1. Before becoming a writer, I worked as a strategy consultant in the medical industry. When the #COVID__19 pandemic started, I spent a lot of time listening to @WHO briefings. @mvankerkhove @DrMikeRyan and @DrTedros kept saying the same thing...
2. ...‘understand the specific characteristics of this virus.’
It seemed sensible advice, so like @DrEricDing and others, I delved into early clinical papers coming out of Wuhan, and the severity of #COVID__19 became apparent.
It seemed sensible advice, so like @DrEricDing and others, I delved into early clinical papers coming out of Wuhan, and the severity of #COVID__19 became apparent.
3. By the time it was clear the virus would become endemic, my understanding of #SARSCoV2 had been bolstered by many in the scientific community who were kind enough to answer endless questions. Thanks to @BillHanage @dgurdasani1 @curexcomplex and many others.
4. Thanks also to @AmyMcLellan2 who has been writing about pandemics for 15 years and has been an invaluable source of info. Along with our children, she has spent much of the last couple of months listening to me muttering about mutivalency and synthesis. Sympathy 🙏🙂
5. I could see governments spending vast sums on treatments & vaccine approaches that didn’t seem likely to be wholly effective given the specific characteristics of the virus. I wanted to help, so I did a review of treatments & vaccines in development & settled on @Ligandal
6. I contacted @nanogenomic on Twitter and we discussed where he was in his product development. After some long, intense phone calls, I invested and put together a syndicate of angel investors to accelerate the process.
8. The approach uses cutting edge technology, & some veteran medical investors were skeptical it could be done. But enough were willing to take the gamble and with what can only be described as wartime spirit do what they could to help beat the pathogen that’s changed our world.
9. @nanogenomic has spent years acquiring the expertise to bring his concept to life. He’s met many people along the way who have told him his efforts are futile and his ambitions impossible. Thankfully he didn’t listen.
10. SARS-BLOCK, @Ligandal’s synthetic peptide has a way to go, and the team is working flat out to make it widely available as quickly as possible. This means further experiments and trials to understand dosage & prove safety & efficacy.
11. I feel very positive about the first round of experiments. SARS-BLOCK could stumble at a future hurdle, but right now the world has one more potential solution to the unprecedented challenge confronting us.
12. If you want to delve into the science, you can read about SARS-BLOCK in more detail. And follow @nanogenomic
