Lifeboat Foundation

“Infusions of antibody-laden blood have been used with reported success in prior outbreaks, including the SARS epidemic and the 1918 flu pandemic.”

John Hopkins University

With a vaccine for COVID-19 still a long way from being realized, Johns Hopkins immunologist Arturo Casadevall is working to revive a century-old blood-derived treatment for use in the United States in hopes of slowing the spread of the disease.

Continue reading “Antibodies from COVID-19 survivors could be used to treat patients, protect those at risk” »

Good Science here. A Covid-19 Primer.

Wash your hands.

Continue reading “COVID-19 | Corona Virus: Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, Diagnostics” »

As they increasingly log on from home, Americans are having to meld their personal technology with professional tools at unprecedented scale. For employers, the concern isn’t just about capacity, but also about workers introducing new potential vulnerabilities into their routine — whether that’s weak passwords on personal computers, poorly secured home WiFi routers, or a family member’s device passing along a computer virus.

The dramatic expansion of teleworking by US schools, businesses and government agencies in response to the coronavirus is raising fresh questions about the capacity and security of the tools many Americans use to connect to vital workplace systems and data.

At one major US agency, some officials have resorted to holding meetings on iPhone group calls because the regular conference bridges haven’t always been working, according to one federal employee. But the workaround has its limits: The group calls support only five participants at a time, the employee noted.

Continue reading “Millions of Americans are suddenly working from home. That’s a huge security risk” »

This plant chemical takes away soreness, but it turns out it also makes injured and bruised muscles heal faster.

Andrew Sinclair does not have anything to lose. He takes a number of drugs including the anti-diabetic medication metformin, given to him by his son David, the renowned Australian biologist and professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, to combat the ill-effects of ageing.

David Sinclair says his father remains in good health, travelling, socialising and exercising with the energy of a man far younger than his 80 years.

David Sinclair will discuss why ageing should be classified as a disease at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas.

Continue reading “Flipping the switch on the ageing process” »

At a time when Beijing and Washington should be cooperating, both sides are locked in a strategic competition.

How did Viruses evolve?

The evolutionary history of viruses remains unclear. Some researchers hypothesize that viruses evolved from mobile genetic elements that gained the ability to move between cells. Other researchers postulate that viruses evolved from more complex organisms that lost the ability to replicate independently. Still others hypothesize that DNA viruses gave rise to the eukaryotic nucleus or that viruses predate all cellular life-forms. Reasonable arguments can be made for all of these hypotheses. It may be that viruses arose multiple times, via each of these mechanisms. It may be that viruses arose from a mechanism yet to be described. Continuing studies of viruses and their hosts may provide us with clearer answers.

You can access information for this clinical trial in the links pdf.

Percentage of patients with PCR-positive nasopharyngeal samples from inclusion to day6 post-inclusion in COVID-19 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine only, in COVID-19 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine and azithomycin combination, and in COVID-19 control patients.

Possible treatments for coronavirus:

Remdesivir by the firm Gilead was developed to fight other viruses including Ebola (where it was shown to be ineffective) and it hasn’t yet been approved for treating anything. Still, it has shown early promise in treating some coronavirus patients in China, according to doctors, and manufacturer Gilead is moving ahead with final stage clinical trials in Asia. It has also been used to treat at least one US patient so far.

NIH’s Anthony Fauci, one of the top government scientists overseeing the coronavirus response, has said it could be available in the next “several months.”

Continue reading “Over 20 vaccines, multiple treatments currently in development for coronavirus” »