My statements were local observations on masking up increasing. Progress is where you have an improvement towards a goal. Masking is just that.
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Coronavirus (Covid-19) informational thread
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My statements were local observations on masking up increasing. Progress is where you have an improvement towards a goal. Masking is just that.
Let’s agree to disagree and call it a truce. If needed, coffee/beer is on me. I think we both made and clarified our opinions.
Now, going back to vaccines, this doesn’t help either:
A key sentence from that blog:Proper N95 Respirator Use for Respiratory Protection Preparedness | Blogs | CDC
CDC - Blogs - NIOSH Science Blog – Proper N95 Respirator Use for Respiratory Protection Preparedness -blogs.cdc.gov
"...even without fit testing, a respirator will provide better protection than a facemask..." This is my point.
(I think it should also be said that non-N95 masks also reduce effectiveness when worn improperly:
"The cloth and surgical masks that the public is using also have a wide range of quality and fit, two key characteristics that can seriously compromise their effectiveness at protection.")
For all the theoretical talk about N95's real-world effectiveness, I would like to point out many experts are saying we should be switching to N95s because of the the delta variant:
- Why some experts recommend upgrading to N95 masks to help fight the delta variant [WashingtonPost]
- Dr. Scott Gottlieb: "...if you can get your hand on [an N95] mask that is going to afford you a lot more protection."
- Dr. Zeke Emanuel: "I recommend wearing a N95 mask."
- Dr. Mitchel Rose: "KN95 and N95 certainly provide better protection than cloth masks."
- Dr. Abraar Karan: "[Advocating N95 masks for all]"
Ah, you know what, sorry man. I wasn't directing that at you -- I know you haven't used rhetoric like that.
It is your fault though, because we have been invaded by your Texas levels of humidity here in the Northeast and it is just frying my brain. I don't know how you guys take it! 🥵
Ahahah, no problem. Heat and humidity is what Texas uses to invade and conquer other states!
I was on the tennis courts yesterday - mid-90s, 55% humidity, sunny. I only lasted about 40 minutes but some of that was GI problems. Same weather today and I'm shooting for an hour this time. Twenty years ago, we played for 3 hours in these conditions. I brought along a gallon of ice water back then.
If N95 masks are good, then why are some doctors and nurses still came down with COVID and some of them died even if they wore the masks, if they provide better protection than a face mask?
This seems to be oblivious to their radar screen and you seemed to conveniently ignore that information.
It's like claiming that wearing the same swimming suit worn by Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky will give you the potential of becoming an Olympic class swimmer better than wearing a normal swimming suit. Yet, neglecting and deflecting the fact that many people bought into these kind of marketing schemes of implied performance and not getting it when they compared themselves to real professional athletes. And yet, America is full of implied performance marketing -- buy these shoes and you'll play like a champion or that golf club that allows you to play like Tiger Woods. Funny that even N95 is marketed this way as well.
I'm not saying that an N95 mask isn't useful since it is a mask and it's better than having none at all when compared to some of the atrocious quality of cheap masks with ear loops that comes off easily, poor seams etc and the material is like a piece of paper.. Then if you are comparing a N95 mask against these cheap Chinese ones, then a N95 is better than those face masks. When Health Canada last year started evaluating imported Chinese made KN95 and found that many failed the N95 specification and issued a recall since they could only block roughly 1-11% particulate based on NIOSH test in the US.
Health Canada issues recall of some KN95 masks made in China – COVID Shop.
Having said that; it's again all about testing, because these masks are worn in an environment that requires 95% filtration and you don't know that "unless" you test it and that's the point.
From Health Canada..
"However, it says that “recent testing performed by the CDC resulted in concerns with some KN95 respirators (specifically those with ear loop design) that pose a difficulty in achieving a proper fit, which is essential for use.”
"It added that they should relabel the KN95 respirators as face masks which can be used in health care or non-healthcare settings where 95 per cent filtration isn’t necessary."
It's funny that their CDC's official medical stance in regards to proper fit differs from their own BLOG which you outlined. So there's kind of like two parallel messages for 2 sets of audience; one written for medical professionals (proper fit, which is essential for use) and one written for a regular consumer (even without fit testing, a N95 will perform better than a face mask) for people like yourself, which as NIOSH said perform no better than a regular mask and should be labelled as such for those KN95 masks with ear loops which can not provide the proper fit and seal, which was the cause of the recall.
It's also funny that in Canada, even our health officials rarely are endorsing people to wear N95 or N95 is better than face masks, and yet just across the border, you guys have some interesting TV doctors endorse N95 like athletes endorsing sport product placements on TV. To me, it's a very interesting dynamic here to see.
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I bought a set of Pro Stock tennis racquets back in 2010. First time I went out on the court I was barely able to get the ball on the other side of the court because it was so heavy. It took me six months to get used to them but I've been using them since. You basically have to increase your fitness level to be able to use these things effectively.
They also protect against injury a lot better than retail racquets. The professional can't afford injury downtime.
A lot of people look into Pro Stocks as if they are magic. They aren't but they can give you options that consumer products don't give you. You still have to do some of the other things that professionals do.
Because they're not infallible, just better.
You're shifting the goal posts here. N95 aren't miracle cures. They don't and shouldn't prevent your from getting vaccinated. They just improve
Their use was previously discouraged for the public because of supply issues. Now, manufacturing has ramped-up and supply is no longer an issue, and the viral load of Delta makes their advantage all the more significant.
Governments around the world are going to have to accept that people are going to die from the virus. The world cannot live in a permanant state of fear, going from lockdown to lockdown, restrictions to restrictions. People need to get on with their lives, buisnesses need to get back to full production.
Many many countries are in huge huge debt and this cannot be allowed to continue. I do feel sorry for those who the virus affects the most and hardest but we cannot live in permanant restrictions to protect their lives. As soon as one virus varient seems to ease off, along comes a new varient which is always claimed to be worst than the previous one. There was numerous varients from the UK, one from Peru, one from South Africa and one from India. There will no doubt be more. So what happens when a new varient arrives on our doorstep, back to lockdown and restrictions again to protect the weak and vulnerable? How long can this continue because it cannot continue for ever.
The world has lived with the flu virus for centuries and millions of people around the world die from it but yet no one goes into lockdown or restrictions when the winter flu hits, they get jab and on the way they go. It's about time the world did the same with the covid virus, learn to live with and accept the envertable deaths. Winter flu deaths are accepted without any restrictions taking place, so it's about time the same was accepted for the covid virus.
Many many countries are in huge huge debt and this cannot be allowed to continue. I do feel sorry for those who the virus affects the most and hardest but we cannot live in permanant restrictions to protect their lives. As soon as one virus varient seems to ease off, along comes a new varient which is always claimed to be worst than the previous one. There was numerous varients from the UK, one from Peru, one from South Africa and one from India. There will no doubt be more. So what happens when a new varient arrives on our doorstep, back to lockdown and restrictions again to protect the weak and vulnerable? How long can this continue because it cannot continue for ever.
The world has lived with the flu virus for centuries and millions of people around the world die from it but yet no one goes into lockdown or restrictions when the winter flu hits, they get jab and on the way they go. It's about time the world did the same with the covid virus, learn to live with and accept the envertable deaths. Winter flu deaths are accepted without any restrictions taking place, so it's about time the same was accepted for the covid virus.
Moderna has had a variants vaccine for several months but they can't start clinical trials without some kind of approval. Pfizer has one as well but haven't started trials yet. I think that we need to be able to make the process a lot faster and improve production to get it out to the world if we are to have some hope of containing this.
I know that Moderna is testing their mRNA-1283 vaccine now (not sure if it's gone into Phase III trials).
They seem to be updating their variants vaccine regularly.
It's not clear if they will even need Phase 3 trials if the changes are small enough:
COVID-19 Variants Won’t Require New Phase 3 Vaccine Trials, Just Small Safety Studies
Faced with evolving variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, COVID-19 vaccine-makers are considering tweaks to their current products that would call for only small safety-focused trials rather than entirely new phase 3 trials, and the FDA has signaled its approval of that approach.
The difference between the flu and COVID is that a majority of us had achieved herd immunity against most of the flu strains and we have moved on to accepting the flu as being an endemic. Whereas with COVID, no governments and nations had yet achieved a reliable and permanent herd immunity solution. The UK looks promising, but it is still too early to tell. Other European nations like Denmark and the Netherlands with their higher vaccination rates are close to achieving herd immunity as well as Canada and many other nations who aren't that far behind in terms of fully vaccinated population. So this is what we need to see that nations that start coming out of this pandemic with herd immunity. But you're right. We can't go on like this and no one has that 1 permanent solution where all other nations can strive towards achieving. So you now see all this various different measures each country use trying to experiment and determine which solution leads to a permanent herd immunity in their nation and in their population, so other nations can copy or at least adopt those solutions. No governments and nations want to continue being saddled with huge debts, so that's the only incentive I can only see with a nation coming out with a viable reliable herd immunity solution that they can pitch to their own people.
Really I’d say if what we’re doing now tells us anything, it’s that breakthrough infections and/or the vaccines’ steady decline in efficacy once administered shows we’re not truly ready to be talking about a ‘return to full normailty’ yet. The vaccines are containing Delta. Barely. But are getting weaker, while there’s likely to be a variant which will be even more effective in eluding it. Now really isn’t the time to throw caution to the wind, it’s the time to continue with as much normailty as possible without allowing R rates to go above 1.
The issue here is that unlike the early COVID strains, we're getting a lot of positives in the USA but actual number of people getting seriously ill from the Delta and Delta+ strains are not really that high. In short, a lot of asymptomatic transmission.
And that's the sentiment being shared by the developer of AstraZeneca..
The developer of the AstraZeneca shot says the Delta variant has made herd immunity impossible because vaccinated people can still transmit the virus (yahoo.com)
In short, the virus is mutating into something like the viruses that cause the flu and common cold. And we know how hard it is to protect against that with vaccines.
Governor has restarted daily COVID briefings. Last Friday I predicted that our cases would double to 2,000 within the next two weeks. We're halfway there as of today. Given exponential growth, I do expect that we'll hit 2,000. These updates are nice. Infectious disease guy, Healthcare Commissioner (three institutional outbreaks), then someone else from DHHS on vaccinations. We're doing 1,000 vaccinations per week which is pretty sad. Going to catch the Governors presentation next. Glad to see the return to focus on COVID.
Great overall job. He spoke about planning in case what happens in the Southeast comes up here. He talked about the possibility that we may be living with mitigation for years. So with businesses and organizations - they need to think about the long term with their strategies. He was very upbeat in his talk which is helpful - he hikes in the mountains here and he's young and in good shape.
He talked about local control and that each area needs to come up with the solution that works for them and that we need to listen to parents on schools (what a novel idea). We do have a lot of work to do on planning and healthcare staffing. The state is offering testing programs to school districts. So I feel better in that are State Government is on the job.
Great overall job. He spoke about planning in case what happens in the Southeast comes up here. He talked about the possibility that we may be living with mitigation for years. So with businesses and organizations - they need to think about the long term with their strategies. He was very upbeat in his talk which is helpful - he hikes in the mountains here and he's young and in good shape.
He talked about local control and that each area needs to come up with the solution that works for them and that we need to listen to parents on schools (what a novel idea). We do have a lot of work to do on planning and healthcare staffing. The state is offering testing programs to school districts. So I feel better in that are State Government is on the job.
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Right now, there are tests conducted on animals on "intranasal COVID-19 vaccine" to solve the problem with transmission among infected vaccinated people and they are using the AstraZeneca vaccine in nasal spray form. Interesting reading to say the least and may offer clues towards potential herd immunity..
Intranasal COVID-19 vaccine effective in animal studies | National Institutes of Health (NIH)
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Just on the topic of Intranasal Vaccination with a different approach:
The intranasal vaccine developed by Munir and colleagues is based on a bird virus known as Newcastle disease virus (NDV), which is harmless to humans. Munir, who is the leader of the research team, explained how the vaccine is created: "We took a SARS-CoV-2 antigen and incorporated it into a NDV such that it acts as a surrogate and presents the antigen to our immune cells. Since the NDV is harmless to us, it provides a mirror image of SARS-CoV-2 and trains our immune system to fight the virus if an individual gets exposed to SARS-CoV-2."
In a pre-clinical study, the vaccine was tested in both mice and hamster models. High levels of neutralizing IgA and IgG2a antibodies were detected, alongside T cell-mediated immunity when two doses were administered. In hamsters, the same dosage was found to reduce SARS-CoV-2 shedding significantly in nasal turbinate and the lungs, demonstrating its ability to halt the infection at the site of inoculation. This should offer both protection against clinical disease and transmission of the virus between individuals.
"Vaccine administration up in the nose usually elicits a local immune response that is sufficient to curtail the virus at the site it starts its journey. We noticed a marked reduction of SARS-COV-2 replication in our pre-clinical studies even with one dose. However, better protection was noticed with two doses. Therefore, we aim to test single and double doses in human trials to understand the best vaccination scenario," Munir explained.
Variants of the virus continue to emerge across the globe and are cause for concern when it comes to vaccine efficacy. How might this intranasal vaccine perform against variants? "The intranasal vaccine in pre-clinical studies produced antibodies that can neutralize several important variants in laboratory experimentation. Given the nature of the vaccine and technology involved, we expect the induction of immunity against current or future variants," Munir said.
Immunogenicity and Protective Efficacy of an Intranasal Live-attenuated Vaccine Against SARS-CoV-2: iScience (cell.com)
The intranasal vaccine developed by Munir and colleagues is based on a bird virus known as Newcastle disease virus (NDV), which is harmless to humans. Munir, who is the leader of the research team, explained how the vaccine is created: "We took a SARS-CoV-2 antigen and incorporated it into a NDV such that it acts as a surrogate and presents the antigen to our immune cells. Since the NDV is harmless to us, it provides a mirror image of SARS-CoV-2 and trains our immune system to fight the virus if an individual gets exposed to SARS-CoV-2."
In a pre-clinical study, the vaccine was tested in both mice and hamster models. High levels of neutralizing IgA and IgG2a antibodies were detected, alongside T cell-mediated immunity when two doses were administered. In hamsters, the same dosage was found to reduce SARS-CoV-2 shedding significantly in nasal turbinate and the lungs, demonstrating its ability to halt the infection at the site of inoculation. This should offer both protection against clinical disease and transmission of the virus between individuals.
"Vaccine administration up in the nose usually elicits a local immune response that is sufficient to curtail the virus at the site it starts its journey. We noticed a marked reduction of SARS-COV-2 replication in our pre-clinical studies even with one dose. However, better protection was noticed with two doses. Therefore, we aim to test single and double doses in human trials to understand the best vaccination scenario," Munir explained.
Variants of the virus continue to emerge across the globe and are cause for concern when it comes to vaccine efficacy. How might this intranasal vaccine perform against variants? "The intranasal vaccine in pre-clinical studies produced antibodies that can neutralize several important variants in laboratory experimentation. Given the nature of the vaccine and technology involved, we expect the induction of immunity against current or future variants," Munir said.
Immunogenicity and Protective Efficacy of an Intranasal Live-attenuated Vaccine Against SARS-CoV-2: iScience (cell.com)
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The virus will not be beaten by artificial means (man made vaccines), it will be beaten by the human body finding it's own way to combat the virus. Just take a look at the flu virus, more commonly known as the 'common cold'. There is no cure for the common cold and yet there are hundreds if not thousands of variants and yet the human body found a way to combat it. The same will happen with the covid virus, the human race must be allowed to be infected so the human body can do it's job because if not then the world will be in a permanent state of lockdown and restrictions in my opinion because as with the flu virus, the covid virus will mutate over and over and over again leading to governments around the world protecting the weak and vulnerable.
I don't think this is true nor the right approach. Small Pox was eradicated by the vaccine, with the last known cases recorded in the 1970's. The same is essentially true of Polio with the Polio vaccine. It's now practically non existent. Without these interventions, likely millions more would have died. Being against human medical intervention should then mean never visiting a doctor or hospital.
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