Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!
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Diogenes the Cynic
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CDC director Nancy CDC Director Nancy Messonnier said the three coronavirus cases in Washington include the first reported death, as well as the first case in a health care worker and the first case in a skilled nursing facility.
Some of the Washington cases are related to a long-term care facility called Life Care in Kirkland in King County. One is a woman in her 70s who is a resident there who is in serious condition. Another is a healthcare worker in her 40s who is doing well.
King County public health officer Jeff Duchin says they are very concerned about outbreaks in long-term health facilities, because of the large numbers of older patients who are particularly at risk for serious consequences from COVID-19.
“While the overall risks to Americans are low we recognize that these populations of people who are medically fragile would be at higher risk if there is tranmsisison in their communities," said CDC Director Nancy Messonnier.
The patient in Washington who died was not connected to the long-term care facility and officials don't know how the patient became ill. The investigation is ongoing, said Washington officials.
The long-term care facility in Kirkland linked to COVID-19 has 108 residents and 180 staff members. So far, 27 residents have symptoms as do 25 staff members, according to Washington officials.The man who died of COVID-19 in Washington was in his 50s and had underlying health conditions.
"If we had the ability to test earlier I'm sure we would’ve been able to identify patients earlier, particularly at hospitals," said Jeff Duchin, King County health officer.
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
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nypost.com
China officials knew of coronavirus in December, ordered cover-up, report says
February 29, 2020 | 3:45pm
People wearing face masks in Beijing, China today.
Chinese scientists knew about the coronavirus and its deadly effects as early as December — but were ordered by government officials to suppress the evidence, according to a report.
In late December, several genomics companies tested samples from sick patients in Wuhan — the center of the coronavirus outbreak — and noticed alarming similarities between their illnesses and the 2002 SARS virus, the Sunday Times of London reported, citing Chinese business news site Caixin Global.
The researchers alerted Beijing of their findings — and on Jan. 3, received a gag order from China’s National Health Commission, with instructions to destroy the samples.
Rather than hunkering down to contain the virus, Wuhan officials went ahead with their annual potluck dinner for 40,000 families.
The alleged cover-up continued when representatives from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention visited Wuhan Jan. 8, where officials intentionally withheld information that hospital workers had been infected by patients — a telltale sign of contagion.
News of the virus’ highly contagious nature didn’t surface publicly until Jan. 20. Wuhan was locked down and a mass quarantine ordered three days later.
Billy Dean
Player Valuation: £70m
I was speaking to an Italian the other day who reckons it's some sort of Trump-backed plot.
To what decrease the worlds population?
Billy Dean
Player Valuation: £70m
She was saying the biggest outbreaks have been in countries have diplomatic issues with his government, i.e. China, Iran, Italy. So I assume she thought it's some form of attack on those countries
Flying to Bali today, only real difference i encountered was a few more masks and some lad in the queue asking where everyone had been, if it kicks off more i guess it could become trickier.
I've carried some hand wash gel with me and used it regularly trying not to touch my face if i remember, but with a little one in tow that becomes impossible! As you say getting there and then being in lockdown before flying back again would be a gigantic ballache
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
So that's 195 countries then.
peteblue
Welcome back Wayne
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China officials knew of coronavirus in December, ordered cover-up, report says
February 29, 2020 | 3:45pm
People wearing face masks in Beijing, China today.
Chinese scientists knew about the coronavirus and its deadly effects as early as December — but were ordered by government officials to suppress the evidence, according to a report.
In late December, several genomics companies tested samples from sick patients in Wuhan — the center of the coronavirus outbreak — and noticed alarming similarities between their illnesses and the 2002 SARS virus, the Sunday Times of London reported, citing Chinese business news site Caixin Global.
The researchers alerted Beijing of their findings — and on Jan. 3, received a gag order from China’s National Health Commission, with instructions to destroy the samples.
Rather than hunkering down to contain the virus, Wuhan officials went ahead with their annual potluck dinner for 40,000 families.
The alleged cover-up continued when representatives from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention visited Wuhan Jan. 8, where officials intentionally withheld information that hospital workers had been infected by patients — a telltale sign of contagion.
News of the virus’ highly contagious nature didn’t surface publicly until Jan. 20. Wuhan was locked down and a mass quarantine ordered three days later.
Well, I would never have guessed that....
That and this
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/02...otech-moderna-leads-race-coronavirus-vaccine/
make it sound like they are skipping animal trials.
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel opened an e-mail on his cellphone Monday afternoon and smiled. Up popped a picture of a box that had just been placed inside a refrigerated truck bound for Bethesda, Md. The package held a few hundred vials, each containing an experimental vaccine for the new coronavirus, manufactured at the Cambridge biotech’s $130 million plant in Norwood.
A mere 42 days. That’s how long it had taken the high-flying biotech to produce the shipment after receiving the genetic sequence of the virus that causes the Covid-19 illness. The Maryland-based National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, or NIAID, plans to begin testing it on 45 people next month, making Moderna the first company to enter clinical trials with something that could prevent the disease that has stoked fears and rattled financial markets worldwide.
But Bancel took pains Friday to dampen any hope that the vaccine, if approved, will be injected in millions of exposed shoulders any time soon.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID — which helped Moderna design the vaccine — said this week that it would be at least 12 to 18 months before it could be deployed. Bancel is coming down on the conservative end of that time frame.
“I think it’s very, very low probability that it would be [next] February,” Bancel, 47, said. “I’m not aware of any vaccine that’s been approved in a year."
The vaccine, which relies on custom-built messenger RNA to produce an immune response, will be tested first on 45 healthy volunteers and then will likely undergo two more phases of testing on many more people, he said. Even if all goes well, it would take time to clear regulatory hurdles and to make enough vaccine to inoculate millions.
“You can’t go from 45 people in Phase 1 to selling it to millions of people,” Bancel said. “You need to make sure the vaccine is safe and is working. There’s a very high bar for safety.”
Moderna has had positive results in early-stage clinical trials over the past four years for six other vaccines, to prevent influenza, respiratory infections, a virus that can cause birth defects in pregnant women, and other diseases. All use the same mRNA approach.
Beginning around March 6, the vaccine for the virus that causes Covid-19 will be tested on healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 55 in the first phase of the trial, according to the federal website ClinicalTrials.gov. The volunteers will be divided into three groups, each of which will receive a different dosage. The first phase of the trial is expected to conclude around June 1.
Bancel said the trial will determine whether the vaccine is safe and whether blood drawn from volunteers who received it contains antibodies that neutralize the virus.
“I think it has a good chance of working,” said Bancel, a native of France who ran bioMérieux, a diagnostics company, before he joined Moderna.
He said Moderna hasn’t even considered how much the vaccine would cost, but public health experts say a vaccine must be widely accessible to be effective.
Founded by the Flagship Pioneering venture capital firm and given a name whose last three letters refer to the company’s scientific underpinnings, Moderna wants to use custom-built mRNA to turn the body’s cells into medicine-making factories.
Hope you’ve already stocked @LinekersLegs
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