Carl D wrote on Jun 15^th, 2023 at 9:38pm:



Too many human beings are no better than animals.
What can you do? -  nothing.

You'd expect people with severe cold and flu symptoms to stay home and
not sneeze and cough everywhere in shopping centers and supermarkets.
They are no better than animals.

'Never argue with stupid people,

John Smith wrote on Jun 16^th, 2023 at 8:59am:



This you John:

"You don't understand! I coulda had class.
I coulda been a contender.
I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am."

Poor Xavier could have died from Covid

For the last couple of years, the rapid at-home COVID tests that can identify an infection with a simple swab of the nose have been a mainstay of efforts to diagnose infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and prevent its spread.

But what if these tests are often wrong?

New research conducted at Caltech suggests that in many cases, rapid tests that use a nasal swab provide false negatives—suggesting that a person is infection-free even though other parts of their respiratory tract are teeming with the virus. The findings, from the lab of Rustem Ismagilov, Ethel Wilson Bowles and Robert Bowles Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, appear in a paper published in the journal Microbiology Spectrum on June 15 .

Researchers in Ismagilov's lab tracked viral loads in three places in the human body during the course of a COVID-19 infection: the nose, the throat, and the mouth. Because the nose, throat, and mouth are so closely connected, one might expect to see similar virus levels in those locations. That turns out not to be the case.

"Generally, we saw that most people have virus first appear in their throat and in saliva, and then, sometimes days later, in their nose," says Alexander Viloria Winnett, biology graduate student and study co-author. "Actually, each sample type from a single person follows its own distinct rise and fall of viral load, so it makes a big difference which sample type is used for testing."