My Brand of Poison #SARSCoV2 – Eight #LessonsLearned from 22 #Covid19 Rapid Tests

First published: 20221224   Latest Updates: 20230118 (Work-In-Progress version, I hope to add more, including useful links to the full text entry at the bottom. And hopefully add a few more tweets to make it to the promised Eight Lessons! :)

I recently tested Covid19 positive. Two weeks later (20221224), I live to share my stories.

My Brand of Poison #SARSCoV2 – Eight #LessonsLearned from 22 #Covid19 Rapid Tests
I recently tested Covid19 positive. Two weeks later, I live to share my stories. pic.twitter.com/j3QfMO5KlS

— Kempton Lam @Kempton@mas.to 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 (@Kempton) December 24, 2022

Lesson 1: Covid #RAT test before attending events with friends & loved ones (or even strangers). You don’t want to spread Covid to people and get them seriously sick or even dead. The guilt I would have felt if I got any one of them seriously sick. I don’t want to risk that.

Lesson 1: Covid #RAT test before attending events with friends & loved ones (or even strangers). You don’t want to spread Covid to people and get them seriously sick or even dead. The guilt I would have felt if I got any one of them seriously sick. I don’t want to risk that. pic.twitter.com/wQWMzHA7uB

— Kempton Lam @Kempton@mas.to 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 (@Kempton) December 24, 2022

Lesson 2 Backstory: In the recent months, I’ve elderly friends & relatives testing #Covid19 positive. Sadly, their friends, loved ones, family members & even their medical doctors had NOT heard of the potentially #lifesaving (+major risks reducing) Covid therapeutics #Paxlovid…

Lesson 2 Backstory: In the recent months, I’ve elderly friends & relatives testing #Covid19 positive. Sadly, their friends, loved ones, family members & even their medical doctors had NOT heard of the potentially #lifesaving (+major risks reducing) Covid therapeutics #Paxlovid… pic.twitter.com/CObuSribLH

— Kempton Lam @Kempton@mas.to 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 (@Kempton) January 4, 2023

Lesson 2: If my elderly 65+ loved ones were to test Covid positive, I’ll make sure their MDs look at using #Paxlovid to reduce risk of serious cases/death. MDs’ “never used Paxlovid before” are bad reasons. Find trusted MDs that have prescribed it & know how2 use it properly…

Lesson 2: If my elderly 65+ loved ones were to test Covid positive, I’ll make sure their MDs look at using #Paxlovid to reduce risk of serious cases/death. MDs’ “never used Paxlovid before” are bad reasons. Find trusted MDs that have prescribed it & know how2 use it properly… pic.twitter.com/tEp61yIMTb

— Kempton Lam @Kempton@mas.to 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 (@Kempton) January 4, 2023

Note: Link to #JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) – Original Investigation – Infectious Diseases research “Incidence of Viral Rebound After Treatment With Nirmatrelvir-Ritonavir and Molnupiravir” (Note: Nirmatrelvir-Ritonavir = Paxlovid)

Note: Link to #JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) – Original Investigation – Infectious Diseases research “Incidence of Viral Rebound After Treatment With Nirmatrelvir-Ritonavir and Molnupiravir” (Note: Nirmatrelvir-Ritonavir = Paxlovid) https://t.co/0ElxXHvh6G

— Kempton Lam @Kempton@mas.to 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 (@Kempton) January 4, 2023

P.S. Sorry4 taking longer than I hope2 share my #Covid19 lessons. So far (as of 20230118), I only had time to share two good lessons so far. In the mean time, wishing you all the best & good health in 2023! #Covid19 is NOT over. But we (countries w good supply of mRNA vax & effective therapeutics like #Paxlovid) are in good positions 2fight #Covid

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Full text version (minus pix) of the above highlight version with pix on Twitter.

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My Brand of Poison #SARSCoV2 – Eight #LessonsLearned from 22 #Covid19 Rapid Tests

I recently tested Covid19 positive. Two weeks later, I live to share my stories.

When my friend/mentor share his insights, he loves to add that is only his “Brand of Poison”. So I’m going to steal from him. And these stories and lessons learned are my “Brand of Poison”, nothing more. I think there are still lots of #ScienceInProgress with Covid19 (have you listened to the podcast #TWiV This Week in Virology?), so when in doubt of what I say, do NOT blindly trust me (I’m an expert in nothing), fact check me with your own doctor, expert doctors, Covid19 researchers, and especially peer-reviewed published research papers with solid data from reputable scientific journals.

Lesson 1 Backstory: I’m four doses vaccinated with Dose 4 in September 2022 (Pfizer-BioNTech original and Omicron BA.1 bivalent Covid19 vaccine). I fully understand vaccines protect us (greatly reduce risks) from seriously illness and deaths but the vaccines are NOT designed to give sterilizing immunity (100% protection) so there are always some risks.

So after 3 years of not hanging out with my MBA classmates, I was seriously missing them and looking forward to our Potluck Party. I try to be responsible and without any symptoms, I RAT (Rapid Antigen Test) test myself the night before the party while I prepared my dish (pork ribs with pineapple). I just didn’t want risk my classmates getting Covid from me or not having enough food. So I RAT tested myself once and I got a positive reading. Beeping beep! Just to confirm the first test wasn’t faulty, I RAT tested myself a second time. Sure enough, the 2nd test still had a faint line on T, so I had no choice but concluded myself Covid positive and called my MBA classmate/host to cancel and apologize. I originally thought I could deliver the food to the party but I’m glad my friend said they have enough food. I was also worried about contaminating the food with my beeping Covid. It turned out I was pretty tired the following morning plus it was rather cold outside so I was glad I didn’t have to go out and have a long drive.

Lesson 1: Covid #RAT test before attending events with friends & loved ones (or even strangers). You don’t want to spread Covid to people and get them seriously sick or even dead. The guilt I would have felt if I got any one of them seriously sick. I don’t want to risk that.

Lesson 2 Backstory: In the recent months, I’ve elderly friends & relatives testing Covid19 positive. Sadly, their friends, loved ones, family members, and even their medical doctors had NOT heard of the potentially lifesaving (+ major risks reducing) Covid therapeutics Paxlovid. Some medicinal doctor and even infectious disease specialist (in US) claim to have heard of “Paxlovid rebound” and baselessly recommended against taking it.

I’m NOT a medical doctor nor expert of anything but in the last ~3 years, I’ve listened to Dr. Daniel Griffin’s weekly clinical updates on the great #TWiV “This Week in Virology” podcast. Should you blindly trust me? Absolutely NOT. Because blind trust is NOT scientific & dangerous. Covid19 is a disease that is still #ScienceInProgress in the recent months and years as we keep on learning new things.

So back to Paxlovid. Remember I said do NOT blindly trust anyone, including me, a NO expert of many things? In this case, even some MDs & infectious disease doctors are misguided to think “Paxlovid rebound” is a thing to NOT recommend lifesaving #Paxlovid to very elderly (like 70+ 80+ or even 90+?). Well, take a quick look of the Key Points, Findings, and Meaning published as a peer-reviewed JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) – Original Investigation – Infectious Diseases research paper that is based on a CUHK cohort study of 12,629 adults in Hong Kong with Covid19: “Incidence of Viral Rebound After Treatment With Nirmatrelvir-Ritonavir and Molnupiravir” (Note: Nirmatrelvir-Ritonavir =  Paxlovid)

Lesson 2: If my elderly 65+ loved ones were to test Covid positive, I’ll make sure their medical doctors look at using #Paxlovid to reduce risk of serious cases/death. MDs’ ignorance or “never used it before” are bad reasons. Find trusted doctors that have prescribed Paxlovid & know how to use it properly & know its contraindications to use it safely.

U of C researchers may have unlocked clue in MS mystery

Have a look of Calgary Herald article, “U of C researchers may have unlocked clue in MS mystery“.

Also see abstract of the research article in Journal of Neuroscience, “EMMPRIN: A Novel Regulator of Leukocyte Transmigration into the CNS in Multiple Sclerosis and Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis“.

2010 Nobel Prizes in Medicine and Physics

The following are the 2010 Nobel Prize winners announcements for Medicine (Robert G. Edwards – “for the development of in vitro fertilization”) (news from CBC) and Physics (Andre Geim, Konstantin Novoselov – “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene”) (news from CBC).

More news related to the Physics prize.

“University of Manchester scientists win the Nobel Prize for Physics“, University of Manchester (include interview with Professor Andre Geim and Professor Konstantin Novoselov)

“Why Graphene Won Scientists the Nobel Prize“, Wired Magazine

“Andre Geim: Why graphene is the stuff of the future“, New Scientist

“Physics: Nobel Prize discovery was fished from the trash“, USA Today

“How sticky tape trick led to Nobel Prize“, BBC

“U. Manchester’s Andre Geim: Sticking with Graphene“, Science Watch 2008 interview

SW: Graphene seems to be just one particularly extraordinary example of a long line of unique discoveries in your research. How would you characterize your research style?

It is rather unusual, I have to say. I do not dig deep—I graze shallow. So ever since I was a postdoc, I would go into a different subject every five years or so. Every time I took a different university position, I would change subjects. I don’t want to carry on studying the same thing from cradle to grave. Sometimes I joke that I am not interested in doing re-search, only search. There have been a few hits, like graphene and levitating frogs and gecko tape. When I moved from Holland to the University of Manchester, it was a good time to try new subjects, and one of the things that came out of it was gecko tape and another was graphene, and a third involved domain walls in magnetic structures. Graphene certainly turned out to be the biggest hit, scientifically the most important. Even though gecko tape is very popular these days, we had to completely abandon it. Graphene turned out to be much, much more important than anything else.

SW: Is there a common theme to your research strategies?

The common theme is to use experimental facilities that are available and to see what we can do—what other people haven’t done previously. I’m looking for an unexplored area of research, based on a combination of knowledge and facilities. I’m not trying to reach some theoretical goal set forth by someone else. It’s like this kids’ toy, Lego. You have all these different pieces, cubes and stuff, and you have to build something based strictly on what pieces you’ve got. So in research, some of the Lego pieces are facilities, some are random knowledge, and we try to build up something new from that. I guess we could call it the “Lego Doctrine.”

“Silicon Chips May Have Quite A Bright Future, Says Nobel Prize Winner“, Forbes blog

“The 2010 Nobel prizes: Physics“, The Economist Blog

More on Medicine Prize.

“The 2010 Nobel prizes: Medicine“, The Economist Blog

Alzheimer’s predicted by spinal-fluid test

CBC reports “Alzheimer’s predicted by spinal-fluid test“,

Alzheimer’s disease can be accurately predicted by analyzing biomarkers in spinal fluid, Belgium researchers have found.

A protein signature was found in the cerebrospinal fluid of 90 per cent of people with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and 72 per cent of people with mild cognitive impairment or MCI, a disorder that often progresses to Alzheimer’s.

Sounds like great news.

Until we know the 2009 Nobel winner in Physiology or Medicine

Portrait of the 2005 Nobel Laureates (the two insightful Australian “Mad Scientists”) in Medicine (8 minutes)

A presentation of the lives and work of the 2005 Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine.

More info on the 2005 winners: Doctors Barry J. Marshall and J. Robin Warren