Today we’re interviewing Kevin Pham, a doctor and a contributor to The Daily Signal, about COVID-19. How real is this threat? How is it like and unlike seasonal flu and the swine flu? When do you need to call a doctor if you have symptoms? How soon can we expect a vaccine, and how likely is it that our hospitals run out of beds and ventilators? Is there any hope for better treatments? Pham answers all these questions and more.

Who is at higher risk?
Early information out of China, where COVID-19 first started, shows that some people are at higher risk of getting very sick from this illness. This includes:

• Older adults
• People who have serious chronic medical conditions like:
  Heart disease
  Diabetes
  ** Lung disease

As my colleague has indicated, as tests become more available, we are very likely to see greatly increased numbers of infected Americans. However, if these trends continue, we could very well see, as Arama has said, mortality rates below 1 percent. I’m not making any scotch wagers just yet, but I am “cautiously optimistic,” and you should be, too.

Dr. Oz: Washing your hands alone reduces your chances of infection by 50%. It's a DIY vaccine. It's that powerful.

Good to hear...

Here are 17 other diseases named after populations or places while woke activists object to the term "Wuhan virus" as racist and xenophobic.

Via The Washington Post: Why doesn’t coronavirus make kids sick with covid-19? Excerpt:

One of the few mercies of the spreading coronavirus is that it leaves young children virtually untouched — a mystery virologists say may hold vital clues as to how the virus works.

In China, only 2.4 percent of reported cases were children and only 0.2 percent of reported cases were children who got critically ill, according to the World Health Organization. China has reported no case of a young child dying of the disease covid-19.

Meanwhile, the new coronavirus has proved especially deadly on the other end of the age spectrum. The fatality rate in China for those over 80 is an estimated 21.9 percent, per the WHO. For ages 10 to 39, however, the fatality rate is roughly 0.2 percent, according to a separate study drawing on patient records of 44,672 confirmed cases. And fatalities and severe symptoms are almost nonexistent at even younger ages.

That means the new coronavirus is behaving very differently from other viruses, like seasonal influenza, which are usually especially dangerous for the very young and very old.

The response to two epidemics, SARS and coronavirus, starkly highlights how far biotech and global collaborations have evolved in the past two decades. //

It’s impossible not to draw parallels between SARS and the new coronavirus outbreak, COVID-19, that’s been ravaging China and spreading globally. Yet the response to the two epidemics also starkly highlights how far biotech and global collaborations have evolved in the past two decades. Advances in genetic sequencing technologies, synthetic biology, and open science are reshaping how we deal with potential global pandemics. //

The response to COVID-19 was extremely rapid. Within a month of the first identified case in Wuhan, Chinese scientists had deposited the virus’s partial genetic blueprint into GenBank, an online, widely-consulted database.

Almost immediately, scientists from all sectors—academic, biotech, government—around the world began ordering parts of the virus genome online to study in their own labs.

The rise of commercial companies that manufacture custom-made DNA molecules, such as Integrated DNA Technology (IDT) and Biobasic, exemplify how much genetic synthesis has changed from 2003 to 2020. Costs for making entire genomes from scratch have dropped dramatically, giving rise to a booming industry of mail-order virus (and other organisms) parts for cheap. Biobasic, for example, offers “primers” that amplify certain parts of COVID-19 genes at a few bucks apiece. These raw genetic tools, rapidly synthesized and purified to order, form a critical ingredient for scientists to recreate important parts of the virus in their own labs.

Rapid sharing of the viral genome plus easy online ordering make it much easier for scientists to study the bug and test potential vaccines. According to a CBS8 report, Inovio, a biotech company based in San Diego, has already created a potential vaccine for COVID-19 and tested it in mice and guinea pigs. If they gain FDA approval, clinical trials in humans could begin as early as this summer. Sanofi, Moderna, and other pharmaceutical giants are right on Inovio’s tail. In contrast, a vaccine for SARS took about 20 months to engineer, long after the epidemic had burned out.

Ce traitement, utilisé dans la prévention contre le paludisme, montrerait de bons résultats contre le coronavirus. 

Peu onéreuse et efficace, la chloroquine est-elle le remède miracle contre le coronavirus ? Didier Raoult, directeur de l'institut Méditerranée Infection à Marseille, se montre optimiste. Il s'appuie sur les résultats d'une étude clinique chinoise, parue dans la revue BioScience Trends. 

"Nous savions déjà que la chloroquine était efficace in vitro contre ce nouveau coronavirus et l'évaluation clinique faite en Chine l'a confirmé", explique le professeur Raoult, spécialiste renommé des maladies infectieuses. "Finalement, cette infection est peut-être la plus simple et la moins chère à soigner de toutes les infections virales", ajoute le directeur de cet institut hospitalo-universitaire très impliqué dans la détection du nouveau coronavirus en France. 

Un médicament aux "capacités antivirales et anti-inflammatoires"

L'article publié en ligne le 19 février tire ses résultats d'un essai clinique mené dans plus de dix hôpitaux chinois (à Wuhan - épicentre de l'épidémie -, Pékin et Shanghai notamment) pour mesurer "l'efficacité de la chloroquine sur le traitement de pneumonies associées au Covid-19".

"Les résultats obtenus jusqu'à présent sur plus de 100 patients ont démontré que le phosphate de chloroquine était plus efficace que le traitement reçu par le groupe comparatif pour contenir l'évolution de la pneumonie, pour améliorer l'état des poumons, pour que le patient redevienne négatif au virus et pour raccourcir la durée de la maladie", précisent les chercheurs chinois.

"Les capacités antivirales et anti-inflammatoires de la chloroquine pourraient jouer dans son efficacité potentielle à traiter des patients atteints de pneumonies provoquées par le Covid-19", poursuit l'article sur l'étude menée par les professeurs Jianjun Gao, Zhenxue Tian et Xu Yang, de l'université de Qingdao et de l'hôpital de Qingdao. 

Le ministre de la Santé reste prudent

Une nouvelle d'autant plus intéressante que "la chloroquine est un médicament peu cher et sans danger, utilisé depuis plus de 70 ans", insiste l'article. Selon les chercheurs chinois, un traitement de 500 mg de chloroquine par jour pendant dix jours serait suffisant. "C'est une extraordinaire nouvelle ce traitement qui ne coûte rien", a insisté le professeur Raoult, se félicitant du travail des chercheurs chinois pour trouver un médicament efficace, voie à privilégier selon lui plutôt que la recherche d'un vaccin qui ne pourrait de toute façon pas être disponible avant de longs mois.

Du côté des autorités, on affiche une certaine prudence. Interrogé sur BFMTV depuis Rome sur ce traitement, le ministre français de la Santé Olivier Véran a assuré s'être entretenu à plusieurs reprises avec Didier Raoult : "Il m'a fait part de ses observations et des études qu'il mettait en évidence, que j'ai fait remonter à la direction générale de la santé qui est en train de faire toutes les analyses". "On sait qu'il y a des études intéressantes en effet sur un impact in vitro mais les études sur le patient restent encore à déterminer", a encore dit le ministre.

Theanine increases serotonin, dopamine, GABA, and glycine levels in various areas of the brain, as well as BDNF and NGF levels in certain brain areas. //

Able to cross the blood–brain barrier, theanine has reported psychoactive properties. Theanine has been studied for its potential ability to reduce mental and physical stress, improve cognition, and boost mood and cognitive performance in a synergistic manner with caffeine. //

A Natural Standard monograph that reviews current research on theanine reports that it is likely safe in doses of 200–250 mg up to a maximum daily dose of 1,200 mg. Though some people use theanine for these purposes, Natural Standard rates the evidence to support the usage for anxiety reduction, blood pressure control, and mood improvement as "unclear or conflicting scientific evidence" and the evidence for improved cognition as "fair negative scientific evidence". Many of the studies of theanine were done in combination with caffeine as found in tea. //

Large studies in humans have not been undertaken; however, several smaller-scale studies (fewer than 100 participants) have shown increased alpha wave generation and lowered anxiety, along with benefits to sleep quality in people with ADHD //

The combination of theanine and caffeine has been shown to promote faster simple reaction time, faster numeric working memory reaction time and improved sentence verification accuracy. Due to this, the combination has become popular over recent years as a nootropic supplement typically found in the form of a pill, drink, or gum.[

An expert independent evidence review published today by Public Health England (PHE) concludes that e-cigarettes are significantly less harmful to health than tobacco and have the potential to help smokers quit smoking.

Key findings of the review include:

• the current best estimate is that e-cigarettes are around 95% less harmful than smoking
• nearly half the population (44.8%) don’t realise e-cigarettes are much less harmful than smoking
• there is no evidence so far that e-cigarettes are acting as a route into smoking for children or non-smokers //

In fact, the biggest vaping-related concern that PHE had during and after their research was the extent to which British media and government were peddling lies about vaping risks. In their conclusions, the researchers urged the government to stop telling people that vaping was dangerous, since that would discourage smokers from choosing vaping. According to PHE, the government's policy at the time actively put millions of UK citizens at risk of dying from tobacco-related illnesses.

The history of influenza as a global disease is inextricably tied to steamships and the expansion of world trade. A war demonstrated how big a pandemic could get.

LEONARD PAUL F. M.D.
Anesthesia & Analgesia: March-April 1975

Halothane, enflurane, and isoflurane, generally regarded as nonflammable, can be ignited under laboratory conditions. Attainment of similar conditions during clinical anesthesia is most unlikely. Nevertheless, early in the course of anesthesia while the concentration of the agent is still high, electrosurgery is best avoided if nitrous oxide is part of the anesthetic mixture and the operative field is exposed directly to the inflowing gases (as during certain laryngeal procedures).

Paper received: 11/12/74

© 1975 International Anesthesia Research Society

It has been estimated that only one in ten to one in one hundred operating room fires is reported. The exact incidence is therefore unknown. By “guesstimate,” there are probably between one hundred and two hundred operating room fires in the United States per year, as gleaned from FDA reports and ECRI investigations. Approximately 20% of those reported fires result in serious patient injury. The one or two deaths per year are usually secondary to airway fire. Most operating room fires are associated with an oxygen enriched atmosphere which may also include nitrous oxide.

A growing body of research shows inverting the food pyramid leads to favorable weight-loss results. So why do dietary guidelines continue to prescribe techniques inimical to progress? //

In 1960, rates were about 10 percent for men and 15 percent for women. They drifted up a little for the next few years, then in the late 1970s inflected upward in a steady rise to their current levels. No reason exists for concluding the trend has reached any limit. So what caused this national epidemic of obesity?

The most persuasive answer is that in the late 1970s, the U.S. government, acting under pressure from such senators as former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern, launched a nutrition campaign that resulted in the 1980 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and, a decade later, the “Food Pyramid.” Bread, cereal, rice, and pasta were the base of the pyramid. Then in order upward were vegetables; fruits; milk, yogurt, and cheese; meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts; with fats, oils, and sweets in the small apex.

The guidelines are reviewed periodically, but the latest version (2015) continues the anti-fat, anti-meat, pro-carbohydrate basic philosophy. //

the skeptics were drowned out and left stranded without research money or institutional support, and clinicians who tried a different approach, such as Dr. Robert Atkins, were traduced viciously. A huge body of respectable clinical observations that contradicted the guidelines — see, for example, “Treating Overweight Patients” from a premier medical journal in 1957 — went down the memory hole. Also unnoticed was the similarity between the guidelines and the recommendations in a 1930 Oregon pamphlet on “Fattening Pigs for Market.”

The failure of the guidelines to improve public health was not bad news for everyone. The more the weight-challenged fail, the higher the rates of Type II diabetes, which is accompanied by a rise in blood sugar and consequent insulin prescriptions, and the more the money that can be made from substituting cheap vegetable oils for natural fats, from weight loss programs, and from drastic surgical remedies. Good times for Big Farm, Big Pharma, Big Medicine, and assorted other major players. //

Under the radar, however, skepticism has persisted, partly because the temporal connection between the guidelines and the upward jump in obesity is hard to miss, and partly because the Dietary Establishment does not actually explain anything. //

In 2001, investigative journalist Gary Taubes published “The Soft Science of Dietary Fat” in the peer-reviewed and prestigious journal Science. The article, and his subsequent book “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” argued that the food pyramid was almost totally wrong.

Taubes cited both solid metabolic research, which was being ignored, and extensive medical history, which had been amnesia-ized, to the effect that overconsumption of carbohydrates eventually leads to insulin resistance, which skews appetite regulators and turns off the ability to burn fat. The eventual result is a cascade in which the body is taking in excessive amounts of food and storing it as fat, but cannot access the fat for energy. The lack of available energy then reduces metabolic rates, which makes losing weight still more difficult. The solution is to cut carbs to decrease insulin, and add fat. //

The rebels agree with the conventional wisdom on one crucial point: The refined-sugary fast foods that permeate the current American diet are terrible. Otherwise they conclude weight loss can be achieved by inverting the food pyramid, creating a diet of 70 percent healthy fats (not vegetable oil or saturated fats), 25 percent protein, and 5 percent or less carbohydrates, an approach abbreviated as “low-carb” or “ketogenic,” a term based on the fact that burning fat produces substances called “ketones.” Red meat is favored, the fattier the better. //

In 2015, an article by Teicholz in the British Medical Journal criticized the scientific report behind the updated guidelines. Among her points: The report said its authors could find only limited evidence that supported the validity of the low-carb approach, a conclusion that could be reached, noted Teicholz, only by ignoring a body of evidence that “included nine pilot studies, 11 case studies, 19 observational studies, and at least 74 randomised controlled trials, 32 of which lasted six months or longer.”

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a leftist group, enlisted 180 nutrition experts to demand a retraction. The BMJ stood firm because most of the supposed errors were either nonexistent or trivial, but of course the PR objective of undermining Teicholz was achieved. The most recent Dietary Establishment counter-offensive is the EAT-Lancet diet, which mushes nutritional health considerations with its view of environmental sustainability to push for vegetarianism.

Teicholz has also critiqued this report, noting that it is mostly directed at attacking meat consumption for the sake of environmentalism, and that the recommendations are nutritionally deficient. Nutritional psychiatrist Georgia Ede reached similar conclusions, adding, “The EAT-Lancet report has the feel of a royal decree, operating under the guise of good intentions, seeking to impose its benevolent will on all subjects of planet Earth.”

Somewhere on the Earth, on average every 12 seconds, a child dies of DDT-preventable malaria. The United States National Academy of Sciences estimated that DDT saved 500 million lives before it was banned. The discoverer of DDT was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Then came Silent Spring — a book filled with deliberate falsehoods and blatantly marketed unreasoning and unjustified fear. The burgeoning enviro movement chose these lies for one of their first big campaigns. This campaign coincided with the rise of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA was in search of a big win with which to promote itself. The EPA studied the subject and its own scientific review board reported that – DDT is harmless to the environment and is a very beneficial substance that should not be banned.

Politics prevailed, however, over reason. DDT was banned, and the U.S. government spread that ban throughout the world by tying it to all sorts of international programs.

The result: Malaria, which was well on the way to control and eradication, now afflicts 250 million adults and kills about 3 million children per year. The deaths of children alone make this the most heinous act of technological genocide the world has ever known. It is the second-most extensive overall act of genocide — surpassed only by the reigns of terror under Communism in Red China. //

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, the book that spearheaded the demonization of DDT, was dedicated to Albeit Schweitzer, whom Carson quoted as saying “Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the Earth.” This was falsely presented to Carson’s readers as Albert Scweitzer’s concern about DDT. //

The quotation in Silent Spring, however, was about Schweitzer’s fear of nuclear weapons. Of malaria, Schweitzer actually said, “How much labor and waste of time these wicked insects do cause us.. . . but a ray of hope, in the use of DDT, is now held out to us.”

Via The Lancet Infectious Diseases: Lassa virus circulating in Liberia: a retrospective genomic characterisation. The summary:

Background

An alarming rise in reported Lassa fever cases continues in west Africa. Liberia has the largest reported per capita incidence of Lassa fever cases in the region, but genomic information on the circulating strains is scarce. The aim of this study was to substantially increase the available pool of data to help foster the generation of targeted diagnostics and therapeutics. //

The 23 new Liberian Lassa virus genomes grouped within two clades (IV.A and IV.B) and were genetically divergent from those circulating elsewhere in west Africa. A time-calibrated phylogeographic analysis incorporating the new genomes suggests Liberia was the entry point of Lassa virus into the Mano River Union region and estimates the introduction to have occurred between 300–350 years ago. A high level of diversity exists between the Liberian Lassa virus genomes. Nucleotide percent difference between Liberian Lassa virus genomes ranged up to 27% in the L segment and 18% in the S segment. The commonly used Lassa Josiah-MGB assay was up to 25% divergent across the target sites when aligned to the Liberian Lassa virus genomes.

Never before has a boon to public health been met with such hysteria and ingratitude.

Vaping is almost all upside in comparison with traditional smoking, a wanton destroyer of health and lives, and yet the nation is in the grips of a panic about e-cigarettes. //

Actually, there’s little evidence that vaping, as a general matter, is hazardous, and compared with traditional cigarettes it’s a refreshing kale and spinach smoothie after a brisk workout at your favorite Pilates studio.

Traditional smokers inhale a witch’s brew of carcinogens and carbon monoxide. Smoking accounts for 30% of all cancer deaths and 18% of all deaths. //

A credible estimate is that e-cigarettes, which involve inhaling a nicotine-infused vapor rather than smoke, are about 95% less harmful than cigarettes.

The vaping-related illnesses that have garnered headlines and prompted the regulatory actions appear not to implicate standard vaping but rather the use of black-market liquids containing THC, the active ingredient in cannabis.

Organisms from all domains of life are subject to viral infection, whether tobacco plants, flying tropical insects or archaea in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park. However, it appears that it is those viruses that attack bacteria (i.e. so called bacteriophages – literally, bacteria eater – see Figure 1) that are the most abundant of all with these viruses present in huge numbers (BNID 104839, 104962, 104960) in a host of different environments ranging from soils to the open ocean.
105-f2-VirusSizes-1

Figure 2: Structures of viral capsids. The regularity of the structure of viruses has enabled detailed, atomic-level analysis of their construction patterns. This gallery shows a variety of the different geometries explored by the class of nearly spherical viruses. HIV and influenza figures are 3D renderings of virions from the tomogram..(Symmetric virus structures adapted from T. S. Baker et al., Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 63:862, 1999. HIV structure adapted from J. A. G. Briggs et al., Structure 14:15, 2006 and influenza virus structure adapted from A. Harris, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103:19123, 2006.)

As a result of their enormous presence on the biological scene, viruses play a role not only in the health of their hosts, but in global geochemical cycles affecting the availability of nutrients across the planet. For example, it has been estimated that as much as 20% of the bacterial mass in the ocean is subject to viral infection every day (BNID 106625). This can strongly decrease the flow of biomass to higher trophic levels that feed on prokaryotes (BNID 104965). //

• porcine circovirus (PCV) = 17nm (0.017 micron)
• polio virus = 30nm
• HIV-1 = 120nm
• pandora virus = 500nm (0.5 micron)