Milestone: US deaths fall below “expected deaths” for first time since end of last March.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm
Was looking for the effect of acidity on killing the virus since there were early indication it did (was wondering- don’t laugh!- if simply huffing vinegar fumes was a reasonable prophylactic) and ran across this:
” [The virus’s] Spike has three identical copies of the domain. At the neutral pH level found in the human bloodstream, one of them is in the open or ‘up’ position, says study co-lead author Yaroslav Tsybovsky, Ph.D., a microscopist in the Electron Microscopy Laboratory at Frederick National Laboratory. Certain antibodies recognize and attach to the open, exposed domain, lowering the coronavirus’ chances of docking with and entering a cell.
But the study results indicate that the effect doesn’t always last. If the virus succeeds in entering a cell via a mechanism called the “endosomal pathway”—where the pH is much more acidic than in the bloodstream—the receptor-binding domain on spike closes itself off, shaking off the antibodies that attached to it. Freed, the virus can take over the cell and spread the infection...”
Over my head. But amazing what they can see with those electron mictoscopes!