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| Covid 19 virus |
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| hamster_nz:
--- Quote from: edavid on March 16, 2020, 09:14:59 pm --- --- Quote from: rgarito on March 16, 2020, 05:47:34 pm --- --- Quote from: edavid on March 16, 2020, 04:04:52 pm ---Does anyone know if the PCR tests being commonly done by public health services are quantitative? How about the antibody tests? I've read articles that mentioned both viral load and detected/not detected results. --- End quote --- At least in the USA, the PCR tests are pass/fail tests. The test basically slices and dices the sample RNA, making copies each time, matching on 3 different sample patterns found in the virus. Each one is tagged with a dye which is then measured (after each copy iteration). This will generate a curve of the fluorescence at a specific wavelength. They plot this on a graph and if all 3 different dye tags cross a specific threshold within a specific # of replications, its a positive test. --- End quote --- So how do they do an "N-gene-specific quantitative RT-PCR assay", as described in this article: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30113-4/fulltext Is it a lot more difficult than the pass/fail test you describe? --- End quote --- Have a look at "Real-Time RT-PCR Panel for Detection 2019-Novel Coronavirus - Instructions for use": https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/rt-pcr-panel-for-detection-instructions.pdf If anybody wants to see the proteins that are encoded, have a look at a sequenced virus: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN908947 |
| Bud:
--- Quote from: Kjelt on March 16, 2020, 06:49:48 pm ---For the first time since 1973 our PM addressed the country. --- End quote --- What happened in 1973? |
| nctnico:
--- Quote from: Bud on March 16, 2020, 09:41:23 pm --- --- Quote from: Kjelt on March 16, 2020, 06:49:48 pm ---For the first time since 1973 our PM addressed the country. --- End quote --- What happened in 1973? --- End quote --- That was the oil crisis. |
| Nusa:
--- Quote from: Bud on March 16, 2020, 09:41:23 pm --- --- Quote from: Kjelt on March 16, 2020, 06:49:48 pm ---For the first time since 1973 our PM addressed the country. --- End quote --- What happened in 1973? --- End quote --- Probably the oil embargo from the Arab producers aimed at nations supporting Israel in the Yom Kipper war. Global oil prices quadrupled as a result, and many were impacted by the lack of supply, including the US (I was a teen driver at the time). |
| Stray Electron:
--- Quote from: nctnico on March 16, 2020, 08:18:03 pm --- --- Quote from: Kjelt on March 16, 2020, 06:49:48 pm ---For the first time since 1973 our PM addressed the country. The strategy is to isolate as much as possible the elderlyand vulnerable till its over. The rest of the population should over time get the virus in a natural way, so they get immune after they recovered so they don't pose a thread anymore after a certain period of time. --- End quote --- Just for clarity: it wasn't the same PM as in 1973. Still it is impressive. Never thought I'd see the day but yet here it is. His main message was that most people will get infected at some point (which is what Merkel; the PM of Germany also stated a couple of weeks ago). The efforts are aimed to control the outbreak so health care can keep up. Makes sense to me because that seems the only way to me to keep both the economy going and reduce loss of life. --- End quote --- But you've missed an important point: at this point it little matters what happens to the economy. The entire planet is faced with the possibility of MASSIVE numbers of deaths due to overloaded medical systems. Right now, they're making hard decisions about the best way to keep as many people alive as possible. Yes, short of some sort of vaccine being invented EVERYONE is going to get it. And even in the best medical conditions, an average of 3.4% of the infected people are dying. That's 10 million people in the US alone and about 230 million world wide. However that's going to go up drastically if we can't limit the rate of increase so that the medical systems can deal with it. Go look at Italy right now, they CAN'T deal with the current rate of increase, Iran is just as bad, South Korea was but now seems to be getting some control on it. Spain is losing control, so is France and Germany and the US is close behind. The US could be much worse since, thanks to the incompetence of the CDC, we still don't actually know how many people are already infected. Even countries like Canada are showing a 25% increase in the number of cases just in the last 24 hours! https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ |
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