California has some of the dumbest fucking Covid restrictions that are definitely going to have a boomerang effect of noncompliance.
Good article discussing mutations. This guy had them going on inside him
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A lot of inheritance plays over the holidays. Sure grandpa, itās safe to have a big Christmas gathering. Donāt mind cousin Eddies runny nose and cough, he just has seasonal allergies (in the winter.).
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I think there is a case in the UK as well.
First spotted 7 days ago, 21 known cases of the new āBristol variantā which is cross of the new UK and SA variants.
Whatās the Bristol variant?
The New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) - a group of scientists which advise government - have classed a variant first identified in Bristol - the Kent variant with a mutation - as a āvariant of concernā.
Itās not surprising that officials are adding this new version of coronavirus to their āvariants of concernā list.
Targeted testing is already under way to spot any new cases linked to the 21 that have already been found, mostly in the south west of England.
This new incarnation of the virus is the Kent variant āplusā. It has the same N501Y mutation as the one that triggered lockdown - a genetic change that scientists say lets the virus spread more easily. But it also has an extra mutation called E484K.
E484K is what experts are worried about for vaccine efficacy. It is also seen in the South Africa and Brazil variants of concern.
A cluster of another variant in Liverpool is different again. It has got the E484K mutation but is an iteration of an earlier version of the pandemic virus rather than the Kent one.
Inevitably, more variants will continue to emerge. The challenge is to make sure vaccines are a good match to keep us ahead in this race against the virus.
Experts are confident that the vaccines being used today will still save lives and stop severe illness from Covid.
Link to aboveā¦
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I just caught up with an old strain engineering friend and he noted how we our handling Covid is just how we used to adapt bacteria to harsher conditions over time.
Pretty obvious to those in the bioengineering world.
Can you get a vaccine in Oklahoma now just for being āobeseā? How do they verify your comorbidity?
lol at the diversity in this photo.
huh?
Didnāt we just inject plasmids into them?
Anyone here considering moving to Australia/New Zealand or elsewhere outside the USA?
Certain changes are not fungible to know single gene changes. If you want to make an organism more tolerant to say acetic acid, you grow it at an inhibitory but sub lethal level amount of acetic acid and any mutants that arise that survive and grow better are selected and the whole cycle is repeated. (Often the cells are mutagenized to speed up the mutation process)
Now that it is possible to cheaply and rapidly resequence, some of the specific genetic changes can be elucidated and then rationally engineered into cells.
But whole physiology parameters like product tolerance, temperature, etc are still better accomplished by random means.
Even single enzymes are often improved by mutagenesis and then an effective screen via hi throughput robotic systems. Generate thousands of not millions of changes and then pick the winners and repeat.
Still natural selection, just a bit more sophisticated than what was used in the original penicillin days.
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They donāt. There are enumerated comorbidities in the guidelines. I think but am not sure obesity is listed. I have hypertension and that is listed.
Aināt much better outside of America.
Hell Iād rather be in America when it comes to covid than the Czech Republic.
Youāre higher in deaths per capita and way behind in vaccinations. Czechia is one of the worst places in the world thatās keeping track anyway.
Yup and they wanna open schools in March.
Apparently saliva covid tests are immune to error or misuse.
Just pass a god damn law mandating it. At least for anyone on Medicare, Medicaid or getting an ACA subsidy.
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Never going to happen. Not to mention supreme court would instantly strike it down even if you could.
Best bet is to have businesses, travel etc all require it. Add schools when itās available enough for their age maybe.
I highly, highly doubt a law making it mandatory that the supreme court leaves in place would do any good. No way the people against it listen.
Best bet would be something like insurance companies SKYROCKET peopleās rates if theyāre capable of getting one and they refuse.
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I guess the next step is private employers saying people on their health plans have to get the vaccine followed by Amy Coney Barrett authoring an opinion saying butnahhhh
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