Thread by @DrEricDing

US Pentagon has funded a blood filter for a dialysis machine that removes the #SARSCoV2 coronavirus from the blood - FDA has approved it for emergency use. It has been used to treat nearly 300 patients. #COVID19

2) Dr. Matt Hepburn: This is a filter that you can put on a dialysis machine.
"Patient 16", a military spouse, was in the ICU, near death with organ failure and septic shock when she was entered into a Defense Department COVID-19 study (video above)

cbsn.ws/3237WqI

3) Dr. Gaeta: She's liberated from veso-active medications and her septic shock resolved. We also see improvements in her markers of inflammation. Those are all positive prognostic signs.

Bill Whitaker: You pass someone's blood through this--

4) Dr. Matt Hepburn: You pass it through--

Bill Whitaker: --it takes the virus out
Dr. Matt Hepburn: Takes the virus out,

and puts the blood back in.

5) Within days, Patient 16 made a full recovery. The FDA has authorized the filter for emergency use. So far, doctors have used it to treat nearly 300 critically ill patients.

6) It might surprise you to learn that many of the innovations deployed to counter the coronavirus were once obscure Pentagon-funded projects to defend soldiers from contagious diseases and biological weapons. Many things owes a debt to these programs, like DARPA.

7) DARPA stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency —a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. But it has funded lots of science.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA

8) Many say “isn’t science amazing?”— but I say— government research funding for science and medical research is what is amazing and allows scientists to find these technological solutions.

9) Sidenote— while DARPA is Pentagon funded, ARPA-E is similar but via Dept of Energy funded. energy.gov/technologytran…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPA-E

10) NIH is of course the bread and butter finding agency for most biology, medicine, and public health science. However, it’s funding as a share of GDP has declined over time. It has not grow much at all.

11) But sometimes govt funding isn’t enough. I once pushed for crowd funding of medical research over a decade ago. It was born out of my personal illness and saga. My childhood back story is here...

well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/a-w…

12) People on the team include @chungk1031 @USUhealthsci
@HJFMilMed @extheramedical @BOABiomedical
@DARPA

Read all about it here. 👇🏻 usupulse.blogspot.com/2021/02/covid-…