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German company CureVac has received a rather strange offer from the current White House.
On March 3, CureVac's CEO was invited to the White House, for a meeting with President Trump, Vice Pence and several members of the Coronavirus Task Force. Asked for when a vaccine could be ready, he estimated that a potential candidate could be ready within a few months. Apparently, that triggered the members of the meeting so much, that they've now offered to buy the company, at whatever price.
One condition though: production would be exclusively for the United States.
The move is not exactly one to gain popularity, and follows on the heels of the President's worrying statement that "a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe".
(Score: 3, Funny) by Reziac on Monday March 16 2020, @03:04AM (9 children)
Well, there's ONE corona vaccine with a track record (and it worked very well), but it's a canine vaccine, and I have no idea how related or relevant it might be... but it too was difficult. See my comment somewhere downstream.
BTW if you know of research that should be pursued or resurrected, comments left on the White House contact form DO get read and passed upstairs:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ [whitehouse.gov]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 16 2020, @12:38PM (8 children)
In the past, things like 7 injections spaced over 3 months were deemed "too difficult."
Now that we're looking at 3 months of school closings - those 7 injections are getting to be less impossible to consider.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday March 16 2020, @03:42PM (7 children)
True enough. A lot of what was overly difficult in normal times might be perfectly reasonable now... if only because more people will show up for, say, seven injections.
Just saw this:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8115879/COVID-19-Australian-researchers-CURE-coronavirus.html [dailymail.co.uk]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 16 2020, @04:09PM (6 children)
That may, or may not, be a good response to COVID-19... if they can scale up the results, if the results don't start showing high rates of undesirable side effects - including long term side effects that may not manifest for a number of years...
A 2-3% "culling of the herd" by influenza is unfortunate, but natural. Injection of billions of people with relatively untested complex anti-viral research could cause unpleasantness on a hitherto unseen scale.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday March 16 2020, @04:42PM (5 children)
True all around. But I think they're looking at this as a treatment for those already in severe respiratory distress, under the theory that at this stage you try anything even vaguely promising, because the alternative is death.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 16 2020, @05:54PM (4 children)
If it's got a chance of improving people who are "on the verge" then, sure, by all means - when you're in 50/50 territory with the best available treatments, try anything that seems like it might help.
I'm more familiar with the vaccines that need to be administered either before infection, or before the infection has taken hold.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 16 2020, @06:18PM (2 children)
Sometimes regulations even get in the way of people trying something when it makes sense for them to try it. IIRC, the FDA prevented cancer patients that were declared terminal from even trying DCA. IIRC, it's because there were too many side effects involved? Really, a side effect worse than death? Well, apparently Trump did something about this.
"Trump signs Right to Try Act for terminally ill patients"
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44305998 [bbc.com]
I found this comment interesting (not sure I believe it though, take with a grain of salt).
"I spoke to Prof. Michelakis this week and just finished doing a story about DCA.The team from the University of Alberta are in Phase 2 with their trials testing it now on more brain cancer sufferers as well as lung and breast cancer patients.
So they tested it on only 49 patients since 2008 – and ALL 49 were healed. And the five terminally ill ones who had at best a year from the worst cancer a human can get? The tumors either shrunk or stopped growing within three months.
I’m sorry. That for me spells a cure: plain and simple. And obviously inexpensive…
Forgive me for being cynical, but money does talk"
https://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2010/05/12/potential-cancer-drug-dca-tested-in-early-trials/ [cancerresearchuk.org]
but really if I want to try something to treat a condition that I have I feel like the FDA should just get out of my way regardless. I don't think the government should try and tell me what's best for me, it should be left for me to decide.
From the above link
"Advocacy groups including the American Cancer Society had opposed the bill."
An advocacy group that prevents me from determining what I think is in my best interests against MY WILL is not one that has my interests in mind. My freedoms to determine what treatments I want to try on MYSELF >>>>> your freedoms to prevent me from doing so. People don't tell me I can't smoke (I don't smoke), drink alcohol (I don't do that either), etc...
https://uncommondescent.com/off-topic/dca-update-big-pharmaglacial-rate-of-progress/ [uncommondescent.com]
https://uncommondescent.com/biology/dca-update-ii/ [uncommondescent.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 16 2020, @07:31PM (1 child)
A lot of the medical establishment is primarily concerned with perpetuating the status quo, after all - the status quo is VERY profitable for the people who support the establishment organizations.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2020, @08:43PM
(Sorry, off topic)
It's also interesting that the FDA banned red yeast rice with more than trace amounts of naturally occurring lovastatin probably to protect the companies that sell lovastatin despite the studies that shows it's safer and more effective than many of the drugs out there at treating cholesterol (well, IIRC, there was one study that looked like it was intentionally designed to show the opposite where they gave the mice ridiculous amounts of red yeast rice with ridiculous concentrations of lovastatin but too much water is bad for you too).
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday March 16 2020, @06:25PM
Sometimes it's worth going off the beaten track. A vet of my acquaintance came up with a stellar treatment for canine distemper (and I've actually seen it work) ... using of all things, Newcastle vaccine for chickens.
https://edbond.com/distemper/ [edbond.com]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.