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Why a Highly Mutated Coronavirus Variant Has Scientists on Alert (nature.com)
29 points by Brajeshwar on Aug 23, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 43 comments


I didn't stop wearing 3M FFP3 masks, which I buy from a UK online store. No covid, no flu, no RSV. Yes, I don't wear them like the dumbos who remove them at the airplane to eat or who believe covid somehow disappears outside even when you have somebody right in your face bombarding you with their spit and aerosols. Yes, tell me about it - it requires some solid discipline, but covid is no flu! We're just 3 years into it and he have piles of data or the accumulating damage for each incident - brain, endothelium, kidneys, myocardium - just for the quick to spot victims of covid so far! The mitochondrial damage could lead to tons more - it just takes time and lots of accumulation. Even being super strict, we still got it in our household when somebody broke the rules. Every time we wore masks like smart people, we were fine even though we were around sick people, in airplanes full of sick coughing and sneezing people. Masks do work. They require behavior modifications, but isn't health the most precious thing?

The worst thing is that we don't make a dent when everybody want to live their (shorter) lives without doing the necessary to prevent mutation. This is the most contagious virus known to science now and each new variant becomes better. Okay, it's mortality is less, but isn't it because we all got immune? Just pray this doesn't suddenly reinvent the mortality of SARS or MERS - they it will be the end of the human civilization as we proved we're stupid and self-entitled!


Holy superiority complex batman. I suppose you're right - health is the most precious thing over all else, and people who value silly things like socializing indoors over a meal have no one but themselves to blame if humanity is wiped out by a suddenly deadly variant.

I get it - many people have returned to pre-pandemic behavior (I'd hoped we'd at least keep masking when sick with anything) but this type of comment is certainly not going to win hearts and change opinions.


Well, I do see people, I do go places. In fact, I do it probably more willingly as I know I won't get covid, or flu, or anything that will ruin my time. Yes, I know, people love eating together - that's primitive like wolves or lions devouring an animal they've killed. People can socialize in so many ways and eating is probably the worst kind.


How does protecting one's own health relate to having a superiority complex?


When the tiniest water droplet cannot be stopped by an N95 mask.

After all, the entire length of a single COVID virus is only 70-90nm long.

What was the manufacturer-rated N95 stopping power of particle size again? 95% at 300nm! And it quickly goes south after that.

Also, because of ANY sufficiently virial load, the water droplets are even smaller.

Don't try and pull that nonsense of a human breathing action having cause a Brownian Motion to being able to catch even smaller particles because all cited papers mention unnatural atmospheric pressure (1800 mbar) to achieve this kind of filtering.

So, superiority complex, indeed.

Might as well wear a simple cloth mask. :-/

- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7579175/

- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8436814/


300nm is specifically the size the filters are worst at collecting. Below that, _eletrostatic_ forces kick in, and they're much better than 95%.


Do not confuse “droplets” with “aerosols”, like CDC is doing.

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/1_Petty_N...


Electrostatic seems to have nothing below 460nm.

Maybe Van der Wahl force.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.9b02646


Citation, please, like I do.


It's like the second result when you Google for n95 electrostatic: https://pubs.aip.org/aip/pof/article/32/9/093304/1060745/Rec... (read the first section (not the abstract))

It was actually a really cool story when this happened during the pandemic. The original inventor of the current n95 mask production technique came out of retirement to help out.


Cool whitepaper, bro.

Too bad that the whitepaper's test sensors only works on particles greater than 300nm.

But it does rejuvenate the mask for another working day and alleviate N95 mask shortages.

But does not measure for virus-sized water-based particles.



First link is an article that merely summarize following link. Not exactly the peer-reviewable source.

Second link also has zero “actionable” citation and scarily so, has a paltry 84 citations-by. Making this actionless, “citation-free” paper an even terrible source.

Sole reference: https://www.pnas.org/syndication/doi/10.1073/pnas.2110117118


If the only way to survive is to isolate myself and wear a mask over my face at all times, the I'm better off dead.


When did I say that I was isolating myself? Assuming much?! Live your life the way you want, but do not judge me for having the same privilege!


You're preaching that everyone should compromise their freedom in order to minimize mutation.

What difference does it make whether you, in particular, isolate yourself or not? My point still stands. I'm not judging your "privileges", I'm not even judging your holier-than-thou attitude and covert authoritarianism - I'm just stating my stance on the issue.


Again and again, when did I mention isolation?!

Thew new age liberalism sooner or later imminently leads to an apocalypse - individualism is doomed.

When everybody's self-centered, everybody does - that's without a doubt.

This was an engineered virus and it's just the beginning. It's so easy to create a new virus and spread it and with people who don't care about anything else but dining out with friends will make it spread within days around the globe.


Please read my previous comment again.


And you read about False Dilemma - a common fallacy among people.


If I were making a logical argument, I'd be interested in re-reading about logical fallacies. But I'm not.


Is there a way to get FFP3 or equivalent masks in the US?


3M Aura 9330+ is the most comfortable. The shipping from the Face Mask Store [0] is affordable and fast. They have many other FFP3 alternatives. With my last order, I got Dräger X-plore 1930 FFP3, which seems great, but I haven't tried it yet. FFP3 masks are not cheap, but high-end 3M disposable masks have a great fit, they are very comfortable, and you can wear them for days.

[0]: https://thefacemaskstore.co.uk/3m-aura-9330


Thank you. I used the 3M FFP3 in Europe and they were quite comfortable but importing them is a bit expensive in addition to the mask itself (I don't reuse if I wear the mask for more than 6 hours). I keep a small stock for wave peaks but otherwise stay on 3M Aura N95.


I bought a couple of 3M-brand N100s from a web site.

They're OK, but don't fit my face as well as the 3M-brand N95s I usually buy (8511s).


From the article:

Should the public be concerned about BA.2.86?

“I don’t think anybody needs to be alarmed by this,” stresses Bloom. “The most likely scenario is that this variant fizzles out, and in a month nobody other than people like me even remember that it existed.”


That’s okay, rto mandates will make everything worse.


I wonder is human tinkering has anything todo with this?


Yes, you’re exactly right. Humanity tinkered with it by deliberately not wearing masks and vaccinating, which caused it to mutate and spread. If only everybody just wore masks and isolated for a couple of weeks, there’d be no COVID at all


What tinkering?



> https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/after-months-of-denial-...

Your source has fallen for Russian propaganda the very premise that the article is based on is false.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jun/15/blog-posti...


My source is the state department: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ydSf57SRtcQ


The US Department of State official website would be state.gov, not youtube.com.


Put your head deeper into the sand


Can you link to a primary CSPAN source of the same hearing without the jump cuts?



Well, there you have it - zero confirmation that there's any biological weapons research - just confirmation that the US supports biological research labs.

You do realise that the overwhelming bulk of biological research labs do mundane work that's dull and boring?


Yeah they are just terrified that the Russians will get their hands on the pediatric cancer cures they are working on.

That's also why they have been fully transparent and declassified what they were working on there.

What they didn't do is claim its "Russian propaganda" to claim these labs exist at all, because that would be the act of a guilty person.

</s>


Can you please explain how this counts as evidence for, or as proof and is not just people telling you what you're supposed to believe?

You know, just like the "other side" is doing it.


> Can you please explain how this counts as evidence for, or as proof and is not just people telling you what you're supposed to believe?

Well I just read the source material as well, and even the headline is wrong in the article you posted.

> https://media.defense.gov/2022/Mar/11/2002954612/-1/-1/0/FAC...

The DOD provides partial funding the labs they don't run them.

If you want to know more about the situation I suggest you read the source and some good articles on the topic like this one.

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-polit...


> The Pentagon said on Thursday that it has operated 46 biolabs in Ukraine handling dangerous pathogens, after previously dismissing the charges as Russian propaganda.

What is the official source? And what does that have to do with covid variants?


> What is the official source?

In this thread I have provided a clip of the undersecretary of state claiming under oath, in congress, that these biolabs exist and she is very worried about Russians gaining access to the contents of them.

> what does that have to do with covid variants?

Here is some similar research conducted by the people behind the Ukrainian biolabs but in China: https://thebulletin.org/2022/08/nih-to-terminate-ecohealth-a...


noooooooo




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