SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

the post mentions only c

i thought it might be a shout out to rob

 

Applied for lab rat status:


Bob Wilson

 

milk aisle

 

so it is c?

 

at least we aren't discussing bra sizes...

 

A new drug cocktail . Triple combination therapy shows promise for COVID-19 patients

 

I like the approach because I've long suspected there won't be a single 'magic bullet.' Still I throughly agree with the critics that a double-blind study of a larger number of patients is needed.

Bob Wilson

 

'mt sinai comes up with a near perfect antibody test'

 

IMHO, we'll also need active RNA sequencing as this large virus, ~30,000 sequences(?), can mutate rapidly:
Will Covid-19 mutate into a more dangerous virus? | World news | The Guardian

Tracing the variants is going to be critical for tuning effective vaccine(s), likely a cocktail, along with a cocktail of anti-virals for treatment. This is a tricky, tough bug.

Bob Wilson

 

GISAID is doing just that. GISAID - Next hCoV-19 App

Over 17,000 samples have been already sequenced so far and hundreds more each day. Although the sequence variants show a clear phylogenetic network traceable to funder strains, most of the variations happened in the hypermutable area of the SARS-CoV-2 genome with no change in coded amino acids so far. Still, ~198 homoplastic mutations in coding regions have been identified among the variations suggesting some adaptive value to host infection. Aided with this genomic information, most drugs and/or vaccines are targeted at conserved regions of the viral genome.

 

Why do people think an effective vaccine will be developed for this when we have been unable to develop a vaccine for any coronavirus?

 

DEATH!

The risk of death is a powerful motivator. In the early 1980s, HIV had fatal consequences, AIDS, but in 2020 there are TV commercials for HIV medications and the AIDS death rate has significantly fallen.

An innocuous coronavirus infection in the past was not fatal. There were over-the-counter meds for the symptoms like chicken soup, and staying home for a couple of days. Many (including me) went back to work after over-the-counter meds suppressed the symptoms. But add a 1-in-20 chance of death and 1-in-5 chance of hospitalization, the motivation and economics changed.

As clever as this virus is, it has attracted the attention and probably at least orders of magnitude attention. For example, at least one research lab working on another virus has volunteered to augment the COVID-19 testing pool. They have the equipment and staff but not a medical 'waver' to offer their services.

This virus has lots of opportunity to mutate but it is against a clever critter, homo sapiens. We may not (have not) instantly resolved its tricks but we are far from helpless.

Bob Wilson

 

There are plenty of healthy skepticisms among the scientific/medical community that 100% effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 is not attainable. Still, even a partially effective vaccine is better than none. At the moment, no one knows for sure how the innate immunity of human works against COVID19. There are some reporting recovered patients who are turning positive virus PCR tests, indicating that some may not develop immunity or if they do it is very short-lived. But the hope is a great motivator, so people persevere.

 

You also have people like Gates who say the world is overpopulated by 25% wanting to push his vaccine. We have no way of detecting any ulterior motive.