Hebrew U. scientist: Drug could eradicate COVID-19 from lungs in days

New research by Hebrew University Prof. Ya’acov Nahmias and Sinai’s Dr. Benjamin tenOever revealed that the FDA-approved drug Fenofibrate (Tricor) could reduce SARS-CoV-2’s ability to reproduce or even make it disappear.

SARS-CoV-2 is the scientific name for the novel coronavirus.
“Viruses are parasites,” Nahmias explained to The Jerusalem Post. “They cannot replicate themselves. They cannot make new viruses. They have to get inside a human cell and then hijack that cell.”

As such, Nahmias and tenOever spent the last three months studying what SARS-CoV-2 is doing to human lung cells. What they found is that the novel coronavirus prevents the routine burning of carbohydrates, which results in large amounts of fat accumulating inside lung cells – a condition the virus needs to reproduce.

“By understanding how the SARS-CoV-2 controls our metabolism, we can wrestle back control from the virus and deprive it from the very resources it needs to survive,” Nahmias said, noting that it also may help explain why patients with high blood sugar and cholesterol levels are often at a particularly high risk to develop COVID-19.

The team then reviewed a panel of eight already-approved drugs that could possibly interfere with the virus’s ability to reproduce. Tricor caused the cells to start burning fat, Nahmias said. The result was that the virus almost completely disappeared within only five days of treatment.

The experiment was done in lab studies both in Israel and New York and was replicated several times with different lung samples. Nahmias said there is a strong indication that the experiment is highly repeatable in other labs.

The team is advancing to animal studies in New York and hoping to fast-track clinical studies in both Israel and the US within the next couple of weeks, since the drug is already proven safe.

The study is being published in this week’s Cell Press’s Sneak Peak. The work is being funded by the European Research Council, the Nikoh Foundation and the Sam and Rina Frankel Foundation.

SOURCE 

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Why Have Blue States Been Hit Hardest by COVID-19?

In March, data guru Nate Silver wrote about the different ways blue states and red states were experiencing the COVID-19 epidemic, noting that “states Clinton won do have considerably more total reported cases.”

COVID-19 was not just a blue state problem though. Silver pointed out that cases in red states were increasing far more rapidly.

“Nine of the 10 states that have seen the most rapid increase in coronavirus from Monday to Thursday are states that voted for Trump in 2016,” Silver wrote.

Days later, The Atlantic published an article titled “The Coronavirus’s Unique Threat to the South.”

The article saw similar ominous signs for red states, particularly a “four-state arc of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.”

Months later we have a more complete picture of the data, which shows blue states have borne the brunt of the COVID devastation.

Eleven of the 12 states (including the District of Columbia) with the highest COVID-19 fatality rates are traditional blue states. Leading the way, unsurprisingly, is New York, which posted the highest deaths, total (31,346) and per capita (1,611 per 1M).* New Jersey is not far behind New York, however (1,478/1M). These states are followed by Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia. Just one red state—Louisiana, seventh highest with 680/1M—cracked the top twelve.

The question is, why?

After all, blue states tended to have the most stringent lockdowns. Indeed, eight red states—Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming—declined to issue stay-at-home orders at all (though some took less severe measures).

None of these states were among the states hardest hit by COVID-19.

The data could lend support to epidemiologists—John Ioannidis. Anders Tegnell, and others—who have expressed skepticism on the efficacy of lockdowns.

“Blind lockdown of entire populations has questionable added benefits,” Ioannidis, the C.F. Rehnborg Chair in Disease Prevention at Stanford University, recently wrote in the medical journal BMJ.

A second reason could stem from other policy decisions. Several states hardest hit by the coronavirus were among those that passed controversial policies that prohibited nursing homes from refusing to admit patients released from hospitals because they had the coronavirus.

Public health experts and trade association leaders had questioned the policies, noting older populations were the most at-risk and most nursing homes lack the resources to effectively quarantine COVID carriers. One 31-year-old health care worker told The New York Times the policy was “a sentence of death for all the older patients.”

The policy could explain why several states—New York, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, among them—experienced higher rates of fatality.

“The policy of sending recovering Covid patients back to nursing homes is the only policy of which I’m aware that seems unambiguously relevant for explaining differences we’ve observed between states with outlier death rates and the rest of the country,” Jeffrey Clemens, a Harvard trained economist and associate professor at the University of California-San Diego, told me in an email interview.

Following public outcry of the policy, many states shifted course. Politico recently reported that many states, including Massachusetts and Michigan, are now prodding eldercare facilities to admit COVID carrying residents by offering financial incentives, “raising the risks of spreading infections and substandard care for seriously ill patients.”

A third possibility is that blue states tend to have higher urban density, which in theory could make spreading of the virus easier. Eight of the states hardest hit by the coronavirus—New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts. Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania—are also among the ten densest states in the US.

While urban density might seem like an obvious link to the spread of COVID-19, a recent World Bank report analyzing data from China suggested this was not actually the case.

“On the contrary, cities with the highest coronavirus infection rates were those with relatively low population densities, in the range between 5,000 to 10,000 people per square kilometer,” the authors found.

Dr. Mary T. Bassett, director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard, agreed, saying it’s a mistake to blame population density for the spread of COVID-19, noting population density is not the same as overcrowding.

“Everything we know so far about the coronavirus tells us that blaming density for disease is misguided,” Bassett wrote in The New York Times.

The truth is we don’t yet know with any degree of certainty why blue states have suffered more throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s safe to say numerous variables—health care system quality and access, underlying health and age of the population, policy decisions, habits of hygiene, etc.—all play a role.

It also must be noted that we’re still not through the pandemic. Cases continue to climb—in part due to increased transmission, and in part through expanded testing, which increased from 345,000 tests per day in May to 478,000 in June—and red states could yet see similar results.

For now, however, the record is clear: blue states have experienced far worse devastation from COVID-19.

*All numbers current as of June 24, 2020.

SOURCE 

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IN BRIEF

"The underlying reasons for the split are pretty self-evident": Andrew Sullivan, who (rationally) believes in genetic differences between races, to leave New York Magazine (The Hill)

The media don't just overpraise Democrat governors; they overpraise the wrong ones! (National Review)

Despite escalating Taliban-government violence, U.S. closes five military bases in southern and eastern Afghanistan as part of peace deal (Fox News)

"We've never seen everything go perfectly": Is too much hope being put into a coronavirus vaccine? (Yahoo News)

Moderna Phase 1 results show coronavirus vaccine safe, induces immune response (Reuters)

Travel from New York City seeded the nationwide crisis, research shows (Washington Examiner)

More collusion: Wuhan lab that researches COVID-19 won't be visited by WHO investigators looking into origin of virus (Independent)

Seattle just passed a new tax on jobs in the middle of an economic crisis — but exempted government workers (Foundation for Economic Education)

Apple wins major tax battle against EU; second-highest court invalidates $14.8 billion tax bill (Fox Business)

An already outrageous prosecution in Atlanta turns scandalous: Embattled District Attorney Paul Howard is suspected of issuing fraudulent grand jury subpoenas (Power Line)

Media blackout notwithstanding, black leaders rally to save Washington, DC's, Emancipation Memorial (The Daily Signal)

New York City black activists call on de Blasio and city council to "take your handcuffs off of the police" (Washington Examiner)

Federal judge rejects Harvey Weinstein's inadequate $19 million settlement with alleged victims (NPR)

In Tennessee, court halts "arguably the most conservative, pro-life piece of legislation in the country" 45 minutes after it was signed (Forbes)

Federal judge permanently voids Georgia "heartbeat" abortion restriction; governor to appeal (WRCB)

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art curator resigns after he is accused of racism for saying he would still collect art from white men (Reason)

Wave of violence overwhelms NYC: Contrary to what Bill de Blasio and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggest, criminal behavior is not an economic phenomenon (City Journal)

Most "dreamers" broke U.S. law on purpose to get ahead in the citizenship line (The Federalist)

Former VA health worker pleads guilty to murdering seven veterans with insulin poisoning (Military Times)

Record numbers of Americans try to buy guns (Fox Business)

At least 17 people shot in NYC on Monday as lawlessness soars (New York Post)

Washington state police officer killed, another injured by assailant (Fox News)

Wise decision: UK reneges, will purge Huawei from 5G by 2027 (Reuters)

China begins "mass production" of new stealth fighter jet in effort to dominate airspace (Washington Examiner)

Iran's nuclear facilities are "mysteriously" under attack (we have a pretty good idea of the perpetrator) (Fox News)

For first time ever, U.S. officially rejects China's "unlawful" South China Sea claims (American Military News)

The cost of China's intellectual-property theft (National Review)

Using face masks is still a good idea. Mandating them isn't. (The Heritage Foundation)

Governor Newsom orders closure of indoor activities across California (Fox News)

The WHO, which suppressed early information, sounds alarm as coronavirus cases rise by one million in five days (Reuters)

CDC's "best estimate" is 40% of infections are asymptomatic (Fox News)

Out-of-touch Beltway dweller Dr. Anthony Fauci says U.S. coronavirus cases are surging because nation didn't totally shut down (CNBC)

Asia ramps up coronavirus curbs as new clusters erupt (Reuters)

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For more blog postings from me, see  TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH,  POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, and Paralipomena (Occasionally updated), A Coral reef compendium and an IQ compendium. (Both updated as news items come in).  GUN WATCH is now mainly put together by Dean Weingarten. I also put up occasional updates on my Personal blog and each day I gather together my most substantial current writings on THE PSYCHOLOGIST.

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