:bigbow:

As has been said above, viruses tend to mutate towards more contagious and less deadly. If they go the other way, they will either stop spreading or kill their hosts too fast. Whichever variant infects more wins the game. You infect more by being more contagious and letting your host live longer.

The Spanish Flu of 1918 is around today and if you ever got a seasonal flu shot, chances are you got a vaccine to prevent it. It is no where near as deadly as it was back then.

At this time, there have only been slight variations in the genome. A few proteins have changed, like the aforementioned proline to arginine. These minor variations do not affect the accuracy of the test.

If you've heard of the PCR test, this is a polymearse chain reaction test. It works by amplifying the sample and comparing it. If it doesn't find a match, it amplifies it again. This is called the cycle threshold. Typical PCR tests should stop looking at around 30, maybe 32 cycles. Beyond that, you're probably amplifying viral fragments rather than a viable virus. One of the complaints is how far out they are running the CT(I read 40 in Canada!) because it's not very meaningful, specially if a patient is not symptomatic. I.e. lower CT, means that there is less amplification and more virus to detect.

So to answer the question, does the variant affect the accuracy? Well, I can tell you that on positive delta variant PCRs the CTs are 4-8 cycles lower. While not "accuracy", it's certainly a better indication of a case because the viral load is much, much greater. That said, even with the higher viral load, the actual disease presentation, in general, is not as bad. This is not to make light of it, people will still die, but not nearly to the same degree as the original.

Those who are unvaccinated (for no good reason) and who seem to spend their days awash in their “Pick Your Own Poison” sources of dysinformation really should simplify their “search for truth” by taking a look at Vermont’s stats.

Vermont has more than 80% vaccinated, resulting in a 7-day-average infection rate of 1.6%, and only 5 hospitalizations, as of Monday’s report — with none of those in the ICU.

Those stats are based on having tested 412,975 people.

Vermont’s Covid deaths = 259.

Vermont’s state motto is. . .Freedom and Unity.

Way to work that motto, Vermont! :MOJE_whot:

Boomer

The Perfect Quote!

The other people's life is even better. Their life is good. As for usted, yo no sé.

I'm not familiar with that site, and have no idea what it is all about, but it sounds like it probably promotes "fake news" On the other hand getting called that by CNN and Newsweek proves nothing

Panera already has their mask sign back up. Of course no one had a mask on inside.

Yes, I hear EXACTLY what I am saying, even if you do not understand it. As a nation, as any nation, we cannot make sweeping policy based on the special needs of a very small number of people. That doesn't mean we don't support their rights and it doesn't mean we discriminate against them. It means we do not require 330 million people to wear a mask to theoretically "protect" a few hundred thousand. We do however help those few hundred thousand to protect themselves in other ways. So you may now go ahead and take that "deep breath and search your soul"

Pretty sure the CDC tossed out the PCR test just yesterday.....also the test shows any virus, so who knows what if it is covid or not. The flu triggers the same. The numbers from the beginning are absolutely no good. The total number of covid 19 infections and deaths are a guess.

Just like CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSN, and all the lesser media outlets.

There are 77 different sources in on that wiki article. If you were to check out any 20 of them, you'd see they're not just CNN and Newsweek. You'd see quotes made by the pundit owner himself, proclaiming boastfully that his is a fake news website.

Of course not. They don't have any respect for rules, unless the rules benefit them personally. Wearing masks is inconvenient, so they won't wear them and no one can make them. If you try and tell them they have to leave, they become Karens and Chads, disrupting the entire establishment and making the PAYING customers want to leave. Not because of Panera, but because Karen and Chad won't just STFU and wear their damned mask.

GAteway Pundit is not a serious source of anything but lies, wanna be and BS!

Well, they announced it a while back that they were going to phase it out. I think the actual date was last week. Running the CTs up to 36 or more is simply looking for a positive case. Not my monkey, not my circus though.

A PCR test with ground glass opacities in the lung and a lung disease that presents like an organizing pneumonia and you probably have a Covid case. Declaring someone died of it without a genuine doctor examining the patient? That's just BS and it happened a lot. The numbers were juiced, no doubt.

If the government wants to boost vaccine rates, then all attention should be focused on proper science-based messaging to convince the unvaccinated. You cannot do that when you a) fearmonger, b) shame, and c) offer contradictory advice. The vaccinated should be viewed as an example of what awaits, which is a return to normalcy. "Get the shot, but still mask up and remain in the bunker" give no incentive whatsoever to those on the fence. It doesn’t take a scientist to know why vaccination rates have stalled. It’s the experts’ continued failure to message about the vaccine properly since they decided to go that route. The jobs reports are bad. Inflation is rising. No major bills seem poised for passage from the * administration, so rehash the panic over Delta to keep the nation’s attention away from a presidency that is rather braindead.