Coronavirus Medical Advances and $5 Tests

 What a week of news for helping end the coronavirus scourge!

The biggest news is that on 8/26/20 Abbott Laboratory's said they "will ship tens of millions of ($5 15-minute covid-19) tests in September, ramping up to 50 million tests a month at the beginning of October.  No more sitting in a car for an hour to do a cough test near Dodger Stadium then waiting 3-5 business days for a result.  It is still a nasal swab test that has to be provided by a medical professional, but the low cost and rapid result will help clear up the multi-day laboratory bottle neck delay.

 Last week, I had to take multiple coronavirus tests. Two of the three were in mobile trailers. The rapidity of the test means that the test can be administered on a cruise ship dock, Disneyland parking lot, or at customs to ensure passengers, guests, or tourists are coronavirus free before entry. The benefits of this test in allowing the economy to reopen even wider are incalculable.

The second news item was reported on the same day by Motley Fool. Moderna announced that its leading coronavirus vaccine candidate showed no adverse affects on its 20 participants. It is now enrollling 30,000 participants in its phase 3 study. It has 13,000 signed up so far. According to the New York Times there are 9 vaccines in phase 3 trials as of yesterday. This is the last phase before the final approval process.

China and Russia are rumored to have started inoculating people with vaccines after only phase 2 has been completed. That is risky, but at the same time the rest of the world will learn the efficacy of their vaccines in the real world environment. 

 

After all of the bleak coronavirus news lately, it is nice to see some signs of humans effectively dealing with the coronavirus outbreak.

 

Stay safe and take care.

 

Posts Tuesday and Saturday

 

https://abbott.mediaroom.com/2020-08-26-Abbotts-Fast-5-15-Minute-Easy-to-Use-COVID-19-Antigen-Test-Receives-FDA-Emergency-Use-Authorization-Mobile-App-Displays-Test-Results-to-Help-Our-Return-to-Daily-Life-Ramping-Production-to-50-Million-Tests-a-Month

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html

A Coronavirus Vaccine By Mid-August?

Russia just announced it will have a vaccine ready by mid-August, according to CNN.(1)  That news totally stunned me. I go on vacation and come back and Russia has a vaccine?

Creative Commons Images

Last I heard, no vaccines would be ready until the end of the year, if we were lucky. But Russia will have one available in two weeks.

Reading deeper, it turns out that Russia is not following all of the same safety measures that are being applied to the companies in the U.S. and England. For example, for most vaccines, there is a three phase process and various approvals needed before releasing them to the public. This is not only to test a vaccine's effectiveness, but to monitor for dangerous side effects. For example, it may prevent you from catching coronavirus, but what if it makes you sterile. Wait, I think I saw that movie.

Russia's vaccine will complete phase 2 of its testing on August 3. Soon after, August 10, they will start phase 3 at the same time they start vaccinating its front-line workers. CNN said there are rumors that some leading Russian politicians have already received it.

I, like most of the world, am very intrigued and hope it works. To have a vaccine so soon would be great. Even if it is not available to everyone until the end of the year, at least there is hope.

So where are some of the leading world pharmaceutical companies in their testing?  Moderna has started its phase 3 testing Monday injecting 30,000 volunteers with its vaccine. It hopes to have its vaccine ready by the end of the year.  University of Oxford and AstraZeneca's vaccine could have emergency doses in October if all goes well. Pfizer with Biontech and Fosunpharma have also launched phase 3 human trials of 30,000 volunteers in the U.S., Brazil, Argentina, and Germany and hope to have its vaccine ready by December. (2)

Still with all this progress, Science Magazine said polls show only 50% of Americans will get the vaccine if and when it is available. (3) I am surprised. I know there is controversy over how deadly coronavirus is, or even if it is real, but why take the risk of getting sick? I had the flu 5 years ago and it was really scary. I never want to get it again.

Once a vaccine is proven safe I will get it. Hopefully, sooner rather than later.

Be safe and take care.

1. https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/28/europe/russia-coronavirus-vaccine-approval-intl/index.html
2. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
3. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/just-50-americans-plan-get-covid-19-vaccine-here-s-how-win-over-rest

Book Review: Gorky Park

In my continued effort to read many of the classics and novels that were highly regarded in my writing classes, I read Gorky Park. I wish I could remember why they regarded it so highly. It was probably due Martin Cruz Smith’s extensive use of detail to set-up a scene. While it was thorough, I found it really slowed down the pace of the novel. Perhaps the audience in the West during the Cold War-era thirsted for details of life behind the Iron Curtain and enjoyed that level of detail, for me it was a bit too much.

Aside from the large amount of details, another problem I had was the reader learns the identity of the killer very early on. Once I knew, I wondered why I should read another 300 pages about a dreary investigator with a crappy life.

What turned the novel around was a trio of secondary characters who became more and more important to the investigator as the book plodded along. They really brought him to life. As their roles increased I began to wonder what would happen next to these relationships and finally I was hooked. It took awhile to get there, but it paid off in the end.

A recommended read if you have free time and have an interest in Russia during the Cold War.

Most important event on 8/8/08

I know everyone expects me to say the Olympics, but what struck me as the most important event to begin that day was Russia's invasion of Georgia.

It's the first time the old Bear invaded another soverign nation since Afghanistan. As of today, four days after hositilities began between Russia and Georgia, there is a shaky cease-fire. What was most amazing to me, was the overwhelming amount of force Russia used against Georgia to supposedly defend their soldiers and citizens in South Ossetia. Yes, Georgia was stupid for thinking they could just waltz into South Ossetia and the Russian "Peacekeepers" would just melt across the border back into Russia proper. It should've been obvious that they were just waiting for a reason to punish Georgia for leaving the Communist Bloc and seeking membershiop in NATO. That Georgia allowed themselves to be baited so cleanly, caused over 2,000 people to be killed. The speed with which Russia counterattacked Georgia, the volume of forces arrayed against Georgia proved that Russia was waiting for an appropriate provocation. The rhetoric out of Russia all these years telling Georgia to leave Souther... alone or else, matched the rhetoric of Georgia's president saying he would take back Souther... at all cost.

If the ceasefire does hold, the result will be that all the newly independent countries in Central Asia that emerged from the fall of the Soviet Union now realize just how tenuous U.S. support is for their regimes. If Russia herself - not a satellite like Serbia - sets foot on another country's soil, the US will back away, rather than face a full blown war.

Russia is back, and as aggressive as ever.