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posted by martyb on Sunday March 15 2020, @10:16PM   Printer-friendly
from the taking-a-stab-at-it dept.

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".


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday March 16 2020, @02:14PM (6 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Monday March 16 2020, @02:14PM (#971874) Journal

    I'm in my early 30s, healthy, with no risk factors and at a normal weight for my height, but work in a pharmacy and will almost certainly get this. I'm more worried about the effects on elderly customers than myself, seeing as 1) our pandemic plan is literally "keep working even if everything but hospitals shut down" and 2) being a poor American, I literally can't afford not to work. I've paid my rent out in advance all the way to June (which habit is one reason I don't have much money on hand) and am stocking up on long-lasting food (which I will eat all of anyway, quarantine or no quarantine). This is...not what I was expecting for 2020. Nope, nope, nope.

    Regarding a vaccine, I personally would concentrate on making the body viciously attack the "spike protein," the point of entryway for the virus that docks with the human ACE2 receptor. Such a vaccine might also confer protection against other coronavirus types.

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Reziac on Monday March 16 2020, @03:53PM

    by Reziac (2489) on Monday March 16 2020, @03:53PM (#971922) Homepage

    Messing with the ACE2 receptors, OTOH, was not such a good idea:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiotensin-converting_enzyme_2#Coronavirus_entry_point [wikipedia.org]

    And best of luck staying healthy. You may be "that girl" but you're OUR "that girl".

    --
    And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
  • (Score: 2) by quietus on Monday March 16 2020, @04:26PM (1 child)

    by quietus (6328) on Monday March 16 2020, @04:26PM (#971928) Journal

    It will be a weird year, this 2020. Chances are 8 to 10 you'll only get mild symptoms -- a nasty cold or somesuch. Maybe we'll get a stronger sense of community at the end of all this.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 16 2020, @06:16PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 16 2020, @06:16PM (#971956)

      And we won't need to purchase any toilet paper for at least six months.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 16 2020, @07:17PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 16 2020, @07:17PM (#971974)

    Does your pharmacy have a drive-thru window? One near me does, at first it seemed like a "suburban affectation", but in the current situation it is now looking like a good isolation device. The person on the store side can wear gloves to handle the customer credit card (or cash) and there is very little air exchange between the car and the store.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 16 2020, @08:38PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 16 2020, @08:38PM (#972004)

      For some reason certain employers (ie: hospitals, pharmacies, restaurants, retail outlets, etc...) may have certain restrictions with respect to wearing gloves and masks. If the person there isn't wearing gloves or a mask it's possible that it's against their specific policy under the circumstances. Perhaps some employees can wear them and others can't depending on their position and what they are doing at the time.

      I hear conflicting reasons for this. An employer that won't let you wear them may argue that if you wear gloves then your gloves can get germs on them and spread them. Or they may have one use cases for them (you can wear them for this one thing you want to do, like pick something off the floor or clean this one thing, but you must throw it away and get another one later if you need to clean something else later). Some of it may have to do with appearance or just the cost of gloves/masks (they don't want you wearing gloves and a mask all the time, only for small periods of time if you are doing something specific and temporary that you don't generally do but of course they will give another reason for not allowing you to do so). OTOH you can possibly disinfect your gloves without harming your hands & maybe wash your gloves?

      Perhaps more research needs to be done or presented to show what's the best course of action so that places that have restrictions can't reasonably make arguments for having policies that work against everyone's interests. and perhaps the government can pass laws that prevent employers from having policies that are against the public interest with respect to not spreading germs.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday March 17 2020, @02:38PM

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday March 17 2020, @02:38PM (#972224) Journal

      We do, but there are no plans to restrict transactions to the drive-thru yet. And what about people with no vehicle? If they make motorcycle noises while they walk up to the window can we still serve them?

      --
      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...