So we need a DIY genome sequence kit. Where can I find a practical guide? What do I need?
No we just need the samples and use the instruments we already have. Sequencing the viruses genome is not a complex problem technically.
A (possible) solution to Covid-19
491–500 of 585 posts
Re: A (possible) solution to Covid-19
#492This will happen naturally. No need for intervention. The longer it goes the better.
This is true, but it might take a few hundred years. I think it would be better if we try and help the process along.
Re: A (possible) solution to Covid-19
#493I sent this article to a vaccine researcher I know, here are his comments (I have his permission to share this): TLDR the virus mutates too quickly for this to be safe. " There are many ways to make vaccines, and the oldest one is to take the wild-type pathogen, and either ‘break’ it (‘attenuate it’), or find an example in nature that’s messed up and can’t cause disease. The initial smallpox vaccine was cowpox: Close…
Can you ask this person to write to me directly as I think they have missed what is novel about my proposal and have instead focused on what is not.
Re: A (possible) solution to Covid-19
#494Earlier quoted context omitted.
A pox party would work. Given the strain will be infectious like the dangerous strains it is not going to be too hard to spread it around. You can look at it from the other perspective - once identified it would be impossible to stop people spreading it around on their own. Let’s say one of you friends got infected with this “safe” strain you would quickly head over to their home for a cup of tea and a good chat.
Much like the dangerous virus can mutate to a less harmful version of itself, isn't there a risk that the benign version could mutate back to a (more) dangerous form if spread this way?
Not if you select a strain with the right mutation.
Re: A (possible) solution to Covid-19
#495Earlier quoted context omitted.
Safety data can be gained from epidemiology studies. There is more than one way to work out if a treatment is safe and effective.
Epidemiological studies are much poorer than clinical trials. I’d rather have low-N but well controlled clinical trials than nebulous epidemiological studies.
Of course, but in this pandemic we shouldn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Waiting for the perfect vaccine to be developed will have a very high cost. There are no easy options here.
Re: A (possible) solution to Covid-19
#496How would you allow the harmless strain to spread without also spreading the deadly strain? If you relax or reverse social distancing, wouldn't the deadly strain also have a chance to spread widely again? It seems like you'd need to manually administer this strain to millions of people, or have very carefully administered 'contagion parties' where everyone is pre-screened for the deadly strain, while everyone else ke…
> It seems like you'd need to manually administer this strain to millions of people. Yes, but this doesn't seem too hard. Just have some infected people spit in a cup, and mix it into large vats of raspberry jam and people can then just spread it on their toast on one morning.
> Currently, there is no evidence to support transmission of COVID-19 by food.
https://www.fda.gov/food/food-safety-during-emergencies/food...
Re: A (possible) solution to Covid-19
#497Earlier quoted context omitted.
No idea why nobody is acting on it - maybe nobody else has thought of it yet. While the idea of there being attenuated strains out there is nothing radical, the idea of using them is. Please everyone if you know someone you think might be able to help make this happen then spread the word. You are even welcome to steal the idea and claim it is your own :)
Have you considered sending this as a letter to a medical journal? I know it's not a "scientific article" per se, but many journals have a section dedicated to letters. For example, CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) considers such letters, and right now they're fast-tracking anything COVID-related: https://www.cmaj.ca/ Best of luck!
Yes I have, but the people I am trying to reach are not medical researchers, but people able to think outside the box.
Re: A (possible) solution to Covid-19
#498I'm late to the comment party but I wanted to say our hope might just be better treatment (and not a vaccine). Covid-19 doesn't have to fatal as long as hospitals _don't_ use their standard protocol. Here's what I mean: https://www.evms.edu/media/evms_public/departments/internal_...
There is a large percentage of the world’s population that can’t access any hospital, let alone get treatment.
Re: A (possible) solution to Covid-19
#499Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can’t believe you think I am arguing for the “two strain” theory. My proposal has absolutely zero to do with two strains.
"As of 2nd March 2020, there are 111 nonsynonymous mutations that have been identified in the outbreak, these have been catalogued here in the CoV-GLUE resource 504 and can be visualised in Figure 1. At current, there is no evidence that any of these 111 mutations have any significance in a functional context of within-host infections or transmission rates." The proposal requires identifying new strains among symptom…
Of course there may not be a strain with the right mutations out there, but should this be a reason for not looking. Nobody has been systematically looking for less dangerous strains (that I know of). My proposal is we look given it will be quick and cheap.
Re: A (possible) solution to Covid-19
#500Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In my opinion, this is a decision that allows for a far wider range of character development. This may be the core disagreement, I (and I'm guessing GP) don't like this decision. Star Trek was an unique word in sci-fi (at least on-screen sci-fi) because of that bright idealism, that utopia. "An imperfect Starfleet can employ a monstrous starship captain that murders to keep its secrets"[0], and done regularly, this…
Bingo! Take away Roddenberry's vision of a better future and you've got Babylon 5, eh? Like I mentioned in a sib comment, it turns out that this was a tension going right back to the original series. It's hard to write! (You like the Klingons? To me they seemed derivative of (LotR) Orcs but I haven't spent time to really know.) > I miss that, because (with the possible exception of the Orville) there's nothing like t…
> Take away Roddenberry's vision of a better future and you've got Babylon 5, eh?
I'd wish! I find B5 to be great in a different way than Star Trek. It has one of the deepest and most interesting stories I've ever seen explored in sci-fi on the screen. I wish there was another show like this. Alas, it seems that if you take away a vision for a better future, the shows you get today are cookie-cutter action flicks. They're sometimes fun to watch, but I don't feel enriched in a way I felt after Star Trek or B5.
> (You like the Klingons? To me they seemed derivative of (LotR) Orcs but I haven't spent time to really know.)
Not initially, and not from the looks - though the series did manage to (spoiler alert) turn them into what you'd expect to see in TNG in the latter seasons.
What I liked about the Klingons in DIS is that they didn't feel like space brutes who value violence and hate the Federation for no reasons. In DIS, they had a good reason, that resonates with people today - cultural imperialism. They went to war with the Federation because they felt it's the only way to protect their cultural identity, as they perceived UFP to be a civilization that conquers in times of peace, through slowly infusing everyone with their views and values. The DIS Klingons have seen that as a threat to the survival of their species' identity. And put that way, it's a very believable as a justification for conflict.
> And don't get me started on the blurring of the "sci-fi" genre. (...)
In complete agreement (though I liked Iron Man 1; it was more serious than other MCU movies, and also scratched my tech porn itch). My additional complaint is the pressure put on inter-character drama and general "character development". As I often repeat, if I wanted to watch the deep emotional struggles of people and their relationships, I'd pick literally any other literal/movie genre. Sci-fi (and to some extent fantasy) is unique, because it can get away with extensive world building and exploring ideas that are hard to explore otherwise. It serves as a real-life holodeck simulation. And I'd prefer my sci-fi to focus on that.