However, I know people in biotech who are. People who have labored “in the trenches” (or should I say, “at the benches”) on dengue fever, and on other vaccine efforts. They all tell me the same thing: DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE.

This article is not about a tempest in a teapot. It is a big deal. It reports on the latest example of a pattern we’ve seen with would-be vaccine makers, big and small, since February:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/19/rush-share-good-news-covid-19-drugs-is-undermining-science/?utm_campaign=wp_opinions&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_opinions

What’s more, my own quasi-scientific assessment – and I won’t provide reasons, because there have been reviews of this and when I find a super good one I’ll post it – is that there have always been substantial biological obstacles to surmount before an effective vaccine against any coronavirus can be developed and deployed. COVID-19 is NOT your grandfather’s Oldsmobile … I mean to say, virus.

Optimism is great. Realism, however, is much better.

https://brownfieldagnews.com/news/osha-and-cdc-issue-new-guidelines-for-meat-packing-plants/

Now, by executive order our impeached President — who has still failed to facilitate the manufacture of sufficient numbers reliable tests for the virus — has ordered meat-packing plants to open if closed and stay open if not closed. This apparently removes workers ability to sue over unsafe working conditions and, to my knowledge, there are no conditions put on the plants themselves to make them safer for the workers.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/politics/defense-production-act-executive-order-food-supply/index.html

Tonight’s news also included the item that Republican governors in the states in which such plants are located have decided that workers who fail to report for hazardous duty and are therefore fired, will not be eligible for state unemployment benefits. Go to work and maybe die or stay home and maybe starve and/or be evicted. Nice.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/jgewm7/gop-states-reopening-early-will-push-people-scared-to-work-off-unemployment

Apparently the rolled gold liar has cancelled today’s briefing.

In Maryland, a similar thing happened, as reported on Friday, April 24, 2020:

https://www.motherjones.com/coronavirus-updates/2020/04/maryland-donald-trump-bleach/

It is, I think, a telling indictment of the impeached President’s unfitness for his office that he apparently has no idea that his defense, i.e. he was just being sarcastic, even if it were true, is completely and idiotically out-of-place in what is supposed to be a report to the nation on the coronavirus.* What other modern U. S. president would have said anything so ignorant and dangerously misleading on such an occasion.

*Of course, his supposed “reports” are just reelection rallies aimed at pumping up his base. Actual information on Covid-19 takes up just a few minutes per hour of his “reports.”

US Poison Control Centre sees spike in number of people ingesting disinfectants

Indeed, words have consequences even when spoken by an ignorant nutcase.

The oranges of advice to ingest bleach came from the Orange in Chief. The local cheer-leader for whom has gone awfully quiet.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/va-health-chief-acknowledges-a-shortage-of-protective-gear-for-its-hospital-workers/2020/04/24/4c1bcd5e-84bf-11ea-ae26-989cfce1c7c7_story.html?ICID=ref_fark&utm_content=link&utm_medium=website&utm_source=fark

We can stay at home, get sick, self-isolate, hopefully get better and add to our states herd immunity level.

This ‘herd immunity’ rhetoric was dangerous nonsense from the outset and remains so (emphasis added for the hard of thinking):

There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.

[…]

WHO continues to review the evidence on antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Most of these studies show that people who have recovered from infection have antibodies to the virus. However, some of these people have very low levels of neutralizing antibodies in their blood, suggesting that cellular immunity may also be critical for recovery. As of 24 April 2020, no study has evaluated whether the presence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 confers immunity to subsequent infection by this virus in humans.

Laboratory tests that detect antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in people, including rapid immunodiagnostic tests, need further validation to determine their accuracy and reliability. Inaccurate immunodiagnostic tests may falsely categorize people in two ways. The first is that they may falsely label people who have been infected as negative, and the second is that people who have not been infected are falsely labelled as positive. Both errors have serious consequences and will affect control efforts. These tests also need to accurately distinguish between past infections from SARS-CoV-2 and those caused by the known set of six human coronaviruses. Four of these viruses cause the common cold and circulate widely.

[…]

At this point in the pandemic, there is not enough evidence about the effectiveness of antibody-mediated immunity to guarantee the accuracy of an “immunity passport” or “risk-free certificate.” People who assume that they are immune to a second infection because they have received a positive test result may ignore public health advice. The use of such certificates may therefore increase the risks of continued transmission. As new evidence becomes available, WHO will update this scientific brief.

Source: WHO.

Indeed, and it should be considered that viruses can mutate and do so frequently with the rate of mutation being proportionate to the number of infections.

The annual flue vaccine is one prepared best suited to the variety of virus HxNx (nearly 200 permutations) that is expected to show up. Also components to aid immunity to previous strains can be included in the new dose.

I have read that Coronavirus Covid-19 is not anticipated to evolve as rapidly as influenza strains but then the game is still in play.