SELECTED AREA DAILY COVID HOSPITAL CENSUS:

 

So in Area G which included Marshall, there are currently 54 COVID hospitalizations. The average since 8 April for this area is 46. Or look at Austin: they have doubled their average. So, folks, it ain’t over yet; it ain’t even close. Wear your mask.

COVID-19 Hospitalizations  

 

To download an Excl spreadsheet for the whole state click: 

 

 

Can a Vaccine for Covid-19 Be Developed in Record Time? 

J. Harris: Fascinating and readable article about Vaccines — informative! I also must hope that an efficient antiviral drug will be found or developed sooner. 

 

“In the history of medicine, rarely has a vaccine been developed in less than five years…

… In virology labs…, we try to identify the viral proteins that a vaccine might target, usually the protein that recognizes and attaches to the host-cell receptor. All coronaviruses have a so-called spike protein, which is what gives the virus its corona-like morphology, the “crownlike shape,” as can be visualized in an electron microscope. To invade a cell, the spike protein attaches to a receptor — another protein, usually — on the cell’s outer membrane. This eventually results in the genetic material of the virus, in this case, an RNA protein complex, being internalized in the cell. And once that happens, replication can begin and a person can get sick. If you can identify the viral protein that interacts with the cellular receptor, then you can try to create a vaccine. This spike protein represents a particularly attractive candidate for a vaccine, because it is a protein that most prominently sticks outside of the surface of the virus, and so it’s the part of the virus that is most visible to the immune system.

 

…But we don’t just need a vaccine that works; we need one that can be reliably scaled up to manufacture in very large volumes. Ideally, it would be one that doesn’t require multiple doses to be effective, certainly not beyond, say, a two-dose regimen. And ideally it wouldn’t require refrigerated storage, so it can be made more available in resource-poor settings. So, there are characteristics of a vaccine in addition to safety and efficacy that are going to matter…”

 

 Something new:  ANTIBODY COCKTAILS: ..”.You can almost think of it as a temporary vaccine. Instead of waiting for a vaccine that will make the body make its own antibodies against the virus, we can make exactly those kinds of antibodies and inject them into people…”

 

 

A readable article that discusses “Reproduction Number” and the anticipation that cold weather will prolong our first phase (and bring a little flu at the same time).

 

 

Collins Pun: Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft.  Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can’t have your kayak and heat it too.

 

Really Bad Joke for today:  Geology rocks but Geography is where it’s at!