Corona Virus

Fight against Corona: The vaccine roulette

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When will a vaccine against Covid-19 come? Probably not until the beginning of 2021. The production of vaccination doses is in full swing.

From Brazil to China, vaccines against Covid 19 are in the test phase Photo: Allan Carvalho / NurPhoto / afp

At the gold mine is the name of the street in Mainz, where a company is doing what many are waiting for: At the biotechnology company BioNTech, production of the corona vaccine BNT162b2 has started on a large scale. The Karlsruhe logistics center of the partner company Pfizer, a US pharmaceutical giant, has been converted to be able to store hundreds of millions of vaccine doses at minus 70 degrees.

This is a “supranational task”, says a BioNTech spokeswoman: In Germany only the starting material of the vaccine is produced, mRNA genetic material, which is supposed to dock on human immune cells in order to teach them to add antibodies against the Sars Cov-2 virus form. In Austria, the mRNA is packaged in small fat globules; in Belgium, not far from the EU Parliament, the vaccination bottles are filled.

Pfizer / BioNTech wants to produce 100 million vaccine doses in Germany and the USA by the end of the year, and 1.3 billion next year – logistics will require dozens of freight flights and hundreds of truck trips every day, writes the newspaper Wall Street Journal and quoted Tanya Alcorn, Deputy Head of Logistics at Pfizer, as saying: “It’s the biggest vaccination campaign of all time.”

The federal government also reacts: How image reports, the federal government is demanding the addresses of vaccination centers from the federal states by November 10 so that they can be equipped with refrigerators. This is necessary for long-term storage of the vaccines; BioNTech’s should be stable for five days at refrigerator temperature. A spokeswoman for Spahns does not want to comment. The Standing Vaccination Commission in Germany is already working out plans for where the vaccines should be used first.

So far no effectiveness has been proven

So there is clear progress, because a number of other manufacturers such as the British AstraZeneca or the US Moderna are in a similar phase of development as Pfizer and BioNTech. Sounds encouraging, but unfortunately it does not help at all to suppress the currently skyrocketing infection curve (11,242 new infections recorded and 49 deaths in Germany, as of Friday). Across Europe, the number of cases doubled within ten days.

Photo: taz grafik: infotext-berlin.de

So far, no vaccine has been proven to be effective – not even the six substances approved by China and Russia. The trick there: States simply skipped the result of the third and crucial tier of clinical tests and pre-vaccinated military and medical personnel. The approvals were therefore made without sufficient research into the effects and side effects.

Such an approach would be unthinkable in the USA and in the EU. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the EMA (European Medicines Agency) make the decisions here. Former FDA public health officer Peter Lurie wrote in the September Washington Postthat generally only around half of vaccines that reach phase 3 are approved in the end.

For some, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is “the most dangerous person in the world”. Because his platform drives people apart and promotes populism. How dangerous is that for democracy? – in the taz on the weekend of 24./25. October. In addition: The capital airport BER is ready! But the timing is pretty bad. And: three tips that will keep us warm outside in Corona autumn and winter. Always from Saturday at the kiosk, in the eKiosk or with a practical weekend subscription. And around the clock on Facebook and Twitter.

In 8 of the 22 case studies he examined, unexpected health risks arose in this last phase.

Vaccines in early 2021 at the earliest

Over the past week there have been seemingly conflicting reports from both sides of the Atlantic about when the first vaccines might be available.

The EU Commission had spoken of months, Federal Research Minister Anja Karliczek from mid-2021, Health Minister Jens Spahn was loud image internally allegedly claimed that the first vaccinations could be given this year – this was also heard from the USA. Spahn had his spokeswoman corrected on Friday: at the beginning of next year at the earliest.

On closer inspection, the reports do not contradict each other so strongly, at least they are all based on interpretations of the same facts in the USA and the EU.

Lembit Rägo is director of the council for international medical science organizations. He writes to the taz: “In essence, the scientific assessments of vaccine candidates hardly differ on both sides of the Atlantic.” The USA could soon issue an emergency license for vaccines, the Europeans a provisional marketing authorization. Both are roughly the same and only possible if, as is currently the case, there is a health emergency.

This also means that in this case “less information is available than would be expected with a normal marketing authorization for a vaccine,” writes the EMA of the taz. The general rule of thumb is that the benefits of vaccination must outweigh the risks.

BioNTech is testing in the crucial third phase

In the EU this means in concrete terms: The pharmaceutical company BioNTech is testing its vaccine in the crucial third phase on 37,000 test subjects worldwide, at the beginning of October 28,000 of them had already received their second vaccination dose. If the data of at least 3,000 of them have been evaluated and there are no unexpected side effects within six weeks of the second vaccination, the vaccine is considered safe, preliminary. In the USA, the vaccine must also have worked in at least half of the participants.

Several manufacturers will soon have enough data for the authorities to assess this. For the USA, Pfizer has announced that it will apply for an emergency license in the third week of November. The EMA has been reviewing the vaccine data from the British manufacturer AstraZeneca and BioNTech since the beginning of October, but not yet from the third clinical phase.

This means that soon enough clinical data will be available in the USA and therefore also in Europe. The assessment could then go very quickly: For example, the EMA promises a processing time of two weeks for each step of the approval in its “rolling review” procedure.

So it is very possible that a vaccine or two will be approved as early as December. The decisive question is then: How to deal with the fact that it would only be an approval based on the fact that “the advantage of immediate availability exceeds the risk of a limited data situation”, as the EMA writes?

Admission can be withdrawn at any time

The approval can be withdrawn at any time if the situation changes with the evaluation of the entire clinical tests. It would be impossible to imagine what would be going on if you were to throw a vaccine on the market and then cash in again because of unexpected side effects. The trust in the population would probably be gone.

The risk is there, according to an online hearing of FDA experts * on Thursday: Even after final marketing authorization, unexpected side effects can occur. Some are so rare that they do not even appear in large clinical studies, others only after a long period of time. No data are yet available for risk groups such as pregnant women.

It is a question of public expectation management whether politicians allow themselves to be carried away in the face of the situation into proclaiming an imminent success – or whether they are cautious in order not to arouse false hopes. This week, the head of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wieler, gave the Socratic answer to a journalist’s question as to when there is a vaccine: “That is a question that we all cannot answer correctly.”

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Poverty researchers on the consequences of Corona: cardinal problem of wealth distribution

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Corona works like a burning glass, says poverty researcher Christoph Butterwegge. The real virus of inequality is neoliberalism.

A corona test station on the A8 from Munich to Stuttgart Photo: Daniel Biskup / laif

taz: Mr. Butterwegge, the second corona wave is sweeping across the Federal Republic. What social impact will that have?

Christoph Butterwegge: That of course depends on how hard it hits us. Much will depend on whether social life has to be shut down again. In any case, experience with the first wave shows that socio-economic inequality will continue to grow.

What are you up to?

That inequality worsened during the lockdown and economic slump is evident on three levels. First of all, there is the health level with the infection itself: Before the virus, all people are ostensibly the same, but there is a causal connection between income and immune deficiency. The poor are exposed to a higher risk of infection because their working conditions are generally poorer and their living conditions are more hygienic. In addition, they often suffer from social pre-existing illnesses, which increases the risk of getting seriously ill with Covid-19. In addition, there is the psychological stress: Those who have a large apartment survive a quarantine much more relaxed than a family whose members do not have their own rooms.

born 1951, has been researching economic, social and political inequality in Germany for decades. The political scientist taught as a professor at the University of Cologne until 2016. A member of the SPD from 1970 to 1975 and from 1987 to 2005, he ran for the office of Federal President in 2017 as a non-party member at the suggestion of the Left Party. His latest book “Inequality in Class Society” has just been published by PapyRossa Verlag.

And the second level?

That is the economic one. Radical infection control measures are necessary, but leave behind economic collateral damage that does not affect all strata of the population equally. Rather, the corona crisis has made some people richer and many poorer. There is a social polarization between those who suffer severe financial losses due to lost earnings, business termination, short-time working or job loss, and those who have a company or a job that the recession cannot harm. Some industries such as online trading, logistics companies and delivery services even increased their profits during the crisis.

The lockdown phase in the spring made it clear that a large proportion of the people living in Germany are barely able to make ends meet financially if their regular income is lost for a few weeks. Right down to the middle class, there is simply a lack of reserves. Ultimately, it is not your income that counts, but your wealth. It is particularly unevenly distributed in this country and is concentrated in 45 hyper-rich families who own more than the poorer half of the population – over 40 million people. Around a third of the population has no wealth worth mentioning and is therefore only one resignation, a serious illness or a new lockdown away from poverty.

But haven’t the federal and state governments cushioned a lot with their multi-billion dollar aid programs?

This brings us to the third level. I am far from condemning the state aid packages, rescue packages and subsidy measures in their entirety. Much of it was needed. But their distribution policy imbalance is striking and worthy of criticism. There is a clear overweight in favor of the large companies, which are supported even when that is unnecessary.

Can you give us a specific example?

Take BMW as an example. I am a supporter of short-time work benefits because it can prevent mass layoffs. But I think it’s a scandal when the Federal Employment Agency takes over a large part of BMW’s wage costs by paying short-time work benefits, even though there was enough money to pay shareholders a whopping dividend of 1.64 billion euros. The richest siblings in our country, Susanne Klatten and Stefan Quandt, took in more than 750 million euros.

Denmark and France make bridging aid subject to the condition that a company does not distribute profits. I would like that for Germany too. On the other hand, those most in need were given far too little attention by the relief efforts. The willingness of the state to help varies depending on the social status.

However, Parliament has also passed two “social protection packages”.

North Rhine-Westphalia, Wuppertal: People stand in a long queue in front of the entrance to a new Corona Walk-In test center in a parking lot.

Queue instead of Porsche in the drive-in: Corona test station in Wuppertal Photo: Caroline Seidel / dpa

They were also urgently needed. People who, for example, fell into Hartz IV as self-employed persons and small businesses were considered. The job centers grant you limited access until the end of the year without having to examine your assets, the size of the apartment or the rent. But that does not go far enough. A less bureaucratic approach should apply to every applicant, and in the long run. I consider it extremely problematic that the groups of people hardest hit by the pandemic have only been given marginal consideration. Homeless and homeless, refugees, migrants without a secure residence status, people with disabilities, people in need of care, addicts, prostitutes, unemployed, low-income women, low-income pensioners and transfer benefit recipients are hardly among the winning groups.

In your opinion, how exactly should they have been helped?

Let’s just take single parents and families in the Hartz IV relationship: They had the biggest problems because schools and daycare centers were closed and the free lunch that poor children there now get was no longer available. The state could and should have helped immediately and quickly. Why wasn’t they granted a premium of 100 euros per month for food, protective masks and disinfectants in the spring?

In the meantime there has been a child bonus of 300 euros per child, which is not counted towards unemployment benefit II or social benefit.

That helped those affected, no question about it. However, the one-off payment by the federal government in two autumn installments comes very late. In addition, of course, it does not replace permanent support. It seems to me more like a trade in indulgences with which the government frees itself from the actual obligation to provide continuous aid. It is also questionable that the parents from the middle and upper classes also receive the child bonus and only have to pay it back with the tax return.

But don’t you have to acknowledge that Germany has come through the crisis quite well so far?

Compared to other countries where there are many more Covid-19 deaths to complain about, the Federal Republic has so far got through the pandemic relatively well. But this does not change the fact that the already considerable inequality in Germany continued to grow during the exceptional pandemic situation and the gap between rich and poor widened even more.

Is Corona an inequality virus for you?

No, the real inequality virus is neoliberalism. Corona only acts as a catalyst. In the pandemic, inequality has worsened due to capitalist ownership and policies that idolize the “business location”, serve the interests of financial investors and therefore have a socially polarizing rather than equalizing effect. The cardinal problem of our society is the existing distributional imbalance.

Can you be more specific?

According to the criteria of the European Union, 13.3 million people in Germany are poor or at least at risk of poverty today – a record figure. You have less than 60 percent of the median income available – that’s 1,074 euros a month for a single person. At the same time, according to a recent study by the German Institute for Economic Research, 67 percent of total net assets are now in the top tenth, 35 percent are concentrated in the richest percent of the population and the richest per mille still comes to 20 percent.

This means that even among the rich themselves, most of the wealth accumulates in the hyper-rich. The richest man in Germany, Dieter Schwarz, owner of Lidl and Kaufland, already owned 41.5 billion euros in private assets before the pandemic. That has now increased by another 300 million euros.

As a consequence not only of the current corona crisis, you demand in your new book that “the capitalist economic and social system” must be fundamentally changed ”. That sounds quite a long way from social reality.

You don’t have to be a Marxist to realize that Germany is a class society with growing socio-economic inequality, the main reason being the persistent conflict of interests between capital and labor. If you want to fight poverty effectively, you have to touch private wealth. The pandemic state of emergency has shown many people the value of solidarity again. They notice that the fixation on the market and the competition is of little use in such a situation. This also includes the realization that further economization, financialization and privatization, especially of the health care system, would be a mistake.

Skepticism about the promises of neoliberalism is the basic requirement for critical social awareness. This is just as positive as the knowledge which professional activities are “systemically relevant” – but are not paid accordingly well. Whether it is about a decent collectively agreed wage, an increase in the minimum wage to at least 12 euros, the introduction of solidarity-based citizens’ insurance or a correction of course in tax policy – there is still a lot to be done if the gap between rich and poor does not widen further should.

You are considered the best-known poverty researcher in Germany. You have been analyzing the existing misery for decades. Didn’t that make you a deeply frustrated person?

No, not at all. Because I am concerned with poverty, its causes and manifestations, but also with enormous wealth. The critical analysis of social developments can be discouraging. Nevertheless, my will is unbroken to change the existing conditions in the direction of more social justice. I will not let myself be dissuaded from this by some setbacks and right-wing tendencies.

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A Chinese study: The merging of the influenza virus with the Corona virus increases the reproduction of the coronavirus 10 thousand times

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Chinese researchers have warned that the upcoming influenza season represents a “potentially serious threat to public health, as co-infection with influenza can cause the coronavirus to multiply by 10,000 times in human cells in a laboratory test.”

And according to a new study conducted by Chinese scientists, according to a newspaper. SCMP Laboratory tests showed that the influenza virus A It can modify the structure of a variety of human cells within hours of infection, and the Coronavirus can then take advantage of these changes to invade cells more easily and multiply more efficiently.


Common infection with the flu and corona

“The upcoming influenza season in the northern hemisphere that merges with the Covid-19 pandemic represents a potentially serious threat to public health,” said the team led by Professor Xu Ki from the Virology Laboratory at Wuhan University.

In China, people are urged to get the flu shot before the end of October, and influenza is common Covid-19 In some of the symptoms that health authorities fear that may not only complicate the diagnosis, but also cause panic.

Team conducted Coin Their tests are on a group of human cells from different parts of the body, along with the influenza virus A Other pathogens such as rhinovirus, Sendai virus, and enterovirus are also included in the trial.

After exposing previously infected cells with these viruses to the new coronavirus, researchers found that only influenza A virus could make the infection worse.

This happened in almost all human cells, but the most vulnerable were those on the surface of the lungs, as the coronavirus replication increased by a factor of 1,000 to 10,000 times, depending on the strength of the flu infection.

The study said: “We have provided the first experimental evidence that pre-infection with influenza virus A Strongly promote virus entry -CoV-2 And infection in infected cells and animals. “

Earlier this year in Wuhan – the central Chinese city where the coronavirus was first detected at the end of last year – doctors found several common infections among critically ill patients in intensive care units.

In their experiments, the researchers used different versions of influenza viruses A including H1N1 And H2N3The first was responsible for an epidemic that killed up to 50 million people worldwide in 1918, while the second, also known as the Hong Kong flu, caused an outbreak of the disease that killed an estimated 1 to 4 million people in 1968.

Researchers said that while all strains of influenza have been found to work with a virus -CoV-2, The mechanism that causes the increase in replication is still unclear, but they have identified a genetic slice of the influenza A virus that may play an important role in helping the coronavirus to copy inside the infected cell, and the study said: “Social distancing and wearing masks are useful in protecting people from attacks of any of Viruses or both. “

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Global Health warns of “difficult months” … the danger is coming

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“The next few months will be very difficult and some countries are on a dangerous path. Many countries are witnessing a rapid increase in cases,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press conference, Friday, and called for rapid action.

For its part, the WHO expert responsible for Coronavirus affairs, Mary Van Kerkhove, stated that the organization had recorded about 445,000 new Corona cases during the past 24 hours, and about half of them were from Europe.

She added that in many cities across Europe, “the maximum capacity in intensive care units will be reached in the coming weeks.”

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For a period of 14 days … the Argentine President announces the extension of the measures period a

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1:22 AM

Saturday 24 October 2020

Buenos Aires – (dpa):
Argentina announced the extension of the period of measures to prevent the emerging corona virus for a period of 14 days, according to Argentine President Alberto Fernandez announced in a televised speech from the province of Misiones on Friday, without specifying any dates.

And Bloomberg News quoted Fernandes as saying that Argentina may record about 15,000 cases of the deadly virus per day.

On Thursday, Argentina recorded 16,325 cases.

Argentina has a population of 45 million, has more than one million cases of corona, and the number of virus deaths has reached 27,000.

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Common myths about Coronavirus … do not believe them

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1:00 AM

Friday 23 October 2020

Agencies:

Users of social platforms circulate an endless number of “fake” information about the emerging corona virus, amid fears that this news will reflect on people’s commitment to preventive measures.

The site, “Medical News Today,” stripped what it described as ten strongly popular myths about the Corona virus that appeared in China late last year, and then turned into a global pandemic.

The first of these myths is that the number of Coronavirus infections has increased significantly without the death rate resulting from it, as is the case in the United States. According to Sky News.

But this claim is not accurate, because the reason for the increase in the number of new infected people and the decline in the death rate or its stability is the increase in the number of examinations, compared to what was available at the beginning of the epidemic, and this matter means that health authorities are more able to monitor and treat virus carriers.

Accordingly, the virus has not changed in terms of “fatality” and the danger it poses to health, but rather the number of examinations that are conducted for people even if they do not show any symptoms, and that is what was recommended by the World Health Organization.

Not a fatal

As for the second myth, it is that the virus is not fatal as it was portrayed with exaggeration, and this opinion is incorrect, according to health experts, because it overlooks a large number of deaths even if the percentage appears low.

The researchers say that estimating the death rate from the virus is not easy, especially since the epidemic is not over yet, meaning that developments are still occurring day after day.

As for those who say that the Corona virus is not very fatal, the numbers tell them that the epidemic has claimed more than 227,000 lives in the United States alone, while the seasonal flu used to kill between 12,000 and 61,000 a year, during the past years.

And because the third myth is that Corona is considered just a regular flu, experts say that the two diseases differ greatly, because those who contract seasonal flu do not need to be hospitalized as much as in the case of Corona, and a number of those who recovered from the virus have reported chronic consequences that accompany them so far. Such as difficulties breathing, smell and the like, and this means that the disease is not as simple as we imagine it to be.

At the present time, people can get a seasonal flu vaccine, but some coronavirus vaccines are not yet widely available, or they are still in the final stages of bedside trials.

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Experts warn … the Corona virus vaccine will not prevent disease and death

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Scientists have warned that the Coronavirus vaccine will not prevent disease and death, explaining that the experiments conducted by the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies are not strong enough to ensure that lives are saved.

According to a newspaper report “mirrorBritish scientists have warned that a vaccine forCovid-19 It will not prevent people from getting sick and dying.


Coronavirus vaccine does not protect against disease

Many vaccines have entered the more advanced stage of testing – known as “Stage III” – and their effectiveness may be announced in the near future, but trials are only investigating in mild cases, not whether they will help the most vulnerable, according to a report issued by the British Medical Journal (BMJ).BMJ).

And since the start of the pandemic COVID-19 Scientists are trying to find an effective vaccine for the viral disease, now, and it appears that there is a beam of light at the end of a long, dark tunnel, and despite suffering from many setbacks, many vaccines are now in the final stages of experiments.

Dr Peter Duchy, associate editor at the British Medical Journal, said: “None of the trials currently underway have been designed to detect any reduction in any serious outcome such as hospitalization, intensive care use or deaths, and vaccines are not being studied to determine whether they can stop transmission of the virus. .

Vaccines are being tried by some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, including: Pfizer And Modern And Johnson & JohnsonAnd the researchers found that the people participating in the trials had only mild symptoms, which means they tested positive for B. Covid-19 And they have a cough.

Dr. Doshi said: “Most of the people who suffer from infection Covid-19 “With symptoms, they have only mild symptoms. Even trials involving 30,000 patients or more will show relatively few cases of severe disease.”

Moderna, for example, has described hospitalization as a “major secondary endpoint,” but its experience does not have the statistical power to assess it, the company’s chief medical officer, Dr. Tal Sachs, told the newspaper. BMJ.

Dr. Doshi added: “The hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19 It is simply very uncommon among the population studied for an effective vaccine to show statistically significant differences in the experience of 30,000 people, and the same is true regarding whether it can save lives or prevent transmission: trials are not designed to find out. ‘

Dr. Zacks emphasized that the size and duration of the trial need to be increased “significantly” to prove that the vaccine will actually prevent hospitalization, adding while speaking to the British Medical Journal: “I do not think that either of these two is acceptable in light of the current general need to know that the vaccine works quickly.

And an experiment was designed Modern To see if the vaccine can prevent disease Covid-19For example, influenza vaccines protect against severe disease better than mild disease.

Dr. Doshi said: “Regarding to Modern The same applies to Covid-19If their vaccine is shown to reduce symptoms Covid-19 They can feel confident that it also protects against dangerous consequences. “

Dr Duchi said: “If vulnerable elderly people are not recorded in vaccine trials in sufficient numbers to determine whether there is a decrease in cases in this population, there can be little basis for assuming any benefit against hospitalization or death, and according to the researchers, there is still. Ample time to ensure that the trials address these issues.

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Scientists discover a way to cause the Corona virus to cause diabetes

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Diabetes is a common condition that affects millions of people around the world, and with the outbreak of the Corona virus that is sweeping the world, diabetes patients have been placed in a high-risk category for infection, complications and death due to COVID-19And they were warned to be very careful to prevent infection, and recent results indicate that it may in fact be a two-way street when it comes to diabetes and viral infections, as a study showed that the virus can cause diabetes as well..

The report explained to the newspaper TIME NOW NEWS That, according to a study by the Spanish National Center for Cancer Research, it was found recently that infection with some enteroviruses, a genus of viruses, that have the ability to cause infections of different severity, can also lead to diabetes, and the team of researchers showed for the first time how a virus can coxsackievirus from a kind of B4 That stimulates diabetes.

Scientists had suspected that some viruses could cause diabetes in humans, but the molecular mechanisms of them are unknown, and for the current study the researchers worked with animal models grafted into human pancreatic cells infected with CVB4 They also studied insulin-producing cells in humans and mice that were infected with the same virus.

The researchers said that these results could also be relevant during the epidemic caused by the Coronavirus, as various studies have proven a link between viral infection and diabetes, according to lead author Dagoder and his team. To developing diabetes in the same way that CVB4 works, regardless of immune reactions, the results of the study also shed light on the pathological effects of the Corona virus, which is currently wreaking havoc around the world.

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Hamsters in Corona times: the toilet paper index

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As in spring, warnings about hamster purchases are making the rounds. The fear of empty shelves more than anything shows the perception of the pandemic.

If one of them starts hoarding, the others quickly follow suit Photo: MiS / imago

What’s the most effective way to get people to make hamster purchases? Well, you could whisper to them: “People, buy pasta, they could all be soon!” However, that is not really promising. The Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance, for example, has been calling for years to stock up on the approximate size of a small children’s room – largely without much response.

Food Minister Julia Klöckner (CDU) has therefore chosen the opposite and much more promising path: “There is no reason to buy hamsters,” she said in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Monday. But at the latest since “Nobody has the intention to build a wall” some people think: r, maybe it should be one more packet of pasta after all. Or two.

Politicians, the Robert Koch Institute, virologists, epidemiologists and health authorities have been talking lusciously for weeks. Warn of rising case numbers, explain for the twentieth time the nature of exponential growth and point out the limits of contact tracking. They tighten rules, increase fines and tighten controls. They report the incidence, R-value, and the number of Sars-CoV-2 tests performed. You are starting a debate about ventilation that has attracted attention beyond Germany. But nothing in this country seems to make the state of the pandemic as clear as an empty pasta or toilet paper shelf – or, if necessary, pictures of it.

That delivery bottlenecks are a self-fulfilling prophecy – for free. The more people are hoarding for fear of empty shelves, the more pictures of empty shelves there are, and the more people will hoard for fear of empty shelves. It doesn’t really matter whether the initial picture was taken shortly after eight in the morning, when the employees in the supermarket didn’t have the time to put the contents of the pallet trolley on the shelf. Or whether it really was a delivery bottleneck.

Those who cannot afford it lose

Because of course: If the demand suddenly increases unexpectedly – be it because many people suddenly build up supplies or because from now on all office workers are asked to work from home and cook there themselves instead of going to the canteen – then they are Bottlenecks possible. The flow of goods cannot be switched overnight from delivery to canteens and restaurants to delivery to supermarkets and discounters. The losers in hamstering are those who cannot afford to buy large stocks.

More than the mask rules, more than travel bans, more than quarantine requirements make empty shelves or even just the fear of it clear: something is wrong here. Here the world of prosperity, as a large part of the people living in this country is used to, falls apart. A product that you are looking for is not available? Even if the world may not end of it, it is definitely close to it. The following applies: If the MNK index (= flour, pasta, toilet paper) in Germany falls below 1, the situation is serious.

And what does it really look like? At the request of the taz, the large grocery chains paint a mixed picture. While Edeka states that it has “not observed any change in the purchasing behavior of customers across the board”, Aldi Süd reports a “slight increase in demand for individual products”. When asked, the company does not say which products are involved. But individual dealers, including an Edeka, who made it public on Twitter, are already backing the sale of “normal household quantities” when it comes to selling toilet paper. The MNK index, it could soon fall below 1 again. Ms. Klöckner would probably not be completely uninvolved in this.

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Why do Corona injuries differ with varying degrees of fever, fatigue and don’t

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1:00 pm

Thursday 22 October 2020

Books – Sayed Metwally:

Scientists have confirmed that people have a different susceptibility to infection with the Coronavirus “Covid-19”, and they have varying degrees of fever, fatigue and breathing problems, which are common symptoms of the disease, what might explain this difference?

According to “Medicalxpress”, scientists at the University of California, Riverside, in the United States, may have an answer to this mystery.

In a research paper published in Informatics in Medicine Unlocked, the researchers showed for the first time that the observed variation in Covid-19 may have basic molecular sources, and the results could help in developing effective preventive and treatment strategies against the disease.

“Based on the biomarkers and molecular features of individuals, one hopes to develop better medical tests to accommodate these differences in monitoring virus transmission and pathology, which helps guide treatment options,” said Sika Zheng, assistant professor of biomedical sciences at Sika Zeng University.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus hijacks human particles, causing the virus to reproduce, and attacks human cellular functions. Together, these human particles are called SARS-CoV-2 host genes.

The researchers systematically analyzed SARS-CoV-2 gene expression, their differences, and age and gender dependence in the population using genomics extensively.

They initially found that similarity in gene expression was generally associated with tissue susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection, among the six most disparate genes in the population, they identified ACE2, CLEC4G and CLEC4M, which are known to interact with the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2.

Higher expression of these genes is likely to increase the likelihood of infection and the development of severe symptoms, and other variants include SLC27A2 and PKP2, both of which are known to inhibit virus replication; And PTGS2, which causes the fever, and the authors of the study also identified genetic variants associated with altered expression of these genes.

According to the researcher, “Zheng”, the expression of the genes of the virus may help to better classify groups at risk of infection with corona.

The researcher said: “A more comprehensive assessment of risks can better guide the early stage of vaccine deployment. Tests can also be developed to include better monitoring of disease progression, and they can also be used to stratify patients to assess treatment effectiveness and ultimately enhance it.”

He continues: “In addition to identifying the more diverse genes for SARS-CoV-2, the study results indicate the presence of multiple genetic biological factors that underlie the population variation in SARS-CoV-2 infection and the severity of symptoms.”

The researcher concluded: “Of course, these results will need to be confirmed with more data, but the results indicate a potential value for a large-scale project to characterize the genotypes in Covid-19 patients.”

Next, the researchers plan to further analyze the large-scale genotypes and transcriptional data of Corona patients when available and improve the results.

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