Mastodawn

It's 2023 - no it's 2024. It's 2025. No, no, it's 2026! And we have another variant that defeats vaccination to date:

BA.3.2-derived lineages exhibit escape from vaccine-elicited neutralising antibodies [1]

And another variant that is defeated by N95s and clean air, because

70 to 75 genetic changes in its spike protein [2]

can't stop aerosolized particles from being trapped by effective filtration.

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2052297526000314
[2] https://theconversation.com/covid-19-variant-ba-3-2-is-spreading-quickly-across-us-a-doctor-explains-what-you-need-to-know-279447

#SARSCoV2 #COVID #COVID19 #CovidIsAirborne #CovidIsNotOver

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datum (n=1)

Warning though: that 2nd link is a heavy minimizer at times:

there’s no indication that it’s any more dangerous or that it causes more severe disease than the COVID-19 variants that have circulated widely over the past few years. [2]

yeah well there's no indication it's any LESS dangerous than the rest which are ongoing costing us lives and healthspans, the trillion dollar a year economic loss, all the human cost from "about half" of healthcare workers with Long COVID, the double-digit general population with Long COVID, is there?

Still no indication it's mild, then, hm? None at all, zero? OK. Moving along.

[2] https://theconversation.com/covid-19-variant-ba-3-2-is-spreading-quickly-across-us-a-doctor-explains-what-you-need-to-know-279447

#COVID #COVID19 #SARSCoV2 #publichealth

COVID-19 variant BA.3.2 is spreading quickly across US – a doctor explains what you need to know

The current COVID-19 vaccine does not match the strain that’s now becoming dominant in the US, which could lead to a rise in COVID-19 cases.

The Conversation

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datum (n=1)2d ago

Look, we have known for more than half a decade that COVID-19 is airborne, we shouldn't need to have this fight.

When an article gets something wrong to the point that it is dangerous to the public, that is the definition of a public danger. So when this piece https://theconversation.com/covid-19-variant-ba-3-2-is-spreading-quickly-across-us-a-doctor-explains-what-you-need-to-know-279447 says

First, wash your hands

if this bothers you too, you're welcome to complain until they correct (and to hopefully make their editors adjust to correct in future):

Corrections or complaints [email protected]

from https://theconversation.com/us/contact-us

#COVID #COVID19 #SARSCoV2 #COVIDISAirborne

COVID-19 variant BA.3.2 is spreading quickly across US – a doctor explains what you need to know

The current COVID-19 vaccine does not match the strain that’s now becoming dominant in the US, which could lead to a rise in COVID-19 cases.

The Conversation

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Kate Nyhan 2d ago

@datum
1 I would like to book Raina McIntyre and Linsey Marr in for grand rounds at every med school, academic medical center, and medicine-adjacent professional association in the country

2 I would love the know the source for the statement "[handwashing] Reduces respiratory illnesses, like colds, in the general population by 16-21%."
I wonder if it is this?
Rabie, T., & Curtis, V. (2006). Handwashing and risk of respiratory infections: a quantitative systematic review. Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH, 11(3), 258–267. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3156.2006.01568.x

But I really hope it's not

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datum (n=1)2d ago

@nyhan

Raina McIntyre and Linsey Marr in for grand rounds at every med school, academic medical center, and medicine-adjacent professional association in the country

Absolutely! Living in crisis makes it easier to forget that new crops of students are continually being trained - or in this case, failing to be trained - and that the training can be improved!

Now, how would the pros do it? Um I guess they'd hire lobbyists to stalk decision makers and "bump into" them at the grocery store with a friendly pitch. Hm.

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Kate Nyhan 2d ago

@datum
Headline in my inbox today:
"Two years after it emerged, ‘cow flu’ is still circulating—and baffling scientists: Researchers still aren’t sure how H5N1 influenza spreads between cows and from farm to farm"

In the article:
"A growing number of scientists think the virus readily drifts on the wind from farm to farm and cow to cow."
"Air samplers at the California farms readily detected the virus, supporting the idea that the virus transmits through the air."
"Melody found provocative, as-yet-unpublished evidence suggesting the wind can spread the viruses long distances."
"Previous research has suggested the wind can give flu viruses wings."

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Kate Nyhan 2d ago

@datum
Look, I am perfectly willing to accept that milking machines, flies, waste milk, bull semen, and more factors are also potentially involved. But I think that "baffling" is a little strong.

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datum (n=1)2d ago

@nyhan Edit: adding a link https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40911554/ and a quote from it:

wind was the most probable mechanism of infection transmission between poultry in at least two independent cases. By aligning the genetic and meteorological data with critical outbreak events, we determined the most likely time window during which the transmission occurred and inferred the sequence of infected houses at the recipient sites. Our results suggest that the contaminated plume emitted from the infected fattening duck farm was the critical medium of HPAI transmission

ha, yeah. Especially because there was a study (and I think a second) on caged chickens who aren't ever outdoors. Zero wild life exposure. Extremely careful worker protocols: fresh overalls and boots on entering if I recall.

The buildings of course had unfiltered air vents and intakes.

By doing genetic testing on the strains in two such facilities some few km apart, and checking the wind direction logs, they were able to prove that the second farm was infected only when the wind changed and the earlier-infected chicken's air vent plume crossed the later-infected barn.

Extraordinarily clean science. As close to an absolute proof as possible, that H5N1 is airborne bird-to-bird in farms (and between them).

This, despite the fact that we know that H5N1 also is very competent at oral-fecal transmission!

Genetic data and meteorological conditions suggesting windborne transmission of H5N1 high-pathogenicity avian influenza between commercial poultry outbreaks - PubMed

Understanding the transmission routes of high-pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) is crucial for developing effective control measures to prevent its spread. In this context, windborne transmission, the idea that the virus could travel through the air over considerable distances, is a contentious c …

PubMed

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PapyrusBrigade 1d ago

@datum @nyhan The thing that continues to puzzle me is that while Canada has had poultry farms infected with H5N1, we continue to have no reported infections in dairy cattle. Which seems to point to something different about dairy operations in the US versus Canada.

I presume its just a matter of time. But still, it seems like a notable data point, in terms of understanding how it spreads.

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datum (n=1)1d ago

@PapyrusBrigade I read last year that Canadian farms are much much smaller on average (1/10th to 1/100th) the size of operations in the states.

Makes me wonder about:pooled milk testing.

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