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Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

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Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#151

Post by draugadrotten »

foldr wrote: post #124
Scaevolus wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Transmission rates vary widely by sex act. 2/3 of transmissions in the US are between homosexual men. It's not homophobia to observe that some populations are at more risk from HIV.

And in Africa most transmissions are between heterosexuals. But you never hear the same rhetoric about irresponsible promiscuous heteros.

It would be inappropriate for anyone outside Africa to say how people in Africa should behave or live.

Your facts may need complementing, as only 30% of transmission in Africa is sexual "between heterosexuals". See https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12665438/

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#152

Post by masklinn »

JordanFarmer wrote: post #120
GreeniFi wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2002, I was back in my hometown after some years away. By then they estimated that HIV infection was running at 1/3 of the population. I had a job that took me most days to the local cemetery, and was harrowed by the next round of graves freshly dug, most three foot long. I imagine you can guess why they were so short. And if that sounds angry, it is anger - still - but not directed at you, OP. I went to the hospi…

Sorry... Trying to understand. Are you saying that all these little kids died of aids? How did they contract it? Most kids are 3 feet tall by age three or four. Also, why so many deaths in 2002? Very effective drugs had been widely available for a long time.

> Most kids are 3 feet tall by age three or four. Also, why so many deaths in 2002? Very effective drugs had been widely available for a long time.

Effective HIV suppression is not cheap, and usually out of reach of developing countries or poor communities such as… pretty much all of sub-saharan africa, where the AIDS pandemic remains essentially unchecked.

According to wikipedia, as of 2016, 8 countries had more than 10% of the population infected and two of them (Swaziland / Eswatini and Lesotho) were above 25%: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_in_Africa#/media/File...

Given mother-to-child transmission is somewhere between 15 and 45% without mitigation measures (which are unlikely to be in place in a country where a quarter of the population is infected), we're talking 5~10% of children born infected.

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#153

Post by qubex »

detritus wrote: post #147
sandebert wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a sad way to ruin the song "Oh Superman" by Laurie Anderson.

It's one of my all-time favourite songs, since I was a kid. Italian partner looked at me oddly first time I played it at home, as her memory of it was all bundled up in grim negativity. It's not a song that gets played much at home, when she's about :(

Yeah, it’s really ingrained in us. It’s shorthand for existential dread.

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#154

Post by foldr »

draugadrotten wrote: post #151
foldr wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in Africa most transmissions are between heterosexuals. But you never hear the same rhetoric about irresponsible promiscuous heteros.

It would be inappropriate for anyone outside Africa to say how people in Africa should behave or live. Your facts may need complementing, as only 30% of transmission in Africa is sexual "between heterosexuals". See https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12665438/

I am talking about sexual transmission, not transmission in general. The study you link to does not suggest that gay sex is responsible for the majority of instances of sexual HIV transmission in Africa.

>It would be inappropriate for anyone outside Africa to say how people in Africa should behave or live.

Here's a thought: it also might not be appropriate for straight people to tell gay people how to live.

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#155

Post by fhars »

acqq wrote: post #133
prox wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting you mention this, in the WP series Operation Infektion, one of the disinformation campaigns by the Soviet Union is placing an article in a small newspaper in India, wherein the claim is made HIV was made in a lab in the US.

I was referring to the same claims spread in the West, e.g.: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/03/16/historys-greates... "Based on the theories of Dr William Campbell Douglass, many believe that that HIV was genetically engineered" "William Campbell Douglass, M.D. Education: BS, University of Rochester, New York; MD, University of Miami School of Medicine; Graduate, U.S. Navy School of Aviation and Space Medicine…

I love the (probably unintended, but still funny) insinuation in 'to much fans' that those fans are an amorphous mass and not countable individuals...

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#156

Post by JoeAltmaier »

perl4ever wrote: post #61
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Understood. But Covid is of course a different disease, and different in many ways. No consent is required to obtain it from another person. No time spent in private naked. Just be near someone in line at the bus stop and a sneeze. So there's that.

I did not know that getting HIV required consent, or being naked.

But you get the idea. You could opt out. People did. And it didn't take totally isolating yourself in a clean room.

Unless you mean rape or something. But that's a violent crime, and a tiny, tiny fraction of the public health issue that is an infectious disease.

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#157

Post by pmachinery »

interestica wrote: post #16

"When AIDS was funny" https://youtu.be/yAzDn7tE1lU It shows the challenges of the press to have serious conversations about the disease with the Reagan administration.

The press in those clips seem to be pathetically lapping up Speakes' cuntery, though, and somehow manage to come across even worse than him.

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#158

Post by joyj2nd »

TLDR: The "news" is not the age of the samples, there are older ones, but that the virus genome is still intact and allows for a more accurate estimation of mutation rates and origins of HIV.

"There are older fragments of HIV out there, one from 1959 and one from 1960, also from DRC. But those pieces aren't as complete, and thus can't offer as much information about the virus' mutations. "

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#159

Post by simias »

acqq wrote: post #119
ImaCake wrote: post #110

People might be interested in why this useful. Much like with Covid today, scientists are interested in understanding when the disease first appeared. Because that gives us clues about where it came from and how quickly it is changing now. You can estimate this based on changes in the sequence of the genome. Changes (mutations) will appear in the genome at a predictable rate ("mutation rate"), and is measured as muta…

It's also relevant to demonstrate now that this virus too hasn't been made in the lab. The "lab origin" is a claim that some like to spread on every outbreak, even in spite of the fact that virologists know that nature produces the viruses very easily and there are no facts supporting anything else this time too. From the abstract: "Our phylogenetic analyses date the origin of the pandemic lineage of HIV-1 to a time…

It's pointless to try to prove anything to conspiracionists, they'll just tweak their stories and continue as if nothing happened. Anything that goes against their narrative is ignored and quickly forgotten, anything that appears to remotely vaguely confirm their beliefs is amplified and repeated ad nauseam.

Don't waste your time with them. You cannot reason people out of something they were not reasoned into.

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#160

Post by emiliobumachar »

simias wrote: post #159
acqq wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also relevant to demonstrate now that this virus too hasn't been made in the lab. The "lab origin" is a claim that some like to spread on every outbreak, even in spite of the fact that virologists know that nature produces the viruses very easily and there are no facts supporting anything else this time too. From the abstract: "Our phylogenetic analyses date the origin of the pandemic lineage of HIV-1 to a time…

It's pointless to try to prove anything to conspiracionists, they'll just tweak their stories and continue as if nothing happened. Anything that goes against their narrative is ignored and quickly forgotten, anything that appears to remotely vaguely confirm their beliefs is amplified and repeated ad nauseam. Don't waste your time with them. You cannot reason people out of something they were not reasoned into.

Every conspiracionist beyond hope was once not quite beyond hope if you go back enough in time, and new ones are getting minted all the time and can still be saved. It's a worthy fight, even though it cannot be thoroughly won.
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