What We Know So Far About SARS-CoV-2 (theatlantic.com) 214
We've known about SARS-CoV-2 for only three months, but scientists can make some educated guesses about where it came from and why it's behaving in such an extreme way. From a report: The structure of the virus provides some clues about its success. In shape, it's essentially a spiky ball. Those spikes recognize and stick to a protein called ACE2, which is found on the surface of our cells: This is the first step to an infection. The exact contours of SARS-CoV-2's spikes allow it to stick far more strongly to ACE2 than SARS-classic did, and "it's likely that this is really crucial for person-to-person transmission," says Angela Rasmussen of Columbia University. In general terms, the tighter the bond, the less virus required to start an infection. There's another important feature. Coronavirus spikes consist of two connected halves, and the spike activates when those halves are separated; only then can the virus enter a host cell. In SARS-classic, this separation happens with some difficulty. But in SARS-CoV-2, the bridge that connects the two halves can be easily cut by an enzyme called furin, which is made by human cells and -- crucially -- is found across many tissues. "This is probably important for some of the really unusual things we see in this virus," says Kristian Andersen of Scripps Research Translational Institute. Further reading: How the Coronavirus Could Take Over Your Body (Before You Ever Feel It)
"no one is likely to repeat that mistake again." (Score:3)
Has the author MET human beings? I'm sure that specific field of research will be very high profile for the next few years, and then the next couple decades after that it'll fade to obscurity again, until the next coronavirus pandemic.
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And is also being amplified by Trump and the Republican party's incompetence and greed. Republican senators on the intelligence committee who were briefed about this sold a ton of stock after that briefing and then lied to the public about the threat.
There's plenty of blame to go around.
And if you want to start talking about reparations, you'd better be prepared for the enormous box of bills the CIA's run up the world over.
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Let's not forget the health officials who would have dealt with this if the President didn't fire them and close their whole office.
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Sheer nonsense. Don't be such a willing progressive propaganda tool. https://wapo.st/2UDN2dR/ [wapo.st]
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That link just goes to the front page of The Washington Post and does nothing to support your propaganda.
""The fact that they explicitly dismantled the office in the White House that was tasked with preparing for exactly this kind of a risk is hugely concerning," Jeremy Konyndyk, who ran foreign disaster assistance in the Obama administration, told the Guardian. "Both the structure and all the institutional memory is gone now.""
https://www.theguardian.com/wo... [theguardian.com]
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It was likely this article here: https://archive.ph/Lqz1m [archive.ph] which also disputes the guardian one. Or this one: https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
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Just round them all up and shoot them. No danger of hitting an innocent soul, that's for sure.
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Dianne Feinstein is a Democratic Senator from California.
I would have to agree that she is likely on the wrong side of every issue and now she gets some SEC investigations.
Re: All because of bat soup (Score:2)
We heard your complaints (Score:5, Funny)
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Does that mean we should refer to the current virus as "new-SARS"?
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The makers of "Corona" beer would greatly appreciate this switch.
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Re: We heard your complaints (Score:3, Funny)
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Look at Mr Superior Belgian here.
Dude, he copped to them owning Bud Light - there's nothing superior about that.
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Hey, I know that things are difficult, but we really don't need to use such obscene language as the "B-word" here. And yes, I know we are a bunch of stupid turlingdromes.
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Re: We heard your complaints (Score:2)
Re: We heard your complaints (Score:2)
So this was all just a conspiracy to switch to HFCS in the virus?
Re: We heard your complaints (Score:5, Funny)
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Re: We heard your complaints (Score:5, Insightful)
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It's not the flu, it's not related to the flu. It's a complete different pathogen.
No worries, the people using their own pet names are not that bright.
Just ignore them.
Re: We heard your complaints (Score:4, Funny)
It's not the flu, it's not related to the flu. It's a complete different pathogen.
Indeed. Covid is negative-sense RNA. Influenza is positive-sense RNA.
They don't even use the same genetic code.
Humans are more closely related to cantaloupes than covid is to the flu.
Re: We heard your complaints (Score:5, Informative)
More correctly, SARS-CoV-2 is more closely related to the common cold than the flu. The latter is caused by influenza virus, while the former is attributed to a number of viruses including coronavirus, rhinovirus and others.
Also, SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the virus. Covid-19 is the name of the disease it causes (it stands for Coronavirus Disease). It's like HIV/AIDS - HIV is the virus that causes AIDS, the disease.
And soap and water is the most effective way to "kill" the virus. The outer shell (spikes and all) of the virus is made of fatty oils called lipids. Soap has surfactants that let oil and water mix (they contain a non-polar tail that attracts non-polar molecules like fats and oils, and a polar head that is attracted to polar molecules, notably water). As a result, the surfactant tails are attracted to the lipids and basically rip the virus apart. The lipids are contained by the surfactants and you're left with basically exposed RNA, which will rapidly degrade. But it's also harmless - the purpose of the fatty shell not only protects the RNA, but is what sticks to the cells and injects the RNA into the cell. So the raw RNA is effectively neutered since its protective shell is gone as well as its transport into the cell. The rest of the handwashing simply discards the destroyed virus into the drain.
Hand sanitizer works by denaturing proteins - either denaturing the lipids or by denaturing the RNA so what's injected into the cell is just garbage.
Re: We heard your complaints (Score:2)
Re: We heard your complaints (Score:3)
Less politics, less finger pointing and blame and more ACCURATE science.
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Pretty sure it will be called the Trump Plague around those parts.
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Pretty sure it will be called the Trump Plague around those parts.
Federal prison?
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Federal prison?
Trailer parks.
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Shanghai Shivers, Sino Sneeze
Beijing Bug
Beijing Bung Lung
Tiananmen Toxicant
Wuhan Whatchamacallit
Wuhan Wheeze
Wuhan Weapon
Wuhanic Plague
Whumonia
Seoul Damage Control
Tokyo Airborne Torpedo
Rangoon Doom
Lo Mein Pain
Cantonese Killer
Jingpei Jitters
Dim-Sum Diarrhea
Xinping Cough
Guangdong Gout
Confucian Cancer
Szechuan Sore Throat
Coolie Cooties
Terminal Taoism
Mandarin Malady
Hong Kong Cholera
Hong Kong Fluey
Asian Microinvasion
Asian Ailment
(CCP) Chinese Cough Pandemic
Chinaids
Red Plague
Bamboo Burden
Egg Roll Toll
Teriyaki Terro
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If history calls it the "Wuhan flu", then history is an idiot. SARS-COV-2 is about as closely related to influenza as a horse is to a jellyfish.
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Re: We heard your complaints (Score:2)
The question is, do doctors use "stomach flu" when they know the people they're talking to are idiots?
It might also be an American thing, I've never heard anyone talking about stomach flu.
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That the disease originated in China no more makes it a Chinese disease than the fact that devices being made in the USA makes them American citizens.
What are these mythical made in the USA devices of which you speak? :-)
Fun fact, China makes many (most?) of the supply of N95 respirator masks -- or did until everyone there got quarantined. From The Only Way We Can Get Out of This Situation Is With China [nymag.com]:
Hospitals and health-care providers are facing a shortage of personal protection equipment even as manufacturing resumes in China, where most health-care safety products are made. For almost two months, protective equipment — gowns, face shields, gloves, N95 masks — were either not being manufactured in China because workers were under quarantine or not being exported because China was claiming the equipment for its own needs. But over the past week, China has slowly resumed exporting safety gear.
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That the disease originated in China no more makes it a Chinese disease than the fact that devices being made in the USA makes them American citizens.
What makes it a Chinese virus is the U.S. response to government sponsored propaganda campaign against the United States. Don't expect anyone in the US to give a flying fuck.
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Re:We heard your complaints (Score:5, Informative)
HIV didn't start in Africa. ... a virus called SIV jumped on humans mutated and became HIV.
Yes it did
You actually should have learned that in school or picked up in the news, depending on your age. Up to you to figure what SIV means (hint the H in HIV stands for "human").
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aeropage doesn't think he's a type of animal. Whether plant, fungus or virus, he refuses to say, just not human.
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You do know human is a type of animal? Perhaps they left that out of your programming?
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Actually, it is based on observation. You should try it, you might notice some things.
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What the fuck. Have you not noticed that you breathe, shit, piss, bleed, get horny, have skin and hair, breast feed (if female) come in two sexes, are bilateral and so on?
There is no dividing line between animal and human, its like saying what is the dividing line between a tree and a plant.
Perhaps I'm giving you the benefit of believing you're human rather then a computer program that repeats itself to be a bad example of artificial intelligence.
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Well, if there was a designer, they were sure shitty at it. Adapting a fishes spine for upright walking is just one example of a failure at design. But who knows, perhaps there are gods with no morals who enjoy torturing things. Personally, if so, I don't want anything to do with them.
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Which God? I think you've been sucked in by Coyote, the trickster.
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Every culture on the Earth seems to have a trickster god and the fact he wrote the bible shows his capabilities.
Think about it, gods are going to be in every culture, not just one, as they are gods, not limited by a book or limited to recent history
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I don't click youtube links.
Re: We heard your complaints (Score:2)
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When you start off your comment with a factually false statement, just how serious do you think anyone's going to take you?
Thank you for the demonstration of Poe's Law, by the way.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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Had we competent leadership, we might be in South Korea's position. They are doing reasonably well. Instead we are in Italy's.
We aren't even remotely in Italy's position. You are letting your hatred of Trump blind you.
Obama's genius when it came to horrible diseases was to try hard to bring in ebola patients to the US.
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WHO, is who, are you doing a Abbot and Costello routine with a propaganda troll https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]. So 'What' is the tailor made virus all about, 'I Don't Know' and 'Why' would anyone believe the troll, except of course troll modders, 'Because' of course none of this bullshit matters 'Today', all that matters is what the government of China believes and what they will do 'Tomorrow' in retaliation and they will retaliate if they believe the USA introduced the pathogen on purpose whether the de
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Then why didn't the con artist call last year's measles outbreak the Jewish measles? Or maybe the Israeli measles? That's where it came from. Some unvaccinated traveler from Israel brought it to this country.
Or is that being anti-semitic for pointing out its origins? Maybe it just sounds stupid to call it that, just like your pathetic excuse for a name.
Re: We heard your complaints (Score:2)
Because it was just an outbreak of regular old measles. If it had been a completely new strain of measles which had never before been seen, then yeah, it could very well be called "Israeli Measles", though that isn't quite as catchy as "Wuhan Virus".
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History uses SARS. Republicans are trying to push the label Chinese Virus because they cynically believe that it will gain them points against the Dems. Or at least that's what the consultant they paid a pot of money to told them to do:
Bullshit, you Chicom propagandist.
It's being called the Chinese Virus, (like CNN was calling it before China told them to stop), because that's where it originated. Trump has doubled-down on calling it that after China started claiming that the virus was created and released by the US military.
And of course China suppressed any news about it, arrested whistleblower doctors that tried to warn people, and spread misinformation about what was going on for months, and continue to do so to this day.
The article you linked and quoted is a direct quote from Chinese government sources. The exact same article is posted on Rawstory and DCReport, repeating Chinese propaganda as if it was written by their own reporters.
Total disinformation campaign from the Chicoms, and you are part if it.
These two different views of the same situation aren't exclusive. It's likely that both views contain some truth. That is, Trump has reasons for attributing the virus to China, and he's doing this to score political points.
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So it's revenge.
And in the USA, we lie and call the virus "low risk," we accuse of the press of being in "hysteria mode," we blame the crashing stock market on our political ri
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Yea, you're right, everything you said. I think the US can claim a lot better transparency (there are no non-profit orgs getting information by FOIA request from government agencies in China) than China can, but, yea, governments lie.
More to the point, China is the geopolitical rival of the US, even if it never comes to blows, so-to-speak. But as an American (and reasonably opposed to Chinese-style Communism), I'll side with the US on these issues. China's propaganda that they are spreading in this country
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Trump has doubled-down on calling it that after China started claiming that the
virus was created and released by the US military. ...
China never did that.
Iran did
Yes China did that. Lijian Zhao spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry tweeted the following on March 12th.
"When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected?"
"CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!"
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"When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected?"
Which obviously does not mean: USA created it. It means: why did the US not react on the first patient?
It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan.
Obviously only rhethoric, after Trumps accusations.
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None of this says it was "created and released by the US military"
"It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. " is close enough as far as I'm concerned.
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WTF? This site is overrun with ChiCom propagandists. WTH is happening?
China never did that. Iran did ...
WOW Where are you getting this bit of disinformation, comrade? You've gotta be kidding me.
BEIJING — China is pushing a new theory about the origins of the coronavirus: It is an American disease that might have been introduced by members of the US Army who visited Wuhan in October.
There is not a shred of evidence to support that, but the notion received an official endorsement from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs [taiwannews.com.tw], whose spokesman accused American officials of not coming clean about what they know about the disease.
If you're going to try to spread this kind of bullshit, at least own up to it instead of blaming it on somebody else. Bold af.
This guy is doing state-level propaganda for the ChiComs, right here ^^
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Name calling and shouting will just make you look like an alt-right wing-nut with the screws tightened down.
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It is an American disease that might have been introduced by members of the US Army who visited Wuhan in October. Which is not impossible. Perhaps implausible.
After all it is currently unknown if and from which animal the virus jumped on humans.
A bit embarrasing that two world leaders feel the need to assault each other on twitter ... amusing somehow.
We know a vaccine could have already been made (Score:2)
Re:We know a vaccine could have already been made (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, but vaccines for hypothetical public health threats doesn't pay nearly as well as boner pills do, so who wants to sink money into research that might never go anywhere.
This is reason #13512 why for-profit medicine and medical research is terrible.
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Yes, but vaccines for hypothetical public health threats doesn't pay nearly as well as boner pills do, so who wants to sink money into research that might never go anywhere.
On the other hand, boners are nearly as much fun when you're coughing up a lung.
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I don't think people in the public health field thought that newly emergent strains of SARS were a "theoretical" threat; more like a matter of time.
Re: We know a vaccine could have already been made (Score:3)
USA system has the best intensive care per population unit ration because it is commercialized.
Because rich folks paid for development of such system.
Re:We know a vaccine could have already been made (Score:5, Insightful)
With all respect to him, but there are 12 to 20 known Corona viruses known.
The current one is actually an previously unknown one.
For the Flu we can not make a general vaccine that covers all of the flu viruses.
I doubt it was possible to make a vaccine for this SARS-CoV-2 before hand, or a general vaccine for all Corona viruses.
However he is right, not putting money into basic research to have recipes you simply pull out of the drawer when you need them is utterly stupid.
ACE inhibitor drugs (Score:2)
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'Further reading' at the bottom is FUD (Score:2)
How fast does it mutate? (Score:2)
Meaning we will get it multiple times.
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Not that fast. There's 100 variants so far, but none are dominant and (so far) no one has reported re-infection.
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It definitely does mutate [bloomberg.com]
The early work found that infections were doubling roughly every six days, and that for every three to four rounds of transmission—or once every 20 to 30 days—one minor mutation was occurring, Bedford said in a Feb. 13 interview.
But these are minor mutations. It doesn't mutate in the same kind of way influenza mutates It doesn't mutate like influenza [nationalpost.com] Seems to be mutating at similar rates to other coronaviruses
This is less than half the rate at which influenza viruses typically mutate, which itself is slow enough to allow the production of annual flu vaccines.
suggestions it may be easier to vaccinate against than flu [tufts.edu]
In terms of creating a vaccine for COVID-19, the immediate goal would be to create a vaccine against what appears to be for the most part a single strain or type of coronavirus. That target might be a little easier than creating a vaccination for the flu, a virus that is endemic and has different strains and different subtypes that can dominate and appear in different years—making it very difficult to predict which will be the emerging flu viruses and costly to develop vaccines, which is why researchers are trying to develop one universal flu vaccine against all of them.
It kulled the economy (Score:4, Insightful)
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I don't expect a ten-year depression.
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Economic warfare and social engineering. Easy governance of smart people who are outnumbered by sheeple.
Let's be real. When you have libtard minions protesting the pollution (cause by having a job and contributing to an economy) caused by these same people (big business) and their plastics and fossil fuel burning, karma comes and kills the economy. That's what humans have been reduced to. The weakest outnumber the string and pull everyone down. Orange man bad.
I can't tell if you are a troll or really believe this horseshit.
Questions that need asking - (Score:2)
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When others panic bought toilet paper, you should probably have gone for the tin-foil aisle =/
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Rather than banding together to stop an emergent threat everyone just spews vitriol.
Fortunately for us all, the people banding together to stop this threat are working in research and medical facilities, not Internet comment boards.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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But it does help us pinpoint the behaviour that allowed the virus to come into existence and then spread so rapidly in the country of origin. Not so we can pin the blame on anyone, but so we can make it much less likely that we don't have a new one appear next year.
Not that I agree with any of p51d007 [slashdot.org]'s opinions.
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Most countries started out in denial out of fear of ruining their economy. Some adjusted quicker then others and actually seem to have it under control. Others are still using it to score political points instead of working together.
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The most closely related recently emergent disease to COVID-19, after SARS, is MERS -- Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome -- which is believed to have spread from Egyptian tomb bats to camels, and then to people.
The natural focus of this genus of coronaviruses (Betacoronavirus) seems to be bats, and bats are globally distributed. The largest bat colonies in the world are located in Texas. The Mexican free-tailed bat found in Texas has been known to carry coronaviruses, so it's quite plausible that at some
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I presume they eat cows.
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They're Texans, they'll hunt them themselves excepting those who find them dead on the road and cook them up on their trucks engine.
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No no no, you have the right idea, but the details are wrong.
See, China was reeling from the 'trade war' with the US, and knew that if Trump was re-elected, they'd face another 4 years of his screeching. So they hatched a plan that would accomplish a few goals.
1. put the US and Europe (because really, the EU would side with the US over China if things got really rough) in their place.
2. knowing that they control the vast, overwhelming majority of the world's access to medicine, medical supplies, and medica
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What is it with people and toilet paper? Seriously, I don't get the obsession. Fuck, if everything else fails, hang your ass into the bathtub and wash it!
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The paper products don't really deteriorate with time. So you can stockpile up on 5-10 years worth of it and stack it in the garage. If the apocalypse occurs and society breaks down, you have 5-10 years worth of TP. If the emergency passes and things go back to normal, you were going to buy TP in the next 5 years anyway so you haven't really lost anything there. The only thing you've lost is a bit of storage space in the garage
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I'm pretty sure TP will be back in stock in a week or two. At some point, one can really only hoard so much TP before even the most panicky idiots will see they don't need any more.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/c... [forbes.com]
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What do you mean, "in a week", I can literally go to any supermarket of my choice and get as much TP as I might want. Right now. WTF, people?
Re:immunity? (Score:4, Funny)
What is it with people and toilet paper?
Panicky People Full of Shit! Details at 11.
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Yeah, the meme reason for the incredible need for TP: One person sneezes and a hundred crap themselves, so they need a lot fo TP.
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If you get the virus (and get better) are you then immune from getting it again (at least until it mutates)?
This question, as all such questions, should be answered only by an authoritative source [cdc.gov]:
"Q: Can people who recover from COVID-19 be infected again?
A: The immune response to COVID-19 is not yet understood. Patients with MERS-CoV infection are unlikely to be re-infected shortly after they recover, but it is not yet known whether similar immune protection will be observed for patients with COVID-19."
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I had a gnarly cold a week or two ago and I hit the DayQuil pretty hard, and the NyQuil too. I coughed up a ton of gack and now I'm doing well. I'm an asthmatic, too.
Perhaps guaifensin is my hero.
Re: Have to say think you.... (Score:4, Informative)
Remember back in the day, when Google was actually _good_ at searching the internet?