- Joined
- Dec 4, 2004
George Takei tested positive no ?
No. Sorry. He was featured staying home along with Mel Brooks and Rob Reiner on CBS Sunday Morning. He looks great!
George Takei tested positive no ?
A tiger at the Bronx zoo just tested positive (with a non FDA approved test, which means it hasn't been tested for efficacy or reliability) for COVID 19. This is going to be very, very bad for house cats. The way people are freaking out around here, hoarding toilet paper, chicks, flour, yeast, anything they can get their hands on (while being in stores potentially exposing themselves) I am afraid of feral colonies being destroyed and massive numbers of pet cats being turned in to shelters or killed because many shelters aren't open to the public right now. If people would just stop and think....pet cats (who should be kept inside always) are very unlikely to transmit the virus to their owners. If it is transferrable, the cats should be worried about their owners transferring it to THEM. A feral cat won't come within 6 feet of anyone who hasn't been feeding it for years.
This is a virus we've only been aware of as being able to infect humans since for what 5 months ago? That's no time at all.
But we don't know how many live particles of the virus is needed to infect someone, we don't know how it might be transmitted in the air (if at all). There's a lot scientists are learning on the fly and so, like with any breaking news, you're going to end up with a new discovery negating previous reporting.
OK, it LOOKS like 7 cats at the zoo might have symptoms. This changes everything...did a zoo keep give it to them? Did that person travel to other zoos? The strain is definately the human strain, as reported today. If house cats can get this and are put outside, it wont be pretty.....
There are over 1 million people in the world who have had or have Coronavirus. They found one cat in ...Brazil? Belgium? sorry I can't remember..they think MIGHT have it.
OK, it LOOKS like 7 cats at the zoo might have symptoms. This changes everything...did a zoo keep give it to them? Did that person travel to other zoos? The strain is definately the human strain, as reported today. If house cats can get this and are put outside, it wont be pretty.....
A zoo staffer was infected with the virus and that's why the tiger was tested. We can't be sure if the staffer gave it to the tiger or vice versa.
They are saying there's "no evidence" of transmission from cats to humans, but they haven't actually tested that hypothesis. I don't know, that doesn't sound right to me. The working theory is that COVID-19 leapt from animals to humans, and now we're infecting other animals with the virus, but supposedly those animals can't infect humans?
New York City-based Pfizer said in a news release Thursday that it is developing a so-called protease inhibitor that has shown promise in fighting the coronavirus. Initial screening has indicated the lead antiviral drug candidate as well as other similar compounds are potentially "potent inhibitors" of the coronavirus known in scientific circles as SARS-CoV-2, the release said.
The summer start date for clinical trials is "three or more months in advance of earlier estimates," according to the release. "Researchers and scientists have been relentlessly working to develop an investigational antiviral compound to treat (coronavirus)
In addition, Pfizer and the German firm BioNTech SE have announced a global collaboration to co-develop a new coronavirus vaccine. Clinical trials will get underway in the United States and Europe as early as the end of this month, and Pfizer said the companies could potentially have millions of vaccine doses ready by the end of this year with speedy regulatory approval, and hundreds of millions on the market by 2021
I've found recent contributions to this thread to be encouraging.
I had understood that there was a shortage of testing resources, both kits to administer the tests and labs to process the kits, and that public health was in jeopardy as a result.
But if we're spending those resources on zoo animals, rather than on people, everything must be OK on the testing front.
As a lab scientist, there are several different tests with varying degrees of accuracy. The quickie tests have a high degree of false negatives but are useful for field testing first responders for exposure issues. If you test positive you are out of the field. If negative, you need a more sensitive test to rule out exposure. Many tests are in existence, how fast they can be manufactured is another matter as some supplies needed are hard to get.
I've found recent contributions to this thread to be encouraging.
I had understood that there was a shortage of testing resources, both kits to administer the tests and labs to process the kits, and that public health was in jeopardy as a result.
But if we're spending those resources on zoo animals, rather than on people, everything must be OK on the testing front.
Two existing drugs are also being tested by Pfizer as therapies for coronavirus, azithromycin and Xeljanz.
We shouldn’t be getting our exercise jumping to conclusions
Bronx Zoo Tiger did not get a Human Coronavirus Test
The implication of this kind of cross species infection, so far from the original one, is important. I have no idea what Tiger King is (well I do, but it sounds like nothing I would ever want to watch ) and I don’t think it has much to do with the pursuit of this knowledge.
The Bronx tiger incident is interesting but it fell off the news cycle like a rock. Last I heard the cat had human covid 19 and seven cats in all were showing symptoms. Then nothing. The implication of course is that if a human gave it to the cat, then other infected humans can give it to their cats and turn them loose to play with other cats and perhaps infect other humans....but I have heard nothing.
My understanding is that humans can give to cats, based on this test, but not vice versa. I am no scientist and cannot vouch for certain.
Cat to cat transmission I am not sure about either but cats should be safe at home with their people anyway
And deals should not be an issue as long as they are not close enough to humans to catch. Then again, it wasn’t like the zookeeper was kissing the tiger. So many questions....