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U.S. should go warp speed on testing too

October 25, 2020 [email protected]_84 speed, Testing, Warp

A health worker collects a sample at a drive-through coronavirus testing site in Lawrence, N.Y. (Seth Wenig / Associated Press)

Americans are pinning their hopes on a vaccine for COVID-19 to bring this long pandemic nightmare to an end. And while it seems likely that there will be one or more federally approved vaccines by year’s end, even best-case scenarios estimate that it will be spring before there are enough doses for everyone in the country who wants one. That means another six months of pandemic restrictions and economic disruption.

There is another feasible option, and it’s a simple one: a massive screening program launched throughout the United States over the next two months, using new and promising low-cost rapid antigen tests that produce results in just minutes. By finding infections in asymptomatic people, such a screening program could prevent outbreaks and get the country back to some degree of normality long before there are enough vaccine doses to go around.

The U.S. failed at coronavirus testing at the outset of the pandemic. When federal officials should have been mobilizing the country’s vast resources to develop screening tools and protocols in January and February, they were instead telling Americans not to worry. The U.S. rejected tests developed by other countries but badly bungled the homegrown versions, sending out kits with faulty or missing chemicals. And though there are now some 21 million tests conducted in the U.S. each week, it’s not enough to get ahead of the infection.

But we still can do it. All we need is an Operation Warp Speed for testing.

Operation Warp Speed is what the Trump administration dubbed its initiative to marshal the resources of government, science, the military and the pharmaceutical industry to rapidly develop a coronavirus vaccine. So far, U.S. taxpayers have invested about $10 billion, and it seems to be paying off. Typically, it takes years if not decades to develop safe and effective vaccines. But in less than a year since the SARS-CoV-2 virus was first identified, there are several vaccine candidates in the final stages of clinical trials. At least two of them may be ready to seek federal approval for use by December. It’s been an incredible feat of science and government — and we can do the same again for testing.

We know too little about where the coronavirus is lurking, which is why so many businesses and activities remain restricted. But an initiative to quickly develop and produce millions of rapid coronavirus tests, along with specific protocols, could provide the data that communities need to safely reopen schools, churches, theme parks, bars and every other place that has been shuttered to prevent the virus from spreading. President Trump may not be a fan of increased testing because it would irrefutably show just how badly we’ve failed to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. But for the sake of the country, he should embrace it.

The technology to do rapid and regular screening exists and

health

New understanding of the neuropilin-1 protein could speed vaccine research

October 23, 2020 [email protected]_84 neuropilin1, protein, research, speed, Understanding, vaccine

<span class="caption">The Spike protein on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 must bind to proteins on the surface of human cells to trigger an infection.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="link rapid-noclick-resp" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/coronavirus-particle-illustration-royalty-free-illustration/1205740031?adppopup=true" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:KTSDESIGN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images">KTSDESIGN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images</a></span> — The Spike protein on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 must bind to proteins on the surface of human cells to trigger an infection. KTSDESIGN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images

When it comes to how the coronavirus invades a cell, it takes three to tango. The dance began with the ACE2 receptor, a protein on human cells that allows SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to enter and infect the cell. But now enter a new dance partner – another protein – that is present on human cells. This tango of three proteins – two human and one viral – enhances the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to enter human cells, replicate and cause disease.

COVID-19 has crippled health care systems and economies worldwide. Extraordinary efforts are underway to develop vaccines and other therapies to combat this virus. But for these efforts to succeed, understanding how the virus enters cells is critical. To that end, in two papers published in Science, two teams independently discovered that a protein called the neuropilin-1 receptor is an alternative doorway for SARS-CoV-2 to enter and infect human cells. This is a major breakthrough and a surprise, because scientists thought neuropilin-1 played roles in helping neurons make the correct connections and aiding the growth of blood vessels. Before this new research, no one suspected that neuropilin-1 could be a door for SARS-CoV-2 to enter the nervous system.

My colleagues and I were particularly intrigued by these reports because as neuroscientists who study how pain signals are triggered and transmitted to the brain, we were also probing the activity of neuropilin-1. In a recent paper our team showed how neuropilin-1 is involved with pain signals and how, when the SARS-CoV-2 virus attaches to it, it blocks pain transmission and relieves pain. The new work shows that neuropilin-1 is an independent doorway for the COVID-19 virus to infect cells. This discovery provides insights that may reveal ways to block the virus.

Neuropilin-1 helps SARS-CoV-2 get in

A protein called Spike that sits on the outer surface of SARS-CoV-2 allows this virus to attach to protein receptors of human cells. Recognizing that a tiny piece of Spike was similar to regions of human protein sequences known to bind to neuropilin receptors, both research teams realized that neuropilin-1 may be critical for infecting cells.

Using a technique called X-ray crystallography, which allows researchers to see the three-dimensional structure of the Spike protein at a resolution of individual atoms, as well as other biochemical approaches, James L. Daly of the University of Bristol and colleagues showed that this short sequence from Spike attached to neuropilin-1.

In experiments in the lab, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was able to infect fewer human cells that lacked neuropilin-1.

In cells with both the ACE2 and neuropilin-1 proteins, SARS-CoV-2 infection was greater compared to cells with either “doorway” alone.

Daly and colleagues showed that SARS-CoV-2 was able to infect fewer cells if they used a small molecule called EG00229 or antibodies to block the Spike protein’s access to neuropilin-1.

Neuropilin-1

health

Trump’s Operation Warp Speed adviser says all Americans could be immunized by June

October 22, 2020 [email protected]_84 adviser, Americans, immunized, June, Operation, speed, Trumps, Warp

Most Americans may have access to a COVID-19 vaccine by early this spring, one which could potentially immunize them by June, according to Operation Warp Speed’s chief adviser, Dr. Moncef Slaoui.

a hand holding a blue toothbrush: A medical syringe is inserted into a small bottle labeled "Vaccine COVID-19" in this illustration taken April 10, 2020.

© Dado Ruvic/Reuters
A medical syringe is inserted into a small bottle labeled “Vaccine COVID-19” in this illustration taken April 10, 2020.

“It’s not a certainty, but the plan — and I feel pretty confident — should make it such that by June, everybody could have been immunized in the U.S.,” Slaoui told ABC News’ Bob Woodruff Wednesday morning.

President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed is an effort created to accelerate a vaccine rollout without sacrificing safety. The program has pumped billions of dollars into numerous pharmaceutical companies in hopes of developing one or more safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. The money is intended to help ramp up development, trials and manufacturing while removing financial risk from the companies, in case the vaccines don’t work out.

Despite the rapid pace of vaccine development, Slaoui said he has not received any improper pressure from the White House to expedite the process beyond what he considers safe.

“I’ve had absolutely no pressure, really, no pressure,” Slaoui said, adding that he would have quit if that were the case. “And I have [always] said, if I get undue pressure, I will say it and I will resign.”

Slaoui said the pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Pfizer are likely to be the first with vaccine candidates to apply for emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration, possibly as soon as November or December. If a vaccine is authorized before the end of the year, Slaoui said approximately 20 to 40 million doses of it will be stockpiled and ready for distribution for a limited population.

MORE: UK launching controversial vaccine trials where volunteers will be infected with the coronavirus

“Then we can start immunizing the highest risk people, front-line workers, the health care workers, before the end of the year,” Slaoui told ABC News. “Now, not every one in that population can be immunized in December, but the companies will continue to manufacture and produce vaccine doses — and in January, we plan to have about 60 to 80 million doses of those two vaccines.”

Slaoui said AstraZeneca’s clinical trial is due to resume in the U.S. “imminently.”

This comes as clinical trials for both AstraZeneca’s vaccine were put on regulatory hold by the FDA and pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine candidate were put on a voluntary pause to investigate why certain volunteers developed unexplained illnesses during the trial. AstraZeneca has already resumed its trials in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

a hand holding a toothbrush: A medical syringe is inserted into a small bottle labeled "Vaccine COVID-19" in this illustration taken April 10, 2020.

© Dado Ruvic/Reuters
A medical syringe is inserted into a small bottle labeled “Vaccine COVID-19” in this illustration taken April 10, 2020.

But halting the two late-stage clinical trials may have caused some vaccine skepticism, despite most scientists saying it’s a sign the process is working, and pointing out that many clinical trials are slowed to investigate potential

health

Coronavirus vaccine could be widely available by June 2021, head of Operation Warp Speed says

October 21, 2020 [email protected]_84 coronavirus, June, Operation, speed, vaccine, Warp, widely

The head of President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed says a COVID-19 vaccine could be made widely available by June 2021, ABC News reports.

“It’s a plan, it’s not a certainty,” Moncef Slaoui, chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed, told ABC News’s Bob Woodruff.

Our country is in a historic fight against the Coronavirus. Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

“But the plan should make it such that by June everybody could have been immunized in the United States. We will have enough vaccine doses. I really hope most people will take the vaccines,” Moncef told the outlet.

Public health officials and experts have projected that a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine could likely be made available to high-risk groups — such as health care workers and the elderly — before the year is out, but a vaccine isn’t likely to be broadly available to all Americans until several months into 2021.

Earlier this month, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar projected the U.S. could have up to 100 million doses of a vaccine before the year is out and doses for every American sometime between March and April of 2021.

The U.S. is currently manufacturing doses for all six vaccine candidates supported by Operation Warp Speed, including those developed by Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, which are all currently in late-stage clinical trials. The U.S. is also securing needles, syringes, bottles and other immunization supplies.

AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson recently paused their trials in the U.S. after participants in both trials became ill.

Moncef told ABC the pharmaceutical companies are “imminently going to have the hold lifted.”

Slaoui’s prediction comes as the U.S. is currently experiencing a resurgence of cases and is the worst-affected country in the world, with more than 8.2 million confirmed cases and more than 221,000 deaths.

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health

UK to infect volunteers with coronavirus in bid to speed up vaccine development

October 20, 2020 [email protected]_84 bid, coronavirus, Development, infect, speed, vaccine, volunteers

Researchers in the U.K. are looking for healthy volunteers who are willing to be infected with the novel coronavirus in a bid to speed up vaccination development. The approach, called a human challenge trial (HCT), is not unheard of, as similar trials take place in the U.S. each year involving the influenza virus. In fact, U.S.-based non-profit 1Day Sooner has already had over 38,000 people sign up for a potential coronavirus human challenge trial.

However, the U.K. trial is being conducted in conjunction with the government, which according to a press release posted Tuesday is prepared to put over $43 million into the study. Imperial College London, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and hVivo are all prepared to play a role in the study.

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The researchers are looking for up to 90 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 30, and hope to determine the smallest level of exposure to coronavirus needed to cause the disease. According to a press release, the volunteers will be compensated for the time they spend in the study and followed for up to one year after it ends to ensure long-term well-being.

The second phase will follow the same model to study how potential coronavirus vaccines work in the body, the body’s immune response to the illness and potential treatments.

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If the trial is approved by regulators and an ethics committee, the work could begin as early as January with results expected by May.

“We are doing everything we can to fight coronavirus, including backing our best and brightest scientists and researchers in their hunt for a safe and effective vaccine,” Business Secretary Alok Sharma said in the press release. “The funding announced today for these ground-breaking but carefully controlled studies marks an important step in building on our understanding of the virus and accelerating the development of our most promising vaccines which will ultimately help in beginning our return to normal life.”

Dr. Chris Chiu, of the department of infectious disease at Imperial College London, will lead the study and said his team has been safely conducting such trials involving respiratory viruses for the last 10 years.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

“No study is completely risk-free, but the Human Challenge Programme partners will be working hard to ensure we make the risks as low as we possibly can,” he said. “The U.K.’s experience and expertise in human challenge trials as well as in wider coronavirus science will help us tackle the pandemic, benefiting people in the U.K. and worldwide.”

As of Tuesday, the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus map reported more than 744,120 confirmed cases in the U.K., and nearly 44,000 deaths.

Source Article …

dentist

Former speed skater Alexandre St-Jean all smiles as a new dentist

October 16, 2020 [email protected]_84 Alexandre, dentist, skater, Smiles, speed, StJean

“My goal was to come back to the Olympics in 2022 and I don’t want to just compete, I want to really have a shot for a medal. It was realistic for me to believe I could do it because we were going to have a new rink in my hometown of Quebec City, so it was going to be way easier for us to train there.

“But because of COVID, the delivery date for the rink has been postponed for a year. We’re supposed to be able to train and race in it right now but we won’t have it for another year, at least,” he said of the Centre De Glace, which was delayed by construction shutdowns during the pandemic and is now expected to open in September 2021.

“For me that was the game-changer. I knew that realistically speaking it wasn’t possible to aim for an Olympic medal without a rink to train in. I think I could see the big picture. COVID, I hope it’s going to be gone in a year, but you don’t know.”

He wasn’t prepared to move to Calgary to train at the oval there, so he pulled the plug and notified Speed Skating Canada of his decision about a month ago.

St-Jean, who started as a short-track skater and switched in 2013, leaves his sport with five long track World Cup medals; a silver in the 500-metres, as well as three gold and a silver as a team sprint competitor.

“The silver in the 500-metres in Inzell, Germany, that was my best performance ever. All the best skaters were there. But I think my biggest achievement for me was going to the Olympics, for sure. Everyone wants to be at the Olympics, and everyone wants to be at their best at the Olympics.”

Source Article …

health

COVID cases in US grow at a speed not seen since July peak

October 16, 2020 [email protected]_84 Cases, COVID, grow, July, peak, speed

A 25-year-old Nevada man was the first American confirmed to have caught COVID-19 twice, and his second infection was worse than the first.

USA TODAY

Eighteen days from the presidential election, the U.S. has more confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths than any other country, and cases are growing at a speed not seen since the summer peak.

At the current rate of growth, the nation could set a weekly case count record within the first few days of November, according to a USA TODAY analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. But if the spread of cases picks up momentum – as was seen in late June and July – the U.S. could set a weekly case record in little more than a week.

“I don’t think it’s out of the question. Yesterday, we had about 50,000 new cases,” Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins, said Thursday. “It’s not crazy to think that we would get there sooner than we would all like.”

The U.S. added more than 373,000 cases in the past week – a number nearly 46,000 higher than the tally the previous week, which is a speed of growth not seen since July.

Without masks and a vaccine, we could reach Herd Immunity from COVID-19, but deaths would skyrocket. We break down the science of it.

USA TODAY

“We’re going to have a huge increase as we head into the colder months, and this could be potentially the worst part of the epidemic in the U.S., both in terms of new cases and even deaths,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. “Our lives will get better as we get vaccines early next year, but we’re going to go through a very troubled time.”

US coronavirus map: Tracking the outbreak

There are nearly 8 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and more than 217,000 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins. The pandemic has touched all but three counties, and the share of positive coronavirus tests is increasing in the Northwest, Midwest and other northern states. As of Thursday evening, 14 states had set records for new cases in a week while two had a record number of deaths in a week.

“It’s from a relatively high watermark that we’re starting this third resurgence. We’re seeing hot spots all around the country, and that really concerns me because it makes it more difficult to control,” Rivers said.

Cases are surging across the Midwest at a blistering pace: North Dakota reported cases at a speed a third faster, on a per capita basis, than any U.S. state experienced in the worst of the spring or summer surges.

South Dakota and Montana are also ahead of the summer records, while Wisconsin is not far below, a data visualization of Johns Hopkins University by University of Illinois computer scientist Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider shows.

New cases aren’t the only numbers going up. The

Neuropilin-1 helps SARS-CoV-2 get in

Neuropilin-1

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