Lifeboat Foundation

April 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has brought about an unprecedented crisis, taking a heavy toll on human health, lives as well as the global economy. There are no SARS-CoV-2-specific treatments or vaccines available due to the novelty of this virus. Hence, rapid development of effective vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 is urgently needed. Here we developed a pilot-scale production of a purified inactivated SARS-CoV-2 virus vaccine candidate (PiCoVacc), which induced SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralizing antibodies in mice, rats and non-human primates. These antibodies potently neutralized 10 representative SARS-CoV-2 strains, indicative of a possible broader neutralizing ability against SARS-CoV-2 strains circulating worldwide. Immunization with two different doses (3μg or 6 μg per dose) provided partial or complete protection in macaques against SARS-CoV-2 challenge, respectively, without any antibody-dependent enhancement of infection. Systematic evaluation of PiCoVacc via monitoring clinical signs, hematological and biochemical index, and histophathological analysis in macaques suggests that it is safe. These data support the rapid clinical development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines for humans.

One Sentence Summary A purified inactivated SARS-CoV-2 virus vaccine candidate (PiCoVacc) confers complete protection in non-human primates against SARS-CoV-2 strains circulating worldwide by eliciting potent humoral responses devoid of immunopathology.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

On March 16, Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID) began dosing patients with mRNA-1273, its vaccine candidate against COVID-19. The second round of dosing in healthy Seattle volunteers has now begun.

Without placing too much significance on this, it is a good sign, suggesting that the trial is progressing well and there are no obvious bad side effects from the first round.

Lisa Jackson, senior investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, who is heading the study, told USA Today that the physicians at Kaiser Permanente’s Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Unit in Seattle don’t have results from the first round. This suggests that the study data is blinded, meaning it will not be released until a specific point in the trial.

This is the truth of the looming “hunger pandemic,” which has the potential to engulf over a quarter of a billion people whose lives and livelihoods will be plunged into immediate danger, unless urgent and effective action is taken to keep commercial and humanitarian goods flowing, support communities with humanitarian assistance and provide governments with the additional health interventions required to control the spread of the virus.

If we can’t reach these people — if we can’t give them the lifesaving assistance they need because our funding has been cut or borders where we move our food have been closed — WFP’s analysis shows that 300,000 could starve to death every single day for the next three months.

When you consider that already, despite our best efforts, 21,000 people die of hunger every single day, the scale of the potential death toll is heart-rending. We could be looking at famine in about three dozen countries. In 10 countries, we have more than a million people who are on the verge of starvation as we speak.

Continue reading “Covid-19 could detonate a ‘hunger pandemic.’ With millions at risk, the world must act” »

Strokes, seizures, loss of smell and taste and other neurological deficits are showing up in patients critically ill with the coronavirus.

Although the virus is classified as a respiratory disorder and primarily damages the lungs, clinicians are seeing patients with a wide array of symptoms, from seizures to hallucinations, brain inflammation, disorientation, delirium and loss of smell and taste.

“I had a patient, a young guy, 48, who attended a party in New Rochelle two weeks before and came in with hallucinations and confusion,” said Dr. Pooia Fattahi, regional chair of neurology for Trinity Health Of New England. The patient had no fever and only a slight cough. Still, aware some COVID-19 patients show up at hospitals with seizures, strokes and confusion, Fattahi suspected, correctly, that the patient had COVID-19. Three of those who attended the same New Rochelle party ultimately died of the virus.

The Rockefeller Foundation releases an ambitious new proposal to test 30 million people a week, employ up to 300,000 contact tracers, and establish a digital data sharing platform. Rajiv Shah, President and CEO of the Rockefeller Foundation, and Dr. Kavita Patel, former health policy director in the Obama White House, join Andrea Mitchell to discuss this and other plans to reopen the country. April 22, 2020.

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At the beginning of March, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California announced a series of executive orders he hoped would help slow the spread, and subsequently mitigate the health impact, of COVID-19. One of those orders told Golden State residents to shelter-in-place. This order, set for two weeks, has been extended until May. Gov. Newsom has subsequently told residents that the process through which these public health safety measures will be loosened up is going to be deliberate, and done by degrees.

A study out of UC Davis in California says there is one silver lining to the shelter-in-place orders, though. According to researchers, the California highway patrol—who on average respond to more than 2,000 roadway “incidents” per day—have reported an enormous reduction in the daily rate of collisions. This means a lot less death and injury and a lot of public money saved.

Continue reading “New California study shows $1 billion silver lining due to coronavirus shelter-in-place orders” »

What do you think about.this?

Coronavirus patients taking hydroxychloroquine, a treatment touted by President Trump, were no less likely to need mechanical ventilation and had higher deaths rates compared to those who did not take the drug, according to a study of hundreds of patients at US Veterans Health Administration medical centers.

The study, which reviewed veterans’ medical charts, was posted Tuesday on medrxiv.org, a pre-print server, meaning it was not peer reviewed or published in a medical journal. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the University of Virginia.

The US government has contingency plans in place in the event North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un should die after reports that his health was in grave condition.

Sources discussed the plans but urged caution about the veracity of the reports, which claimed Kim is in bad shape after a cardiovascular procedure, Fox News reported.

Those plans include the possibility of a mass-scale humanitarian crisis inside the hermit nation such as a famine, according to the report.

Essentially, the study found that some immune systems are less capable of recognizing the infection. This diminished ability to recognize the coronavirus can make a person more susceptible to developing symptoms in general, as well as more likely to experience severe symptoms that require hospitalization.

Getting down to the scientific specifics of the findings, the study focused on the immune system genes known as human leukocyte antigen genes. These genes are highly involved in the immune system’s ability to recognize pathogens, but they come in a variety of forms and vary from person to person.

The research team, from Oregon Health & Science University and the Portland VA Research Foundation, believe that HLA gene variations may make certain people more vulnerable to the coronavirus.