Microbiology and Immunology

Hello, I’m hoping to get some help on this topic... my employer in SE Asia has informed us that this weekend we must have the Sinovac or if not, pay to have weekly covid tests at our own expense (approx 60gbp a time). There is no other vaccine available at present. How safe is the Sinovac, especially in relation to in the future having a different vaccine (our home country has not approved this one)? I understand it has been developed using a more traditional method of delivery using inactivated virus, unlike the others currently approved. Any advice would be helpful, I’m not even overly keen on having any vaccine but I’m sure there will be a point in time whe…

I’m not that smart I’m juswanderin... From everything I’ve looked into “top” scientists and health officials say “if you get covid, you are immune for 3 months”... mostly. So that raises the question. If you get covid, then get 2 covid shots within the 3 month period what toll does that take on the body?

It is well known by now that COVID-19 in the USA has disproportionately affected Black persons and Hispanics (with deaths about triple the rate compared to white folks). As usual there are speculations regarding e.g. genetic factors but also socioeconomic disparities. A recent study looked at the reasons and found that the neighbourhood socialeconomic status seems to be the crucial factor. This further highlights how pervasive inequality endangers public health as well as highlights how addressing these inequalities could benefit it. It is also a cautionary tale to immediately assume a genetic basis when one finds ethnic/racial disparities in studies (something that …

Hello everyone and everybody! Sars-Cov2 allegedly propagates through air as an aerosol. I propose to flow air between many sheets that catch the droplets falling on them. A liquid wetting the sheets shall destroy the viruses and evacuate the residues as the slowly rotating sheets dive in a tank. The liquid's flamability, toxicity, odour, vapour pressure, foam... matter. Maybe some soap or nonvolatile alcohol fit. The sketched example lets air flow radially to the hollow centre where a non-displayed fan extracts it. The sheets should remove most dust before it reaches the fan, and the liquid wash the dust away, so maintenance would mainly replace the liquid. …

Hi there. I am involved in bioburden testing and grow fungi on SDA agar. I am required to count the fungi however sometimes the colonies grow over each other or there is just a white carpet of fungi where I can't pinpoint where the colony started or how many there are. The colonies must be grown for seven days. If any one has any advise I would be grateful. I do have some photos on my phone but can't figure out how to upload them.

must admit I am not scientist nor insightful on the matter, so see me as wondering guest! hearing about fears that gene (dna crispr) editing is risk still without known consequences, few questions pops to mind 1. how ethical is imposing health-passports? 2. who is to blame if something went out of control govs or vac'comps? 3. is it legal eg. for hcv patients to be employment undesirable if they are not vaccinated, as is now fearmongered about the covid-19 trends? 4. are there any https://defendingthetruth.com/threads/alkaline-lifestyle-vs-mrna-vaccines.127393/post-1646729 all this is even more questionable as economic vaccine hype, i…

I remember reading an article how nearly 600 people a year die of the common flu in the UK. Now imagine every country in europe you are going to have a large number of people. Who unfortunately will suffer from the flu virus. My question is has the media made us overeact to the corona virus ?. I am sure if the media had focused on the flu virus and its casualities there would be equally wide spread panic.

Me again—guy with the anti-vaxxer pregnant wife trying to set her straight. Looking for medical case studies or vaccine research or that contrasts vaccinated with non-vaccinated siblings. My wife believes good health and fitness can compensate for vaccines. So examples of differences in health outcomes between vaccinated and unvaccinated siblings is another line of evidence that shows vaccines actually work.

I'm having trouble finding CDC citations which support these claims with respect to COVID: - valid information regarding the body count (is this ONLY measured by death certificates?) - laboratory studies confirming asymptomatic individuals spreading the virus (I'm seeing data analysis and case studies only, apparently) - accurate case estimates (there appears to be no attempt on the part of the government to gather this data with respect to measuring asymptomatic cases) If someone has data to contribute, it would be much appreciated, and thanks in advance

Hi all, Just wondering if anyone has experience growing H. influenzae in blood culture bottles? My lab has been trying to crack this issue for some time. We can grow it up using standard protocols without issue, however every time we attempt to spike it into blood culture bottles, our system reports them as negative after 5-7 days. We've tried increasing inoculum concentration up to ~3,000,000 CFU/ml, trying different blood sample types (fresh, freeze/thawed, every anticoagulant under the sun), trying all bottle types (aerobic, anaerobic, with and without exchange resins), trying different strains. Even when we supplement the bottles with a Fact…

I thought it should be discussed previously but I checked posts for the last year and didn't find anything related.. Now, after about a year of the pandemic, the number of deaths from Covid-19 in the world is about 1.9 million. However 3.9 million died in 2002 from lower respiratory tract infections. From hepatitis C and B, not counting the rest (but there is much less) in 2015/2016, almost 1.3 million died. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infection https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hepatitis-c https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hepatitis-b And there was not much fuss about it. ... Well, let's say that Covid added another 2 milli…

Here is bang up to date lecture presenting and interpreting all the known data by someone who really knows his stuff, Peter Oppenshaw. The 45 minute lecture addresses sympotons, ethnic and age group distributions in the UK and other countries, infection and death rates, vaccines and vaccinations, the bichemistry, microbiology and immunology of the virus and its interaction with humans and more.

I am about to spend a large amount of money to buy a state of the art toothbrush. I have read the blurb and I am impressed. I think this is because I don't understand a word of it. THIS ELECTRIC TOOTHBRUSH USES AN ULTRA VIOLET (UV) LED LIGHT THAT REACTS WITH A TITANIUM DIOXIDE BAR IN THE BRUSH HANDLE, TO CREATE IONS THAT SUPPRESS THE BACTERIA THAT CAUSE PLAQUE. THE NEGATIVE ELECTRONS ARE SENT TO YOUR MOUTH VIA WATER OR SALIVA. ALTHOUGH THE TOOTHBRUSH USES ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY, IT HARNESSES NATURE USING “WATER AND LIGHT”. Is this description credible? I have removed the manufacturers name.Thanks

Hi. I am not a scientist or anything close. But I was teaching my 7 year old about germs this week and we did petri dishes as our new house. The two I am curious about are the one we did on the inside of my water bottle straw and the gas stove-which is broken and waiting to cart off so not using|touching. We swabbed the little insert piece that is under the plate-where the flame starts. Is there any way to identify a little more of each? Like why did the stove get this type when the whole house was cleaned (and I think professionally) before move in? And little to no traffic in the weeks prior. Stove hasn't been used in 5 months when owners moved out. …

Why is it not possible to come up with a cure or vaccine for something like Aids with the same speed as the Covid vaccine? If the world got together and just focused on one disease at a time, could we come find cures for them pretty quickly? : "could we come find cures", no edit button 😕

My wife is pregnant, and comes from a pretty nutty family of conspiratorial people. The Earth is flat, the British Royal Family are reptiles, you know the drill. She’s come a long way as a result of my influence—I’m very skeptical and scientific—but I fear she has some misconceptions about health and vaccines. She’s thankfully open to the idea of vaccines now, but feels they’re superfluous and a healthy lifestyle is enough. She has some misconceptions about health in general, she was a big fan of Dr. Sebi (he’s a total fraud) and things like the Acid-Ash Hypothesis, but I managed to defuse that. What I’m having trouble with is finding evidence that shows vaccine…

Anyone know of deliberate (controlled) experiments to simulate some kind of infectious epidemic/pandemic in animals? Say, a whole building full of 1000s of lab rats or mice .... deliberately infected by some sort of virus. Speaking of animals and epidemics or pandemics, anyone know of any important ones that took place in the natural or man-made world? Say, among house cats, livestock, etc.? Certainly, important-to-human animals are routinely vaccinated ... but is it with good, statistical reason? About epidemics / pandemics of animals in the Natural world ... Yes, it would be hard to uncover / track that ... but has anything been formally recorded or document…

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So this fr. Jaenisch lab, timing of paper has been sharply criticized, experim. depth also, basic. argues that retro-tr. may be reason for persistence of post-symptomatic PCR frag. detection ? here paper: SARS-CoV-2 RNA reverse-transcribed and integrated into the human genome 1 Liguo Zhang 1 , Alexsia Richards 1 , Andrew Khalil 1, 2, 3 , Emile Wogram 1 , Haiting Ma 1 , Richard A. 2 Young 1, 4 , Rudolf Jaenisch 1, 4, # Wondered what people thought ? thx.

The UK government have updated 'The Green Book' with chapter 14a which provides reliable information about Covid vaccines and vaccination proceedures. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/941450/Greenbook_chapter_14a_v2.pdf Bote the grren book itself is a good source of information on vaccines in general. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immunisation-against-infectious-disease-the-green-book

For each of the vaccines being developed some tens of thousands of volunteers have received the vaccine. From what I understand about 50% received a placebo. As some of the vaccines are now being licenced and in production, What happens to those who had the trial version and what happens to those who had the placebo but did not contract the virus ?

From Wikipedia: My question is regarding the origin of the target sequences for Covid-19 PCR tests. Can anyone point me towards a primary source?

The global pandemic has resulted in a number of changes in infectious disease prevention and control measures which may reduce transmission of AMR pathogens. However, do you think that COVID-19 may cause negative impacts on AMR? Could these mean we are facing another pandemic? I wrote a post on the topic this week and would love people's opinions Link deleted

So I am trying to do isoelectric focusing for the first time and I made a rehydration solution with ampholytes. One of compounds I had to add was bromophenol blue, which I was only supposed to add 0.5 mg of.. but I accidentally added 5.0 mg. Would this greatly affect my results?

This BBC article examines work from around the world measuring Covid mutations. Sadly there are now viable mutations. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53325771