9 votes

Weekly coronavirus-related chat, questions, and minor updates - week of September 6

This thread is posted weekly, and is intended as a place for more-casual discussion of the coronavirus and questions/updates that may not warrant their own dedicated topics. Tell us about what the situation is like where you live!

4 comments

  1. skybrian
    Link
    The Plan to Stop Every Respiratory Virus at Once (The Atlantic)

    The Plan to Stop Every Respiratory Virus at Once (The Atlantic)

    The scientists who recognized the threat of airborne coronavirus early did so because they spent years studying evidence that—contrary to conventional wisdom—common respiratory illnesses such as the flu and colds can also spread through the air. We’ve long accepted colds and flus as inevitable facts of life, but are they? Why not redesign the airflow in our buildings to prevent them, too? What’s more, says Raymond Tellier, a microbiologist at McGill University, SARS-CoV-2 is unlikely to be the last airborne pandemic. The same measures that protect us from common viruses might also protect us from the next unknown pathogen.

    9 votes
  2. kfwyre
    Link
    I was talking with one of my coworkers who had a mild case of COVID almost a year ago, and I was floored when she divulged that she still has not recovered smell or taste. She's understandably...

    I was talking with one of my coworkers who had a mild case of COVID almost a year ago, and I was floored when she divulged that she still has not recovered smell or taste. She's understandably worried that she might have lost them permanently.

    9 votes
  3. DonQuixote
    Link
    We're hearing of more exposures and some fatal complications. For people already weakened by other factors it's been fatal in my circles. It seems like Covid just hangs around a person and wears...

    We're hearing of more exposures and some fatal complications. For people already weakened by other factors it's been fatal in my circles. It seems like Covid just hangs around a person and wears them out. I remember regular flu seasons like this where the influenza could often bring on a relapse if you didn't take it easy.

    6 votes
  4. skybrian
    Link
    CEPI warns of major hurdle to developing new Covid-19 vaccines and studying best booster approaches

    CEPI warns of major hurdle to developing new Covid-19 vaccines and studying best booster approaches

    [A]t this point in the pandemic, it isn’t considered ethical to test new vaccines against placebos; instead they would have to be tested against one of the existing shots. But getting one’s hands on licensed or authorized vaccines for study purposes is nigh on impossible; all available doses have been snapped up by countries keen to vaccinate as many of their citizens as possible.

    Contracts for those doses contain rigid stipulations about how the vaccines can be deployed. The doses often have to be used in the country that made the purchase; when the Biden administration wanted to share AstraZeneca doses with Canada and Mexico in March, it loaned the doses to get around the restrictions. Contracts also often stipulate that doses that have been purchased must be used for outbreak control, not for research purposes, Lurie said.

    There’s little upside for companies to make doses of their vaccines available for study purposes. With global demand vastly exceeding current supply, manufacturers can sell every dose that they can make.

    5 votes