Coronavirus Q&A

I thought this might be helpful to some of you:

From the American Chemical Society, a "disinfectant cheat sheet"



https://cen.acs.org/safety/consumer-safety/chemists-guide-disinfectants/98/web/2020/05?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_campaign=CEN

Also please know that we do in fact have real-life heroes here in Florida.
Here's a very nice story about our local tennis world champion here in Palm Beach Co., Serena Williams:

Tennis Superstar Serena Williams Donates 5,000 Face Masks to Protect Children of Palm Beach County First Responders


https://www.bocaratontribune.com/bocaratonnews/2020/05/tennis-superstar-serena-williams-donates-5000-face-masks-to-protect-children-of-palm-beach-county-first-responders/?fbclid=IwAR2rnGRwly0V3am94-DdepFtdaaJPKv4ZdS8pZSTFhWwBdNc1yh5LRy4W8o

Pray tell that was satire

Unfortunately no, those from other countries please know that woman is not representative of most Americans. I apologize on behalf of my country.

Pray tell that was satire

Now here you go - one of :"Florida's Best and Brightest"!

[video]https://www.facebook.com/stewart.tick/videos/1932842276847129/[/video]

Generally not one to debate political views here, not that we're allowed to either, but I'd say probably worry about the conspiracies after the pandemic is over.

For now, at least the science looks bright. I'm glad a drug is working out.

In other news, our University's vaccine has made great progress in pre-clinical testing. I know some members on this project, so huge congratulations to them.

https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2020/04/uq-covid-19-vaccine-shown-induce-potent-protective-response-pre-clinical-trials?fbclid=IwAR1E7BGPGxxY48l3QpKWc1HNgzhJF4BwyHfmQHDXiEWlTBPdrWFu6cdYMIU

Yes, finally! The first real breakthrough on COVID-19 treatments. I thought that remdesivir might very well turn out to be effective against a coronavirus.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/29/gilead-coronavirus-remdesivir-220484?fbclid=IwAR0zdYvOmVcVyOjEQMu00tv-yiMAKVKPMuP-Tr-AmFCCeRla-S0DVCZhyvE

Stew, while Remdesivir looks to be the weapon against this virus, the truth is an even bigger one, especially when it comes to the number of people dead because of this. Is the number listed as dead from Covid-19 REALLY dead from it?

Project Veritas, an underground journalism outlet which does the work the big money controlled media will not, has done another one of their undercover investigations. This one found funeral directors in the city hardest hit by the virus, New York saying the number of dead is being artificially inflated.

In late April, a Project Veritas reporter spoke with Michael Lanza, the director of Staten Island’s Colonial Funeral Home.

“To be honest with you, all of the death certificates are writing COVID on it, they’re writing COVID on all the death certificates,” Lanza said.

Lanza said [Mayor Bill]DeBlasio might see inflated COVID death tallies as a way to bring more money to New York City. “Whether they had a positive test or didn’t, so I think again this is my personal opinion, I think like the mayor and our city--they’re looking for federal funding and the more they put COVID on the death certificate the more they can ask from the federal funds.”

A Brooklyn Funeral Director said a 40-year-old died at home with no symptoms other than fever, but was toe-tagged as a COVID-19 Victim.

https://www.projectveritas.com/news/breaking-funeral-directors-in-covid-19-epicenter-doubt-legitimacy-of-deaths/

Yes, finally! The first real breakthrough on COVID-19 treatments. I thought that remdesivir might very well turn out to be effective against a coronavirus.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/29/gilead-coronavirus-remdesivir-220484?fbclid=IwAR0zdYvOmVcVyOjEQMu00tv-yiMAKVKPMuP-Tr-AmFCCeRla-S0DVCZhyvE

Actually, she is based on a former colleague.But one who was an English (not science) teacher at my school. That's where I got Susan's personality quirks and pet phrases from.
I changed her from an English to a science teacher to give Kara and the other "Superfriends" a go-to person for questions or problems dealing with chemistry or biology. Susan's research field is forensic chemistry. So she knows all about compounds that are actually dangerous in the real world - like chlorine trifluoride. Susan also figured out the chemical composition of kryptonite quite easily, so she was able to come up with a efficient method of deactivating it.

Is she based on a colleague lol?

Yes, in my own Supergirl fan fiction, I've tried to make my Latina chemistry professor character, Susan Ramirez, as realistic as possible (in a science fiction screenplay). Basically, I've tried to make her the sort of person that Kara would immediately take a liking to, and would very likely regard as a best friend.
Here's how I picture her, on the job in her lab

:

Hollywood (and movie/TV in general) science is hilarious. Broken physics, incorrect/impossible chemical structures, fundamental misunderstandings of genetics/molecular biology......

I remember there was an episode of the Flash where they had to stop some nefarious chemical "benzene methanol" from being used to destroy the city or something. I died a little. Like, do you mean Phenylmethanol the largely harmless solvent lmao?

And then there's movie/TV scientists. Who mostly fiddle around with badass machinery while tapping on holograms and computerised lab equipment.

Real chemists/biologists' work is not so visually stimulating. We mostly pipette clear liquids that look like water all day, and watch PCRs fail.

Also, as long as we are talking about the real world here. I don't know if I ever mentioned it before, but our science dept. at my school in South Florida is nothing like the Hollywood scientist stereotype. No, we are not a group of middle-aged white men in white shirts with pocket protectors who wear black-rimmed glasses all the time! Actually, our dept. is mostly young women biologists who dress like they did in college (lots of brightly-colored T-shirts). They're the ones who started teaching right out of college. And we also have some older biology people who used to be health-care providers, and an MD, an endocrinologist originally from Venezuela. (Yes, the students call her "Doctor".) Anyway, it's a great group of people to work with. I always enjoy our Tuesday-morning virtual dept. meetings. They invariably begin and end with people showing off their pets (in many cases new adoptions)!

Yes, the second wave of the Spanish Flu was worse than the first.
What I really meant to say was that I didn't think that the peak of the first wave of COVID-19 would be over so fast here in Florida. (The earlier predictions were that it would peak around the second week of May.) Now that's good news, and I'll take it.
As fo a second (or third) wave, it's way to early to make any meaningful predictions at this point. Let's just hope for the best.
At any rate, things are shut down here in South Florida, and will likely be that way through May. We will surely not be returning to our classrooms this school year.

Wasn't the Spanish Flu worse in its second wave over the first?

I guess our advantage today over a hundred years ago is our understanding of diseases and how to treat them via tech and medicines.I don't think they really knew what viruses were back when The Spanish Flu happened let alone the best treatments to deal with them.

If we get a second wave of COVID-19 in Fall/Winter,it will coincide with the start of flu season where this first wave happened towards the end of flu season.

So potentially you'll have both viruses ramping back up at the same time?That can't be good.

OK, let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. Let things unfold before making predictions.

Certain things / personal restrictions might start to be lifted as the spring turns to summer and the general first wave plateau is reached on a global scale. This does not mean that the disease or its ramifications is over and done with. Not by a long shot. This beastie will be around in force until a vaccine and effective treatment is achieved. This may be anywhere from a year to four years down the road.

Expect at least a second, potentially more deadly second wave to appear when the winter season starts. There might also be a third wave. No one really knows until it's completely burned itself out.

If people have a look at the trajectory (three waves) of the 1918-20 Spanish Flu, we're in the same wheelhouse. The only difference is the advances in medicine and overall technology since then. This might mitigate the overall severity and toll the disease takes, but all levels of society have to be prepared to ride the storm out.

Also note: The Spanish Flu was ultimately H1N1 and this new (novel) coronavirus is an entirely different kettle of fish.

Things will be shut down here in Vancouver at least until mid May, if not later. BC seems to have flattened it's curve, for the most part. It's definitely far less impacted than Canada's other majorly populated provinces. But we'll see what happens.

As for herd immunity...I'm not sure. From what I've read in a few places, there have already been a few instances of those who recovered coming down with the virus, again.

We shall see what happens...

Yes, the curve has flattened here in Florida!
Social distancing has worked here, too.
Good news, finally!
I really didn't think we'd be past the peak of the first wave of the pandemic this quickly
(Earler predictions were that it wouldn't peak until about the second week of May.)
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Yes,I've heard that from other science teachers and from health care workers "on the front lines" here in Florida. But there isn't enough data to reach a definitive conclusion yet. We may in fact develop a "herd immunity" to this virus. But we don't even know if COVID-19 survivors have real immunity, and if they do, is it permanent (like polio and measles) or temporary (like tetanus and the flu). Yes, some researchers think that the coronavirus might turn out to be a seasonal disease, like the flu. And like the flu, we may need to update the vaccine every year, because the virus keeps evolving. But nobody really knows at this point.

Some researchers believe it will become a seasonal disease like some types of flu