NEEDLES AND PRICKS
Just when you thought the World Acknowledged Roche/Abbott Antibody tests had received global approval to test if people have HAD the virus, it seems the 100% testing results are only true after 18-20 days of producing antibodies. So what about testing if people have just had the virus, had hardly had any symptoms, should be antibody positive, but Roche hadn’t caught it yet? Thanks to the University of Birmingham, there is a multi-antibody “spike response” antibody test (M3/Univ of Birmingham, UK - will be manufactured by their associated company “The Binding Site”), which can not only detect 98% of antibodies in a much shorter time, it is a FINGER-PRICK test. It tests for recognised “Covid-19 antibodies” but can also spot Paediatric Inflammatory Multi-System Syndrome - Temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 (PIMS-TS) and to date this has affected around 100 children in the UK with further reports of cases across Europe and the United States. This test will be as useful as the Roche tests perhaps as all kinds of different antibodies (all produced after infection with this virus and other SARS related viruses) can be quickly detected.
CONFIRMATION OF STEROID TREATMENT
As predicted on these very posts, Dexamethasone which is a “Glucocorticoid” steroid, has been shown after successful trials to greatly reduce deaths among Virus patients receiving Oxygen and Ventilator treatment in hospitals.
It reduces inflammation by mimicking anti-inflammatory hormones produced by the body. This drug works by dampening down the body's immune system…. coronavirus infection triggers inflammation as the body tries to fight it off. But sometimes the immune system goes into overdrive and it's this reaction that can prove fatal - the very reaction designed to attack infection ends up attacking the body's own cells. Dexamethasone calms this effect.
N.B. The drug does not work on people with milder symptoms, and suppressing their immune system at this point would not be helpful. But it’s estimated that deaths could be reduced by 30% or more…
The China National Biotec Group (CNBG) have claimed 100% success so far from their first vaccine…. plus another Chinese company SINOVAC seems successful too. Others in Phase III stages are Moderna (USA), CanSino (China), Pfizer/BioNTech (Germany), AstraZeneca & Oxford University (UK) ….
IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON will be the first test of a new self-amplifying RNA technology, which has the potential to revolutionise vaccine development and enable scientists to respond more quickly to emerging diseases. The vaccine has undergone rigorous pre-clinical safety tests and in animal studies it has been shown to be safe and produced encouraging signs of an effective immune response. Over the coming weeks, 300 healthy participants will receive two doses of the vaccine. If the vaccine is safe and shows a promising immune response in humans, then larger Phase III trials would be planned to begin later in the year with around 6000 healthy volunteers to test its effectiveness.
DESPITE TREATMENTS and VACCINE NEWS, it should be remembered that as of this morning, there have been over 450,000 deaths in total worldwide, and there are STILL over 5,000 Covid-19 deaths PER DAY globally, over 150,000 new cases daily and Brazil, Mexico, Russia and India become very grim hotspots for new infections. Germany and China have both encountered Second Wave infections, and have started regional lockdowns.
THIS IS A LONG WAY FROM BEING OVER unfortunately.