The British scientists Norman Pirie and Fred Bawden discovered in 1936 that viruses were not pure protein, but only 95 percent. The
other 5 percent consisted of another molecule, a mysterious strand-shaped substance called nucleic acid. Nucleic acids, scientists would
later discover, are the stuff of genes, the instructions for building proteins and other molecules. Our cells store their genes in double-stranded
nucleic acids, known as deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA for short. Many viruses have DNA-based genes as well. Other viruses, such as tobacco
mosaic virus, have a single-stranded form of nucleic acids, called ribonucleic acid, or RNA.
Four years after Stanley crystallized tobacco mosaic viruses, a team of German scientists finally saw the individual viruses themselves.
In the 1930s, engineers invented a new generation of microscopes able to see objects far smaller than had ever been seen before. Gustav
Kausche, Edgar Pfannkuch, and Helmut Ruska mixed crystals of tobacco mosaic viruses into drops of purified water and put them under
one of the new devices. In 1939, they reported that they could see minuscule rods, measuring about 300 nanometers long. No one had ever
seen a living thing anywhere near so small. To contemplate the size of viruses, tap out a single grain of salt onto a table. Stare at
the tiny cube. You could line up about ten skin cells along one side of it. You could line up about a hundred bacteria. And you could
line up a thousand tobacco mo- saic viruses, end to end, alongside that same grain of salt.
In the decades that followed, virologists went on to dissect viruses, to map their molecular geography. While viruses contain nucleic
acids and proteins like our own cells, scientists found that differences between the structures of viruses and cells are many. A human
cell is stuffed with millions of different molecules that it uses to sense its surroundings, crawl around, take in food, grow,
and decide whether to divide in two or kill itself for the good of its fellow cells. Virologists found that viruses, as a rule, were
far sim- pler. They typically were just protein shells holding a few genes. Virologists discovered that viruses can replicate themselves,
de- spite their paltry genetic instructions, by hijacking other forms of life. They inject their genes and proteins into a host cell,
which they manipulate into producing new copies of themselves. One virus goes into a cell, and within a day a thousand viruses may come
out.
By the 1950s, virologists had grasped these fundamental facts. But that understanding did not bring virology to a halt. For one thing,
virologists knew little about the many different ways in which viruses make us sick. They didn’t know why papillomavi- ruses can cause
horns to grow on rabbits and cause hundreds of thousands of cases of cervical cancer each year. They didn’t know what made some viruses
deadly and others relatively harmless. They had yet to learn how viruses evade the defenses of their hosts and how they evolve faster
than anything else on the planet. In the 1950s they did not know that a virus that would later be named HIV had already spread from
chimpanzees and gorillas into our own species, or that thirty years later it would become one of the greatest killers in history. They
could not have dreamed of the vast number of viruses that exist on Earth; they could not have guessed that much of life’s genetic diversity
is carried in viruses. They did not know that viruses help produce much of the oxygen we breathe and help control the planet’s thermostat.
And they certainly would not have guessed that the human genome is partly composed from thousands of viruses that infected our distant
ancestors, or that life as we know it may have gotten its start four billion years ago from viruses.
In 1898, Friedrich Loeffler and Paul Frosch found evidence that the cause of foot-and-mouth disease in livestock was an infectious
particle smaller than any bacteria. This was the first clue to the nature of viruses, genetic entities that lie somewhere in the
grey area between living and non-living states.
Viruses depend on the host cells that they infect to reproduce. When found outside of host cells, viruses exist as a protein coat
or capsid, sometimes enclosed within a membrane. The capsid encloses either
DNA or RNA which codes for the virus elements. While
in this form outside the cell, the virus is metabollically inert; examples of such forms are pictured below.
Viral micrographs : To the left is an electron micrograph of a cluster of influenza viruses, each about
100 nanometers (billionths of a meter) long; both membrane and protein coat are visible. On the right is a micrograph of the virus
that causes tobacco mosaic disease in tobacco plants.
When it comes into contact with a host cell, a virus can insert its genetic material into its host, literally taking over the
host's functions. An infected cell produces more viral protein and genetic material instead of its usual products. Some viruses may
remain dormant inside host cells for long periods, causing no obvious change in their host cells (a stage known as the lysogenic
phase). But when a dormant virus is stimulated, it enters the lytic phase: new viruses are formed, self-assemble, and burst
out of the host cell, killing the cell and going on to infect other cells. The diagram below at right shows a virus that attacks
bacteria, known as the lambda bacteriophage, which measures roughly 200 nanometers.
Viruses cause a number of diseases in eukaryotes. In humans, smallpox, the common cold, chickenpox, influenza, shingles, herpes,
polio, rabies, Ebola, hanta fever, and
AIDS are examples of viral diseases. Even some types of cancer -- though
definitely not all -- have been linked to viruses.
Viruses themselves have no fossil record, but it is quite possible that they have left traces in the history of life. It has been
hypothesized that viruses may be responsible for some of the extinctions seen in the fossil record (Emiliani, 1993). It was once
thought by some that outbreaks of viral disease might have been responsible for mass extinctions, such as
the extinction of the dinosaurs and other life forms.
This theory is hard to test but seems unlikely, since a given virus can typically cause disease only in one species or in a group
of related species. Even a hypothetical virus that could infect and kill all
dinosaurs, 65 million years ago, could not have
infected the ammonites or foraminifera that also
went extinct at the same time.
On the other hand, because viruses can transfer genetic material between different species of host, they are extensively used
in genetic engineering. Viruses also carry out natural "genetic engineering": a virus may incorporate some genetic material from
its host as it is replicating, and transfer this genetic information to a new host, even to a host unrelated to the previous host.
This is known as transduction, and in some cases it may serve as a means of evolutionary change -- although it is not clear
how important an evolutionary mechanism transduction actually is.
The image of influenza virus was provided by the Department of
Veterinary Sciences of the Queen's University of Belfast. The tobacco mosaic virus picture was provided by the
Rothamstead Experimental Station. Both
servers have extensive archives of virus images.
The Institute for Molecular Virology of the University of Wisconsin
has a lot of excellent information on viruses, including news, course notes, and some magnificent computer images and animations
of viruses.
The Cells Alive! website includes information on the sizes of viral particles
and an article on the mechanisms of HIV infection.
The fact Delta remains dominant worldwide, and this is a sign Delta Plus might not overtake
it soon. Delta Plus (also known as AY.1) has an extra mutation in the code for its spike protein,
which helps the coronavirus access human cells. India's health ministry said last month that
Delta Plus appeared to spread more easily than Delta and might be able to bind more easily to
lung cells or resist antibody drugs.
In the US, Delta Plus cases peaked in late June at less than 5% of the nation's sequenced
cases, according to Outbreak.info .
Health experts say it's a sign Delta Plus isn't outcompeting other variants.
Public Health England suggested June that there was no evidence Delta Plus' extra mutation
made the virus any more severe or reduced vaccine effectiveness relative to Delta.
While Delta seems to have challenged how well vaccines prevent infection and transmission,
recent CDC data indicates coronavirus shots still reduce the risk of getting COVID-19 several
times, and the risk of hospitalization or death by vaccinated within the last six months by an
order of magnitude, although the protective effect of Pfizer and other vaccines fade with
time.
On Tuesday South Korea announced that it had detected two cases of the Delta Plus variant,
one in a man who had recently returned from the U.S.,
Reuters reports. Some experts believe the Delta Plus variant could be more contagious than
the Delta variant.
The Lambda variant, which originated from Peru last year, has
already been detected in the U.S.
Recent studies indicated that Lambda could be more resistant to the current COVID-19
vaccines, according to
Reuters .
The Centers for Disease
Control Prevention has a COVID-19 case tracker
that shows the percent of the total population vaccinated against COVID-19. The map shows the
percent of the total population fully vaccinated and then compares it with the cases per
100,000 people.
For example, much of the Northeast has a high number of vaccinations and low number of
cases per 100,000 people. So the area is green on the map.
However, the Southeastern U.S. is mainly colored in red due to low vaccinations and a
high number of people infected.
... ... ...
The CDC advises caution about
traveling to areas with low vaccination rates and a higher number of cases per 100,000
people.
Their work is funded through a more than $300,000 contract with the city. The Missouri
Department of Health and Senior Services with the University of Missouri is assisting in
analyzing the data, through a
$2 million National Institutes of Health grant .
The team began testing rat feces for the coronavirus to see whether that was the source of
the new spike protein mutations -- but nothing matched their initial finding.
They then surveyed the sewage, using a process called "deep sequencing," for animal DNA.
They found evidence of various mammals, such as cows, pigs and sheep, which likely came from
human food consumption, along with evidence of dogs, cats and rats.
But most of the mutations were found over three different wastewater plants spanning months.
That meant the "animal reservoir" would have to be living in or near the sewershed; largely
constrained to their geographic location; and in big enough numbers to sustain an epidemic for
six months.
The most likely culprits: rats and dogs.
"These novel lineages could be relevant to public health and necessitate further study," the
researchers wrote in the study.
As for the mutations themselves, their origin remains an open question.
The researchers hypothesize that since not all COVID-19 cases were diagnosed and not all
positive samples were sequenced, the "cryptic lineages" could come from "asymptomatic,
vaccinated, immunosuppressed, pediatric, or chronically infected patients who are not being
sampled in clinical settings."
COVID-19 could also linger in different areas of the body, such as the gut, long after it's
been cleared in other areas, like the respiratory tract -- potentially explaining the presence
in wastewater.
... ... ...
Signs of More Rats
If the new spike protein mutations the researchers discovered points to an outbreak of
coronavirus among city rats, they would not be the first animal to contract the virus.
There have been reports of dogs, cats and even a New York City tiger catching the virus,
according to the CDC .
A
study published Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service found that white-tailed deer populations in New York, Michigan, Illinois and
Pennsylvania had coronavirus antibodies, meaning they had previously contracted the virus,
although they did not show signs of an active infection.
In November,
Denmark culled 17 million minks after the virus jumped from a human handler to the minks,
then back to humans. In Michigan, a taxidermist became infected with coronavirus and, after his
test results were sent to a lab, it was determined that there was a mutation in his sample that
came from an infected mink.
"This is a dramatic increase, up from 50% [in] the week of 4 July," Rochelle Walensky,
director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in Senate testimony.
Walensky also said Covid fatalities had risen by nearly 48% over the past week to an average
of 239 a day.
"Each death is tragic and even more heartbreaking when we know that the majority of these
deaths could be prevented with a simple, safe available vaccine," she said.
A cluster of midwestern and southern states have emerged as the new hotspots for
Covid-19.
So it looks like NJ repeats the pattern observed in Israel -- the rise of cases with Delta
variant despite high level of vaccination. . Looks like they try to hide statistics of infections
among vaccinated... With 70% of adult population vaccinated ( NJ COVID Update- 70%
of adult population in state fully vaccinated - ABC7 New York ) NJ is one of the most highly
vaccinated state and Pfizer vaccine is predominant in this state like in Israel.
Japan warns of 'sense of crisis' about China's threat to conquer Taiwan Sen. Cotton
expresses 'real doubts' about US Navy's ability to defeat China in
The Delta variant of COVID-19 is now the predominant strain in New Jersey, according to
Governor Phil Murphy and health officials.
Pause Current Time 2:03 / Duration 2:12 Unmute 0 LQ CaptionsFullscreen Delta variant now
dominant COVID strain in NJ Click to expand The highly contagious strain that originated in
India and is surging around the globe now accounts for 41% of new variant cases in the Garden
State last month, overtaking the Alpha variant that was first documented in the United
Kingdom.
For the week ending June 26, Delta accounted for 70% of identified variant cases.
... ... ...
More than 5.1 million people have been fully vaccinated in New Jersey, Murphy said, which is
about 66% of the eligible population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, compared with about 56% for the country overall.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in New Jersey rose the past two weeks from
235 new cases per day on June 26 to 264 on Sunday.
The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths fell, going from nine deaths a day on June 26
to almost five a day on Sunday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Meanwhile, New Jersey's rate of transmission ticked up above 1 -- to 1.01, for the first
time since late January.
The delta variant was estimated by health officials is perhaps twice as contagious as the
original virus and at least 20 percent more contagious than Alpha.. It was first identified in
India a wave of infections there in April and May.
LaCount has lived in Grand Junction, Colo., a city of 64,000, nearly her whole life. As a
hospital pathologist, she knows better than most that her hometown has become one of the
nation's top breeding grounds for the delta variant of COVID-19.
"The delta variant's super scary," LaCount said.
That highly transmissible variant, first detected in India, is now
the dominant COVID-19 strain in the United States. Colorado is among the top
states with the highest proportion of the delta variant, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Mesa County has the most delta variant cases of any county in Colorado, state health
officials report, making the area a hot spot within a hot spot. A CDC team and the state's
epidemiologist traveled to Grand Junction to investigate how and why cases of the variant were
moving so quickly in Mesa County.
... ... ...
A few yards away from LaCount and her son on the playground, a man fished in a still pond
with his 10-month-old daughter in a backpack. Garrett Whiting, who works in construction, said
he believes COVID is still being "blown out of proportion," especially by the news media.
"They got everybody scared really, really fast," said Whiting, slowly reeling in a sparkly
blue lure from the water. "There's no reason to stop living your life just because you're
scared of something."
Whiting tested positive for COVID about three months earlier. He said he doesn't plan to get
vaccinated, nor does his wife. As for the baby on his back, he said he's not sure whether
they'll have her vaccinated when regulators approve the shot for young children.
Warnings
from around the world
The delta variant is one of four " variants of
concern " circulating in the U.S., according to the CDC, because the delta strain spreads
more easily, might be more resistant to treatment and might be better at infecting vaccinated
people than other variants.
The delta variant has raised alarms around the world. Parts of Australia have
locked down again after health officials said the variant leapfrogged its way from an
American aircrew to a birthday party
where it infected
all unvaccinated guests , and after it also is reported to have jumped between shoppers in
a "
scarily fleeting " moment in which two people walked past each other in a mall.
A rise in delta variant cases delayed the United Kingdom's planned reopening in June. But
public health officials have
concluded after studying about 14,000 cases of the delta variant in that country that full
vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 96% effective against hospitalization. Studies
around the
world have made similar findings. There is also evidence the Moderna and Johnson &
Johnson vaccines
are effective against the variant.
Los Angeles
County recently recommended that residents resume wearing masks indoors regardless of
vaccination status, over concern about the delta variant. The World Health Organization is
also urging vaccinated people to wear masks, though the CDC hasn't changed its guidelines
allowing vaccinated people to gather indoors without masks.
After months of data collection, scientists agree: The delta variant is the most contagious
version of the coronavirus worldwide. It spreads about
225% faster than the original version of the virus, and it's currently dominating the
outbreak in the United States.
A new study,
published online Wednesday, sheds light on why. It finds that the variant grows more
rapidly inside people's respiratory tracts and to much higher levels, researchers at the
Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
On average, people infected with the delta variant had about 1,000 times more copies of the
virus in their respiratory tracts than those infected with the original strain of the
coronavirus, the study reported.
In addition, after someone catches the delta variant, the person likely becomes infectious
sooner. On average, it took about four days for the delta variant to reach detectable levels
inside a person, compared with six days for the original coronavirus variant.
In the study, scientists analyzed COVID-19 patients involved in the first outbreak of the
delta variant in mainland China, which occurred between May 21 and June 18 in Guangzhou, the
capital of Guangdong province. The researchers measured the levels of virus in 62 people
involved in that outbreak and compared them with the levels in 63 patients infected in 2020
with an early version of the virus.
Their findings suggest that people who have contracted the delta variant are likely
spreading the virus earlier in the course of their infection.
And the scientists underscore the importance of quarantining immediately for 14 days after
coming into contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19, as the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention recommends.
Or even better, getting fully vaccinated. Preliminary data shows that in some U.S. states,
99.5% of COVID-19 deaths in the past few months were among people who weren't vaccinated, the
CDC's director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said Thursday at the White House.
"We know that the delta variant ... is currently surging in pockets of the country with low
vaccination rates," Walensky said. "We also know that our authorized vaccines prevent severe
disease, hospitalization and death from the delta variant."
Los Angeles County is reporting a 165 percent spike in coronavirus infections in a single
week amid the rise of the highly contagious delta variant.
The L.A. County Department of Public Health said in
a statement that 839 new coronavirus infections had been reported as of Thursday. The daily
average case rate is at 3.5 per 100,000 people, up from last week's 1.74 cases per 100,000
people.
The agency said that the delta variant of the coronavirus first identified in India has
become the most commonly sequenced variant in the county since the beginning of June, and now
accounts for the majority of variants identified by labs, "consistent with what other parts of
the U.S. are seeing."
...According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the variant now makes up the
majority of new cases in the United States, driving spikes in infections in several states.
...The county said that slightly less than 4 million of its residents are still not
vaccinated, while 4.6 million are fully vaccinated.
... There are currently 296 people hospitalized, of which 24 percent are in intensive
care.
The Alpha version of supposed SARS-CoV-2 was supposedly the most transmissible and
infectious pathogen ever. With a transmission rate of at least 3.8 and reported to be perhaps
as high as 9.
Meaning each infected person infects at least 3.8 other people, and perhaps up to nine.
During the year we were told one infected choir singer passed the infection on to at least 220
people in one church. If Delta is 50-60% more infectious than Alpha, then each person will
infect at least six others. Perhaps dozens.
The problem with that, is Delta is from last year in August. That is when it was first
"identified". A pathogen that infectious would have infected over 8 billion people in less than
five weeks.
The supposed Alpha strain would have infected the entire world by the middle of last June.
After a year, the cases would measure in the trillions if the exponential progression
continued. Obviously there aren't trillions of people on the planet.
What that proves is either SARS-CoV-2 isn't as infectious as claimed, or every single person
on the planet has been exposed multiple times and simply didn't even know.
There is a certain definitive fact. Whatever the government tells you is for sure an
absolute lie. lay_arrow
OliverAnd 7 hours ago
Mutations are usually deleterious; one small percentage will mutate into a strain that
may be more or less pathogenic; the purpose of the mutation is so that the virus becomes
less pathogenic so that it can live symbiotically with its host.
We humans are a hilarious bunch; for example we sleep with whores knowing they are
walking STD labs catching herpes, HPV, gonorrhea, etc increasing our chances of cancer
while decreasing our lives by decades, yet we worry about getting vaccinated. We eat
processed foods, junk food, high sugar and salt foods, smoke, speed, drink, etc taking many
years off our lives yet we worry about a jab. Where are all those people not wanting the
vaccine? They are eating at the fast food chains sleeping with that one who has been around
the block stressed out because they are unable to go shopping with their empty pockets.
Q. The Delta variant (first identified in India) is estimated to be 50-60% more
transmissible than the Alpha variant (first identified in the UK). How effective are the
Western vaccines against the Delta variant?
A. While the Delta variant weighs on the efficacy of vaccines (and especially single doses)
at preventing infections (especially asymptomatic infections), Pfizer and AstraZeneca full
vaccinations remain highly effective at protecting hospitalizations, and Moderna and J&J
lab results look encouraging
A study from Public Health England estimates elevated Delta-specific efficacies at
preventing hospitalizations of 94%/96% after one/two Pfizer doses and 71%/92% after one/two
AstraZeneca doses. Public Health England estimates lower efficacies at preventing symptomatic
disease after two doses for Pfizer of 88% and 60% for AstraZeneca. Similarly, a new study from
Canada also estimates an 87% efficacy of full Pfizer vaccinations to prevent symptomatic
disease. The symptomatic efficacy, however, is lower after one dose and estimated at one-third
for both Pfizer and AstraZeneca in the English study, and 56%/72% for Pfizer/Moderna in the
Canadian study
Yesterday, Israel's Health Ministry reported a 64% effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine in
preventing any infections and a 93% effectiveness in preventing hospitalizations. The 64%
estimate likely corresponds to the effectiveness to prevent both asymptomatic and symptomatic
infections while the studies from England and Canada and clinical trials assess symptomatic
infections. Taken at face value, these headline numbers suggest a reduced ability of the Pfizer
vaccine to stop the transmission of Delta infections relative to previously dominant strains,
although the "additional" infections are more likely to be asymptomatic.
Finally, in vitro studies from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson demonstrate their ability
to neutralize the Delta variant with neutralizing titers that were lower compared to the
ancestral strain but higher than for the Beta variant (first identified in South Africa), where
high efficacy against severe disease was clinically demonstrated.
Q. How effective are the Eastern vaccines against the Delta variant?
A. Although data remain very limited, Chinese and Russian expert commentary and clinical
trial results from India's Bharat Biotech suggest that the Sinopharm, Sputnik V, and Bharat
Biotech vaccines provide solid protection against severe disease.
Q. What about Delta's impact on reinfection risk?
A. Although the data are particularly limited, research and experts suggest that prior
infections continue to provide some protection against Delta, especially against severe
disease.
Q. The UK is experiencing a surge in infections although hospitalizations and especially
fatalities remain relatively low (Exhibit 2). What drives this "decoupling" and will it
continue?
A. This mostly reflects the concentration of new infections among younger individuals but
also a stronger vaccine protection against hospitalizations than against infections (especially
for AstraZeneca). We therefore expect this decoupling to continue.
Q. Are infections and hospitalizations/fatalities also "decoupling" outside of the UK?
A. Most other economies with high vaccination rates and Delta outbreaks are also
experiencing this decoupling, although it is particularly pronounced in the UK. We expect
hospitalizations to remain relatively low in high vaccination countries.
Q. Does the virus still matter for activity in North America and Europe if hospitalizations
stay low?
A. Yes. The virus GDP drag should, however, be much diminished and reflects travel
restrictions, consumer risk aversion, and lingering softness in labor supply
... ... ...
Q. The Delta variant has raised the theoretical bar to achieve herd immunity to probably at
least 85% of the population. Does vaccine hesitancy imply that countries will never approach
such high immunity levels?
A. Not necessarily, and many medical experts believe the coronavirus will eventually turn
from a pandemic to an endemic stage. The Delta variant likely implies higher ultimate
vaccination rates (and immunity rates). In fact, further outbreaks appear to be sharply
boosting demand in several countries, including the US, China, Australia, Israel, and
especially Portugal (Exhibit 13).
EatMyAssLibtards 9 hours ago
How anyone can believe this $hit anymore is a question not even God would have an answer
for
Four chan 6 hours ago
ITS GLOBALIST ******** FOLKS.
MaxmaxExtreme 5 hours ago remove link
Wait until the vaccine pushers hear about booster shots until the day they die, or
rather until it kills them.
The Ingenious Gentleman 7 hours ago
The vaccine is the new god. People who get it seem to positively religious about getting
others to do the same. Almost like they have been programmed.
Nona Yobiznes 5 hours ago
Have you seen the reddit community called ChurchOfCOVID? Worth checking out for some
laughs.
HowdyDoody 3 hours ago
What has happened to Goldman Sacks? They are way behind the curve. Delta is yesterday's
news. Lambda is where the action is.
That means that 64% of vaccinated can get Delta variant and spread it. This is the last nail
in the coffin of idiotic (in case of coronaviruses) Fauci idea of "herd immunity" and connected
with this fiasco of (1)vaccination of teenagers (and generally people younger then 30), pregnant
women and people who already recovered from COVID-19 and thus has natural immunity
Please note that COVID vaccines are experimental, unproven drugs (or gene therapy in case of
Pfizer and Moderna) and Fauci and other high level medical bureaucrats should be liable for any
negative consequences of this campaign.
The Israeli Ministry of Health announced that an epidemiological analysis had found that
since June 6 there was a "marked decline in the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine in preventing
infection (64%) and symptomatic illness (64%)."
"This decline has been observed simultaneously with the spread of the Delta variant in
Israel," t he
ministry said in a statement .
At the same time, "The vaccine maintains an efficacy rate of about 93% in preventing serious
illness and hospitalization cases," the officials emphasized.
... Professor Nadav Davidovitch, who sits on the government's expert advisory committee on
the coronavirus, told the Financial Times
the new finding was based on "preliminary" figures gathered by health authorities. "Delta is a
lot more infectious, but appears to not lead to as much serious illness and death, especially
given that we now have the vaccine," he said.
"... On Monday, health officials in Los Angeles County followed suit , recommending that "everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors in public places as a precautionary measure." ..."
"... Natural immunity among those already infected has also kept transmission low, she noted, but it is not clear how long natural immunity will last. ..."
But that was before the spread of the Delta
variant . Worried by a global surge in cases, the World Health Organization last week
reiterated its longstanding recommendation that everyone -- including the inoculated -- wear
masks to stem the spread of the virus.
On Monday, health officials in Los Angeles County followed
suit , recommending that "everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors in
public places as a precautionary measure."
Barbara Ferrer, the county's public health director, said the new recommendation was needed
because of upticks in infections, a rise in cases due to the worrisome Delta
variant , and persistently high numbers of unvaccinated residents, particularly children,
Black and Latino residents and essential workers.
Roughly half of Los Angeles County residents are fully
vaccinated , and about 60 percent have had at least one dose. While the number of positive
tests is still below 1 percent in the county, the rate has been inching up, Dr. Ferrer added,
and there has been a rise in the number of reinfections among residents who were infected
before and did not get vaccinated.
To the extent that Los Angeles County has managed to control the pandemic, it has been
because of a multilayered strategy that combined vaccinations with health restrictions aimed at
curbing new infections, Dr. Ferrer said.
Natural immunity among those already infected has also
kept transmission low, she noted, but it is not clear how long natural immunity will last.
As the Delta variant of the coronavirus surges through the U.K., almost half of the
country's recent Covid-19 deaths are of people who have been vaccinated.
.... ... ...
The U.K. is a testing ground for how vaccines are coping. Delta is racing through the
country -- with 146,000 identified cases in the past week, 72% up on the week before. The
country is also a world leader in identifying through testing and genetic sequencing which
versions of the virus are prevalent: By mid-June, 97% of cases were Delta infections. And Delta
is spreading among a population that is among the most highly vaccinated in the world: 85% of
adults have had at least one vaccine shot and 63% have had two.
Data from Public Health England show that there were 117 deaths among 92,000 Delta cases
logged through June 21. Fifty of those -- 46% -- had received two shots of vaccine.
First, vaccines aren't 100% effective. Not everyone who is inoculated will respond in the
same way. Those who are elderly or whose immune systems are faulty, damaged or stressed by some
other illness are less likely to mount a robust response than someone younger and fitter.
Covid-19 vaccines are highly effective but some people will still be vulnerable to the virus
even after receiving their shots.
Second, the risk of dying from Covid-19 increases steeply with age. If a vaccine reduces an
80-year-old's risk of death from Covid-19 by 95%, for instance, that 80-year-old's risk of
death might still be greater than the risk faced by an unvaccinated 20-year-old. Some chronic
illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension and lung disease are also associated with a higher
risk of severe illness and death.
Third, as more of the population gets vaccinated, there are fewer unvaccinated people for
the virus to infect. If the pool of vaccinated people is larger than the pool of unvaccinated
people, then it is possible and even likely that breakthrough infections resulting in death in
the older, vaccinated group would match or exceed deaths in the younger, unvaccinated group.
Consider an imaginary country with 100% of people vaccinated, where the virus can still somehow
spread. All Covid-19 deaths would be in vaccinated individuals.
Of those 50 deaths in fully vaccinated people in England, all were in people aged 50 years
and over, the data show. There have been no deaths recorded in double-vaccinated under 50s.
The data show that, overall, the fatality rate for confirmed cases of Covid-19 has been
lower than it was with the Alpha variant, which was first spotted in the U.K.
... Public Health England, using a variety of statistical analyses, has estimated that
vaccination reduces the risk of hospitalization with the Delta variant in people who have
received two doses by between 91% and 98%, with a central estimate of 96%.
Though vaccines offer substantial protection against severe illness and death, there is
growing evidence from lab studies and real-world data that Delta does have some ability to
bypass vaccines to cause milder infection.
Public Health England says that its analysis of Delta cases in England implies protection
against symptomatic Covid-19 caused by Delta of around 79%. That compares with an 89% reduction
in the risk of symptomatic Covid-19 with Alpha.
In Israel, a senior health official said in late June that in a recent outbreak of 200 or so
Delta cases, about half were in children 15 years old and younger and the other half were in
those aged 16 and above, of whom more than 80% are fully vaccinated.
British data shows Delta is even more adept at evading our immune response after just one
dose of vaccine, highlighting the importance, public health officials say, of getting two
shots. A single dose reduces the risk of symptomatic Covid-19 with Alpha by 49%, according
Public Health England, but only by 35% with Delta.
An outbreak of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in Israel has spread to some vaccinated people -- with about half of the adults infected
fully inoculated with the Pfizer shot, a health official said.
Ran Balicer, who heads a COVID-19 government advisory committee, said that about 90 percent of new infections in the country were
likely caused by the Delta variant, a highly-contagious strain that first emerged in India,
the
Wall Street Journal reported
.
"The entrance of the Delta variant has changed the transmission dynamics," Balicer said.
Children under the age of 16 -- the majority of whom had not received the vaccine -- were responsible for about half of the new cases,
Balicer said.
But about half of adults infected in the outbreak were considered fully-vaccinated -- meaning that it had been at least two weeks
since they received their final dose of the Pfizer shot, he said.
Balicer added that the so-called breakthrough cases were expected because though Pfizer is highly effective against the virus, it's
not 100 percent protective.
Israelis
wear protectives against COVID-19 at a shopping mall in Jerusalem on June 25, 2021.
EMMANUEL
DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images
The spread of the Delta variant comes as daily cases rose to 200 on Thursday from around 10 a day for most of June, the Wall Street
Journal reported.
Though the outbreak is small by global standards, it has prompted the government to reimpose indoor mask mandates, the newspaper
reported.
Health officials in the US have warned that the Delta variant will soon become the dominate strain of COVID-19.
But evidence has shown that the vaccine will prevent severe cases of the bug, as well as hospitalizations.
"Right now, in the United States, [Delta accounts for] about 10 percent of infections. It's
doubling every two weeks," Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug
Administration, said Sunday on
Face the Nation . "So it's probably going to become the dominant strain here in the
United States. That doesn't mean that we're going to see a sharp uptick in infections, but it
does mean that this is going to take over. And I think the risk is really to the fall -- that
this could spike a new epidemic heading into the fall."
Adding to the worry is new data that suggests Delta may also cause more severe disease -- in
addition to spreading to more people. Early findings out of Scotland suggest infections with
the Delta variant were associated with nearly double the risk of infected persons ending up
hospitalized compared to infections with the Alpha variant. The data was published
Monday as Correspondence in the Lancet . Experts say they'll need more data to confirm that
risk.
The bright side
The good news in all of this is that being fully vaccinated appears to protect against
Delta. At the end of May, researchers at Public Health England posted data (which had not been
peer-reviewed) indicating that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were 88 percent
effective at preventing a symptomatic infection with the Delta variant . Meanwhile, the
data said, two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were 60 percent effective. (Notably,
just one shot of either vaccine was not protective, offering only 33 percent efficacy
against symptomatic Delta infections. Experts emphasized the importance of not skipping the
second dose.)
Data out
of Scotland Monday likewise suggested that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were 79
percent effective against the Delta variant, while two doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were
again 60 percent effective.
Also on Monday, PHE released another analysis (also not peer-reviewed) that finds that two
doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were
96 percent effective against hospitalization and two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca
vaccine were 92 percent effective against hospitalization.
"So we have the tools to control this and defeat it," Gottlieb noted.
Looming risk
But experts are still concerned. The pace of vaccination has slowed significantly in the US,
and many states -- particularly in the South -- are far behind the goal of getting 70 percent
of adults at least one vaccine. Pockets of low vaccination are fueling fears among experts,
including Gottlieb, that cases could once again spike as Delta continues its spread.
Peter Hotez, director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development,
echoed that concern Tuesday. He told CNN that he is " extremely
worried " about the Delta variant. He emphasized that right now is "crunch time" to get
fully vaccinated -- which takes five to six weeks -- before Delta spreads further.
In a press briefing last week, top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci made a similar
plea, pointing to the rapid spread of the Delta variant in the UK. "
We cannot let that happen in the United States ," he said. This "is such a powerful
argument... to get vaccinated."
The trio of linked articles in top post concerning covid are all excellent. Each
highlights how very little is known, still, concerning viral transmission.
> [W]e do express our concern at the UK's decision to increase its nuclear weapons
arsenal, which is contrary to its obligations under Article VI of the NPT. It could have
a damaging impact on global stability and efforts to pursue a world free of nuclear
weapons.
At a time when nuclear weapon risks are higher than they have been since the Cold War,
investments in disarmament and arms control is the best way to strengthen the stability
and reduce nuclear danger. <
Yves Smith makes the suggestion that for starters we should just open some windows. Get
some ventilation. Get some fresh air. When I was still employed I was a house painter.
Way back in sixties and seventies painters learned drills for how to paint every surface of a
window. This is no longer required. Most windows are never opened. In newer homes it is
quite unusual to find windows that have ever been opened . Simplifies painting
enormously.
Poor people live in small dank dwellings and open the window. The rich still believe in
fresh air, have trouble finding painters who know what to do with double hung sash. Everyone
else believes in the miasma.
Windows are sealed shut. Sealed shut to keep out the unknown. Heating or air
conditioning is on 100% of the time. Opening windows is something very old people or very
rich people do, otherwise Americans do not.
The flip side of that is performative masking. When out of doors, even in the most
uncrowded spaces, the maskies are never seen without the mask. Not science, fear.
I was considering using "All that is fomites melts into air," but I couldn't bring myself
to, so count yourself lucky (and anyhow, it's not really true). From the beginning of the
#COVID19 pandemic, we've been washing our hands, masking up, cleaning surfaces, and social
distancing. These measures have worked (
especially masking ), but now we know more. There's mounting evidence that airborne
transmission indoors is a key -- perhaps the main -- pathway to SARS-COV-2 transmission. In
this post I want to look at why that's so, give examples, and suggest a simple heuristic to
stay safe. Material like this might also be used to inform public policy ( here ; here
) by reducing superspreader events in enclosed spaces like churches (airborne transmission via
singing), restaurants (loud talking, especially if room is noisy), bars (ditto), nursing homes
(shouting[1]), gyms (
grunting ), meat-packing plants ( shouting ), call centers (talking),
offices generally (air conditioning), and other hot spots, but working that polucy out is not
the object of this post ( see here for engineering controls for
airborne transmission , and here for covid-proofing
public spaces ).
Speech droplets generated by asymptomatic carriers of severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are increasingly considered to be a likely mode of disease
transmission. Highly sensitive laser light scattering observations have revealed that loud
speech can emit thousands of oral fluid droplets per second. In a closed, stagnant air
environment, they disappear from the window of view with time constants in the range of 8 to
14 min, which corresponds to droplet nuclei of ca. 4 μm diameter, or 12- to 21-μm
droplets prior to dehydration. These observations confirm that there is a substantial
probability that normal speaking causes airborne virus transmission in confined
environments.
That experiment was done inside a box.
Vox translates to real world terms:
A crowded indoor place, then, with poor ventilation, filled with people talking, shouting,
or singing for hours on end will be the riskiest scenario. A sparsely populated indoor space
with open windows is less risky (but not completely safe). Running quickly past another
jogger outside is on the other end of the spectrum; minimal risk.
(In other words, the problem is not density or proximity; the problem is transmission of the
virus, through the air, by human vocalization[2] (of which coughing and sneezing are a small,
and symptomatic, subset.)
That would explain why masks have worked. (One could argue that masks need only be worn
indoors, but most people are constantly moving from the outdoors to the indoors and out again,
which would involved touching the mask constantly to remove and replace it; better to wear it
all the time. In any case, minimal risk, to others, is not no risk). From the South China
Morning Post, "Coronavirus: hamster research shows effectiveness of masks 'huge' in Covid-19
battle, Hong Kong scientists say":
Hong Kong scientists conducting research on hamsters have offered the first proof of what
many residents have believed all along – that wearing surgical masks can significantly
reduce the rate of airborne Covid-19 transmission.
The study, which the team called the first of its kind, found the rate of non-contact
transmission – in which the virus was transmitted via respiratory droplets or airborne
particles – dropped by as much as 75 per cent when masks were present.
A passenger, known as "A", boarded a fully booked long-distance coach and settled down on
the second row from the back.
The passenger already felt sick at that point but it was before China had declared the
coronavirus outbreak a national crisis, so "A" did not wear a mask, nor did most of the other
passengers or the driver on the 48-seat bus."It can be confirmed that in a closed environment
with air-conditioning, the transmission distance of the new coronavirus will exceed the
commonly recognised safe distance," the researchers wrote in a paper published in peer-review
journal Practical Preventive Medicine last Friday. They said the study proves the importance
of washing hands and wearing face masks in public places because the virus can linger in the
air attached to fine droplet particles.
Here is a seating chart of the bus:
After reading this, I altered my practice not to mask up, which I was already doing, but to
avoid (air-conditioned) public transportation entirely, and indeed air-conditioned spaces
entirely.
We conclude that in this outbreak, droplet transmission was prompted by air-conditioned
ventilation. The key factor for infection was the direction of the airflow. Of note, patient
B3 was afebrile and 1% of the patients in this outbreak were asymptomatic, providing a
potential source of outbreaks among the public (7,8). To prevent spread of COVID-19 in
restaurants, we recommend strengthening temperature-monitoring surveillance, increasing the
distance between tables, and improving ventilation.
Here again is a seating chart:
I was already not going to restaurants because of the Chinese bus episode, if I had been, I
would have stopped. One can't wear a mask while eating!
Vocalization . We have several examples of vocalization (singing, shouting, talking,
grunting, etc.) causing transmission.
Following a 2.5-hour choir practice attended by 61 persons, including a symptomatic index
patient, 32 confirmed and 20 probable secondary COVID-19 cases occurred (attack rate = 53.3% to
86.7%); three patients were hospitalized, and two died. Transmission was likely facilitated by
close proximity (within 6 feet) during practice and augmented by the act of singing.
(Sadly, privacy concerns forbid a seat diagram.) I don't agree that proximity in and itself
transmits anything; it seems clear to me that singing was the issue (although transmission
through fomites was possible, as choir members put away chairs, etc.). Supporting evidence from
Missouri's Daily Journal, "
A surprising way you may risk getting Covid-19 ":
The possibility that singing might help transmit infectious diseases is not a new concept.
A 1968 article, "Singing and the Dissemination of Tuberculosis," described an elaborate box
that volunteers could talk, sing and cough into, allowing investigators to measure the
number, size and length of time airborne of individual infectious droplets they breathed out.
And a few TB outbreaks have featured singing, including one in a New Jersey church choir in
1995.
Some situations may be particularly risky. Meatpacking plants are likely vulnerable
because many people work closely together in spaces where low temperature helps the virus
survive. But it may also be relevant that they tend to be loud places, [Gwenan Knight of the
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine] says. The report about the choir in
Washington made her realize that one thing links numerous clusters: They happened in places
where people shout or sing. And although Zumba classes have been connected to outbreaks,
Pilates classes, which are not as intense, have not, Knight notes. "Maybe slow, gentle
breathing is not a risk factor, but heavy, deep, or rapid breathing and shouting is."
This report describes the cluster of 16 cases of confirmed or probable COVID-19, including
three deaths, likely resulting from transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at two family gatherings (a
funeral and a birthday party)
Here, instead of a seating diagram, we have a timeline:
I'm guessing "Happy Birthday" was sung at the birthday party, hence the greater number of
cases originating from it.
Here is the case of a South Korean call center. From the CDC, "Coronavirus Disease Outbreak
in Call Center, South Korea":
We described the epidemiologic characteristics of a COVID-19 outbreak centered in a call
center in South Korea. We identified 97 confirmed COVID-19 case-patients in building X,
indicating an attack rate of 8.5%. However, if we restrict our results the 11th floor, the
attack rate was as high as 43.5%. This outbreak shows alarmingly that severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can be exceptionally contagious in crowded
office settings such as a call center. The magnitude of the outbreak illustrates how a
high-density work environment can become a high-risk site for the spread of COVID-19 and
potentially a source of further transmission. Nearly all the case-patients were on one side
of the building on 11th floor. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, the predecessor
of SARS-CoV-2, exhibited multiple superspreading events in 2002 and 2003, in which a few
persons infected others, resulting in many secondary cases. Despite considerable interaction
between workers on different floors of building X in the elevators and lobby, spread of
COVID-19 was limited almost exclusively to the 11th floor, which indicates that the duration
of interaction (or contact) was likely the main facilitator for further spreading of
SARS-CoV-2.
Here we do have a seating diagram:
It seems unlikely to me that air conditioning was the major factor, because otherwise --
HVAC mavens in the readership will correct me -- the cases would have been distributed
throughout the floor. However, what call center personnel do is talk , a lot. Hence I
would urge that vocalization is the driver, not mere proximity.
Characteristics that might have led to transmission from the instructors in Cheonan
include large class sizes, small spaces, and intensity of the workouts. The moist, warm
atmosphere in a sports facility coupled with turbulent air flow generated by intense physical
exercise can cause more dense transmission of isolated droplets (6,7). Classes from which
secondary COVID-19 cases were identified included 5–22 students in a room ≈60 m2
during 50 minutes of intense exercise. We did not identify cases among classes with <5
participants in the same space. Of note, instructor C taught Pilates and yoga for classes of
7–8 students in the same facility at the same time as instructor B (Figure; Appendix
Table 2), but none of her students tested positive for the virus. We hypothesize that the
lower intensity of Pilates and yoga did not cause the same transmission effects as those of
the more intense fitness dance classes.
We see that "high intensity" classes accounting for all the transmission; there was no
transmission from Yoga and Pilates classes. Here the vocalization would be heavy breathing,
huffing and puffing.
Heuristic of Avoid Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Indoors
One salutary result of focusing on indoor transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is that we don't
have to get all het up [4] about photos like this anymore:
The foreground/background compressed photos of people enjoying outdoor spaces are
becoming an irresistible genre. This one from the Washington Post shows a few hundred
people in the space of a few hundred meters. In other words, reasonable numbers. The moral
panic will backfire. pic.twitter.com/MBBNNMVcXP
Photographer's tricks aside, these people are outdoors; the risk is minimal (though I still
won't answer for, say, small groups of people sitting on a beach blanket, sharing beers and
singing old songs). I would avoid groups like this, but then I would anyway, virus or no
virus.
The Japanese seem to have had some success by focusing on indoor transmission as well,
following a rule called "The Three C's." Here is a poster:
Experts are also credited with creating an easy-to-understand message of avoiding what are
called the "Three C's" -- closed spaces, crowded spaces and close-contact settings -- rather
than keeping away from others entirely.
"Social distancing may work, but it doesn't really help to continue normal social life,"
said Hokkaido University's Suzuki. "The 'Three C's' are a much more pragmatic approach and
very effective, while having a similar effect."
However, I think that knowing what we know now, we can add two more almost-C's to avoid: Air
C onditioning, and "Vo c alization (or perhaps C acophony?)
However, all in all, I think the best heuristic is offered by one Ángela Caída's
Twitter account:
This "Three C's environment is the same as a crowded, musty cave full of tightly packed,
chattering bats, which makes sense, because that's where the coronavirus evolved.
Caves are also cool, like air conditioned spaces, and while bats vocalize, I doubt they
transmit SARS-CoV-2 as well as we do[3].
So, to avoid SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission, don't be like a bat! Avoid bat caves! Also,
learn sign language?
[3] "Much of the cacophony in a bat cluster, the researchers suggest , is bats
voicing their annoyance with those in very close quarters around them." Bat vocalizations are "
ultrasonic ",
"repeated bursts of only a few hundred milliseconds." So making the assumption that
lower-pitched and longer human communication emits more virus, one might speculate that bats
would be less vulnerable to airborne transmission of #COVID-19 than humans.
[4] Terry Pratchett, The Truth :
"Mrs. Tilly, I think you wrote a lovely well-spelled and grammatical letter to us
suggesting that everyone under the age of eighteen should be flogged once a week to stop them
being so noisy?"
"Once a day, Mr de Worde," said Mrs. Tilly. "That'll teach 'em to go around being
young!"
So, if you must stay in a hotel while driving interstate to avoid air travel:
– choose an older hotel with (noisy) under-window AC rather than the more efficient
but potentially deadly central HVAC in newer buildings?
– minimize your (masked) time checking in; wipe down all surfaces w/ bleach esp
bathroom, TV remote, table tops; shove bedcover into a drawer; decline room service if only
staying one night; avoid common areas; skip breakfast entirely or at most grab and go; remote
checkout?
I'm depressed -- and vulnerable -- enough to seriously consider bringing along a
lightweight 2 person tent, and pop it up on top of the motel bed. Sleep, read, surf Internet
in the tent. Another option is sleeping in an RV a campground or a WLMart parking lot.
Age and health issues mean I need to start thinking this through or spend remaining years
at home.
Air travel is not in the same category as riding on a bus. Airplanes have HEPA filters.
From an interview with an associate professor of aviation maintenance:
HEPA filters are a very high-intensity system of fibers that you essentially run air
through to filter out an incredible amount of contaminants -- not just dust, not just
bacteria, but moisture, any sort of contamination that could potentially harm or create an
atmosphere in the cabin or the cockpit that could harm the passengers or the crews. The
material in them is much closer together compared to cheaper air filters, and that makes it
very difficult for biological elements to penetrate them.
How common are HEPA filters?
I don't know of an airline that's operating right now that does not have HEPA-level
filters on them, but that does not mean that one does not exist. There's a certain amount
of air quality that you have to maintain in your commercial airplane. If you're flying
commercial passengers or corporate passengers, you're going to have a HEPA filter or better
air filtration system.
So the risk in flying is not the air circulation. It is:
1. An unmasked person coughing, sneezing, or talking loudly, and you get their cooties
before the air gets sucked into the filtration system. Everyone on a plane is supposed to be
masked up but it's not easy to enforce, given that the airlines can't toss someone out at
39,000 feet.
2. Getting to the plane and your sear. Hard to imagine that people can stay 6 feet apart
when dealing with airline security and getting on board. Passengers are now required to be
masked up from TSA onward, so that can be enforced. Airport security can remove people.
3. Those bins at security! Filthy! Wear gloves for that part and remove/replace shortly
afterwards.
Lambert, it really depends on how the HVAC system is configured; different zones on a
particular floor may be served by different airhandlers.
Some buildings have large central A/C plants with massive airhandlers that serve the
entire building, especially in 1960's though mid 1970's vintage high-rise office towers.
Several of NYC's larger office REITs are considering installing UV equipment in the
airhandler fan chambers, but I haven't heard of any contracts being let just yet.
"Photographer's tricks aside, these people are outdoors; the risk is minimal ."
That might be true for for deep focus shots along seaside boardwalks,
but maybe not for the overhead shots of Lake of the Ozarks resorts that we've all seen.
Not to mention that drunks trying to impress the other gender can get very vocal.
It will be a very long time before my nuclear family unit ventures forth.
It seems like the trick might be to stay within your nuclear unit outdoors and not mix
with others. We'll need luck trying to teach that to pool bound Arkansas high schoolers (see
link below) or possibly Lake of the Ozarks revelers.
I have been out mountain biking with my younger son lately. We feel pretty safe so far.
The nice thing about biking in a relatively secluded place is that we literally touch nothing
that isn't "ours". Our only debates are if we need to press a button to cross a street.
Shutting down churches without shutting down trains (no HEPA filters there, presumably) if
their choral music is taped, not live performance, would seem selective, for those who do not
believe in livin on bread alone (thus spiritual nourishment is essential).
One of my basic rules of thumb is to only go into buildings with very high ceilings
(typical big box store) and low density of people. There is lots of air available then for
recriculation and you should be able to avoid the virus if you generally stay away from
people. I avoid all conversation with people.
By definition, this is generally not going to be a restaurant or bar, so they are out for
the foreseeable future.
I like the way that this article brings together so many threads and articles over the
past few months into a handy page. It looks much better when you see it all on one page and
start to make your own conclusions. Of course some of the conclusions suck as in no public
transport, no restaurants, no gyms, etc. Of course some people will not take note-
When talking about church transmission I thought about something from history. About two
centuries ago many Scots followed religions that were not exactly in line with the British
Army's professed Church of England. So to avoid getting caught at their own lay services,
they would head off to a field or hill and post guards at each corner to give warning of
spies and proceed in their services.
So yes, a lot of these churches could have their services in fields while the local
sky-pilot could use a megaphone to give the service. They just need to space themselves out a
bit. More to the point, some groups forget that their people are the church and not
just the buildings that they happen to use. We have even seen services conducted over the net
or in drive-in like services. I think that, for example, those people in that Mississippi
church that had their church burnt down may have forgotten that fact.
No. They are waiting for the Rapture..From a NC Contributor Tom Stone, "I have no problem
with individual Christians rushing to their Heavenly Rewards, it's when they take others with
them without their consent that I see an issue.."
In my comment I see that I neglected to say that it was not Scottish people that were
going off to fields and hills to have their lay services but Scottish Regiments .
A virus is a biological agent that reproduces inside the cells of living hosts.When infected by a virus, a host cell is forced to
produce thousands of identical copies of the original virus at an extraordinary rate. Unlike most living things, viruses do not have
cells that divide; new viruses are assembled in the infected host cell.
Introduction
to the Viruses. In 1898, Friedrich Loeffler and Paul Frosch found evidence that the cause of foot-and-mouth disease in livestock
was an infectious particle smaller than any bacteria. This was the first clue to the nature of viruses, genetic entities that lie
somewhere in the grey area between living and non-living states.
Introduction to viruses. ... Some viruses are further packaged into a lipid membrane or envelope that is usually acquired from the
cytoplasmic membrane of the infected cell and can be maintained only in aqueous solutions. The envelope is readily disrupted by drying,
acidic conditions, detergents, and solvents such as ether, resulting in the ...
This HD dramatic
video choreographed to powerful music introduces the viewer/student to the "Virus". It is designed as a "trailer" to be shown by
Biology teachers in middle and high school and ...
Introduction To Virus 1. WHAT IS A VIRUS? Viruses may be defined as acellular organisms whose genomes consist of nucleic acid, and
which obligately replicate inside host cells using host metabolic machinery to different extents, to form a pool of components which
assemble into particles called virions . A virus differs from a cell in three fundamental ways : i A virus usually has only a single
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Viruses are the smallest among all known organisms. The typical diameter of a spherical plant virus is ~30 nm. The rigid, rod-shaped
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Intro
to viruses. This is the currently selected item. Viral replication: lytic vs lysogenic. The immune system review. Practice: The immune
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Most of us
know about viruses, and that they spread disease. But what is a virus exactly? Is it alive? How does it infect a host? There's a
lot to discuss he...
The Last but not LeastTechnology is dominated by
two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt.
Ph.D
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GOATS AND SODA Is The Variant From India The Most Contagious Coronavirus Mutant On The Planet?
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BaNNeD oN THe RuN 8 hours ago (Edited)
