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Moreover, 97% of biotech hedge funds track iHub’s Biotech Values board!
Dr. Fauci Identifies "Possible Cause" of Long COVID
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/dr-fauci-identifies-possible-cause-of-long-covid/ss-AASHHnK?ocid=msedgdhp#image=3
Dr. Fauci Said One Study Proposes Long Haulers Still Have "Fragments" of the Virus Generating an "Aberrant Response"
"One of the things that's really interesting," said Dr. Fauci, "that we're seeing right now is that when you look at individuals who have these symptoms that go on—as you know, and have experienced yourself—for a considerable period of time, a recent study that is in the pre-print stage—so it hasn't been peer reviewed—has some very interesting information that needs to be validated and verified. It was an autopsy study in people who had varying levels of COVID from relatively mildly symptomatic to moderately symptom individuals who actually died. And when they looked at the spread of what was not necessarily replication-competent virus, but was PCR-able virus, which means you could have nucleotides that were there, there was what seems to be a persistence in multiple organ systems indicating that even if you clear the virus, one of the possibilities—and I have to emphasize possibility, because it needs to be validated—is that you don't completely clear the fragments of the virus and you have continual stimulation. Not that you're infectious or that you're gonna infect anybody else, but that it is still generating perhaps an aberrant response in your immune system."
He concluded: "I underscore again, it's preliminary, it's in the preprint stage and it needs to be peer reviewed, but thus, some of the information we're starting to gather."
RT.com? Seriously?
Read the comments section...total insanity.
Here's the referenced Guardian article...
Could microclots help explain the mystery of long Covid?
Preliminary results indicate that treatments such as antiplatelet and anticoagulation regimens have shown promising results in long Covid cases, provided there is careful professional monitoring of any danger of bleeding that might be caused by taking these medications. In addition to that, so-called Help (heparin-induced, extracorporal, lipoprotein/fibrinogen, precipitation) apheresis – in which microclots and inflammatory molecules are filtered out in a dialysis-style treatment – may also have positive outcomes for patients. (See a recent BBC interview with Dr Beate Jaeger and Dr Asad Khan.)
Pfizer says Covid-19 pill near 90% effective in final analysis
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/14/pfizer-says-covid-19-pill-near-90percent-effective-in-final-analysis-.html
The U.S. drugmaker last month said the oral medicine was around 89% effective in preventing hospitalizations or deaths when compared to placebo based on interim results in around 1,200 people. The data disclosed on Tuesday includes an additional 1,000 people.
Nobody in the trial who received the Pfizer treatment died, compared with 12 deaths among placebo recipients.
The Pfizer pills are taken with the older antiviral ritonavir every 12 hours for five days beginning shortly after onset of symptoms. If authorized, the treatment will be sold as Paxlovid.
Pfizer also released early data from a second clinical trial showing that the treatment reduced hospitalizations by around 70% in around 600 standard-risk adults.
Dolsten said recent laboratory testing showed that activity against the protease of the omicron variant is as “good as basically any SARS-COV-2 variant of concern.”
The company has said it can have 180,000 treatment courses ready to ship this year and plans to produce at least 80 million more in 2022.
The U.S. government has already secured 10 million courses of the Pfizer drug for $5.29 billion.
Jefferies says the metaverse is as big an investment opportunity as the early internet
(paywall)
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/metaverse-investing-virtual-world-land-sales-jefferies-facebook-meta-sandbox-2021-12
Investors should consider the metaverse as like the early days of the internet, according to Jefferies' head of thematic research.
Simon Powell noted key stocks to watch, telling CNBC people will want to "own the Ciscos" of the metaverse.
Yet many are still skeptical of the idea, with one investor saying proper metaverses are still years away.
Wall Street is getting very excited about the metaverse, with investment bank Jefferies perhaps the most optimistic.
Its head of thematic research Simon Powell told CNBC that the metaverse is an investment opportunity akin to the early days of the internet.
"The way to think about it is [that] all human activity that hasn't moved online is about to move online in the next five to 10 years," he said. "We can only imagine what it can be."
Powell was speaking to CNBC's "Worldwide Exchange" on Friday, after Jefferies released a research note saying the metaverse will be the biggest disruption to how people live ever seen.
The metaverse is a fuzzy term that refers to a wide range of virtual worlds, in which people use avatars to play games, watch virtual concerts, work, build things, and even buy and sell crypto assets such as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.
Social media giant Facebook recently changed its name to Meta to mark a switch in focus to the metaverse. The move spurred a surge of interest in the idea among investors and other technology companies.
Powell said investors should be thinking about investing in the metaverse as though they were investing in the early internet. That means first focusing on hardware providers; then on software providers; then on companies that actually operate inside the technology.
"What did you want to own from 1989 to 2000? You wanted to own the Ciscos of the world. And I think the same is going to be true for the metaverse," he said.
Powell recommended investors think about chipmakers such as Nvidia and AMD, saying that the push into virtual worlds will require a huge amount of computing power.
He also recommended device manufacturers, for example, those that make virtual reality headsets. "It's all about infrastructure for the next few years," he said.
However, there are plenty of skeptics about the metaverse who argue that it's far too soon to predict whether the idea will become a major part of everyday life.
Jon Jordan, blockchain specialist at venture capital firm Hiro Capital, told Insider that "no one knows what [the metaverse] is." He added: "Nothing that is yet live, I would call a metaverse."
The uncertainty makes investing decisions about the metaverse tricky, Jordan said.
Jefferies' Powell said it's still uncertain whether the metaverse will be dominated by the likes of Facebook/Meta or by decentralized virtual worlds such as The Sandbox or Decentraland.
Decentralized virtual worlds, in which users can create and sell their own items in the form of NFTs, have recently been attracting a lot of attention, with virtual land selling for millions of dollars.
The Pfizer trial started recruiting on April 30, 2020 when the pandemic was just getting started. There was not a lot of Covid floating around. Pfizer reported results of the trial on Nov 9, 2020. I don't know what the cutoff date was but on Oct 1, 2020 the were a total of of 5,467 deaths in the U.S. reported since the start of the pandemic. The total number of cases was 295,938. Most of their recruiting was during the summer months when people were outside a lot. It makes sense there there were not going to be a lot of deaths in either the vaccine or the placebo arm.
https://www.statnews.com/feature/coronavirus/covid-19-tracker/
No deaths reported in the Pfizer trial for the vaccine or placebo...
No deaths were considered by the investigators to be related to the vaccine or placebo. No Covid-19–associated deaths were observed. No stopping rules were met during the reporting period.
The NEJM paper on the Pfizer/BioNTech trial only reported data from a 2 month follow-up. The planned 2 year follow-up was made difficult because once BNT162b2 was approved those in the placebo group were given the option of getting the vaccine and many did.
Do you put more weight on this flawed trial or the real world data which shows much higher efficacy (5X more cases if unvaxxed) and much greater protection from severe disease and death (13X more deaths if unvaxxed)?
Rates for vaccinated and unvaccinated
Here's the NEJM paper:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa2034577
Long-Term Studies Of COVID-19 Vaccines Hurt By Placebo Recipients Getting Immunized
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/02/19/969143015/long-term-studies-of-covid-19-vaccines-hurt-by-placebo-recipients-getting-immuni
Tens of thousands of people who volunteered to be in studies of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are still participating in follow-up research. But some key questions won't be easily answered, because many people who had been in the placebo group have now opted to take the vaccine.
People signing up for these studies were not promised special treatment, but once the FDA authorized the vaccines, their developers decided to offer the shots.
Dr. Steven Goodman, a clinical trials specialist at Stanford University, says losing those control groups makes it more difficult to answer some important questions about COVID-19 vaccines.
"We don't know how long protections lasts," he says. "We don't know efficacy against variants — for which we definitely need a good control arm — and we also don't know if there are any differences in any of these parameters by age or race or infirmity."
Look at real world data. The rate for Covid cases is 5X higher for the unvaccinated vs. vaccinated and the death rate is 13X higher for unvaccinated.
Rates for vaccinated and unvaccinated
Novartis working on pan-coronavirus oral treatment, CEO says
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/novartis-working-pan-coronavirus-oral-treatment-ceo-says-2021-12-06/
Novartis last year had signed a deal with Molecular Partners to develop two DARPin-based therapies as potential COVID-19 treatments.
A new readout from studies of one of those treatments is expected in January, and the duo will then decide on next steps based on that data, Narasimhan said.
On Jul 27, the day the CDC reversed the relaxed rule, the 7 day avg number of cases was 63,392. The bottom for the 7 day avg was 11,179 on June 21.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html
On what day between June 21 and July 27 should the CDC have reversed their recommendation? Exactly when should the CDC have acted for you to be satisfied they acted proactively?
The CDC was receiving a lot of criticism and accusations of being overcautious leading up to the decision to relax the mask rules. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't recall a lot of criticism or accusations of inaction leveled at the CDC prior to the reversal of the mask rules in July.
The CDC reversed the relaxed mask recommendation on July 27, 2021 when breakthrough infections were discovered.
The timeline for Delta and mask guidance...
May 11, 2021: Delta is named a "Variant of Concern" by the WHO.
May 13: The CDC relaxed the mask rules for the fully vaccinated recommending those fully vaccinated can discontinue wearing masks indoors.
May 19: In an interview Fauci stated the public was misinterpreting the CDC mask guidance.
July 13: Delta became the dominant strain in the U.S. with over 50% of the cases.
July 27: the CDC reversed the previous mask guidance and recommended the fully vaccinated resume wearing masks indoors...
CDC shares 'pivotal discovery' on Covid-19 breakthrough infections that led to new mask guidance
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/30/health/breakthrough-infection-masks-cdc-provincetown-study/index.html
On Tuesday, Walensky previewed these findings while unveiling guidance that people in areas with "high" or "substantial" Covid-19 transmission should resume wearing masks indoors. Over 75% of the US population live in these areas.
The finding that the Delta variant resulted in similar viral loads "was a pivotal discovery leading to CDC's updated mask recommendation," Walensky said Friday.
Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s leading infectious-disease expert, told Axios that the public is misinterpreting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s announcement last week that fully vaccinated people can go without masks indoors.
“I think people are misinterpreting, thinking that this is a removal of a mask mandate for everyone. It’s not,” he told Axios. “It’s an assurance to those who are vaccinated that they can feel safe, be they outdoors or indoors.”
Fauci emphasized that the health agency did not explicitly tell unvaccinated people to go without masks but instead communicated to vaccinated individuals that they will not get infected indoors or outdoors.
“People either read them quickly, or listen and hear half of it. They are feeling that we’re saying: ‘You don’t need the mask anymore.’ That’s not what the CDC said,” he told the news outlet.
Reaction to the CDC’s guidance has been applauded by those who say it shows the efficacy of vaccinations against the coronavirus and criticized by those who say it is too soon to forgo masks.
Are you saying people ignore these warnings because of a left or right saying.
The stupidest comment I've ever heard uttered by a politician in my lifetime.
America has failed containing the disease big time.
Big red flag on the AHA abstract you linked to...
Expression of Concern: Abstract 10712: Mrna COVID Vaccines Dramatically Increase Endothelial Inflammatory Markers and ACS Risk as Measured by the PULS Cardiac Test: a Warning
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circ.144.suppl_1.10712
This article expresses concern regarding abstract “Abstract 10712: Mrna COVID Vaccines Dramatically Increase Endothelial Inflammatory Markers and ACS Risk as Measured by the PULS Cardiac Test: a Warning” which originally published November 8, 2021; https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circ.144.suppl_1.10712.
Soon after publication of the above abstract in Circulation, it was brought to the American Heart Association Committee on Scientific Sessions Program’s attention that there are potential errors in the abstract. Specifically, there are several typographical errors, there is no data in the abstract regarding myocardial T-cell infiltration, there are no statistical analyses for significance provided, and the author is not clear that only anecdotal data was used.
We are publishing this Expression of Concern until a suitable correction is published to indicate that the abstract in its current version may not be reliable.
'This is not going to be good': Moderna CEO Bancel warns of a 'material drop' in vaccine efficacy as Omicron spreads
https://endpts.com/this-is-not-going-to-be-good-moderna-ceo-bancel-warns-of-a-material-drop-in-vaccine-efficacy-as-omicron-spreads/
“There is no world, I think, where [the effectiveness] is the same level … we had with [the] Delta [variant],” Bancel told the Financial Times. “I think it’s going to be a material drop. I just don’t know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I’ve talked to … are like, ‘This is not going to be good.’”
Echoing remarks by Dartmouth professor and Adagio CEO Tillman Gerngross, Bancel points to the large cluster of mutations on the spike protein, presenting a major departure from the original virus that sparked a pandemic that roiled the world, killing more than 5 million people and blitzing the global economy.
Bancel also told the FT that it would be months before a bespoke vaccine could be produced at scale, with the possibility of producing 2 to 3 billion doses next year. He also warned that it would be risky to shift production away from their current vaccine.
“I think it’s super worrisome,” Gerngross told Endpoints News over the weekend. “If I just look at our analysis of looking at people who have been vaccinated, we look at their antibody response, we look at where they bind, and we look at how these mutations impact those binding events, it is a grim situation.”
Doctors hope Omicron causes milder cases of Covid — but it’s still too early to say
https://www.statnews.com/2021/11/30/doctors-hope-omicron-causes-milder-cases-of-covid-but-its-still-too-early-to-say/
Omicron tracker...
https://outbreak.info/situation-reports/omicron?loc=ZAF&loc=GBR&loc=USA&selected
There is so much contradictory information out there is hard to believe Omicron is as benign as some are making it out to be.
The headline that fueled today's rally was the quote from Dr. Angelique Coetzee who is a General Practitioner and Chairperson of the South African Medical Association who said in a BBC interview that Omicron patients seen so far have had “extremely mild symptoms.” Other quotes I've seen claim there have been no hospitalizations or deaths from Omicron.
These statements are contradicted by others citing data on various Twitter streams and other publications directly from SA government sources and health organizations.
Reports of hospitalizations in the Omicron epicenter of Gauting Provence surging 4X in 2 weeks. Claims of Omicron causing 90% of new cases and 140 receiving oxygen or on a ventilator out of of 747 hospitalized...something is amiss.
Monitoring wastewater for viral load estimates outbreak size
— Michael Mina (@michaelmina_lab) November 29, 2021
In just a few weeks, in Pretoria S. Africa (north of Johannesburg) viral load detected in wastewater has reached similar levels as the peak of Delta
This at least indicates that transmission may be remarkably swift pic.twitter.com/TxR7DxsOuA
Monitoring wastewater for viral load estimates outbreak size
In just a few weeks, in Pretoria S. Africa (north of Johannesburg) viral load detected in wastewater has reached similar levels as the peak of Delta
In the space of two weeks, the omicron variant has sent South Africa from a period of low transmission to rapid growth of new confirmed cases. The country’s numbers are still relatively low, with 2,828 new confirmed cases recorded Friday, but omicron’s speed in infecting young South Africans has alarmed health professionals.
“We’re seeing a marked change in the demographic profile of patients with COVID-19,” Rudo Mathivha, head of the intensive care unit at Soweto’s Baragwanath Hospital, told an online press briefing.
“Young people, in their 20s to just over their late 30s, are coming in with moderate to severe disease, some needing intensive care. About 65% are not vaccinated and most of the rest are only half-vaccinated,” said Mathivha.
Studying the surge, scientists identified the new variant that diagnostic tests indicate is likely responsible for as many as 90% of the new cases, according to South Africa’s health officials. Early studies show that it has a reproduction rate of 2 — meaning that every person infected by it is likely to spread it to two other people.
“This variant is mostly in Gauteng province, the Johannesburg area of South Africa. But we’ve got clues from diagnostic tests … that suggest that this variant is already all over South Africa,” said Hanekom, who is also co-chair of the South African COVID Variant Research Consortium.
Tripling of hospitalizations and positivity from 1% to 30% in 2 weeks (yikes!).
Caution on the "mild" description. Twitter thread on Omicron from (former) Harvard epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding, who originally sounded the alarm on Covid-19 in Jan 2020...
⚠️TRIPLING HOSPITALIZATIONS IN 2 WEEKS—In #Omicron epicenter of Gauteng Province, South Africa🇿🇦, there is more than **tripling of #COVID19 hospitalizations** in 2 weeks—➡️ from 135 hospital admissions to 418. This is data directly from 🇿🇦’s CDC @nicd_sa🧵https://t.co/VPLXj2720r pic.twitter.com/8NVCzZAls8
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) November 28, 2021
Omicron has caused panic, but no reported deaths yet
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/omicron-has-caused-panic-but-no-reported-deaths-yet-20211128-p59cuf
Omicron has been circulating in southern regions of Africa for most of November and although it looks ominous and has jumped continents, there have been no official reports of deaths yet.
Within days of each other, cases were identified first in Botswana, next in Hong Kong and then in South Africa.
So far, this mutant strain is the most divergent variant of the pandemic, but it is too early to predict if it will outsmart existing vaccines and overpower delta, currently the dominant variant in the world.
Omicron is highly transmissible, can evade vaccine mechanisms and immunity caused by previous infection, but seems to cause only mild to moderate disease. It has not yet caused massive hospital admissions in South Africa and does not appear to be virulent, although that could change.
As it has been identified much earlier than previous variants, it could be too early to judge its virulence.
Doctors on the frontlines in South Africa say if there is no spike in admissions in the next 14 days, Omicron is unlikely to result in the catastrophic hospitalisations and deaths seen in previous waves.
Although there have been COVID-19 deaths reported in South Africa, none have been attributed to Omicron.
On available data, which may be revised, the variant was circulating in the first week of this month, and the first sample was collected in Botswana on Tuesday, November 9.
Two days later, this sample was sequenced in South Africa and found to be significantly different to delta. When two more Botswana samples had the same novel variant, doctors in South Africa began referring to it colloquially as “the Botswana variant”.
That same day, November 11, a man aged 36, who had been double vaccinated with Pfizer, landed in Hong Kong. He had travelled from South Africa, via Qatar. After passing airport checks, he went into routine hotel quarantine.
Two days later, he tested positive to the virus and was taken to hospital. His brief stay in quarantine overlapped with man in the room opposite, who had not been in southern Africa and who, five days later, also tested positive and went to hospital.
By Monday, November 22, Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection reported that both cases had identical genetic sequences and that case two might have been infected when case one opened the door while unmasked. It said the airflow in the corridor was unsatisfactory.
There have been no reports of the new variant among the passengers on the flights between South Africa, Qatar and Hong Kong.
Doctor Who First Raised Concern Over Omicron Variant Says Symptoms Are 'Mild'
https://www.newsweek.com/doctor-first-raised-concern-over-omicron-variant-says-symptoms-are-mild-south-africa-1653740
Symptoms included people from different ethnic backgrounds suffering from intense fatigue and a six-year-old child who had a high pulse rate, although none lost their sense of taste or smell.
According to the doctor, mostly healthy men turned up "feeling so tired," about half of whom were unvaccinated.
Dr. Coetzee told The Telegraph: "We had one very interesting case, a kid, about six years old, with a temperature and a very high pulse rate, and I wondered if I should admit her. But when I followed up two days later, she was so much better."
While briefing other medical associations in Africa on Saturday, Dr. Coetzee said her patients were all healthy and that she worried the new variant could hit elderly people who suffer from pre-existing conditions, such as heart disease, much worse than other groups.
She told the publication: "What we have to worry about now is that when older, unvaccinated people are infected with the new variant, and if they are not vaccinated, we are going to see many people with a severe [form of the] disease."
If Omicron isn't already in the U.S. it soon will be IMO. That will be another fun day when it hits the headlines (sarcasm). I don't plan on buying anything until there's more clarity on the impact of this virus (severity and infectiousness) and what the plans are (if any) to mitigate it's spread. There's just too many scenarios for more bad news and too many unknowns.
According to Barron's ENTA's float is 20.21M shares.
Todays volume was 397,000 or 1.9% of the float.
That's 1.8X the 20 day avg volume.
I wouldn't call that a stampede towards the exit.
Blame the 18% drop on the market makers who milked the bad news for all it's worth.
Scientists develop a promising new approach to potentially treat Alzheimer's disease
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20211115/Scientists-develop-a-promising-new-approach-to-potentially-treat-Alzheimers-disease.aspx
A promising new approach to potentially treat Alzheimer's disease – and also vaccinate against it – has been developed by a team of UK and German scientists.
Both the antibody-based treatment and the protein-based vaccine developed by the team reduced Alzheimer's symptoms in mouse models of the disease. The research is published today in Molecular Psychiatry.
Dr Preeti Bakrania and colleagues from LifeArc adapted this antibody so a human immune system wouldn't recognise it as foreign and would accept it. When the Leicester research group looked at how and where this 'humanised' antibody, called TAP01_04, was binding to the truncated form of amyloid beta, the team had a surprise. They saw the amyloid beta protein was folded back on itself, in a hairpin-shaped structure.
Professor Mark Carr, from the Leicester Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology at the University of Leicester, explained: "This structure had never been seen before in amyloid beta. However, discovering such a definite structure allowed the team to engineer this region of the protein to stabilise the hairpin shape and bind to the antibody in the same way. Our idea was that this engineered form of amyloid beta could potentially be used as a vaccine, to trigger someone's immune system to make TAP01_04 type antibodies."
The Göttingen group then tested both the 'humanised' antibody and the engineered amyloid beta vaccine, called TAPAS, in two different mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. Based on similar imaging techniques to those used to diagnose Alzheimer's in humans, they found that both the antibody and the vaccine helped to restore neuron function, increase glucose metabolism in the brain, restore memory loss and – even though they weren't directly targeted - reduce amyloid beta plaque formation.
In conclusion, we have developed a novel AD vaccine with unique features not related to any other vaccine or antibody in clinical development. The TAPAS family antibodies are uniquely positioned as the antibodies selectively target the early toxic N-terminal truncated species of Aß found in abundance throughout the brains of AD patients. Moreover, the TAP01 antibody – and its humanised versions – are less likely to become trapped inside plaques thereby increasing the bioavailability after passive immunisation. This decreases the potential for the dose-limiting side effects that have so far proved problematic in clinical trials of other Aß antibodies. The novel TAPAS family of antibodies have revealed two new attractive options for therapeutic intervention in AD, with either active immunisation using a cyclised peptide based vaccine, or treatment with a humanised TAP01 family therapeutic antibody (passive immunisation).
When they "reunify" with Taiwan, they will instantly put a blockade on all semiconductors that the world needs, and the US absolutely must have.
New blood test can spot more than 50 types of cancer — many hard to detect early
List of cancers detected:
https://www.galleri.com/uploads/downloads/Galleri-Cancers-Detected-Chart_061621.pdf
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cancer-blood-test-early-detection/
"We can find and sequence these tiny bits of tumor-derived DNA in the blood and, based on the patterns we see, we can reveal if there is a signal for cancer present. We can predict with very high accuracy where in the body this cancer signal is coming from," Feygin said.
The results are sent back to the health care provider in 10 business days.
An interventional study that included Mayo Clinic with 6,600 participants returned 29 signals that were followed by a cancer diagnosis.
Another study found a less than 1% false positive rate.
There are some caveats on who can get the test.
"It's intended to be used for people at an elevated risk for cancer. This can be something as simple as age," Feygin said.
Right now, the test is by prescription-only. Insurance doesn't cover it. You would pay out of pocket with a current cost of $949.
"In the year 2021, this is so far beyond anything else we've been able to do. This is a game-changer," said Dr. Greg Plotnikoff.
I never heard of Mucosal Immunity either but here it is...
Mucosal Immunity in COVID-19: A Neglected but Critical Aspect of SARS-CoV-2 Infection
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.611337/full
The mucosal immune system is the largest component of the entire immune system, having evolved to provide protection at the main sites of infectious threat: the mucosae. As SARS-CoV-2 initially infects the upper respiratory tract, its first interactions with the immune system must occur predominantly at the respiratory mucosal surfaces, during both inductive and effector phases of the response. However, almost all studies of the immune response in COVID-19 have focused exclusively on serum antibodies and systemic cell-mediated immunity including innate responses. This article proposes that there is a significant role for mucosal immunity and for secretory as well as circulating IgA antibodies in COVID-19, and that it is important to elucidate this in order to comprehend especially the asymptomatic and mild states of the infection, which appear to account for the majority of cases. Moreover, it is possible that mucosal immunity can be exploited for beneficial diagnostic, therapeutic, or prophylactic purposes.
Interesting Twitter take by the CEO of a freight forwarding & logistics company blaming supply chain issues on modern finance...
What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks? Modern finance with its obsession with "Return on Equity."
What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks? Modern finance with its obsession with "Return on Equity."
— Ryan Petersen (@typesfast) October 28, 2021
Bill Gates-backed ESS — which makes giant batteries out of iron, salt and water — starts trading
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/11/ess-battery-company-backed-by-bill-gates-softbank-opens-on-nyse.html
The company is backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Gates’ clean energy investment firm; SB Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank; and multinational chemical company BASF, among other investors. The SPAC comes through a reverse merger with ACON S2 Acquisition Corp., run out of private equity firm Acon Investments.
ESS has not recorded any revenue yet, according to financial filings dated Sept. 8. However, Dresselhuys said it has shipped product to customers, including TerraSol Energies in Pennsylvania and Siemens-Gamesa in Denmark; investor documents also claim several other unnamed utilities as customers. ESS has orders in the pipeline from SB Energy and Enel Green Power Espana.
The company lost $245.3 million in the first six months of 2021, but operating losses were only $18.4 million; the remainder was due to losses on reevaluations of warrant and derivative liabilities. Operating losses were $17.4 million for 2021, and the company expects to record its first profit in 2023.
Iron, salt and water: Safe, readily available materials
The big breakthrough for ESS is a long-duration iron flow battery built from readily available materials, said Carmichael Roberts, a co-chair of the investment committee at Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
In a battery, the electrolyte is the chemical medium that connects the two ends of a battery, the anode and the cathode. In ESS’ batteries, the electrolyte is made of iron, salt and water.
“The flow battery is cheaper, safer and has better operational life than conventional lithium-ion storage,” Roberts said.
Making a battery out of iron, salt and water means “there’s no toxicity, the technology we build doesn’t start fires or doesn’t blow up in fire,” said Dresselhuys.
MRK> Why Merck’s Celebrated Covid Pill Could Be Riskier Than People Think
https://www.barrons.com/articles/merck-covid-pill-risks-51633398722
Molnupiravir works by incorporating itself into the genetic material of the virus, and then causing a huge number of mutations as the virus replicates, effectively killing it. In some lab tests, the drug has also shown the ability to integrate into the genetic material of mammalian cells, causing mutations as those cells replicate.
If that were to happen in the cells of a patient being treated with molnupiravir, it could theoretically lead to cancer or birth defects.
Merck (ticker: MRK) says it has run extensive tests in animals that show that this isn’t an issue. “The totality of the data from these studies indicates that molnupiravir is not mutagenic or genotoxic in in-vivo mammalian systems,” a Merck spokesperson said.
Scientists who have studied NHC, the compound that molnupiravir creates in the body after it is ingested, however, say that Merck needs to be careful.
“Proceed with caution and at your own peril,” wrote Raymond Schinazi, a professor of pediatrics and the director of the division of biochemical pharmacology at the Emory University School of Medicine, who has studied NHC for decades, in an email to Barron’s.
Scientists are split on how serious a risk this is, and in the absence of detailed data on Merck’s animal tests, and long-term human safety data, it’s difficult to know for sure.
MRK> Merck Says Its Covid-19 Antiviral Pill Looks Good Against Variants
https://www.barrons.com/articles/merck-covid-19-antiviral-pill-variants-51632916575
Merck presented a study at a medical conference early Wednesday showing that its experimental Covid-19 antiviral is active against variants of the virus that causes the sickness.
The study, presented at IDWeek 2021, a medical conference focusing on infectious diseases, examined data from two separate clinical trials of molnupiravir and in vitro studies of the drug. The authors found that mutations of the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus didn’t impact the work of the drug against the virus.
“Both in vitro and clinical data suggest that spike protein substitutions do not impact antiviral activity of [molnupiravir] and suggest molnupiravir’s potential for the treatment of SARSCoV-2 variants, particularly when initiated early in the course of illness,” the authors wrote.
The response to the drug was greatest in patients who had been symptomatic for five days or fewer when they began treatment, they said.
Merck, which is developing molnupiravir in partnership with the private firm Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, is running Phase 3 trials of the drug as a post-exposure prophylaxis, and in non-hospitalized adults. In April, the company said it had decided not to proceed with a study of molnupiravir in hospitalized patients after disappointing early results.
FedEx runs first autonomous truck delivery with Aurora and PACCAR
https://www.slashgear.com/fedex-runs-first-autonomous-truck-delivery-with-aurora-and-paccar-23692234/
FedEx, PACCAR, and Aurora announced an “industry-first collaboration” for real-deal autonomous semi truck deliveries in Texas. The first commercial pilot will “regularly and autonomously” haul FedEx deliveries between Dallas and Houston along the I-45 corridor. That 500-mile round trip will include a safety driver (just in case something goes amiss), and initiates Aurora’s latest development phase: “Refine and Pilot.”
Aurora announced today that these first trips will have a safety driver – but not for long. “At the end of 2023,” they suggest, they’ll launch their trucking business for real, and “haul loads autonomously between terminals without a safety driver.”
China’s embattled developer Evergrande is on the brink of default. Here’s why it matters
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/17/china-developer-evergrande-debt-crisis-bond-default-and-investor-risks.html
Chinese property giant Evergrande is on the brink of collapse, and analysts warn the potential fallout could have far-reaching implications that spill outside China’s borders.
“Evergrande’s collapse would be the biggest test that China’s financial system has faced in years,” says Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics.
After expanding rapidly for years and snapping up assets as China’s economy boomed, Evergrande is now snowed under a crushing debt of $300 billion.
The government is likely to step in due to how important Evergrande is, according to analysts.
“Evergrande is such an important real estate developer, and it would be a strong signal if anything happened to it,” said Dan Wang, an economist at Hang Seng Bank. “I believe there will be some supporting measures from the central government, or even the central bank, trying to bail out Evergrande.”
Fearing battery fires after recalls, people are selling their Chevy Bolt EVs back to GM
https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/18/cars/chevrolet-bolt-buybacks/index.html
In a process that took weeks to finally work out, Schoenfeld sold his Chevrolet Bolt EV back to GM for a price that was at about $10,000 more than he would have gotten simply by trading the car in to a dealer, he said, though he declined to provide specific numbers.
It's a solution that many Bolt owners are resorting to, according to numerous social media reports and CNN Business interviews.
Several people said they are asking for buybacks because they purchased the car expecting it to be able to go a certain distance between charges, up to 259 miles for the most recent models.
In announcing the most recent recalls, GM recommended people not charge the battery to more 90% of its capacity. They also recommended that people not drain the battery to less than about 70 miles of range. That effectively reduced the driving range of even the longest-range models to about 163 miles, according to EPA estimates. In real-world driving, Chevrolet Bolts, like other vehicles, electric or not, often don't achieve their EPA-estimated range.
"After every use, after I come home in the evening, I have get up in the middle of the night to unplug the car," said Schoenfeld
GM> Another Blow to General Motors: Bolt EV Advice Is Frightening
https://www.barrons.com/articles/general-motors-gm-bolt-fire-warning-51631812988?mod=hp_DAY_0
The latest warning from General Motors to owners of its Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles appears to have worried investors and drivers alike.
The stock was down 0.71% on Thursday after owners were warned to park their autos at least 50 feet from other vehicles, specifically when using a parking deck, because of a fire risk.
In an emailed statement, a General Motors (ticker: GM) spokesman wrote: “In an effort to reduce potential damage to structures and nearby vehicles in the rare event of a potential fire, we recommend parking on the top floor or on an open-air deck and park 50 feet or more away from another vehicle.
“Additionally, we still request you do not leave your vehicle charging unattended, even if you are using a charging station in a parking deck.”
It is the latest blow for America’s largest automaker, which aims to sell 1 million electric vehicles in 2025 and has pledged to increase the amount spent on electric vehicle development to $27 billion.
To get some idea of the challenge ahead, Chevrolet sold 2 million vehicles in 2018 and of them only 36,325 were electric, this compared with 197,000 from Tesla (TSLA) over the same period, according to data from the evadoption website. A GM spokesperson said more up-to-date data on EV sales would be forthcoming.
While shares of GM have increased 64% the past 12 months, that’s behind the 68% increase from Tesla, the 76% rise at Renault and 87% increase at Ford Motor (F).
Last month, Bolt drivers were warned to “park their vehicles outside immediately after charging and should not leave their vehicles charging indoors overnight,” according to a statement on GM’s website. It expanded its recall of models which now covers those sold between 2017 to 2022.
There have been reports of 10 fires and estimates that the cost of the problem amount to $1.8 billion, according to Reuters.
The continued problems with Bolt — GM won’t resume production or sales until it is sure replacing the batteries fixes the issue—are a setback. That setback worsened Thursday after GM confirmed reports that it extended the downtime of its Michigan based Bolt electric-vehicle plant for three weeks.
GM has been unable to source enough supplies of the battery packs needed for the recall.
The carmaker has previously set itself a goal of removing exhaust emissions by 2035 which underlines how vital Bolt and its other EV brands are to achieving this target.
Its qualification that this goal wasn’t a guarantee is probably meaningful.
Thanks Dew.
Thanks. Do you have an idea of when the inspection was completed and a new FDA decision date?