[DigitalOne]

New coronavirus losing potency, top Italian doctor says

Link

“In reality, the virus clinically no longer exists in Italy,” said Alberto Zangrillo, the head of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan in the northern region of Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of Italy’s coronavirus contagion.

“The swabs that were performed over the last 10 days showed a viral load in quantitative terms that was absolutely infinitesimal compared to the ones carried out a month or two months ago,” he told RAI television.

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

New coronavirus losing potency, top Italian doctor says

Link

--------------------------------------------
WHO and other experts say no evidence of COVID-19 losing potency

Link

World Health Organization experts and a range of other scientists said there was no evidence to support an assertion by a high profile Italian doctor that the coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic has been losing potency.

[DCEite]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

--------------------------------------------
WHO and other experts say no evidence of COVID-19 losing potency

Link

Between the W.H.O and a doctor, i would anyday trust the doctor more.

Heck, even between W.H.O and a politician, i would trust a politician more, even if it concerns a medical theory.

[srini1785]

An allegory to the way we are fighting corona. I am told that this is somewhere in chennai. Got this as a whats app forward yesterday.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7u8pkf

A superb example of stupidity all over. Note the following.

1. The first bike barely misses the oncoming van
2. The first guard pours water on fire.
3. Neither guard knows how to operate the extinguisher.
4. When the fire puts off by itself , all is back to normal and the other guy swipes his card on the reader.

No hurt so all fine.

[aaggoswami]

Russia to Roll out its Covid19 Medicine next week.

From the article :

Dmitriev said clinical trials of the drug had been conducted involving 330 people, and had shown that it successfully treated the virus in most cases within four days.

The trials were due to be concluded in around a week, he said, but the health ministry had given its approval for the drug’s use under a special accelerated process and manufacturing had begun in March.

Dmitriev said Russia was able to cut testing timescales because the Japanese generic drug which Avifavir is based on was first registered in 2014 and had undergone significant testing before Russian specialists modified it.

“We believe this is a game changer. It will reduce strain on the healthcare system, we’ll have fewer people getting into a critical condition,” said Dmitriev. “We believe that the drug is key to resuming full economic activity in Russia.”

Finally should we expect the Russian medicine to be available to us and help us get back what our lives were before Covid19 ?

[DCEite]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

Finally should we expect the Russian medicine to be available to us and help us get back what our lives were before Covid19 ?

Lets not be too optimistic. First it was HCQ (Hydroxycholroquine), then Remdesivir, then some another HIV drug, and then the Bangaladeshi drug combo.

But what has worked? Nothing.

Herd immunity is the only defence against this virus. Not even a vaccine.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

...
Finally should we expect the Russian medicine to be available to us and help us get back what our lives were before Covid19 ?

A known drug with unknown modifications (changes to be revealed after release for public use), with a sample trial size of 330 people, provided emergency approvals without completing the already ridiculously short human trial?

What part of that sounds like it's even a credible option, forget a verified one?

[SoumenD]

On a lighter note, somewhere in Tamil Nadu.



Source: Cartoq

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by DCEite

Herd immunity is the only defence against this virus. Not even a vaccine.

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

What part of that sounds like it's even a credible option, forget a verified one?

Some reasons why there is little hope left in me for this medicine :
1. The same drug has been used by Japan. Considering that Japan is very disciplined and a far more developed country, I dont think they would be using any unknown medication for its Citizens.

2. Russia again wont jump to claim about this new medicine unless they have concrete results of the medication yielding good results. Why would Russia put its citizens on the line by coming up with this medicine and basically easing out on pressure its healthcare is buckling under ?

Remdesivir did show some results and latest study also shows some results from what I have read and if my memory serves me right, Remdesivir is given to covid19 patients in emergency condition.

Israel which claimed to have some antibody separation success is not able to come up with medicine or vaccine, but probably it could be under development. Heart in heart, I am hopeful that Russia is able to deliver the miracle medicine. They might not be declaring what modifications they have made keeping business interests in mind. Its just my assumption.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by DCEite

Between the W.H.O and a doctor, i would anyday trust the doctor more.

You mean, between a doctor and a doctor you'd choose the doctor?

OK, it would seem that the director general, about whom serious questions have been asked, is not a doctor of medicine, although he is certainly otherwise well qualified.The Chief Scientist of WHO is a doctor: an Indian (Tamil) one, at that

Originally Posted by DCEite

Herd immunity is the only defence against this virus.

Herd immunity is a myth. It is not yet known if the virus gives immunity against re-infection, or if any such immunity is long-term or not.

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

What part of that sounds like it's even a credible option, forget a verified one?

Sorry to quote again, but here's a ray of Hope.
Russia backing antiviral drug Avifavir for Covid-19 fight good New for India as per Scientists.

From Article :

It also said Avifavir has become the first Favipiravir-based drug in the world to be approved for the treatment of Covid-19, it
said. The close derivative link between Avifavir and Favipiravir is reason for hope in India too, said scientists here.

Avifavir, developed by a joint venture between RDIF and ChemRar Group, is designed to disrupt the ability of the novel coronavirus to reproduce. "Avifavir is not only the first antiviral drug registered against coronavirus in Russia, but it is also perhaps the most promising anti Covid-19 drug in the world," RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said in a statement. The RDIF and the ChemRar Group last week announced that Avifavir has received a temporary registration certificate from the Russian Ministry of Health. "Avifavir is a drug that as per available information is being tested by Russia against Covid 19 and is based on Favipiravir, a drug that is known to have inhibitory function against RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) activity of a virus," said virologist Upasana Ray. RdRP is an essential protein encoded in the genes of RNA-containing viruses.

"Favipiravir has been shown earlier to inhibit the influenza virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase," Ray, senior scientist at CSIRIICB
in Kolkata, told PTI. RNA polymerase is a viral enzyme that helps in replication or reproduction of the viral RNA, that is the genetic material. Hence, a drug that inhibits this activity would basically curb the functional multiplication of the virus, she explained. Glenmark last week announced a new randomised study in India to test the combined efficacy of Favipiravir and another antiviral drug Umifenovir as a potential Covid-19 treatment strategy. Glenmark also said that it is conducting Phase 3 clinical trials of Favipiravir as a Covid-19 therapy option with 150 patients, enrolled from nine leading government and private hospitals across the country.

"Since it (Favipiravir) was earlier tested for influenza, they (researchers) could bypass initial toxicity tests etc. It was one of
(hundreds) of clinical trials against SARS-COV-2.

He also injected a note of caution.
Till the clinical trial results are properly reported, it is difficult to say how effective it will be. "One has to be definitely cautious. First, it's not designed to target this particular virus, and it is RdRP, so the binding may be weaker than in influenza," Sengupta said. Though it is unknown how the different viral strains will bind, she said it is one of the better options right now. Another point, Sengupta noted, is that the drug's action is on the same target as the antiviral remdesivir, one of the top possible drug contenders for Covid-19. "I think several people thought that remdesvir would be quite promising -- but it has been ambiguous so far. Getting robust clinical data in such short times is really tricky. It is really difficult to say without the actual clinical data and looking at the statistics," she added.

In such tough, unprecedented times even mildly positive news is reason to cheer up.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

Sorry to quote again, but here's a ray of Hope....

Have nothing against a potential breakthrough (I want to live too), but I wouldn't touch anything not thoroughly tested with a barge pole a mile long.

RNA inhibitors have side effects that need thorough testing. Last thing we want is a treatment that cures one thing and causes (or makes one vulnerable to) another.

Miracle cures are a statistical outlier, so let's hope but with caution, and give it enough time to be tested thoroughly, not rushed to be first-to-market. Every scientist worth their credentials says so, including the ones in the article you quoted.

[dragracer567]

AP just came out with an unprecedented story on how China delayed information about the coronavirus and too WHO for a ride (link). The entire chronology of events can be found in the link.

The information provided by their story is pretty damning! I've tried to summarize the Chronology here:

By Jan 2, the Wuhan Institute of Virology had not only realized that a new disease was spreading but managed to sequence its entire genome which confirmed it was a never seen before Corona Virus but the National Health Commission of China ordered the destruction of all the samples.

By Jan 5, three different Chinese labs had decoded the genome - Chinese CDC, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

For nearly two weeks, Wuhan reported no new infections, as officials censored doctors who warned of suspicious cases.

By Jan. 7, another team at Wuhan University had sequenced the pathogen and found it matched the first genome hence confirming that it's a novel virus. But Chinese CDC refused to let the lead scientist - Shi publish the information apparently due to internal competition between the agencies.

In Jan 8, WSJ broke the news of the novel coronavirus embarrassing the Chinese leadership and also WHO for not getting enough information from China.

After the WSJ article, China's revealed the presence of a new coronavirus but did not release the genome, diagnostic tests or detailed patient data that could hint at how infectious the disease was.

On Jan. 8, Thai airport officers pulled aside a woman from Wuhan with a runny nose, sore throat, and high temperature. A Thai virologist team managed to get the genome but couldn't confirm it was the same as those revealed by China since the Chinese didn't release the genome for comparison.

WHO officials complained in internal meetings that they were making repeated requests for more data, especially to find out if the virus could spread efficiently between humans, but to no avail.

On Jan. 11, a team led by Zhang, from the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, finally published a sequence on virological.org (an international site) which angered the Chinese CDC. So if it were upto the Chinese CDC, the genome would still have been hidden.

The Thai lab confirmed 100% match with genome uploaded on virological.org and informed the WHO. Hence, it was Thai authorities and not the Chinese who provided the info to WHO that the genome for the particular virus has been sequenced.

On Jan. 12, the three three Chinese labs together finally published the sequences on GISAID, a platform for scientists to share genomic data - two whole weeks after the genome was originally sequenced.

On Jan. 13, WHO announced that Thailand had a confirmed case of the virus, jolting Chinese officials.

WHO went back and forth on human to human transmission and decided to make the infamous tweet that there was no evidence of human to human transmission which destroyed their credibility.

On Jan. 20, the Chinese publicly declared that the virus spread from people to people.

On Jan. 22, WHO decided against declaring a health emergency.

On Jan 29, WHO finally declared an international health emergency. Tedros the DG of WHO who visited China the previous day (which was unprecedented) thanked China, saying nothing about the earlier lack of cooperation.

CNN's Fareed Zakaria ran a similar story from their own investigation but I can't find the link anywhere except an article on print.in (Link)

All in all, this is a lot to take in! The incompetent, over-competitive and authoritarian mindset led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and trillions of dollars in economic damage.

[princey]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

New coronavirus losing potency, top Italian doctor says

Link

Could this be happening in India also ?
Can the virus lose potency over multiple mutations from one host to another ?
Could it be one of the reasons for decreasing mortality rates here ?

Can someone with sufficient knowledge shed light on the matter ?

[DCEite]

Another flip flop from W.H.O:

https://indianexpress.com/article/co...ancet-6441507/