Forum Moderators: open
(Reuters) - As the United States works overtime to screen thousands for the novel coronavirus, a new blood test offers the chance to find out who may have immunity - a potential game changer in the battle to contain infections and get the economy back on track.
Q: Should I donate cash to crowdsourced or other donor campaigns I’m seeing online?
Be cautious. Although there are some legitimate campaigns organized by well-meaning people on crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe, potential scams await as well.
1/ This is a remarkable turn from Neil Ferguson, who led the @imperialcollege authors who warned of 500,000 UK deaths - and who has now himself tested positive for #COVID; newscientist.com/article/223857…
2/ He now says both that the U.K. should have enough ICU beds and that the coronavirus will probably kill under 20,000 people in the U.K. - more than 1/2 of whom would have died by the end of the year in any case bc they were so old and sick.
3/ Essentially, what has happened is that estimates of the viruses transmissibility have increased - which implies that many more people have already gotten it than we realize - which in turn implies it is less dangerous.
4/ Ferguson now predicts that the epidemic in the U.K. will peak and subside within “two to three weeks” - last week’s paper said 18+ months of quarantine would be necessary. imperial.ac.uk/news/196477/j-…
5/ One last point here: Ferguson gives the lockdown credit, which is *interesting* - the UK only began ita lockdown 2 days ago, and the theory is that lockdowns take 2 weeks or more to work.
6/ Not surprisingly, this testimony has received no attention in the US - I found it only in UK papers. Team Apocalypse is not interested.
Ferguson said the current strategy was intended to keep transmission of the virus at low levels until a vaccine was available. Experts say that could take 12 to 18 months and Ferguson acknowledged it was impractical to keep the UK in lockdown for so long, especially because of the impact on the economy.
The UK government is aiming to relax restrictions on people’s movements only when the country has the ability to test more people for the virus, said Ferguson.
Please stick to the facts, and please use only authority sites to show examples of the claims. Authority sites only. No hear-say.
It's how we can all get through this by understanding the facts.
• Ivermectin is an inhibitor of the COVID-19 causative virus (SARS-CoV-2) in vitro.
• A single treatment able to effect ∼5000-fold reduction in virus at 48h in cell culture.
• Ivermectin is FDA-approved for parasitic infections, and therefore has a potential for repurposing.
• Ivermectin is widely available, due to its inclusion on the WHO model list of essential medicines.
Ivermectin is a drug commonly given for treatment of mange in cattle and dogs.! I thought that sounded familiar, but couldn't place it. You buy it at the farm-and-feed store in horse-sized tubes--that is, ahem, in tubes containing a horse dose--and give the size of a grain of rice (easier if diluted) to rats for most kinds of parasites. I think in horses it’s normally used for worming.
Avigan, approved for manufacture and sale as an influenza antiviral drug in Japan, has a mechanism of action for selectively inhibiting RNA polymerase involved in influenza viral replication. Due to this mechanism, it is expected that Avigan may potentially have an antiviral effect on the new coronavirus as it is classified into the same type of single-stranded RNA virus as influenza, and its clinical application to treat COVID-19 is now under study.
TOKYO, March 31, 2020 - FUJIFILM Toyama Chemical Co., Ltd. (President: Junji Okada) has announced today the initiation of a phase III clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of influenza antiviral drug "Avigan Tablet" (generic name: favipiravir) in Japan for patients of COVID-19, a respiratory infection caused by the novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).
