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Scientists discover receptor that blocks Covid-19 infection

sydney.edu.au

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Re: Scientists discover receptor that blocks Covid-19 infection

#61

Post by gadders »

throwawaaarrgh wrote: post #38
AgentOrange1234 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Disclaimer: covid averse, lost family member, upset with society for “being done.”) I’m not sure what to think about this. A year+ ago, I would have worried that folks would treat a low-risk evaluation as a permission slip to say “the pandemic is over for me,” stop masking/etc, and thus increase the aggregate spread of the virus to folks who are high risk. But now everyone is already doing that anyway. So yeah, it w…

Sometimes I think I'm the only low risk person left on the planet wearing a mask and vaccinating. Then I see old folks or one 30y/o woman in the supermarket wearing a mask, and I remember that this protects them too. There's even some performers asking fans to mask up so high risk people can come to their shows. Gives me a tiny glimmer of hope for humanity.

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Re: Scientists discover receptor that blocks Covid-19 infection

#62

Post by gadders »

PM_me_your_math wrote: post #44
binarymax wrote: post #20

To me the more interesting aspect of this research is the possibility to test susceptibility to severe infection. If you know ahead of time you are high risk, then the treatment and behavior is different than someone who knows they are low risk. Right now we treat everything the same - recommend everyone is vaccinated and everyone wear masks during outbreaks. I’d really like to know how at risk I am, and act accordin…

Comorbidities have always been indicators of risk. You're more likely high risk if you already have health issues, are morbidly obese, or over the age of 70.

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Re: Scientists discover receptor that blocks Covid-19 infection

#63

Post by qup »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #54
anonymouskimmer wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're still touching things, then touching your face. > Your eyes are exposed to the air. I'm not the person you're responding to. Just what I do. The mask covers the mucus membranes, except around the eyes. And I've got glasses with side-shields for the eyes. And an ASTM-III mask over the N95 mask so that I can touch and manipulate the masks without touching the breathing surface of the N95. > You're still breath…

I wear an N95 when I go out but only my regular glasses. I too haven't been sick since January 2020. I used to get colds pretty much quarterly, and so it's absolutely worth it to me. If it bothers someone else to see me wearing one that's their problem, I'm not asking them to wear one.

Has it bothered anyone?

Re: Scientists discover receptor that blocks Covid-19 infection

#64

Post by knewter »

aflag wrote: post #19
sokoloff wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isolating and denying effective schooling to every kid who comes down with a one-day mild illness for ten days does not seem like a risk-proportionate response to me.

Why not? I don't think skipping one week and a half of school when you're 8 will have any real effect in your life neither in the short or long term future. Meanwhile, if they get in contact with someone with some sort of immunodeficiency along the way it could cause irreparable damage.

Should they still punish parents for truancy?

Re: Scientists discover receptor that blocks Covid-19 infection

#65

Post by anonymouskimmer »

PartiallyTyped wrote: post #14

Very interesting, according to the authors it’s “like velcro”. > [Covid] primarily uses a protein called the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor to enter human cells. Lung cells have high levels of ACE2 receptors, which is why the COVID-19 virus often causes severe problems in this organ of infected people. > Like ACE2, LRRC15 is a receptor for coronavirus, meaning the virus can bind to it. But unlike ACE…

> With mRNA vaccines we get the cells to produce the protein. Does this imply that synthesis of the spike protein is difficult, or is it that administration is?

It's that the mechanism of production of spike (inside infected cells) parallels the mechanism of production of spike protein in a natural infection. This stimulates the immune response against spike without need for additional adjuvants.

> This then begs the question, could mRNA injections be used in place of traditional medication?

Not my specialty, but as you say targeting may be difficult. There are various lipid carriers that I believe can target certain cell types or tissues, but I don't know how well these work, and of course actually distributing them so that they will reach lung tissue is also a matter. And then how well would they work in already infected lung tissue versus just spraying the lungs with the protein?

Re: Scientists discover receptor that blocks Covid-19 infection

#66

Post by maxerickson »

gadders wrote: post #61
throwawaaarrgh wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes I think I'm the only low risk person left on the planet wearing a mask and vaccinating. Then I see old folks or one 30y/o woman in the supermarket wearing a mask, and I remember that this protects them too. There's even some performers asking fans to mask up so high risk people can come to their shows. Gives me a tiny glimmer of hope for humanity.

[flagged]

On the other hand, the authors there start their conclusion off with The high risk of bias in the trials, variation in outcome measurement, and relatively low adherence with the interventions during the studies hampers drawing firm conclusions.

But it's a short discussion, people can go read it for themselves.

Re: Scientists discover receptor that blocks Covid-19 infection

#67

Post by knewter »

aflag wrote: post #34
sokoloff wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think kids are likely to catch asymptomatic or extremely mild Covid annually. That’ll potentially be 4-5% of their educational time. Kids of wealthy families with parents with flexible jobs will be fine. Not every kid is in a home situation like that.

Assuming a 180 day school year (which would actually mean a 10 day period would be closer to 3-4% not 4-5%), that means that half of the year they are not in school anyway. So they have a good chance of catching it outside of school days anyway even if they catch it annually. Besides that, if that's that's a huge and consistent problem, school could just reduce the number of holidays by a week or so. The variance of…

You cannot believe that <3 mo of summer accounts for half of the calendar year, and I know you know that 10d isolation runs past the weekend

Re: Scientists discover receptor that blocks Covid-19 infection

#68

Post by superkuh »

Twirrim wrote: post #43
Sakos wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised we haven't gotten an intranasal vaccine before now. We've been talking about the issues with intramuscular vaccines in regards to mucosal immunity since the very beginning.

There's been a few attempts, but they haven't proven to be effective, e.g. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41591-022-00106-z

There have been many attempts. And many of them have proven successful at the ~42 person trial level that failed in this particular study with a common adenovirus as the DNA delivery agent. The one I linked did work in large scale clinical trials which is why it is now being given to the public.

Plus intranasal influenza a vaccines have been around since the 1960s. I alternate getting intramuscular and intranasal influenza vaccines for best protection of myself and others.

I'm very hopeful for this full scale intranasal roll out of a proven intranasal vaccine for sars-cov-2. I am seriously considering a trip to India to get it as a booster to my 4x mRNA intramusculars from Moderna and BioNTech(Pfizer). I just wish they'd use nebulizers instead of a simple spray. Simple sprays work for the fluid dynamics scales involved in small animal models but as large humans we need nebulizers to get the most complete upper respiratory protection.

Re: Scientists discover receptor that blocks Covid-19 infection

#70

Post by jasonhansel »

gadders wrote: post #62
PM_me_your_math wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comorbidities have always been indicators of risk. You're more likely high risk if you already have health issues, are morbidly obese, or over the age of 70.

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When people complain about prejudice against fat people, this is what they mean.

I fail to understand why someone's size would make their advice less credible, particularly on topics other than weight loss. If anything, being at higher risk would dispose them to take the virus more seriously.

After all, "trying to eat healthy" is rarely successful. The vast majority of dieters do not succeed in achieving long-term weight loss.

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