Getting the economy back up in these conditions will require not only a global vaccination with a series of boosters but limiting the opportunities of spread for as long as it is an active threat.

4 million dead would say otherwise... if they could.

Behind closed doors, those are the kinkiest girls.

COVID lab-leak theory: 'Rare' genetic sequence doesn't mean the virus was engineered

The theory that the COVID-19 pandemic was triggered by the SARS-CoV-2 virus being leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China was recently given new life following an explosive article in the Wall Street Journal(WSJ), in which the authors claimed "the most compelling reason to favor the lab leak hypothesis is firmly based in science." But does the science really support the claim that the virus was engineered in a laboratory?

Understanding the origin of a viral outbreak can provide scientists with important information about viral lineages and allow steps to be put in place to avoid similar outbreaks in the future. As such, the origin of SARS-CoV-2 has been debated from the beginning of the pandemic and remains an active topic of discussion among scientists.

It has long been known that viruses similar to the original SARS-CoV that causes SARS are found in bats. These viruses are well studied in China, where the 2002 SARS outbreak originated. But related viruses have been found globally.

Unsurprisingly, coronaviruses are again involved in a pandemic, the third such event in the 21st century—first SARS, then Mers, now COVID-19. While a natural origin seems likely—and many have long warned about the danger of wildlife circulating viruses—scientists shouldn't jump to conclusions.

An important way scientists can determine the origin of a virus is by looking at its genome. In the WSJ article, the authors, Prof Richard Muller, an astrophysicist, and Dr. Steven Quay, physician and chief executive of Atossa Therapeutics, claim SARS-CoV-2 has "genetic fingerprints" of a lab-origin virus. They say that the presence of a particular genetic sequence (CGG-CGG) is a sign that the virus originated in a lab.

To understand the claims being made, we must first understand the genetic code. When a virus infects a cell, it hijacks the cellular machinery, providing instructions (genome) to produce more copies of itself. This genome comprises a long series of molecules called nucleotides, each of which is represented by the letters A, C, G or U.

A group of three nucleotides (known as a codon) provides the instruction for a cell to make an amino acid, the most basic molecular building block of living things. Most amino acids are encoded by several different codons. CGG is one of six possible codons that instruct the cell to add the amino acid arginine.

The authors of the WSJ article argue that SARS-CoV-2 originated in a lab based on the presence of a "CGG-CGG" sequence. They claim this is a "readily available and convenient" codon pair that scientists prefer to use to produce the amino acid arginine. But to anyone with an understanding of the techniques required for genetic modification, this double-CGG is usually no more difficult or easy to produce than any other pair of codons that encode arginines.

Egad! China lies? Shocked I tell you, shocked.

Phylogenetic analysis of these sequences in the context of carefully annotated existing data suggests that the Huanan Seafood Market sequences that are the focus of the joint WHO-China report are not fully representative of the viruses in Wuhan early in the epidemic. Instead, the progenitor of known SARS-CoV-2 sequences likely contained three mutations relative to the market viruses that made it more similar to SARS-CoV-2's bat coronavirus relatives.

Over 2 million in England may have had long COVID, study finds

Over 2 million people in England might have had long COVID and suffered one or more COVID-19 symptoms that lasted at least 12 weeks, one of the biggest surveillance studies of the coronavirus found on Thursday.

The REACT-2 study, led by Imperial College London, found that more than a third of people who have had COVID-19 reported symptoms that lasted at least 12 weeks, with one in ten reporting severe symptoms which lasted that long.

"Our findings do paint a concerning picture of the longer-term health consequences of COVID-19, which need to be accounted for in policy and planning," said Paul Elliott, director of the REACT programme at Imperial.

The government-backed study was based on self-reported data from 508,707 adults between September 2020 and February 2021.

Symptoms ranged from tiredness and muscle aches to shortness of breath and chest pain, and the authors said that the study may overestimate the prevalence of long COVID as such symptoms are common and not always related to COVID-19.

The findings suggested older people were more likely to suffer long COVID, with a 3.5% increase in likelihood with each decade of life.

On the other end of the extremists...

A semi-regular customer where I work came in the other day and before leaving the store proceeded to gather fistfuls of hand sanitizer from the dispenser and vigorously wiped the bottoms of her shoes with her bare hands before leaving the store to walk outside to the sidewalk/parking lot. Seriously... wtf is with that? I knew she always seemed to use the sanitizer but it was the first time I actually saw how she was using it. Fucking gross.