Support NeoGAF

[ManaByte]

I'm not doing that at all. I'm pointing out your calls to violence are ridiculous to begin with but using your own criteria you'd be a victim of the violence you were/are calling for.

You dug through an old locked thread to dig up old posts, no different than a cancel mob digging up 10 year old Tweets.

 

[FunkMiller]

I would argue that the denomination is very important in a discussion about the rejection of authority and control... I also completely disagree with your assessment of America.

Sorry… you don’t think America is religious? Because I have news for you: the US is REALLY religious.

 

[Rock And Roll]

I think the clear throughline is that he's pissed that we can't just get back to normal and has been betrayed each time a return to normalcy has been hinted at. I share his frustration and desire to return to normal or something like it, but we just disagree on what it will take to get us there.

And I agree, everyone wants to go back to normal. It's been hard on everyone as most of us have faced immense personal/financial struggles over the past year. But the extremist views were a bad look in May/June of 2020 and they're a bad look now.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Sorry… you don’t think America is religious? Because I have news for you: the US is REALLY religious.

I am not denying that the US is a pretty religious country (although that has been declining for quite some time now). I'm not personally religious, but being religious does not mean you are incapable of rejecting authority and control, which seemed to me what you were implying. That makes zero sense if you know anything about history. Anyway, this is way off topic, so I'll leave it at that.

 

[TheDreadBaron]

The denomination is entirely immaterial. America is a deeply credulous and non-skeptical country, as proven by its high levels of religiosity. It’s farcical to anyone outside it to suggest otherwise.

Brother, did you get a degree in America or something? You really think you know us pretty well. You keep speaking for “anyone outside” as if it’s some universal. If we are all so credulous then why doesn’t everyone get with the program? You’re undermining your own argument.

 

[Rock And Roll]

You dug through an old locked thread to dig up old posts, no different than a cancel mob digging up 10 year old Tweets.

Except you said all this stuff last year and anyone who was around remembers it clearly, now you're just moving to the opposite end of crazy. Pointing out your hypocrisy while you continue to promote violence/division isn't cancel culture.

 

[ManaByte]

Except you said all this stuff last year and anyone who was around remembers it clearly, now you're just moving to the opposite end of crazy. Pointing out your hypocrisy while you continue to promote violence/division isn't cancel culture.

Saying anti-vaxxers spreading bullshit need to be kicked in the balls isn't "promoting violence". You're coming off as an Era user trying to get someone banned.

 

[FunkMiller]

Brother, did you get a degree in America or something? You really think you know us pretty well. You keep speaking for “anyone outside” as if it’s some universal. If we are all so credulous then why doesn’t everyone get with the program? You’re undermining your own argument.

Mate. You tried to make out that the USA is built on skepticism, and rejection of authority and control, when so much of your history and current society is intertwined with religious belief. The two things are diametrically opposed. The church in America is a massive entity of control and authority. Religious belief literally requires a lack of skepticism to exist.

So many of you refuse to believe data and information coming to you from scientific research and analysis over this disease, while simultaneously perfectly happy to believe and trust in stuff from a book written two thousand years ago.

The scale of the dichotomy (and irony) is off the friggin’ charts. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so damaging.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Saying anti-vaxxers spreading bullshit need to be kicked in the balls isn't "promoting violence". You're coming off as an Era user trying to get someone banned.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I got the impression from your past posts that you basically think anyone who hasn't gotten one of the COVID-19 vaccines and is skeptical about them is an "anti-vaxxer" who deserves to be kicked in the balls. I'm guessing you're lumping me in that group, but I won't put words in your mouth.

 

[ManaByte]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I got the impression from your past posts that you basically think anyone who hasn't gotten one of the COVID-19 vaccines and is skeptical about them is an "anti-vaxxer" who deserves to be kicked in the balls. I'm guessing you're lumping me in that group, but I won't put words in your mouth.

No I'm talking about the people who spam bullshit lies on social media (like saying the head of Pfizer not getting the shot, pastors claiming it's the Mark of the Beast, people spamming bullshit into VAERS). I have a relative who read that shit, believed it, refused the vaccine, and is now on a ventilator.

 

[TheDreadBaron]

Mate. You tried to make out that the USA is built on skepticism, and rejection of authority and control, when so much of your history and current society is intertwined with religious belief. The two things are diametrically opposed. The church in America is a massive entity of control and authority. Religious belief literally requires a lack of skepticism to exist.

So many of you refuse to believe data and information coming to you from scientific research and analysis over this disease, while simultaneously perfectly happy to believe and trust in stuff from a book written two thousand years ago.

The scale of the dichotomy (and irony) is off the friggin’ charts. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so damaging.

But what you have been commenting on IS the skepticism of America, i didn’t try to make that argument. Now it’s flipped to Americans are religious and will believe anything so that’s why they’re skeptical? Pick an argument please.

It just doesn’t make sense. If Americans were really so credulous they wouldn’t be questioning the official story. Your religious connection is bunk. Also since you don’t live here you probably don’t realize how anemic christianity has become in much of the US.

 

[Rock And Roll]

Saying anti-vaxxers spreading bullshit need to be kicked in the balls isn't "promoting violence". You're coming off as an Era user trying to get someone banned.

Should you be kicked in the balls for spreading bullshit in the same manner? No, you were misinformed at the time and eventually came around. You're no different than the cancel culture mob you claim to hate, who calls for extremist measures in hopes your past will be forgotten/ignored. I don't want anyone to be banned, I just don't like reading highly divisive takes that do nothing to improve discussion/debate. And invoking era always seems to be the sign of someone who has no comeback.

Whatever man, I don't harbor ill will against anyone. I like everyone on this board despite differing viewpoints. I just see your posts and wish you'd do some self reflection instead of falling into the same cycle of digging your heels in and thinking everyone on the opposite side is your enemy.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

No I'm talking about the people who spam bullshit lies on social media (like saying the head of Pfizer not getting the shot, pastors claiming it's the Mark of the Beast, people spamming bullshit into VAERS). I have a relative who read that shit, believed it, refused the vaccine, and is now on a ventilator.

Yeah, I saw that one about the Pfizer guy refusing the shot making the rounds again just last week even thought it was debunked back in like March or April. Replaying the greatest hits, it seems.

 

[ManaByte]

Whatever man, I don't harbor ill will against anyone.

Except you spent time digging through a huge locked thread for posts to post here in a derail attempt.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Mate. You tried to make out that the USA is built on skepticism, and rejection of authority and control, when so much of your history and current society is intertwined with religious belief. The two things are diametrically opposed. The church in America is a massive entity of control and authority. Religious belief literally requires a lack of skepticism to exist.

This is a complete derail, but you're talking nonsense. Religious belief does not require a lack of skepticism to exist. That's preposterous. This reads like some teenage atheist post from the mid-00s.

Also, talking about "the church" in the US as if its some centralized entity similar to the Catholic church with the Pope really just shows how little you understand about all of this.

 

[FunkMiller]

This is a complete derail, but you're talking nonsense. Religious belief does not require a lack of skepticism to exist. That's preposterous. This reads like some teenage atheist post from the mid-00s.

Also, talking about "the church" in the US as if its some centralized entity similar to the Catholic church with the Pope really just shows how little you understand about all of this.

Incredible. Absolutely incredible

 

[RAÏSanÏa]

We're pretty religious in Canada. Lot's of religious schools supported by public funds. If familiar with the factions and parts of Canada can sort of tell the trouble spots where religion has more influence than science on policy in the political sphere. Overall decent objectivity and separation though. More from oversight and science than any great moral or intellectual prowess. Still, God Save the Queen. As a close neighbour to the US with only a bit of direct experience I'd say it's more the belief of individual exceptionalism that gets pounded in with national identity. Not criticising. It's just there and that's what it is.

What time does Florida get their numbers Monday morning?

 

[SF Kosmo]

Sorry… you don’t think America is religious? Because I have news for you: the US is REALLY religious.

Although increasingly less so. But there's absolutely a correlation between religiosity and the sort of emotional thinking that leads people to reject expertise. The question is never whether or not people are influenced by authority or consensus but rather which.

 

[ManaByte]

We're pretty religious in Canada. Lot's of religious schools supported by public funds. If familiar with the factions and parts of Canada can sort of tell the trouble spots where religion has more influence than science on policy in the political sphere. Overall decent objectivity and separation though. More from oversight and science than any great moral or intellectual prowess. Still, God Save the Queen. As a close neighbour to the US with only a bit of direct experience I'd say it's more the belief of individual exceptionalism that gets pounded in with national identity. Not criticising. It's just there and that's what it is.

What time does Florida get their numbers Monday morning?

If you look at the US, places in the midwest and the south have the lowest rates of vaccinations, and those places are the most religious. People believe ANYTHING a pastor tells them, because a pastor would never lie to them. But they do.

There's one pastor from Hawaii who has a huge reach in the US. He does sermons on YouTube, but cuts his live stream short right before he dives into an hour of vaccine misinformation and lies. He livestreams that through his app, which Apple or Google won't do anything about of course. This guy also prints out fliers that claim that the vaccine is the Mark of the Beast, it contains aborted fetuses, it alters your DNA, etc:

https://nebula.wsimg.com/91433c2cebd40d9fa868f2b72abb1cbe?AccessKeyId=D40106E1331C24ABD7C3&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Let's get back to something more lighthearted and laugh at Neil Ferguson. No idea why this guy continues to be listened to by anyone.

 

[ManaByte]

Let's get back to something more lighthearted and laugh at Neil Ferguson. No idea why this guy continues to be listened to by anyone.

Yet countries will STILL take his models as justification for lock downs.

 

[Jaysen]

I anticipated this response.

In any debate, there will be extremes; that's a given. This doesn't, however, discount the fact that I'd rather have a conspiracy theorist in my corner, rather than a brain-washed citizen from a totalitarian government where authority is never questioned.

You’d rather have the brain dead idiot in your corner? Your corner is dumb af.

 

[Chaplain]

 

[arkhamguy123]

This is a complete derail, but you're talking nonsense. Religious belief does not require a lack of skepticism to exist. That's preposterous. This reads like some teenage atheist post from the mid-00s.

Also, talking about "the church" in the US as if its some centralized entity similar to the Catholic church with the Pope really just shows how little you understand about all of this.

Oof. Gonna chime in here. Funkmiller is on the money. Just because what he said may seem callous doesnt negate its accuracy. I'm gonna wager your defensive nature here is because you are religious yourself but the belief and premise of all religions is absolutely absurd. And you cannot have skepticism and fully believe it simultaneously.

 

[TheDreadBaron]

Oof. Gonna chime in here. Funkmiller is on the money. Just because what he said may seem callous doesnt negate its accuracy. I'm gonna wager your defensive nature here is because you are religious yourself but the belief and premise of all religions is absolutely absurd. And you cannot have skepticism and fully believe it simultaneously.

Um pay attention, your assumption is easily checked by reading the conversation.

 

[arkhamguy123]

Um pay attention, your assumption is easily checked by reading the conversation.

It guess its easier to be cryptic than to address anything I said.

 

[EverythingsOverrated]

It guess its easier to be cryptic than to address anything I said.

I'm not personally religious, but being religious does not mean you are incapable of rejecting authority and control, which seemed to me what you were implying.

It's only a few responses back dude. At least read the current page before responding

 

[Rentahamster]

I don't consider this statement to be a pejorative in any way, even if you intended it that way. It's what's unique about Americanism: Skepticism and rejection of authority and control. It's the whole reason America even exists, and I consider it a compliment.

America isn't a skeptical country. It's a suspicious country. Historically, it's been suspicious and non-trusting of authority, which led to its founding. It practices "skepticism" in only the colloquial manner that is synonymous with "suspicion". Americans as a whole do not practice "skepticism" in the dictionary definition of it, because if we did, we wouldn't have so many people believing in astrology, crystals, ghosts, spirits, homeopathy, the food pyramid, obese = healthy mindsets, participation trophies, have a majority belief in one of the most authoritarian and controlling religions in the world, or the many other countless things that we like to think are true because it makes us feel good and not because there's actual empirical evidence to back it up.

The ability for Americans to give up their actual economic and political freedoms through politicians and corporate grifters at a steady pace since the 1960s doesn't tell me we prioritize skepticism. We prioritize profit.

 

[vpance]

Mejia and King analyzed the data by race, education, U.S. region and Trump support in the 2020 election to assess time trends and how each group’s outlooks changed regarding vaccination. The data from May provides the current relationship between a broad range of factors and vaccine acceptance.

The largest decrease in hesitancy between January and May by education group was in those with a high school education or less. Hesitancy held constant in the most educated group (those with a Ph.D.); by May Ph.D.’s were the most hesitant group. While vaccine hesitancy decreased across virtually all racial groups, Blacks and Pacific Islanders had the largest decreases, joining Hispanics and Asians at having lower vaccine hesitancy than whites in May.

Those from counties with higher Trump support in the 2020 presidential election showed higher hesitancy, and the difference in hesitancy between areas with high and low Trump support grew over the period studied. “This finding really highlights the politicization of public health recommendations,” said King.

 

[arkhamguy123]

It's only a few responses back dude. At least read the current page before responding

I thought he meant my assumption on how religion intersects with skepticism. Not the posters personal beliefs.

 

[ManaByte]

So there are pictures and videos of a very important person dancing maskless in a very crowded tent at a very high profile birthday party that the powers that be are trying to erase from the internet.

 

[arkhamguy123]

The worldwide covid cases graph on worldmeters looks to be bending. Weird. Seems like shits still popping off in most countries or maybe i'm just victim to sensationalist incendiary reporting?

 

[Bergoglio]

So...things aren't goin well in Israel.

 

[Thaedolus]

So there are pictures and videos of a very important person dancing maskless in a very crowded tent at a very high profile birthday party that the powers that be are trying to erase from the internet.

Hey Siri, what’s a Streisand effect?

 

[Kilau]

So there are pictures and videos of a very important person dancing maskless in a very crowded tent at a very high profile birthday party that the powers that be are trying to erase from the internet.

 

[poppabk]

I don't think this will be a good long term option because the vaccine is only providing protection against the spike protein and that seems to be significantly mutating, to the point it evades immunity, pretty quickly. With how this year has gone, we could end up needing to have 2 booster shots every year.

I think they need to start looking into a vaccine that provides immunity to the whole virus. It should be a lot harder for it to mutate to the point it evades vaccine immunity that way and I think this is a better long term solution.

The spike protein is what makes COVID so deadly compared to a while bunch of other coronaviruses that only give us the sniffles. The spike protein can only mutate so much without losing its ability to interact with the ACE2 receptor, so targeting the spike protein makes sense. Using a whole capsid doesn't really help as the rest of the capsid is not as essential to viral function.

 

[DeepBreath87]

The spike protein is what makes COVID so deadly compared to a while bunch of other coronaviruses that only give us the sniffles. The spike protein can only mutate so much without losing its ability to interact with the ACE2 receptor, so targeting the spike protein makes sense. Using a whole capsid doesn't really help as the rest of the capsid is not as essential to viral function.

This is my understand as well. The spike protein is the part of covid that makes it special.

 

[FunkMiller]

So there are pictures and videos of a very important person dancing maskless in a very crowded tent at a very high profile birthday party that the powers that be are trying to erase from the internet.

If there’s one thing Covid really has taught us it’s that the elite classes really do think it’s one rule for them, and another for everybody else - regardless of which side of the cultural or political landscape they may be on.

 

[SF Kosmo]

America isn't a skeptical country. It's a suspicious country. Historically, it's been suspicious and non-trusting of authority, which led to its founding. It practices "skepticism" in only the colloquial manner that is synonymous with "suspicion". Americans as a whole do not practice "skepticism" in the dictionary definition of it, because if we did, we wouldn't have so many people believing in astrology, crystals, ghosts, spirits, homeopathy, the food pyramid, obese = healthy mindsets, participation trophies, have a majority belief in one of the most authoritarian and controlling religions in the world, or the many other countless things that we like to think are true because it makes us feel good and not because there's actual empirical evidence to back it up.

The ability for Americans to give up their actual economic and political freedoms through politicians and corporate grifters at a steady pace since the 1960s doesn't tell me we prioritize skepticism. We prioritize profit.

Toxic individualism is kind of the core ethos under a lot of this. Americans are all about their personal interests or freedoms, to the point where they often don't even comprehend how collective concerns might impact them personally.

 

[SF Kosmo]

So...things aren't goin well in Israel.

Death rates are still in single digits and hospitalizations are proportional. Yeah, it's no longer zero like it was a few weeks ago but it's still one of the best places to be in the world, Covid-wise.

 

[Rentahamster]

The spike protein is what makes COVID so deadly compared to a while bunch of other coronaviruses that only give us the sniffles. The spike protein can only mutate so much without losing its ability to interact with the ACE2 receptor, so targeting the spike protein makes sense. Using a whole capsid doesn't really help as the rest of the capsid is not as essential to viral function.

The particular characteristics of COVID19's spike protein is what makes COVID19 dangerous. All viruses in the coronavirus family have spike proteins. The spike protein is what gives the virus it's crown-like appearance under a microscope, which is what led to the name "corona"virus.

Can the Common Cold Help Protect You from COVID-19?

Seasonal colds are by all accounts no fun, but new research suggests the colds you’ve had in the past may provide some protection from COVID-19. The study, authored by infectious disease experts at the University of Rochester Medical Center, also suggests that immunity to COVID-19 is likely to...

www.urmc.rochester.edu

study authors measured levels of memory B cells and antibodies that target specific parts of the Spike protein, which exists in all coronaviruses and is crucial for helping the viruses infect cells.

The Spike protein looks and acts a little different in each coronavirus, but one of its components, the S2 subunit, stays pretty much the same across all of the viruses

How the virus that causes COVID-19 differs from other coronaviruses - Mayo Clinic News Network

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that can cause illnesses such as the common cold, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). So what makes those coronaviruses different from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19? Dr. Clayton Cowl, a...

newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that can cause illnesses such as the common cold, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). So what makes those coronaviruses different from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19? Dr. Clayton Cowl, a pulmonologist and chair of Mayo Clinic's Division of Preventive, Occupational and Aerospace Medicine, says that SARS-CoV-2 shares both similarities and differences with other coronaviruses.

"The name 'coronavirus' has to do with what the virus looks like under a microscope," says Dr. Cowl. "'Corona' means crown. All coronaviruses have a similar structure. They are also 'enveloped' viruses, which means they are able to stick to surfaces, but are also able to be killed with disinfectants. The novel virus that causes COVID-19 is one-nine hundredth of a width of a piece of hair."

COVID19 is more dangerous than other coronaviruses like SARS or the common cold because it has a greater ability to infect our cells due to it's particular spike protein being more effective at infiltrating our cells in multiple ways.

Profile of a killer: the complex biology powering the coronavirus pandemic

Scientists are piecing together how SARS-CoV-2 operates, where it came from and what it might do next — but pressing questions remain about the source of COVID-19.

www.nature.com

Scientists are learning that the virus has evolved an array of adaptations that make it much more lethal than the other coronaviruses humanity has met so far. Unlike close relatives, SARS-CoV-2 can readily attack human cells at multiple points, with the lungs and the throat being the main targets. Once inside the body, the virus makes use of a diverse arsenal of dangerous molecules.

The spike proteins of coronaviruses have a unit called a receptor-binding domain, which is central to their success in entering human cells. The SARS-CoV-2 binding domain is particularly efficient, and it differs in important ways from that of the Yunnan bat virus, which seems not to infect people5.

Although the known human coronaviruses can infect many cell types, they all mainly cause respiratory infections. The difference is that the four that cause common colds easily attack the upper respiratory tract, whereas MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV have more difficulty gaining a hold there, but are more successful at infecting cells in the lungs.

SARS-CoV-2, unfortunately, can do both very efficiently. That gives it two places to get a foothold, says Shu-Yuan Xiao, a pathologist at the University of Chicago, Illinois. A neighbour’s cough that sends ten viral particles your way might be enough to start an infection in your throat, but the hair-like cilia found there are likely to do their job and clear the invaders. If the neighbour is closer and coughs 100 particles towards you, the virus might be able get all the way down to the lungs, says Xiao.

These varying capacities might explain why people with COVID-19 have such different experiences. The virus can start in the throat or nose, producing a cough and disrupting taste and smell, and then end there. Or it might work its way down to the lungs and debilitate that organ. How it gets down there, whether it moves cell by cell or somehow gets washed down, is not known, says Stanley Perlman, an immunologist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City who studies coronaviruses.

Clemens-Martin Wendtner, an infectious-disease physician at the Munich Clinic Schwabing in Germany, says it could be a problem with the immune system that lets the virus sneak down into the lungs. Most infected people create neutralizing antibodies that are tailored by the immune system to bind with the virus and block it from entering a cell. But some people seem unable to make them, says Wendtner. That might be why some recover after a week of mild symptoms, whereas others get hit with late-onset lung disease. But the virus can also bypass the throat cells and go straight down into the lungs. Then patients might get pneumonia without the usual mild symptoms such as a cough or low-grade fever that would otherwise come first, says Wendtner. Having these two infection points means that SARS-CoV-2 can mix the transmissibility of the common cold coronaviruses with the lethality of MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV. “It is an unfortunate and dangerous combination of this coronavirus strain,” he says.

The virus’s ability to infect and actively reproduce in the upper respiratory tract was something of a surprise, given that its close genetic relative, SARS-CoV, lacks that ability. Last month, Wendtner published results8 of experiments in which his team was able to culture virus from the throats of nine people with COVID-19, showing that the virus is actively reproducing and infectious there. That explains a crucial difference between the close relatives. SARS-CoV-2 can shed viral particles from the throat into saliva even before symptoms start, and these can then pass easily from person to person. SARS-CoV was much less effective at making that jump, passing only when symptoms were full-blown, making it easier to contain.

These differences have led to some confusion about the lethality of SARS-CoV-2. Some experts and media reports describe it as less deadly than SARS-CoV because it kills about 1% of the people it infects, whereas SARS-CoV killed at roughly ten times that rate. But Perlman says that’s the wrong way to look at it. SARS-CoV-2 is much better at infecting people, but many of the infections don’t progress to the lungs. “Once it gets down in the lungs, it’s probably just as deadly,” he says.

How the coronavirus infects cells — and why Delta is so dangerous

Scientists are unpicking the life cycle of SARS-CoV-2 and how the virus uses tricks to evade detection.

www.nature.com

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists have been developing a detailed understanding of how SARS-CoV-2 infects cells. By picking apart the infection process, they hope to find better ways to interrupt it through improved treatments and vaccines, and learn why the latest strains, such as the Delta variant, are more transmissible.

What has emerged from 19 months of work, backed by decades of coronavirus research, is a blow-by-blow account of how SARS-CoV-2 invades human cells (see ‘Life cycle of the pandemic coronavirus’). Scientists have discovered key adaptations that help the virus to grab on to human cells with surprising strength and then hide itself once inside. Later, as it leaves cells, SARS-CoV-2 executes a crucial processing step to prepare its particles for infecting even more human cells. These are some of the tools that have enabled the virus to spread so quickly and claim millions of lives. “That’s why it’s so difficult to control,” says Wendy Barclay, a virologist at Imperial College London.

Early in the pandemic, researchers confirmed that the RBDs of SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins attach to a familiar protein called the ACE2 receptor, which adorns the outside of most human throat and lung cells. This receptor is also the docking point for SARS-CoV, the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). But compared with SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 binds to ACE2 an estimated 2–4 times more strongly4, because several changes in the RBD stabilize its virus-binding hotspots5.

Worrying variants of SARS-CoV-2 tend to have mutations in the S1 subunit of the spike protein, which hosts the RBDs and is responsible for binding to the ACE2 receptor. (A second spike subunit, S2, prompts viral fusion with the host cell’s membrane.)

The Alpha variant, for example, includes ten changes in the spike-protein sequence, which result in RBDs being more likely to stay in the ‘up’ position6. “It is helping the virus along by making it easier to enter into cells,” says Priyamvada Acharya, a structural biologist at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute in Durham, North Carolina, who is studying the spike mutations.

The Delta variant, which is now spreading around the world, hosts multiple mutations in the S1 subunit, including three in the RBD that seem to improve the RBD’s ability to bind to ACE2 and evade the immune system7.

The virus that causes SARS, SARS-CoV, uses either of two host protease enzymes to break in: TMPRSS2 (pronounced ‘tempress two’) or cathepsin L. TMPRSS2 is the faster route in, but SARS-CoV often enters instead through an endosome — a lipid-surrounded bubble — which relies on cathepsin L. When virions enter cells by this route, however, antiviral proteins can trap them.

SARS-CoV-2 differs from SARS-CoV because it efficiently uses TMPRSS2, an enzyme found in high amounts on the outside of respiratory cells. First, TMPRSS2 cuts a site on the spike’s S2 subunit8. That cut exposes a run of hydrophobic amino acids that rapidly buries itself in the closest membrane — that of the host cell. Next, the extended spike folds back onto itself, like a zipper, forcing the viral and cell membranes to fuse.

The virus then ejects its genome directly into the cell. By invading in this spring-loaded manner, SARS-CoV-2 infects faster than SARS-CoV and avoids being trapped in endosomes, according to work published in April by Barclay and her colleagues at Imperial College London9.

The virus’s speedy entry using TMPRSS2 explains why the malaria drug chloroquine didn’t work in clinical trials as a COVID-19 treatment, despite early promising studies in the lab10. Those turned out to have used cells that rely exclusively on cathepsins for endosomal entry. “When the virus transmits and replicates in the human airway, it doesn’t use endosomes, so chloroquine, which is an endosomal disrupting drug, is not effective in real life,” says Barclay.

The discovery also points to protease inhibitors as a promising therapeutic option to prevent a virus from using TMPRSS2, cathepsin L or other proteases to enter host cells. One TMPRSS2 inhibitor, camostat mesylate, which is approved in Japan to treat pancreatitis, blocked viral entry into lung cells8, but the drug did not improve patients’ outcomes in an initial clinical trial11.

“From my perspective, we should have such protease inhibitors as broad antivirals available to fight new disease outbreaks and prevent future pandemics at the very beginning,” says Stefan Pöhlmann, director of the Infection Biology Unit at the German Primate Center in Göttingen, who has led research on ACE2 binding and the TMPRSS2 pathway.

 

[Rentahamster]

Good conversation with a doctor about common questions people have about the Delta variant and how to best protect yourself and your loved ones.




He also has a great example about how to get people thinking in an exponential mindset instead of a quantitively linear one because viruses and pandemics behave in an exponential fashion.

Timestamped here:

 

[vpance]

Mandatory at all workplaces coming sooner than we think.

Fauci is hopeful Covid vaccines will get full approval by the FDA within weeks

The U.S. government's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said he was hopeful the FDA will give full approval to the Covid vaccine by month's end.

www.cnbc.com

"I hope — I don't predict — I hope that it will be within the next few weeks. I hope it's within the month of August," Fauci said of FDA approval of the vaccine. "If that's the case, you're going to see the empowerment of local enterprises, giving mandates that could be colleges, universities, places of business, a whole variety and I strongly support that. The time has come. ... We've got to go the extra step to get people vaccinated."

 

[arkhamguy123]

So there are pictures and videos of a very important person dancing maskless in a very crowded tent at a very high profile birthday party that the powers that be are trying to erase from the internet.

Who?

 

[TheDreadBaron]

Mandatory at all workplaces coming sooner than we think.

Fauci is hopeful Covid vaccines will get full approval by the FDA within weeks

The U.S. government's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said he was hopeful the FDA will give full approval to the Covid vaccine by month's end.

www.cnbc.com

This already came to my school in washington state. Why in the everloving hell is Fauci still a public figure telling us how it’s gonna be? It’s just a bad look.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

So there are pictures and videos of a very important person dancing maskless in a very crowded tent at a very high profile birthday party that the powers that be are trying to erase from the internet.

I, for one, think he should be allowed to have his wild party as he pleases. People on his side need to stop trying to justify it while making contradictory demands out of the other side of their mouth, though.

 

[poppabk]

The particular characteristics of COVID19's spike protein is what makes COVID19 dangerous. All viruses in the coronavirus family have spike proteins. The spike protein is what gives the virus it's crown-like appearance under a microscope, which is what led to the name "corona"virus.

Thats what I meant, if it mutates significantly then it will no longer retain it's unique ability to infect people at such a rate and be similar to other coronaviruses.

 

[Rentahamster]

Thats what I meant, if it mutates significantly then it will no longer retain it's unique ability to infect people at such a rate and be similar to other coronaviruses.

Maybe or maybe not. It's hard to say what are the primary selective pressures that are influencing the evolution of the virus, especially in the future. The virus already is very good at infecting humans so it would make sense that the most infectious strains are the ones that are going to spread the easiest and the more they spread the more they survive.

A less infectious version would probably have less reach and be outcompeted. This is presumably why the alpha variant is so rare now.

 

[Excess]

You’re the most religious developed country in the world!

By what measure, or is this just more anecdotal notions you've conjured up from memes and satirical works to make yourself feel less inadequate US hegemony?

Regardless, being deeply religious does not exclude someone from believing in science, so it would be incumbent upon you to not be, as a previous poster stated, a "sanctimonious asshole" about it.

If the only opinions you're considering are between a dictator and a conspiracy grifter, you fucked up somewhere.

It's a hypothetical between two extremes.

The question a skeptic asks is "Which experts are right,"

Read up on the Dunning Kruger effect. The least qualified among us are the most likely to overrate their expertise because they lack the understanding to even recognize their own mistakes, and therefore think they don't make any. - Your words

 

[adj83]

The spike protein is what makes COVID so deadly compared to a while bunch of other coronaviruses that only give us the sniffles. The spike protein can only mutate so much without losing its ability to interact with the ACE2 receptor, so targeting the spike protein makes sense. Using a whole capsid doesn't really help as the rest of the capsid is not as essential to viral function.

Some people have immunity against COVID despite never being infected by COVID. It seems that a previous coronavirus virus they were exposed to had parts that were similar enough to COVID that the antibodies they developed could bind to the original virus and COVID. If we can develop a vaccine that does something similar - if it results in our immune system producing an array of antibodies that bind to different parts of the virus (the spike protein and elsewhere), that immunity may be effective against future variants as well.

Read up on the Dunning Kruger effect. The least qualified among us are the most likely to overrate their expertise because they lack the understanding to even recognize their own mistakes, and therefore think they don't make any. - Your words

A big problem is that scientists do not know everything there is to know about human biology. They don't even know everything there is to know about the immune system. It is why I won't be too harsh with anyone who says that they want to wait a bit longer before getting the vaccine.