E25Bio, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech startup that develops diagnostic tests for infectious diseases like dengue and Zika, has a new rapid antigen test for Covid-19. The company’s technologies grew out of an MIT lab led by Lee Gehrke, Professor at the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), and Irene Bosch, then a research scientist at IMES. The startup recently raised $2 million from investors to specifically develop and manufacture testing kits for Covid-19. E25Bio’s rapid diagnostic test resembles an over-the-counter pregnancy test and provides visual results within 15 minutes by detecting the presence of the virus in the patient sample. As a point…
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Top Israeli prof claims simple stats show virus plays itself out after 70 days A prominent Israeli mathematician, analyst and former general claims simple statistical analysis demonstrates that the spread of COVID-19 peaks after about 40 days and declines to almost zero after 70 days — no matter where it strikes, and no matter what measures governments impose to try to thwart it. Prof Isaac Ben-Israel, head of the Security Studies program in Tel Aviv University and the chairman of the National Council for Research and Development, told Israel’s Channel 12 (Hebrew) Monday night that research he conducted with a…
Lack of materials needed to conduct tests gave labs a slow start Testing the right person is a crucial aspect in any pandemic. Apart from saving lives, widespread testing can provide important data required to model the course of the outbreak. Reagents are a critical component of testing. Unfortunately, many US labs have struggled to procure the reagents needed to perform large batches of coronavirus diagnostic testing. COVID-19 testing in the US In the US, the CDC provides the test kits for public health laboratories (PHLs) to perform real-time RT-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) detection of the novel coronavirus. The CDC…
The New York City Coronavirus briefing. Mayor De Blasio provides his weekly Friday summary. Key Metrics: People admitted to hospitals 136 (up from 129 April 29th). People currently in ICUs 704 (from 705). Percentage of People City Wide tested positive 23% (up from 22%). Percentage People for Public Health Labs. 17% (down from 36%) De Blasio: “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Yesterday 2,637 confirmed cases. 202 lost lives yesterday. Looking at these compared to two weeks ago is good, but if I had given you these numbers it is staggering.” “Biggest reality is that this will be a…
NYT Columnist Tom Friedman’s thoughtful piece on how to deal with Coronavirus seems to make the most sense of anything we’ve seen. In his 1500 word article he explores what Sweden is doing that may be the right balancing act. Below if our 500 word distillation. See full article. So what are they doing different? He starts by asking are we going to have a plan, like Sweden, or just have each of the 50 state wing it with their own approach. He spoke with Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist at Sweden’s Public Health Agency — the nation’s top infectious disease…
YouTube issued a statement Tuesday regarding the removal of a video press briefing with Accelerated Urgent Care doctors Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi. The video was the first of two videos playing the entire briefing from a press conference last week. YouTube pulled it for violating community guidelines. “We quickly remove flagged content that violate our Community Guidelines, including content that explicitly disputes the efficacy of local healthy authority recommended guidance on social distancing that may lead others to act against that guidance,” said the statement. Joseph Russomanno, a mass communication law professor at Arizona State University said the doctors’…
Is the cure worse than the disease? It appears physicians immersed in the midst of it all are seeing it that way. Most compelling was an opinion written by St. Barnabas Hospital Emergency director Daniel G. Murphy MD. The Bronx New York hospital which serves a lower income community is in the center of the pandemic. Another physician, Scott Atlas MD who is from Stanford has taken to the airwaves advocating an end to the lockdown. We summarize their perspectives as the controversy will likely grow. Both wrote opinions for the New York Post that appeared April 26th and 27th.…
Coronavirus tests require complex and pure reagents, such as enzymes, probes, and primers, which have been harder to come by during the COVID-19 pandemic. Coronavirus tests require complex and pure reagents, such as enzymes, probes, and primers, which have been harder to come by during the COVID-19 pandemic. They’re the tip of the testing spear in the fight against the coronavirus. Reagents are the main ingredients of any chemical-based test, which in this pandemic includes inorganic solutions as well as enzymes, probes, and primers created to match the coronavirus’s genome. And they are a necessity for the coronavirus test kits…