If you can't do it right, then do not do it all.

[SkilletHead2]

You forgot to mention something obvious. Any study that tries to measure whether lockdowns worked or didn't, especially in the US, is BS. How do you account for the fact that a huge # of people ignored the mandate and did whatever the hell they wanted? There is no data on this, so any analysis is fatally compromised.

The degree to which there is compliance with an intervention is an integral part of most major research studies, and many smaller ones. Even if there are people violating the lockdown, it can still be highly effective and be seen to be such in the data. If you are willing to look for it, which the Cato economist and his buddies were not.

It seems that the situation now is simply one of how to mitigate the strain on hospitals while Omicron comes through. Masks would certainly help. Vaccinations would help infinitely more.

 

[SkilletHead2]

Imagine cheering for lockdowns

Also like they ignore natural immunity studies?

Most studies estimating future likelihood of getting COVID, going to hospital, or dying include those who have infected immunity. Don't see anybody avoiding that. If you've had COVID, you have a lot of protection. But it does wane. If you've had it and get vaxxed, you have a bunch more.

 

[Caliknight]

Jabs wane far faster than natural immunity.

And are more dangerous.

 

[AZBlues]

This board has been pretty good about sticking to hoops. Can we continue to do that without the interlopers addicted to politicizing everything screwing things up? Last thing we need is another one of these threads as we enter a critical run.

I think most of us pretty much agree with you, although this thread might be a better option than most other threads if a political discussion can't be avoided, as long as people can remain civil and respectful despite disagreeing, and can confine it to one thread only... As you can see, the first political comment in this thread touted the alleged " ...massive Johns Hopkins study that made it pretty clear that those institutions who constantly preach "follow the science" selectively "ignore the science" when it does not match that organizations political alignment."

If that comment hadn't been posted, we might still be talking only about athletic center entry procedures. It seems like it's the same faction that usually starts the unnecessary political comments and generalizations in a thread, and just like in physics, for every action there's usually an equal and opposite reaction. It is what it is, especially considering the unfortunate politically polarized world we live in today. Like many of us, I hate it when the bickering causes good threads to be locked though, and when totally non-political threads are hijacked and it becomes harder to follow the comments that are actually related to the original thread topic..

 

[G- RUnit]

Its because the scanners work poorly..also ive seen them touch phones to see vax photo

He’s right you know.

 

[AZBlues]

Jabs wane far faster than natural immunity.

And are more dangerous.

Speaking of vaccines, my wife's adult cousin tested positive for covid last week (vaccinated). Three days later the cousin's 8 year old daughter tested positive. (unvaccinated). Two days after that the cousin's 60 year old mother and 88 year old grandmother, who also live in the same household as cousin and daughter, tested positive. Both the mother and grandmother have always staunchly refused to be vaccinated, because they heard that someone on the internet said that the vaccine alters your DNA and will turn you into a zombie. Seriously. (Neither one has a high school diploma) There was no way to get them to think otherwise. (And just two weeks earlier, the grandmother's younger brother, unvaccinated, who lived in a different state, died from Covid.)

Well, the adult cousin and the child had only mild illness and are almost fully recovered, without any specific covid treatment. The 88 year old grandmother was immediately prescribed the sotrovimab monoclonal antibody infusion which she received (at a cost of $2000 to $3000 to the government), and the 60 year old mother was prescribed the Paxlovid oral therapy since she was unvaccinated (at a cost of over $500 to the government...) Their initial symptoms were some fatigue and a sore throat, but they were treated (or began treatment in the case of Paxlovid), the day after they tested positive, and both women are now improving..

To compare costs, a vaccine, at a total cost of $45 to the government for 2 initial shots and 1 booster (Government pays Moderna $15 per shot), would have prevented the mother from having to be prescribed Paxlovid. The grandmother may or may not have still been prescribed the expensive antibody treatment if she was vaccinated, due to her age, but there's also at least a chance that she might not have become infected in the first place had she chosen to be vaccinated. Just pointing out the difference in cost of treatment when people, who may be unvaccinated by choice, sometimes for a ridiculous reason like the zombie conspiracy theory, require monoclonal antibody treatment or Paxlovid if they become infected... Both therapies are still in short supply in some areas too, so not everyone who needs them can get them yet. Luckily they were both available here.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Fwiw, Murphy lifted the school mask mandate as of March 7th. Not sure if and how this also applies to the state university, but hopefully its a sign of better things to come.

Why wait a month? Why announce it NOW at all then?

 

[Letitrip]

I'm not angry, I'm just chuckling to myself... Massive Johns Hopkins study???? Science? I guess we have a very different understanding of what science is.

Did you actually read all of the details of the actual economists' study and how they chose to obtain information? Only one of the 3 economists (NOT medical or science personnel) who authored the study had anything to do with Johns Hopkins, and he had nothing to do with the renowned medical school... I'm not sure if I'd call that "massive", at least not when using that study as your ironclad evidence that institutions "ignore the science"..... The main thing that those authors concluded was that lockdowns only reduce the covid mortality rate by a small amount, and that lockdowns significantly hurt the economy, based on the small amount of studies that they chose to use for their conclusions out of over 18,000 studies that they had available to them. So I'm not sure how thorough or accurate their results were. And before Bac and his henchmen start accusing me of obtaining my words from left wing media sources again, I only looked at the actual study that was published, and then researched the authors.

And this is a story regarding the "study" from Forbes that I just found after I typed this post, for you guys who are taking the "study" as gospel and using it as "proof" that you can ignore any covid precautions. FYI, Forbes is not a left wing media outlet.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucel...ineffective-against-covid-19/?sh=1a071d0a1225

So basically you are rooting for perpetual masks and continual lock downs. You are brainwashed and don't even know it. Sad.

 

[Proud NJ Sports Fan]

So basically you are routing for perpetual masks and lock downs. You are brainwashed and don't even know it. Sad.

Some people belong in masks, and should have been wearing them years ago.

Beauty ain’t for everyone

 

[Proud NJ Sports Fan]

Thanks for posting that article. This really highlights a serious issue in this country - people' willingness to believe anything they see on the internet AND how willing some are to mislead the public for their own financial gain - RUPERT MURDOCH.

My suggestion is to practice what you preach bruh

 

[RU848789]

From "Marty". Lol

Study limitations include lack of direct neutralization assays, the fact that antibody levels alone do not directly equate to immunity,4,6 the cross-sectional study design, a convenience sample with an unknown degree of selection bias due to public recruitment, self-reported COVID-19 test results, the study population being largely White and healthy, and lack of information on breakthrough infections. Participants were given only 1 month to complete antibody testing, which may have contributed to the 52% rate among those invited to test.

Although evidence of natural immunity in unvaccinated healthy US adults up to 20 months after confirmed COVID-19 infection is encouraging, it is unclear how these antibody levels correlate with protection against future SARS-CoV-2 infections, particularly with emerging variants. The public health implications and long-term understanding of these findings merit further consideration.

Great post. Don't know if you and other medical professionals/scientists (@LETSGORU91 @UMRU) saw either the UK study or my posts on that study in a previous thread, but if you haven't, they're worth a read (link below), because unlike the questionable work by Marty, the UK study is the first with omicron to actually control for just about every variable, as theyve been testing a large subset of their health care workers weekly and monitoring for COVID and of course tracking outcomes like hospitalizations and deaths.

Who's getting tested or not, exposure levels, age, etc. have all been very well controlled and the results confirm everything we knew before omicron, i.e., that previous infection without vaccination and double vaccination protection against infection waned significantly, boosted protection against infection with omicron is still pretty good, and that all provide good to excellent protection against severe COVID/death with boosted being best, as expected. These numbers were all compared to the reference population of workers not vaccinated and never infected. With regard to natural immunity from infection, this study confirmed it is way better than no immunity, but not quite as good as being vaccinated (especially boosted).

https://rutgers.forums.rivals.com/threads/nebby-covid.233575/post-5491875

 

[RU848789]

So basically you are rooting for perpetual masks and continual lock downs. You are brainwashed and don't even know it. Sad.

He didn't say anything like that - he merely pointed out that the study in question was a load of crap.

 

[bac2therac]

Leanna Wen gonna give some here the sads. She has been spot on the past few weeks...with masks and now mentioning natural immunity andcwe shouldn't be looking at case counts anymore. Unfortunately she is getting killed in the comments again. Sick demented people do not wan to let go of Covid

 

[AZBlues]

He didn't say anything like that - he merely pointed out that the study in question was a load of crap.

Thanks RU848789.

Looks like Bac and his henchmen are out en masse tonight... Hide the women and children!

 

[RU848789]

Jabs wane far faster than natural immunity.

And are more dangerous.

1 in 100-1000 chance of death from COVID (900K dead out of 330MM is 1 in 270 overall) vs. 1 in 100,000,000 chance of death from a COVID vaccine. And immunity from infection, while pretty good, is highly variable and less than immunit from being boosted, especially with regard to severe outcomes, but you keep on spouting stupidity - it is one thing you seem to excel at.

 

[bac2therac]

1 in 100-1000 chance of death from COVID (900K dead out of 330MM is 1 in 270 overall) vs. 1 in 100,000,000 chance of death from a COVID vaccine. And immunity from infection, while pretty good, is highly variable and less than immunit from being boosted, especially with regard to severe outcomes, but you keep on spouting stupidity - it is one thing you seem to excel at.

Lmfo. We didnt have vaccines for 10 months..please take those deaths out..also please remove deaths with covid not from..oh and remember 50% of deaths over 75

 

[Letitrip]

He didn't say anything like that - he merely pointed out that the study in question was a load of crap.

In your opinion! I realize that you are the all knowing scientist far smarter than any study Johns Hopkins could come up with - But you may want to consider that maybe just maybe your views are not god like. others look at data different then you - respect it.

 

[bac2therac]

Makary doesn't follow their political science..its all this is about

 

[Local Shill]

Until Rutgers stops saying “Homeland Security” guidelines are the reason you can’t bring an apple and a small bottle of water into a football game all their policies and rules will remain a joke.

 

[zappaa]

At the Rutgers club every table is filled with normal unmasked people.
The virus doesn’t dare enter the dining room.
The buffet is where Covid hangs out, you need a mask to stand in line with your plate.
I carried on a conversation while standing in line with an unmasked couple eating literally 3 feet from the Buffet…the mitigation factors are incredibly scientific

 

[bac2therac]

Ouch

https://ianmsc.substack.com/p/the-c...s-is?r=kt9k9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

 

[RW90]

At the Rutgers club every table is filled with normal unmasked people.
The virus doesn’t dare enter the dining room.
The buffet is where Covid hangs out, you need a mask to stand in line with your plate.
I carried on a conversation while standing in line with an unmasked couple eating literally 3 feet from the Buffet…the mitigation factors are incredibly scientific

Even microbes prefer a good buffet now and then.

 

[RC80]

this picture looks like 4pm ? at 3:15 got right in; quickly got checked - few people waiting; went in.

 

[bac2therac]

this picture looks like 4pm ? at 3:15 got right in; quickly got checked - few people waiting; went in.

Not sure of time thats just when he tweeted it

 

[RU848789]

I've been right about almost everything related to the pandemic and Rutgers sports, so here's my last prediction. We'll keep the current system in place with masks and proof of vaccination through the end of the season, since it's only 4 more games and a few more weeks and it seems silly to change that now, plus it aligns with Murphy's 3/7 lifting of the mask mandate for schools. It's possible they'll reverse the no food/beverages rule, though, which was always silly, IMO. Beyond that, we've seen the last of mask requirements for sporting events once the hoops season is over (will coincide with the schools announcement, IMO) and I think we'll probably even drop the vaccine requirements for campus activities/sports for fall semester, assuming we're well into the endemic phase of COVID by then (should be there in the next month or so, really), which will happen, barring some new variant worse than omicron (theoretically possible, but unlikely, IMO).

For anyone wondering if I have any credibility in this area...

• I predicted the cancellation of the basketball season in early March 2020, more than a week before it was cancelled, as it was obvious we were headed towards the worst pandemic in 100 years, which is why my immunocompromised family went into quarantine on 3/2, well before most others did.
• I also said in January 2021 that we'd have down around 10,000 cases/day and a few hundred deaths per day by June 2021, assuming a high percentage of vaccinations, especially of the vulnerable. Of course, unlike almost everyone else, I did not foresee a more transmissible delta and then omicron.
• In June, I said we'd have full stadiums without masks for football season and a full RAC, with masks likely for basketball season and was right on those.
• On 12/21/21 when many were predicting the cancellation of the hoops season due to omicron, I said the omicron peak would be very high, but sharp with a fast decline and that hoops would not be cancelled, although we'd likely see some games cancelled due to team infections.
• As an aside, I didn't think we'd see so much waning of effectiveness of the vaccines, requiring boosters after ~6 months, so was wrong on that
• I was also wrong in early Feb 2020 that this would likely not be worse than a bad flu season - but that thinking only lasted until late Feb, when we saw the impacts in SK and Italy.
• I did predict in April 2020 that we'd have commercially available vaccines by the end of 2020.
• I said we should encourage universal masking a month before the CDC recommended it in April 2020.
• And finally, back in April 2020, assuming herd immunity (of the original strain) was around 70% and assuming an infection fatality ratio of about 0.5%, I predicted we'd see in the neighborhood of 1.3MM deaths eventually - the reason we're "only" at 900K deaths now is vaccines.

 

[RU848789]

Lmfo. We didnt have vaccines for 10 months..please take those deaths out..also please remove deaths with covid not from..oh and remember 50% of deaths over 75

If you could do simple math, you'd see that 900K deaths in 330MM is 1 in 270, independent of vaccines, for the most part, as nearly all of those deaths were in the unvaccinated. Also, all of those deaths were from COVID, as signed off by medical professionals in the death certificates - and we know from excess death comparisons that we likely had 20-30% more deaths due to COVID than were ever reported, so the 900K number is a lowball number. And wtf difference does it make that 50% of the deaths were over 75 - are those less relevant in your world somehow?

 

[RU848789]

In your opinion! I realize that you are the all knowing scientist far smarter than any study Johns Hopkins could come up with - But you may want to consider that maybe just maybe your views are not god like. others look at data different then you - respect it.

Yes and my scientific opinion, having read their paper is that they made huge, unsupported assumptions and failed to consider many factors they should have. A major part of my job for 30+ years was reading scientific and occasionally medical literature, both internal to work and in external peer reviewed publications (I've authored many and have multiple patents) and reviewing/understanding it. Not all opinions are created equally. Sorry if you don't like that answer.

 

[Letitrip]

Yes and my scientific opinion, having read their paper is that they made huge, unsupported assumptions and failed to consider many factors they should have. A major part of my job for 30+ years was reading scientific and occasionally medical literature, both internal to work and in external peer reviewed publications (I've authored many and have multiple patents) and reviewing/understanding it. Not all opinions are created equally. Sorry if you don't like that answer.

I am fine with your answer. But going back to the original point of this thread let me ask you a serious question - Do you really believe the screening process at the RAC and the mask mandate at the RAC are having any impact on the spread of covid???

 

[needmorecowbell]

Bac, the problem is that this isn’t an exact science. In the early stages there was not enough data. Then there was lots of data and then the virus mutated and there wasn’t enough data. Then it happened again. The overwhelming majority of medical professionals closest to this agree that vaccines and masks are the best way to fight covid but it’s not bullet proof. For every article you post there are 1,000 that say the contrary. This isn’t a political game or conspiracy. It’s everyone doing their best with the data available. Some say who cares, screw this and others say what can I do to help.

 

[bac2therac]

I've been right about almost everything related to the pandemic and Rutgers sports, so here's my last prediction. We'll keep the current system in place with masks and proof of vaccination through the end of the season, since it's only 4 more games and a few more weeks and it seems silly to change that now. It's possible they'll reverse the no food/beverages rule, though, which was always silly, IMO. Beyond that, we've seen the last of mask requirements for sporting events once the hoops season is over (will coincide with the schools announcement, IMO) and I think we'll probably even drop the vaccine requirements for campus activities/sports for fall semester, assuming we're well into the endemic phase of COVID by then (should be there in the next month or so, really), which will happen, barring some new variant worse than omicron (theoretically possible, but unlikely, IMO).

For anyone wondering if I have any credibility in this area...

• I predicted the cancellation of the basketball season in early March 2020, more than a week before it was cancelled, as it was obvious we were headed towards the worst pandemic in 100 years, which is why my immunocompromised family went into quarantine on 3/2, well before most others did.
• I also said in January 2021 that we'd have down around 10,000 cases/day and a few hundred deaths per day by June 2021, assuming a high percentage of vaccinations, especially of the vulnerable. Of course, unlike almost everyone else, I did not foresee a more transmissible delta and then omicron.
• In June, I said we'd have full stadiums without masks for football season and a full RAC, with masks likely for basketball season and was right on those.
• On 12/21/21 when many were predicting the cancellation of the hoops season due to omicron, I said the omicron peak would be very high, but sharp with a fast decline and that hoops would not be cancelled, although we'd likely see some games cancelled due to team infections.
• As an aside, I didn't think we'd see so much waning of effectiveness of the vaccines, requiring boosters after ~6 months, so was wrong on that
• I was also wrong in early Feb 2020 that this would likely not be worse than a bad flu season - but that thinking only lasted until late Feb, when we saw the impacts in SK and Italy.
• I did predict in April 2020 that we'd have commercially available vaccines by the end of 2020.
• I said we should encourage universal masking a month before the CDC recommended it in April 2020.
• And finally, back in April 2020, assuming herd immunity (of the original strain) was around 70% and assuming an infection fatality ratio of about 0.5%, I predicted we'd see in the neighborhood of 1.3MM deaths eventually - the reason we're "only" at 900K deaths now is vaccines.

I HAVE BEEN RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING

SHOUT IT FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOPS!

 

[bac2therac]

Bac, the problem is that this isn’t an exact science. In the early stages there was not enough data. Then there was lots of data and then the virus mutated and there wasn’t enough data. Then it happened again. The overwhelming majority of medical professionals closest to this agree that vaccines and masks are the best way to fight covid but it’s not bullet proof. For every article you post there are 1,000 that say the contrary. This isn’t a political game or conspiracy. It’s everyone doing their best with the data available. Some say who cares, screw this and others say what can I do to help.

The issue is they never admitted that they got anything wrong..just look above

They ****** with peoples risk assessments. They know exactly who is and isnt at risk

People remember..thats why no one trusts cdc and science now

And they have screwed some people heads so bad these people are going to have a difficult time returning to normal

 

[AZBlues]

In your opinion! I realize that you are the all knowing scientist far smarter than any study Johns Hopkins could come up with - But you may want to consider that maybe just maybe your views are not god like. others look at data different then you - respect it.

You keep saying that Johns Hopkins came up with the study... That's not accurate, and several of us have tried to explain this to you. Johns Hopkins University or Medical school didn't come up with the study. A man who knows very little if anything about medicine but a lot about economics, who happens to be employed as a professor in the economics department at Johns Hopkins University, and two foreign associates who are also economists, authored the study. It was not commissioned or endorsed by Johns Hopkins University or Medical School, and the authors of the study even state in the study "views expressed in each working paper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the institutions that the authors are affiliated with."

Here's a similar but slightly exaggerated example to keep things simple. Lets say that we read a paper that was written by a man who was an employee of the sanitation department at Rutgers, that claimed that tobacco smoking is beneficial to your health, primariy because his uncle's hemorrhoids happened to improve after he started smoking stogies, for example. After reading it, we immediately start posting in various forums, saying that it was a blockbuster, massive study by Rutgers University that proved that tobacco smoking is healthful, and that it proves that everyone who ever said that smoking was harmful was wrong... Was it right to say that the study was conducted and released by Rutgers University? I hope not.... So if you want to cite the study, attribute it to the 3 economists who published the study, but not to Johns Hopkins which had nothing to do with it, other than paying one of the authors a salary to teach economics at their school when he's not working on a personal study outside of the school.

 

[RUBOB72]

Obviously I don't agree that masks are completely useless, but I also don't like the idea of a guy handling my phone after handling hundreds of strangers' phones either, even though the chance of transmitting or contracting the virus may be a little lower from touching a phone than from certain other forms of transmission. But since transmission of the virus is still possible from touching a contaminated phone (until the virus on the phone dies), I'd rather avoid having live virus near my face and mouth and on my hands if possible, and especially if I didn't have a way to sanitize my phone and hands at the time.

Well then you will be living the remainder of your life in fear wearing a mask .This virus is another bump in the road which we need to LIVE with. The masks except perhaps the N 95 are basically useless. The politics of power caused this debacle…that and the lab in Wuhan. If you don’t believe this **** was created inside a lab you are now more the minority than the reality.

 

[RU848789]

I am fine with your answer. But going back to the original point of this thread let me ask you a serious question - Do you really believe the screening process at the RAC and the mask mandate at the RAC are having any impact on the spread of covid???

Fair question. My guess is that the vaccination requirement, without requiring a booster shot, is likely having a minor impact on reducing spread, since we've seen significant waning in preventing infections from 2 doses (and from previous infection), although we haven't seen much diminution of protection against severe COVID/death, given the complexity of the immune response; boosters however, still show significant reduction of infection and likely many fans have been boosted, so the overall effect could be a modest reduction from requiring vaccination. And the mask requirements are likely having a minor impact on reducing spread, since masks work, but imperfectly and compliance is good, but not great.

Combined, the two maybe are having a moderate impact on reducing new cases resulting from attendance at the RAC. I couldn't put a number on it, but maybe a 30-60% reduction? For me, that reduction is more than worth the tiny inconvenience of taking a few minutes in line and wearing a mask, especially since many fans then go home or to work and are in close contact with others who might not be vaccinated and could then infect them, which would be bad, as they're at such high risk (if not previously infected).

But it's also worth adding that this is all changing very fast in that we likely just went through an omicron peak that saw close to 6MM New Jerseyans (66%) get infected with omicron (assuming 20K infected per day for 30 days = 600K times a ratio of as many as 10 people actually infected per infection recorded by testing, given the very high asymptomatic infection rate). Meaning we likely prevented some cases, but those numbers were likely tiny compared to the transmissions going on elsewhere, especially where such controls were not in place. Doesn't mean we shouldn't try, though, IMO.

But also, given where we are now and will be in 3 more weeks, so many will have been infected with omicron that continuing with mitigations eventually makes no sense, as the vast majority of people will have immunity from omicron based on either infection or vaccination (especially those boosted). Which is why I see controls and mitigations winding down now/soon and I think that makes sense.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

We just got an email that masks will no longer be required at our elementary school for students, teachers and staff effective 3/7. Didn’t take long. There’s no vax / testing requirement at school. I can’t imagine the mandate won’t be lifted at the RAC too following this news.

But then again you can go into a Star Bucks with a mask policy and you’ll hear the staff telling people to put one on while in line - meanwhile at the table right next to the line sits a group of people without masks drinking their coffees. As if the spread of Covid suddenly halts when you plop down in a seat. The inconsistencies can be pretty mind boggling.

 

[RU848789]

Well then you will be living the remainder of your life in fear wearing a mask .This virus is another bump in the road which we need to LIVE with. The masks except perhaps the N 95 are basically useless. The politics of power caused this debacle…that and the lab in Wuhan. If you don’t believe this **** was created inside a lab you are now more the minority than the reality.

Most virologists do not believe the virus was "created" in a lab, as I've posted multiple times and much of the logic supporting a lab creation has been debunked (see the part about Dr. Baltimore acknowledging that below). Doesn't mean a "lab leak" of the actual SARS-CoV-2 if it were in that lab (no evidence of it, but it's possible) couldn't have occurred though. Posted about this a few weeks ago.

https://rutgers.forums.rivals.com/threads/nebby-covid.233575/post-5490263

1/21/22 Post:

That's an excellent article, which I linked months ago when it came out in one of the now deleted threads, and it features many of the same experts that the article I linked above does. Are you now moving off your position that, "It is now clear that this came from the Wuhan Lab. Does anyone dispute that anymore?" I hope so. None of what I posted or the info in these articles "proves" the lab leak theory is wrong (very hard to prove something couldn't have happened) and that there's a natural origin for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but the evidence makes it pretty clear that a natural origin is at least far more likely, scientifically.

In addition, this article does a great job of taking down the "gain of function" lab engineered source for creation of CV2, which I've also posted about extensively. The part below is key and even one of the original and most highly respected proponents of the GoF potential source (Dr. David Baltimore, Nobel winner), due to what he thought was the uniqe furin cleavage moiety in CV2, which he said didn't exist in other coronaviruses, has since backpedaled on all of this.

The “smoking gun” evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered, in the words of virologist and Nobel laureate David Baltimore, has not held up either. Spike has a cleavage site, a spot where a human enzyme named furin cuts the protein, which helps SARS-CoV-2 infect cells. Since early in the pandemic, lab-origin proponents have claimed that no SARS-related bat coronaviruses have this feature, leading to speculation that a lab added the site to a virus so it could infect humans. When retired New York Times writer Nicholas Wade made the case for a lab leak this spring, the furin cleavage site, buttressed by Baltimore’s provocative words, was an essential part of the argument.

But it’s dead wrong, say many coronavirus specialists and evolutionary biologists. The SARS-related coronaviruses are in the beta genus, one of four in the Coronaviridae family. Several members of that genus feature furin cleavage sites, which appear to have evolved repeatedly. And one SARS-CoV-2–related virus, described in a Current Biology paper last year by a team led by Shi Weifeng of Shandong First Medical University, has three of the four amino acids that constitute the furin cleavage site, which is “strongly suggestive of a natural zoonotic origin” for SARS-CoV-2, the authors concluded.

Baltimore has backpedaled the statement. He did not know several bat beta coronaviruses have the furin cleavage site, he acknowledged in an email to Science. “[T]here is more to this story than I am aware of,” he wrote. “The furin cleavage is the most ridiculous stuff,” Wang says.

 

[RUBOB72]

When you go into a bathroom to piss or crap did you every time wash your hands? Over 90% of the male population has done exactly this. If you are vaxed with 2 doses and a booster man your good to go . At least that’s what they claim . If you also had Covid 19 ( especially after being vaxed) you are 10x more protected by antibodies. Better really make sure what info you are buying into. Omicron is on the downturn as was predicted . Ex: Hawaii one of the most liberal protective , mask , mandated states up until 1 week ago.4 weeks ago they were seeing 3 k cases on average and deaths in the 20’s. This week ( yesterday) 800 cases and deaths at 4. Mask mandates and restrictions also being lifted similar to New Jersey. They have no choice but to end this nonsense. Enjoy the fear and make sure you don’t forget to wash your hands , use alcohol wipes and most important . Don’t pick your nose.

 

[RU848789]

I HAVE BEEN RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING

SHOUT IT FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOPS!

Not everything - I included a couple of things I was wrong about, although they weren't RU sports predictions, all of which I believe I got right. Instead of shouting in caps, maybe use that intellect of yours to recognize my expertise in this area - or if you think some of those predictions were in error, point them out. I recognize your expertise in putting together the NCAA tourney analyses...

 

[RUBOB72]

And Joe Biden get that Pfizer pill Paxlovid on the market not just 20 mil but 500 mil doses. Also where’s my n95 mask I requested?

 

[fsg2_rivals]

,

I HAVE BEEN RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING

SHOUT IT FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOPS!

So long as you shout, I HAVE BEEN RIGHT ABOUT NOTHING BUT AM STILL THE MOST OUTSPOKEN ONE ON THE BOARD!!!