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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
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @01:30AM (1 child)
1) Trump was pretty incoherent during his briefing. He wasn't just stumbling over big scientific words. He was stumbling over reading basic policy details from the teleprompter. That suggests a degree of unfamiliarity with what he's discussing and raises questions about how carefully he's considered what the response should be.
2) Trump's wishy-washy comments about funding about whether Congress should approve 2.5 or 8.5 billion dollars is a problem. There hasn't been adequate consideration given to the appropriate federal response and the necessary funding to implement it. The implementation of many of the containment and mitigation strategies will need to happen at the state and local levels. They don't have enough money to carry out those measures on their own so federal assistance will be needed. Even Richard Shelby, who is loyal to Trump, has been harshly critical of the administration.
3) Trump's messaging is quite a bit different from what top scientists are saying. It's a big problem when Trump gives a speech about this and contradicts the experts. He needs to be reinforcing what the experts are saying, not contradicting them.
4) Pence is the wrong person to lead the coronavirus response. His failures in responding to HIV in Indiana should disqualify him. he put his personal philosophy and beliefs ahead of the guidance from experts. Pence got it wrong then. Trump praised how Pence handled the situation in Indiana, which is disingenuous. Pence cannot be trusted to make good decisions about responding to the virus. Trump should have delegated the responsibility to someone who has a background in science and has experience with the federal bureaucracy.
5) Why does the response team include Steve Mnuchin and Larry Kudlow? I question whether Mnuchin should be involved, but Kudlow should be disqualified just like Pence. Kudlow directly contracted statements coming from the CDC, almost certainly to influence the stock market at the expense of providing accurate and consistent information to the people. The presence of Mnuchin and Kudlow on the task force suggests that Trump is still more concerned about the economy than the actual impacts of the virus.
6) Trump should have immediately amended his budget request to Congress to remove the requested budget cuts to CDC. It is unthinkable that Trump is proposing to cut funding to CDC, including their infectious disease containment and mitigation programs, while in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. That's unacceptable.
7) Not directly related to the briefing, but it's very concerning that Pence wants to approve the messaging from any federal officials about the virus. I absolutely understand the need to ensure consistent messaging but there are ample reasons to distrust Pence. The administration has a history of contradicting scientists and demanding to control statements about other crises like Hurricane Dorian. The requirement that officials, apparently including those at CDC and NIH, get Pence's approval is extremely concerning because of the potential to order the scientists to provide inaccurate information, especially when there is a significant chance of it affecting the stock market.
8) Trump didn't outline an actual plan for responding to the coronavirus. He spent most of the time downplaying the threat, patting himself on the back, and saying "I told you so" about the travel restrictions. He was happy to list off a ranking of the most prepared countries for a pandemic. But there was little information about future plans when the virus starts spreading more in the US. This goes back to to the disorganization, mixed messaging, and general appearance that the administration is unprepared.
Trump needed to reassure people that they should trust the guidance of CDC and NIH. The experts have said it's a matter of time before there is community spreading of the virus. Trump should have affirmed this rather than casting uncertainty on the analysis from top scientists. Trump needed to make it clear that the administration wasn't going to lowball the request for funding. He needed to make it clear that there are well-defined plans in place for when the virus starts spreading more widely in the US. The briefing wasn't reassuring at all. In fact, it reinforced the idea that the administration really doesn't have a plan in place and hasn't given sufficient consideration to various levels of response depending on how the disease spreads in the US. Yes, Trump needs to reassure people about the situation. You do that by coherently providing the facts and making it clear that the administration is well-prepared for the range of situations that may arise.
(Score: 2) by Coward, Anonymous on Friday February 28 2020, @03:52PM
The US has not been testing for community spread [statnews.com], so it's wrong to say that it's not occurring. The diagnostic data to make an appropriate public health response (e.g. close schools, ban large meetings) do not exist in the US. The US should not be a straggler country when it comes to testing.