The U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA) Chemical and Biological Technologies Department is funding MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to develop Artificial Intelligence (A-I) and other so-called deep learning technologies in order to fast-forward scientific data regarding Pandemic treatments, especially the use of Remdesivir (aka Veklury) in drug ‘cocktails’. Believe it or not, this is a result of an order by the administration of United States President Joseph R. Biden Junior.
The DTRA also admitted that a horse drug called Molnupiravir, created to treat Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis, was used in treating humans for The Pandemic, and it work well as a “repurposed” drug for humans! Repurposing drugs for the current Pandemic, and future pandemics, involves combining them with other drugs. The DTRA hopes a new A-I/deep learning system will speed that process up greatly.
Drugs that play well with each other are called synergistic drugs. The biggest advantages of synergistic drugs is lower doses with much better results. ComboNet discovered that Remdesivir works even better as a synergistic drug!
Image via Gilead Sciences.
ComboNet has already suggested mixing Remdesivir with Reserpine (high blood pressure treatment), or with IQ-1S (an experimental JNK Inhibitor, used to treat cancer cells).
I was in a department store in eastern Idaho, looking at face masks. I already knew that surgical masks are actually designed to protect a person who is being operated on from the germs in the doctors’ and nurses’ breath, and are not designed to do the reverse. I wanted to check out the hardware section’s dust/paint masks and was surprised to find most of them were gone. However, when I checked the labels on those remaining I discovered in the fine print that these masks not only won’t protect you from germs, they don’t even protect you from the harmful chemicals used in paints/glues or created in a construction environment; the small print on all the remaining masks stated “not for use in a NON-HARMFUL environment” (and NON-HARMFUL was in all-caps on the labels). Basically the bottom-of-the-line industrial dust masks are primarily designed to ‘protect’ you from the smell of the chemicals you are using, but not the toxins.
I was also looking at air conditioning (cooling and/or heating) filters for your home. Yes, there are house filters designed to capture viruses and bacteria, some even coming with electronic devices that wire-lessly connect to your smart phone to let you know when to change the filter, but I had an epiphany about home air treatment filters that renders them ‘too little too late’.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (aka CDC) states that surgical masks should be used only as a “last resort”, when no other masks are available. ‘Masks’ that are rated for protecting the wearer from airmobile microbes are known officially as respirators.
In the U.S. such respirators have a NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) rating. Currently the only respirators rated to filter out the coronavirus (specifically SARS-CoViD) are those rated N-95.
The N in N-95 means Not resistant to oil.
Even knowing which respirator will work, the CDC and United Nation’s World Health Organization say that only healthcare workers dealing with infected people need to wear a respirator. This is because infected people who end up in a hospital, or in quarantine, are in a confined, somewhat controllable, environment with close contact to other people. Hospitals are the worst place to be if you’re trying to avoid getting sick.
Those of us in the general public are in an open environment that really can’t be controlled, and when you are dealing with an airmobile disease, like CoViD-19 and influenza, there’s very little you can do. For proof of that, for this season’s influenza the U.S. vaccine has been given a 45% effectiveness rating, meaning that the majority of people who got this year’s flu shot could still get sick. There’s no vaccine for CoViD-19.
Even with hand washing, covering your mouth when you cough, all that is malarkey because it takes only one microscopic virus to make it inside your body to infect you. It’s estimated that one sneeze can expel 100-thousand infection-ous particles! Sneezes are so powerful that putting your hand over your mouth, or burying your mouth in your elbow will not stop all those particles from spreading.
This brings me to those more costly home air conditioning filters claiming to remove germs. Your air conditioning (cooling and/or heating) system does not run all the time (unless you can afford to have it running all the time), and if you have a sick guest (whether they know they are sick or not, as is proving the case with CoViD-19) most likely they will have filled your living room with germs that you then breath in before your air conditioning system turns on.
Also, your air conditioning system cannot instantly suck the infected air through the filter, it takes several tens of minutes to fully circulate the air (depending on the size of your house/apartment). This is why I call reliance on home air conditioning filters too-little-too-late.
In Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), a 14 years old girl is sick with MERS. She has other health problems, which seems to be a condition for getting infected with MERS. She lives in an area of KSA that is not the current hot spot for infections, indicating it’s spreading.
Saudi health officials say an 83 years old man died in in the eastern region of Al-Ahsaa. He developed symptoms on 27 May, and died on 31 May. Within the KSA 25 people have died, and there are 40 people fighting the infection. (other sources report numbers lower than that)
In Italy, there are now three people infected. The man who came back from Jordan unknowingly infected a 42 years old woman and a 2 years old girl.
Going by the latest UN World Health Organization numbers, and current regional reports, there are more than 55 cases and more than 33 deaths, around the world.
There are reports that some people infected with MERS are not showing symptoms. However, the virus is so new health officials are not sure what typical symptoms are: “…the virus has not been characterized yet. Thus, significant mutations in the viral genome that might explain changes in virulence on transmissibility cannot be confirmed as yet.”-Giovanna Rezza, International Society for Infectious Diseases
03 June 2013 (18:43 UTC-07 Tango 02 June 2013)/24 Rajab 1434/13 Khordad 1391/25 Wu-Wu (4th month) 4711
Health officials in Bahrain are denying a report that a MERS infected man fled the country. Apparently the man from Pakistan was placed under quarantine in Bahrain, after getting sick, but snuck out before test results were in. Officials did admit that the man was detained at the airport: “The Pakistani national, 55, was transferred on Saturday to the Salmaniya Medical Complex after the customs at the King Fahd Causeway alerted the health authorities who dispatched an ambulance.”
Saudi Arabian news media reporting three new deaths, and a new case of infection. The three that died had other chronic health problems. A woman with heart disease is the latest person to be infected with MERS virus.
In Italy, a 45 years old man who returned from Jordan, is infected with MERS. His symptoms are high fever, cough, and breathing difficulties.
So far, all MERS cases have been directly connected to West Asia (Middle East). The number of cases should be at 52, with 30 deaths.
Health officials with the government of the Philippines are ignorantly telling families not to worry about their loved ones working in Saudi Arabia: “Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia should be properly informed, educated, and guided about taking care of their health amid the spread of MERS.”-John Leonard Monterona, Philippines Migrante Middle East regional coordinator
The problem with the above statement is that MERS is a brand new virus, and World health officials don’t know how it’s being spread, or how people can protect themselves from it! It’s only been realized in the past couple of weeks that it is airborne.
Back in Saudi Arabia, reports of an outbreak of Klebsiella bacteria at the Al-Ahsa Obstetrics and Children Hospital. Health officials say the number of cases are limited, but locals say four children have died.
“…the imminent threats are the H7N9 influenza virus and the new coronavirus emerging in the Middle East.”-Ian Lipkin, Center for Infection and Immunity
French news media reporting that the man who returned from Dubai, infected with the new bat related virus, MERS, has died. It was that case which confirmed that MERS is airborne and can infect human to human, because another man sharing the hospital room with the MERS infected man is now sick.
In Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), a woman suffering from chronic illness was finally done in by MERS. KSA Ministry of Health are also reporting five new cases.
By my count, the number of deaths are at 24, out of 49 cases.
The UN World Health Organization says it will now help KSA prepare for possible massive outbreak of MERS during the upcoming Islamic Haj pilgrimage (in October).
The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention is now warning all U.S. medical personnel to be on the lookout, as any person who returned from the Middle East (West Asia) showing sings of illness could have MERS.
In China, a new research center is being opened by National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention (Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention) and the U.S. Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health’s Center for Infection and Immunity.
It’s been years in the planning and is called Joint Research Laboratory for Pathogen Discovery. The operators say the timing is just right, since it appears the World is being hit with several new diseases right now. Researchers believe the greatest need is finding ways to fight H7N9 and MERS. China is paying for the new research center.
The first person to become infected in Tunis, became the first to die. The man came back from a trip to Saudi Arabia, sick. His two sons are now sick and under medical observation.
In Saudi Arabia two people have died. One man died on Monday, then (according to some reports) another man died on Wednesday. Health officials also reported a new case of infection in a woman.
The new cases bring the total number of infections, since September 2012, to 43. Deaths at 23.
Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health reports six more people infected (four announced Monday, two on Tuesday). The new cases include nurses who got infected while treating patients. One of the new human cases died. Another person died a couple of days ago.
What’s interesting is that the Saudi Ministry of Health announced on 13 May that the infections were no longer spreading.
The situation has become so worrisome that a veterinary clinic in Dubai has been set up to treat humans!
12 May 2013 (22:03 UTC-07 Tango 11 May 2013)/02 Rajab 1434/22 Ordibehest 1391/03 Ding-Si (4th month) 4711
On 11 May 2013, France reported that three people tested for the new MERS were negative. What many reports didn’t tell you is that there are at least two more possible cases.
Beside the man who came back from United Arab Emirates (UAE) sick, two people connected to him are also sick. Testing has confirmed one to be positive for MERS, medical personnel are waiting for the test results on the other person.
The second French man who is infected with MERS, got infected while in the same hospital room as the first MERS infected man. Benoit Guery, the head of the Lille hospital’s infectious diseases service, says it proves “The airborne transmission of the virus was possible.”
Health officials in Thailand have issued a warning. Anyone returning from trips to West Asia (Middle East) should report to a doctor for examination, especially if they have symptoms of the flu or colds.
The UN World Health Organization issued a warning, they want all health officials to be on the lookout for people with SARS like symptoms as well as pneumonia. The UNWHO is also sending a two man team to Saudi Arabia, where at least two more cases have been confirmed. The new two man team is independent of the UNWHO team that was invited by the government of Saudi Arabia.
The latest cases in Saudi Arabia are people who got sick last month, but no doctor recognized their infections as MERS until now. There are now 33 confirmed cases, and 18 deaths.
Three more people are confirmed infected with the new SARS like virus in Saudi Arabia.
Since September 2012 there have been 27 lab confirmed human cases, and 16 deaths, in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and United Kingdom.
The three new cases are people related to other people already hospitalized.
Saudi health officials also said that tests on 50 other people are being done to determine if they have the new coronavirus. So far, all the cases in Saudi Arabia have originated in the eastern Al-Ahsa governorate.
A new SARS like virus is attacking people in Saudi Arabia. It was first discovered last year, and is sometimes called Saudi, or London, SARS. It’s a new (novel) type of coronavirus (aka London 1, nCoV).
Since September 2012 there have been 24 lab confirmed human cases, and 16 deaths, in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and the United Kingdom. In the past week Saudi Arabia reported seven new cases, and five deaths. Death is usually caused by kidney (renal) failure.
The Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia says they have not been able to find an origin, or connection, to the outbreak.
