I want to say that I’ve been really happy with the KN95 masks I’ve been able to get from WellBefore (Jeanne had actually initially recommended the company). It is not cheap but I usually use masks multiple times because I have a UV sanitizing box to put them in after use. (Medical professionals also use these kind of boxes, too. But you can determine your own comfort level).
@danielle, I've been using the WellBefore masks for many months and really like them. I especially like the ones with the adjustable ear loops.
President Biden has tested positive for Covid.
May his illness be short lived and may this shine a light back on covid again. The numbers are horrid right now and getting no media coverage. It may be a milder strain in some ways but people are still dying while governments are acting like the economy is the most important thing.
Everyone is acting like it is over. It is NOT over.
According to the Washington Post, we should be extremely concerned about the current numbers of acute infections people are having from covid. Long covid is a big thing.
An in depth Scottish study found that between six and 18 months after infection, 1 in 20 people had not recovered and 42 percent reported partial recovery. There were some reassuring aspects to the results: People with asymptomatic infections are unlikely to suffer long-term effects, and vaccination appears to offer some protection from long covid.
Between 7 million and 23 million Americans — including 1 million who can no longer work — are suffering from the long-term effects of infection with the virus.
The whole article and the findings can be found here. It is worth a read.
This virus is still here! State safe everyone and do what you can to keep healthy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/10/12/long-covid-study-scotland/
@lovendures the good news is that new studies are showing a decreased risk of developing long COVID with each vaccination.
Per the study cited in this article, 2 shots dropped your risk of developing long COVID by 41%. And while I don’t have the article at hand, I did read recently that boosters also improved you odds of not getting long COVID.
https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/covid-19-vaccination-protects-against-long-covid
https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/covid-19-vaccination-protects-against-long-covid
New article by ProPublica indicates that yes, COVID originated in the Wuhan Lab and most likely got out due to incompetence:
To everyone who suspected this in 2020 and whom I poo-pooed - SORRY! you were right!
"Science bad! Burn the lab!" (Homer Simpson)
I’m pretty suspect of that conclusion. Scientists have already surmised the virus make up doesn’t support that outcome. Vanity Fair is who I saw with that article. Haven’t seen the propublica piece
example of just ONE scientist today:
https://twitter.com/peterhotez/status/1585787210581819392?s=46&t=fw2BCbAsQVIEBl6sl6aerQ
That particular scientist posted that to Twitter exactly because he feels that his prior research was dismissed out of hand, he is mentioned in the article. Read the full article.
TLDR:
- It was definitely a bat virus
- That virus was being manipulated in the WIV lab as early as 2018 when the lab opened
- Scientists there were working on a vaccine PRIOR to Fall 2019
- Chinese party/gov officials had been questioning safety measures at that lab
- Lab scientists replied by saying they had insufficient equipment, experience, protocols
- Something happened around Oct-Nov 2019 that caused the Party officials to refer to a "grave situation" at that lab
- The lead scientist at WIV died but no one knows how or why (was it COVID? or execution because he threatened to whistle blow?)
- Clearly the Chinese engaged in a cover-up
- There is a zoonotic origin, however IF it were really spread via animals in the public market, there would be genetic markers of SARS-CoV-2 in other animals in the region, to date there are not, there is only evidence of human to human transmission at the market.
- The Chinese government removed and disappeared ALL the animals at that market before any scientist could adequately study them
- 2003-04 SARS was a lab leak in China as well, well proven.
Listen, I was on the crossover bandwagon until recently. I know people in the US Intelligence community and they are trustworthy. They consistently tell me the Chinese (government, not individuals) are not to be trusted, they will do whatever they can to gain global dominance, and in fact do so regularly, you just don't hear about it.
"Let China sleep, for if she awakes she will shake the world." -- Napoleon Bonaparte
@laura-f That's a hit for me. I don't remember you poo-hooing me, but I have always believed, known, it was started in the Wuhan lab. It's one of those knowings. I stated it here in this forum once, but don't remember when or where. When I read that the World Health Organization had absolutely concluded that it did not start in a lab, I just knew they were wrong. I wish I could know everything as certainly as I knew that.