Trains.com

An Over-reaction? Locked

31801 views
1479 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Monday, March 16, 2020 12:46 PM

ATLANTIC CENTRAL
I just want to know one thing, who is going to pay for this vacation I am supposed to take?

And, just one more reason to be glad I don't live in the crowded city...........there are deer in the back yard, and I am a good shot.

I'm at work as usual.........

Sheldon

Have seen deer making nocturnal visits to my driveway.  A corn field is about a 10 minute walk from the house.  See deer from time to time in the city's linear park.

It is tough to work remotely when all your not working is done at home already account retirement.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    September 2017
  • 5,636 posts
Posted by charlie hebdo on Monday, March 16, 2020 12:11 PM
  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Maryland
  • 12,897 posts
Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Monday, March 16, 2020 11:35 AM

I just want to know one thing, who is going to pay for this vacation I am supposed to take?

And, just one more reason to be glad I don't live in the crowded city...........there are deer in the back yard, and I am a good shot.

I'm at work as usual.........

Sheldon

    

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Monday, March 16, 2020 5:45 AM

Boston Globe Headline:

The first participant in a clinical trial for a vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus will receive an experimental dose on Monday, according to a government official.  (USA)

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, March 15, 2020 11:29 PM

Glad to see something positive.  Here is some advice from a friend regarding how you can help should you know someone in isolation, whether or not they are actually sick.  I've tried to comply with the rules by removing specifically religious advice, but if there are complaints, post them, and I will edit accordingly.

The threat of the coronavirus is sending more people into quarantine every day, and most, especially the elderly, are feeling scared and powerless. A key principle is the importance of chessed, kindness, and even now there are many things that we can safely do to help others. Moreover, while we're helping others, we’re also keeping ourselves busy with positive thoughts and actions that distract us from the general undercurrent of negativity and fear, replacing it with kindness, goodness and gratitude—something we all need at this time!
1. Stay in Touch
No time before in history has it been as simple to stay connected with people in real time. Whether you're Skyping, Tweeting, using WhatsApp, FaceTime or Google Hangouts, or just talking on the phone, you can share news, offer encouragement, and give others the feeling they are not alone and that you are thinking of them.
2. Offer to Bring Groceries or Run Errands
Being locked up for two weeks makes it difficult to take care of everyday tasks, errands and appointments. Offer to bring things to people’s homes—groceries, work from the office, Sudoku puzzles, inspirational books or reading material, drop off or pick up packages at the post office, or anything else they might need—and leave it outside their door.
 
4. Send a Virtual Card
Send your quarantined acquaintance a funny get well card from one of the many virtual greeting card companies. You can also send funny jokes, short insights, interesting stories, or inspirational videos.
5. Learn Over the Phone
 
Share an interesting  class that you went to, or study via the phone together. Learning is a great way to make someone homebound feel productive and inject them with a healing dose of spirituality.
6. Bring a Bowl of Chicken Soup or whatever your friend enjoys most.
 
Bake a cake, bring a home-cooked meal or some chicken soup, or a special treat from a store that you know they love. Leave it outside their door, then call them and say, “Dinner is served.”
7. Livestream What They’re Missing
If you're at an event that they're missing – a wedding or bar mitzvah – livestream it so they get to feel part of the celebration, or allow them to video chat with the hosts and wish them Good Luck"
8. Ask Their Advice
Helping someone feel that they are still needed even when they are in need of help themselves is a wonderful gift. Call to ask their advice on a problem you're having.
9. Help Them Reframe with Positive Thinking
 
Help them reframe and focus on the positive aspects of being in quarantine. They get a rest. They have time to devote to projects they’ve been neglecting. They can spend time with family members that are quarantined with them. Moreover, the whole idea of quarantine is to try and keep as many people healthy as possible, so whoever is subjected to this hiatus from regular life is actually helping keep others stay healthy and there is no greater good deed.

Rosally Saltsman is a freelance writer originally from Montreal living in Israel

  • Member since
    September 2010
  • 2,515 posts
Posted by Electroliner 1935 on Sunday, March 15, 2020 10:44 PM

BaltACD
Went out for my normal afternoon walk - I don't, in 12 years of walking this neighborhood, I have ever seen so many people out walking or running - EVER - and the temperature is in the low 50's with a 5-10 MPH North/Northeast wind.

My wife and I can't go to the park districts recreation center (avoid crowds) so we took a walk and saw three other couples walking. Maybe those in your neighborhood were needing exercise.

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • 4,557 posts
Posted by Convicted One on Sunday, March 15, 2020 8:14 PM

Flintlock76
but it's a BRITISH film, why would they mention American mis-governance?   

Your mention of 1917 inspired my recall of other contemporary events.  According to accounts I've read, the local chapter of the Council for Defense even went door to door demanding that German Americans buy war bonds on the spot just to prove their loyalty.  Those who did not give freely enough were deemed disloyal and subjected to physical intimidation, and when even that failed to produce the desired results many were summoned  to defend their non-compliance in self proclaimed Council of Defense courts, (despite  the Council having no authority to administer trials whatsoever). Many of those targeted for such harrassment had been local residents since the 1840s and 1850s.

Indeed, she's a grande olde flag, warts and all.

 

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 9,728 posts
Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, March 15, 2020 6:42 PM

Convicted One

 

 
Flintlock76
By the way, if you haven't seen "1917" do so!  Great film!  Can't beat it as a period piece, attention to detail is superb!  The story?  It's a story.

 

Ah yes, "The Alien enemies Act of 1917" and the quasi-governmental "Council of Defense" mobilizing chapters across the country to bully and coerce German-Americans to demonstrate their loyalty through means often not short of duress. Those were the days! 

 

Huh?

I know what you're talking about but it's a BRITISH film, why would they mention American mis-governance?   

  • Member since
    December 2007
  • From: Georgia USA SW of Atlanta
  • 11,919 posts
Posted by blue streak 1 on Sunday, March 15, 2020 5:41 PM

Corona-19 has been stated as more contagious than its cousin SARS.

https://www.alleseuropa.net/u-s-researchers-find-coronavirus-corona19-more-contagious-than-sars/ 

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 9,728 posts
Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, March 15, 2020 5:27 PM

I'm a bit reluctant to comment on school closings since I have no kids of my own.  I'm not sure what to think.  On one had I think two week closings may bit a bit excessive, on the other maybe one week isn't enough.  It's certainly going to cause disruptions in homes, as in, parents wondering just what they're going to do with the kids for two weeks.  And if it's a two-income household? 

And at any rate, those two weeks are going to have to be made up sometime.

But as was stated earlier children don't seem to be affected all that much, if at all.

It's a judgement call I probably shouldn't critisize.

One call I think was extemely foolish was the Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey advising people to buy two week's worth of groceries and home supplies.  All that's done is exacerbate panic buying.  The governor of Viginia, a doctor himself, has made no such call.  That doesn't mean the panic buying hasn't reached here too.

I just read an interesting on-line article on CNBC where, in a nutshell, psychologists have explained the panic buying as a manifestion in some people of an assertion of control, a reaction to a situation where they feel they have no control at all.  Makes sense. 

Anyway, the wife and I haven't changed our shopping habits at all.  We even went out to dinner last night at a new barbecue place that just opened.  Considering this is a rough time to open a business like that we wanted to help the proprietors a bit.  Cars in the parking lot usually lead to more cars in the parking lot.  Know what?  It worked!  And the food was damn good too!

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • 4,557 posts
Posted by Convicted One on Sunday, March 15, 2020 5:19 PM

Flintlock76
By the way, if you haven't seen "1917" do so!  Great film!  Can't beat it as a period piece, attention to detail is superb!  The story?  It's a story.

Ah yes, "The Alien enemies Act of 1917" and the quasi-governmental "Council of Defense" mobilizing chapters across the country to bully and coerce German-Americans to demonstrate their loyalty through means often not short of duress. Those were the days! 

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • 4,557 posts
Posted by Convicted One on Sunday, March 15, 2020 5:09 PM

Flintlock76
maybe everyone's out walkin' 'cause there's no sports on the tube? 

So, how do you feel personally about them closing the public schools? All the major school systems in my country are locked down. And I think it's a wise move. Those schools are a huge potential vector, imo.

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • 4,557 posts
Posted by Convicted One on Sunday, March 15, 2020 5:05 PM

BaltACD
efore then. TP - Gone Paper Towels - Gone Chicken - Gone Ham - Gone Sliced Cheese - Gone Shredded Cheese - normal quantity displayed Bread - 90% Gone Liquid Dairy products - appear available in normal quantities.

Gas is below $2.00/gallon too, gotta recognize the good with the bad.

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 9,728 posts
Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, March 15, 2020 4:16 PM

zugmann

But then again, 100+ years ago, the whole world pretty much was trying to kill you. What was a little flu?

 

Yes, guess depending on where you lived or where you were.  The Western Front was a pretty unhealthy place to be, in more ways than one! 

By the way, if you haven't seen "1917" do so!  Great film!  Can't beat it as a period piece, attention to detail is superb!  The story?  It's a story.

Balt, maybe everyone's out walkin' 'cause there's no sports on the tube? 

By the way, I can't figure out the runs (no pun intended) on TP.  I've read the symptoms of COVID-19 and I don't recall "The Poops" being one of them. 

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Sunday, March 15, 2020 4:06 PM

Made my normal Sunday trip to the grocery store.  From the condition of the shelves people must be stocking up to tide them through to the Autumnal Equinox - if what they bought this week doesn't spoil before then.

TP - Gone
Paper Towels - Gone
Chicken - Gone
Ham - Gone
Sliced Cheese - Gone
Shredded Cheese - normal quantity displayed
Bread - 90% Gone
Liquid Dairy products - appear available in normal quantities.

Went out for my normal afternoon walk - I don't, in 12 years of walking this neighborhood, I have ever seen so many people out walking or running - EVER - and the temperature is in the low 50's with a 5-10 MPH North/Northeast wind.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    January 2002
  • From: Canterlot
  • 9,575 posts
Posted by zugmann on Sunday, March 15, 2020 3:58 PM

But then again, 100+ years ago, the whole world pretty much was trying to kill you. What was a little flu?

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: At the Crossroads of the West
  • 11,013 posts
Posted by Deggesty on Sunday, March 15, 2020 3:27 PM

As to the flu, a cousin of my mother died; I do not kow how old she was, perhaps ten or younger--and her mother also had the flu, and she lived for many years more, dying in 1954, full of years. So far as I know, my mother (about 23 years old at the time) did not have the flu.

Johnny

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 9,728 posts
Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, March 15, 2020 12:40 PM

York1

 

 
Flintlock76
The interesting thing is, I haven't heard or seen any reports of any children coming down with coronavirus, unless I've missed something, but I don't think I have.

 

 

I read a report that said some children had gotten the virus, but that in the entire world, not one child ten-years-old or younger had died from it.  Amazing!

 

Something like the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1919.  The disease attacked adults in the age bracket of 20-50, children or young adults less than 20 (for the most part) didn't seem to be affected, although I believe there were exceptions.

Most adults over 50 didn't seem to be susceptible to it either, although there were exceptions too.  Odd how these things work. 

There's no-one living now who remembers the Spanish Flu from first-hand experience (it killed more people than the First World War did, fifty to sixty million)  but I can't help but think if there were they'd be laughing at the panic over COVID-19.

"You people don't know what terror really means!"  

  • Member since
    February 2018
  • From: Flyover Country
  • 5,557 posts
Posted by York1 on Sunday, March 15, 2020 12:08 PM

Flintlock76
The interesting thing is, I haven't heard or seen any reports of any children coming down with coronavirus, unless I've missed something, but I don't think I have.

 

I read a report that said some children had gotten the virus, but that in the entire world, not one child ten-years-old or younger had died from it.  Amazing!

York1 John       

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 9,728 posts
Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, March 15, 2020 11:22 AM

The interesting thing is, I haven't heard or seen any reports of any children coming down with coronavirus, unless I've missed something, but I don't think I have.

Those that get it all seem to be mature adults, by that I mean ages 20 and older. 

Interesting, if that's the case.  

  • Member since
    December 2017
  • From: I've been everywhere, man
  • 4,269 posts
Posted by SD70Dude on Sunday, March 15, 2020 10:59 AM

BaltACD

I am of the opinion that as a society we have become 'too clean'. The  Immune System is the figher of the human body.  Like all fighters it needs to be exercised to stay 'sharp' and 'in shape' to be able to do its job.  Humans living in a agrarian society were surrounded on a daily basis with all sorts of 'attackers' that the immune system would spar with and remain active.  In the urban enviornments of a century ago there were more than enough opponents to keep the immune system working to protect us.

50 or 60 years ago did we EVER hear of all the common food allergies that seem to afflict children (for the most part) in todays world.  Children, I hypotheses, that have been raised in a 'hyper clean' situation where their immune system has been 'looking for a fight' and instead of finding a real opponent of disease or other contagion has picked on a food source just to have something to fight.

I am not a doctor and have had NO MEDICAL TRAINING - YMMV.

I suspect that in the past many children who had conditions such as food allergies or weak immune systems would die at a young age, for no apparent reason other than being 'sickly'. 

However, I agree that playing outside in the dirt is good for kids, having done a lot of that myself in my younger days. 

I'm also not a doctor and have NO MEDICAL TRAINING.

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, March 15, 2020 9:56 AM

As regards AIDS, this is from the New York Times:

H.I.V. Is Reported Cured in a Second Patient, a Milestone in the Global AIDS Epidemic
Scientists have long tried to duplicate the procedure that led to the first long-term remission 12 years ago. With the so-called London patient, they seem to have succeeded.
A colored transmission electron micrograph of the H.I.V. virus, in green, attaching to a white blood cell, in orange.Credit...NIBSC/Science Source
By Apoorva Mandavilli
For just the second time since the global epidemic began, a patient appears to have been cured of infection with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.
The news comes nearly 12 years to the day after the first patient known to be cured, a feat that researchers have long tried, and failed, to duplicate. The surprise success now confirms that a cure for H.I.V. infection is possible, if difficult, researchers said.
The investigators are to publish their report on Tuesday in the journal Nature and to present some of the details at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle.
Publicly, the scientists are describing the case as a long-term remission. In interviews, most experts are calling it a cure, with the caveat that it is hard to know how to define the word when there are only two known instances.

Both milestones resulted from bone-marrow transplants given to infected patients. But the transplants were intended to treat cancer in the patients, not H.I.V.

Bone-marrow transplantation is unlikely to be a realistic treatment option in the near future. Powerful drugs are now available to control H.I.V. infection, while the transplants are risky, with harsh side effects that can last for years

But rearming the body with immune cells similarly modified to resist H.I.V. might well succeed as a practical treatment, experts said.

“This will inspire people that cure is not a dream,” said Dr. Annemarie Wensing, a virologist at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands. “It’s reachable.”

Dr. Wensing is co-leader of IciStem, a consortium of European scientists studying stem cell transplants to treat H.I.V. infection. The consortium is supported by AMFAR, the American AIDS research organization.

The new patient has chosen to remain anonymous, and the scientists referred to him only as the “London patient.”

“I feel a sense of responsibility to help the doctors understand how it happened so they can develop the science,” he told The New York Timesin an email.

 
Learning that he could be cured of both cancer and H.I.V. infection was “surreal” and “overwhelming,” he added. “I never thought that there would be a cure during my lifetime.”

At the same conference in 2007, a German doctor described the first such cure in the “Berlin patient,” later identified as Timothy Ray Brown, 52, who now lives in Palm Springs, Calif.

That news, displayed on a poster at the back of a conference room, initially gained little attention. Once it became clear that Mr. Brown was cured, scientists set out to duplicate his result with other cancer patients infected with H.I.V.

In case after case, the virus came roaring back, often around nine months after the patients stopped taking antiretroviral drugs, or else the patients died of cancer. The failures left scientists wondering whether Mr. Brown’s cure would remain a fluke.

 

Advertisement

 

Mr. Brown had had leukemia, and after chemotherapy failed to stop it, needed two bone-marrow transplants.

The transplants were from a donor with a mutation in a protein called CCR5, which rests on the surface of certain immune cells. H.I.V. uses the protein to enter those cells but cannot latch on to the mutated version.

Mr. Brown was given harsh immunosuppressive drugs of a kind that are no longer used, and suffered intense complications for months after the transplant. He was placed in an induced coma at one point and nearly died.

 

“He was really beaten up by the whole procedure,” said Dr. Steven Deeks, an AIDS expert at the University of California, San Francisco, who has treated Mr. Brown. “And so we’ve always wondered whether all that conditioning, a massive amount of destruction to his immune system, explained why Timothy was cured but no one else.”

 

The London patient has answered that question: A near-death experience is not required for the procedure to work.

He had Hodgkin’s lymphoma and received a bone-marrow transplant from a donor with the CCR5 mutation in May 2016. He, too, received immunosuppressive drugs, but the treatment was much less intense, in line with current standards for transplant patients.

 

He quit taking anti-H.I.V. drugs in September 2017, making him the first patient since Mr. Brown known to remain virus-free for more than a year after stopping.

“I think this does change the game a little bit,” said Dr. Ravindra Gupta, a virologist at University College London who presented the findings at the Seattle meeting. “Everybody believed after the Berlin patient that you needed to nearly die basically to cure H.I.V., but now maybe you don’t.”

Although the London patient was not as ill as Mr. Brown had been after the transplant, the procedure worked about as well: The transplant destroyed the cancer without harmful side effects. The transplanted immune cells, now resistant to H.I.V., seem to have fully replaced his vulnerable cells.

Most people with the H.I.V.-resistant mutation, called delta 32, are of Northern European descent. IciStem maintains a database of about 22,000 such donors.

So far, its scientists are tracking 38 H.I.V.-infected people who have received bone-marrow transplants, including six from donors without the mutation.

The London patient is 36 on this list. Another one, number 19 on the list and referred to as the “Düsseldorf patient,” has been off anti-H.I.V. drugs for four months. Details of that case will be presented at the Seattle conference later this week.

The consortium’s scientists have repeatedly analyzed the London patient’s blood for signs of the virus. They saw a weak indication of continued infection in one of 24 tests, but say this may be the result of contamination in the sample.

The most sensitive test did not find any circulating virus. Antibodies to H.I.V. were still present in his blood, but their levels declined over time, in a trajectory similar to that seen in Mr. Brown.

None of this guarantees that the London patient is forever out of the woods, but the similarities to Mr. Brown’s recovery offer reason for optimism, Dr. Gupta said.

“In a way, the only person to compare with directly is the Berlin patient,” he said. “That’s kind of the only standard we have at the moment.”

Second Patient Appears Cured of H.I.V., ‘Giving Hope to H.I.V. Positive People’

Timothy Ray Brown, the first person to be cured of H.I.V., and Dr. Ravindra Gupta, a virologist, speak on the second patient who appears to have been cured of an H.I.V. infection. That patient has chosen to remain anonymous.

“Yes, I would like to meet the London patient very much. I would say, take your time in— If you want to become public, do it. And it’s been very useful for science and for giving hope to H.I.V. positive people.” “We waited 16 months before stopping in the post-transplant period just to make sure that the cancer was in remission, the patient was well and that the measures we had of the H.I.V. reservoir in the body showed that there was very, very little virus there if any at all. And at that point, we stopped the treatment. And so we’re now 18 months in and we’re confident that this will be a long-term remission, but it’s too early to say as to whether this is a cure or not.”

Second Patient Appears Cured of H.I.V., ‘Giving Hope to H.I.V. Positive People’

Timothy Ray Brown, the first person to be cured of H.I.V., and Dr. Ravindra Gupta, a virologist, speak on the second patient who appears to have been cured of an H.I.V. infection. That patient has chosen to remain anonymous.CreditCredit...Jane Stockdale for The New York Times

Most experts who know the details agree that the new case seems like a legitimate cure, but some are uncertain of its relevance for AIDS treatment overall.

“I’m not sure what this tells us,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “It was done with Timothy Ray Brown, and now here’s another case — ok, so now what? Now where do we go with it?”

One possibility, said Dr. Deeks and others, is to develop gene-therapy approaches to knock out CCR5 on immune cells or their predecessor stem cells. Resistant to H.I.V. infection, these modified cells should eventually clear the body of the virus.

(CCR5 is the protein that He Jiankui, a scientist in China, claimed to have modified with gene editing in at least two children, in an attempt to make them resistant to H.I.V. — an experiment that set off international condemnation.)

Several companies are pursuing gene therapies but have not yet been successful. The modification must target the right number of cells, in the right place — only the bone marrow, for example, and not the brain — and tweak only the genes directing production of CCR5.

“There are a number of levels of precision that must be reached,” said Dr. Mike McCune, a senior adviser on global health to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. “There are also concerns that you might do something untoward, and if so you might wish to have a kill switch.”

Several teams are working on all of these obstacles, Dr. McCune said. Eventually, they may be able to develop a viral delivery system that, when injected into the body, seeks out all CCR5 receptors and deletes them, or even a donor stem cell that is resistant to H.I.V. but could be given to any patient.

“These are dreams, right? Things on the drawing table,” Dr. McCune said. “These dreams are motivated by cases like this — it helps us to imagine what might be done in the future.”

One important caveat to any such approach is that the patient would still be vulnerable to a form of H.I.V. called X4, which employs a different protein, CXCR4, to enter cells.

“This is only going to work if someone has a virus that really only uses CCR5 for entry — and that’s actually probably about 50 percent of the people who are living with H.I.V., if not less,” said Dr. Timothy J. Henrich, an AIDS specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.

Even if a person harbors only a small number of X4 viruses, they may multiply in the absence of competition from their viral cousins. There is at least one reported case of an individual who got a transplant from a delta 32 donor but later rebounded with the X4 virus. (As a precaution against X4, Mr. Brown is taking a daily pill to prevent H.I.V. infection.)

Mr. Brown says he is hopeful that the London patient’s cure proves as durable as his own. “If something has happened once in medical science, it can happen again,” Mr. Brown said. “I’ve been waiting for company for a long time.”

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, March 15, 2020 9:41 AM

Charlie, I only report on what I read in the Jerusalem Post.  I do not make up things out of my head and you are wrong to accuse me of doing so.  I will try to find he AIDS cure on the web and point it out to you.

But the main point is that our local Health Ministry has stated the four people have been cured of Coronavirus.  There possibly may actually be seven.  That should bring hope to those who otherwise said it is incurable, as was said of AIDS.

  • Member since
    September 2017
  • 5,636 posts
Posted by charlie hebdo on Sunday, March 15, 2020 9:00 AM

Chloroquine and/or hydroxychloroquine are being shown to be an effective as prophylaxis. It is an old drug,  used for years for several conditions including rheumatoid arthritis.

  • Member since
    September 2017
  • 5,636 posts
Posted by charlie hebdo on Sunday, March 15, 2020 8:50 AM

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/coronavirus-the-urgent-search-for-a-cure-for-covid-19-a-fd4c9a3a-ab4e-4590-b95b-a1c01d8b9d61

Treatment options.  Trump tried to bribe the now ex-CEO of a German company to have the medication for profit and exclusively for Americans.  Utterly irreponsonsible.

You made an unsupported claim previously ,  likely untrue about AIDS.  You should retract it and stop such posts. 

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, March 15, 2020 2:13 AM
Israeli scientists: 'In a few weeks, we will have coronavirus vaccine'
Once the vaccine is developed, it will take at least 90 days to complete the regulatory process and potentially more to enter the marketplace.
MARCH 10, 2020 15:52
Israeli scientists are on the cusp of developing the first vaccine against the novel coronavirus, according to Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis. If all goes as planned, the vaccine could be ready within a few weeks and available in 90 days, according to a release.
 
“Congratulations to MIGAL [The Galilee Research Institute] on this exciting breakthrough,” Akunis said. “I am confident there will be further rapid progress, enabling us to provide a needed response to the grave global COVID-19 threat,” Akunis said, referring to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
 
For the past four years, a team of MIGAL scientists has been developing a vaccine against infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), which causes a bronchial disease affecting poultry. The effectiveness of the vaccine has been proven in preclinical trials carried out at the Veterinary Institute.  MIGAL is located in the Galilee.
 
“Our basic concept was to develop the technology and not specifically a vaccine for this kind or that kind of virus,” said Dr. Chen Katz, MIGAL’s biotechnology group leader. “The scientific framework for the vaccine is based on a new protein expression vector, which forms and secretes a chimeric soluble protein that delivers the viral antigen into mucosal tissues by self-activated endocytosis, causing the body to form antibodies against the virus.”
Endocytosis is a cellular process in which substances are brought into a cell by surrounding the material with cell membrane, forming a vesicle containing the ingested material.
 
In preclinical trials, the team demonstrated that the oral vaccination induces high levels of specific anti-IBV antibodies, Katz said.
 
“Let’s call it pure luck,” he said. “We decided to choose coronavirus as a model for our system just as a proof of concept for our technology.”
 
But after scientists sequenced the DNA of the novel coronavirus causing the current worldwide outbreak, the MIGAL researchers examined it and found that the poultry coronavirus has high genetic similarity to the human one, and that it uses the same infection mechanism, which increases the likelihood of achieving an effective human vaccine in a very short period of time, Katz said.
 
“All we need to do is adjust the system to the new sequence,” he said. “We are in the middle of this process, and hopefully in a few weeks we will have the vaccine in our hands. Yes, in a few weeks, if it all works, we would have a vaccine to prevent coronavirus.”
MIGAL would be responsible for developing the new vaccine, but it would then have to go through a regulatory process, including clinical trials and large-scale production, Katz said.
Akunis said he has instructed his ministry’s director-general to fast-track all approval processes with the goal of bringing the human vaccine to market as quickly as possible.
 
“Given the urgent global need for a human coronavirus vaccine, we are doing everything we can to accelerate development,” MIGAL CEO David Zigdon said. The vaccine could “achieve safety approval in 90 days,” he said.
 
It will be an oral vaccine, making it particularly accessible to the general public, Zigdon said.
“We are currently in intensive discussions with potential partners that can help accelerate the in-human trials phase and expedite completion of final-product development and regulatory activities,” he said.
 
  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, March 15, 2020 1:50 AM

From Jerusalem Post this morningL

200 Israelis have tested positive for coronavirus, 157 of whom are hospitalized and five more are expected to be hospitalized, the Health Ministry reported on Sunday morning. According to the ministry just two of the 200 are in serious condition, 11 are in moderate condition, 178 are in light condition and four are considered to be recovered. The four patients who recovered have been sent home.

My count is a total of 197.  The missing three may be the three called recovered earlier, or possibly there is another explanaition.

 
  • Member since
    April 2007
  • 4,557 posts
Posted by Convicted One on Saturday, March 14, 2020 8:06 PM

GERALD L MCFARLANE JR
Here's the latest idiocy from the CDC, slow the spread using "social distancing" so that we don't overwhelm our medical facilities and have far more deaths than necessary and this should be over with in ONE to TWO years.  I'd rather let the disease take it's course over a shorter time frame and get back to normal sooner rather than later.  Don't quarantine, don't isolate, as a matter of fact I don't even worry about it, if I get it I'll let my body develop it's own immunities, don't want a man-made vacine that will just be circumvented by the disease mutating.  It's in the same family as SARS(35% mortality), MERS(10% mortality) and EBOLA(50% mortality) with COVID-19 right now at about .1% mortality, now tell me why we should be freaking out over this?

Well, according to the McFarland Clinic:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSJfwuAzY1M

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Saturday, March 14, 2020 6:02 PM

blue streak 1
Anti virals are the only thing that will help but not a cure.  I believe that so far there is only one person has been treated to be free of HIV ?   Let us hope a vacine can be produced before every person  that will catch covid=19 does catch it.

TV has been advertizing a number of products aimed at reducing the HIV virus load below detectable levels.  To one extent or another they must be effective (and if they are being advertized on TV they MUST BE EXPENSIVE).

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    September 2010
  • 2,515 posts
Posted by Electroliner 1935 on Saturday, March 14, 2020 5:59 PM

PJS1
NKP guy    This might be a simple test for those who believe the public is "over-reacting":

1.  Which airline or Amtrak tickets have you bought this week or are willing to commit to for next week?

2.  Name the common stocks you bought this week or will commit to for next week.

1. I had Amtrak tickets Chicago - Ann Arbor to attend my granddaughters Masters degree graduation but it was cancelled. Just got a refund on the refundable ticket and a voucher on the non refunadable.

2. I have not sold any of my stocks. I can't time the market and while I think it will recover much of it loss in the next two years as it did in 2008, it was at highs that were, in my opinion unsustainable. Also, I hold stocks that have decent dividends and don't buy to speculate. And where would I put it? 0.9% interest doen't seem attractive to me.

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy