Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Thursday February 27 2020, @03:46PM   Printer-friendly

Clinical trials of remdesivir, an experimental drug to treat COVID-19, have begun at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha. More detail is provided in an article posted by the National Institutes of Health. The initial trial will involve 400 patients and will be conducted internationally but is beginning in Nebraska. There are currently 15 patients being monitored at UNMC, 13 of whom have tested positive for COVID-19. According to the daily update from UNMC, all of the 15 patients are now in the National Quarantine Unit, which has 20 beds. Previously, some of the patients had been in the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, which is the largest facility of its kind in the country and had previously been used to treat ebola patients.

Note: The February 25 edition of the daily update mentioned the clinical trial, so there's a good possibility that additional updates will be posted in UNMC's daily update. The additional discussion may help explain why the trial is beginning in Nebraska even though there haven't been any cases that reported there -- all of the COVID-19 patients at UNMC were either sent there originally or were previously quarantined at Camp Ashland or were transported there from elsewhere.

Australia has activated its emergency response plan for global pandemics as the coronavirus spreads rapidly outside of China. The plan to deal with a large scale coronovirus outbreak is named "The COVID-19 plan". The plan notes that there are three levels of outbreak to consider, with a "high" outbreak being comparable to the extreme 1918 "Spanish flu" which infected one third of Australians and killed between 50 to 100 million people globally.

As the potential for the coronavirus to break out into a pandemic increases, people are flocking to stores for hand sanitizer with shelves in Australia and other countries out of stock of the items.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.


Original Submission #1   Original Submission #2   Original Submission #3

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @12:24AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @12:24AM (#963878)

    I submitted the article and I have a position at a different campus in the university system. Prior to today, there hadn't been any communication between the university administration and employees or students. That seemed to be consistent with other universities. As of today, more study abroad students are being recalled. Also, the administration is examining the possibility of moving classes online [journalstar.com] and appropriate measures to take in the residence halls. I suspect these conversations are finally starting to take place at other universities as well. While it's probably less of an issue with younger children like elementary school students, there's a distinct possibility that universities might have to limit what classes actually meet in person. On a smaller scale, faculty were encouraged to make arrangements to do coursework and complete assignments online last spring during the Nebraska flooding. It wasn't at the scale of this, but faculty were asked to accommodate students who were staying in their communities after spring break.

    It is a bit concerning about what might happen in a few weeks, during spring break. Students are going to disperse for a week. If there's community transmission elsewhere in the country, there's a distinct possibility of some students returning who have been exposed to COVID-19. There's a clear possibility emerging as to why there has been community spreading in California: proper precautions weren't taken in interacting with quarantined patients [nytimes.com] (Link to alternate source [washingtonpost.com]). In the same general region of California, there's now a UC-Davis student being quarantined [ucdavis.edu] for possible exposure to COVID-19. Because of the reported issues involving quarantine procedures, I'm just glad that nobody at Camp Ashland was actually infected [omaha.com].

    One last thing: here's a bit more information about why people are being treated in Omaha [nytimes.com] and the facilities. I didn't find that link until after submitting the story or I'd have included it in the summary.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +2  
       Informative=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   2