A Head Full of Coronavirus Research, Part 77

Okay, just an introductory comment.  The average influenza virus particle is apparently about 80 to 120 nm.  The average coronavirus particle is about 60 to 140 nm.  So since influenza has basically disappeared, if that were due to masks, how come they stop influenza but not coronavirus.  Don’t give me the asymptomatic transmission crap, the study I posted this week indicated that there is an equal amount of asymptomatic flu spread.  In fact, don’t give me any suppression of spread measure, can’t explain it.  Must be due to CV-19 being more transmissible and able to somehow “outcompete” flu viruses.

Minnesota hit 752 deaths per million today, opening up a good lead on Sweden in that dubious category, but by all means, keep telling me Sweden got it wrong.

And Dr. Osterheimlich maneuver is at it again, claiming that we will see tons of cases and deaths even with vaccinations going on.  The guy just can’t let go of the disaster scenario.  And Dr. Fauci, who started out being pretty commonsensical, but now has clearly revealed himself to be a little, preening nutcase, who also can’t actually think about what this epidemic may be like as opposed to the curves the epidemiology books always have in them, and has no regard for the total public health, said the two states with the best response were New York and Vermont.  Cuomo apparently has a deal to give Fauci all the royalties from his book, which unfortunately isn’t much.  Is this the same New York with I believe the second-highest death rate in the entire world?  The same New York that is losing citizens at a record pace?  The same New York that has chased even the financial industry out of the city?  And Vermont, one of the least densely populated and now poorest states in the country?  Yeah, great response there.  I am just going to say it, Fauci is an egomaniacal idiot.

And one reason I am in such a good mood tonight is all the cheerful news there is to read.  Start with these nuggets.  Children are killing themselves everywhere, this story discusses four suicides in Nevada and many other cases of serious depression.  The Governor there expressed “concern” but it is his fault school is closed.  I am in no way joking when I say every Governor, every school board official, every school administrator, every teacher, and especially every teachers’ union, responsible for closing schools and causing these deaths should be criminally charged and held liable for damages.  (Nev.  Story)

It is everywhere, this story about damage to children’s mental health is from Alaska.  (Alaska Story)   Children can’t handle what we are doing to them, for no reason.  I again say I would trade the lives of thousands of 85 plus year olds for one of these children.  Our Governors do the opposite, they would sacrifice hundreds of thousands of children to save one 100 year-old.  Open the god-damn schools now, right now.

Cancer care has been completely disrupted, over the next few years, this will be one of the main causes leading to more deaths due to the CV-19 campaign of terror.  (Cancer Story)   Diagnoses are being missed, treatments are being missed, clinical trials have been cancelled or delayed, leading to deaths for patients for whom those trials are the only hope.  But if they weren’t CV-19 patients, it doesn’t matter.

The heaviest toll has been on dementia patients, who struggle in the best of times, but the isolation policies are killing them in record numbers.  (Denver Story)   This story is also the same everywhere, nationally we have killed at least 30,000 Alzheimer’s patients with these insane policies.  Oh, but wait, if these people didn’t have CV-19, they don’t count.

And most tragically of all, the CDC takes a look at child abuse during the epidemic.  (CDC Paper)   It should surprise no one that while the number of such visits was down, as a percent of all ER visits they increased and the number resulting in hospitalizations was also up.  Here is what is happening, when children aren’t in schools or out in public, the ability of people outside the family to notice abuse is decreased, leading to decreased reporting.  Families who are responsible for abuse can just hide it, and don’t take children to the ER unless some very serious injury occurs and then probably try to cover up how it occurred.  This is heart-breaking and is the direct responsibility of those who closed the schools.  People should again be held personally criminally liable and liable for damages.  The public officials responsible for this cannot be allowed to escape accountability.   Oh, sorry again, if these children don’t have CV-19, they definitely don’t count.

A little real research.  More substantial research showing a very small role for children and schools in the transmission of CV-19.  (Lancet Article)  This was a prospective study conducted in England in the early summer.  Out of over 900,000 students, there were less than 150 cases.  “Outbreaks” consisted on average of one additional case when a student or a staff member was the index case.  These are not outbreaks, they are isolated instances of transmission and calling them outbreaks just contributes to the general hysteria.  You read this and you wonder how we can possibly think there is “science” that justifies closing schools.

This article deals with recently released information on PCR test cycle numbers in Rhode Island.  Over a fourth of these “positive” tests reached positivity only after a number of cycles unlikely  to correspond to the presence  of viable virus.  (RI Article)

This is kind of interesting study that looked at early virus spread in the Boston area and used genetic analysis to track spread.  The research identified one spreading event in a nursing home that caused significant serious  illness and death and one at a scientific conference that resulted in transmission nationally and internationally.  (Science Article)

In the last week we reported on antibody prevalence in a large city in Brazil.  This study discusses another area with high prevalence, in India.  The overall prevalence, between antibody results and active infections was 27% .  Only one in 40 cases had been detected.  Asymptomatic cases were far and away the dominant ones.  The infection fatality rate was a measly .o5%.  Not a particularly serious illness.  (Medrxiv Paper)

Superspreading, see the Boston study above, is postulated to account for a large proportion of all cases, but new research takes a deeper look at this phenomenon.  (Medrxiv Paper)    The researchers point out that what appears to be superspreading in fact may just be the result of heterogeneity in individual contact patterns, i.e., some people just have a lot more contacts than others do.  In addition, individuals vary greatly in viral load and shedding behaviors, but this analysis finds that the behavioral heterogeneity is far important, and suggests that so-called superspreading events are actually rare.