 5 million to 7 million doses, enough for 3.5 million people.

    The Moderna vaccine is expected to be referred soon to the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, to see if it is safe and effective. Two other vaccines — one developed by Pfizer and German firm BioNTech, the other by Oxford University and AstraZeneca — are already being assessed by the regulator, the final stage before being rolled out.

    Britain has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and 100 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

    Hospitals in England have been told they could receive the first doses of the Pfizer shot as early as the week of Dec. 7 if it receives approval, the Guardian and Financial Times reported. The U.S. vaccination program also hopes to begin inoculating some Americans in December.

    The government says frontline health care workers and nursing home residents will be the first to be vaccinated, followed by older people, starting with those over 80. The plan is to work down the age and risk groups until everyone 18 and over has been inoculated.

    Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, said he “wouldn’t be too surprised if an announcement would be made within the next two weeks, possibly even as early as next week.”

    Non-medical staff including volunteer first-aiders are already being trained to give the shots, which will be administered at around 1,000 community vaccination centers and 40 to 50 large-scale facilities in stadiums and conference venues, according to a government planning document.

    Prime Minister Boris Johnson said officials hope to vaccinate “the vast majority of the people who need the most protection by Easter.”

    Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Johnson said the roll-out of a vaccine could be “just days away.” But he said there would not be a quick end to the onerous restrictions on business and everyday life that have been imposed to curb the spread of the virus.

    “There are still long weeks and months ahead before we can be completely confident that we can vaccinate enough people in the country, and thereby remove enough targets for the virus, in order to beat the disease,” he wrote.

    A four-week national lockdown in England is due to end Wednesday, and will be replaced by a three-tiered system of regional measures. The vast majority of the country is being put into the upper two tiers, meaning most people will be barred from meeting up with friends indoors, pubs and restaurants still face restrictions and everything from large weddings to choir practices are being banned.

    Pfizer and BioNTech say their vaccine is 95% effective, according to preliminary data. It must be stored at ultra-cold temperatures of around minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit). The Moderna vaccine, which also needs to be stored at freezer temperatures, was also about 95% effective in clinical trials, the company said.

    The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine can be stored at conventional refrigerator temperatures, making its distribution much simpler, and is also cheaper than its main rivals. But some scientists have questioned gaps in its reported results.

    Oxford and AstraZeneca reported this week that their vaccine appeared to be 62% effective in people who received two doses, and 90% effective when volunteers were given a half dose followed by a full dose. They said the half dose was administered because of a manufacturing error, and they plan a new clinical trial to investigate the most effective dosing regimen.

    Full data from the Oxford-AstraZeneca trial is expected to be published soon, and may answer some of the questions about the vaccine.

    Openshaw said he’d be happy to get any vaccine that is approved.

    “If my GP rings me and says ‘I’ve got an approved vaccine,’ I really don’t care which one it is,” he told the BBC.

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    "The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man" -Charles Darwin

    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    Chelsea, if you are a ghost and reading mds, I command you to walk into the light.

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    https://wjla.com/news/local/maryland...d-9-or-younger

    WASHINGTON (ABC7) — For the first time since COVID-19 came to Maryland in March, a child under the age of 9 has died of the virus, the Maryland Department of Health reported Monday.

    The death occurred Sunday, health department spokesman Charlie Gischlar tells ABC7.

    "Data are preliminary and residential information of the decedent has not been recorded on the death certificate yet," he went on to say. The exact age and gender of the child will also not be released at this time to protect confidentiality.

    COVID-19 surged in Maryland in November, with a record-breaking 53,089 new confirmed cases. There were also 485 new deaths, the highest number of deaths in the state since June.

    A total of 4,486 Marylanders have died of the virus as of Monday, and nearly 200,000 Marylanders have been infected.



    https://wjla.com/news/coronavirus/tr...es-white-house

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Scott Atlas, a science adviser to President Donald Trump who was skeptical of measures to control the coronavirus outbreak, is leaving his White House post.

    A White House official confirmed that the Stanford University neuroradiologist, who had no formal experience in public health or infectious diseases, resigned at the end of his temporary government assignment. Atlas confirmed the news in a Monday evening tweet.



    Atlas joined the White House this summer, where he clashed with top government scientists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, as he resisted stronger efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 267,000 Americans.

    Atlas has broken with government experts and the overwhelming consensus of the scientific community to criticize efforts to encourage face covering to slow the spread of the virus. Just weeks ago on Twitter he responded to Michigan's latest virus restrictions by encouraging people to “rise up” against the state's policies.

    His views also prompted Stanford to issue a statement distancing itself from the faculty member, saying Atlas "has expressed views that are inconsistent with the university’s approach in response to the pandemic."

    “We support using masks, social distancing, and conducting surveillance and diagnostic testing,” the university said Nov. 16. “We also believe in the importance of strictly following the guidance of local and state health authorities.”

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    https://wreg.com/news/california-cou...officials-say/

    LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – California could see a tripling of hospitalizations by Christmas and is considering stay-home orders for areas with the highest case rates as it tries to head off concerns that severe coronavirus cases could overwhelm intensive care beds, officials said Monday.

    “The red flags are flying in terms of the trajectory in our projections of growth,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom. “If these trends continue, we’re going to have to take much more dramatic, arguably drastic, action.”

    ‘The picture is devastating’: L.A. County’s daily hospitalizations could reach 2,500
    Hospitalizations have increased 89% over the past 14 days and nearly 7,800 coronavirus patients were hospitalized as of Monday. About 12% of Californians testing positive are likely to need hospital care within the next two to three weeks.


    The biggest concern is intensive care cases, which have increased 67% in the past two weeks. If that continues, it would push ICU beds to 112% of capacity by mid-December.

    That statistic is likely to drive state-mandated stay-at-home orders in 51 of California’s 58 counties that already are seeing the most restrictions on business activities, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s secretary of health and human services.

    ICU hospitalization rates vary by county and region, he said, and is a greater concern than overall hospital capacity.

    “Bottom line is we are looking at intensive care unit capacity as the primary trigger for deeper, more restrictive actions,” Ghaly said.

    Traveling nurse diagnosed with both COVID-19 and cancer
    “When that capacity goes away, or even when it gets stretched so far that staffing is stretched, that we have to set up space that isn’t typically used for intensive care units, we know that the quality of care … sometimes takes a dip and we see outcomes we don’t want to see,” he said.

    By the second half of December California “could be pushing the limits in some areas,” Ghaly said, adding that “we want to act sooner than that so we can get transmission down and we can handle those potential high ICU surges.”

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    https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotec...tted-for-today

    As Moderna continues to drip-feed the latest data from its late-stage COVID-19 vaccine effort, it has updated the shot?s efficacy figure.

    The company?s vaccine, known as mRNA-1273, now has data for 196 cases, which Moderna says ?confirms the high efficacy observed at the first interim analysis? that came out two weeks back.

    Learn more

    There is, however, a slight difference: In this latest update, vaccine efficacy hit 94.1% out of the so-called COVE trial. Data posted Nov. 16 showed this efficacy at a slightly higher 94.5%, although this was based on 90 cases of COVID-19.

    Breaking the figures down, 185 cases of COVID-19 were observed in the placebo group versus 11 cases observed in the mRNA-1273 group.

    Still, an extra 100-plus cases and the percentage has moved down only very slightly, and Moderna added efficacy against severe COVID-19 was 100%. This was a key secondary endpoint, which analyzed severe cases of COVID-19 and included 30 severe cases.

    ?All 30 cases occurred in the placebo group and none in the mRNA-1273 vaccinated group,? Moderna said in a release. There was one COVID-19-related death in the study, but this occurred in the placebo group. The full data are yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

    The Big Biotech said it was plotting an emergency use authorization in the U.S. ?today? for its mRNA vaccine, with an FDA review being ?likely? on Dec. 17.

    ?This positive primary analysis confirms the ability of our vaccine to prevent COVID-19 disease with 94.1% efficacy and importantly, the ability to prevent severe COVID-19 disease,? said St?phane Bancel, CEO of Moderna.

    ?We believe that our vaccine will provide a new and powerful tool that may change the course of this pandemic and help prevent severe disease, hospitalizations and death.

    ?I would again like to thank our partners at NIH, NIAID, BARDA and Operation Warp Speed who have helped us advance the clinical development of mRNA-1273. We will file today for an Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA and continue forging ahead with the rolling reviews that have already been initiated with several regulatory agencies around the globe.?

    Analyst Michael Yee at Jefferies said in a note to clients that: ?The data is [sic] strong and sets a high bar for others.?

    The biotech?s shares jumped 11% premarket.

    This comes on the same day that Novavax, a rival to Moderna that is creating its own version of a COVID-19 vaccine using different technology, has for the second time pushed back a U.S. trial. It had revised the date for November, but it has now been pushed back until at least next month. Its U.K. late-stage trial is still ongoing and will form the basis of its attempt to get an approval.

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    https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotec...liver-covid-19

    Gene therapy pioneer Jim Wilson and the University of Pennsylvania are teaming up with Regeneron to help deliver its COVID-19 antibody cocktail using adeno-associated virus (AAV) tech in the hope of curbing infection via a nasal spray.

    The antibody cocktail, made up of casirivimab and imdevimab, was given a speedy authorization by the FDA less than two weeks ago as a treatment for certain COVID-19 patients. But, keeping up with the fast pace of SARS-CoV-02 R&D, Regeneron is not resting on its laurels and now wants to find a quicker way of delivering its therapy while also working on it as a prophylactic.

    These antibodies are currently injected into patients, but Regeneron and Penn will use Wilson’s gene therapy know-how to attempt a nasal spray formulation using AAV vectors. The belief is that this could prevent infection with the virus using a technology typically used in high-tech gene therapies.

    The group plans to study the safety and effectiveness of using AAV vectors to introduce the sequence of the cocktail’s virus-neutralizing antibodies directly to nasal epithelial cells and see whether it can help protect against the disease.

    The first step is to finish preclinical trials; if successful, an IND will be sent off to the FDA for human trials.

    Wilson’s team said it was hopeful that introducing the therapy via single dose of AAV will be able to produce similar protection Regeneron has seen for its cocktail, but “for potentially a longer duration.”

    “Regeneron scientists specifically selected casirivimab and imdevimab to block infectivity of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and we have been encouraged by the promising clinical data thus far,” said Christos Kyratsous, Ph.D., vice president of research, infectious diseases and viral vector technologies at Regeneron.

    “In the quest to use cutting-edge science to help end this disruptive and often very devastating disease, we are excited to explore alternate delivery mechanisms such as AAV that may extend the potential benefits of this investigational therapy to even more people around the world.”

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    https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...nline-n1249378

    Vaccination proponents and misinformation researchers had been waiting for years for Facebook to take action against the biggest and most influential anti-vaccination pages.

    So it was with some trepidation that they welcomed the news that the social network last week had banned some of the most popular and prolific anti-vaccination accounts — pages that had also pushed Covid-19 vaccination misinformation to millions of people.

    Their impact, however, lives on. While researchers of extremism and public health advocates see the removal of the largest anti-vaccination accounts as mostly positive, new research shows the bigger threat to public trust in a Covid-19 vaccine comes from smaller, better-connected Facebook groups that gravitated to anti-vaccination messaging in recent months.

    “What we’re seeing play out with Covid is what was already in the system," Neil Johnson, a physicist at George Washington University who studies online extremism, said. "It was primed for that at the end of 2019.”

    With many Covid-19 vaccines in the works, health officials have warned that public adoption will be crucial to ensure that enough of the population is immunized to stop the spread of the virus. Experts say there isn't an exact threshold for the percentage of people that need to get vaccinated to stop the virus' spread, but it is expected to be at least 60 percent of the population.

    But public sentiment about the vaccines is mixed. Only 42 percent of Americans said “yes” to whether they’d get a Covid-19 vaccine when it becomes available, according to a YouGov poll released in August. A poll from the Pew Research Center published in September found a significant decline from May to September in people who said they would get the vaccine if it were immediately available.


    Inside look at extreme measures to ship and store vaccines safely
    NOV. 30, 202004:29
    Johnson and a team of researchers published a paper in Nature in May that suggested the anti-vaccination movement bore a big responsibility for such hesitancy. It showed that although membership in online anti-vaccination groups was smaller than in pro-vaccination groups, there were more of them, their messages were more diverse, emotive and often persuading, and they were better at spreading those messages outside their groups, meaning they were able to reach more people.

    Research from a forthcoming paper from Johnson and his team, currently in review for publication, shows members of communities previously considered unrelated or “undecided” on vaccines — groups for pet lovers, parent school groups, yoga fans and foodies, for instance — are increasingly connecting with the anti-vaccination movement.

    “It’s like a tumor growth,” Johnson said.

    While the anti-vaccination activists’ favored platform, Facebook, has taken a number of steps recently to limit the reach of anti-vaccine content, the movement has thrived during the pandemic — a success largely due to a pivot toward Covid-19 misinformation and a communication strategy that’s allowed the anti-vaccination message to circumvent platforms’ policy enforcement and reach users outside its network.

    Facebook spokesperson Andrea Vallone said in an emailed statement that the company has worked to connect people with accurate information about vaccines and banned misleading ads.

    "We also continue to remove misinformation about COVID-19 that could lead to imminent physical harm and direct people to our COVID information Center, which is available in 189 countries," she said.

    A report by the London-based nonprofit organization Center for Countering Digital Hate found that the anti-vaccination movement gained about 8 million followers since 2019. Conspiracy theories about a coming Covid-19 vaccine have flooded social media, particularly on Instagram and Facebook, according to a new report from First Draft, a global nonprofit organization that researches online misinformation.

    Such conspiracy theories (which purported the vaccine to be a clever cover for various forms of population control by a government “deep state,” private philanthropists or even Satan) weren’t limited to anti-vaccine fringe groups, First Draft reported, but were resonating with outside networks. Disparate communities including Libertarian, New Age, QAnon and anti-government groups, as well as more mainstream communities, seem to be uniting around the opposition to a coming Covid-19 vaccine.

    The biggest pages banned by Facebook had already been preparing for a crackdown.

    Facebook removed the page for the online anti-vaccination show The HighWire this month for violating policies on "misinformation that could cause physical harm," the company said. YouTube had removed the show’s channel in July after reports that host Del Bigtree was downplaying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic on his show and suggesting viewers intentionally expose themselves to Covid-19.

    According to a post on the Facebook page for Bigtree’s nonprofit organization, Informed Consent Action Network, The HighWire had published more than 500 videos that attracted more than 30 million views. The page had 360,500 followers when it was deleted.
    A HighWire account remains active on Facebook-owned Instagram, where it has 199,000 followers. Bigtree did not return a request for comment.

    But it wasn’t vaccine misinformation that got social media’s most popular and prolific anti-vaccination activist banned from Facebook this month. In the end, after years of building an audience on Facebook, Larry Cook, a California social media marketer, and his 200,000-member private group, Stop Mandatory Vaccination, were removed for violating the platform’s policies against promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory.

    Cook, who did not respond to a request for comment, had been warning his fans of a coming ban and promoting his accounts on 11 other alternative platforms for months.

    Cook’s and Bigtree’s pages and groups had continued to grow on Facebook despite a move in March 2019 to diminish the reach of anti-vaccine content during a measles outbreak and subsequent measures during the pandemic to downrank health misinformation in reaction to the World Health Organization’s warnings against “conspiracy theorists that push misinformation and undermine the outbreak response.”

    Researchers have observed that livestreaming features provided a way for anti-vaccine activists to continue to reach their audience. Covid-19 in particular also led to significant followings for prominent anti-vaccine figures, said Renee DiResta, who studies disinformation as the research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory.

    “The anti-vaccine movement recognized that [Covid-19] was an opportunity to create content, so when people were searching for it, they would find anti-vaccine content,” she said. “They saw this as an opportunity not only to erode confidence in the Covid vaccine, but also to make people hesitant about routine childhood immunizations, as well.”

    But efforts to move beyond Facebook have had limited success.

    Their audience “may not know where to go and how to navigate to those platforms,” said Kolina Koltai, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, who studies the anti-vaccine movement.

    Despite the promotion, only a handful of users have followed Cook and Bigtree to those new platforms.

    “Too many people are deeply invested into Facebook, which has the distinct advantage because that is the platform people are on, it is easy to navigate, and it is how users stay connected to friends and families," Koltai said.

    And users need not switch platforms to maintain the link to the greater anti-vaccination movement. An unknowable number of private groups remain, spaces that have been hubs for misinformation regarding Covid-19 and vaccines. These include the 224,000-member Vaccination Re-education Discussion Forum, a private anti-vaccination group exclusively focused on Covid-19 vaccines.

    Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

    “It's like an insurgency,” Johnson said. “And the hard thing about battling an insurgency is we never quite knew where they were. There was almost like an invisible network behind them. Often, the groups that were most prominent, the ones coming to your attention because they were the biggest, didn't necessarily mean that they were the important ones in the network."

    His new research shows the anti-vaccination movement has effectively used the pandemic to reach more than 100 million susceptible Facebook users, and seems to be winning the battle for hearts and minds.

    As such, banning accounts with large followings is unlikely to have much real impact on the larger anti-vaccination movement.

    "The anti-vaccination network is all about passing on narratives, passing on stories, supporting each other, just like an insurgency," Johnson said. "And just like an insurgency, it is embedded with the mainstream civilian population as it were. And that is their strength.”

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    https://fox40.com/news/local-news/sa...-for-covid-19/

    Sacramento Sheriffs Scott Jones has a COVID-19 test.

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones has tested positive for COVID-19, the sheriff’s office said Wednesday.

    According to the sheriff’s office, Jones developed symptoms last week “after a workplace exposure to an employee that later tested positive.”

    On Friday, Jones started experiencing a fever, congestion, light-headedness and a headache, according to the sheriff’s office.

    Jones’ symptoms were said to be mild, and had mostly gone away by Wednesday, officials said.

    The sheriff and his immediate family are quarantining as his family members await test results.
    https://fox40.com/news/local-news/sa...at-home-order/

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) – Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said he won’t be enforcing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s curfew and stay-at-home order.

    Jones told FOX40 Tuesday that he’s been blessed with not having to hand out one citation to county residents, who he said have followed health restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    He said the county’s previous successes with past health guidelines are part of the reason why he won’t be enforcing the latest round of state restrictions.

    “I have a tremendous amount of faith in folks to make those assessments relative to COVID,” Jones explained.

    With Sacramento County returning to the most restrictive purple tier, Jones said residents have learned enough in the past year to know the safety rules.

    The sheriff said that he’s worn masks and kept a proper distance from others when he’s had to go to the store and he’s only visited with his parents twice in 2020.

    “Based on the inherent risk and the folks I know are vulnerable, I make these decisions every day. Everybody’s making those decisions,” Jones said.

    Jones said to have arbitrary restrictions placed on millions of people, assuming they’re somehow more at-risk during curfew hours of 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., isn’t realistic.

    “I have strong constitutional convictions. I’m a lawyer, so I understand about constitutional law,” Jones said. “But my points are really much more practical in wanting to be more engaged with the community in a positive way. And not having to put the men and women of the sheriff’s office in the position of having to enforce these not criminal laws, but some weird sort of health ordinances.”

    With Newsom under fire earlier in November for allegedly not following his own safety restrictions while attending a dinner in Napa, Jones said that Newsom was “appropriately apologetic.”

    “But the reality of it is if the more forceful you are going to be and the more judgmental you are going to be with others, then the more you should be diligent in your own personal practices as well,” Jones said.

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    https://www.kron4.com/news/48-player...sumes-testing/

    SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) — Nearly 50 players have tested positive for coronavirus since testing resumed last week, according to a statement released Wednesday by the league and the National Players Association.

    546 players were tested for the virus between Nov. 24 and Nov. 30. Of the tests, 48 came back positive.

    Players who tested positive are self-isolating until they are cleared to end isolation.

    The NBA and NBPA are working closely with the the CDC.

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    https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/...health-orders/

    SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) – COVID numbers are increasing and restrictions are tightening but local leaders and lawmakers have not practiced what they preach.

    A classic case of “do as I say, not as I do.”

    Amid a global pandemic and another spike in COVID cases, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, Governor Gavin Newsom, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging residents to follow state and local rules, wear masks and socially distance, all while failing to do so themselves.

    It all started in August when Speaker Pelosi was caught on camera getting her hair done indoors at a San Francisco salon, while improperly wearing a mask under her chin.

    The kicker — The video was taken the day before San Francisco was set to open indoor business operations meaning she clearly violated local rules.

    Despite that, here’s what she had to say:

    “I take responsibility for trusting the word of a neighborhood salon that I’ve been to over the years many times. As it turns out, it was a setup. I take responsibility for falling for a setup.”

    “You’re not invincible from COVID-19, quite the contrary. This is a disease that easily spreads, very easily spreads. Please, just be thoughtful, and in so doing, you’ll set an example,” Governor Gavin Newsom said.

    Newsom, asking Californians to follow health guidelines – guidelines he chose to violate on November 6th when he and his wife attended a birthday dinner at the swanky and pricey Yountville restaurant – The French Laundry.

    Photos of the dinner surfaced a week later, leading him to apologize for making a bad mistake saying that he needs to preach and practice, not just preach.

    “Please, for all of us. Make smart decisions. Avoid crowds. Don’t gather with people outside your households. Keep your distance from one another. Wear a mask.”

    Oddly enough, Mayor London Breed was seen with seven other people at The French Laundry the next night attending a birthday celebration there as well.

    Mayor Breed has yet to address the issue.

    Finally, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, the latest Bay Area lawmaker to violate public health orders.

    The day after he tweeted about COVID cases spiking, Mayor Liccardo and his wife got together at his parent’s home with people from five different households to have Thanksgiving dinner.

    Despite saying that everyone wore their masks when not eating, Mayor Liccardo did apologize for violating state rules.
    Interesting that my Birthplace are being called out for being hypocrites when it comes to COVID-19. First of all we were the ones that voted for you because we feared that Donald Trump was trying to pull a Jonestown with COVID-19.

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    https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/rna...lter-your-dna/

    This week, I wanted to cover something important that we haven’t covered before here at SBM. So I asked myself: What topic related to COVID-19 have we at SBM not covered yet that we really should have covered by now? Given that Steve has already covered the first two COVID-19 vaccines going to the FDA for approval and possible emergency use authorization (EUA), the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, it didn’t make sense for me to discuss COVID-19 vaccines again. Then it occurred to me. These two new vaccines that will likely soon be available, at least to “essential personnel” such as medical personnel treating COVID-19 patients anyway, share one thing in common. They are RNA vaccines. What also occurred to me is that there has been a persistent myth about RNA vaccines being promoted by the antivaccine movement. Perhaps you’ve seen it? Yes? No?

    Perhaps you’ve seen memes like this:

    False mRNA COVID vaccine meme

    Or this one:
    False COVID mRNA vaccine meme

    Or this one:
    False Bill Gates antivaccine meme

    Or this one:
    False COVID-19 mRNA vaccine meme

    You get the idea. One major theme of antivaccine disinformation related to potential RNA vaccines against COVID-19 is that the RNA used in the vaccine will somehow permanently “reprogram” your DNA in nefarious ways. It’s a claim that goes back at least to May, if not sooner, and arose as soon as antivaxxers became aware that one of the leading candidate vaccines against COVID-19 was Moderna’s RNA vaccine. After that, it soon became a standard talking point in the antivaccine movement’s pre-emptive disinformation war against COVID-19 vaccines. Why would anyone want to do this? Conspiracy theorists always have…reasons…of course. Some say that it’s to mark people. Some people say it’s to develop a technology that allows you to inject DNA directly into cells and reprogram them (Would that this were true! Such technologies would make gene therapy so much less difficult!) Often, antivaxxers conflate RNA with DNA and vice-versa, not realizing that, although both molecules contain genetic information needed for a cell to make protein, they are nonetheless very different in characteristics and behavior.

    Of course, to experts the claim that RNA vaccines will somehow “reprogram” your DNA claims are utterly risible in the ignorance of basic biology and biochemistry necessary to make such unscientific claims. But to nonexperts, most of whom probably long ago forgot their basic biology (if they ever learned it at all), the concept of a vaccine that turns your own cells into little factories making part of a key protein from COVID-19 that provokes a protective immune response (more on the specifics later) can seem quite plausible—and scary. Of course, fear is exactly the intended purpose of the antivaccine disinformation claiming that RNA vaccines will somehow “reprogram” your DNA and permanently alter you genetically. (We do hope for one “permanent” alteration in our biology as a result of a COVID-19, though, namely immunity to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Unfortunately, it’s not yet clear how long such immunity will last.) So let’s examine the claims being made and why you don’t have to fear RNA vaccines for COVID-19.

    Before we do that, let’s look at what mRNA vaccines are, how they work, and what their advantages and disadvantages are compared to traditional vaccines.

    mRNA vaccines
    mRNA vaccines rely on something I’ve discussed before, namely the “central dogma” of molecular biology. I must admit, I’ve always hated the use of the word “dogma” associated with science, but no less a luminary than Francis Crick first stated it in 1958, and it has been restated over the years in various ways. Perhaps my favorite version of the central dogma was succinctly stated by Marshall Nirenberg in 1958 and has since been commonly paraphrased to say, “DNA makes RNA makes protein”, which about summed up all of molecular biology in five words. (Why I used the past tense in a moment.) In any event, for purposes of understanding RNA viruses, this is the main sequence that you need to understand:
    Central Dogma of Molecular Biology

    Basically, DNA replicates from a DNA template and results in a double-stranded molecule that is very stable, as it has complementary sequences that tightly bind to each other in a sequence-specific fashion. This DNA template is unwound by enzymes that use the template to make RNA strands, which are single-stranded, which is then used by a ribosome to make protein out of amino acids. Again, to put it simply, each nucleotide equals one letter of the code; each three-nucleotide sequence (codon) equals one “word” that translates to an amino acid. Given that there are four nucleotides, there are 64 possible codons. Since there are only 20 amino acids, that means that most amino acids are encoded by more than one combination of nucleotides or more than one codon; i.e., the genetic code is redundant. Of course, it’s more complicated than that, as this diagram shows:

    Central Dogma Molecular Biology

    Here’s a little video that’s useful too:



    For instance, messenger RNA (mRNA) doesn’t always start out fully formed. Often it’s made as a longer precursor molecule that is spliced to the final mRNA sequence before being transported out of the nucleus into the cytoplasm to be used to make protein.

    In fact, it’s even more complicated than that. Remember how I used the past tense when I said that the central dogma summed up all of molecular biology? It did, but then we started finding exceptions to the central dogma, such as retroviruses and microRNAs that can regulate gene expression, for instance. You don’t really need to know the gory details of many of these, although I will mention a couple of relevant ones and refer you to a post that does go into the gory details, for anyone who’s really interested.

    Exceptions aside, RNA vaccines consist mainly of, well, RNA. One problem with RNA vaccines is that RNA is an inherently unstable molecule. It is, after all, a messenger. It doesn’t need to persist any longer than the message needs to be made. In aqueous solution, RNA molecules rapidly degrade. Indeed, the instability of RNA is why public health experts have been concerned about distributing RNA vaccines. Both companies adopted a similar strategy in designing their mRNA to encode the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein with stabilizing mutations added to lock this surface protein into a form easily recognizable to the immune system and therefore make it a better antigen. Pfizer and Moderna also used modified nucleosides (the RNA equivalent to DNA nucleotides) that are more stable to make their RNAs, and placed their RNA within a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery system in which LNPs fuse with the cell membrane to deliver the RNA to the cytoplasm. Nonetheless, there are huge differences in the temperatures at which these vaccines need to be stored to remain stable and active.

    Here’s what I mean. The Pfizer vaccine (developed in partnership with a company called BioNTech) reportedly needs to be stored at -80?C. While I have a -80?C freezer in my laboratory (to store RNA samples, among other things), most physicians’ offices and clinics do not, because such freezers are large and very expensive compared to the more common refrigerators (which generally maintain a temperature of around 4?C) and standard freezers (which maintain a temperature of around -20?C). Even many hospitals do not have enough -80?C freezers to store large quantities of vaccine. Similarly, because of the temperature necessary to keep the vaccine stable and active, transporting the Pfizer vaccine presents logistical challenges, because the vaccine must be kept at -80?C or colder during the entire chain of transport. It can be done, using dry ice, of course, but it’s difficult, and one could easily imagine an impending dry ice shortage once such vaccines roll out. To this end, both companies have apparently used modified nucleotides to try to make their mRNA molecules more stable The Moderna vaccine, in contrast, can reportedly be stored at -20?C for up to six months, which is much more doable, as most standard freezers can reach this temperature. Even better, the Moderna vaccine will remain stable at standard refrigerator temperatures of 2? to 8?C (36? to 46?F) for up to 30 days and remains stable at room temperature for up to 12 hours. Why the difference? It’s hard to know for sure, as both companies are tight-lipped about the exact differences in their vaccines. A Moderna spokesperson explained to NPR:

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