The COVID-19 Wild West Thread (Read 601 times)

 

That was a great listen. His proposal for a global R&D agency with small, scalable stockpiles of potential pandemic vaccines is really such a common sense thing. I can't imagine that something like this won't receive serious consideration, going forward. How different would this have all been if we had been able to have a ready-for-prime-time vax even 3-4 months ago? The global financial considerations provided an especially critical argument in favor, on top of savings of lives.

It's so common sense there are laboratories all over the world doing exactly this.

Biosafety Level - List of BSL-4 Facilities | List BSL-4 Facilities (liquisearch.com)

Biosafety Levels 1, 2, 3 & 4 | What's The Difference? (consteril.com)

 Hopefully there is a third round of COVID 19 with everything closing and Governors and elected officials encouraging people to stay home.

Perhaps I'm misreading your point, however it seems you are advocating for more people to get sick, some severely, and some will die. That is illuminating.

Did you listen to the podcast? As I understood it this would theoretically be a relatively small, single location facility with no more than 100-150 scientists. It would serve global needs on a fast scale.

I must not have. Just pulled those quotes out of thin air. How else would I know about the 100 vaccines he picked 14 from or him saying testing after 14 days isn't representative because it is at the HEIGHT of the body's immunological response? I must have just gotten lucky.

Those small single location facilities exist already. I gave you a list of them. They keep stuff there like Ebola and Polio and other things generations have grown up thinking are eradicated. They serve global needs on a fast scale.

 

4.99% of the entire United States has been a COVID 19 case.

What sort of chronic health issues will those survivors go on to experience and the accompanying long-term strain placed on our already overextended, inadequate healthcare system? This guy's both an oncologist AND a cancer survivor:

I really wish people would stop discussing the % of survivors as if they 100% recover without any serious, fuckawful ramifications.

 

The running thing is wild and a little creepy -- I've wondered if a brief passing like that would trigger a match. I don't encounter a lot of people on my runs, so it's not hugely surprising. I kind of suspect that the app doesn't have great accuracy indoors (our phones don't generally work well in the store, at least), which is where my son would have his potential interactions.

So..if you're talking about the Maryland Covid app, it tracks interactions via bluetooth.  Being indoors or out shouldn't make any difference in itself; being near something that might interfere with bluetooth could.

Looking at the description of the Maryland app, it appears to be structured like the Virginia app.  So you need a cumulative 15 minutes of contact; not a brief passing.

And of course, each runner would need to be carrying their phone at the time.  Many do not (including me).  

I have the Covid app on my phone, but I do turn off bluetooth (or try to, sometimes I forget) before leaving my phone in my car while I go running.  I'd rather not get a false alarm exposure from someone who was near my phone for 15 minutes while my phone was nowhere near me.

I do remember to turn bluetooth back on, because it's hard to forget to, since a notice keeps popping up.

The way I understand the MD app is that it will notify you if there is an exposure, which is the 15 minutes. Buried in the settings, it has matches, which the way I read it is that it is a passing encounter with someone who tested positive that doesn't reach the threshold for an exposure.

 

It's also all reliant on the other person using the app. So the person testing positive has to get and put in a code from the health department. There was also something about entering the code based on dates--so if you got a positive test today, but symptoms started 12/10, you enter the code starting 12/10. No clue how that part looks and hope not to find out.

Yup.  The bluetooth is constantly looking for other phones with the app, and storing on your phone records of any long term (cumulative 15 minutes) interactions with other phones.  It does not need cell phone signal for that.   It only needs cell phone signal occasionally to check whether any of your contacts match a list of confirmed Covid cases.

And the really nice thing from a privacy perspective is that your own location data is never anywhere other than your own phone.  Unless you come down with Covid.

From a privacy standpoint, they did a really good job with this app.

Since the app is voluntary, it is doubtlessly being used by the subset of the population most likely to follow up if they develop Covid (assuming they're not incapacitated, which is a significant assumption).

Should add - the symptoms versus test results date thing makes eminent sense.  Essentially, if you were in proximately to this person for 15 minutes on 12/11, and they were symptomatic starting on the 12/10 but tested positive on 12/15, it means that the report sent to your phone will ask if your phone had any contacts with the other phone after 12/10, not after 12/15.  So you can be alerted so you can quarantine even if you're not symptomatic.

Also adding, there's a good reason to require people to enter the code before their information is shared.

When you install the app on your phone, you are installing an app with the understanding that it will NOT upload your location data - that data stays safe on your phone.

But....if you catch Covid, the notification of others that you have it will require uploading your past location data to a government entity and also disclosing that you have Covid.  You need to consent to that.  Hence entering the code.

I figrue the covid app gives out less location info than Strava.

Almost certainly less than FB!

I have the MI app. I’m guessing they’re all pretty similar. Mine is probably not particularly useful. The majority of people I’m encountering are elderly. If it’s dependent upon Bluetooth and an app, that population may not be widely making use of it. My 76 year old mom wouldn’t know what to do (granted, she’s a major technophobe). She mostly uses her iPhone for calls, texts, and reading the news.

As difficult and weird as the whole experience has been, and as much as I've been critical of many of the decisions our school district has made, I fully support the decision announced this morning that if there is a snow day tomorrow, it will be a true snow day with no remote learning.

The kids get to wake up in the morning see whether a snow day is called just as God intended (albeit, via the internet and email/text and not by listening to the radio or watching the local news on tv.)