Atelopus-zeteki

The US has a party that promotes voting and voting rights, and alas another which does everything possible to prevent voting.

I just looked up the numbers Wednesday, in a similar question comparing US to Canada. You are squarely in the middle of the error bars with your numbers, alas, speaking as one USian who is actually able to read and comprehend.

(not) signing so many trade deals

He was called out, Xi said, “drop the unilateral tariffs, and then we can talk.”

trumpy is also helping to unite the US, against him and his crimes.

Yeah, I don’t have time for her, either.

Imports from Cambodia: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/imports/cambodia

and Vietnam: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/imports/vietnam

smh

TY!

East of Tallahassee, Florida, there’s a trail called The Cadillac Trail, so named because a bunch of cars were abandoned out there decades ago by a car dealer who then claimed they were stolen. ‘If you can’t sell it, then collect the insurance’ seems to be a long established solution.

https://www.tmba.bike/post/the-tale-of-tom-brown-s-two-most-popular-trails

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/florida/east-cadillac-trail

https://mbtallahassee.com/trails/cadillac-trail-west/

Prolly just a mistake. Maybe left them charging too long?

Prolly just a mistake. Maybe left them charging too long?

People will die. Literally increasing morbidity AND mortality on purpose. WTaF?!?!

It’s pretty exciting, as this is something long sought, which appears to finally be coming close to fruition. Glad to be able to help.

I like your examples, and they might be close enough metaphorically. To stretch your metaphor to the breaking point, if the camo is so big it interferes with function, like the clown outfit, then the virus is “dead in the water”, and can’t replicate. If it’s just a different hat or glasses, and doesn’t interfere with function, then replication can happen.

I’m also waiting for that virologist or immunologist who is gonna correct the bits where I’m missing the point. I know some of those folks are out here ‘on fedi’, lol, but they might be disguised. ;-)

It looks like there’s some discussion going on over on Bluesky about this presentation at ACS Spring 2025, which found using Universal Coronavirus Vaccine search string. Denis - The COVID Info Guy seemed particularly informative.

The glycan camouflage is less effective once the immune system has been exposed to the spike protein, and “knows” what to look for, so it can mount a response, through the T and B cells.

Awe, thanks for your ‘support’.

Generally I think you’ve got it. One thing to add, when you say protein above it’s specifically the Spike Protein.

This article goes into it on a much deeper level than I would be able to explain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus_spike_protein

"The function of the spike glycoprotein is to mediate viral entry into the host cell by first interacting with molecules on the exterior cell surface and then fusing the viral and cellular membranes. " Because the spike protein is needed for mediating viral entry to the cell it has to remain in a particular structure to do that job. And so major changes to it would make it work less effectively, some minor changes might not, thus is is relatively unchanging a.k.a. conserved, because if it changed on a given virus particle, that particle wouldn’t function, and thus wouldn’t replicate.

As I understand it, “hidden” is a relative thing. Before exposure one’s immune system doesn’t know what to look for, after exposure, and immune response, one’s T and B cells have a much better chance. That’s why denovo immune response to an epitope may not be sufficient, but once the immune system has been ‘exposed’ or ‘educated’ the response is much more specific. There are two parts to the immune system, innate, basically structural, and adaptive (T’s and B’s) that can be primed with certain factors to create a very precise response. The long term nature of immune response is dependent on those cells, which come in number of different ‘flavors’. Tissue Resident Macrophages hang out in the area of initial infection, waiting for “that guy” to show up again. They can sit relatively dormant for years. I don’t want to mislead, our understanding of the long term memory function of the immune system isn’t completely understood. And so we don’t know how long a given immune response will last, at least not yet. Does that help? I’m not an immunology prof, or researcher, so I may not have been clear.

Mutations will always happen, it’s what viruses do.

I’ve learned a lot more about virology, vaccines, and immunology in the past 5 years than I ever thought I would need/ want to know, mostly from listening to the brilliant folks over at Microbe.TV (https://www.microbe.tv/), with This Week in Virology, and the other science based podcasts they produce.