Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

Discussion in 'General OT' started by imart, Jan 28, 2020.

  1. DON2003

    DON2003 PhilMUG Addict Member

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    the side effect is you became hyper and high, that why he go out on motorcade. looks like very much true
     
  2. Sir iAco

    Sir iAco PhilMUG Addict Member
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    Making sense of Sweden

    messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com

    The White House event to celebrate Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination — a gathering that appears to have spread the coronavirus — would have violated the law in Sweden.

    It was too large. More than 200 people attended the Barrett celebration. In Sweden, public events cannot include more than 50 people. Anyone who organizes a larger gathering is subject to a fine or up to six months in prison.

    If you’ve been following the virus news out of Sweden, this fact may surprise you. Sweden has become notorious for its laissez-faire response. Its leaders refused to impose a lockdown in the spring, insisting that doing so was akin to “using a hammer to kill a fly.” They also actively discouraged mask wearing.

    Ever since, people in other countries who favor a more lax approach have held up Sweden as a model. Recently, as new cases have surged in other European countries, some of Sweden’s defenders have claimed vindication.

    How are you supposed to make sense of all this? Several readers have asked me that question, and the answers point to some lessons for fighting the virus. I think there are three key ones from Sweden:

    1. It is not a success story. Over all, Sweden’s decision to let many activities continue unabated and its hope that growing immunity to the virus would protect people does not look good. The country has suffered more than five times as many deaths per capita as neighboring Denmark and about 10 times as many as Finland or Norway.

    “It was a terrible idea to do what they did,” Janet Baseman, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington, told me.

    [​IMG]
    By The New York Times | Sources: Johns Hopkins University, World Bank

    2. But Sweden did more than some people realize. It closed schools for students ages 16 and older. It encouraged residents to keep their distance from one another. And it imposed the ban on big gatherings, which looks especially smart now.

    Compared with other viruses, this one seems especially likely to spread in clusters. Many infected people don’t infect a single other person, while “as few as 10 to 20 percent of infected people may be responsible for as much as 80 to 90 percent of transmission,” The Atlantic’s Zeynep Tufekci has explained.

    Given this, it’s less surprising that Sweden’s recent virus performance looks mediocre rather than horrible.

    [​IMG]
    By The New York Times | Sources: Johns Hopkins University, World Bank

    3. Swedish officials have been right to worry about “sustainability.” Strict lockdowns bring their own steep costs for society. With a vaccine at least months away, societies probably need to grapple with how to restart activities while minimizing risk.

    Sweden’s leaders do not seem to have found the ideal strategy, but they are asking a reasonable question. “We see a disease that we’re going to have to handle for a long time,” Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s top epidemiologist, told The Financial Times, “and we need to build up systems for doing that.”

    The fact that Sweden is no longer an extreme outlier in new virus cases — even as life there looks more normal than in most places — offers a new opportunity to assess risk.


    https://messaging-custom-newsletter...f6c8&user_id=673c71f9ef0877387d9fb4a314b2021d
     
  3. Sir iAco

    Sir iAco PhilMUG Addict Member
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    Dose of Optimism, as the Pandemic Rages On

    By Donald G. McNeil Jr.
    Oct. 12, 2020
    nytimes.com

    The months ahead will be difficult. But the medical cavalry is coming, and the rest of us know what we need to do.

    n March 16, back when White House news conferences were still deemed safe to attend, President Trump stood before reporters and announced that drastic nationwide restrictions — in schools, work places, our social lives — were needed to halt the coronavirus.

    The guidelines, “15 Days to Slow the Spread,” were accompanied by a grim chart. Based on a prominent model by London’s Imperial College, the chart illustrated with a sinuous blue line how many Americans might die if nothing were done to protect the public’s health.

    The line rose sharply as the estimated deaths went up, then drifted slowly down until finally, at the far right end of the graph, the number of new cases reached zero. Our national nightmare would end by October 2020 — that is, right about now. Along the way, if no action was taken, about 2.2 million Americans would die. Dr. Deborah Birx, one of Mr. Trump’s science advisers, referred to the graph as “the blue mountain of deaths.”

    Clearly, the pandemic has not ended. So far some 215,000 Americans have lost their lives to the coronavirus, and reliable estimates suggest that the number could reach 400,000. Health experts agree that, with stronger leadership, the death toll would have been far lower.

    Nonetheless, there is a collective accomplishment here worth acknowledging. In the Imperial College report, the authors underscored that their worst-case estimate would almost certainly not be realized, thanks to human nature: “It is highly likely that there would be significant spontaneous changes in population behavior even in the absence of government-mandated interventions.”

    That prediction proved true, as millions of Americans agreed, however reluctantly, to accept the sacrifices involved in shutting down parts of the economy, keeping distance from one other and wearing masks.

    In the day-to-day fights over reopening schools or bars, it is easy to forget that there was a time when the idea of canceling large public gatherings — the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the N.C.A.A.’s March Madness basketball tournament — did not seem remotely necessary. That there was a time when leading health officials said that only sick people and hospital workers needed to wear masks.

    Today, and despite the president’s own resistance, masks are widely accepted. Various polls show that the number of Americans who wear them, at least when entering stores, went from near zero in March to about 65 percent in early summer to 85 percent or even 90 percent in October. Seeing the president and many White House staffers stricken by the virus may convince yet more Americans to wear masks.

    The slow but relentless acceptance of what epidemiologists call “non-pharmaceutical interventions” has made a huge difference in lives saved. The next step is pharmaceutical interventions.

    Some are already modestly successful, such as the antiviral drug remdesivir and steroids like dexamethasone. But in the near distance are what Dr. William Schaffner, a preventive medicine specialist, has called “the cavalry” — vaccines and monoclonal antibodies. They are likely to be far more effective.

    Since January, when I began covering the pandemic, I have been a consistently gloomy Cassandra, reporting on the catastrophe that experts saw coming: that the virus would go pandemic, that Americans were likely to die in large numbers, the national lockdown would last well beyond Easter and even past summer. No miracle cure was on the horizon; the record for developing a vaccine was four years.

    Events have moved faster than I thought possible. I have become cautiously optimistic. Experts are saying, with genuine confidence, that the pandemic in the United States will be over far sooner than they expected, possibly by the middle of next year.

    That is still some time off. Experts warn that this autumn and winter may be grim; indoor dining, in-classroom schooling, contact sports, jet travel and family holiday dinners may all drive up infections, hospitalizations and deaths. Cases are rising in most states, and some hospitals already face being overwhelmed.
     
  4. Sir iAco

    Sir iAco PhilMUG Addict Member
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    [​IMG]
    Is it the flu or COVID-19? How to tell the difference

    The flu and COVID-19 share several common symptoms. Here's a look at how to differentiate the two viruses.

    For the complete charts and graphics, please use this link: usatoday.com

    Janet Loehrke, and Karina Zaiets, USA TODAY
    Updated 10:21 a.m. EDT Oct. 16, 2020

    Due to overlapping symptoms between influenza and COVID-19, physicians and health experts are urging everyone six months and older to get vaccinated for the flu this year. One infection can make you more susceptible to others by weakening your immune system.

    The flu vaccine reduces the severity and risk of serious complications, according to the Mayo Clinic. But it will not protect you from COVID-19.

    Many of the steps recommended to prevent the spread of COVID-19 – such as mask-wearing, hand-washing, and physical distancing – also help prevent the spread of seasonal flu. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that positive test results for flu dropped from more than 20% during the pandemic.

    The flu and COVID-19 share several common symptoms. Here's a look at how to differentiate the two viruses:

    How are they transmitted?
    According to World Health Organization (WHO), COVID-19 and influenza viruses can occur through direct, indirect, or close contact with infected people through secretions such as saliva and respiratory droplets which are expelled when a person coughs, sneezes, or talks.

    Droplets from a sick person can transmit the virus to other people nearby. The smallest particles may linger in the air, and another person can inhale them and become infected.

    What symptoms COVID-19 and seasonal flu have in common?
    According to the CDC, the flu has killed an average of 37,000 Americans per year since 2010. CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield has said he’s especially worried about the impact that an early peak of the flu season would have on the coronavirus crisis. The flu season typically gets going in late October, gathers steam over the next two months, and crests in January and February.

    How flu and coronavirus symptoms typically develop

    A study led by researchers from the University of Southern California determined the order of COVID-19 symptom progression, potentially making it easier to recognize an infection. The first symptom of the flu was most likely to be a cough while for COVID-19 it was fever. COVID-19 can also be distinguished by the loss of taste and smell.

    However, symptoms vary from person to person. In 40% to 45% of COVID-19 cases, there may not be any symptoms at all. Fewer than 20% of infected who show up at a hospital report having had a sore throat or runny nose. Patients experience muscle weakness, inflammation, arrhythmia, and in some cases, heart attacks.

    How long does it take for symptoms to appear?
    When a person is exposed to COVID-19, it can take up to two weeks before symptoms show up. It takes even more time for additional people to become ill after being exposed to that person. So several cycles of infection can occur before public health officials notice signals in data used to track the pandemic.

    Difference between contracting coronavirus versus the flu
    We answer the often searched question: "What are the symptoms of coronavirus versus the flu?"
    USA TODAY
    Experts are concerned about a second wave of COVID-19. Both the 1918 flu pandemic and the 2009 H1N1 flu epidemic began with a mild wave of infections in the spring, followed by another surge of cases in the fall.

    Studies show that dual waves of coronavirus and influenza threaten to overburden the health care system. The highest rates of mortality from COVID-19 are usually in the areas where the pandemic has hit hardest, overwhelming hospital resources and staff. The overall hospitalization rate in the U.S. for flu 2019 - 2020 flu season was about 69 hospitalizations per 100,000 people, according to the CDC. For COVID-19, it's 175 per 100,000. The mortality rate for COVID-19 is thought to be substantially higher (possibly more than 10 times) than the rate for most strains of influenza.

    "From a health care capacity standpoint, we're concerned about having both of these serious viruses circulating at the same time," said Lisa Maragakis, senior director of infection prevention at Johns Hopkins. "The hospitals and health system may become even more overwhelmed."

    It's also possible to have flu and COVID-19 at the same time. An analysis by Public Health England found that people with the two viruses were more at risk of severe illness. Overall, 43% of people with co-infection died compared to 27% of those who had COVID-19 alone. Most cases of co-infection were in older people, and more than half of them died. People with preexisting conditions are also more vulnerable.

    How long do symptoms last?
    For people with a mild case of COVID-19, the recovery time can be between 1 to 2 weeks. Some cases become much worse at around the 10 to 14-day mark, these individuals often need to go to the hospital. In severe cases, the recovery time may take up to six weeks or more and there may be lasting damage to the heart kidneys, lungs and brain. Nearly 3% of those in the U.S. who contract COVID-19 die from the disease, the fatality rate is around 1% worldwide.

    According to the CDC, uncomplicated flu symptoms typically are resolved after 3-7 days for most people. Although a cough and overall weakness can persist for two weeks, especially in elderly people and those that have chronic lung disease.

    Age groups most at risk from Influenza
    Young children are also at risk of severe influenza. However, the National Poll on Children's Health reported that 1 in 3 parents don't plan to get their children vaccinated for the flu this year. An outbreak of flu or other preventable disease in children could make it harder for doctors and hospitals to care for all patients.

    The study recently published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine showed that fewer than half of U.S. adults and just two-thirds of children received the flu vaccine during the 2017–2018 season.

    If you are worried about getting sick with COVID-19 while getting a flu shot, Maragakis recommends calling your provider and asking about safety measures they have in place.

    "In my experience, every clinic and health care system facility as well as the drugstores and other places that are administering the vaccine are doing a very good job to try to keep everyone safe while they get their vaccine," Maragakis said. "It shouldn't be a risk for people to go and get their flu shots. Make sure that you wear your mask and wash your hands and practice social distancing while you do it."

    Preparing for a second wave of coronavirus
    Maragakis says that the U.S. is still in the first wave of COVID-19. However, different regions might be in different stages.

    "Some of the Northern and Midwestern states appear to be having some of the highest case counts and are probably in the height of their first wave," Maragakis said. "But I think the most concerning thing is that we're seeing some regions such as in the Northeast, that had obtained very good control of the virus, that are beginning to see increases."

    Experts expect a second wave of COVID-19 with the cases increasing in the fall. With the disease now widespread, it can be harder to detect and control transmission. There are a couple of things you can do to stay prepared. Make sure to maintain a two weeks' supply of food, medicines, and supplies in case you'll have to quarantine. Continue practicing COVID-19 precautions, such as maintaining physical distance, washing hands often, and wearing a mask.

    In the end, it all comes down to abiding by public health measures. The more people practice the measures, the lower is the viral transmission.

    Is there a vaccine for either?
    Currently, there is no approved vaccine for COVID-19. There are antiviral medications and other therapies available to treat symptoms and shorten the illness.

    A flu vaccine is available. It effectively prevents the most dangerous types of influenza and reduces the duration of infection.

    Contributing: Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY

    SOURCE CDC; The American Society for Microbiology; John Hopkins Medicine and USA TODAY research

    Link: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/g...ell-difference-seasonal-influenza/5880649002/

    Originally Published 6:09 p.m. EDT Oct. 13, 2020
    Updated 10:21 a.m. EDT Oct. 16, 2020
    © Copyright Gannett 2020
     
  5. DON2003

    DON2003 PhilMUG Addict Member

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    IMHO more realistic and more effective should be a very cheap but accurate rapid test kit, I read it India will have it soon, it only takes 1 dollar and 1 hr which can as accurate, may be a good idea to prevent spread of virus as its the transmission that is dangerous,
    so all passenger across countries, may be cities on mass transport should all have tested an hour before getting their boarding pass or boarding bus or trains, so none will be transmitted on the trip and it will no more or at least lessen import transmission.
    else cross transmission cant be contained forever.

    just today, on my way out to nearby bread store, at least there are more than 50% of people on the way has no mask, mask on their chin, face shield on their forehead, here in Pinas its so hard to educate people, passing a squatter area, lots of kids roaming and playing and none and yes NONE wearing any protective mask or shield
     
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  6. Sir iAco

    Sir iAco PhilMUG Addict Member
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    Human coronaviruses ‘inactivated’ by mouthwash, oral rinses: study
    The study's results were published in the Journal of Medical Virology
    By Madeline Farber | Foxnews.com
    A new study conducted by researchers at the Penn State College of Medicine has found that a common dental item can inactivate human coronaviruses: mouthwash and oral rinses.

    For the study, the results of which were published in the Journal of Medical Virology, researchers tested various oral and nasopharyngeal rinses — which included a 1% solution of baby shampoo, a neti pot, peroxide sore-mouth cleansers, and mouthwashes — to determine how well they inactivated human coronaviruses.

    [​IMG]
    “While we wait for a vaccine to be developed, methods to reduce transmission are needed,” Meyers said in a statement. “The products we tested are readily available and often already part of people’s daily routines.” (iStock)

    The baby shampoo solution, “which is often used by head and neck doctors to rinse the sinuses,” the researchers noted in a news release regarding the findings, was particularly effective; the solution inactivated “greater than 99.9% of human coronavirus after a two-minute contact time,” they said.

    The mouthwash and oral rinses were also efficacious, they found: "Many inactivated greater than 99.9% of virus after only 30 seconds of contact time and some inactivated 99.99% of the virus after 30 seconds.”

    USING MOUTHWASH AFTER EXERCISE HAS THIS BIZARRE EFFECT ON BLOOD PRESSURE, STUDY CLAIMS

    More specifically, researchers “used a test to replicate the interaction of the virus in the nasal and oral cavities with the rinses and mouthwashes,” as the nasal and oral cavities are thought to be main points of entry for human coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, better known as COVID-19. Though the researchers didn’t specifically test SARS-CoV-2 in the study, the novel virus is genetically similar to the other human coronaviruses tested, leading the researchers to hypothesize that the results would be similar.

    A strain of human coronavirus was mixed with “baby shampoo solutions, various peroxide antiseptic rinses and various brands of mouthwash,” allowing the solutions to iterate with the virus for different amounts of time, including 30 seconds, one minute, and two minutes. The solutions were then diluted to “prevent further virus inactivation,” they wrote.

    “To measure how much virus was inactivated, the researchers placed the diluted solutions in contact with cultured human cells. They counted how many cells remained alive after a few days of exposure to the viral solution and used that number to calculate the amount of human coronavirus that was inactivated as a result of exposure to the mouthwash or oral rinse that was tested,” per the news release.

    COVID-19 TRANSMISSION COULD BE PREVENTED BY MOUTHWASH, STUDY SUGGESTS

    Lead study author Craig Meyers, a distinguished professor of microbiology and immunology and obstetrics and gynecology, said the results show that the amount of virus (viral load) in an infected person’s mouth could be reduced by using these common over-the-counter products, ultimately helping to reduce the spread of the novel virus.

    “While we wait for a vaccine to be developed, methods to reduce transmission are needed,” Meyers said in a statement. “The products we tested are readily available and often already part of people’s daily routines.”

    The team’s findings bolster past research that also looked at how oral rinses and mouthwashes may be able to reduce the viral load of human coronaviruses. For instance, a study published in the scientific journal Function in May also concluded that mouthwash could play a role in preventing the transmission of the novel coronavirus.

    CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

    Additionally, a more recent study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases came to a similar conclusion. Meyers said that his findings add to this research, noting that his team evaluated the salutations at longer contact times in addition to studying “over-the-counter products and nasal rinses that were not evaluated in the other study.”

    “People who test positive for COVID-19 and return home to quarantine may possibly transmit the virus to those they live with,” said Meyers. “Certain professions including dentists and other health care workers are at a constant risk of exposure. Clinical trials are needed to determine if these products can reduce the amount of virus COVID-positive patients or those with high-risk occupations may spread while talking, coughing or sneezing. Even if the use of these solutions could reduce transmission by 50%, it would have a major impact.”

    Madeline Farber is a Reporter for Fox News. You can follow her on Twitter @MaddieFarberUDK.
     
  7. raypin

    raypin PhilMUG Addict Member

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    mm....Fox News? lol! America's leading purveyor of fake news and lies. Also known as Trump's media echo chamber. That study is suggestive at best. Clinical trials to confirm the claim has yet to be done. I hope the Covidiots does not buy gallons of listerine and actually drink it to protect or cure them of the virus.
     
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  8. Godfather

    Godfather PhilMUG Addict Member

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    ^ Fox news followers and all Trump voters should just do what their fearless orange leader has been suggesting early on.

    Drink bleach. Zap your internal organs with UV light.

    I think this is what Trump did that's why he healed fast from his Covid infection, and now he seems to be immune.
     
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  9. raypin

    raypin PhilMUG Addict Member

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    Mm...Gilead Science’s Remdisivir is the first therapeutics or treatment officially approved by the US FDA for use on hospitalized covid patients aged 12 years old or older. GOOD news.
     
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  10. Pupkin

    Pupkin Well-Known Member

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    Easing up the restrictions maybe good for our economy but i notice many of our citizens are somehow getting a little bit more careless.
    Example at Divisoria restrictions and social distancing and wearing proper protection are slowly getting worse. Outside the Malls people are everywhere and all over. with little to non supervision from the local Barangay.
    Inside the malls are almost the same situation.
    It's so head shaking how they let people inside the Malls. For example at 999 mall there are designated entrance for people to enter the Mall, People will fall in line sometimes by hundreds which is right there is a clear violation of social distancing because it will take time to get inside because of one entrance.
    When we get inside there is no supervision whatsoever I'm able to tell this because I'm there almost every day because of my work. It's no surprise that Manila District 1 tondo areas has the most active cases in Manila. Local government has done its job to remind People but it seems it has no effect to Divisoria.
     
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  11. ice

    ice PhilMUG Addict Member

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    Covid-19 vaccines may have potentially unpleasant side effects | NBC News

     
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  12. Sir iAco

    Sir iAco PhilMUG Addict Member
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    msn.com
    How do the Moderna and Pfizer coronavirus vaccines compare?

    Kayla Rivas 5 hrs ago
    Amid breaking reports Monday morning that Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine candidate reached 94.5% efficacy rate, according to a company announcement, many are comparing the vaccine to Pfizer’s candidate — announced just last Monday as having 90% effectiveness.

    © FoxNews.com Moderna says its coronavirus vaccine is 94.5% effective; reaction from Health & Human Services Sec. Alex Azar.

    Some experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have embraced the idea of multiple coronavirus vaccines in order to meet global demand--if the vaccines are approved, that is--and to help put an end to the ongoing health crisis that has resulted in at least 54.5 million infections globally and over 1.3 million deaths worldwide, says data from Johns Hopkins University.

    At the moment, both Pfizer and Moderna are gathering the two months' worth of safety data needed for emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration, aside from additional assessment by other independent advisory groups, like VRBPAC. Pfizer previously said it expects this safety data in the third week of November, while Moderna expects to file for FDA approval in a few weeks. Nevertheless, both vaccine candidates involve two doses of the injection to the arm several weeks apart--21 days apart for Pfizer, 28 days for Moderna.

    “It’s like a typical vaccine, you clean your arm with a bit of product to make sure you don’t get contaminated, you inject the vaccine and you put a Band-Aid and that’s it,” Stephane Bancel, Moderna CEO, told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview Monday. Bancel compared the vaccine to a flu shot.

    PFIZER'S CORONAVIRUS VACCINE SHOWS PROMISE: WHAT DOES A TWO-DOSE SHOT ENTAIL?

    After Pfizer surfaced with positive early findings on its coronavirus vaccine candidate last week, experts were hopeful another effective vaccine would follow given similar gene technology, or the so-called messenger RNA (mRNA) platform. The new technology, which is being used by Pfizer and Moderna, injects the genes for these "spike proteins" into healthy cells to induce an immune response.

    So while the two vaccines share similar technology, they do differ in terms of “user friendliness,” in terms of temperatures needed for storage.

    Bancel told Fox Business that the company newly learned its vaccine candidate has six months of shelf life in a regular freezer, at minus 20 degrees Celsius, and up to 30 days in a refrigerator.

    “Those freezers are widely available at pharmaceutical distribution centers because there are FDA-approved products [that] require minus 20 [degrees Celsius for] storage, so that’s not a problem,” Bancel said.

    “For a month, you can take the product out of the freezer, and then you put it in a regular fridge, like you store insulin,” Bancel added, suggesting major gains for usability.

    CLICK HERE FOR FULL CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

    Meanwhile, Pfizer’s vaccine must be stored at temperatures of minus 70 degrees Celsius or below. In countries with intense heat and in regions with spotty electricity, these requirements will prove problematic.

    “The logistics of distributing the Pfizer vaccine, if proven to be safe and effective, will no doubt be a Herculean task,” Andrew Peterson, assistant professor of philosophy at George Mason University, previously told Fox News. “Beyond the challenge of physically transporting the vaccine by air and land to distribution centers across America and internationally, there are the additional obstacles of keeping the vaccine at sub-zero temperatures and monitoring deliveries for theft.”

    Bancel said Moderna expects to have 20 million doses ready by the end of the year, and Alex Azar, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), recently told reporters that distribution for Pfizer's vaccine has started in increments of about 20 million doses per month, potentially beginning in late November.

    GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    Fox News’ Alexandria Hein contributed to this report.

    msn.com
     
  13. warmgreentea

    warmgreentea PhilMUG Addict Member

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  14. jetan

    jetan PhilMUG Addict Member

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    [​IMG]


    413k PH
    314k Canada is catching up.
     
  15. Nisroc88

    Nisroc88 Active Member

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    Surprisingly, Netherlands is up there too. Parang pasaway din mga tao dun ah.

    (Yeah, I’m stereotyping based on a former classmate of my kid but then again, there’s a reason why that kid isn’t in the same school anymore.)
     
  16. Sir iAco

    Sir iAco PhilMUG Addict Member
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    WHO Advises Doctors Not to Use Gilead’s Remdesivir for Covid
    Anna Edney
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/he...eads-remdesivir-for-covid/ar-BB1bbo0M?ocid=sf

    oomberg) -- The World Health Organization recommended against using Gilead Sciences Inc.’s remdesivir to treat hospitalized Covid-19 patients less than a month after U.S. regulators granted the drug a speedy approval.

    © Photographer: ULRICH PERREY/AFP One vial of the drug Remdesivir lies during a press conference about the start of a study with the Ebola drug Remdesivir in particularly severely ill patients at the University Hospital Eppendorf (UKE) in Hamburg, northern Germany on April 8, 2020, amidst the new coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

    “There is currently no evidence that it improves survival or the need for ventilation,” a panel of WHO-convened experts developing Covid-19 treatment guidelines said in The BMJ medical journal.

    The recommendation is a blow to Gilead’s drug, which was one of the first thought to offer a meaningful benefit in treatment of coronavirus patients after a study showed it reduced their recovery time. The antiviral has been used widely to treat Covid and was among the drugs President Donald Trump received when he was diagnosed with the disease in early October.

    The experts made the recommendation after the results of a global trial sponsored by the WHO, called Solidarity, found last month that remdesivir didn’t reduce deaths. They also reviewed data from three other trials and said the drug “has no meaningful effect” on the time it took patients to clinically improve.

    The Solidarity results were published Oct. 15. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug a week later, basing its decision on a trial run by the National Institutes of Health that showed remdesivir reduced hospitalized patients’ recovery time by five days.

    Gilead has questioned the results of WHO’s trial and said the agency still has not released key data to allow the company or others to evaluate the reliability of the interim results.

    Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed journals have show remdesivir, also known by its brand name, Veklury, is beneficial against the virus, particularly in improving recovery time, “which can free up limited hospital resources,” Gilead said in a statement Thursday.

    “We are disappointed the WHO guidelines appear to ignore this evidence at a time when cases are dramatically increasing around the world and doctors are relying on Veklury as the first and only approved antiviral treatment for patients with Covid-19 in approximately 50 countries,” according to the statement.

    Despite the discordance with the WHO, the FDA said in its review of remdesivir that “there were no issues identified that would benefit from discussion” by a panel of outside advisers. FDA typically convenes such a panel before deciding whether to approve a drug in situations where there are questions arising from clinical trial data.

    ‘Relatively High Cost’
    The FDA originally granted emergency use authorization to remdesivir in May. Gilead requested full FDA approval in August. The European Commission granted the drug conditional authorization in July based on the U.S.-led clinical trial.

    The WHO experts wrote in The BMJ that their findings shouldn’t be interpreted to mean that remdesivir is ineffective, but that “there is no evidence based on currently available data that it does improve patient-important outcomes.”

    The limited evidence for using the drug was weighed alongside the “relatively high cost and resource implications associated with remdesivir,” which is given intravenously, they said in a press release.

    The FDA was earlier criticized for hastily authorizing an antimalarial drug, hydroxychloroquine, to treat Covid-19. Trump repeatedly touted the drug early in the pandemic, though medical evidence was lacking to support his claims. The FDA then revoked its authorization after hydroxychloroquine was shown not to combat the virus and was linked to harmful side effects.

    (Updates with Gilead comments starting in sixth paragraph.)

    For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

    ©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/he...eads-remdesivir-for-covid/ar-BB1bbo0M?ocid=sf
     
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    https://www.usatoday.com/story/trav...nd-study-details-long-haul-flight/6388833002/

    "Out of the 86 total passengers, seven who arrived in New Zealand on the Sept. 29 flight tested positive despite "reported use of masks and gloves in-flight." They were seated within four rows of each other, and it was found that the virus' genetic sequence in six out of seven positive passengers was identical, with the exception of a single mutation in one case.

    This study raises concerns about the safety of long-haul flights amid the pandemic, as in-flight transmissions occurred despite the enforcement of pre-departure tests, social distancing and and personal protective equipment, though at least one person who tested positive reported taking their mask off when sleeping and when seated."
     
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    Moderna's chief medical officer says that vaccine trial results only show that they prevent people from getting sick — not necessarily that recipients won't still be able to transmit the virus | Business Insider

     
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