The Observation Deck

Today's numbers at the bottom of the post.

This is part of the CVOID-19 News From 05.17.2020

This pull and the link are well worth the read. News and headlines from around the world for today.

Profile of a killer: the complex biology powering the coronavirus pandemic - Now, as the death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic surges, researchers are scrambling to uncover as much as possible about the biology of the latest coronavirus, named SARS-CoV-2. A profile of the killer is already emerging. 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. And genetic evidence suggests that it has been hiding out in nature possibly for decades.But there are many crucial unknowns about this virus, including how exactly it kills, whether it will evolve into something more - or less - lethal and what it can reveal about the next outbreak from the coronavirus family.“There will be more, either out there already or in the making," says Andrew Rambaut, who studies viral evolution at the University of Edinburgh, UK.Of the viruses that attack humans, coronaviruses are big. At 125 nanometres in diameter, they are also relatively large for the viruses that use RNA to replicate, the group that accounts for most newly emerging diseases. But coronaviruses really stand out for their genomes. With 30,000 genetic bases, coronaviruses have the largest genomes of all RNA viruses. Their genomes are more than three times as big as those of HIV and hepatitis C, and more than twice influenza’s.Coronaviruses are also one of the few RNA viruses with a genomic proofreading mechanism - which keeps the virus from accumulating mutations that could weaken it. That ability might be why common antivirals such as ribavirin, which can thwart viruses such as hepatitis C, have failed to subdue SARS-CoV-2. The drugs weaken viruses by inducing mutations. But in the coronaviruses, the proofreader can weed out those changes. Mutations can have their advantages for viruses. Influenza mutates up to three times more often than coronaviruses do, a pace that enables it to evolve quickly and sidestep vaccines. But coronaviruses have a special trick that gives them a deadly dynamism: they frequently recombine, swapping chunks of their RNA with other coronaviruses. Typically, this is a meaningless trading of like parts between like viruses. But when two distant coronavirus relatives end up in the same cell, recombination can lead to formidable versions that infect new cell types and jump to other species, says Rambaut.

Read more here:
http://econintersect.com/pages/contribu ... B_CBcKRcd4

State of Ohio
262,759 - Total People Tested

27,923 - Total Cases, Up 449 cases, 21-Day Average is 570

4,921 - Number of Hospitalizations in Ohio, Up 51 cases, 21-Day Average is 83
1,305 - Number of ICU Admissions, Up 5 cases, 21-Day Average is 17

1,625 - Total Deaths, Up 15 deaths, 21-Day Average is 23



United States
1,526,134 - Total Cases, ↑ 18,361 (1.22%)
16,366 - Number of ICU Admissions
90,931 - Total Deaths, ↑ 818 (0.91%)
344,805 - Recovered
1,090,398 - Active Cases

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First off, I'm not adding anything informative to this post. It's really just a bit of conversation running around in my head after clicking on that link.

I managed to read a fair amount...right up until I got overwhelmed and had to click the back arrow. If that report is not scary as hell, I don't know what is.

From my corner on Clifton Blvd., I get to see a multitude of joggers, cyclists, walkers and people disembarking buses. Rarely, is anyone wearing a mask. Meanwhile, a neighbor (a hospital worker) and myself wear masks when mowing our tree lawns. We need to, because folks are blind to the fact that we are working.... and come right into our personal space.

Why, oh why...won't people wear masks?

But, things could be worse.... I could be a tailie on the Snowpiercer.

pj bennett wrote:First off, I'm not adding anything informative to this post. It's really just a bit of conversation running around in my head after clicking on that link.

I managed to read a fair amount...right up until I got overwhelmed and had to click the back arrow. If that report is not scary as hell, I don't know what is.

From my corner on Clifton Blvd., I get to see a multitude of joggers, cyclists, walkers and people disembarking buses. Rarely, is anyone wearing a mask. Meanwhile, a neighbor (a hospital worker) and myself wear masks when mowing our tree lawns. We need to, because folks are blind to the fact that we are working.... and come right into our personal space.

Why, oh why...won't people wear masks?

But, things could be worse.... I could be a tailie on the Snowpiercer.

PJ

I see 449 new cases in Ohio. Most think whew it is going down.

I think it all started to one person in Wuhan China.

Because of the virus is silent for weeks and months, most carriers never realize they are carriers. Meanwhile the toll on the human body is starting to show no one escapes damage from this virus. Even those that are asystematic.

This is one of the wildest viruses WHO and all have ever faced. It mutates, recombines, works at every little weakness, then changes again.

This might be the one all the syfy movies spoke of.

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The understanding that the virus is not over and everyone needs to wear masks to protect each other seems to have fallen by the wayside as the state restrictions have been lifted. These need to be reinforced. Again I wonder if Lakewood couldn't implement its own restrictions. While wearing masks while eating and drinking is not feasible, they can be taken off and put back on. I hate the idea of a curfew, but that may be necessary. So too the gatherings of kids in parks.

I had to go to a few chain stores over the weekend and the compliance with masks was about 50/50. The municipalities and/or stores should be ready to provide them, and charitable organizations that curate moneys like those of the former Lakewood Hospital should be prepared to help pay for them.

Again, you don't wear a mask to protect yourself. You wear it to protect others, and if everybody does so, everybody will be protected. It's a matter of respect.

It's not over and won't be for a long while.