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

Spaniel - if you don't mind me asking, what do you do for a living? This was very helpful, I assume you're in the field.

 

Additionally, it seems like there are various technologies being used for this vaccine. Is there any one technology you're more hopeful for in terms of efficacy?

I'm a molecular biologist and now work on the business development side of things.  I have direct experience with mRNA vaccine technology.

The mRNA technology is the one I'm most excited about.  The reason is not just this vaccine, although this is now serving as the proving ground.  I expect several of these vaccines to show similar results....how good that is, I don't know.  But it looks promising so far.  But this is a new virus with a lot of unknowns, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

One only has to look at the 42 days it took Moderna to go from having the spike protein sequence to putting a vaccine in the clinic.  I'd have to look the days up but I think that's about right.  That's simply astounding, and that's why it's so exciting.  Given the nature of the technology, all you are changing from product to product is the coding sequence of the mRNA.  If the liposomal nanoparticle and any adjuvants used have already been in the clinic, the FDA sees no reason to test the vaccine in routine preclinical animal toxicology studies.  That, and the speed at which one can produce the initial template plasmid for the in vitro transcription to produce the mRNA are the reason for the speed.  Once this technology is proven, the promise for future pandemics is exciting.  There are a lot of wacky conspiracy theories about the Gates Foundation and their vaccine work but this potential is the reason they have been involved with this technology.

Crazy shit I heard on our local news last night - to help deal with the lack of affordable housing situation they are going to follow Seattle's lead and build a development of micro studios. 400 sq ft per studio with each 10 units sharing a common kitchen. WTF.

 

 

Also, on Bill Gates: imagine being one of America's greatest humanitarians, perhaps ever, and yet there are people who view him negatively. What exactly does Bill Gates have to do for people to have a positive view of him? Or is this all just sour grapes over the paperclip in Microsoft Word?

My bet is that Bill's "favorability numbers" are actually way way up over, say, the circa-2000 version when the evil empire was duking it out with the DOJ. In general, lots of people get that he and Melinda are guiding/funding amazing work worldwide. I don't think anyone could have predicted this whole science denial business and the mainstreaming of batshit conspiracy theories. Those people will view him negatively because, well, that whole thing is koo koo for coconuts.

As for the sour grapes, clippy was merely annoying... but there are LOTS of things that people were (are?) rightfully miffed at Microsoft about.

Since we're on the subject of Bill Gates... if you think the way I write words on this here board makes you believe that I'm some abusive cop that gets off on torture, well, you would have loved Microsoft-era Bill. That guy took no prisoners and employees have ptsd from interactions with him. He was (probably still is) all about fuck this, fuck that, fuck you and he was a yeller. When it was your turn to speak, you had two sentences to get it right or you'd get thumped. When he was super amped up, he'd rock back and forth in his chair just waiting to let loose.

 

Since we're on the subject of Bill Gates... if you think the way I write words on this here board makes you believe that I'm some abusive cop that gets off on torture, well, you would have loved Microsoft-era Bill. That guy took no prisoners and employees have ptsd from interactions with him. He was (probably still is) all about fuck this, fuck that, fuck you and he was a yeller. When it was your turn to speak, you had two sentences to get it right or you'd get thumped. When he was super amped up, he'd rock back and forth in his chair just waiting to let loose.

Doesn't matter one hoot. The Gates Foundation is doing things for good throughout the world which used to be only achievable by collaborations of nations.

Ballmer, also a known (and self-professed) hot-head screamer -- his USAFacts.org is a gift for anyone who wants direct, factual information on the state of our country and it's government. The annual 10K of the United States is tremendous.

When Sorros (sp?) dies, the QAnon nutjobs will adopt Gates as their next great evil, they're already revving up.

 

Doesn't matter one hoot. The Gates Foundation is doing things for good throughout the world which used to be only achievable by collaborations of nations.

So you're saying if someone abuses people privately, it "doesn't matter one hoot" as long as that person is admirable publicly?

I'm pretty sure this is actually all delayed blowback from MS-Bob.

Fun on two levels: 1) a lot of the learnings from Bob went into Clippy

2) You know who was a big cheese on the Bob team? Melinda French (now Gates)

Spaniel sighting!