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STICK IT, Damn It!
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2021-07-21 at 11:16 PM UTC^thats funny
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2021-07-21 at 11:47 PM UTCIt's these dummies injecting the garbage who are spreading COVID, not the ones who aren't stupid enough to infect themselves.
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2021-07-22 at 12:12 AM UTCstill not getting the vaccine
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2021-07-22 at 11:21 AM UTC
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2021-07-22 at 12:33 PM UTCWhat kind of retard posts politics in BLTC?
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2021-07-22 at 1:07 PM UTCLambda variant of COVID-19 identified at Texas hospital. Is it worse than delta?
Ryan W. Miller, USA TODAY
A Houston hospital has its first case of the lambda variant of the coronavirus, but public health experts say it remains too soon to tell whether the variant will rise to the same level of concern as the delta variant currently raging across unvaccinated communities in the U.S.
New COVID-19 variant: What is it called, where did it come from, should we be concerned?
About 83% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are from the delta variant and the vast majority of hospitalizations are among unvaccinated people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The lambda variant, on the other hand, has been identified in less than 700 cases in the U.S. However, the World Health Organization in June called lambda a "variant of interest," meaning it has genetic changes that affect the virus' characteristics and has caused significant community spread or clusters of COVID-19 in multiple countries.
Florida's COVID-19 hospitalization numbers are again increasing, ending months of steady decline that began widespread vaccinations became available and creating a trend that has epidemiologists worried as the more infectious Delta variant spreads.
Dr. S. Wesley Long, medical director of diagnostic biology at Houston Methodist, where the case was identified, said while lambda has some mutations that are similar to other variants that have raised concern, it does not appear to be nearly as transmissible as delta.
“I know there’s great interest in lambda, but I think people really need to be focused on delta,” Long said. “Most importantly, regardless of the variant, our best defense against all these variants is vaccination.
The fourth wave of COVID-19 cases is here: Will we escape the UK's fate? It's too soon to know.
What is the lambda variant and how is it different from the delta variant?
The lambda variant is a specific strain of COVID-19 with specific mutations. It's one of a handful of variants identified by the WHO as variants of concern or interest. Many other variants have arisen since the outbreak was first detected in late 2019 in central China.
"The natural trajectory of viruses is that they have a tendency to have mutations, and whenever we have a significant mutation that changes the virus … we get a new variant," said Dr. Abhijit Duggal, a staff ICU physician and director for critical care research for the medical ICU at the Cleveland Clinic.
Some of the lambda mutations occur in its spike protein, which is the part of the virus that helps it penetrate cells in the human body and is also what the vaccines are targeting.
Do you need another shot?: Booster for COVID-19 is not recommended, yet. Here's what to know.
Mutations occurring there and in other parts of lambda are similar to those in variants of concern, like beta and gamma, Long said. But even gamma, which never took hold in the U.S. to the same level as beta or delta, has more concerning mutations than lambda, Long said.
Duggal said there hasn't been anything specific with the lambda variant to spark concern about it becoming the dominant variant in the U.S., but "watchful waiting and being cautious is going to be the most important thing at this point."
Where was the lambda variant first identified?
The lambda variant was first identified in Peru in December 2020. Since April, more than 80% of sequenced cases in the country have been identified as the lambda variant.
As of June, the WHO said it had identified the lambda variant in 29 countries. Argentina and Chile have also seen rising lambda cases, the WHO said.
Tracking the outbreak: How COVID-19 is spreading across the U.S.
However, the variant hasn't spread nearly to the same level on a global scale as the delta variant. Lambda may have become so widespread in parts of South America largely because of a "founder effect," Long said, wherein a few cases of the variant first took hold in a densely populated and geographically restricted area and slowly became the primary driver for the spread locally over time.
Long compared lambda to the gamma variant, which first was detected in Brazil and spread in similar ways
Are COVID-19 vaccines effective against the lambda variant?
Studies have suggested the vaccines currently authorized for use in the U.S. are highly effective at preventing severe COVID-19 and death across multiple variants.
Duggal said while there is not reason to believe the vaccines will be ineffective against the lambda variant, more data is need to know exactly how effective it will be. The efficacy may lower some, but hospitalization may still be largely preventable in variant cases with vaccination, he said.
'Nothing in this world is 100%': Those fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can be infected, but serious illness is rare
However, a new study posted online Tuesday found the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was not as effective at preventing symptomatic disease when faced with the delta and lambda variants. The study was not yet peer reviewed or published in a journal, but it aligned with studies of the AstraZeneca vaccine that conclude one dose of the vaccine is 33% effective against symptomatic disease of the delta variant.
Vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have shown to keep similar levels of effectiveness against several of the variants of concern.
Getting vaccinated still remains the most important factor in stopping the virus' deadly effects and slowing down new variants, Long said.
Mutations occur in the coronavirus as it spreads from person to person. Vaccination can help prevent symptomatic disease and decrease the spread in communities with high vaccinations rates, which can then prevent mutations from occurring and new variants from arising, Duggal added. -
2021-07-22 at 1:08 PM UTCWhat about the deadly ligma variant though?The following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire!
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2021-07-22 at 1:18 PM UTCWhy there isn't a fully approved Covid-19 vaccine yet and why it matters
By Jen Christensen, CNN
To date, more than 339 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered to give people protection from the coronavirus; several studies show that the three vaccines authorized for emergency use in the United States work and are safe; and the government continues to give them out in schools and at ball fields, and yet, not one has been formally approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.
By all accounts, the approval process for the vaccines is moving faster than it ever has before. However, the FDA has yet to disclose a timeline for when its work will be complete and data is still being reviewed.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden told CNN's Don Lemon during a CNN Townhall that he expects Covid-19 vaccines could get full approval "quickly."
"They're not promising me any specific date, but my expectation, talking to the group of scientists we put together... plus others in the field, is that sometime, maybe in the beginning of the school year, at the end of August, beginning September, October, they'll get a final approval," Biden said.
Earlier Wednesday, the National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins told CNN's Jim Acosta that full approval could come in the "next couple of months."
Pfizer's timeline
Vaccine maker Pfizer appears to be furthest along in the process.
In July, the company announced that the FDA granted its vaccine a priority review, so that sets the regulatory clock for six months, meaning technically the company should know if it has approval by January. A standard review is 10 months.
The acting commissioner of the FDA, Dr. Janet Woodcock, has said the FDA intends to complete the review in advance of its January deadline.
"So, we all know that's not going to take that long," said Melissa Tice, program director of regulatory affairs and assistant professor of clinical research and leadership at George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences.
Because the FDA has already reviewed the manufacturing materials and has been reviewing clinical data all along, Tice said, "We don't expect it to go the full six-month priority review clock."
Tice says she thinks full approval for Pfizer's vaccine could come in September. Some experts like Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center think it may be as early as August.
Moderna's timeline
For vaccine maker Moderna, the company told CNN Wednesday that is does not have a specific time frame for approval. It is still working with the FDA on what's called a rolling submission for approval -- it shares new data with the agency as it is generated.
"We are still in the process of completing our rolling submission, which we announced on June 1st. It is not complete at this time," Ray Jordan, a spokesperson for Moderna said. "It's not the case that the FDA has our final submission and that we are waiting to hear from them."
Moderna expects it may have its materials complete this fall. The time frame for approval would then be subject to the FDA regulatory review process, Moderna said.
Where the process is now
Historically, getting a vaccine licensed by the fall would be fast, especially with as much as the FDA has to review.
At this point, what takes time is that the agency has to go through absolutely everything, it cannot skip a page, and there is a lot of everything.
"When we were reviewing applications back when they were on paper, there was so much, it would not fit on the freight elevator. That's how big the application is, you have lots of data to review," said Norman Baylor, who had run the FDA's Office of Vaccines Research and Review and been through this process several times. He's the current CEO of Biologics Consulting.
The Covid-19 vaccines received authorization based on interim data that showed the vaccines were safe and effective for only about three months. "Although, when something's 95% effective, you can assume it's probably going to be highly effective for awhile," said Offit.
For full approval, the FDA has at least six months of efficacy data to review. "People are saying 'why is it taking so long?' Well, the FDA wants to make sure that it has a protective duration, long term effect," Tice said. "It's not that the agency, I think, has any concerns about the vaccine per se, they just per licensure requirements, you have to have this additional data."
"The FDA does not cut corners on making sure of the quality, the purity, the potency of your products."
Offit believes the data review should go pretty quickly, since the FDA has been getting data all along. What often takes time is that the FDA has to also validate the process that makes the vaccine for it to be licensed. Every step has to be validated.
"Whether it's the computers that are being used or cleaning out the vats, or whatever it is, it's a lot of boxes to tick to ensure that there's consistency in each lot to the next," Offit said.
That means an interdisciplinary team of FDA experts is pouring through millions of documents, running their own analysis, getting any clarification that it needs from the vaccine companies, and giving the manufacturing process a thorough inspection.
And it's not just one FDA person that does the review, Baylor said. There's a secondary and tertiary review. So a clinician would review the material and then a supervisor would need to review it and then it goes up to the division director.
"We have some reviewers who are reviewing long into the night, really, this is not a 9 to 5 review," Baylor said. "The public is not aware, but yes people are giving up their vacations, working on weekends, Saturdays and Sundays. You're working into the night."
"The FDA is not sitting down twiddling their thumbs," Baylor said.
Calls to move faster
While historically, the process has moved quickly, for some it's not fast enough.
Dr. Eric Topol wrote an editorial for the "New York Times" earlier this month that argued that the millions of people who have gotten these mRNA vaccines demonstrate these vaccines work. "This is the most studied biologic in the history of mankind for safety and efficacy," Topol told CNN.
"I have been frustrated because I know it should have been approved by now," Topol said. "Janet Woodcock made a statement that this was 'among the highest priorities.' No, it has to be the number one priority."
In response to Topol's editorial, the FDA's current Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Peter Marks argued that "any vaccine approval without completion of the high-quality review and evaluation that Americans expect the agency to perform would undermine the FDA's statutory responsibilities, affect trust in the agency and do little to help combat vaccine hesitancy."
Why full approval matters
Yet, as vaccination rates have dropped dramatically in the US, some have pointed to approval as one sure way to speed up the process.
A Kaiser Family Foundation survey of US adults released this week found that among the one-third of adults surveyed who are not yet vaccinated, 16% said the vaccine was too new, too unknown or not tested enough. Some said in this poll that they wouldn't get a vaccine until it is required. While companies are allowed to require the vaccine, experts believe more will make it a requirement if -- and when -- it gets full approval.
"If it was approved with the full approval from FDA -- which we all anticipate may be coming pretty soon...Maybe in the next couple of months -- then the legal ability to mandate becomes a lot stronger," Collins, the NIH director, said. -
2021-07-22 at 1:23 PM UTCThe Week
The remarkable Republican reversal on vaccines
Damon Linker
If it were possible for abrupt shifts in political messaging to induce whiplash, millions of Republican voters would be wearing neck braces this week. After months of deliberately cultivating skepticism about the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines, a number of conservative talking heads and elected officeholders have done a 180 on the issue this week.
Fox News has led the way. First morning show (Fox & Friends) co-host Steve Doocy urged viewers to get vaccinated: "It will save your life." Then, on Monday evening, prime time host Sean Hannity begged those watching to "please take COVID seriously — I can't say it enough ... I believe in the science of vaccination." By Tuesday night, even the highest-rated and most obsessively vaccine skeptical host on the network, Tucker Carlson, appeared to waver in his efforts to cast doubts about the efficacy of getting the shot.
What gives? Did the powers that be at Fox circulate a memo over the weekend directing its on-air talent to stop encouraging its viewers to resist protecting themselves from a deadly disease?
Perhaps — though if so, it was a memo distributed far more widely than the offices of the cable-news network. Because over the last couple of days, the list of prominent Republican politicians and leading conservative pundits to suddenly get vocal on the issue is long. Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell implored Americans to get vaccinated "as quickly as possible." House Minority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise got vaccinated himself, after holding out for months, and announced that the shots are "safe and effective." Massively popular conservative rabblerouser Ben Shapiro pronounced on Twitter, "Get vaxxed. I did. My wife did. My parents did."
So what's going on here? Maybe the surge in new cases of the Delta variant has Republicans spooked enough that their commitment to 24/7 demagoguery has momentarily wavered. Maybe arm-twisting by the Biden administration (mostly behind the scenes) is having an effect. Or maybe Tom Nichols' elegantly simple explanation, focused on political self-interest, is the answer. On Tuesday night, the anti-Trump, former Republican commentator tweeted, "Apparently, Republicans are starting to realize that a Republican-driven re-ignition of the pandemic might be bad for Republicans."
Whatever the explanation, something has shifted on the right. Let's hope it makes a difference in boosting rates of vaccinations. -
2021-07-22 at 1:32 PM UTCNot going to lie, it's kind of impressive how much you hate healthy white people.
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2021-07-22 at 1:35 PM UTCThe following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire!
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2021-07-22 at 1:36 PM UTCStick it, Donny.
Oh, I forgot.
You got your shot before you got ejected from the White House, didn't you? -
2021-07-22 at 1:38 PM UTC
Originally posted by Technologist It’s impressive how your mind contorts itself to come to that conclusion. You are such a miserable fuck.
Pattern recognition isn't contortion.
Originally posted by stl1 Stick it, Donny.
Oh, I forgot.
You got your shot before you got ejected from the White House, didn't you?
I'm not a poor person, I got the regeneron. -
2021-07-22 at 1:44 PM UTC
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2021-07-22 at 1:59 PM UTC
Originally posted by Technologist Your pattern recognition comes from an angry place.
Cheer up old chap😂😂😂😂😂😂
You aren't saying it's wrong.
All the policies that you people push make no sense. They aren't economically left wing - they bail out big banks and reward the rich instead of fix health care. They aren't economically right wing - you tax ordinary people way too much for that. There's nothing socially left wing or progressive with state mandated support for Israel, and there's nothing socially right wing about support for BLM.
The policies you push are all over the place. The only thing all the policies you push have in common - every single one - is that they all either hurt or demonise working class white people.
Every single one.
If you don't realise this, nothing makes sense. Once you notice the pattern, it all makes sense. -
2021-07-22 at 2:15 PM UTC
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2021-07-22 at 2:15 PM UTC
Originally posted by Donald Trump You aren't saying it's wrong.
Oh it’s wrong in so many levels. Bet your anger leads you to an early grave one day.All the policies that you people push make no sense. They aren't economically left wing - they bail out big banks and reward the rich instead of fix health care. They aren't economically right wing - you tax ordinary people way too much for that. There's nothing socially left wing or progressive with state mandated support for Israel, and there's nothing socially right wing about support for BLM.
The policies you push are all over the place. The only thing all the policies you push have in common - every single one - is that they all either hurt or demonise working class white people.
Every single one.
If you don't realise this, nothing makes sense. Once you notice the pattern, it all makes sense.
Yeah, only read a bit of that shit. I didn’t do any of that to anyone, but keep being obtuse. -
2021-07-22 at 2:21 PM UTCThe same answer as usual "its hate to point out our hate".
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2021-07-22 at 2:26 PM UTCDon't you just hate that?
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2021-07-22 at 2:28 PM UTCThe following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire!
