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thewayneA vaccine trial started yesterday.
The National Institutes of Health is funding the trial, which is taking place at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle. The official who disclosed plans for the first participant spoke on condition of anonymity because the move has not been publicly announced. Public health officials say it will take a year to 18 months to fully validate any potential vaccine. Testing will begin with 45 young, healthy volunteers with different doses of shots co-developed by NIH and Moderna. There's no chance participants could get infected from the shots, because they don't contain the virus itself. The goal is purely to check that the vaccines show no worrisome side effects, setting the stage for larger tests.
The critical part to remember is that this is a TRIAL and that a real vaccine is still 12-18 months away. Testing is scary stuff: people sometimes die from testing!
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Amazon is hiring 100,000 warehouse workers as orders increase. They also increase pay to $15 an hour
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In one of the more batshit insane moves, remember Theranos, the instant blood test tech that never worked, and whose founder, Elizabeth Holmes, is under indictment for Federal wire fraud charges? Theranos sold its patent portfolio to a "patent holding company", i.e. patent troll. Said troll is now suing a company making COVID testing kits for patent infringement. No, we don't need patent law reform!
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Senegal is going to be manufacturing a COVID test kit that costs $1 and uses components from home pregnancy and malaria tests, doing a PCR test (polymarese chain reaction) rather than an antibody test, it doesn't look for antibodies, so it provides a more accurate result more quickly and earlier in the infectious process. The lab, iaTropix, is a newly built diagnostics manufacturing facility run by the director of the Pasteur Institute. The kits provide a result in ten minutes. A comparable test in a western lab would cost $400.
For people like me, on antibody replacement therapy, you can't do antibody tests because I get antibodies from 10,000 people every week. With the exception of coronavirus, I test positive for pretty much everything. You have to do PCR tests on me, it's the only way to be accurate.
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France goes into shutdown, orders 15 day shelter at home.
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In the UK, BoJo says people should stay home. Apparently he finally realized that COVID could kill a lot of the people that keeps the Torries in power. DUH.
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Ohio joins the list of states cancelling its primary election.
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Universal Pictures makes their new releases available right now for rental on streaming services. Smart move for them!
****
Canada closing its borders to non-citizens. Smart move. Rumor that Mexico may do the same.
I had lunch with a good friend who is now a Mexican citizen. He said that their health care system is quite advanced. If Americans who want to dodge vaccinations go there, they won't get away with it for long. Health care workers will track them down and give them the choice of them and their children getting vaccinated then and there, or leaving the country. They don't mess around. When he had the flu and was hospitalized, as soon as he was well enough to go home, they kicked him out of the hospital so he didn't represent an infection vector for the other patients and sent him home with a nurse!
****
Good ol' Mittens Romney is joining in with a bunch of lefty Democrats who thinks we can shore up the economy by giving every tax payer $1,000, like Dubya did after 9/11. They're right. But there's no way the Cheetoh Benito will sanction such a move. Give money to the non-rich? Shya!
****
Professional rectal haberdasher and his brother in Chattanooga, Tennessee spent the day driving around and cleaned out a Dollar Tree, Walmart, Staples, and Home Depot. Cleaned them out of hand sanitizer, masks, and wipes. Then tried to sell them all on Ebay and Amazon at ridiculous prices. Both online marketplaces cancelled all attempts to gouge and profiteer. Poor woobies! And now they're being prosecuted for their rectal haberdashery. Sadly, I believe the article said the maximum fine is like $1,000.
Now, while millions of people across the country search in vain for hand sanitizer to protect themselves from the spread of the coronavirus, Mr. Colvin is sitting on 17,700 bottles of the stuff with little idea where to sell them. "It's been a huge amount of whiplash," he said. "From being in a situation where what I've got coming and going could potentially put my family in a really good place financially to 'What the heck am I going to do with all of this?'"
Such a humanitarian, thinking of his fellows.
****
The National Institutes of Health is funding the trial, which is taking place at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle. The official who disclosed plans for the first participant spoke on condition of anonymity because the move has not been publicly announced. Public health officials say it will take a year to 18 months to fully validate any potential vaccine. Testing will begin with 45 young, healthy volunteers with different doses of shots co-developed by NIH and Moderna. There's no chance participants could get infected from the shots, because they don't contain the virus itself. The goal is purely to check that the vaccines show no worrisome side effects, setting the stage for larger tests.
The critical part to remember is that this is a TRIAL and that a real vaccine is still 12-18 months away. Testing is scary stuff: people sometimes die from testing!
****
Amazon is hiring 100,000 warehouse workers as orders increase. They also increase pay to $15 an hour
****
In one of the more batshit insane moves, remember Theranos, the instant blood test tech that never worked, and whose founder, Elizabeth Holmes, is under indictment for Federal wire fraud charges? Theranos sold its patent portfolio to a "patent holding company", i.e. patent troll. Said troll is now suing a company making COVID testing kits for patent infringement. No, we don't need patent law reform!
****
Senegal is going to be manufacturing a COVID test kit that costs $1 and uses components from home pregnancy and malaria tests, doing a PCR test (polymarese chain reaction) rather than an antibody test, it doesn't look for antibodies, so it provides a more accurate result more quickly and earlier in the infectious process. The lab, iaTropix, is a newly built diagnostics manufacturing facility run by the director of the Pasteur Institute. The kits provide a result in ten minutes. A comparable test in a western lab would cost $400.
For people like me, on antibody replacement therapy, you can't do antibody tests because I get antibodies from 10,000 people every week. With the exception of coronavirus, I test positive for pretty much everything. You have to do PCR tests on me, it's the only way to be accurate.
****
France goes into shutdown, orders 15 day shelter at home.
****
In the UK, BoJo says people should stay home. Apparently he finally realized that COVID could kill a lot of the people that keeps the Torries in power. DUH.
****
Ohio joins the list of states cancelling its primary election.
****
Universal Pictures makes their new releases available right now for rental on streaming services. Smart move for them!
****
Canada closing its borders to non-citizens. Smart move. Rumor that Mexico may do the same.
I had lunch with a good friend who is now a Mexican citizen. He said that their health care system is quite advanced. If Americans who want to dodge vaccinations go there, they won't get away with it for long. Health care workers will track them down and give them the choice of them and their children getting vaccinated then and there, or leaving the country. They don't mess around. When he had the flu and was hospitalized, as soon as he was well enough to go home, they kicked him out of the hospital so he didn't represent an infection vector for the other patients and sent him home with a nurse!
****
Good ol' Mittens Romney is joining in with a bunch of lefty Democrats who thinks we can shore up the economy by giving every tax payer $1,000, like Dubya did after 9/11. They're right. But there's no way the Cheetoh Benito will sanction such a move. Give money to the non-rich? Shya!
****
Professional rectal haberdasher and his brother in Chattanooga, Tennessee spent the day driving around and cleaned out a Dollar Tree, Walmart, Staples, and Home Depot. Cleaned them out of hand sanitizer, masks, and wipes. Then tried to sell them all on Ebay and Amazon at ridiculous prices. Both online marketplaces cancelled all attempts to gouge and profiteer. Poor woobies! And now they're being prosecuted for their rectal haberdashery. Sadly, I believe the article said the maximum fine is like $1,000.
Now, while millions of people across the country search in vain for hand sanitizer to protect themselves from the spread of the coronavirus, Mr. Colvin is sitting on 17,700 bottles of the stuff with little idea where to sell them. "It's been a huge amount of whiplash," he said. "From being in a situation where what I've got coming and going could potentially put my family in a really good place financially to 'What the heck am I going to do with all of this?'"
Such a humanitarian, thinking of his fellows.
****
no subject
Date: 2020-03-17 04:59 pm (UTC)I'm really glad the UK got its collective head at least partially extracted from its collective rectum. I have good friends there...
France did quite the U-turn as well - they had local elections this weekend, and changed the official story instantly from "it's just the flu" to "full on national emergency" right after.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-17 05:41 pm (UTC)Here's a link on the test kit, it's in conjunction with a UK lab. Saw the mention on Slashdot, from a Bloomberg article. They're focusing the test kits on Africa because it's such a poor continent. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-16/ten-minute-coronavirus-test-could-be-game-changer-for-africa
no subject
Date: 2020-03-18 04:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-03-18 07:47 am (UTC)