The key may not be a vaccine but simply staying alive. Covid-19 kills with a "cytokine storm": cytochine release syndrome(cytokine storm): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_release_syndrome Article discussing coronavirus et al and cytochine storm: "Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China" https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6... From the article:…
Get Real: no drug or vaccine will avoid a very big coronavirus epidemic
71–80 of 262 posts
Re: Get Real: no drug or vaccine will avoid a very big coronavirus epidemic
#72I know Derek Lowe is an expert. However, sometimes, experts think that because things have always been a certain way throughout their career, they will always be like that. Drug development has been very conservative especially in the US for the past several decades. The FDA is all about making sure they never have a thalidomide incident and would rather lose a lot of good drugs than approve a bad drug. This is the s…
Re: Get Real: no drug or vaccine will avoid a very big coronavirus epidemic
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
`...would rather lose a lot of good drugs than approve a bad drug.` Thanks for saying this, and rightfully so! Approving a bad drug in the world where distribution channels are very well set up could have disastrous effects. We can point to things like the opioid crisis in the USA right now - a drug that is so addictive it should have never been put into use the way it was.
Also see thalidomide in Europe
Re: Get Real: no drug or vaccine will avoid a very big coronavirus epidemic
#74I know COVID19 is different from a regular flu, but is it more serious? "Regular" flu is very contagious and kills lots of people every year. It's ok to study coronavirus and to try to find ways to effectively manage it, combat it or prevent the disease -- but why are we panicking? Nobody panics about the flu and it's proven to be fatal for a lot of people every year. Why the panic with coronavirus, why are people in this very thread worrying about "the death toll"? Is there any projection that the death toll is going to be higher than usual for a flu?
For what it's worth, my doctor told me "it's like a flu, don't worry". A doctor friend of mine told me the same.
Re: Get Real: no drug or vaccine will avoid a very big coronavirus epidemic
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have met Derek Lowe personally. He's got 35 years in the game as a bench chemist working on theraputics and knows this world inside and out. What are your similarly long-term credentials that give you such definitive knowledge?
^ and he's still wrong. There are several drugs and vaccines undergoing trials as we speak, and being given to patients in China. At least two drugs, Remdesivir and Chloroquine have shown efficacy already. Chloroquine is a generic that costs a dollar a bucket and can be produced in any quantity.
Re: Get Real: no drug or vaccine will avoid a very big coronavirus epidemic
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/03/trumps-ba... “And how long would that take?” Trump asked. The CEO said it would take months and then head into phase three. “All right. So you’re talking within a year.” “A year to a year and a half,” Fauci again clarified. “Well, but, Lenny is talking about two months, right?” Trump said, incorrectly referring to Schleifer’s August estimate. “A little — a little lon…
I would love if some absurdly rich person started an initiative donating life-changing money, like a few hundred millions or so, to any expert who finds himself in a situation being asked questions like this by the president and who then stands up to Trumps' stupid Hey-I'm-the-frickin-president-and-you-don't-want-to-say-no-to-me-that's-why-I-just-stubbornly-suggest-what-I-want-to-hear-long-enough-until-you-give-up ta…
Re: Get Real: no drug or vaccine will avoid a very big coronavirus epidemic
#77I see a lot of panicky comments, both in real life and in this very thread. I know COVID19 is different from a regular flu, but is it more serious? "Regular" flu is very contagious and kills lots of people every year. It's ok to study coronavirus and to try to find ways to effectively manage it, combat it or prevent the disease -- but why are we panicking? Nobody panics about the flu and it's proven to be fatal for a…
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/03/who-says-coronavirus-death-r...
Re: Get Real: no drug or vaccine will avoid a very big coronavirus epidemic
#78Scientific agreement seems to be that ~60-70% of the population will get infected. It is just not sure if within months or (hopefully!) years. And no drugs within at least one year. Edit: Source => Original in German here: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/gesundheit/krankheiten-experte-e... Express UK translated it here: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1249963/Coronavirus-n... The guy interview is Prof. Drosten. He…
Although obviously the accuracy of China's data is in question, it's promising that they were able to get the reproduction rate below 1 pretty quickly. And within Wuhan itself the spreading seems to have slowed with something like 0.6% of the population of 11 million infected.
Not to mention in China outside of Wuhan/Hubei, which have conditions much more similar to most of the rest of the world in having some advanced warning of the virus, the spread seems also to have slowed down at a much much lower infection rate.
Based on this information it's not clear to me where the "40-70% of the world getting infected" idea is coming from, though I've seen a few headlines reporting that too.
Re: Get Real: no drug or vaccine will avoid a very big coronavirus epidemic
#79I see a lot of panicky comments, both in real life and in this very thread. I know COVID19 is different from a regular flu, but is it more serious? "Regular" flu is very contagious and kills lots of people every year. It's ok to study coronavirus and to try to find ways to effectively manage it, combat it or prevent the disease -- but why are we panicking? Nobody panics about the flu and it's proven to be fatal for a…
That fatality rate average masks that it is far deadlier for the elderly and high risk patients, with as much as 10-20% fatality rate for that demographic.
Re: Get Real: no drug or vaccine will avoid a very big coronavirus epidemic
#80The key may not be a vaccine but simply staying alive. Covid-19 kills with a "cytokine storm": cytochine release syndrome(cytokine storm): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_release_syndrome Article discussing coronavirus et al and cytochine storm: "Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China" https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6... From the article:…