There’s hope for ways to help all of us to beat back the horrible consequences from contracting the coronavirus COVID-19 bug permeating within the USA by the Fall season when most epidemiology experts are predicting its resurgence.
There’s Oxford University scientists currently conducting clinical trials on human subjects on a COVID-19 vaccine which could be available for public consumption by September 2020.
See: Oxford Conducting Clinical Trials For COV-19 Vaccine That Could Be Ready For Public By 9/2020
In early April 2020 the (FDA) Food and Drug Administration approved two nationwide clinical trials that the agency would coordinate which requires the collection and use of plasma from Covid-19 survivors. As those trials get underway, blood centers around the country are mounting an unprecedented effort to collect the potentially life-saving substance which involves an ill patient being transfused with the plasma of a surviving donor in the hopes that the donor’s antibodies will fight the virus.
See 3/24/2020 Wired report on convalescent plasma therapy.
Then there’s the drug remdesivir by Gilead Sciences which is undergoing clinical trials in the USA on human test subjects. This treatment has shown real promise for being both an effective and a safe therapy in lessening the harmful effects for those who become ill from the COVID-19 infection.
Here’s the rest of the story…
As per the 4/29/2020 CNN report by Maggie Fox, Jamie Gumbrecht, Holly Yan and Betsy Klein, “FDA reportedly will approve Covid-19 treatment remdesivir, which US-funded trial shows has ‘positive effect’ on recovery”
Excerpts:
“Researchers released some good news about a possible treatment for coronavirus Wednesday (4/29/2020)– evidence that the experimental drug remdesivir might help patients recover more quickly from the infection.”
“A federal trial has shown that treatment with remdesivir, an experimental antiviral drug, can speed recovery in patients infected with the coronavirus, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Wednesday (4/29/2020).”
“The Food and Drug Administration is likely to issue an emergency approval for remdesivir, a senior administration official told The New York Times. Eventually the drug, made by Gilead Sciences, could be the first approved treatment for Covid-19, the illness caused by the virus.”
“An emergency authorization by the F.D.A. is not the same as a formal drug approval by the agency. When the federal government declares a public health emergency, the F.D.A. can approve certain drugs or tests to address the emergency if there are no other alternatives. That is the case with the coronavirus, since no drugs have been proven to be effective against the virus.”
Subjects covered in 4/29 NYT report:
- Remdesivir shows promise as a treatment, Fauci says, but cautions the study still needs peer review.
- America’s growth streak is over: The economy shrank 4.8 percent, and the worst is yet to come.
- Florida will begin reopening on 5/4/2020, but hard-hit regions will remain shut.
- Trump declared meatpacking plants ‘critical infrastructure,’ but how they would stay open remains unclear.
- Conservative groups challenging virus restrictions are seeing support from the Justice Department.
- A Massachusetts nursing home has had at least 68 deaths.
- After 100 days, there’ve been more than one million confirmed infections, and a country has been transformed.
