Covid-19 News & Updates

[PeteC]

Coronavirus symptoms 'take five days to show'

I don't know if this agrees with or contradicts what we've already read in previous articles.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51800707

[PeteC]

Top Coronavirus Doctor in Wuhan Says High Blood Pressure Is Major Death Risk

That is not encouraging news. What older person doesn't have high blood pressure to some degree.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... death-risk

[PeteC]

I'm going to bump this link each week as at present it's the best summary chart we have.

Picked this up from the BBC this morning - very informative: -

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboar ... 7b48e9ecf6

[sateeb]

Dont wanna pee on Pharvey's parade but imo this live link gives a better country by country breakdown. The numbers pretty much tally as well.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

[hhinner]

Top Coronavirus Doctor in Wuhan Says High Blood Pressure Is Major Death Risk

That is not encouraging news. What older person doesn't have high blood pressure to some degree.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... death-risk

But is this referring to untreated hypertension only, or is it inclusive of those who would be hypertensive if they weren't medicating (i.e. having normal BP because taking medicine)?

[HHTel]

Coronavirus symptoms 'take five days to show'

I don't know if this agrees with or contradicts what we've already read in previous articles.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51800707

A little out of context. It's said that symptoms have a median time of 5.1 days before symptoms but can be as long as 14 days.

[handdrummer]

Top Coronavirus Doctor in Wuhan Says High Blood Pressure Is Major Death Risk

That is not encouraging news. What older person doesn't have high blood pressure to some degree.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... death-risk

I don't have high blood pressure and don't take medication.

[sateeb]

It was probably a rhetorical question but thanks for your health update

[bigston]

how to confuse a cat
http://www.asiatraveltips.com/news20/10 ... ways.shtml

[pharvey]

A sign of things to come..... Italy in total lockdown, UK and Europe warned of thousands of cases to come, hundreds of flights to and from Italy cancelled. The cost to companies, individuals and families must be enormous: -

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... ws-updates

[Dannie Boy]

A sign of things to come..... Italy in total lockdown, UK and Europe warned of thousands of cases to come, hundreds of flights to and from Italy cancelled. The cost to companies, individuals and families must be enormous: -

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... ws-updates

I think you could change that to “The cost to the world” must be enormous - and there’s a hell of a long way to go before things start to get better

[pharvey]

I think you could change that to “The cost to the world” must be enormous - and there’s a hell of a long way to go before things start to get better

Well yes, I guess that's closer to the truth unfortunately...

[pharvey]

Summary from The Guardian (UK)

- States of emergency have been declared in Michigan and Massachusetts, as the number of Covid-19 cases in the US passed 1000.
- The Bank of England cut its base rate by 0.5% in a move to stimulate the economy in response to the virus outbreak.
- China has reported only 24 new cases and 22 new deaths nationally, including a record low of new cases in Wuhan (13). - Lockdowns have been partially lifted in the Hubei province, and key industries will be allowed to resume in Wuhan.
- Australia announced a ban on people arriving from Italy.
- Three Formula One team members in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix have been told to self-isolate as they await test results for Covid-19.
- South Korea reported 242 new cases of Covid-19.
- A Premier League match between Arsenal and Manchester City has been postponed after an unspecified number of Arsenal players were told to go into self-isolation.
- Italy recorded its highest one day death toll since the outbreak began, with 168 deaths recorded in 24 hours.


Further updates @: - https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... st-updates

[Bluesky]

Just hope that the process is not corrupted by political pressure on vaccine developers

March 11, 2020, 4:00 PM GMT+
A Virus Cure Depends on Rare Lab Mice, But There Aren’t Enough
Researchers can’t find the rodents needed to test potential treatments
By Bruce Einhorn

It’s a basic rule of medical research: Before you inject anything into humans, conduct experiments on animals—frequently mice—to determine whether treatments are safe and effective. In the race to develop a vaccine for the new corona­virus, however, your everyday mouse won’t do. While mice have a gene similar to the one scientists believe allows the virus to affect humans, researchers think those mice don’t exhibit the symptoms that make the illness so deadly for people. “You can infect them, but they have very little, if any, clinical disease,” says Richard Bowen, a professor of veterinary medicine at Colorado State University.
That’s great if you’re a mouse, but not if you’re a researcher. So scientists often seek mice that have been genetically modified with a humanized gene, called ACE2, that makes the virus more virulent—and thus better for studying its effects. As Covid-19 spreads around the world, though, it’s almost impossible to find transgenic ACE2 mice needed to study the coronavirus. There are no global statistics on availability of those animals, but several vendors of transgenic mice say they have none available, and researchers expect it will take weeks or months to develop a sufficient supply. “Almost nobody has these mice in a viable colony now,” says Stanley Perlman, a professor at the University of Iowa’s medical school. “Everybody I know is trying to find them.”
It’s not possible to keep mice on hand for every potential disease. Despite short outbreaks of coronavirus-caused illnesses such as SARS, which paralyzed China, Hong Kong, and other parts of Asia for months in 2003, most scientists stick with more lucrative opportunities in cancer, hepatitis, and other chronic ailments that require different varieties of lab animals. “Research follows trends, and at the moment people are mainly focusing on oncology and metabolic disorders,” says Kader Thiam, who oversees genetically modified mice at GenOway SA, a lab animal developer in Lyon, France.
The Jackson Laboratory, a nonprofit in Maine that supplies animals to medical researchers, sells more than 11,000 varieties of mice. But when the coronavirus started making headlines in January, Jackson didn’t have any with the necessary gene. As orders began flowing in, the Jackson crew started scouring medical literature for people who’d worked with humanized mice and might donate some for breeding. They found Perlman, a coronavirus specialist who had used transgenic mice in the fight against SARS. Perlman didn’t have any live mice, because a decade ago he decided his lab couldn’t afford to maintain them, but he’d extracted sperm samples just in case. Last month he sent those frozen remnants of the discontinued colony to Jackson, which is using them to impregnate mice and begin a new line. “We’re getting our first animals and are in the process of doing additional breeding,” says Charles Miller, Jackson’s global logistics chief. “Right now we are just scaling as fast as we can.Pregnant mice need about three weeks to deliver their pups, and newborns need about six more weeks to reach maturity so the cycle can start again. Jackson is taking preorders and hasn’t yet told would-be customers when they’ll receive deliveries. China’s Cyagen Biosciences Inc. says it will have mice ready next month. GenOway aims to develop a newer breed that’s better targeted to coronaviruses, but it says that could take a year or more.
A Virus Cure Depends on Rare Lab Mice, But There Aren’t Enough

The mouse crisis is one reason talk about the speedy introduction of a vaccine isn’t realistic. Without mice to study, scientists simply can’t fully test potential drugs and vaccines. “It’s a major bottle­neck,” says Nikolai Petrovsky, a professor at the medical school of Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. He says animal testing is “absolutely essential” and cautions against political pressure to speed up the process. “I know some people are talking about bypassing animals and going to human studies,” Petrovsky says. “But that’s fraught with difficulty and danger.”
In the meantime, some in the field are exploring alternatives. Bowen, the Colorado State researcher, says he’s trying tests with ferrets, hamsters, guinea pigs, and rabbits, though they all have disadvantages vs. mice. Xavier Saelens, principal investigator at VIB, a life sciences research institute in Ghent, Belgium, is considering using other mice as a stopgap measure, arguing that they’re better than nothing. And he’s looking into the possibility of breeding humanized mice on-site, since obtaining them from the usual sources is so tough. “That’s the surest way,” he says, “to get the mice.” —With Tim Loh

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... emium-asia

[sateeb]

Just read that the UK,s Health Minister has been tested positive for Covid ..

Source BBC News