Jackson Jambalaya

Hopefully this may allay some anxieties, but sure our resident virologists will not accept.
Part 1 — A California-based biopharmaceutical company claims to have discovered an antibody that could shield the human body from the coronavirus and flush it out of a person’s system within four days, Fox News has exclusively learned.
Later Friday, Sorrento Therapeutics will announce their discovery of the STI-1499 antibody, which the San Diego company said can provide "100% inhibition" of COVID-19, adding that a treatment could be available months before a vaccine hits the market.
"We want to emphasize there is a cure. There is a solution that works 100 percent," Dr. Henry Ji, founder and CEO of Sorrento Therapeutics, told Fox News. "If we have the neutralizing antibody in your body, you don't need the social distancing. You can open up a society without fear."
The health care and pharmaceutical industries have been scrambling to develop viable vaccines and antibody treatments as the number of COVID-19-related deaths is expected to hit 100,000 by June 1.
Many medical researchers are scrambling to find antibodies, optimistic that they could provide a remedy or preventative care in less time than it would take to develop a vaccine. Antibody treatments have been used for the past 100 years as a means to stave off infections, but their effectiveness has had mixed results. Finding a successful antibody or convalescent plasma treatment for COVID-19 could present challenges.
"Doctors are taking blood plasma from patients who have recovered from COVID-19 and infusing it into those who are critically ill. The plasma is laden with antibodies, and the approach shows some promise," former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed. "The constraint: There isn’t enough plasma from recovered patients to go around."
Some medical experts believe that while antibody research shows promise, there are concerns for how long the effects may last in fighting the virus in an infected patient.
“Antibodies, in general, have been very effective at bringing virus [levels] down if you’ve had a high burden of infection,” Phyllis Kanki, a professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a recent interview. “There are limitations to how much you can give and for how long.”
Officials for Sorrento Therapeutics believe they have found the key to a successful treatment.
Through their studies, Sorrento screened and tested billions of antibodies they have collected over the past decade. They say this made it possible to identify hundreds of potential antibody candidates that could successfully bind themselves to the spike proteins of the coronavirus. They found that a dozen of these antibodies demonstrated the ability to block the spike proteins from attaching itself to the human enzyme ACE2, which is the receptor a virus normally uses to enter human cells.

Part 2.
Through further testing, the researchers at Sorrento found that there was one particular antibody that showed to be 100 percent effective in blocking COVID-19 from infecting health cells — STI-1499.
"When the antibody prevents a virus from entering a human cell, the virus cannot survive," Dr. Ji said. "If they cannot get into the cell, they cannot replicate. So it means that if we prevent the virus from getting the cell, the virus eventually dies out. The body clears out that virus."
"This puts its arms around the virus. It wraps around the virus and moves them out of the body."
Dr. Ji pointed out that the antibody can be used as preventative therapy since there are no side effects, and that it can be more effective than any vaccine that may be developed.
"This is the best solution," he said. "The point of making a vaccine is to generalize a neutralizing antibody. So, if you already have one, you don't need to the body to generate one from a vaccine. You've already provided it. You're cutting out the middleman."
It was recently announced Sorrento had partnered with New York-based health care system Mount Sinai to develop an antibody cocktail. Dubbed Covi-Shield, the cocktail will be comprised of three different antibodies and, pending FDA approval, will be used as a prophylactic treatment for people returning to work and those who have been exposed to COVID-19.
Sorrento officials said that STI-1499 will likely be the first antibody in the cocktail. They are also looking to develop the antibody as a stand-alone therapy due to its high potency, according to a statement provided to Fox News.
They said that they can provide up to 200,000 doses per month and are looking to produce tens of millions more to meet projected demands.
Dr. Mark Brunswick, senior vice president of Sorrento, said that developing antibody treatments may be more effective in quickly combating the coronavirus. While a vaccine treatment can take up to 18 months, effective anti-body treatment can become available in much less time and with a much higher success rate. He points out, however, that a quick approval from the Food and Drug Administration would be needed to make the antibody treatment available within months.
"As soon as it is infused, that patient is now immune to the disease," Dr. Brunswick said to Fox News. "For the length of time, the antibody is in that system. So, if we were approved [by the FDA] today, everyone who gets that antibody can go back to work and have no fear of catching COVID-19."

@12:49
Isn't this the plot to the movie "I Am Legend"?

As more and more medical facilities move to full patient counts, many are requiring a negative COVID test before scheduling/admission. This has added to the number of people seeking tests, so I am not surprised that the numbers of positive results are on the increase. This should be expected, and will only start to decrease when the heard has built sufficient immunity.

Post a damn link instead.

ICU patients are at an all time high. Hospitalizations and vent usage are still showing no signs of going down. People still aren't doing what they can to prevent the spread of the disease. We can't shut everything down forever, but it is obvious there is a significant number who were still engaging in needless risky behavior during the lockdown.

As far as that antibody announcement, I saw the same thing from another researcher a couple of months ago. It is a promising treatment theory and I hope this one has really found the correct combination. However, it is apparently still just in laboratory testing with no evidence it actually works in humans. I do find it interesting the announcement was plastered across financial news networks. Stock value is up 170% today. I hope it is legitimate, but it could just as likely be a way to pump up the stock price.

Can someone explain the suspected cases and confirmed cases? I thought test results didn’t take long to get?

Here's an article from March 19 about that type of treatment. We will know relatively quickly if it is the silver bullet claimed by Sorrento once human trials start, but the fact hundreds of other companies are working on the same solution does give hope that at least one of them will prove effective.

https://nypost.com/2020/03/18/regenerons-coronavirus-drug-could-be-ready-for-human-trials-by-early-summer/

Nobody is going to read that Part I and Part II crap. Copy and Paste is not really an art form.

People, the numerator doesn’t matter if you don’t know what the denominator is. MDH could tell us there are 500 new cases tomorrow. Sounds bad but if you’re testing 5,000 people it’s within range. Until MDH discloses the daily total tested rate, what’s the point?

@1:02, you are absolutely correct or at least very similar. I remember, while being in my residency and the early stages of treating HIV/AIDS we were told that if we could cure aids we would also cure Cancer. AIDS is now a survivable disease but unfortunately not yet cured. Hope this does come to fruition.

12:48- That sounds promising, but it also reads like something pulled from the company’s promo materials. I guarantee you there will be people promoting dubious treatments to cash in on this thing. I am also skeptical of the claim that injecting proteins into someone’s body that originated elsewhere and block cell receptors (that evolved and exist for a purpose) will have zero side effects. I hope I’m wrong, but we should all maintain critical thinking and not get swept away on media generated, politically motivated pitches.

Dang you can always tell the crazies by the long winded manifestos they submit as comments. If you cant make your point in a paragraph then you have no point.

Dobbs doesn't want you to know what the denominator is.

How many cases of the flu occur each year in Mississippi? I seem to have read that it is around 17,000, but am not sure if that is correct.

I sure am glad to see we've flattened the curve. Just look at that graph at the top of the page! How much flatter could you want?

And yes, for you dimwits who think I'm agreeing with your selfish "throw the doors open; everyone but me be damned" bullshit, this is sarcasm of the highest order.

If nothing else, the response to this pandemic has shown me how many of you there are whom I wouldn't even stop to piss on if you were on fire.

4:17,

How do you know if there is a curve or if it’s been flattened or if it’s spiking if you don’t know how many people have been tested on a daily basis? I know it’s hard to see when you’re sittin’ on your high horse, but that data point matters just as much as the positive hit rate matters. You see, when you test more people you expect to see the numbers of infections increase. Big scary number is scary, right? Gotta get worked up over incomplete data, right Karen?

Piss away, sweetheart.

Why do the numbers go up on Fridays before the governor's press conference?

@4:28 Did you look at the second chart? The one that shows hospitalization numbers? That one is just about perfectly flat for the entire 3+ weeks that it covers. The threshold for admitting someone to the hospital or ICU isn't going to change much so those are great starting points to determine if the number of infections is declining or not. Guess what Chad, they are not.

Just "identify" as +virus free" and you will be! Others must respect your choice of identity or they should be jailed for hate crimes. Coronaphobes.

A bunch of us have no chance, if they would just listen to the doctors.

We are going to ride along the road until the fall which is good. Come October 1, all Covid will break loose. My wife is a teacher, I plan on cooking my food outside all winter into next spring.

"A bunch of us have no chance". Would you please expound on that statement. I for one would appreciate the chance to have some rational reasoning put forward. I tire of the superior sounding people who can do little but pass judgement on others who seem to have tried to bring some sense of intelligence to this blog.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/as-u-s-coronavirus-death-toll-mounts-so-does-the-belief-it-is-exaggerated

Waiting to hear from the real experts here.

Here you go, 6:43:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/homenews/coronavirus-report/497324-fauci-real-coronavirus-death-toll-almost-certainly-higher-than%3famp

Have read both of those sites as well as others. While the death toll is tragic in it's own way if the death toll was increased, as the article from what Fauci stated, 50%, that would put our nations death toll at about 463265 people. That is still very well below 0.01% of the world population. 60,470,677 is the population of Italy with 66,700,126 for the UK (both exampled in the article). Both countries lost roughly 30000-33000 people to Covid. That is 0.05% of their respective population. Again, still not what I would call an unimaginable death toll with the associated argument of how many of those folks would have died anyway. This can all be argued day in and day out, It is here and it is a virus that will infect enough for anti-body development then mutate later on. Fear is such a wonderful weapon.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/colorado-lowers-coronavirus-death-count

The battle of the links continues.

12:48 pm This is great news but I would point out that 1) we don't know for how long the immunity works as yet and 2) in a country with over a million cases as I write, 200000 a month will take 5 months to reach just a million people in a country of 300 million. 3) if there is a distribution plan to distribute any new cure or vaccine in the most effect way, I've not seen it, have you? 4) for most viruses 90-95% immunity is needed for herd immunity and the lowest is 40% so 120 million at the lowest will need to be immune.60% of Americans currently get flu shots for other flu shots. If more did, fewer would die. And, if they didn't work or send kids to school sick, even fewer.6) How will it be distributed and how much will it cost so that enough people can take it?

We have NOT reached a plateau in MS and worse, we have not had 14 consecutive days of fewer new cases each day.

Those going out unmasked and not keeping social distance are just plain out as thoughtless and irresponsible or ill informed as those who spread contagious diseases by not keeping their behinds away from others.


4:06 pm May15 It doesn't matter as those cases will still happen and the usual vaccines may not be available if we have to focus on our resources on this more contagious and more deadly virus. Vials are made in China.

I can live with fellow Americans not being able to grasp the fine points of the virus. I am PISSED that far too many of our elected officials are either incompetent for their positions or so self centered that they'll save their own butts but don't give a rat's behind about anyone else's.

Those of you out and about unmasked and going into " open" businesses, please drive up to D.C. Stand in front of the White House and try to get in the Executive Building or the Capitol. Ride around on the subway. Peep in the windows of restaurants and barber shops and beauty shops and see if you see any elected official that hasn't had the virus like Rand Paul.

Good Lord, despite precautions of taking temperatures, still the VP's aide and President's valet got it and had contact with those in government...most likely because of the flawed instant test not catching them.

There is no elected official who is allowing unmasked people near them anymore and they get tested or have others tested who get near them.

Watch what they and their family's do, not what they tell you to do for a change!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/tensions-rise-between-the-white-house-and-cdc-as-birx-critiques-virus-tracking/ar-BB14aWPv?ocid=spartandhp

"Nobody is going to read that Part I and Part II crap. Copy and Paste is not really an art form ".
May 15, 2020 at 1:52 PM

"Post a damn link instead" .
May 15, 2020 at 1:25 PM


Damn right.

We don't visit this site to to read essays.

I miss the jackassery aspect of JJ.