Does the coronavirus merit investment, or personal, concern or consideration?

A pharmaceutical company in Israel is helping us out with that antimalarial drug . . . six million doses. Check out the price:

This drug from Israel might help. I hope so.

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So I’m looking at the numbers and at the current pace (and rate of increase), USA will be #1 in the number of confirmed cases in probably 4 days, beating Italy and flying past China. NY and NJ are blowing up, together accounting for > half of the total, with NYC accounting for > half of NY (quarter of the total).

At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if more drastic (draconian?) measures are taken in and around NYC.

Vaccine trials underway?

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That’s the biggest part of it. Also, most fridges today use cold air from the freezer which may freeze items close to the intake vent.

Anosmia had been identified as a marker for the virus. It is something easy for us to perceive. This is worth a read:

Lost sense of smell could be a peculiar clue to coronavirus infection

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That was about expected due to improvement in vaccine-platform technology (switch from growing proteins in bioreactors to messenger RNA). The main issue is clinical trials cannot be as easily compressed.

Phase 1 (safety and dosage) is usually short because of the scope. You deal with a few dozen people so results are pretty quick. You deliver the drug to healthy patients. If they don’t react well to the drug/vaccine, or if they don’t experience a reduction in symptoms/infection rate at the max tolerable dose, game over. Let’s be honest, you’re more or less only verifying animal in vivo assays so most drugs pass this. This can be done in 2-3 months.

Phase 2 and phase 3 is where you ramp up and look for side effects and drug interaction on larger populations and unfortunately, you can’t stop at short term side effects so the length of the trial can easily be doubled for each phase. Now for vaccines, it is shorter than for drugs but still I’d be stunned if we had a vaccine before the end of the year. Assuming the 2-3 early candidates go through, I’m thinking end of Phase I by early summer, end of Phase 2 by the end of the year, end of Phase 3 by next summer.

Bottom line, knowing what I know of clinical trials (arguably not that much since I’m only a chemist dealing with drug patents), if a vaccine were offered in 6 months, I’d pass on it myself. YMMV depending on your risk group though. If I had heart condition, diabetes, and asthma, and over 85, my answer could be very different lol :wink:

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Or a serious head injury. :face_with_head_bandage:

Nancy Pelosi has revealed proposed legislation to deal with the coronavirus-created economic catastrophe. Her proposal includes many Democrat “wish list” items completely unrelated to the ongoing crisis.

Do not take this lightly. Pelosi can move this Christmas tree through the House easily and quickly. One wonders, with their obstruction in the Senate, if this has not been the Democrat game plan all along.

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Does this one include X thousand/million dollars for abortion? This is definitely covid-19 related.

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Now for something that’s not politically related … well, I won’t make it politically related. :innocent:

I’ve looked but can’t find anyone taking wagers on next year’s birth rate or this years divorce rate. Anyone know of a source?
Thanks.

Never mind. FYI …

I do not know the answer to your question, but If Republicans can say that abortion is non-essential / elective surgery and should be stopped due to lack of medical supplies (see the news), then it’s only fair that Democrats make it essential and fund it.

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Soon the infected will be knocking on your doors at all hours of the day tricking people to go outside or let them inside your homes.

I don’t know. But there was talk of $30B in student loan forgiveness for 45 million borrowers. Because why give immediate help to everyone, when you can give lots of long term help to 10% of everyone…

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Really? The whole reason everyone is staying at home is to conserve medical resources (“flatten the curve”), and you’re ok with legislation that expressly diverts those resources away from the urgent matter in front of us? When hospitals are soliciting donations of basic supplies, you can be certain I wouldn’t be allowing any elective procedures.

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Like what specifically?

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/488543-house-democrats-eyeing-much-broader-phase-3-stimulus

“This is a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision,” Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told lawmakers, according to a source on the call.

Pelosi’s mammoth bill includes provisions to bail out the US postal service – one of the few industries likely to thrive under coronavirus-induced quarantine – and mandate “diversity ” on the boards of companies receiving stimulus funds. It also shoehorns in same-day voter registration and early voting requirements, as well as collective bargaining for federal employees and carbon-offset requirements for airlines receiving any of the money.

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Was kinda hoping everyone would just get their Sh#$ together and stop the partisan agenda just long enough but that was too much to wish for obviously. :frowning:

Some of the concerns about who’s bailed out and conditions for the bailout of some businesses seems legitimate to me to be honest. I think both sides should be extremely cautious about something that will add to the massive debt we already have. Considering the numbers thrown around like $500B for loans to companies, I’d think everyone should be in favor of some rigorous oversight of the program.

But the tacking on of junk totally unrelated like voters rights, mandated diversity, etc… is just insane and frankly irresponsible in the face of the urgency to get average Americans the means to weather this crisis. This is more like blackmail than civic responsibility to me and voters will make note of it for Novembers I hope.

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Strongly agree. No handouts for the filthy rich elites!! Glad Trump is on board.

Also agree strongly with this. The legislation should be about the coronavirus. It should NOT be a liberal wish list Christmas tree.

Pelosi is behind this, Schumer not as much I hope (not sure). Pelosi doesn’t give a damn about sick and dying American people. All she cares about is advancing her disgusting San Francisco liberal agenda. Period. She is despicable, and she is wildly unrepresentative of most of America.

Is there a site that shows the trend graph of confirmed cases?