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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.


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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by ilPapa on Friday February 28 2020, @03:39AM (3 children)

    by ilPapa (2366) on Friday February 28 2020, @03:39AM (#963937) Journal

    Would you rather the President came out in a full hazmat suit and told everyone to go full doomsday prep and lock themselves inside because their neighbors are a potential threat of infection?

    No, I would rather the President found someone infected with a bad case of the coronavirus and french-kissed them.

    --
    You are still welcome on my lawn.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @07:31PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @07:31PM (#964289)

    Trump is a germaphobe so I imagine the coronavirus is driving him crazyier.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @07:51PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @07:51PM (#964297)

      Hope someone is coughing during a cabinet meeting.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @08:11PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @08:11PM (#964309)

        And coughing during his rallies.