Some good news about coronavirus the media won’t tell you

If you are like the rest of Americans, you are probably afraid and tired of hearing the gloom and doom news about the coronavirus. The airwaves are filled with news about corona apocalypse. Contrary to the headlines in the mainstream media, the first case of coronavirus happened on November 17, 2019 (not December 2019) when a 55 year-old from Hubei province contracted the virus, according to a new report from the South China Morning Post, citing unpublished Chinese government data it obtained.

At TechStartups, we’ve been covering the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) since early January. Our coverage is more focused on the work the science community is doing to combat the deadly virus that started back in December 2019 at seafood market in Whuan, China.

However, instead of hearing more about the works many research organizations are doing to find cure for the virus, the media spends most of their time exaggerating the impact of the virus, endangering lives and causing panics and anxieties. Yes, coronavirus is lethal and ten times more deadly than the regular flu. But that does not mean there is no silver lining in the midst of despair. Scientists and researchers are daily making progress in finding cure for the virus.

Below are some of the good news the media is not telling you about. We plan to update the list as the new breaks.

• Wednesday, March 18, 2020: Hydroxychloroquine is found to be more potent than chloroquine in vitro treatment of coronavirus, new study published by NIH shows. We have another piece of good news to share with you.A new study by the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows that the sister drug hydroxychloroquine is more potent in killing the virus off in vitro (in the test tube to not in the body). The result of the study shows that Hydroxychloroquine was found to be more potent than chloroquine to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 in vitro.
• Wednesday, March 18, 2020: Hopes of a coronavirus vaccine rise as three major biotech companies make progress. Just in the last 48 hours, three major biotech companies, BioNTech, CureVac and Moderna, have been thrust into the spotlight for their promise to develop an immunization against COVID-19. The three companies specialize in messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics. The mRNA molecules are used to instruct the body to produce its own immune response to fight a range of different diseases. This type of vaccine can potentially be developed and produced more quickly than traditional vaccines.
• Tuesday, March 17, 2020: Israel biopharmaceutical company Kamada is developing ‘passive vaccine’ for treatment against coronavirus. Kamada, an Israel-based biopharmaceutical company that is focused on plasma-derived protein therapeutics for treatment of individuals with rare diseases, today announced that it has started to work on developing a blood-plasma derived treatment against the virus. The Rehovot, Israel-based biopharmaceutical company, said it is working to collect plasma in different facilities from people who have recovered from the viral disease.
• Tuesday, March 17, 2020: Clinical trials for COVID-19 are expected to complete by the end of April. There is more good news this afternoon that the results from clinical trials for COVID-19 could start to roll in any day, with antimalarials coming through first, according to a report of BioCentury’s analysis of study completion dates in public databases. Based on the data obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov and ChiCTR.org.cn, clinical trials for COVID-19 are expected to complete by April 2020.
• Monday, March 16, 2020: A new academic study reveals over-the-counter anti-malaria pill Chloroquine may be highly effective at treating coronavirus. According to a new academic study presented by Thomas R. Broker, (Stanford PhD), James M. Todaro (Columbia MD), and Gregory J. Rigano, Esq., in consultation with Stanford University School of Medicine, UAB School of Medicine, and National Academy of Sciences researchers, shows that over the counter anti-malaria pills Chloroquine may be highly effective at treating coronavirus COVID-19.
• Monday March 16, 2020: NIH has begun clinical trial of investigational vaccine for COVID-19. A Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating an investigational vaccine designed to protect against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has begun at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) in Seattle. The vaccine is called mRNA-1273 and was developed by NIAID scientists and their collaborators at the biotechnology company Moderna, Inc., based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) supported the manufacturing of the vaccine candidate for the Phase 1 clinical trial.
• A new preliminary study shows that coronavirus epidemic may be slowed by warm weather. A new study conducted by Chinese researchers shows that high temperature and high humidity reduced the transmission of COVID-19. If true, the warm weather would bring the much needed relief while we are waiting for the coronavirus vaccine, which is still about 12 months away. In a paper published in Social Science Research Network (SSRN), a repository and international journal devoted to the rapid dissemination of scholarly research in the social sciences and humanities, Chinese researchers investigates how air temperature and humidity influence the transmission of COVID-19 and analyzed how the epidemic evolved in various Chinese cities taking into account the weather in each.
• In February, we published a story when Israel scientists announced breakthrough in coronavirus treatment. “After 4 years of research funded by Israel’s Ministry of Science & Technology, MIGAL’s researchers have developed an effective vaccine against avian coronavirus Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV), to be adapted soon and create a human vaccine against COVID-19,” the group said in a press release.
• Just two weeks ago, as we reported on this site, German researchers have identified existing drug with potential to treat coronavirus Covid-19. A team of scientists led by infection biologists from five German research institutions made a startling discovery about potential drug that could treat coronavirus Covid-19. They  found that an existing drug camostat mesilate might protect against COVID-19. They identified a cellular enzyme that is essential for viral entry into lung cells: the protease TMPRSS2. A clinically proven drug known to be active against TMPRSS2 was found to block SARS-CoV-2 infection and might constitute a novel treatment option (Cell).
• A team of scientists from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha has develop a drug to treat the virus and now ready to conduct a clinical trial. Participants are asked to come to 11 in-person study visits and four phone visits over a 14-month period, including one initial screening visit, two vaccination visits, and eight follow-ups. Patients will receive two injections of the vaccine in the upper arm with doses given 28 days apart.
• Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute announced today it has received a green light from the government to begin its vaccine trials, the first of its kind. Its research team is enrolling 45 healthy people, ages 18 to 55, from the Seattle-area over the course of 14 months.
• Chinese scientists say coronavirus vaccine may be available and ready next month. As we reported last week, Zheng Zhongwei, China director of the Science and Technology Development Centre of the National Health Commission (NHC) announced that the country is making progress and that a new coronovirus vaccine may be ready for emergency use next month. Zheng said that a new synthetic messenger RNA (or mRNA) nucleic acid vaccine is the leading candidate for a vaccine to combat COVID-19.
• Doctors in India have been successful in treating Coronavirus. Combination of drugs used: Lopinavir, Retonovir, Oseltamivir along with Chlorphenamine. They are going to suggest same medicine, globally. Italian  elderly Italian couple currently undergoing treatment for coronavirus (COVID-19) at a hospital in Jaipur have been administered a combination of two drugs, commonly used controlling HIV infection. This is the first time that this combination has been used to treat the deadly virus amid mounting cases in India. Following the success, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) had approved the ‘restricted’ use of the combination of medications-lopinavir and ritonavir, which are second-line HIV drugs, before they were administered to the elderly couple
• Researchers of the Erasmus Medical Center claim to have found an antibody against coronavirus. A team of ten scientific researchers from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and Utrecht University say they are the first in the world to discover an antibody capable of fending off an infection by the Covid-19 variant of coronavirus. The discovery could lead to an antiviral medication, and the ability for people to test themselves at home for the presence of the virus. “I am too old to jump on a table,” said cellular biology professor Frank Grosveld to Erasmus Magazine. Their article is undergoing a peer review by other researchers on the online platform BioRxiv, and they believe it well then be published by top science journal Nature.
• A German biotech company has developed coronavirus test kits with 4 million tests since the outbreak began. TIB Molbiol Syntheselabor GmbH is a technology company you probably never heard of. Since 1990, Tib Molbiol, a Berlin, Germany-based biotech company that has developed tests for ailments ranging from swine flu to SARS. Dr. Landt and his team have produced 40,000 coronavirus diagnostic kits, enough for about 4 million individual tests.
• Gates Foundation Wellcome Trust and Mastercard joined forces to launch a $125 million Therapeutics Accelerator to combat coronavirus (COVID19) epidemic.  Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it is joining forces with Wellcome Trust and Mastercard to create the COVID19 Therapeutics Accelerator to identify, assess, develop, and scale-up treatments to the epidemic.  The goal of the new initiative is to speed the development and access to therapies for COVID-19.
• A network of Canadian scientists are making excellent progress in Covid19 research.
• A San Diego biotech company is developing a Covid19 vaccine in collaboration with Duke University and National University of Singapore.
• Plasma from newly recovered patients from Covid 19 can treat others infected by Covid19.

In addition to the progress being made in the scientific. below is additional good news about the

• March 16: Defense Secretary Esper announced today that U.S. military to provide 5 million masks from strategic reserve to help slow coronavirus outbreak. 1 million will be “immediately” available: Defense Secretary Esper
• March 16: Amazon is hiring 100,000 new full-time and part-time workers in U.S. to keep up with the demand. The online giant announced it is hiring 100,000 new full-time and part-time 100,000 workers to keep up with online shopping surge caused by a surge in online shopping.
• China has closed down its last coronavirus hospital. Not enough new cases to support them.
• All 7 patients who were getting treated for at Safdarjung hospital in New Delhi have recovered.
• Cleveland Clinic developed a COVID19 test that gives results in hours, not days.
• Millions of coronavirus test kits are now available in the United States.
• The number of new coronavirus cases from South Korea is declining.
• Italy is hit hard, experts say, only because they have the oldest population in Europe.
• There Maryland coronavirus patients fully recovered and able to return to everyday life.
• March 15: Apple reopens all 42 china stores.

Overall, it’s not all bad news. It’s time to care for one another, stay focused and help the most vulnerable in our community. Let’s focus less on the problem and spend more time on finding the solution. We are going to get through this together.

Source: Tech Startups