Episode 11: Just as the U.S. starts to come out of its lockdown doldrums and re-opens, China suddenly rediscovers the pandemic and closes ports and sections of Guangzhou.
Also, on Wofl Warrior cool down, it's just another way China reads the room. We're dealing with snowflakes, Xi says. Let's pretend we, too, are snowflakes. Snowflake....I see you. I hear you. In terms of the new variant, notice how they are blaming Indian and British variants. I didn't even know there was a British variant. This whole China outbreak deserves close watching. The first outbreak, from lockdown to liftoff lasted many two and a half months; three max. With the worst being the first month. So lets see what happens this month.
Wow, Aaron. I did not know that, re: Double Good. I was gonna change the name of this to Shanghai'd, but now you've convinced me to keep the Double Good. I mean....Double Plus. ;)
I messed that up. I had to consult wikipedia to remember my Newspeak and Doublethink.
"Doubleplus–" is an intensifier that replaces extremely and superlatives; to that purpose, the Newspeak word doubleplusgood replaced words such as fantastic and excellent.
I cant believe it. Well, its in the air. I just suck up the 0s and 1s in the matrix and figure it out without reading. Im flying without instruments, man. "Use the Force, Luke."
I know this isn't your beat per se, but have you seen this interview before? It's from Microbiology Society’s Annual Conference April 2019 in Belfast.
--
Could you outline the research you’re presenting here?
So, in my talk I talked about a longitudinal study that had been done by Zhengli Shi’s group at the Wuhan Institute [1] on Chinese horseshoe bats, which led to a big shift in our thinking about these bat CoVs because it revealed they are much closer to the epidemic SARS strains than previously thought. Normally, we don’t evaluate anything beyond being reactive to the next emergent strain, but building on this study using our infectious clone system we had the opportunity to ask more questions – and that’s how this project started.
The study that I showed was using a chimeric approach – taking the spike protein of bat CoVs and putting them into the backbone of a virus we knew was functional. Coronaviruses are really large, so with generating the viruses there are any number of other things that could go wrong, such as incompatibilities, that might not allow that virus replicate even though the spike might be viable – by putting just the spike in a known backbone we could gain some insight into that. We chose a mouse-adapted strain for the backbone because then we could take the chimeric virus into animals, and what surprised us was that the SARS-like CoV spikes, WIV1 and SHC014, which were isolated from bats, caused robust disease.
Interesting. So youre a ...scientist? That should be a rap. You can start up like the old one from the 1980s by Boogie Down Productions: "Are you a philosopher?" "Why yes. (scratch) yes (scratch). I think very deeply."
What's more interesting is that the UT Medical Branch/ Galveston National Lab where Dr. Vineet Menachery works, was investigated for not disclosing ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The results of the investigation were never disclosed, but the Chinese Consulate in Houston was abruptly shut down a month later...weird.
When all of the public health officials started with the Donald Sutherland pointing and screaming thing from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I knew it was aliens. All jokes aside. What do you make of Xi's public call to soften the Wolf Warrior diplomacy in the context of the 'New Variant'?
Also, on Wofl Warrior cool down, it's just another way China reads the room. We're dealing with snowflakes, Xi says. Let's pretend we, too, are snowflakes. Snowflake....I see you. I hear you. In terms of the new variant, notice how they are blaming Indian and British variants. I didn't even know there was a British variant. This whole China outbreak deserves close watching. The first outbreak, from lockdown to liftoff lasted many two and a half months; three max. With the worst being the first month. So lets see what happens this month.
Wow, Aaron. I did not know that, re: Double Good. I was gonna change the name of this to Shanghai'd, but now you've convinced me to keep the Double Good. I mean....Double Plus. ;)
I messed that up. I had to consult wikipedia to remember my Newspeak and Doublethink.
"Doubleplus–" is an intensifier that replaces extremely and superlatives; to that purpose, the Newspeak word doubleplusgood replaced words such as fantastic and excellent.
You were channeling 1984 the whole time.
I cant believe it. Well, its in the air. I just suck up the 0s and 1s in the matrix and figure it out without reading. Im flying without instruments, man. "Use the Force, Luke."
I know this isn't your beat per se, but have you seen this interview before? It's from Microbiology Society’s Annual Conference April 2019 in Belfast.
--
Could you outline the research you’re presenting here?
So, in my talk I talked about a longitudinal study that had been done by Zhengli Shi’s group at the Wuhan Institute [1] on Chinese horseshoe bats, which led to a big shift in our thinking about these bat CoVs because it revealed they are much closer to the epidemic SARS strains than previously thought. Normally, we don’t evaluate anything beyond being reactive to the next emergent strain, but building on this study using our infectious clone system we had the opportunity to ask more questions – and that’s how this project started.
The study that I showed was using a chimeric approach – taking the spike protein of bat CoVs and putting them into the backbone of a virus we knew was functional. Coronaviruses are really large, so with generating the viruses there are any number of other things that could go wrong, such as incompatibilities, that might not allow that virus replicate even though the spike might be viable – by putting just the spike in a known backbone we could gain some insight into that. We chose a mouse-adapted strain for the backbone because then we could take the chimeric virus into animals, and what surprised us was that the SARS-like CoV spikes, WIV1 and SHC014, which were isolated from bats, caused robust disease.
https://www.id-hub.com/2019/05/21/emerging-technologies-investigate-coronavirus-emergence-interview-vineet-menachery/
Interesting. So youre a ...scientist? That should be a rap. You can start up like the old one from the 1980s by Boogie Down Productions: "Are you a philosopher?" "Why yes. (scratch) yes (scratch). I think very deeply."
Not a scientist. I used work as a Clinical Engineering Manager at a hospital.
What's more interesting is that the UT Medical Branch/ Galveston National Lab where Dr. Vineet Menachery works, was investigated for not disclosing ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The results of the investigation were never disclosed, but the Chinese Consulate in Houston was abruptly shut down a month later...weird.
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/coronavirus/2020/06/15/ut-system-says-it-did-not-wrongfully-withhold-communication-with-wuhan-lab-from-feds/113747922/
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/24/china-houston-consulate-coronavirus-research-espionage/
Interesting that it's 'double plus' in China and 'double good' in 1984.
When all of the public health officials started with the Donald Sutherland pointing and screaming thing from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I knew it was aliens. All jokes aside. What do you make of Xi's public call to soften the Wolf Warrior diplomacy in the context of the 'New Variant'?