COVID-19 Pandemic World Updates

Incidentally I failed to mention the name of Gilead’s drug, Remdesivir. The alleged faulty testing was carried out in China. According to ‘The Times’ The rumours led to a fall in the FTSE 100 stock exchange index although there has been a partial recovery.
And isn’t Donald Trump bonkers with his suggestion that injecting disinfectant is a good idea. Maybe if he really believes in it then he would make a perfect guinea pig for an experiment. After all the first volunteers for the Oxford Project were researchers at the University.

Here is more info on the Remdesivir trial.

And on the Oxford vaccine trial
 
Thanks for the info. Meanwhile across the pond Trump suggested injecting disinfectant as treatment. :facepalm:

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You have to hand it to him, he is absolutely right for once - if you inject yourself with bleach or disinfectant you are guaranteed not to die from coronavirus, you will die from the injections long before the virus can get you.
The use of high-dose UV is dodgy though - yes you will die from internal sunburn or skin cancer, but it's slow and the virus may well get you first. :(
 
And the US anti-lockdown demonstrations, which Trump is supporting:

What do we want? DEATH FROM CORONAVIRUS.
When do we want it? NOW

This is marvellous - the whole Trumphead community doing a Darwin, the first and only time they have acted so clearly and actively in the best interests of the Planet and the human race. Let us pray to God for their success in this endeavour. :rocksss:
 
You're not the first to envision a Darwinian end to the Trumpers. Hope they are too stupid to realize what they are doing to themselves. Just tired of really, really stupid people - of course not the few who become CDGs
 
Two good articles on the science of vaccines, and a possible link to air pollution. It's been noticed for a while that the areas with the worst epidemics seemed to correlate suspiciously well with the areas of highest air pollution in Europe, but the thought was that either the connection was that these are also the areas of highest population density and international mobility, or that lung damage from the pollution was making people more vulnerable.


 
Because of my job I have met a few corona positive people at home for a few virus tests and surprisingly they felt okay. None of them had serious symptoms or any other major health problem.
 
Gilead are now saying that their tests indicate that remdesivir reduces the time it takes to recover from the virus. Not a cure but perhaps a step in the right direction, that is if their information is correct. Maybe a gleam of hope.
Meanwhile Astra Zeneca, the U.K pharmaceutical company working with the universities to try and find a vaccine has promised to make it available at cost to the world and in particular to the undeveloped nations who probably have the greatest need. And not to reserve it for the U.K. and those nations who can pay. And our government has agreed to help with the costs. Now it isn’t totally altruistic because they will still have the patent when the pandemic is over and may well profit from that in the future but far more than we would normally expect from industry. Well done the universities and Astra .
One final,point on the effect the virus is having on the economy. Shell who amount for 12% of all dividends paid have reduced their quarterly dividend by two thirds. This will have a substantial effect of all private pensions to be paid in the near and medium term. Okay not the greatest concern today but perhaps another long term problem for those to retire over the next few years. Hopefully there may be a bounce back particularly as Shell are diversifying into renewable energy unlike other energy producers.
 
Gilead are now saying that their tests indicate that remdesivir reduces the time it takes to recover from the virus. Not a cure but perhaps a step in the right direction, that is if their information is correct. Maybe a gleam of hope.
Meanwhile Astra Zeneca, the U.K pharmaceutical company working with the universities to try and find a vaccine has promised to make it available at cost to the world and in particular to the undeveloped nations who probably have the greatest need. And not to reserve it for the U.K. and those nations who can pay. And our government has agreed to help with the costs. Now it isn’t totally altruistic because they will still have the patent when the pandemic is over and may well profit from that in the future but far more than we would normally expect from industry. Well done the universities and Astra .
One final,point on the effect the virus is having on the economy. Shell who amount for 12% of all dividends paid have reduced their quarterly dividend by two thirds. This will have a substantial effect of all private pensions to be paid in the near and medium term. Okay not the greatest concern today but perhaps another long term problem for those to retire over the next few years. Hopefully there may be a bounce back particularly as Shell are diversifying into renewable energy unlike other energy producers.

Yes, the new trial results for remdesivir are much more hopeful - according to the BBC on average it reduced the death rate by 20% and the average duration of illness from 15 days to 11.
 
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Electron microscope image showing spherical particles of SARS-CoV-2, colourised blue, from the first US case of Covid-19.

'How is this possible?' Researchers grapple with Covid-19's mysterious mechanism

 
Thanks Meatpie, this is very interesting. This fits with the experience of British Intensive Care doctors that CPAP (Continuous Positive Air Pressure), where the patient is ventilated with oxygen under pressure through a mask and remains conscious and unsedated, often works better than ventilators.
According to the BBC news earlier, 20% of patients on ventilators are needing kidney dialysis and part of the reason is that the blood in severe Covid cases is very thick and sludgy, which would also explain the strokes.
 
Ground control to Captain Tom

You know how it is - you set out to achieve a target, and things happen as they do, and you miss it by a mile?
Well, Captain Tom Moore had a hip replacement just before his 100th birthday and needed to get mobile again, so he decided to walk 100 laps of his patio and raise £1000 for the NHS - and went and raised £32 million instead.
And they needed a school hall to house his birthday cards.

Here he is:


And here is the school hall:


 
Thank you for posting DD excellent links from an excellent source. All new to me.
 
Soldier in Mexico with COVID-19.

 
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