An Over-reaction?

[Convicted One]

Well, according to one source at least,  worker's comp would not cover a workplace corona virus infection.

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/coronavirus-your-rights-in-the-workplace.html

Yet NIOSH has established guidelines recognizing legitimate threat of "take home toxins" in general. (not specific to corona virus, but relevant nonetheless)

So, merely my gut hunch, but I suspect an employer requiring employee attendance, despite the known risk of the pandemic, might have some exposure here.

What would the employer's defense be? Contributory negligence on behalf of the employee for following orders? 

[Flintlock76]

Let me put it this way.  If I were still on the job doing copier repairs I'd be out there, especially now, and doubly-especially if medical offices were involved.

I'd get more than the usual satisfaction I used to get knowing I'd made a difference in someones day.  Know what I mean?  

[Deggesty]

Quoting Convicted One: "What would the employer's defense be? Contributory negligence on behalf of the employee for following orders?" That sounds much like "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." 

 

 

"

[Convicted One]

Flintlock76

f I were still on the job doing copier repairs I'd be out there, especially now, and doubly-especially if medical offices were involved.

Yeah, I can see where the ability to make photocopies could be considered "core" to the operations of some essential businesses.

Indiana just announced that it's going to lock down to all but "essential" services at 11:59 pm Tuesday. There are a  multitude of exceptions, exclusions, and gratuitous interpretations to what is considered "essential".  Here is a link:

https://www.in.gov/gov/files/Executive_Order_20-08_Stay_at_Home.pdf

I could likely fiind enough wiggle room to justify whatever my personal preferences were.

Which begs the question, how are the local authorities going to be able to enforce this?

If I am a janitor or a wall painter, and claim that I am on my way to/from performing services at an "essential" business, I'm exempt. 

Not a lot there that can be enforced, so I guess the law is intended to control the sheep?

[charlie hebdo]

I think people actually engaged in essential work are given or must obtain a certificate. 

[Convicted One]

charlie hebdo

I think people actually engaged in essential work are given or must obtain a certificate. 

The Indiana law is pretty specific as far as the ruleset being self contained, and there is no mention of any requirement for any certificate in the stated rules.

Look specifically at section "J" of the document I linked to, it is disappointingly permissive.

Reading elsewhere in the document , the welfare of pets is an exclusion. Where I worked most recently is a resident cat. I could argue thatI was on my way to make the daily "welfare" check on the office cat, and be exempt.

[Flintlock76]

And it's not just photocopies anymore C-O, for the past decade, and maybe a little more, what we used to call "copiers" are now called "Multi-FunctionPrinters," or "MFP's."  Not only do they copy, they print, scan, and fax.  Sometimes when one function goes down the rest are still useable, but not always. 

When I left the trade medical offices were still heavy users of the fax function, why I don't know, but they seemed to prefer it that way.  If they lost the fax they were in big trouble!  

[daveklepper]

Who is leading the race to develop the coronavirus vaccine? Though regulatory processes and bureaucratic barriers are likely to be expedited, including the acceleration of clinical trials in humans, the world will need to be patient. By EYTAN HALON MARCH 22, 2020 21:55

As doctors battle night and day to save patients' lives in hospitals worldwide, the world's leading scientific minds are racing to produce the first vaccines for the novel coronavirus. Some of those leading the way have relied on knowledge from previous coronavirus outbreaks, while others have used vaccine platform technologies used to combat other epidemics, including Ebola.

Though regulatory processes and bureaucratic barriers are likely to be expedited, including the acceleration of clinical trials in humans, the world will need to be patient for the arrival of the vaccine. Dr. Mike Ryan, director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, told BBC television on Sunday that it would take at "least a year" for a vaccine to become available, emphasizing the need for rigorous safety standards.

So, who are the developers leading the race for the highly sought-after vaccine? Moderna The first dose of the mRNA-1273 coronavirus vaccine, developed by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Moderna’s infectious disease research team, was given to the first participant in their Phase 1 study on March 16. The trial of the vaccine, built on previous studies of SARS and MERS, is intended to provide data on the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine, and is expected to enroll 45 healthy adult volunteers over six weeks. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based drug discovery company emphasized that it is "still early in the story," with no approved drugs to date emerging from its vaccine program and no previous human trials. The current trials are being carried out at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, described the study as "an important first step toward" finding a safe and effective vaccine.

CanSino Biologics Authorities in China granted approval last week for Phase 1 clinical trials of a coronavirus vaccine developed by researchers at Tianjin-based CanSino Biologics and the Academy of Military Medical Sciences. Tests of Ad5-nCoV in animals, researchers said, showed that the vaccine candidate can induce strong immune response and demonstrated a good safety profile. Prescreening for the first human study has already begun, and is expected to enroll 108 healthy participants at Wuhan's Tongji Hospital. “Having committed to provide unconditional support to fight against the global epidemic, CanSinoBIO is determined to launch our vaccine product candidate as soon as possible with no compromise on quality and safety," said CanSino chairman and CEO Xuefeng Yu.

Migdale

MIGAL

Located in Kiryat Shmona, the MIGAL – Galilee Research Instute is working to adapt a vaccine initially developed to prevent the Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV) in poultry. Funded by the government, the institute hailed a “scientific breakthrough that will lead to the rapid creation of a vaccine against coronavirus" in late February, based on the genetic similarity between the avian coronavirus and the novel coronavirus. Human testing of the oral vaccine, the institute said, is expected to begin within eight to 10 weeks, and safety approval is expected within 90 days. "We are currently in intensive discussions with potential partners that can help accelerate the in-human trials phase and expedite the completion of final product development and regulatory activities," said MIGAL CEO David Zigdon.

INOVIO Pharmaceuticals Pennsylvania-based INOVIO announced the receipt of a new $5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on March 12 to accelerate the testing of its novel DNA vaccine for COVID-19, known as INO-4800. Currently in preclinical studies, INOVIO plans to advance into US Phase 1 clinical trials next month, backed by up to $9m. in funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. The company says it aims to deliver one million doses of INO-4900 and handheld intradermal delivery devices to administer them by the end of 2020. "Our team of vaccine experts are working around the clock to advance INO-4800 and we look forward to attracting additional partnerships to expedite its development to meet this urgent global health need," said INOVIO president and CEO Dr. J. Joseph Kim.

CureVac Reportedly the target of an acquisition attempt by US President Donald Trump, German biopharmaceutical company CureVac announced that it is leveraging its mRNA-based drug platform to produce a vaccine against the novel coronavirus. The European Commission has offered up to €80 million of financial support to CureVac, which plans to launch clinical tests in June 2020. If proven, the commission said, millions of vaccine doses could be produced at low costs in the company's existing production facilities. "The combination of mRNA science, disease understanding, formulation and production expertise make CureVac a unique player to fight against any infectious disease, no matter whether they are seasonal or pandemic," said CureVac CTO Mariola Fotin-Mleczek. BioNTech German immunotherapy company BioNTech and American pharma giant Pfizer signed a letter of intent last week to codevelop and distribute an mRNA-based vaccine against the novel coronavirus. The partnership, originally formed in 2018 to develop flu vaccines, will accelerate BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine program BNT162, which is expected to enter the clinic by the end of April.

Just one day earlier, the Mainz-based company announced a strategic development and commercialization collaboration with Fosun Pharma to advance its mRNA vaccine in China. Fosun Pharma will pay BioNTech up to $135m. in upfront and potential future investment and milestone payments. "We feel a duty to exploit our full technology and immunotherapy expertise to help address the COVID-19 pandemic emergency," said BioNTech founder and CEO Prof. Ugur Sahin, adding that the company is also working on a novel therapeutics approach for patients who have already been infected. Details, he said, will be disclosed "in the coming weeks.

[charlie hebdo]

David: The IDF has blockaded Gaza for years. Are they allowing medical supplies to enter now?

 

[Convicted One]

Flintlock76

When I left the trade medical offices were still heavy users of the fax function, why I don't know, but they seemed to prefer it that way.  If they lost the fax they were in big trouble!

I think that early on they had incorporated a visual imaging system to share x-rays from office to office that incorporated fax technology.  And they had a sizeable investment to amortize.

Of course, fax did monochrome fairly well, so why abandon the investment ?

[Paul of Covington]

Flintlock76

When I left the trade medical offices were still heavy users of the fax function, why I don't know, but they seemed to prefer it that way. If they lost the fax they were in big trouble!

   A few years ago the agent who handles my retirement account mentioned that they were told to use fax rather than email because of security concerns.  The data being transmitted, being a picture, was harder to intercept.  (Or something like that.)

[54light15]

Interesting about medical record keeping practises, I was in the hospital five and a half years ago for an operation and I was surprised how everything was on paper. There didn't seem to be a lot of computerised record keeping. And the did talk about faxing documents to other doctors and such. Funny, that. 

[BaltACD]

54light15

Interesting about medical record keeping practises, I was in the hospital five and a half years ago for an operation and I was surprised how everything was on paper. There didn't seem to be a lot of computerised record keeping. And the did talk about faxing documents to other doctors and such. Funny, that. 

I think some doctors resistance to computerized record keeping is that things like instructions are typed and anyone and everyone can read what the doctor wrote.  In the 'paper only' days the doctor had to be called as the expert witness to be able to read what they had written - as doctors handwriting cannot be read by mere mortals.

The family doctor I had in Jacksonville had all his files for all his patients in paper - had floor to ceiling vertical files that occupied an area of about 30 by 30 feet and 8 feet high.  He retired in 2018.

[Flintlock76]

One thing's for certain, you can't hack paper!  

You can only pick it up and run with it and hope you don't get caught!

[Convicted One]

I used to use a "weatherfax" program where I could plug a shortwave radio receiving SSB into the soundcard on my PC, and produce weather maps being broadcast from NOAA depicting information from their weather satellite. Took a long time for a full page to appear

 

[Deggesty]

As to doctors' handwriting, a doctor sent a frinedly note to one of his patients; the patient could not read it, so he took it to a pharmacist. A few minutes afterwards, the phsrmacist gave him a bottle of medicine, and told him the cost of the medicine.

[daveklepper]

[quote user="charlie hebdo"]

David: The IDF has blockaded Gaza for years. Are they allowing medical supplies to enter now?

[/quote above]

Israel never blocked medical supplies except when terrorists attacked the people delivering them to the checkpoints.

I have not yet been tested, but Israel has supplied 100 testing kits to Hamas in Gaza.

To alliviate Gaza's shortage of water, Israel (the manufacturer itself) has supplied an electronic water-from-air device, which had been used by the California Fire Department to assist in putting out the massive fire there.

There were and are trucks with essential supplies daily going through the checkpoint.  The ohly interruptions were caused by Hamas itself.

[daveklepper]

From Technology Review, the MIT Alumni Magazine

The first medical reports are in, but there’s no silver bullet for coronavirus infection yet.

by Antonio Regalado

Mar 23, 2020

Results are in from the first organized trials of drugs to treat Covid-19, but so far, there’s no cure.

As the new respiratory disease spread widely starting in January, doctors—first in China and then in the US, Italy, and France—all moved to test readily available drugs that are used for other purposes and are fairly safe. Now, just three months into the pandemic, the first medical results from organized trials—studies structured to measure whether a drug actually helps—are becoming public. We count three so far, all involving drugs with antiviral properties.

Patients who end up in the ICU are begging for whatever treatment they can get, and demand for drugs will skyrocket in the US. Not only is the number of confirmed cases now over 35,000, but this week twice that many or more will likely feel the onset of typical symptoms like cough, fever, and shortness of breath.

So far, there is no approved medicines for Covid-19, so the main treatment for severe cases isn’t drugs at all—it’s oxygen therapy, ventilators that help people breathe, and supportive care. Some patients get standard antibiotics.

Overall, scores of drug studies are under way, checking the benefits of everything from vitamin C to Chinese traditional medicine. A list of trials compiled by CellTrials.org, a consultancy, found that doctors had registered over 250 Covid-19 studies, mostly in China, and were seeking to recruit 26,000 patients. It may be another month before some other large, important studies, like several involving the experimental antiviral remdesivir, made by the US company Gilead, are ready to report any findings.

Here are the facts about the drug studies published so far.

Chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine

The hype: President Donald Trump praised the malaria drug, saying it had shown “tremendous promise” against Covid-19. “I think it’s going to be very exciting,” he said. “I think it could be a game-changer, and maybe not.”

HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The FDA has moved mountains - Thank You! Hopefully they will BOTH (H works better with A, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents).....

 

The report: Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an openlabel non-randomized clinical trial

The data: During early March, French doctors at IHU-Méditerranée Infection in Marseille, France, treated Covid-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine, a version of the 90-year-old malaria drug chloroquine. They tried giving 200 milligrams of hydroxychloroquine three times per day, over 10 days, to 26 patients, and some got the antibiotic azithromycin, too. In their report, treated patients had less virus in their system after six days than other patients at a different center, who didn’t get the treatment. The study’s conclusions aren’t firm because so few patients were involved and the study was not rigorously designed, although chloroquine has also been tried in China with rumors of success.

So does the drug work? Scientists say there’s not enough evidence to say. “Anecdotal reports may be true, but they are anecdotal,” Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a briefing at the White House. “It was not done in a controlled clinical trial. So you really can’t make any definitive statement about it.”

In the absence of other options, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York said his state, now a global epicenter of Covid-19, had obtained 70,000 doses of hydroxychloroquine and 750,000 doses of chloroquine, as well as azithromycin (also called Zithromax). “The trial will start this Tuesday,” said Cuomo over the weekend. “There is a good basis to believe they could work. The president ordered the FDA to move and the FDA moved.”

Chloroquine has risks, because it can affect heart rhythm. No one should take it without a prescription.

Favipiravir

The hype: News reports last week claimed Chinese officials had touted this antiviral medicine made in Japan as “clearly effective.”

 

The report: Favipiravir versus Arbidol for COVID-19: A Randomized Clinical
Trial

The data: While favipiravir, an antiviral made by Toyama Chemical (part of Fuji Film), generated hopeful headlines, the report from doctors at China’s Wuhan University makes more modest claims. They organized a study of 240 “ordinary” patients (meaning they had pneumonia but were not the worst cases) around Hubei province. Half got favipiravir and half got umifenovir (or Arbidol), an antiviral used in Russia, and they were watched to see which group recovered faster. The doctors found that patients’ fevers and coughs went away faster on favipiravir, but similar numbers in each group ended up needing oxygen or a ventilator. On the basis of these findings, they concluded that favipiravir is the “preferred” of the two drugs.

Favipiravir, which is known by the trade name Avigan in Japan, inhibits viruses from copying their genetic material. It was originally discovered while searching for drugs to treat influenza.

Lopinavir and ritonavir

The hype: Doctors reached into the cabinet of advanced anti-HIV medications, hoping for a quick success. 

 

The report: A Trial of Lopinavir–Ritonavir in Adults Hospitalized with Severe Covid-19

The data: This is the largest, best-organized study of a treatment for Covid-19 so far, but it didn’t find a benefit. In January, doctors in China randomly assigned 199 patients with pneumonia either to get the HIV medicines lopinavir and ritonavir twice a day for two weeks, or to receive only standard care. Then they watched to see who improved or got discharged from the hospital. Unfortunately, no benefit was seen from the treatment. Nearly 20% of the patients died. The team wonders if the drug combo, sold in the US by AbbVie to treat HIV infection under the trade name Kaletra, could still prove beneficial for less sick patients.

The key drug here is lopinavir, a protease inhibitor, which has been shown in lab and animal tests to have effects against Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERS. Ritonavir acts to increase the first drug’s availability in the body.  (DLK: But Lopinavir by itself, is ineffective by the study quoted.)

Different article:  Few health institutions around the world are as renowned as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Which makes it all the more baffling that the CDC could have fumbled the rollout of coronavirus diagnostic tests throughout the country so badly. While other countries have been able to run millions of tests, the CDC has tested only 1,235 patients. Speed is of the essence when dealing with an epidemic early, and the CDC’s mistakes are already proving costly to tracking the outbreak in the US.

On February 5 the CDC began to send out coronavirus test kits, but many of the kits were soon found to have faulty negative controls (what shows up when coronavirus is absent), caused by contaminated reagents. This was probably a side effect of a rushed job to put the kits together. Labs with failed negative controls had to ship their samples to the CDC itself for testing.

The CDC’s kits are based on PCR testing, which makes millions or billions of copies of a DNA sample so that clinicians can easily identify and study it. PCR is a well established technology that’s been around for 35 years. We’ve improved the process with upgrades such as higher-quality enzymes and reagents, allowing for more precise testing and making it possible to detect targets in real time even while the assay is still running.

So how exactly does the CDC, of all places, goof up something so tried and true?

The first thing to know is that PCR is a very sensitive test. You need extremely clean reagents, and the smallest contaminants can ruin it completely (as happened in this instance). A negative control that detects the wrong viral genome and raises a false positive is practically a worst-case scenario, because it calls into question all the other results in the run—you don’t know if samples are truly positive or if they are positive because of the contamination. “You basically can’t even judge if anything worked,” says Nigel McMillan, the director of infectious diseases and immunology at Griffith University in Australia.

The amplification of DNA in PCR has to be initiated using short strands that are complementary to the target DNA, called primers. Keith Jerome, the head of virology at the University of Washington, points out that “primer design is still somewhat of an art, and not fully predictable.” Even when you have a good database of viral sequences, not all primer sets that look good on a computer will perform well in real life.

These are common problems that can afflict not just PCR, but testing for any virus or any new infectious disease. “For the CDC, however, I’m sure it is unheard of,” says McMillan. “They’re normally very careful about these things.”

Don’t blame PCR itself for the lack of reliable tests, though. According to Duane Newton, the director of clinical microbiology at the University of Michigan, the biggest limitation in diagnostics is not the technology, but rather the regulatory approval process for new tests and platforms. While this process is critical for ensuring safety and efficacy, the necessary delays often “hamper the willingness and ability of manufacturers and laboratories to invest resources into developing and implementing new tests,” he says.

Case in point: FDA rules initially prevented state and commercial labs from developing their own coronavirus diagnostic tests, even if they could develop coronavirus PCR primers on their own. So when the only available test suddenly turned out to be bunk, no one could actually say what primer sets worked.

The CDC and FDA reversed course and lifted this rule on February 29, and commercial and academic labs are now allowed to participate. “Lots of people are working on this, and we’re on the phone all the time with each other comparing notes,” says Jerome. “At least in our hands, it seems that some of the CDC primers work better than others, some of the WHO primer sets look really good, and some from academic groups look great also.”

There’s no particular technical difficulty in designing a PCR test, so most laboratories should be able to do so with confidence. This week, state and commercial labs began testing on their own. We’re already seeing major steps forward; the University of Washington, for instance, has a new diagnostic that will allow it to test 1,500 samples a day. A group in Japan claims to have a test that can detect the virus in just 10 to 30 minutes.

“The great strength the US has always had, not just in virology, is that we’ve always had a wide variety of people and groups working on any given problem,” says Jerome. “When we decided all coronavirus testing had to be done by a single entity, even one as outstanding as CDC, we basically gave away our greatest strength.”

The reagents are now fixed, and the CDC looks ready to move forward. By the end of the week, it expects labs around the country to be able test about 400,000 patients. Other groups around the world are already looking at the crisis as an opportunity to make PCR faster and even develop other viral diagnostics like antibody testing. Local and commercial institutions should be given similar mandates to act decisively, without bizarre constraints. “You’ve got a fantastic resource in the CDC,” says McMillan. “But if they’re not proactive enough or timely enough, then things down the road will start to fall.”

[charlie hebdo]

David K: Thank you.  Unfortunately the impatient, impulsive cuurrent occupant wants to lift the social restrictions soon, against all medical advice.

[Convicted One]

charlie hebdo

lift the social restrictions soon, against all medical advice.

I thought that the calls for senior americans to shoulder the risk so that the world left for their grandchildren would be worth inheiriting were  particularly callous and opportunistic.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

It's fairly well known that the current inhabitant views himself as the smartest guy in the room on any topic and doesn't need advice from mere mortals.  That being said, it was quite revealing to watch him squirm a few days ago when Dr. Fauci said in so many words that the statement he just made was medically unsound.

[charlie hebdo]

Convicted One

 

 

charlie hebdo

lift the social restrictions soon, against all medical advice.

 

 

I thought that the calls for senior americans to shoulder the risk so that the world left for their grandchildren would be worth inheiriting were  particularly callous and opportunistic.

 

Not an example of a Profile in Courage. 

[GERALD L MCFARLANE JR]

charlie hebdo

Social refers to living in various forms of contact with other humans.  Physical space refers to the three dimensional volume around us.  Since the virus is transmitted only between humans (assuming you don't have access to the fruit bats from Hubei that are the theorized source)  keeping a 2 meter physical space around one would include all objects, which would thus be an unnecessary precaution.  Social distancing refers to keeping a 2 meter space around you in relation to other humans only. 

 

 

Do you believe you can be social(per the Cambridge Dictionary; relating to activities in which you meet and spend time with other people and that happen during the time when you are not working) and be 6 feet away from the other person?   If you do then we have a difference of opinion on being social and will never agree that "social distancing" is not the proper term.  However, on the other hand, if we agree that you can't be social with other people and be 6 feet away from them, then we have common ground to admit that calling it "social distancing" is not the proper term.  What they really want people to do is be Anti-social social.

[Convicted One]

FWIW, I have always seen "social distancing" as somewhat of an ideal. Always to strive for, yet fleeting enough that it's worth celebrating whenever attained.

[Convicted One]

I found this comparison of "over responders" vs "under responders" to be interesting.

I hadn't previously thought of the denialists AS BEING FEAR MOTIVATED,  but I think they may have a point

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/24/health/social-distancing-wellness-trnd/index.html

[daveklepper]

Coronavirus prompts acts of kindness in

Central Florida

 

 

ORLANDO SENTINEL |

MAR 24, 2020 | 12:16 PM

 

A few Central Floridians are a shining light during these unpredictable times, performing acts of kindness.

 

Organized by residents of Lake Nona’s Laureate Park neighborhood, this colorful community activity encourages families to decorate their portion of the sidewalk with doodles, designs, obstacle courses, and encouraging messages for their fellow neighbors.(Courtesy Karlee Kunkle)

 

Trinity Church in Deltona is hosting a drive-through event on March 26, where those in need can get free rolls of toilet paper.(Courtesy James Jones)

Trinity Church has acquired about 2,000 rolls of toilet paper, which they will distribute to families in need at 2 p.m. on March 26 at a drive-through event at the church (875 Elkcam Blvd. in Deltona).

 

“As the church, we must help people not only spiritually, but even their basic needs like toilet paper,” said James Jones, the church’s pastor, in an email.

 

Service dog Cloud was supposed to go to training classes with her disabled human, but the coronavirus caused a delay. Linda Rutherford stepped up to foster Cloud at her home in Longwood until classes resume, and in the meantime, Rutherford is reinforcing training by asking Cloud to perform tasks on command (from opening the refrigerator to fetching the remote) so that the pooch doesn’t get rusty.

 

Faith Assembly of God in Orlando is paying up to $100,000 in essential bills for their congregation to help those currently unemployed or working reduced hours because of COVID-19, according to a press release. In the Facebook video (tune in at 2:23), the church’s senior pastor Carl Stephens announces the church’s initiative and how others can contribute.

 

“We are sending out teams into neighborhoods — if you need help, if you’re a senior citizen, you’re someone that’s a single mom, you need help as far as someone to pick up groceries or take you to the doctor or go pick up medicine ... we’re trying, at this point, to be the church,” said Stephens in the video.

[Overmod]

daveklepper

Results are in from the first organized trials of drugs to treat Covid-19...

Remember I predicted they wouldn't be able to figure out how and when to use 3CLpro inhibitors in prompt reduction of viral load of specifically analogous coronaviruses?  How cute it is of them to start trials of protease inhibitors specific to HIV ... perhaps on the assumption that the 'deadlier' the virus the more likely a protease inhibitor that 'stops' viruses in general ought to be?

Here we go.  (Or don't go, as the case may be.)

Somebody figure out for me why anti-inflammatory agents (to reduce, for example, some of the responses that may be involved in ARDS) don't make the protocol, even though the actual research I've read on hydroxychloroquine treatment involved it, but Zithromax (which has little I can see to do with this at all, but might be useful in the four documented cases so far of co-infection) does.  Perhaps the conventional wisdom of "antiviral" action against influenza, where coinfections are more a historical concern, is as active here as it was when people presenting with COVID-19 symptoms were administered things like Tamiflu and prednisone and became dangerously affected as a proximate result.

I have seen a couple of comments that 3CLpro inhibitors have been thought about, but not adopted 'as they do not lead to a cure'.  Any reasons for prompt reduction of viral titer -- for example, to reduce the kinetics of viral transfer to uninfected emergency workers or hospital personnel who may find themselves performing heroic intervention on large numbers of patients -- seems not to be considered important.

Were it not for the high conservation of 3CLpro inhibition across a range of coronavirus, almost certainly involving this one (since it was sequenced early and the work on 3CLpro inhibition was well advanced in other areas of study) I wouldn't be quite as irritated at this.  It's not only a logical starting place for designed analysis, the stuff has been in industrial production over a year...

 

[daveklepper]

An Israeli rabbinical organization has created what it claims is a unique volunteer system for the distribution of food and basic necessities to the elderly and other homebound Israelis amid the ongoing coronavirus lockdown.

The Barkai Center for Practical Rabbinics and Community Development, an organization dedicated to building Israeli society by bringing Diaspora models of community-building to the Jewish state, created the system in conjunction with the Modi’in Municipality.

Barkai rabbis and other members appointed neighborhood “captains” who set up WhatsApp groups to mobilize volunteers and to be in direct contact with those in need in each of Modi’in’s neighborhoods to ensure the necessary food distribution packages.

“Our community-building model has meant that we were ready to step in and create networks to ensure those in need receive the food and other necessities they so badly need during the coronavirus crisis,” said founder and dean of Barkai Rabbi David Fine. “We see that this model can be replicated in cities and towns across Israel in a speedy and smooth manner, so the elderly and other homebound Israelis receive what they so desperately require during this difficult time.”

The project involves more than 250 volunteers who deliver cooked meals to the elderly and other homebound residents in each of Modi’in’s 13 neighborhoods three times a week. Each package contains sufficient prepared food, including meat, carbohydrates and vegetables, for two days.

 

In addition, the volunteers deliver food from supermarkets to hundreds of elderly and homebound Modi’in residents. When the volunteers deliver the packages, they ask the recipients how they are and if they have any further needs, and alert both the Modi’in Municipality and Israel’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services to update their national database, which tracks the condition of elderly and infirm citizens across the country.

“We deeply appreciate the networks and food distribution model created by the Barkai team, and we recommend and encourage other municipalities to copy them,” said Deputy Modi’in Mayor Amiad Taub, who holds the social-services portfolio in the municipality.

[daveklepper]

Two Israelis died of the novel coronavirus on Tuesday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his cabinet to impose additional restrictions, bringing the Israeli death toll from the global pandemic up to three.

Some 1,930 Israelis have been diagnosed with coronavirus as of Tuesday night, according to the Health Ministry. Of those, 34 were in serious condition.

 

With the numbers growing as they are - 6% of all people tested are infected with coronavirus - the Health Ministry has been pushing for a complete lockdown throughout Israel while the Finance Ministry is  insisting that if a full state of emergency closure is implemented, the economy could not be restored.

A draft of the new restrictions - expected to be approved overnight Tuesday - was released to the media shortly before the government convened. People, according to the new rules, will only be allowed to leave their homes within 100 meters; leisure activities will only be allowed within walking distance and sporting events - even on one’s own - are forbidden.

Existing guidelines would not change with regards to traveling to and from work, but any company would be allowed to check their employees’ temperature before letting them enter the building. The ability to buy food, medicine or other essential products would not be limited even after the decision is approved, the Prime Minister's Office explained.

On Monday night, Netanyahu told cabinet members that 10,000 Israelis could die from the coronavirus and one million could be infected. “We could reach a million infected within a month,” the prime minister said according to a report on N12. “There could also be 10,000 dead Israelis.”

The prime minister also instructed Mossad Chief Yosi Cohen to lead a new National Emergency Team that will orchestrate Israel’s efforts to purchase medical equipment, especially ventilators, that will be needed to treat these patients.  In addition, he instructed the Israeli Defense Industries to examine options to manufacture such medical equipment in the country.

'1 mil. Israelis with coronavirus is conservative,' disease expert says

 Penalties being considered for breaking these orders would be up to six months in prison or fines of as much as NIS 3,000.

The Health Ministry's guidelines have harshly stung the economy, pushing Israel's unemployment rate to 19% as of Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

So far, the Israeli Employment Service said that some 633,939 people applied for unemployment benefits in March, including 18,105 people between 7 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

 According to Bank of Israel estimates published on Tuesday, current measures to contain the novel coronavirus are likely to result in an unemployment rate of approximately 7% - an increase of 150,000 people - by the end of 2020.

"We must help individuals whose company or turnover has been impacted, and they must continue to meet their ongoing expenses," said Bank of  Israel Governor Prof. Amir Yaron. "We also need to help those who have been made redundant, or have been placed on unpaid leave and their  income has been affected dramatically. This is what governments around the world are doing, and on a huge scale."

Back to the sick, the Health Ministry reported that the majority still have mild cases of the virus – 1,795 – and another 45 people are in moderate condition.

The man who died on Monday had been brought to Hadassah from the Nofim  Geriatric Center, where he lived. Shortly before news of his death,  the second coronavirus patient who died was identified as Malka Kever, 67, from Bat Yam. She died at Wolfson Hospital. She, too, had  pre-existing conditions.

"Our intensive care team fought for her life with great dedication,  the hospital said, "but her condition deteriorated."

Kever was patient number 445. She had previously volunteered at the hospital where she died, according to N12, until she was diagnosed with cancer in the last year.

Her family members, who are in isolation, called on the public to "stay home."

"Don't go out, you risk yourself, your children, your relatives and people you don't know," Kever's daughter, Dorit, told N12. "My mother gave her life, gave her soul to the Creator because of this illness. We are hurting, we are sad."

 The man in his 60s who died Monday at Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital) in Tel Aviv and was suspected of having coronavirus had not contracted the disease, the hospital reported. Test results revealed that the man had respiratory symptoms and his death, as determined by the hospital, was probably from a different viral disease.

 In a related development, a premature baby at the prenatal ward of Shaare Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem was reported on Tuesday as not having had the novel coronavirus after it was earlier reported that a worker of the ward was infected with the virus and might have infected him. All the premature babies in the ward were found to not have the virus, and the hospital is working alongside the Health Ministry to proceed with removing the workers of the ward out of quarantine per the regulations.

Some 53 people have recovered from the virus.

So far, more than 135,000 Israelis have spent time in quarantine. The Health Ministry said that 71,029 are in isolation now, including another member of Israel's government. Diaspora Affairs Minister Tzipi > Hotovely became the latest MK to enter home quarantine on Tuesday, bringing the number up to eight. Hotovely came in contact with a deputy director-general of her ministry who was later diagnosed with the virus. She will need to be quarantined until April 1.

Hotovely is the sixth MK from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-center bloc in quarantine, joining ministers Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud), Arye Deri (Shas), Bezalel Smotrich (Yamina) and Shas MKs Itzik Cohen and Moshe Abutbul. The only quarantined MKs from the left-center bloc are Alon Shuster and Ran Ben-Barak.

The number of infected people is expected to climb as Israel conducts more coronavirus tests. In the last 24 hours, more than 3,700 people were screened. On Monday, Magen David Adom opened up three more drive-through testing complexes: in Jerusalem, Beersheba and Haifa.

In total, according to the ministry, 27,054 tests had been taken by Tuesday morning.

Gil Hoffman and Eytan Halon contributed to this report.

[blue streak 1]

Has anyone else noted that the US unemployment figures for the last two weeks have not been released ?  Government censorship ?