Toggle light / dark theme

A boy from a remote Amazonian tribe has died, raising concerns about Covid-19’s impact on indigenous people

The 15-year-old boy, a Yanomami from the village of Rehebe on the Uraricoera River, died Thursday, according to Brazil’s Ministry of Health.

He had been in the intensive care unit in Roraima General Hospital in Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state, since April 3. The hospital has not revealed his cause of death, the Ministry of Health said.

Covid-19 Research Update: Dr. Jacob Glanville and Sarah Ives

Join us for LIVE updates as Dr. Jacob Glanville and Sarah Ives give the world the latest news on the novel research being done in the fight against #Covid19.

- Today at 2:45PST — LEARN MORE about all of the amazing things happening in their world by clicking the links below!

www.distributedbio.com www.centivax.com #Centivax #Dbio #DistributedBio #Biotechnology #Research #Antibodies #Pandemic

CSL Behring and Takeda Pharmaceutical Are Leading a Coalition to Develop a COVID-19 Hyperimmune Therapy

Collaboration will always accelerate society faster than competition ever will:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fool.com/amp/investing/2020…coali.aspx

“Biotest, BPL, LFB, and Octapharma have joined an alliance formed by CSL Behring (ASX: CSL/USOTC: CSLLY) and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE:4502/NYSE: TAK) to develop a potential plasma-derived therapy for treating COVID-19. The alliance will begin immediately with the investigational development of one, unbranded anti-SARS-CoV-2 polyclonal hyperimmune immunoglobulin medicine with the potential to treat individuals with serious complications from COVID-19.”


Six companies will work together to develop a plasma-derived antibody product to fight SARS-CoV-2.

Reno-based Hamilton Medical awarded $551M contract to make ventilators

RENO, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11) — A Reno company has been awarded more than $550 million to help make ventilators during the coronavirus outbreak.

In a statement released on Friday, Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., said Hamilton Medical would receive a five-month, $551 million contract as part of a national effort to stockpile 100,000 ventilators over the next 100 days.

Amodei states the money is coming in the form of a firm-fixed-price contract that began on March 31.

Coronavirus spurs police to deploy ‘talking’ drones in Florida, New Jersey to enforce social distancing

Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here.

As authorities enforce social distancing in the battle against coronavirus, don’t be surprised if you hear reminders coming from the sky.

Police departments in Florida and New Jersey have drones with pre-recorded warnings that will be deployed if crowds are not following COVID-19 guidelines.

Colchicine Efficacy in COVID-19 Pneumonia

Worth having a look, who knows.


Cytokines and chemokines are thought to play an important role in immunity and immunopathology during virus infections [3]. Patients with severe COVID-19 have higher serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1 and IL-6) and chemokines (IL-8) compared to individuals with mild disease or healthy controls, similar to patients with SARS or MERS. The change of laboratory parameters, including elevated serum cytokine, chemokine levels, and increased NLR in infected patients are correlated with the severity of the disease and adverse outcome, suggesting a possible role for hyper-inflammatory responses in COVID-19 pathogenesis. Importantly, previous studies showed that viroporin E, a component of SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV), forms Ca2C-permeable ion channels and activates the NLRP3 inflammasome. In addition, another viroporin 3a was found to induce NLRP3 inflammasome activation. The mechanisms are unclear.

Colchicine, an old drug used in auto-inflammatory disorders (i.e., Familiar Mediterranean Fever and Bechet disease) and in gout, counteracts the assembly of the NLRP3 inflammasome, thereby reducing the release of IL-1b and an array of other interleukins, including IL-6, that are formed in response to danger signals. Recently, colchicine has been successfully used in two cases of life-threatening post-transplant capillary leak syndrome. These patients had required mechanically ventilation for weeks and hemodialysis, before receiving colchicine, which abruptly restored normal respiratory function and diuresis over 48 hrs [4].

Study Design

/* */