Early data hints BCG vaccine does help reduce Covid-19 fatalities

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-preliminary-tuberculosis-vaccine-limiting-covid-.html

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One sample that stood out was Germany, which had different vaccine plans prior to the country's unification in 1990. While West Germany provided BCG vaccines to infants from 1961 to 1998, East Germany started their BCG vaccinations a decade earlier, but stopped in 1975. This means that older Germans—the population most at risk from COVID-19—in the country's eastern states would have more protection from the current pandemic than their peers in western German states. Recent data shows this to be the case: western German states have experienced mortality rates that are 2.9 times higher than those in eastern Germany.

"The purpose of using the BCG vaccine to protect from severe COVID-19 would be to stimulate a broad, innate, rapid-response immunity," said Escobar, who noted that the BCG vaccines have already been shown to provide broad cross-protections for a number of viral respiratory illnesses in addition to tuberculosis

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“Mental Health America” online tests indicate Covid-19 is increasing anxiety and depression

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-people-anxiety-depression-covid-.html

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MHA has had an online screening program since 2014. People visiting the website can use screening tools anonymously for free. Screening volume and result comparisons were made from late February through the end of May 2020 versus November 2019 to January 2020 as a baseline.

According to the results of the survey, the per-day number of anxiety screenings completed in May was 370 percent higher than in January, and the per-day number of depression screens was 394 percent higher in May than in January. There were at least 88,405 additional positive depression and anxiety screening results over what was expected, including 54,093 additional results of moderate-to-severe depression and more than 34,312 additional results of moderate-to-severe anxiety, suggesting that both volume and severity were higher than before the pandemic. Loneliness and isolation were cited most commonly as a contributing factor (60 percent).

"Our May screening numbers were unprecedented," Paul Gionfriddo, president and chief executive officer of MHA, said in a statement. "The numbers demonstrate not only that there is not yet any relief from the mental health impacts of the pandemic, but that the impacts actually seem to be spreading and accelerating."

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Can’t win either way?

Researcher claims isolation weakens immune system and makes respiratory diseases more likely...

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-self-isolation-susceptibility-covid-.html

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Cohen has spent his career examining the impact of different behavioral, social and psychological factors on the development of upper respiratory illnesses. Through a series of viral challenge studies, he examined how such factors can affect whether or not healthy adults exposed to respiratory viruses become ill. His work has focused on eight viral strains that cause a common cold (rhinovirus types 2, 9, 14, 21, 39 and Hanks, as well as respiratory syncytial virus and corona virus 229E) and two that cause influenza (A/Kawasaki/86 H1N1; and A/Texas/36/91).

"The focus on the pandemic up until now has been changing behaviors to avoid exposure to the virus," said Cohen. "In our work, we intentionally exposed people to cold and influenza viruses and studied whether psychological and social factors predict how effective the immune system is in suppressing infection, or preventing or mitigating the severity of illness."

Cohen's work has pointed to the importance of social and psychological factors in the development of infection and illness. This work may hold clues to the health implications of the on-going quarantine.

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Well, I am gonna go out and lick door handles around town.

If you look at most of the data from States with high infection rates, it seems that the majority of infected were stay at home/quarantined individuals... I've been sayin this from the start, cowering in seclusion just makes the community/individual more "weak/susceptible" to disease, I think Covid19 is a "pill" that society soon needs to swallow to get over/past it, waiting it out and or hoping for a miracle vaccine is a joke at best portrayed on the human condition, and if the collateral damage in body count is high, that's mother nature's survival of the fittest... harsh perhaps, but reality...

Can you post a source for that data? I'd like to see it.

" that's mother nature's survival of the fittest."

Not sure that excludes survival of the "smartest", in that very few at top of success in any area, are dumb.

Also meaning staying away from others that MIGHT have COVID, has never meant "staying at home in seclusion and letting one's health decline", that is a choice, and IMO not the smartest or only way to protect oneself.

Conditions and characteristics that increase risk of severe Covid-19

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-million-factors-covid-.html

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In line with previous studies, men had a greater (1.59-fold-higher) risk of COVID-19-related death than women,
and age was also found to be a risk factor—people aged 80 or above had a 20-fold-increased risk compared to 50–59-year-old people, for example.

Black and South Asian people, and those of mixed background, were 1.62–1.88 times more likely to die with COVID-19 than white people, after taking into account their prior medical conditions. The most deprived people in the cohort were 1.8 times more likely than the least deprived to die with COVID-19; clinical factors made only a small contribution to this risk, suggesting that social factors have a role.

Pre-existing medical conditions—including obesity (especially a BMI of over 40), diabetes, severe asthma, and respiratory, chronic heart, liver, neurological, and autoimmune diseases—were all found to be associated with an increased risk of COVID-19-related death.

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Strokes brought on by Covid-19 clots are more severe

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-global-covid-registry-severe-higher.html

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In both patient groups, stroke severity was estimated with the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), and stroke outcome was assessed by the modified Rankin score (mRS). When AIS patients with COVID-19 were compared to non-COVID-19 patients:

COVID-19 patients had more severe strokes (median NIHSS score of 10 vs. 6, respectively);
COVID-19 patients had higher risk for severe disability following stroke (median mRS score 4 vs. 2, respectively); and
COVID-19 patients were more likely to die of AIS

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Hamsters completely protected from Covid-19 by vaccine based on old Yellow Fever vaccine:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-virologists-sars-cov-vaccine-candidate-clinical.html

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To study the efficacy of the vaccine candidates in-depth, the virologists first developed a hamster model. When hamsters receive the SARS-CoV-2 virus through their nose, they develop a lung infection that is similar to COVID-19.

Healthy hamsters were first vaccinated and exposed to the virus a couple of weeks later. Control groups each received one of two alternatives: the yellow fever vaccine, or a placebo.

"In the hamsters that received the vaccine candidate, we found up to half a million times less virus particles than in the control groups. These animals also didn't develop any lung infections. The lungs of their counterparts in the control groups, by contrast, showed clear signs of infection and disease," Neyts explains. A single dose of the vaccine candidate proved sufficient to prevent infection. Moreover, several animals were already protected within ten days after vaccination.

The vaccine candidate is based on the existing vaccine against yellow fever and may thus protect lab animals against both COVID-19 and yellow fever. The researchers inserted parts of the genetic code of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into the yellow fever vaccine. In the past, the KU Leuven team already used the same approach to develop vaccine candidates against Ebola, Zika, and rabies.

"The effectiveness of the yellow fever vaccine is well-established," Neyts continues. "The vaccine has been in use for about eighty years, and close to 800 million people have already received it. One dose of the vaccine offers lifelong protection against yellow fever. More than 160 vaccines against COVID-19 are currently in development, but ours is the only one that is based on the yellow fever vaccine."

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The Yellow Fever vaccine also gives partial protection against West Nile Fever virus

Heck on the hamsters, I’m more worried about the bees and the 🐸. And let us not forget about the 🐢

Don't hold your breath. That particular "data" either doesn't exist, or was made up. Guy's talkin out of his @ss.

Dr. Dayclona is a quack?

Say it isn't so!

Meanwhile, somewhere in America.....



I can't wait to get back to school!

speaking of school...

https://i.imgur.com/5iTmfK1.jpeg

When they said truth was stranger than fiction, they had a crystal ball and were talking about today.

The idiocy is astounding.

High blood glucose levels double risk of death
if infected with Covid-19

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-abnormally-high-blood-sugar-linked.html

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Previous studies have established that hyperglycaemia (abnormally high blood sugar) is associated with an elevated risk of mortality in community-acquired pneumonia, stroke, heart attacks, trauma and surgery, among other conditions.

A number of studies have also shown links between diabetes and poor outcomes in COVID-19 patients. However, direct correlation between fasting blood glucose (FBG) level at admission to hospital and clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients without diagnosed diabetes has not been well established. In this new study the authors examined the association between FBG on admission and the 28-day mortality

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I wonder if going on an Adkins style diet with more calories from fat and protein would be protective?

Many Americans have put on 15+ lbs in the last few months.

i had a throat operation last november and went from 210-212 to 182.
i'm at 184 today.

Sounds like you need to get out there and start licking you some door handles.

I'm not clear on reports like that, being, is the problem the instantaneous high sugar levels, that is the covid connection problem, or is it the damage done by long term high sugar levels that allows covid to result in higher mortaility?

From page D10 of July 11 Saturday/Sunday Wall Street Journal’s Dan Neil auto review:

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Postscript: You mat be wondering how to keep your SUV from becoming an eight passenger super-spreader.
First, experts advise, crack a window.
A study by the Harvard T. H. chan School of Public Health showed that opening one car window 3 inches can produce a ten-fold reduction in the amount of virus in the cabin air.
The authors also note that modern cars are tightly sealed against noise, wind force and outside air.
If you need to run the air conditioning or heat, turn off the recirculation air function to bring in fresh air.
And, obviously, everybody wears a mask or they walk to school.

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