Manic of a panic is geopolitical

[Dr Sardonicus]

NU scientists launch COVID-19 antibody study in Cook County

Zoe Malin, Reporter
October 1, 2020

Anthropology Prof. Thomas McDade, director of the Laboratory for Human Biology Research, is no stranger to antibody testing.

His lab routinely develops antibody tests and has used dried blood spot samples — a method of collecting blood through a finger prick — for over 15 years. In April, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the country, McDade realized the work he was doing in his lab could be applied to the challenges the medical community was facing with coronavirus antibody testing.

"Some early antibody tests were inaccurate and had high rates of false positives, and for others to be done, people had to come into hospitals, which were overwhelmed," McDade said. "Dried blood spot methods could solve both of these problems."

While he created a new antibody test for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, his colleagues at the Feinberg School of Medicine were also developing one using serum, or blood plasma samples. They decided to collaborate and founded Screening for Coronavirus Antibodies in Neighborhoods (SCAN), launching the study in mid-June.

"We found that the results from serum perfectly mirrored those from the blood spots," said Feinberg Prof. Alexis Demonbreun in a news release.

McDade, the principal investigator of SCAN, said the study's purpose is to analyze who is exposed to COVID-19, what predicts transmission and why. SCAN also seeks to address why there are inequities in Chicago around who is getting sick, having the most serious COVID cases and dying, McDade said.

Researchers surprised: 20% of Chicagoans in blood-test study came up positive for coronavirus antibodies

By HAL DARDICK
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
OCT 09, 2020

Nearly 1 in 5 Chicago residents who sent blood-spot samples to Northwestern University researchers tested positive for antibodies to the coronavirus that causes COVID-1
<snip>
The latest project, called Screening for Coronavirus Antibodies in Neighborhoods, or SCAN, is examining infection rates in five pairs of adjoining Chicago ZIP codes where rates of previously reported COVID-19 cases differed widely. Though the research is continuing, McNally said enough testing has been done to draw some initial conclusions.
9, according to preliminary results of an ongoing study.
<snip>
It is thought that antibodies likely offer protection against reinfection, but many questions remain unanswered. Those include what level of antibodies are necessary and how long they last in people's bodies.

"The most concerning thing" discovered so far, McNally said, is the number of folks tested who turned out to have had a prior infection but were unaware of that fact.

"They could be spreading it and not know they have it," she said. "It shows how clever the virus is. And yet the solution that helps a whole lot is really quite easy: It's called wearing a mask."

[kriesel]

Thousands of Wisconsin hospital beds immediately available, for the moment.
Curve flattened, for SE region. All 7 Wisconsin regions have been ramping up in the past month.
https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/covid-...m#capabilities

[tServo]

I just saw an interesting video on the Weather Channel, of all places, about the desolation of the cruise industry. Apparently shipyards have an extremely large number of these behemoth ocean cruise ships waiting to be broken down for salvage. Carnival alone has scrapped 29 of them ! They can cost up to 1,000,000,000 US dollars to build and are being sold as scrap for only 4 million US dollars !

[Nick]

Originally Posted by tServo

Apparently shipyards have an extremely large number of these behemoth ocean cruise ships waiting to be broken down for salvage.

We had several anchored off the coast here, visible from the shore by Noordwijk.
They are now moving to Southampton for better shelter from coming storms.

[Dr Sardonicus]

The Great Barrington Declaration

<snip>
As immunity builds in the population, the risk of infection to all – including the vulnerable – falls. We know that all populations will eventually reach herd immunity – i.e. the point at which the rate of new infections is stable – and that this can be assisted by (but is not dependent upon) a vaccine. Our goal should therefore be to minimize mortality and social harm until we reach herd immunity.

The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk. We call this Focused Protection.
<snip>

[retina]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

The Great Barrington Declaration

Sounds reasonable. But do we know who are most at-risk?

Also I'm sure that that would never be misused to "accidentally" declare some annoying group of people as at-risk and lock them up; purely for their own protection of course.

[a1call]

The most at risk are cared for and live among the rest of the people. They don't leave on another planet.

[Uncwilly]

[retina]

Originally Posted by a1call

The most at risk are cared for and live among the rest of the people. They don't leave on another planet.

That's why you lock them up and pass the food through a slot. It's for their protection so they shouldn't have any reason to complain.

The age-old cry of every oppressor "It's for your protection".

[a1call]

Originally Posted by retina

That's why you lock them up and pass the food through a slot. It's for their protection so they shouldn't have any reason to complain.

The age-old cry of every oppressor "It's for your protection".

Yes, we have been doing just that for months now. It is quite obvious that all the measures at isolating and protecting the elderly has been very effectively paying off. The Death rate ratios of the over-29-years old's has never surpassed 630 times that of the 29 years and younger.

But hey tomorrow is another day.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...th-by-age.html

[retina]

Originally Posted by a1call

Yes, we have been doing just that for months now. It is quite obvious that all the measures at isolating and protecting the elderly has been very effectively paying off. The Death rate ratios of the over-29-years old's has never surpassed 630 times that of the 29 years and younger.

But hey tomorrow is another day.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...th-by-age.html

Right. The 5-17 years old group are clearly the not-at-risk people, so they can do whatever they want. But everyone else is at-risk, so let's lock all of them up. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Please give me a few hours to hack update my birth records and then we can implement this new "for your safety" rule.