I have been made aware of a major risk factor some people have that makes COVID a more serious risk for them than for others. As far as I know, there has not been a systematic study to quantify this risk, nor been any public health attempt to warn this group. /2 About 25% of the adult population have a patent foramen ovale. This is a hole between the left and right atria (upper chambers) of the heart. This hole exists in everyone before birth, but most often closes shortly after being born. /3

Prof Crab and I took a very similar set of domestic strategies to deal with COVID. I thought I might summarize them below: /2

https://twitter.com/CrabbBrendan/status/1777298243048927396

But first, some basic principles: 1) COVID is primarily transmitted by aerosols - minute micro-droplets that waft in the air like cigarette smoke. 2) It is transmitted from an infected person to an uninfected person. /3

This is a tricky post. This time, 4 years ago, I was contacted by a person in a major government scientific organization. They said that they (pleural) had tried to warn the (then Morrison) government of an outbreak of a SARS-like virus in China. /2 They said that they had been warned directly by Chinese scientists, who were greatly concerned about the possibility of the disease spreading. They said that the government had not responded. /3

HOW TO USE COVID RATS.
The RATs that work best, test for the presence of COVID Nucleocapsid protein, a viral protein coat that surrounds the viral genome. It's function is critical for viral replication, so unlike the Spike protein, it has very little tolerance of mutation. /2 That means that these tests, by and large, work as well as they always did. Many people have the experience of feeling ill, testing, and finding they have a negative RAT, and then subsequently getting more ill, retesting, and finding that the RAT now tests positive. /3

I had an GP appointment today. At the end of it, he asked me what I thought that we were experiencing outbreaks of unusual infections - his example was adults with childhood infections, mine was infections normally restricted to those immunocompromised, like monkey pox. /2 So I told him about the effect of COVID on the immune system: the widespread activation of CD4 T cells leaving them prone to activation induce cell death, and the fact that in adults, the thymus involutes, shutting down production of new T cells. /3

Let's take a hypothetical: Imagine there was a hopelessly corrupt village that happened to be the capital of a small kingdom, rules by a chronically dishonest lay about. /2 And let's say - just as a hypothetical - than in addition to the very many other accusations of sexual assault that have not yet been investigated by the principal guards of the kingdom, one came to the interest of the king. /3

About the voice: In 1986 as part of my training, I was sent to a remote part of the far north west of Australia, to a town with a hospital, and then to a mission that was even more remote, where a senior medical student had prescribing rights. /2 I spent a fair bit of my spare time, and a huge bit of my working time, with the indigenous people of those areas. And I would ask: "How can we make this better." And I was told, "First understand what has gone wrong." /3

I have accounts with @Telstra for my mobile and internet. This area is a mobile blackout area, so much of the time, the mobile can only function by using the wifi from modem with data via the NBN. /2 This area is one that the @NBN used coaxial cables in @Telstra's old phone cable pits. The pits fill with water when it rains, and the cables short out, causing corrosion and occasional fires. Quite often, as occurred recently there is a very poor NBN service... /3

A very interesting article covering COVID's effects on the brain and drawing a parallel between EBV/glandular fever/myalgic encephalomyelitis (chronic fatigue syndrome) and SARS-CoV-2/COVID/Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (Long COVID).
scientificamerican.com/article/long-c… nature.com/articles/s4158…

There is an implication in much of the government rhetoric on COVID that there are people who are susceptible to being killed if they get infected, and then there are the rest of us. This has been the major (only) platform of their "it's over' campaign. But is it true? /2 From the time physicians worked out the pathogenesis of COVID induced respiratory failure (it was mostly due to clots in the lungs' blood vessels) the proportion of people dying of infection dropped from ~3% to <1%. Since the vaccines, it dropped again ~1:1,000. /3

ChatGPT:
"Here's a joke about Sherlock Holmes:
Why did Sherlock Holmes always carry a magnifying glass?
Because he wanted to find the clues and get a closer look!" Hard to tell whether that is so dreadful because it is an AI, or because it is American.

#IsChatGPT_biassed?
Q: Which was the better President, Donald Trump or Franklin D. Roosevelt? /2 A: As a neutral AI language model, I do not have personal opinions or preferences. However, I can provide information and context on both presidents that may help answer the question. /3

#ChatGPT_errors
Q: Who is the smartest living person? A: It is difficult to determine who the smartest living person is as intelligence can be defined and measured in many different ways. However, there are many individuals who are considered to be highly intelligent based on various factors such as their IQ score, /2

“Yesterday the ABC published a piece looking at the various impediments to home ownership faced by different generations. It features (among many other voices) Kerrie Boylett, 68, who recounts the struggle and sacrifice she faced buying a home in 1995 … /2 ‘They [millennials] want, you know, the latest mobile phone, the latest iPad, they want a nice car, they want to go on holidays, they still want to go out to restaurants.’ /3

A tiny, highly radioactive capsule that went missing in a remote region of WA has been found after a vast search. /2 The 8x6mm capsule was found by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) about 50 km from the mining town of Newman on Wednesday (ABC). /3

Fumes in the cabin have prompted a Qantas flight to turn around, in the sixth technical drama in the space of a week for the troubled airline.
A Qantas flight bound for Sydney was forced to turn back to Fiji as a precaution after pilots were alerted to fumes in the cabin (SMH)./2 Early investigations suggest the fumes were related to an oven in the aircraft galley. /3

A Qantas flight to Fiji was forced to return to Sydney Airport on Thursday, in the carrier’s second air emergency in two days. /2 Qantas on Thursday said QF101, a Boeing 737 bound for Nadi, returned to Sydney after an onboard “fault indicator” about a possible mechanical issue (AAP).
The plane spent close to two hours circling off the coast of NSW as it awaited a slot before landing. /3

BREAKING: Text of Dutton's letter to Albonese leaked!
Dear Albo
I hate the way you Russet into the Jewel Yam to parliament when there are more important priorities like keeping the Japanese Sweet and avoiding a Russian Banana. /2 Your plans are making me feel All Blue. I can see your Cranberry Red thumbs (or are they Red Gold?) all over the plans that I think should just be thrown into the Bintje. Yukon only trick some of the people some of the time, Norland a try every time. /3

What might be happening in people with multiple COVID infections? I'll just take one target organ that most people care about: Their brain. I'll take one remarkable study from the UK Biobank, because they compared brain MRIs before and after infection.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35255491/
/2 "The strongest differences in changes observed between the SARS-CoV-2-positive and control groups, [corresponded] to around 2% of the mean baseline IDP (size of altered features identified on MRI) value. /3

"...SARS-CoV-2 is widely distributed, predominantly among patients who died with severe COVID-19, and that virus replication is present in multiple respiratory and non-respiratory tissues, including the brain, early in infection. /2 "Further, we detected persistent SARS-CoV-2 RNA in multiple anatomic sites, including throughout the brain, as late as 230 days following symptom onset in one case. /3

From the VIC CHO:
There were 24,238 COVID-19 cases reported in Victoria this week, a decrease of 1.5 per cent on the previous week. The average daily number of new cases this week was 3,463, down from 3,522 last week.
/2 The seven-day rolling average of patients with COVID in Victorian hospitals is 671. There are currently 707 COVID patients in Victorian hospitals, with 35 COVID patients in intensive care, including 6 cleared cases.
/3