📍Everyone needs to read this 40-year saga of Dr Katalin Karikó, inventor of the mRNA therapy behind Pfizer/BioNTech & Moderna #COVID19 vaccines. Rejected many times, nevertheless she persisted. She will win the Nobel Prize. Oh she’s an *immigrant* too! telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…
3) The biggest hope is that mRNA therapy can cure or treat other diseases too. Its fundamentally a delivery mechanism for making proteins de novo based on a set of genetic code (to make the spike protein of #SARSCoV2 in this case), but can be retooled later for other illnesses.
4) Her saga is also a lesson in critical science funding. “A decade later, when at the University of Pennsylvania, Prof Karikó was again demoted when her focus on mRNA failed to attract financial backing.”
She almost quit. If she had, we still would not have a ready vaccine yet.
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HUGE—Oxford Jenner Institute Director Adrian Hill, who oversees Oxford-AstraZeneca #COVID19 vaccine research, warns that if FDA doesn’t approve Oxford vaccine now but waits for the end of Oxford’s 2nd Phase 3 trial, vaccine won’t be available in US until “the middle of [2021]."
2) To be clear, Oxford has reported its Phase 3 trial. And it’s even the first to fully peer review publish Phase results.
3) the thing is that US’s vaccine order is hugely dependent on Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. 300 million doses of it, for 150 million people. And we can’t get more Pfizer/BioNTech until June earliest since Trump WH has waived ordering more.
Coronavirus vaccine from Sinopharm is 86% effective for infection in Phase 3 trial. 100% efficacy in preventing moderate and severe illness. No reported safety issues. Also—it’s a 2-dose inactivated virus vaccine that does *not* need freezing! #COVID19washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pac…
2) “The UAE’s health ministry announced Wednesday that it had registered a Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine for general use, following emergency-use approval in the country in September. A number of top UAE officials have gotten a shot.”
3) “The analysis shows no serious safety concerns,” the UAE Ministry of Health said, adding that the findings showed the vaccine was 100 percent effective in preventing moderate and severe cases of covid-19.
Giant iceberg on course to collide w/ Atlantic penguin colony island. Scientists fear that iceberg could crush marine life on the sea floor. Should it lodge, it could block penguins and seals off from to feed their young. reut.rs/3gv8Y5b
2) “The gigantic iceberg—dubbed A68a—is on a path to collide with the South Georgia Island, a remote British overseas territory off South America. Whether that collision is days or weeks away is unclear, though, as the iceberg has sped up and slowed down with the ocean currents.”
3) “A collision is still uncertain, as the currents could carry the iceberg past the island, Tarling said.
"The currents around the island are complex, and it is still possible it may miss," Tarling said.”
➡️ A top Republican state & federal prosecutor, & judicial appointee of Governor DeSantis **resigned in protest** after reviewing the search warrant used to raid #COVID19 whistleblower Rebekah Jones’s home. tampabay.com/news/florida-p…
2) “recent events regarding public access to truthful data on pandemic, & specific treatment of Rebekah Jones has made the issue a legal one rather than just medical,’' he wrote in a letter to gov’s general counsel. “...I no longer wish to serve current FL govt in any capacity.”
3) “Filipkowski, 52, who has served on the Judicial Nominating Commission for 10 years and was twice appointed to the role by former Gov. Rick Scott and once by DeSantis, called the governor’s handling of the pandemic “reckless and irresponsible.”
TOOTH LOSS is one symptom of #LongCovid. Congressman Louie Gohmert’s tooth just came out during a speech. He had #COVID19 many months ago. Many reports of COVID-related tooth lose in NYT, as well as documented by @Survivor_Corps@dianaberrent.