Community Chat

[noodleann]

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@bonnie f wrote:

i think this is going to be just like the flu. only more deadly.. the vaccine wont cover all the strains like the flu... and people will still be getting sick and spreading it.. i heard a month or 2 ago this will never go away.......... and it wont!!............

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The influenza vaccine only covers all strains in a season if the people who decided on the strains to include in the vaccine were very lucky. 

Here is a description of the selection process made every year when concocting the influenza vaccine.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/vaccine-selection.htm

[hckynut]

@occasionalrain 

I heard a Pulmonologist upfront doctor address this this morning. She said that both vaccines will be effective of this, and likely, most strains of the virus.

hckynut 

[pitdakota]

@occasionalrain  I checked in on a website I used for students that did a good job of discussing mutations in viruses and was delighted to find that they had updated their discussion with an article pertaining to SARS-CoV-2.

I will provide a direct link to that page since it talks about mutations in viruses and how they occur.  

It does a pretty good job on introducing the topic of how viruses have either compenets of RNA or DNA and how a virus has trouble when replicating basically because they don't have the genetic components of other complex genetic structures.  Thus "coding errors" occur frequently as the virus replicates.  The article introduces the concept of codons.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid19-mutations-strains-variants 

For those that might also be interested in reading but don't want to click on the link, the website is Science News, title of the article is:  Is the coronavirus mutating?  Yes.  But here is why you don't need to panic. Author of the article is Erin Garcia de Jesus.

The information might be helpful in understanding that mutations of viruses are very common and helps to provide information so that hopefully that one can appreciate that even with multiple mutations that doesn't mean there is a new strain of the virus, just that mutations have taken place.  That gets a little complex, but in general people talk about strains of influenza for example without understanding that just because a particular strain of influenza mutates, that doesn't mean it is a new strain.

I will add that I listened in on a discussion of virologists earlier this year.  They had an interesting discussion that while we know viruses mutate and they mutate frequently,  we don't really have a lot of experience in following such exponential numbers of cases, so that theoretically it does make it easier for the virus to mutate in a way that it does cause a major difference in severity.  

A basic principle in virology has alway been the more a virus is successful at finding a host to replicate, the more mutations will occur.  A does directly lead to B.  So now that we are in the middle of a global pandemic with hundreds of millions of cases we have the opportunity to really follow the virus and chart the mutations which is something they did not have the knowledge or technology back in 1918 to do.

That is one reason the goal is to tap down on viral transmission with any outbreak of a viral disease.  While viruses will mutate frequently and the vast majority of those small mutations make no overall difference in dealing with the virus, one never really knows when it will jump shark and have a mutation that does cause a signficant change.  And the more the virus replicates, the greater that chance might be. 

I think one has to appreciate that something so small it is invisible has such tenacity to seek hosts and replicate.  That is the sole job of a virus. And some viruses are much more capable of finding acceptable hosts.  SARS-CoV-2 certainly has accomplished that job well.  

[occasionalrain]

@pitdakota Thank you for the update. For now the vaccine is effective but the numbers of positives keep going up.

Early on, my county had positives below 100 and only a couple of deaths. Now the positives are closing in on 3000 with nearly 70 deaths.

[pitdakota]

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@occasionalrain wrote:

@pitdakota Thank you for the update. For now the vaccine is effective but the numbers of positives keep going up.

Early on, my county had positives below 100 and only a couple of deaths. Now the positives are closing in on 3000 with nearly 70 deaths.

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I understand @occasionalrain.   

Almost every state had a pretty high level of community transmission during the summer and as we moved into fall, exactly what they thought would happen, happened.  It is just darn hard to tamp down on viral transmission when the baseline rate in the community is already pretty high.  

I think they are watching this new strain fairly closely and in all honesty, it is probably already here in the states.  It will be one of those watch and see events.  In the meantime, hang in there! 

[stuyvesant]

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@pitdakota wrote:

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@occasionalrain wrote:

@pitdakota Thank you for the update. For now the vaccine is effective but the numbers of positives keep going up.

Early on, my county had positives below 100 and only a couple of deaths. Now the positives are closing in on 3000 with nearly 70 deaths.

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I understand @occasionalrain.   

Almost every state had a pretty high level of community transmission during the summer and as we moved into fall, exactly what they thought would happen, happened.  It is just darn hard to tamp down on viral transmission when the baseline rate in the community is already pretty high.  

I think they are watching this new strain fairly closely and in all honesty, it is probably already here in the states.  It will be one of those watch and see events.  In the meantime, hang in there! 

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Here we go again.  A pandemic where nobody has any knowledge or experience about how the virus is going to behave watching and seeing.  Or at least in the absence of any expertise offering us action verbs.

Governor Cuomo worked out a deal with the air carriers that the passengers willl be tested.  It's not much, but it's something.  Most UK travel comes through the East Coast.

Since the US is Covid Central in the world, I believe we should be supportive and provide a comfortable quarantine period for our courageous traveller guests.

[occasionalrain]

We have more than enough original  Covid, we don't  need new and improved strains coming from the UK. It's discouraging that flights from Britain haven't  been banned.

There is nothing courageous about those traveling. They are irresponsible, thoughtless, and selfish.

[stuyvesant]

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@occasionalrain wrote:

We have more than enough original  Covid, we don't  need new and improved strains coming from the UK. It's discouraging that flights from Britain haven't  been banned.

There is nothing courageous about those traveling. They are irresponsible, thoughtless, and selfish.

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We're monitoring the situation, @occasionalrain 

LOVE your use of irresponsible, thoughtless, and selfish.

You must be a fury when it comes to our fellow citizens

[Mom2Dogs]

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@occasionalrain wrote:

Nothing has been written as to whether the vaccine will be effective against this new UK Covid strain. All I've  read is that it spreading faster.

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...The news I listen to had  several doctors on....mutations are nothing new and yes the vaccine will be effective.

edited for typo

[songbird]

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@bonnie f wrote:

i think this is going to be just like the flu. only more deadly.. the vaccine wont cover all the strains like the flu... and people will still be getting sick and spreading it.. i heard a month or 2 ago this will never go away.......... and it wont!!............

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We've lived generations to a wide variety of flu.  Actuaries figure out which strain will be prevalent to use vaccines.  It'll be same with the SARS  type since they mutate.