All the fires have been extinguished due to a mix of firefighters and it fortunately raining today, hope it stays like this. Too bad that this wiped out a lot of historical sights and nature, also radiation is currently 16x higher than normal for the area. In general, the vast majority of the leaked radioactive has either decomposed or sipped far beneath the ground, so an outright fire wouldn't completely devastate things on a radioactive level. The fire fortunately stopped ~2km shy of the waste dump where the residues from the cleanup operations are stored, this could've been a bit more messy.
Nurses across the nation are being furloughed due to low "census" at their hospitals. I hope things return to normal so these folks can go back to work.
There is bad news out of Asia this morning. The PRC saw 108 new cases. Both Singapore and Hong Kong are seeing many new cases. Most troubling of all is in South Korea they are seeing a rise of reinfections from people who had previously recovered. https://www.newsweek.com/south-kore...tients-who-were-initially-cured-virus-1497526 SOUTH KOREA SEES RISE IN 'REACTIVATED' CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS WHO WERE INITIALLY CURED OF VIRUS BY JASON LEMON ON 4/13/20 AT 9:07 AM EDT South Korea has seen a rise in the number of people who recovered from the coronavirus and have now again tested positive, drawing concern and confusion as the country looks toward easing social distancing guidelines. On Monday, the East Asian nation reported 116 confirmed cases of people who had been cleared of the virus now once again testing positive, Reuters reported. But health experts have suggested that it is likely the coronavirus was "reactivated" in the people, not that they have caught the virus again. Jeong Eun-Kyeong, the director of Korea's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, has said that the precise reason why the individuals are again positive for the virus is under investigation. In addition to the possibility of reactivation, other experts have suggested testing may have been inaccurate when the infected people initially tested negative. "A study into how immunity is developed after COVID-19 infection [the disease caused by the coronavirus] is still ongoing," Jeong said during a press briefing on Friday, according to The Korea Herald. More at link.
Spoke to a friend in China this morning and she tells me they are taking the temperature of students that are back in school 6 times a day.
Watch your credit card accounts. We had 2 hacked in the last 2 weeks. First thief racked up almost 2k in uber eats charges.
NPR is reporting the Theodore Roosevelt sailor who died had no symptoms. Was in isolation being checked on twice a day, then he was just unresponsive at one of the daily check-ups. wtf?
You never know with 40k people running around in here. This is the second time today I’ve heard of someone dying with no symptoms.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fped.2020.00206/full I found this article one of the most informative. It offers a theory on why women, pregnant women , children, and different races are less hit by the disease, while overweight/obese and hypertensives are more hit. And a briliant idea on how to pre determine the severity of the disease in any person with a simlple ELISA test!. And maybe even a possible treatment. ACE2 is the main host receptor cell in all coronaviruses. It is the key that the virus looks for to lock in. ACE2 expression determines the susceptibillity to Covid19. It is what we call "genetic factors", why some families are completely wiped off while others don't even feel it. But in studies - in vivo- it is shown that instead of higher ACE2 => more severe disease, it is actually higher ACE2=> LESS severe disease. Why is that? It suggests the reason is there are two forms of ACE2. One that is in the cells and one that changes form and is solluble in the blood serum Whoever has more of this in their serum, is less susceptible even to the flu. But what determines if you have more serum ACE2 is largely your genes. (67%) And it changes along ethnic and racial lines. (CC and CT genotype=> more ACE2 serum, TT genotype => less ACE2 serum) Asian males in previous studies are found to have higher expression of tissue ACE2. Higher BMI, hypertension and estrogens also determine the activity of this ACE2 serum. ACE levels in children (6 months to 17 years of age) are 13–100 U/l compared with 9–67 U/l in adults, which explains why they have mild symptoms. So they suggest that people should get an ELISA test for their ACE2 serum as a prognostic tool for Covid19. If you have a high ACE2 serum you will get it very midly, but if low, then you should take more precautions and if you get infected perhaps get treatment sooner before your symptoms get worse. There is a new trial starting giving rhACE2 to patients as a treatment.
Sobering chart Italy has flattened the curve for about a month, all the while the country has been locked down.
Well I don't think so. Since 67% is determined by your genes. But you can raise the activity of your ACE2 serum by losing weight. At least this is what the study so far seems to show. But look they will do clinical trials on actually injecting people with rhACE2. It has shown excellent results in mice. And separately from this article I have seen another hospital in teh US who actually gave to the patients ACE2 and they got better - instead of worse. Because if you remember until recently scientists thought that the ace2 medication for blood pressure and diabetes made people more susceptible ot the disease , but it seems to have the opposite effect. Imo it is very easy to determine if ACE2 serum is a good prognostic tool for the severity of Covid19. All you have to do is do the test on people of different ages who recovered with no or mild symptoms and see if their blood ACE2 is higher than the ones who got severe symptoms. And if it is indeed true, then any of us will be able to find out if we can actually go back to work because even if we get the virus it will just be a mild flu, and we can happily go seek herd immunity. - provided that we aren't immunocompromised (HIV, cancer patients etc). I wonder how this affects people with hypotension. I am very hypotensive- my normal is less than 90, and it runs in my family. Am I more susceptible to Covid19?
Two pharma giants joining forces in COVID-19 vaccine research. It's more interesting than any "breaking news" since this isn't common : https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/media/pre...nted-vaccine-collaboration-to-fight-covid-19/
