#covid-19

interview with Jamie Metzl

The spikes are mounted on the virus body (‘the nucleocapsid protein’). But the thing is, our vaccine is only generating the spikes itself, and we’re not mounting them on any kind of virus body.

It turns out that, unmodified, freestanding Spike proteins collapse into a different structure. If injected as a vaccine, this would indeed cause our bodies to develop immunity.. but only against the collapsed spike protein.

And the real SARS-CoV-2 shows up with the spiky Spike. The vaccine would not work very well in that case.

So what to do? In 2017 it was described how putting a double Proline substitution in just the right place would make the SARS-CoV-1 and MERS S proteins take up their ‘pre-fusion’ configuration, even without being part of the whole virus. This works because Proline is a very rigid amino acid. It acts as a kind of splint, stabilising the protein in the state we need to show to the immune system.

how six months of quarantine affected life at Supergiant Games

covid-19 futures, explained with playable simulations

conversation between Sam Harris and Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com

by Financial Times

“Strong coronavirus measures today should only last a few weeks, there shouldn’t be a big peak of infections afterwards, and it can all be done for a reasonable cost to society, saving millions of lives along the way. If we don’t take these measures, tens of millions will be infected, many will die, along with anybody else that requires intensive care, because the healthcare system will have collapsed.”

“Let’s see what happens when simulitis spreads in a town of 200 people. We will start everyone in town at a random position, moving at a random angle, and we will make one person sick.”

“Seven human coronaviruses in seven graphics”

“[…] controlling the spread and impact of the disease requires us all to change our behavior. Wash your hands thoroughly and regularly, avoid groups and crowds, cancel events, and don’t touch your face.”

“If you stack up the orange bars until 1/22, you get 444 cases. Now add up all the grey bars. They add up to ~12,000 cases. So when Wuhan thought it had 444 cases, it had 27 times more.”