25th March 2020 - Misinformation and Real Innovation

Thought for the day :"Is a locksmith a key worker?

So today it seems that the ramblings of a President who is ill equipped to listen to the actual advice and information being given him, has no more validity than "Karen from Facebook" which is quite distressing...

A US man has died and his wife is in critical condition after ingesting a chemical they believed Donald Trump had touted as a cure for coronavirus.

The unnamed couple watched a White House briefing where the US President incorrectly said that malaria drug chloroquine had been proven effective in treating COVID-19.

"Chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine. Now, this is a common malaria drug," Mr Trump said.

"The nice part is, it's been around for a long time, so we know that if it—if things don't go as planned, it's not going to kill anybody."

An Arizona woman recalled chloroquine as a chemical in a parasite treatment for her goldfish.

"I saw it sitting on the back shelf and thought, 'Hey, isn't that the stuff they're talking about on TV?"

The couple in their 60s, who have pre-existing conditions that put them at heightened risk of serious coronavirus, mixed the substance with a liquid and drank it.

Within 20 minutes, they felt seriously ill, and the woman's husband died shortly after arriving at hospital.

In a heavy enough dose, hydroxychloroquine is used as a chemical to clean fish tanks.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, three people have overdosed on chloroquine while trying to ward off COVID-19.

"(The World Health Organisation) has NOT approved the use of chloroquine for COVID19 management," the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control tweeted.

"Please DO NOT engage in self-medication. This will cause harm and lead to death."

Prices of the drug have quadrupled in some parts of Nigeria off Mr Trump's recommendation.

There are 30 diagnosed cases of coronavirus in Nigeria at present.

The drug has shown some promise in French trials for killing coronavirus.

But many scientists have questioned the rigour of the experiment.

But because of the severe side-effects of using the drug, human trials have not yet begun.

Doctors warn not to use the drug if pregnant, planning on becoming pregnant or breastfeeding.

People with liver disease, hearing problems, blood disorders, certain vision problems and many other conditions may be advised against using it.

Hydroxychloroquine has not been approved by America's Federal Drug Agency for use for coronavirus.

Doctors around the world are yet to determine an effective treatment for COVID-19.

SNOPES :

President Donald Trump misstated the facts when he asserted that the FDA had just approved a decades-old malaria drug to treat patients infected by the coronavirus.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump mis-stated the facts Thursday when he asserted that the Food and Drug Administration had just approved a decades-old malaria drug to treat patients infected by the coronavirus. After his FDA chief clarified that the drug still needs testing, Trump also overstated the drug’s potential upside in helping contain the outbreak.

A look at his claims at a news briefing:

TRUMP: “And we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately, and that’s where the FDA has been so great. They — they’ve gone through the approval process. It’s been approved.”

THE FACTS: The drug, known chemically as chloroquine, has been available for decades to treat the mosquito-borne illness malaria. Technically, doctors can already prescribe the drug to patients with COVID-19, a practice known as off-label prescribing. But Trump falsely suggested to reporters that the FDA had just cleared the drug specifically for the viral pandemic spreading in communities across the U.S. That would mean that the drug had met the FDA’s standards for safety and effectiveness.

Minutes later, FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn emphasized that the drug still needs testing to determine if it can help patients. He said chloroquine would have to be tested in “a large pragmatic clinical trial to actually gather that information.”

Drug trials typically require hundreds or thousands of patients and, even when accelerated, take weeks or months to complete. In his remarks, Hahn reflected on his background as a cancer doctor and warned against giving patients “false hope” before drugs are fully vetted.

While chloroquine has shown promise in preliminary laboratory studies, some experts are skeptical it will prove effective in human testing.

“I think it could be a game changer, and maybe not,” Trump said, discussing the drug.

But the FDA reiterated in a statement Thursday that there are “no FDA-approved therapeutics or drugs to treat, cure or prevent COVID-19.”

___

TRUMP: “If chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine works, or any of the other things that they’re looking at that are not quite as far out … your numbers are going to come down very rapidly.”

THE FACTS: The drugs he is referring to are for treatment in patients already infected. That doesn’t prevent spread of the virus. One study is testing chloroquine to try to protect health care workers at highest risk of infection, because a vaccine is likely a year or more away.

Trump Claims WHO death rate reporting to be false news

A Phoenix-area man has died and his wife was in critical condition after the couple took chloroquine phosphate, an additive used to clean fish tanks that is also found in an anti-malaria medication touted by Donald Trump as a treatment for Covid-19.

Older people would rather die than let Covid-19 harm US economy – Texas official

 

Read more

Banner Health said on Monday the couple in their 60s got sick within half an hour of ingesting the additive. The man could not be resuscitated at hospital but the woman was able to throw up much of the chemical.

“Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure,” the woman told NBC.

She said her advice would be: “Don’t take anything. Don’t believe anything. Don’t believe anything that the president says and his people … call your doctor.”


However,

in more positive news we have a breakthrough in Oxford where a simplified ventilator has been produced and they expect the wiring to be put into a new sold state circuit board by Sony within days
allowing a full production line.
The Oxvent is made using a standard resuscitation bag and valves widely used in the NHS, eliminating the need for 3D printing of complex parts. Compressed air squeezes the bag, blowing oxygen into the lungs, with the frequency of 'breaths' controlled by simple electronics costing less than £100.
Andrew Orr, an engineer at Oxford University, said Sony confirmed that it could turn what is currently a jumble of wires into a printed circuit board - and produce 5000 of them in a week.
"If this is something that we can knock together in a weekend, then mass producing it will be dead simple, he told Sky News.

And in Carmarthen, at Glangwili Hospital Dr Rhys Thomas has developed a "pre-ventilator" something to be used before the patient requires the full mechanical ventilation - which has already been tested in Prince Philip Hospital I understand. 

It was developed and is being constructed in Ammanford.

And in North Wales - the anti-viral Snood - developed over the last few years but now going into production .....

The company hopes to make as many as a million-a-week and plans to reserve part of that stock for the NHS.

"We have been working on the anti-viral coating since 2011 but it's only in the last five weeks that we have developed the snood in response to the current pandemic," said Anna Roberts, of Virustatic Shield.

So ...   Best stay in I think ...
Cheers !