Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

brusselstimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 296 posts

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#201

Post by desine »

dnautics wrote: post #197
desine wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They very much are interesting, and that's a pretty wild story. There are people a lot smarter than me, doctors in the field, that think we have some of our fundamental understanding of viruses wrong. I haven't read enough to take a stance that 100+ years of research is incorrect, but I do love hearing alternative hypotheses on a variety of topics. I don't think there's any harm in hearing what others have to say, at…

What aspect, specifically, is suspected to be wrong? The scientific understanding of viruses might be further along than most doctors suspect. There are concepts like pangenome that are becoming appreciated at the research level that might not have gotten to doctors yet.

This is completely off topic, and I apologize, but I clicked your profile.

First off, I am impressed by your credentials, very nice work, you should be proud.

But this segment in your about: box is oddly hilarious to me. Maybe I've just had too much champagne. Happy New Year, from a West Coaster posting at 12:05 AM.

>yt code channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlistlist=PLf5mA1y1vDNlydJ8d5CmSt...

>[censored by desine] dot [also censored] at the only useful google service

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#202

Post by chana_masala »

ssl232 wrote: post #74
KennyBlanken wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nose swabs reveal whether you're shedding the particles and thus infectious. It doesn't matter if you're infected if you're not shedding the virus. They are also exceptionally reliable. The home test kit I used had a sub-1% false negative rate.

> Nose swabs reveal whether you're shedding the particles and thus infectious. On the "shedding" point, not necessarily. The virus can be present in but contained by the immune response from the mucosae of the upper respiratory tract in such a way that it is unable to spread into the lungs and cause COVID-19, yet not shed in large enough quantities to infect others. Given time, a healthy immune system will deal with…

> Given time, a healthy immune system will deal with the virus in the nose and throat, often without the host even noticing.

Ah ok, so that might explain why there's a significant number of people who say that they had covid without difficulty, at least of they didn't test false positive.

Thanks for explaining the nuance - I've heard a lot of this before but it's refreshing how succinctly you captured it.

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#203

Post by chana_masala »

qbasic_forever wrote: post #29
NoblePublius wrote: post #5

Interesting headline choice leading to the sentence “No severe symptoms have been reported as of yet.”

The point of the article is that Antarctica's research stations--some of the most remote and isolated places on the planet --are now suffering COVID-19 outbreaks. This isn't some article trying to massage public opinion or make people feel better about ignoring the pandemic. It's an interesting look at how even places that think they are doing everything correctly to avoid infection are... not avoiding infection.

> suffering COVID-19 outbreaks.

The word choice foe describing covid over these years (!) is quite exaggerated.

If you read the article, where is the suffering?

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#204

Post by TheGigaChad »

ryandrake wrote: post #87
bmeski wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No mandates. No vaccine passbooks or apps. Return jobs to employees lost because of vaccine compliance/rebuild small businesses (If this is somehow possible but the damage is already done). No mask requirements. Covid-19 Vaccines are available and treated in the same way as flu vaccines once FDA approved. Yknow, normal.

Quoted post unavailable.

No post body was provided.

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#205

Post by avereveard »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #62
freetinker wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not so sure; respectfully disagree. This only talks about process stricture, not efficacy or process compliance/lapse. Plausible hypothesis, but needs more data.

Yep. Likely self-supervised isolation/quarantine and someone broke the rules. That said, omicron is apparently insanely infectious, so it could have been something as simple as a member of the ground crew being inside the plane for a bit to stock or check something.

Or some asymptomatic carrier administering a set of the test, or some of the cleaning staff coughing in the room before the tests.

That they focused on the person action (quarantines, tests) and not the environment (transfer shuttles, testing rooms, bathrooms and dressing rooms) kids hints the latter as a source. After all, you drop your mask during testing, and I've seen places doing it in a small, unventilated room with no pause between each person.

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#207

Post by tcoff91 »

qbasic_forever wrote: post #32
pezzana wrote: post #2

> All staff members preparing to depart to the station had to undergo a PCR test in Belgium two hours before leaving for South Africa, take a PCR test five days after their arrival in Cape Town, where they also had to quarantine for ten days. Another test was required when leaving Cape Town for Antarctica and another PCR test had to be undergone five days after arrival. This is clear evidence that the current paradig…

There's a weak link somewhere--I wonder if it's flight crews in this case. If the pilot and other crew for the leg from South Africa to Antarctica weren't also isolating 10 days and tested at the same time, then there's your infection vector.

There’s also the factor that some people have a longer incubation period. Early on in the pandemic there were reports of some people having 21-27 day incubation periods before testing positive and getting sick. I think it’s less common now with delta and omicron but likely still possible in rare instances.

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#208

Post by tinus_hn »

agsamek wrote: post #206

Seems like a lot of testing and no quarantine before the departure and on the arrival. What can go wrong? Edit: I missed the 10 day quarantine in South Africa. So it is not so bad.

> All staff members preparing to depart to the station had to undergo a PCR test in Belgium two hours before leaving for South Africa, take a PCR test five days after their arrival in Cape Town, where they also had to quarantine for ten days.

But of course, there could have been more quarantining.

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#210

Post by chana_masala »

tandymodel100 wrote: post #139
enchiridion wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I share your frustration, but the anti-vax people were expected. It’s like sitting into the wind at this point. The game plan should’ve been built around there non-compliance. Poor leadership only plans for things going how they want. As far as lockdowns are concerned, we have had the mass shutdown of in person school and work, as well as the forced closure of many restaurants and entertainment venues. I was using th…

> The game plan should’ve been built around there non-compliance. That is correct, and that's why they proposed the OSHA rule for mandating vaccinations after months of incentives. I think some % of non-compliance is understandable, but the remaining unvaccinated seem to be doing it for political reasons over anything else. > As far as lockdowns are concerned, we have had the mass shutdown of in person school and wor…

I am in the US and schools are still doing "distance" learning and restaurants are not allowed at full capacity.
Post reply on HN