outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52754280

UK scientists are to begin testing a treatment that it is hoped could counter the effects of Covid-19 in the most seriously ill patients.

It has been found those with the most severe form of the disease have extremely low numbers of an immune cell called a T-cell.

T-cells clear infection from the body.

The clinical trial will evaluate if a drug called interleukin 7, known to boost T-cell numbers, can aid patients' recovery.

It involves scientists from the Francis Crick Institute, King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital.

They have looked at immune cells in the blood of 60 Covid-19 patients and found an apparent crash in the numbers of T-cells.

Prof Adrian Hayday from the Crick Institute said it was a "great surprise" to see what was happening with the immune cells.

"They're trying to protect us, but the virus seems to be doing something that's pulling the rug from under them, because their numbers have declined dramatically.

The researchers say these findings pave the way for them to develop a "fingerprint test" to check the levels of T-cells in the blood which could provide early indications of who might go on to develop more severe disease.

But it also provides the possibility for a specific treatment to reverse that immune cell decline.

Manu Shankar-Hari, a critical care consultant at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, said that around 70% of patients that he sees in intensive care with Covid-19 arrive with between 400-800 lymphocytes per microlitre. "When they start to recover, their lymphocyte level also starts to go back up," he added.

We've been testing like crazy, that's the big thing. My state has had 1 case in the last 4 weeks, but they're still doing thousands of tests.

This would in theory explain the very broad range of reactions to the virus, I guess? (xpost)

We're a little bit like that, though probably not as extreme: our six biggest cities account for 40% of our population. (Toronto and Montreal account for about a quarter.)

40% of the Australian population live in Sydney or Melbourne. In all the top 6 cities account for two-thirds of the Australian population.

.. I feel like I had a similar conversation to this on here recently?

clearly the UK is controlled by Big Tea

And Big Tea is controlled by Jews or Muslims apparently:

https://www.newsweek.com/covid-19-conspiracy-theories-england-1505899

At least they've separated England out from the rest of the UK there.

Can't say I'm surprised:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/may/22/hydroxychloroquine-trumps-covid-19-cure-increases-deaths-global-study-finds

Hope Trump dies from taking it

Independent Armed 70-year-old tried to steal helicopter so he could fly to a hospital and free quarantined coronavirus patients

Police in Michigan have arrested an armed 70-year-old man who allegedly plotted to steal a US Coast Guard helicopter and rescue hospitalised coronavirus patients.

Arenac County Central Dispatch warned police about Mr McFadden’s motives, with concerns that he was an ex-Michigan Militia member armed with guns.

So according to the figures here: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus, the US should be officially hitting 100,000 deaths some time this weekend. Is this a notable figure now or has the media spotlight moved on? Seems like it should be at least vaguely significant, I dunno.

CNN's web page will have a screaming headline, guaranteed. I don't mean to minimize the tragedy of these deaths--but CNN will treat it like the number 100,000 dropped out of the sky from nowhere, as opposed to a slow, steady march to that inevitable benchmark.

And a slow steady march right past it, 1200 or 1400 a day for the foreseeable.

A quarter of French people would refuse to be vaccinated against the rona.

We are full of dummies here too.

i hear people are really going back to normal in France. dinner parties, shopping, etc. My parents in law are never home.

Le Monde had a good rundown of the Bill Gates microchip antivax conspiracy theory this morning and how it permeated the francosphere. Turns out Juliette Binoche subscribes to it as well.

Meanwhile, in Eastern Europe:

https://www.rferl.org/a/moldova-s-orthodox-church-lashes-out-at-anti-christ-plot-to-develop-virus-vaccine/30624250.html

"Turns out Juliette Binoche subscribes to it as well."

Y do u break heart? :'-(

💔

So over her >:(

tbh the UK and France being full of heid-the-ba's doesn't really surprise me.

Isabelle Adjani has been peddling anti-vaxxer garbage since 2017, so Juliette Binoche is in good company.

Yeah I just watched a bus go by packed with people, like pressed up against the glass. These are certainly not commuters. wishing this crisis over does not make it so.

This belief in magical protection from harm seems to me like a fascinating manifestation of white/western privilege, a subconscious acceptance that the world is arranged to provide for your personal safety.

It kinda feels like the general attitude is rapidly shifting towards 'the weather's getting nicer so the pandemic is over, right?'. Can't wait to spend another several months in lockdown after cases spike again a few weeks from now.

it's just like how when hurricanes come and people say "it's not coming here" and think that saying "it's not coming here" will make it not come here.

(I'm one of those people that rails against hurricane hysteria but mostly at those civilians that misinterpret hurricane forecasts as being fixed in stone and don't know what a 'cone of uncertainty' is).

on the plus side, if we have one this year, we're already hunkered down.

Cone of Uncertainty is the name of my String Cheese Incident tribute band

This belief in magical protection from harm seems to me like a fascinating manifestation of white/western privilege, a subconscious acceptance that the world is arranged to provide for your personal safety.

Euler is in Paris which is a long way from being a 'white' city tbh.

Still definitely the West, though.

as I probably said a few days ago, people of African descent are largely wearing masks around here (& that's most people), whereas "whiter" looking people largely aren't. I think I'd say that older people tend to be wearing masks more than younger people as well, but I'm not as sure about that.

I can't really pin down demographics over here. the only group I see not wearing them more than others is high-school and college kids, but I've even seen them starting to.

last night, one of my friends said a pair of young adults behind her at a grocery store were audibly commenting on her mask and how uncomfortable it must be, making fun of her but intentionally loud enough for her to hear it.

yeah I am constantly seeing gaggles of teenagers without masks standing about everywhere. it’s surreal

No covid concerns at the lake of the ozarks😳 #loto pic.twitter.com/Yrb4UNM64u

— Scott Pasmore (@scottpasmoretv) May 24, 2020

p sure Lake of the Ozarks is already a rich soup of communicable pathogens. Maybe coronavirus will simply be outcompeted by gonorrhea and opioid abuse

Peru is really bad right now, we have numerous friends there and what we're hearing is cases through the roof everywhere and no hospital beds

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYjPDH2XgAA2C-N.png

“My fingernails are breaking, I’ve got hangnails, I’ve been getting my nails done for 14 years … I’m very much into yoga, I can’t go to my Bikram yoga studios, I can’t go get my eyelashes done, I can’t go and socialize with the people that are my friends,” said Mississippian Hillary Angel Barq. “It’s led me to depression, it’s made me not feel sexual — I mean it’s awful.”

...

Make America Feel Sexual Again

I wonder if she's related to the root beer family?

She's engaged to an A&W, it's a scandal

that masturbating inflatable bounce house fortune heir sounds like fun

people are gonna kill us in the end

I can't really pin down demographics over here. the only group I see not wearing them more than others is high-school and college kids, but I've even seen them starting to

I would agree that non-maskwearers in the grocery store are very rare and almost universally twentysomething/teens. Outside, almost everyone, including me, is unmasked (it's uncrowded enough here that people aren't close to each other for long.)

-10 y life expectancy:

This is a remarkable chart. Your risk of dying in the UK from coronavirus is the same as "normal annual risk". https://t.co/Hli7YPoARs

Worth noting, this risk profile will be different if the health system is overwhelmed and will be different for other countries. pic.twitter.com/nIRZqlIjgq

— Akshat Rathi (@AkshatRathi) May 24, 2020

not surprisingly, it's already been misinterpreted

One way to think about that is: if you get coronavirus then your risk of dying that year is twice what it would otherwise be. That’s not a huge deal for a 30 year old because it’s very rare for 30 year olds to die, but it’s not great if you’re 80.

yep. the chart puts it into a harrowing perspective. this is why I'm wearing a mask in the house around my dad.

i'm afraid to share the chart though because I know people will go "SEE, IT'S NO RISKIER THAN EVER!"

what kind of monsters use a log scale graph

lol Staten Island

Staten Islanders with masks drive out non-mask wearing person in grocery store. #Coronavirus pic.twitter.com/iPQwk7lD9y

— McAuley (@McauleyHolmes) May 25, 2020