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"These Coronavirus Exposures Might Be the Most Dangerous" - viral dose sensitivity
by coderman 02 Apr '20

02 Apr '20

https://www.nytimes.com./2020/04/01/opinion/coronavirus-viral-dose.html These Coronavirus Exposures Might Be the Most Dangerous As with any other poison, viruses are usually deadlier in larger amounts. By Joshua D. Rabinowitz and Caroline R. Bartman Dr. Rabinowitz is a professor of chemistry and genomics. Dr. Bartman is a genomic researcher. Li Wenliang, the doctor in China who raised early awareness of the new coronavirus, died of the virus in February at 34. His death was shocking not only because of his role in publicizing the developing epidemic but also — given that young people do not have a high risk of dying from Covid-19 — because of his age. Is it possible that Dr. Li died because as a doctor who spent a lot of time around severely ill Covid-19 patients, he was infected with such a high dose? After all, though he was one of the first young health care workers to die after being exposed up close and frequently to the virus, he was unfortunately not the last. The importance of viral dose is being overlooked in discussions of the coronavirus. As with any other poison, viruses are usually more dangerous in larger amounts. Small initial exposures tend to lead to mild or asymptomatic infections, while larger doses can be lethal. From a policy perspective, we need to consider that not all exposures to the coronavirus may be the same. Stepping into an office building that once had someone with the coronavirus in it is not as dangerous as sitting next to that infected person for an hourlong train commute. This may seem obvious, but many people are not making this distinction. We need to focus more on preventing high-dose infection. Both small and large amounts of virus can replicate within our cells and cause severe disease in vulnerable individuals such as the immunocompromised. In healthy people, however, immune systems respond as soon as they sense a virus growing inside. Recovery depends on which wins the race: viral spread or immune activation. Virus experts know that viral dose affects illness severity. In the lab, mice receiving a low dose of virus clear it and recover, while the same virus at a higher dose kills them. Dose sensitivity has been observed for every common acute viral infection that has been studied in lab animals, including coronaviruses. Humans also exhibit sensitivity to viral dose. Volunteers have allowed themselves to be exposed to low or high doses of relatively benign viruses causing colds or diarrhea. Those receiving the low doses have rarely developed visible signs of infection, while high doses have typically led to infections and more severe symptoms. It would be unethical to experimentally manipulate viral dose in humans for a pathogen as serious as the coronavirus, but there is evidence that dose also matters for the human coronavirus. During the 2003 SARS coronavirus outbreak in Hong Kong, for instance, one patient infected many others living in the same complex of apartment buildings, resulting in 19 dead. The spread of infection is thought to have been caused by airborne viral particles that were blown throughout the complex from the initial patient’s apartment unit. As a result of greater viral exposure, neighbors who lived in the same building were not only more frequently infected but also more likely to die. By contrast, more distant neighbors, even when infected, suffered less. Low-dose infections can even engender immunity, protecting against high-dose exposures in the future. Before the invention of vaccines, doctors often intentionally infected healthy individuals with fluid from smallpox pustules. The resulting low-dose infections were unpleasant but generally survivable, and they prevented worse incidents of disease when those individuals were later exposed to smallpox in uncontrolled amounts. Despite the evidence for the importance of viral dose, many of the epidemiological models being used to inform policy during this pandemic ignore it. This is a mistake. People should take particular care against high-dose exposures, which are most likely to occur in close in-person interactions — such as coffee meetings, crowded bars and quiet time in a room with Grandma — and from touching our faces after getting substantial amounts of virus on our hands. In-person interactions are more dangerous in enclosed spaces and at short distances, with dose escalating with exposure time. For transient interactions that violate the rule of maintaining six feet between you and others, such as paying a cashier at the grocery store, keep them brief — aim for “within six feet, only six seconds.” Because dose matters, medical personnel face an extreme risk, since they deal with the sickest, highest-viral-load patients. We must prioritize protective gear for them. For everyone else, the importance of social distancing, mask-wearing and good hygiene is only greater, since these practices not only decrease infectious spread but also tend to decrease dose and thus the lethalness of infections that do occur. While preventing viral spread is a societal good, avoiding high-dose infections is a personal imperative, even for young healthy people. At the same time, we need to avoid a panicked overreaction to low-dose exposures. Clothing and food packaging that have been exposed to someone with the virus seem to present a low risk. Healthy people who are together in the grocery store or workplace experience a tolerable risk — so long as they take precautions like wearing surgical masks and spacing themselves out. A complete lockdown of society is the most effective way to stop spread of the virus, but it is costly both economically and psychologically. When society eventually reopens, risk-reduction measures like maintaining personal space and practicing proper hand-washing will be essential to reducing high-dose infections. High-risk sites for high-dose exposure, like stadiums and convention venues, should remain shuttered. Risky but essential services like public transportation should be allowed to operate — but people must follow safety measures such as wearing masks, maintaining physical spacing and never commuting with a fever. Now is the time to stay home. But hopefully this time will be brief. When we do begin to leave our homes again, let’s do it wisely, in light of the importance of viral dose. Joshua D. Rabinowitz is a professor of chemistry and genomics at Princeton, where Caroline R. Bartman is a research fellow.

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US Federal Reserve merges with U.S. Treasury, then taken over by Blackrock
by Zenaan Harkness 01 Apr '20

01 Apr '20

This Huge Jewish Finance Firm Just Took Over the US Treasury and Fed (Blackrock, Transcript + Audio) https://russia-insider.com/en/huge-jewish-finance-firm-just-took-over-us-tr… https://fashthenation.com/2020/03/how-trump-nationalized-u-s-financial-mark… https://therightstuff.biz/2020/03/29/ftn-300-i-am-the-line-thy-god/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT4EkCLQEeI In less than a week the Federal Reserve has been merged with the U.S. Treasury (implying it wasn’t always that way) and BlackRock, the world’s largest and most powerful financial services institution, has been put in charge of executing future acquisitions and trades. Who is BlackRock? What do they own? And perhaps more importantly, what and who do they control? Jazz and James dive into BlackRock and uncover a significant portion of the apparatus by which U.S. politics are controlled and manipulated. Full episode: https://therightstuff.biz/2020/03/29/ftn-300-i-am-the-line-thy-god/ .. So the Fed ^B Blackrock, is gorging itself, having a feed on "debt depressed America", buying everything in sight, becoming the ultimate owner of most all of everything in sight. Atlas shrugged.

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NatSec Threated by COVID
by John Young 01 Apr '20

01 Apr '20

Military weapons crews densely packed: bombers, subs, ships, tanks, signals, ICBM, missile batteries; Bradleys; spy control rooms, sex traps, drops; AF1 and HMX1; telecom hubs, cables and sat dishes; covert ops and NOCs; equipment factories and programming; Gitmo and ilk; commander in chief operations; military command and control; continuity of government; Situation Room Center; comsec and infosec inventing, deploying, encrypting, decrypting, malwaring, hacking, implanting, transmitting, retrieving, authenticating, intercepting; housing and managing informers, betrayers; FBI and FISA court contaminating; grand juries and prosecutions.

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Lord Sumption, former UK Supreme Court Justice: "This Is What a Police State Is Like"
by Zenaan Harkness 01 Apr '20

01 Apr '20

Former British Supreme Court Justice: ‘This Is What a Police State Is Like’ https://www.anti-empire.com/former-british-supreme-court-justice-this-is-wh… "The real problem is that when human societies lose their freedom, it's not usually because tyrants have taken it away" The former Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Sumption, QC, has denounced the police response to the coronavirus, saying the country is suffering ‘collective hysteria’. This is an edited transcript of his interview with BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme earlier today. –BBC interviewer Jonny Dymond: ‘A hysterical slide into a police state. A shameful police force intruding with scant regard to common sense or tradition. An irrational overreaction driven by fear.’ These are not the accusations of wild-eyed campaigners, they come from the lips of one our most eminent jurists Lord Sumption, former Justice of the Supreme Court. I spoke to him just before we came on air. –Lord Sumption: The real problem is that when human societies lose their freedom, it’s not usually because tyrants have taken it away. It’s usually because people willingly surrender their freedom in return for protection against some external threat. And the threat is usually a real threat but usually exaggerated. That’s what I fear we are seeing now. The pressure on politicians has come from the public. They want action. They don’t pause to ask whether the action will work. They don’t ask themselves whether the cost will be worth paying. They want action anyway. And anyone who has studied history will recognise here the classic symptoms of collective hysteria. Hysteria is infectious. We are working ourselves up into a lather in which we exaggerate the threat and stop asking ourselves whether the cure may be worse than the disease. –Dymond: At a time like this, as you acknowledge, citizens do look to the state for protection, for assistance, we shouldn’t be surprised then if the state takes on new powers if it responds. That is what it has been asked to do, almost demanded of it. –Sumption: Yes that is absolutely true. We should not be surprised. But we have to recognise that this is how societies become despotisms. And we also have to recognise this is a process which leads naturally to exaggeration. The symptoms of coronavirus are clearly serious for those with other significant medical conditions, especially if they’re old. There are exceptional cases in which young people have been struck down, which have had a lot of publicity, but the numbers are pretty small. The Italian evidence, for instance, suggests that only in 12 per cent of deaths is it possible to say coronavirus was the main cause of death. So yes this is serious and yes it’s understandable that people cry out to the government. But the real question is: is this serious enough to warrant putting most of our population into house imprisonment, wrecking our economy for an indefinite period, destroying businesses that honest and hardworking people have taken years to build up, saddling future generations with debt, depression, stress, heart attacks, suicides and unbelievable distress inflicted on millions of people who are not especially vulnerable and will suffer only mild symptoms or none at all, like the Health Secretary and the Prime Minister. .. –Sumption: Well, I have to say, it does. I mean, the tradition of policing in this country is that policemen are citizens in uniform. They are not members of a disciplined hierarchy operating just at the government’s command. Yet in some parts of the country, the police have been trying to stop people from doing things like travelling to take exercise in the open country, which are not contrary to the regulations, simply because ministers have said that they would prefer us not to. The police have no power to enforce ministers’ preferences, but only legal regulations – which don’t go anything like as far as the government’s guidance. I have to say that the behaviour of the Derbyshire police in trying to shame people into using their undoubted right to take exercise in the country and wrecking beauty spots in the Fells so that people don’t want to go there, is frankly disgraceful. This is what a police state is like. It’s a state in which the government can issue orders or express preferences with no legal authority and the police will enforce ministers’ wishes. ..

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POLITICO: Justice Department audit finds widespread flaws in FBI surveillance applications
by jim bell 31 Mar '20

31 Mar '20

POLITICO: Justice Department audit finds widespread flaws in FBI surveillance applications. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/31/justice-department-audit-finds-wid…

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Top Secret: 20+TB SSD is nothing
by grarpamp 31 Mar '20

31 Mar '20

https://old.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/fjt30v/this_is_the_pcb_of_a_… https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/fjt6b8/thought_you_guys_would… https://old.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/7b9l4c/who_here_likes_ssds_t… https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/7b0coq/who_here_likes_ssds_th… https://twitch.tv/tt2468_h3 User works for a company that also sells classified SSD systems to government. 20TB is what they can post without getting fired, in production for over 2 years. Utah has much bigger, and you're in it. Anyone do a raw component and assembly cost workup on 25 / 50 / 100 TB class units? Jim?

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[MINISTRY] stop being racist - The Bee: Non-racist terminology replacements
by Zig the N.g 31 Mar '20

31 Mar '20

The Bee provides a helpful list of non-racist terminologies to replace racist terms that unthoughtful (at least nominally racist) racist people keep using. Please stop. PSA: Stop Using Racist Terminology https://babylonbee.com/news/psa-stop-using-racist-terminology With the rise of the novel coronavirus, there has been an uptick in people saying racist things like suggesting the virus came from the region it did in fact come from. So we're encouraging our readers to avoid problematic terms like "Wuhan virus," "Chinese coronavirus," "Kung Flu," "Black Pepper Death," "Chopsick," "Srirachoo," "Terracougha Army," or the "Great Whoop of China." Definitely don't use any of those. And certainly never name a disease, product, or cultural trend after the area it's from. Instead, use our handy guide to avoid problematic, racist language: Instead of Say: --------------------- -------------------------------------- Wuhan virus Lung pao sicken Black death Death of colour Indian giver Elizabeth Warren Canadian bacon Geopolitically irrelevant, inferior bacon Mexican jumping beans Latinx acrobatic moth larvae Chinese dictator Austere totalitarian scholar Japanese cartoons It's called Anime and it's totally normal for adults to watch, mum!

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Cryptocurrency: Music
by grarpamp 31 Mar '20

31 Mar '20

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Cryptocurrency: Cloudflare Ditches ReCaptcha for HCaptcha
by grarpamp 31 Mar '20

31 Mar '20

https://old.reddit.com/r/hCaptcha/comments/fpxzg8/hcaptcha_is_a_brick_wall_… https://old.reddit.com/r/privacytoolsIO/comments/frtaiv/cloudflare_has_swit… https://www.hcaptcha.com/ " hCaptcha is a way for every website in the world to create a new revenue stream from the work their visitors already do. Simply put, when website users prove their humanity via a captcha (to keep out bots and spam), website owners get paid. " " Lately there's a lot of concern over Google having significant power over us on the Internet. Remember the whole CCN fiasco from their tweak on their Algorithm? Well, reCAPTCHA is their product which is easy to set up, weak in security, and essentially helps them train their driverless cars AI for free. It's weak by design which allows for captcha solvers to beat them like 2captcha and DeathbyCaptcha. We're different, hCaptcha helps connect companies (usually AI) who are looking to get their Data labeled or more to sites that have visitors who solve the labeling for them. Of course this is not free for them, but it is free for anyone to implement on their Website to earn from visitors solving them! So we're essentially running on the HUMAN Protocol Engine, and we're going to be implementing a Token system called HMT, because it's much easier to handle Micropayments and using the Proof of Balance algorithm it allows labelers in the Data Exchange to prioritize their tasks. We've already got many sites up using our hCaptcha widget, and we're looking to ask the folks in r/Cryptocurrency on what you guys think, and if you have any questions. We recently set up our own Subreddit and feel it's necessary to get feedback from the Crypto community and hope to address any concerns! "

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Re: [liberationtech] COVID-19 (Update) U.S. Cellphone tracking
by grarpamp 31 Mar '20

31 Mar '20

>> https://news.trust.org/item/20200328130228-rzdk2/ > It is probably worth noting that the needed surveillance does not require > privacy violations. > In fact, better solutions have been available for a long time: > > https://cosmism.blogspot.com/2020/03/from-tracing-to-preemption.html Regarding trust, accuracy, liberty, etc of "delivered health certificates", users must have individual ability to assign trust levels to various testing organizations, such as via loading their pki/ca scheme in app. Various "government" and private tests are using many different assay and collection methods, these have already proven to have varying levels of false positive/negative, and may or may not have signed their cert over the holders phone serial number or simple face pic leading to fradulent presentation. Users may wish to select an accurate private test company, strong liberation, privacy preserving, etc... over some authoritarian government body that only gets 2 out of 3 test param right, does not test blood sample under full realtime custody of the user to monitor their own test and personally destroy after, welds your ass behind a steel door, etc. P2P proximity apps are interesting tools for these situations, but be very wary establishing granting slippery powers, forever databases, ID, tracking, etc to central "authorities" in the process. Also users don't really care as much to "record a [risky] contact forever", that is the old after the fact tracking database surveillance anti-privacy state apologist mindset. And, were it the sole operation mode, would be entirely useless/unsafe in the realtime moment. Users really just want to gauge "should I have some reasonable or particular interaction with this person right now at this moment". Of course there is always delay continuum from test, to disease acquisition, to spreading phase, to later discovery in later test, a window of risk. That operation mode would require a distributed social overlay network personal test repository to backcheck old contacts against, and mandatory time based contact record destruction falloff curve on each users device and or in the distributed net. Making both users contact history anonymous, and or ensuring privacy self destruct of contact falloff, is an implementation challenge. P2P proximity app could even offer other potential decision metrics to proximity peers, such as number of unique contacts over time, distance traveled, risky or evidencial places visited, degree-of-freedom depth to other pass/fails, ranking and voting on testing entity pki/ca levels of trust, etc. None of this requires any government exist power or intrusion at all. Good things can be recognized and achieved voluntarily. Last, beware the very potential disgusting impact of "social scoring" "caste enforcing" etc that even P2P schemes can enable and devolve into.

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