Interesting Articles: COVID-19 Edition

[AsherO]

@PlatinumGuy, you seem to have forgotten at the moment one of the most famous pieces of רמב׳׳ן בפרשת בחוקותי.

I love that source, thanks for sharing.

[Ergel]

Not sure where to put this stupidity
https://www.foxnews.com/health/coronavirus-face-masks-hearing-loss-survey
So, you're saying that it's harder to hear someone when they cover their mouth? You don't say

[ExGingi]

Not sure where to put this stupidity
https://www.foxnews.com/health/coronavirus-face-masks-hearing-loss-survey
So, you're saying that it's harder to hear someone when they cover their mouth? You don't say

Reminds me of the scientist that was trying to find out how flies function. He took off one wing and clapped lowdly, the fly attempted to take to the air but just went around in circles. The result was noted in the research notebook as such. He then removed the remaining wing and clapped lowdly. The fly remained on the surface without making any visible attempt to fly away. Scientist notes in the research notebook "a fly without wings does not hear".

[YitzyS]

https://www.app.com/story/news/coronavirus/2021/01/29/test-positive-covid-high-risk-monoclonal-antibodies-may-help/4244158001/

[S209]

https://www.app.com/story/news/coronavirus/2021/01/29/test-positive-covid-high-risk-monoclonal-antibodies-may-help/4244158001/

This has indeed been the experience of the people I know who have received the treatment.

[Traveler718]

With everyone advising that post-vaccine life shouldn't change much if at all since we don't yet know if those who are vaccinated can still pass it on, here's a different take, curious to hear what others think about it:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/giving-people-more-freedom-whole-point-vaccines/617829/

[S209]

With everyone advising that post-vaccine life shouldn't change much if at all since we don't yet know if those who are vaccinated can still pass it on, here's a different take, curious to hear what others think about it:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/giving-people-more-freedom-whole-point-vaccines/617829/

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/18/briefing/donald-trump-pardon-phil-spector-coronavirus-deaths.html

ETA:

Underselling the Vaccine
Discussing how some are saying that the vaccine shouldn't change behavior. Lumps it along with the way they tried tricking the public early on about masks.

[Moshe123]

https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/research-suggests-covid-19-infection-rate-may-have-reached-65-per-cent-amongst-uk-strictly-orthodox-community-1.511395

No surprise, but wow.

[biobook]

https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/research-suggests-covid-19-infection-rate-may-have-reached-65-per-cent-amongst-uk-strictly-orthodox-community-1.511395

No surprise, but wow.

Even more wow:  Infection rate was 28% in children under 5 years old, and a whopping 74% in adults and high school children. 

[Dan]

https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-u-s-chabad-rabbi-fired-for-barrage-of-anti-vaccine-social-media-posts-1.9507174

Bypass: https://archive.is/q1eFs

[Euclid]

https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/02/02/myths-of-vaccine-manufacturing

cc @PlatinumGuy

[AsherO]

https://www.who.int/initiatives/act-accelerator/funding-tracker

Where's the US $$? Or is that missing due to trump boycott of the WHO?

[PlatinumGuy]

https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/02/02/myths-of-vaccine-manufacturing

cc @PlatinumGuy

When it comes to the crux of the problem, the guy admits he has no idea what he's talking about

Ah, but now we get back to Step Four. As Neubert says, “Welcome to the bottleneck!” Turning a mixture of mRNA and a set of lipids into a well-defined mix of solid nanoparticles with consistent mRNA encapsulation, well, that’s the hard part. Moderna appears to be doing this step in-house, although details are scarce, and Pfizer/BioNTech seems to be doing this in Kalamazoo, MI and probably in Europe as well. Everyone is almost certainly having to use some sort of specially-built microfluidics device to get this to happen – I would be extremely surprised to find that it would be feasible without such technology. Microfluidics (a hot area of research for some years now) involves liquid flow through very small channels, allowing for precise mixing and timing on a very small scale. Liquids behave quite differently on that scale than they do when you pour them out of drums or pump them into reactors (which is what we’re used to in more traditional drug manufacturing). That’s the whole idea. My own guess as to what such a Vaccine Machine involves is a large number of very small reaction chambers, running in parallel, that have equally small and very precisely controlled flows of the mRNA and the various lipid components heading into them. You will have to control the flow rates, the concentrations, the temperature, and who knows what else, and you can be sure that the channel sizes and the size and shape of the mixing chambers are critical as well.

These will be special-purpose bespoke machines, and if you ask other drug companies if they have one sitting around, the answer will be “Of course not”. This is not anything close to a traditional drug manufacturing process. And this is the single biggest reason why you cannot simply call up those “dozens” of other companies and ask them to shift their existing production over to making the mRNA vaccines. There are not dozens of companies who make DNA templates on the needed scale. There are definitely not dozens of companies who can make enough RNA. But most importantly, I believe that you can count on one hand the number of facilities who can make the critical lipid nanoparticles. That doesn’t mean that you can’t build more of the machines, but I would assume that Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna (and CureVac as well) have largely taken up the production capacity for that sort of expansion as well.

I find it hard to believe that if humanity gives Pfizer shareholders $300b to take over the company and publish all of the IP, we couldn't collectively create manufacturing capability faster than Pfizer can do alone.

He certainly doesn't provide any argument to support that thesis - what exactly does 'taken up the production capacity for that sort of expansion' mean? Is there a rare metal involved that we can't recreate?

[AsherO]

He certainly doesn't provide any argument to support that thesis - what exactly does 'taken up the production capacity for that sort of expansion' mean? Is there a rare metal involved that we can't recreate?

Just because he qualifies the statements he isn't certain about, he does sound like he knows what he's talking about. At the end of the day what you need here is very specialized equipment (not used in any other setting) that is very carefully calibrated to reliably produce functional product. IP does not seem to be the bottleneck here.

[PlatinumGuy]

At the end of the day what you need here is very specialized equipment (not used in any other setting) that is very carefully calibrated to reliably produce functional product. IP does not seem to be the bottleneck here.

How to create a machine is intellectual property.

Are we supposed to believe the global capacity to create a certain machine is somehow maxed out because Pfizer is trying its hardest? What part of it cannot be achieved faster?

[AsherO]

How to create a machine is intellectual property.

Are we supposed to believe the global capacity to create a certain machine is somehow maxed out because Pfizer is trying its hardest? What part of it cannot be achieved faster?

Not really. Pfizer would be taking responsibility (or at least signing off on) the equipment/process/product etc. I wouldn't call that IP. It's also not a given that any drug manufacturer can simply outsource production of such specialized/sensitive stuff. Many/most other drug companies are simply not in the mRNA vaccine business, and the ones who are are developing their own vaccines.

I agree with you that if everyone was working together to get this done then it could be done more efficiently. But there are issues of ego/pride, money, credit, liability, and other precedents that would be set that preclude this.

[PlatinumGuy]

Not really. Pfizer would be taking responsibility (or at least signing off on) the equipment/process/product etc. I wouldn't call that IP.

If they are such rare and advanced machines, I'm sure how to make them is IP.

I wouldn't call that IP. It's also not a given that any drug manufacturer can simply outsource production of such specialized/sensitive stuff.

What exactly does Pfizer have that allows them to make this equipment that another company cannot?

But there are issues of ego/pride, money, credit, liability, and other precedents that would be set that preclude this.

That's where the government has to step in. Everybody has a price, and as a society we should negotiate briefly to compensate them fairly and move on. Every day sooner the vaccine comes to the US saves us $10-20b. Pfizer's current market cap is worth 10 collective days, and this is only a small portion of their business. 

[AsherO]

The Sputnik V Vaccine and Russia’s Race to Immunity

It’s a bit long (I skimmed the second half), but we’ll written

[AsherO]

Nothing extremely substantial here

https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2017/11/02/noshave/

Besides for this pic:

[YitzyS]

Guy got kicked off United flight for wearing a fancy masking system. They insisted he wear a regular mask.

https://www.app.com/story/news/transportation/2021/02/05/man-says-he-got-kicked-off-united-flight-out-newark-his-mask/4392976001/