Covid-19

[boozehound]

He needs to set an example...and that example is if you are vaccinated, and outside, you do not need to wear a mask. There is no science based reason to wear a mask outside, especially when you have been given a shot to prevent infection.

I wear my mask to comply with rules, and to not put people who are "just doing their jobs" enforcing the mandate in the middle. They don't need people giving them shit because they are trying to follow rules set in place by our governor. But if the vaccination is now available to all those who want to take it, it is time to drop the mandates. If you don't want to get vaccinated...and you have no desire to wear a mask, then you assume responsibility for all risks to your own health.

I am fully vaccinated, like I was advised to do...now leave me the fuck alone.

I agree with this, although I do think that even if mask mandates are lifted many grocery stores etc. will still requires masks for the foreseeable future. I don't think we are getting out of that one for a while. Consumer studies showed early in the pandemic that shoppers were leaving some stores (for example, Walmart) due to poor mask compliance. I think they will be hyper conservative about dropping mask requirements.

The masking outside thing has been ridiculous for a while, even before the vaccines became available. I'm about the farthest thing from an anti-masker, but I can't figure out what the hell people are doing walking around my neighborhood with a mask on. You aren't coming within 20 feet of anybody, why are you wearing a mask?

[Strange Brew]

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...-rockaway.html - I worked here for 6 weeks on a Psychiatry rotation this past winter, I knew Dr. Lee pretty well, would have had no idea how it affected him. Same goes to other people in this video that I knew. The area Far Rockaway is in is a poor socioeconomic area, plenty of nursing homes/assisted living facility, and it makes sense. They were very strict about COVID rules and I understand why compared to a couple other places that are a little more laxed (not requiring a face shield in the hospital at all times, etc.), seeing the aftermath at St. John's, it hit different areas much differently, the demographics of the area definitely were in play, but man, brutal at times.



Finally getting to this, so interestingly (but making sense) enough is that the ACE2 receptor that COVID binds to seems to be present at great quantities in some of the brain blood vessels, and upregulated aka a shit ton more of them around in dementia and hypertension patients, the spike protein is how COVID enters the cell, looks like the spike protein from theory is associated with some changes to the vessels of the brain, this is pretty important as the blood-brain-barrier is pretty tight, it's very picky about what it lets cross through as on the other side of the blood vessels are where your neurons live to carry out all your brain functions, this is basically saying it's making the vessels weaker, more "toxins" can filter through into the brain, and could be an explanation for some of the more neurological problems seen in COVID.

In relation to the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines, we know that the mRNA codes for the spike protein of COVID to elicit an antibody response, however, it doesn't code for the ENTIRE protein, just fragments of it, and when it's injected into muscle, the muscle cells make the protein and show it on their cell surface. Now, I don't know the exact logistics/mechanism completely, so I'm shooting in the dark here, but I don't think it should cause concern for the vaccine creating spike proteins that could possibly alter your brain vessels. Where it's not the entire protein, you're not going to have complete spike proteins being formed, and we're not sure what part of the spike protein leads to the disruption of the blood brain barrier. Proteins are made in ribosomes which basically every cell has, immature red blood cells have a shit ton of ribosomes for. hemoglobin production, so it's not crazy to think it's possible for the vaccine to lead to neurological effects, but I'm going to brush up on my molecular biology and some papers before I theorize anything more.

Thank you. I had concerns when I understood there to be RNA manipulation (word may have too many negative connotations to be appropriate, apologies if that is the case). Based on what you stated, is there concern the increase proteins in the brain's vascular function may lead to the inhibiting of necessary or normal chemicals entering the brain?

[GIMMFD]

Thank you. I had concerns when I understood there to be RNA manipulation (word may have too many negative connotations to be appropriate, apologies if that is the case). Based on what you stated, is there concern the increase proteins in the brain's vascular function may lead to the inhibiting of necessary or normal chemicals entering the brain?

Nope, so the blood-brain-barrier is a highly-selective, semi-permeable membrane, so kind of like a filter, or a guard at a gated community. When the blood-brain-barrier is functioning normally in a healthy human, it's super tight and only lets the normal stuff pass through, it's like the normal stuff has a ticket/pass that allows them to enter. So think of the edges of the blood vessels in the brain, if you visualize a blood vessel you think of it as a tube right? So the tubing of the vessel in the brain are the so called barrier, not the blood itself. What this study/paper was postulating is that certain conditions, like dementia and hypertension give you more ACE-2 receptors on the edges of these blood vessels. So how this works, the virus particle has this guy on it's surface called the SPIKE protein, this SPIKE protein recognizes the ACE-2 receptors on the blood vessels, and binds to them which allows for the virus to do some other biochemical shit I won't bore you with and boom get inside the cell. This would basically poke holes into this selective, semi-permeable membrane, allowing more things to get in. Basically, it would just drive straight through the gate breaking it open, ticket/pass be damned. So it wouldn't necessarily inhibit any normal things to get in that were already getting in, but it would just let a lot of bad things get in because it's basically a jail break at this point. If that makes sense?

If that makes sense, then taking it a step further, the mRNA vaccines MAKE the SPIKE protein, but JUST a small piece of it (this protein is composed of all kinds of subunits, with different functions, etc.), so unless the mRNA vaccines are making all aspects of the SPIKE protein that allows for binding to the ACE-2 receptor, and subsequent boring biochemical shit to enter the cell in this small piece they make, it's not really going to effect the blood-brain-barrier because it'll never be able to poke the holes into the membrane. They just are making a small amount for the immune system to see it, fight it off, and store that information away like a filing cabinet, because the memory immune response is much much more robust than seeing something for the first time. The ACE-2 receptors being upregulated in "disease" conditions isn't an issue (well, in this case at least) UNLESS there's corresponding SPIKE proteins that can bind, get in, and cause dysfunction.

**Also the ACE-2 receptors are found all throughout the body, this paper is postulating the receptors in the brain because of the upregulation in dementia and hypertension, which makes sense because they hold a role in blood pressure regulation, but ACE-2 receptors are also found on the surface of cells in the lungs, and that's why you get pneumonia, etc.


I really hope that all doesn't just sound like a bunch of non-sense haha.

[Strange Brew]

Nope, so the blood-brain-barrier is a highly-selective, semi-permeable membrane, so kind of like a filter, or a guard at a gated community. When the blood-brain-barrier is functioning normally in a healthy human, it's super tight and only lets the normal stuff pass through, it's like the normal stuff has a ticket/pass that allows them to enter. So think of the edges of the blood vessels in the brain, if you visualize a blood vessel you think of it as a tube right? So the tubing of the vessel in the brain are the so called barrier, not the blood itself. What this study/paper was postulating is that certain conditions, like dementia and hypertension give you more ACE-2 receptors on the edges of these blood vessels. So how this works, the virus particle has this guy on it's surface called the SPIKE protein, this SPIKE protein recognizes the ACE-2 receptors on the blood vessels, and binds to them which allows for the virus to do some other biochemical shit I won't bore you with and boom get inside the cell. This would basically poke holes into this selective, semi-permeable membrane, allowing more things to get in. Basically, it would just drive straight through the gate breaking it open, ticket/pass be damned. So it wouldn't necessarily inhibit any normal things to get in that were already getting in, but it would just let a lot of bad things get in because it's basically a jail break at this point. If that makes sense?

If that makes sense, then taking it a step further, the mRNA vaccines MAKE the SPIKE protein, but JUST a small piece of it (this protein is composed of all kinds of subunits, with different functions, etc.), so unless the mRNA vaccines are making all aspects of the SPIKE protein that allows for binding to the ACE-2 receptor, and subsequent boring biochemical shit to enter the cell in this small piece they make, it's not really going to effect the blood-brain-barrier because it'll never be able to poke the holes into the membrane. They just are making a small amount for the immune system to see it, fight it off, and store that information away like a filing cabinet, because the memory immune response is much much more robust than seeing something for the first time. The ACE-2 receptors being upregulated in "disease" conditions isn't an issue (well, in this case at least) UNLESS there's corresponding SPIKE proteins that can bind, get in, and cause dysfunction.

**Also the ACE-2 receptors are found all throughout the body, this paper is postulating the receptors in the brain because of the upregulation in dementia and hypertension, which makes sense because they hold a role in blood pressure regulation, but ACE-2 receptors are also found on the surface of cells in the lungs, and that's why you get pneumonia, etc.


I really hope that all doesn't just sound like a bunch of non-sense haha.

No, no that makes sense. Queue Carville from Old School.

Thanks!

[paulxu]

That's a shit-ton of good info !

[Smails]

He needs to set an example...and that example is if you are vaccinated, and outside, you do not need to wear a mask. There is no science based reason to wear a mask outside, especially when you have been given a shot to prevent infection.

I am fully vaccinated, like I was advised to do...now leave me the fuck alone.

Can I get an AMEN!! He needs to set the tone and tell people to get the hell out of their houses, get back to work and no more free money!

I was suffering from a mild case of the Irish Flu on Saturday so naturally I headed to Frischs for lunch only to find that it was closed..on a Saturday...at lunch. I talked to the Manager (who was sweeping the parking lot) and asked him why they were closed. He said business was booming but they didn't have enough staff to open..

[GoMuskies]

Biden should wear a mask when indoors with 90 year-old ex-Presidents. He should not wear a mask when outside or on Zoom calls.

[xu82]

Can I get an AMEN!! He needs to set the tone and tell people to get the hell out of their houses, get back to work and no more free money!

I was suffering from a mild case of the Irish Flu on Saturday so naturally I headed to Frischs for lunch only to find that it was closed..on a Saturday...at lunch. I talked to the Manager (who was sweeping the parking lot) and asked him why they were closed. He said business was booming but they didn't have enough staff to open..

I went to lunch yesterday and sat out on the covered patio (as has become my custom). The regular bartender was serving the patio, which surprised me. She said all the bartenders had to take a day and be a server out there because they just couldn’t hire people. It seems they would prefer to stay home and make more money just sitting on their couch while the checks rolled in. This is so damn broken!

[GIMMFD]

No, no that makes sense. Queue Carville from Old School.

Thanks!

That's a shit-ton of good info !

Haha cheers, no worries, it's usually way easier when I'm able to draw diagrams, so trying to form a coherent thought process and type it out was basically a collection of rambled thoughts, I'm glad it made sense and happy to help! As always, any other questions anybody has, I'm more than willing to break things down to make sense, I feel a lot of stuff is just presented in science terms and needs to be correlated to the basic fundamental level to allow for people to form proper opinions.

[ThrowDownDBrown]

I went to lunch yesterday and sat out on the covered patio (as has become my custom). The regular bartender was serving the patio, which surprised me. She said all the bartenders had to take a day and be a server out there because they just couldn’t hire people. It seems they would prefer to stay home and make more money just sitting on their couch while the checks rolled in. This is so damn broken!

Maybe restaurants and bars should pay their employees an actual livable wage. A lot of people who previously worked in that industry have left it for good because they found better paying jobs that offer a better work life balance. The fact that people are making more on unemployment now is just shining a light onto how terrible the service industry was treating their employees. Offer a reasonable pay that includes benefits and you'll have no problem hiring servers or bartenders. Offer an hourly rate that's below minimum wage with no benefits and I don't feel bad that no one wants to work for you.