Coronavirus 2019-2020 thread (no unsubstantiated rumours!)

Overbom

Brigadier
Registered Member
Omicron is China's major test. If China can control Omicron it should be okay. But Omicron could be the variant that finally defeats China. There are now multiple outbreaks in Xi'an, Henan, Tianjin, Shenzhen, and probably more. And with Lunar New Year coming, the timing couldn't be worse...
No need to be that dramatic. Yes, Omicron is a challenge but we are still at very early days.

Let's wait 3-4 more days to see what will happen before you start the usual doomsday talk. My concern is mostly about Tainjin because it has many people frequently going to Beijing.
Hopefully it won't spread too much in other places
 
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10thman

Junior Member
Registered Member
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The drugmaker already envisioned messenger RNA, or mRNA as it's commonly known, as a foundation for improved vaccines for influenza and other infectious diseases, but saw broader potential. At the top of Pfizer's list was base editing, a more precise form of gene editing that can be carried out inside the body using mRNA as an intermediary.

On Monday, Pfizer took a major step toward that vision, announcing a four-year research partnership with Beam Therapeutics, a high-profile biotech company that specializes in base editing and the mRNA components used to deliver such treatments into the body.
Beam was formed five years ago around research from the laboratory of Harvard University's David Liu that showed a way to edit genes more precisely. Unlike the first generation of CRISPR-based gene editing, which cuts both strands of DNA, base editing is designed to change a single DNA "letter" into another without that double-stranded break.

Its potential, like CRISPR's, is vast. The technology could be used to correct disease-causing mutations, to silence genes or activate them, and in theory carries lower risk of causing unwanted genetic changes. Beam, which recently began the first clinical trial involving base editing, plans to develop treatments for blood diseases like sickle cell and beta thalassemia as well as for rare diseases of the liver and eye.

One of the steepest challenges facing Beam, along with other gene editing developers, is developing reliable ways to get the nucleic acid and proteins that make up its editors into cells. For editing inside the body, Beam encodes the editing machinery in mRNA, which is then wrapped inside a fatty shell known as a lipid nanoparticle.

Those two components — an mRNA sequence and a lipid nanoparticle — are the core of mRNA vaccines like the one developed by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech for COVID-19.

"I think Pfizer was looking at the capabilities they had built in lipid nanoparticles and mRNA and saying, 'Well, what are we going to do with these capabilities now that we've built them?'" said Evans.
Beam is well positioned to explore how lipid nanoparticles could be engineered to reach tissues, such as the muscle and the central nervous system, that are harder to reach than the liver, where infused medicines often end up. An acquisition last February, for example, gave Beam access to technology that can tag lipid nanoparticles with a DNA "barcode," enabling researchers to determine which formulation reaches a target tissue most effectively.

"That gives you a lead," said Giuseppe Ciaramella, Beam's chief scientific officer. "You still have to confirm what you've done, but it's given you a head start very rapidly to [determine] exactly what are the features that are meaningful."
And by choosing Beam, Pfizer is skipping over first-generation CRISPR editing in favor of base editing, as well as focusing on inside-the-body treatment rather than on therapies made up of cells modified in the lab. Clinical development of the latter type of therapy, such as one from CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex, is more advanced, but they are logistically more complex and come with other risks.
 

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
Shouldn't there be a lot of deaths in China because of Omicron since the West claims China's vaccine doesn't work and people who aren't vaccinated are more likely to get seriously ill from Omicron? Americans being infected with Omicron is higher than ever with previous variants. At one point last week I heard a hundred thousand infections a day while China's total is less than that. Americans are hoping Chinese get infected because they have to save face on how much they failed on handling COVID-19 when they proclaimed for themselves to be number one in handling outbreaks. They want people to forget that. It shouldn't be surprising that they want to see Chinese get sick and die when they allowed their own citizens to die out of just domestic politics. They ain't a civilized bunch. Just imagine if Chinese taunted as much as they do. They'd probably be clamoring for war on that alone.

Because of Omicron, they're emphasizing people get N95 or KN95 masks because others aren't as good. After they said KN95s were bad quality and weren't good enough? Tells you how much they didn't care if people got the right masks all because they're Chinese masks. It's funny how the West thinks everyone else is worse than they are. Biden isn't calling for any lockdowns because of the economy and not because they're so advanced at being able to manage COVID-19. So if everyone is worse than they are, shouldn't China be only thinking about the money and not have a zero tolerance policy? But the West is criticizing how much its zero tolerance policy will hurt China's economy like Chinese think the same way as them.
 

SteelBird

Colonel
@SteelBird bro 33,169 cases today, there is a possibility we may reach 100,000 per day by the end of the month. :(
Stay safe brother!

We are offered to take the fourth jab with Pfizer. Our Prime Minister is very concern about the variant. He said he hopes everyone will come to Phnom Penh to take the Pfizer jab as there's not enough facility in provinces to store the Pfizer vaccine. It's not my turn yet since my third jab is only 3 and a half month away but I think I might get it early. Not sure, not decide yet.
 

KYli

Brigadier
Stay safe brother!

We are offered to take the fourth jab with Pfizer. Our Prime Minister is very concern about the variant. He said he hopes everyone will come to Phnom Penh to take the Pfizer jab as there's not enough facility in provinces to store the Pfizer vaccine. It's not my turn yet since my third jab is only 3 and a half month away but I think I might get it early. Not sure, not decide yet.
Pfizer is coming up with a new vaccine for Omicron and another one with hybrid that targets both Omicron and the early version of covid. However, Pfizer would decide in March which one it is going to pursue and probably months before data is sufficient for approval.


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SteelBird

Colonel
Pfizer is coming up with a new vaccine for Omicron and another one with hybrid that targets both Omicron and the early version of covid. However, Pfizer would decide in March which one it is going to pursue and probably months before data is sufficient for approval.


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I'm not sure about vaccine version 2.0; however, even it is available anytime in the near future, it would be a long time for those vaccines to reach us. So, at the moment, forget them!
 

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
Forbes got you covered. Actually its 1.7 million covid deaths in China:p:D
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There are Westerners in China so why aren't they reporting all these deaths? They charge draconian zero tolerance and their reporters in China can't see the signs of Omicron spreading like wild fire and the government repression? This shows how petty the West is that they can't accept another country handled Covid-19 better. They're even spinning how they have the highest cases but it hasn't hurt the US showing how strong the country is but somehow they assume if China had as many, it would fail.
 

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
Omicron is China's major test. If China can control Omicron it should be okay. But Omicron could be the variant that finally defeats China. There are now multiple outbreaks in Xi'an, Henan, Tianjin, Shenzhen, and probably more. And with Lunar New Year coming, the timing couldn't be worse...
Defeats China? LOLOL That's every Westerner's wet dream that they cannot achieve; don't project those pathetic wishes onto a virus. How many Chinese have to die for China to be "defeated"? If that number is considered a defeat, then what do you call the nearly 1 million deaths in the US?
 
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