Dr Yong: You can't eradicate Covid - virologist compares three strains for Thailand's three waves

[NoshowJones]

22 hours ago, RafPinto said:

He said that the first wave was the Chinese version of the virus. Testing revealed not much quantity of virus. 

 

Never heard of the "chinese version".

 

British version.

Indian version.

South-African version.

And now, the Thai version.

"Never heard of the "chinese version"."  That was where it started wasn't it?

[RafPinto]

4 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

"Never heard of the "chinese version"."  That was where it started wasn't it?

Sure but never anyone named it the "chinese or Wuhan version".

[Sheryl]

The only diseases that have ever been successfully eradicated are ones with no animal resevoir. E.g. small pox (and hopefully soon, polio).

 

To eradicate a disease completely from the earth it must be eradicated in every species that harbors it, including species that are nto made ill by it.

 

Obviously not possible with any of the coronoaviruses.

 

However a disease can become quite rare and less lethal through acquired immunity in the human population.

 

 

[placeholder]

8 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

 

If memory serve me correct, he blocked Trump from setting up an investigation when Trump was saying all along, it's from the lab.

How exactly could Biden block Trump from setting up an investigation? Is Trump secretly a member of Biden's cabinet?

[sawadee1947]

5 hours ago, rickudon said:

Smallpox is the first disease to be eradicated

Said the WHO. Since 1977 no case documented. Doesn't mean it could happen again. 

Just opposite to Great Pox.

[from the home of CC]

On 5/29/2021 at 10:45 AM, RotBenz8888 said:

Don't forget the very latest, "Thai variant". 

you mean "Egyptian' , it wasn't bred in country unlike the UK pox..

[GroveHillWanderer]

8 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

you mean "Egyptian' , it wasn't bred in country unlike the UK pox..

There's no evidence that the so-called "UK Variant" originated in England (or anywhere else in the UK).

[from the home of CC]

1 minute ago, GroveHillWanderer said:

There's no evidence that the so-called "UK Variant" originated in England.

yes, there are some that believe it originated in N. Italy. Though with no constraints on international travel from the UK who knows.. 

[johng]

8 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

you mean "Egyptian' , it wasn't bred in country unlike the UK pox..

The "UK variant" was found because of  the massive testing going on there  its quite possible it arrived from France  via the illegal immigrants crossing the Chanel into Kent.

[RotBenz8888]

48 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

you mean "Egyptian' , it wasn't bred in country unlike the UK pox..

How do you know it originated in Egypt?

It should be named after where it was first discovered, hence Thai variant. 

[pizzachang]

6 hours ago, Sheryl said:

The only diseases that have ever been successfully eradicated are ones with no animal resevoir. E.g. small pox (and hopefully soon, polio).

 

To eradicate a disease completely from the earth it must be eradicated in every species that harbors it, including species that are nto made ill by it.

 

Obviously not possible with any of the coronoaviruses.

 

However a disease can become quite rare and less lethal through acquired immunity in the human population.

 

 

True for the most part. Some viruses mutate to a state of being that is no longer much of a problem. One I can think of is "scarlet fever". My parents and grandparents generations were worried about this. Now we hear almost nothing about this. Some, seem to go dormant; maybe even live somewhere we haven't investigated. It's even possible for one of the less problematic ones to mutate again, to something serious. Smallpox, exists in several labs and there is no guarantee in life, about the honesty, motives and agendas of human beings. Scientists gave us nuclear waste, so is science in the hands of greedy, motivated people, any kind of guarantee?

[placeholder]

32 minutes ago, pizzachang said:

True for the most part. Some viruses mutate to a state of being that is no longer much of a problem. One I can think of is "scarlet fever". My parents and grandparents generations were worried about this. Now we hear almost nothing about this. Some, seem to go dormant; maybe even live somewhere we haven't investigated. It's even possible for one of the less problematic ones to mutate again, to something serious. Smallpox, exists in several labs and there is no guarantee in life, about the honesty, motives and agendas of human beings. Scientists gave us nuclear waste, so is science in the hands of greedy, motivated people, any kind of guarantee?

Scarlet fever is caused by bacteria. It's a consequence of strep throat in some cases. I'm guessing that antibiotics have pretty much put the kibosh on it.

[Sheryl]

2 hours ago, pizzachang said:

True for the most part. Some viruses mutate to a state of being that is no longer much of a problem. One I can think of is "scarlet fever". My parents and grandparents generations were worried about this. Now we hear almost nothing about this. Some, seem to go dormant; maybe even live somewhere we haven't investigated. It's even possible for one of the less problematic ones to mutate again, to something serious. Smallpox, exists in several labs and there is no guarantee in life, about the honesty, motives and agendas of human beings. Scientists gave us nuclear waste, so is science in the hands of greedy, motivated people, any kind of guarantee?

 

Scarlet fever is not caused by a virus. It is caused by streptococcal fever which is very much still around. Prompt treatment of strep throat and the like with effective antibiotics have made it rare for such infections to lead to cardiac complications, which is what happened in scarlet fever.

 

Viruses can certainly become less virulent, and hosts can adapt to them/become less susceptible, but that is not the same thing as eradication. Reverting to the OP, he was not saying that COVID will always be as much of a threat as it is today. He was just saying that the virus itself will nto be eradicated i.e. we have to learn to live with/become less susceptible.

 

Greedy people would be ill advised - and nto very smart - to go into science as a profession.  And among all the things a physician can become, none pay less than public health.

 

[rabas]

Here is recent, more comprehensible discussion on ADE and SARS-2 disease and vaccines. 

 

Why ADE Hasn't Been a Problem With COVID Vaccines 

 

"Early in the pandemic, scientists engaged in a flurry of discussions about the best way to construct COVID-19 vaccines to ensure their efficacy and safety. Some of these discussions centered around antibody-dependent enhancement of immunity (ADE), a potentially deadly immune phenomenon seen with other viral infections and vaccines.

 

So far, there have been no reports of ADE with COVID-19 vaccines. But the concerns about ADE with COVID-19 vaccines have resurfaced with the emergency of virus variants. What exactly is ADE? What do we know from past experience with it? And why do experts say it's a non-issue with COVID-19 vaccines?"

 

(more)

 

https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/91648

 

 

The potential for ADE has been heavily discussed from the beginning by disease experts and by immunologists researching vaccines. However, it's been designed around and studied from the start and so far so good. If you want to post deeply technical papers and claim alarm to a layman audience, you should provide an accurate interpretation for the readers.

 

[lucky2008]

26 minutes ago, rabas said:

If you want to post deeply technical papers and claim alarm to a layman audience, you should provide an accurate interpretation for the readers.

 

You're right, let's just continue to stand in line in an orderly manner and follow instructions. 

There's absolutely no need for alarm.  Everything is going to be just fine. 

[berrec]

IMHO it's no different to your annual flu shot.

 

The injection will only reduce your exposure to known flu strains

 

Each year the injection is adjusted for newly strains of known variants.

 

So you can apply the same logic to the variants of the more contagious COVID virus.

 

It's here to stay with us permanently as more variants are discovered vaccine will be tweaked according hopefully.

 

I am not a virologist or scientist but it seems obvious to me that society will just have to live with COVID like the yearly flu.

 

Herd immunity is the best option we can hope for however we get there.

[Jud Canada]

Surprised about this announcement. New normal which has been thrown around by leading virologists for the last year doesn't mean New Normal for a few years. 

[GroveHillWanderer]

2 hours ago, berrec said:

IMHO it's no different to your annual flu shot.

 

The injection will only reduce your exposure to known flu strains

 

Each year the injection is adjusted for newly strains of known variants.

 

So you can apply the same logic to the variants of the more contagious COVID virus.

While there are some superficial similarities, especially in the initial symptoms, flu and CoVid-19 aren't really that similar from an immunological or virological perspective.

 

Firstly, there are two distinct families of influenza viruses (A & B) each of which has further separate strains requiring their own separate vaccines. This is why annual flu shots are actually a combination of three or four separate vaccines designed to combat the strains that are expected to be most prevalent in the coming flu season, rather than a single vaccine.

 

Whereas, despite the numerous variants, CoVid-19 is still a single virus and as yet, a single vaccine is effective (to a large extent) against the variants.

 

Secondly, the two viruses (or in the cases of flu, virus families) mutate in different ways and at different rates.

 

Depending on which paper you read, flu viruses mutate at a rate four or five times higher than coronaviruses.

 

One reason for this is that flu viruses have multi-segmented RNA that makes them subject to a process called "reassortment" that causes both antigenic drift (which causes relatively minor changes) and antigenic shift which is a major change to a completely different strain - which then requires a totally new and different vaccine.

 

Coronaviruses have single-segmented RNA that is not nearly as mutagenic. As stated in the article below:

 

"Although SARS-CoV-2 is mutating, thus far, it does not seem to be drifting antigenically."

 

How do viruses mutate and what it means

 

So you can not apply the same logic to SARS-CoV-2, with its minor variants, as you can to influenza with its distinctly different and much more highly mutagenic familes and sub-families.

 

It may be that newer, more transmissible variants will arise that will require slightly modified versions of the current vaccines but it seems unlikely we'll be in the same situation we are with flu because of the fundamental, structural differences between flu viruses and coronaviruses.

[from the home of CC]

21 hours ago, johng said:

The "UK variant" was found because of  the massive testing going on there  its quite possible it arrived from France  via the illegal immigrants crossing the Chanel into Kent.

or due to the initial massive unchecked transmission of the disease within the country..

[Jud Canada]

On 5/29/2021 at 11:31 AM, tifino said:

never will disappear, just like how Anthrax samples are also kept locked away for future access...

OMG more like influenza I think is the idea.