Luna Bliss

I love how it starts with the huge eye right in your face...lol....very shocking and attention grabbing.

Biden looks to boost contact tracing: https://khn.org/news/article/as-pandemic-surged-contact-tracing-struggled-biden-looks-to-boost-it/ I wonder how it will evolve here and in other countries. I like the digital aspects of communication on important health matters...I received a text message after getting my 1st shot vaccination and will likely get a 2nd shot reminder.. I wouldn't like to be monitored wherever I go (if that would even be part of the plan in the U.S.), but then if it prevented thousands from dying would I be willing to give up some privacy?

From the CDC...details regarding contact tracing: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/contact-tracing.html Contact tracing slows the spread of COVID-19 Contact tracing helps protect you, your family, and your community by: Letting people know they may have been exposed to COVID-19 and should monitor their health for signs and symptoms of COVID-19. Helping people who may have been exposed to COVID-19 get tested. Asking people to self-isolate if they have COVID-19 or self-quarantine if they are a close contact.

Good paper on the effectiveness of contact tracing: https://www.sahmri.org/m/uploads/2020/09/02/covid-19-evidence-update-how-do-we-maximise-the-effectiveness-of-contact-tracing.pdf Key findings: •Nearly all studies that have assessed effectiveness (observational and modelling) indicate that contact tracing, in combination with other strategies(e.g. testing, isolation, social distancing),is associated with better control of COVID-19. •Contact tracing has the most benefit when secondary cases are identified and isolated before they become infectious. •A systematic review concluded that contact tracing effectiveness is maximised when the time from symptom development to isolation occurs within 2-3 days and 80% of close contacts are quarantined[4]. •Contact tracing is less effective when there are delays to testing and obtaining results, when the case numbers surge beyond the capacity of the tracing system, and when most contacts cannot be traced. •Delays of 4+ days or less than 60% of contacts successfully quarantined may not meaningfully control transmission[4].

If you believe so, we agree to disagree. People would have to stay home from their job and this is not a good thing. Closing borders to leisure and non-essential travel would be much better as people and families and businesses surviving and jobs should come first. Contact tracing is evolving (best methods and tailored to cultural differences in various countries), but the idea is to financially support people who need to isolate (and this support has occurred in some countries).

The contact tracing app looks pretty cool: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/nhs-covid-19-tracking-app-contact-tracing And then, as I posted to Arielle, it appears to have helped: https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/02/11/1018010/uk-exposure-notification-contact-tracing-app-succes/

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/02/11/1018010/uk-exposure-notification-contact-tracing-app-succes/

Actually your whole testing tracing focus is not rational unless there is a therapy. Of what use is it to do all this testing and then simply tell someone 2 days later they have covid and need to isolate. Huge waste of manpower. If on the other hand there is a prescription or therapy one could start on after a positive diagnosis then ok but otherwise, it is just a waste of time and will not result in any lives saved. The goal is to keep a pathogen from spreading to the larger community. If we isolate a sick or symptomatic individual and discover who they've come into contact with, and then isolate the contacts until we're sure they aren't ill, we stop the spread. We have to do this early before significant spread has occurred. Several countries successfully achieved this, and there's no reason we can't be one of them. Many lives are saved this way.

Gotta love the SL forum

I think one needs to be careful when comparing the Covid rates of some Asian countries with that of the ones in North America. Another poster a while back tried the same for the efficacy of masks as you are here for quarantines. Both the country the other mentioned (Japan) and Taiwan as well as Korea are significant in that obesity is not a big factor unlike the USA (and Canada to a lesser extent) where it is considered an epidemic in its own right. There are stats that point out 75%+ of people who wind up in hospital for Covid have a high BMI number. Additionally factor in the predominantly seafood, fresh vegetable and fruit diets in those countries and I suspect we will never have the same sort of covid rates even if we had of quarantined and masked to the same degree as they did. If appropriate contact tracing is applied in the first place the virus won't spread, and so there won't be any fat people who encounter the virus. Several countries achieved this early on, proving the efficacy of contact tracing.

As Rowan pointed out, this is in a right-wing rag. You've said before not to look at where it's published but to look at the study. I always do. I have never found a good study posted in a right-wing rag though, in fact it's almost a guarantee that the study will be bad when listed in these, or at the very least a study so small that we can't prove anything from the single study without lots of additional studies, yet you believe the study proves whatever you want it to prove. As I said before...these types of experiments are there to point to areas where greater research should be undertaken. Take a look at some of the reasons why that study from Spain is bad: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-56180921

Do you see the scenes changing? *oh yeah...seeing it on yet another browser

I logged in from a different browser and don't see it anymore...maybe they were just testing it.

It appeared for awhile but is now gone. Lots of movement from scene to scene....including the blue elf..

Looks great!

It's the new website in progress...saw it for just a bit..

I have been wondering about this. I have received the Pneumovax vaccine I have been wondering why more people are not vaccinated with the Pneumovax vaccine? I think most people just focus on what they need to do to survive any particular day and think less about what might happen in the future. Many are aversive to medical procedures and having their skin punctured. Many don't have a relationship with a doctor -- it's too expensive in the U.S. The cost of this vaccine along with a doctor visit and possible cab fare to the office could be more than many spend on food for a month. So, priorities.

What kind of a "lab leak"...as I've not read anything about it. Which link is best for a quick read? I don't want to post them, for the same reason I don't want to post information about nurses who kill people....there is already too much distrust of science and institutions today, and this distrust is partially to blame for all the disinformation causing so much harm recently in the U.S. Sure, we need to know about medical mistakes, but how many people who watched Nurses Who Kill on Netflix now believe this is a frequent occurrence? Or how many people who learn that indeed lab mistakes happen, and who discover the Wuhan lab experimented with Coronavirus, automatically believe the lab-leak theory is more likely than the virus manifesting in the wild? (like you did). I'm all for finding out whether Covid-19 came from a lab mutation vs a wild mutation, and I think we do need to beef up lab safety all over the world, but I'm as concerned about how the lab-leak issue will be used politically to discredit Science in general and cause division in the U.S. This is what I see the Republicans attempting in their focus on the lab-leak. The following is an excerpt from an article by David Frum describing the issue: The pro-Trump Culture War On American Scientists In many ways, what is happening is highly reminiscent of the anti-Communist battles of the late 1940s and early 1950s. In those days, the United States faced a dangerous external challenge from Soviet Communism. Isolationist Republicans had little interest in meeting that challenge: It would cost money and implied foreign commitments. They opposed the Marshall Plan, NATO, everything that really mattered. Instead, they used the foreign threat to justify launching a purge against an enemy within: domestic ideological opponents. The United States is today in danger of repeating that sorry history. Pro-Trumpers want to use Chinese misconduct—real and imagined—as a weapon in a culture war here at home. They are not interested in weighing the evidence. They want payback for the political and cultural injuries inflicted on them by the scientists. They want Fauci to have time in the barrel. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/05/chinese-lab-coronavirus-leak-origin-theory/618911/

I'm not referring to stuff that happened in Trump's administration. Here's Biden's plan from mid-Feb for contact tracing. Do you know if any steps have been taken so far to achieve it? https://joebiden.com/beat-covid19/ The Trump Fiasco: The failure to test swiftly and broadly led to the failure to get the virus under control. After deflecting blame for months, Donald Trump has repeatedly doubled down on his orders to slow down testing. It is unacceptable that with cases surging in some parts of the country and Americans urged to go back to work in others, we still do not have the basic capacity in testing and contact tracing we need to sustainably manage this virus. In Arizona, this past week, Americans with COVID-19 have had to wait in baking hot cars in miles-long lines for a test, and those were the lucky ones who had an appointment. In March, Donald Trump claimed that every American who wanted a test could get one. It was a lie then. It’s still a lie. The Biden Plan: Stand up a Pandemic Testing Board to massively surge a nationwide campaign and guarantee regular, reliable, and free access to testing for all, including every worker called back on the job . Double the number of drive-through testing sites and increase the numbers until there are no more lines. Build a national contact tracing workforce, starting by hiring at least 100,000 Americans and equipping sorely under-resourced public health departments with the resources they need to spot and stop outbreaks.

I hadn't heard of that, but if I need vaccination against mutant strains I have no qualms about doing so. I even plan to get vaccinated against pneumonia in a few months. When you study the history of diseases and how vaccines have helped so many people (thinking of polio and the children saved from its effects, and smallpox) it's really difficult to see people trashing modern medicine, despite its many flaws.

It remains a possibility, and it indeed could have happened accidentally. I did some research on labs and the numerous mistakes made in them, and believe me, it was scary. There are efforts underway to attain the benefits accrued in the Gain Of Function research used in many labs worldwide in a safer way. Like all human endeavors, we have to weigh costs and benefits.

I'm not discussing Ivermectin with you anymore. It's efficacy has been debunked by myself and others with many studies over these past months. I suggest you get vaccinated so you don't pass Covid onto your elderly mother you've said you're caring for, and not depend on pig de-wormer to save her.

Ever hear the idea that a little yeast spreads through the whole batch? You are right though that there are ones who aren't corrupt but they are mostly outside of the mainstream. Where is your proof for this? I think a corrupt individual who places money over doing the right thing, lacking conscience, is equally prevalent in non-mainstream avenues. Being 'non-mainstream' does not place a halo on someone's head. Really, I find it funny that I've been accused of being some type of extreme radical when I'm actually more the traditional 'law and order' person here who follows the mainstream as far as what Science proclaims. But you are so radical that you're off the charts..

Did you know that the word vitamin originated as vital amine because these are considered to be vital to our health? I realize you are all about living better chemically but even that doesn't work without the action of vitamin D on our immune systems. When one's vitamin D levels are depressed, the immune system no longer works well and the vaccines we are given will not work in such a case because the system is incapable of producing the antibodies and T-cells needed to fight the virus when the host does become infected. That is why there is an increasing amount of breakthrough cases coming to light and from testing done of those cases, results are showing a severe lack of Vitamin D. Vaccines are basically wasted on people with low vitamin D levels and the one's whose levels are in a good range, don't need the vaccine because their immune system is capable of dealing with the virus naturally. When I say "pie-in-the-sky" I'm referring to the pig de-wormer, Ivermectin, that you keep touting as a cure for Covid infection . I have no issues with vitamins and take Vitamin D myself. And don't tell my progressive friends, but I also believe children's vaccines should not be given all at once, and thankfully many doctors are now spacing them so it's not such a load all at once. Once again, you make this into an 'either-or' issue. Why not take vitamins, keep your health up through whatever vitamins might be needed, and get vaccinated too?

I wasn't assigning any sinister motives when I said it is the most logical possibility. I think it could been part of our careless society or it was most likely accidental. But, most of those "bats" if they were from the same habitat, it doesn't seem logical it would just suddenly jump from one bat into a human all of a sudden. With my hypothesis earlier, I was eluding to the fact there could have been multiple species in that lab, many species from different environments/habitats. To have intermediate hosts I believe it's been determined one needs species that are co-mingling from differing habitats other than their usual, and my hypothesis was built on intermediate hosts. In short, some of those intermediate hosts are not immune. You'd have to study how pathogens develop in the wild and what happens when there is a spillover to humans to get a complete picture. It's easy to see what's in the lab and so easy to place the problem there, but correlation does not equal causation. There's usually nothing sudden about the jumping from one species to another, and often the dynamic has been in play for decades or longer before the crucial mutation that makes it transmissible to humans (for example, with HIV, it was in circulation for decades before it spread to enough people to become an AIDS epidemic).