Covid-19 General Thread (READ OP BEFORE POSTING)
Jul 14, 2020 18:18:27 GMT -5
Malcolm, JoDaNa1281, and 3 more like this
Post by HMARK Center on Jul 14, 2020 18:18:27 GMT -5
Indiana is a right to work state. That does not make unions illegal; it simply fits their funding and influence.
Yeah, "right to work" means allowing people to be union members while also allowing them to opt out of paying union dues...which effectively kills the unions by slow starvation. It's obviously pernicious.
Couple of things had me pretty pissed off today: first off, look at this shitload of @#$%:
A plasma shot could prevent coronavirus. But feds and makers won’t act, scientists say (LA Times)
It might be the next best thing to a coronavirus vaccine.
Scientists have devised a way to use the antibody-rich blood plasma of COVID-19 survivors for an upper-arm injection that they say could inoculate people against the virus for months.
Using technology that’s been proven effective in preventing other diseases such as hepatitis A, the injections would be administered to high-risk healthcare workers, nursing home patients, or even at public drive-through sites — potentially protecting millions of lives, the doctors and other experts say.
The two scientists who spearheaded the proposal — an 83-year-old shingles researcher and his counterpart, an HIV gene therapy expert — have garnered widespread support from leading blood and immunology specialists, including those at the center of the nation’s COVID-19 plasma research.
But the idea exists only on paper. Federal officials have twice rejected requests to discuss the proposal, and pharmaceutical companies — even acknowledging the likely efficacy of the plan — have declined to design or manufacture the shots, according to a Times investigation. The lack of interest in launching development of immunity shots comes amid heightened scrutiny of the federal government’s sluggish pandemic response...
Advocates for the immunity shots say businesses are reluctant to invest in a product that could soon be replaced by a vaccine, so the government should offer financial incentives to offset that risk. Billions of federal dollars are already being spent on vaccine research through Operation Warp Speed, and funding for an IG shot that could serve as a bridge to a vaccine would come with a relatively modest price tag, they say.
“Antibodies are the most precious resource on the planet right now, next to air. We have the industry, the technology, and the know-how to produce a proven product,” said Patrick Schmidt, the chief executive of FFF Enterprises, a major distributor of IG products in the United States.
“The amount of money and resources going into a vaccine, with no guarantee it will work — this could have saved lives by now.”
Scientists have devised a way to use the antibody-rich blood plasma of COVID-19 survivors for an upper-arm injection that they say could inoculate people against the virus for months.
Using technology that’s been proven effective in preventing other diseases such as hepatitis A, the injections would be administered to high-risk healthcare workers, nursing home patients, or even at public drive-through sites — potentially protecting millions of lives, the doctors and other experts say.
The two scientists who spearheaded the proposal — an 83-year-old shingles researcher and his counterpart, an HIV gene therapy expert — have garnered widespread support from leading blood and immunology specialists, including those at the center of the nation’s COVID-19 plasma research.
But the idea exists only on paper. Federal officials have twice rejected requests to discuss the proposal, and pharmaceutical companies — even acknowledging the likely efficacy of the plan — have declined to design or manufacture the shots, according to a Times investigation. The lack of interest in launching development of immunity shots comes amid heightened scrutiny of the federal government’s sluggish pandemic response...
Advocates for the immunity shots say businesses are reluctant to invest in a product that could soon be replaced by a vaccine, so the government should offer financial incentives to offset that risk. Billions of federal dollars are already being spent on vaccine research through Operation Warp Speed, and funding for an IG shot that could serve as a bridge to a vaccine would come with a relatively modest price tag, they say.
“Antibodies are the most precious resource on the planet right now, next to air. We have the industry, the technology, and the know-how to produce a proven product,” said Patrick Schmidt, the chief executive of FFF Enterprises, a major distributor of IG products in the United States.
“The amount of money and resources going into a vaccine, with no guarantee it will work — this could have saved lives by now.”
More at the link.
Now, in fairness, there's some question about who should be receiving a shot like this, e.g. reserving it for the sickest patients, but this comes off as private companies not wanting to invest in something they think won't give them enough of an financial return, especially as they see a vaccine and IV treatments as more profitable, and the government won't step in to fund it because they're busy pushing bullshit pills that don't do anything to help against COVID and, frankly, too many very rich, powerful people are getting richer and more powerful during all of this.
Second topic is the school I teach at backtracking on our plan to do alternate day scheduling, with half our students in Mondays/Wednesdays, the other half in Tuesdays/Thursdays, and remote learning Fridays. Instead, now it seems like we're just going to come back mostly normal...to a school building that's already too small to comfortably fit the nearly 1,000 teenagers we cram in on a daily basis, as is.
The people in charge say they're following guidelines and reading all kinds of studies, but I'm sorry, our hallways are a crowded mess in between class periods all the goddamned time, having only half the students in at once would do a lot to help alleviate the obvious problems that would come with cramming these kids into crowded halls where masks will only do so much to help them. This has disaster written all over it, and we've got numerous older faculty members who I'm sure are likely to quit if/when the shit hits the fan.
I realize we're in New Jersey, so we've got our problems much more under control than most other states, but all anyone has to do is look at what happened in Israel: they had their curve flattened, opened up their schools, and immediately had outbreaks, half of which were traced directly back to the schools. This is not going to work.
It’s amazing how NY hasn’t relapsed yet. We seem to be doing relatively fine, Have New Yorkers greatly altered their behavior? How was their reopening any different from Florida or Texas? It maybe the virus has run out of places to go, if the British study on immunity lasting a few months is true then NYC would be the proof if it gets a second wave in the fall, it was the one place where antibody tests indicated a significant portion of the population had it at some point (far more so than other hotspots such as Madrid).
Around NYC and North Jersey, at least, the answer's been pretty simple: we haven't reopened indoor seating at restaurants and bars, haven't reopened gyms, have mandated that all restaurants/bars only serve takeout and outdoors, and nobody gets to walk into a place of business without wearing a mask.
It hasn't been perfect, given things like the oncoming spike in cases from people being idiots at our various beaches during July 4th weekend, but by and large "don't open the places most likely to cause widespread infection", "enforce mask wearing/social distancing", "offer testing in as many places as possible", etc. do the trick pretty well. Helps that we also saw a lot of the worst of this early on, and many people took it seriously, plus we've got a little less of the whole "MUH FREEDUMS" culture here and more of a "You're not wearing a mask? Get the @#$% over yourself" attitude.