Hello
Could the organisers kindly confirm if there will be or will not be a deadline extension.
Thanks.
Created by dcentmakeover @lars.ericson - unfortunately, I'm not well connected with Scripps!
I know that the powers that be in DREAM are exploring ways to contribute here but at the end of the day it comes down to finding the right partners and datasets and institutions to get something pulled off in a reasonable timeframe. If you have a contact at Scripps who is involved in that effort I'd be happy to put them in touch with the people at DREAM!
Cheers,
Robert
Wishing a prompt recovery for all !
Hydroxychloroquine seems indeed to be a very good medication if given early, it seems to block the replication of the virus in vitro., by affecting the conditions in the lyzosomes
Azithromycine is an antibiotic with antiinflammatory properties, and it appears to have a protective effect on respiratory syncithial cells, also by affecting some organelles. Thanks @arielis.
He reported fever, wet cough and joint aches over 3 or 4 day period. He is feeling somewhat better. He has Vitamin C and Zinc lozenges available at home but no other medications. He is living alone in a 5th floor walkup apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Access to testing is poor there at the moment, even though it is the national epicenter for COVID-19. Because it is the national epicenter, emergency rooms are overwhelmed. Manhattan does have 2 new large resources opening up, military hospitals at Javits Center and USNS Mercy hospital ship. He hasn't tried to get a COVID test yet, because it involves being exposed to other people on the street and in a testing facility, and because he fears that the information would be useless. He is 59 years old and generally healthy. We have been using Zoom and [TeamViewer](https://www.teamviewer.com/en-us/) to collaborate and share computers.
I have another friend in North Carolina who had symptoms and did get a test. He manages a grocery store and so has frequent contact with strangers. He tested positive. He is 49 years old and has a heart condition. He was hospitalized for 2 days. They treated him with Albuterol nebulizer. They sent him home with 2 different kinds of asthma inhaler. He has recovered.
Population infection can be [measured indirectly with smart thermometers](https://healthweather.us/?mode=Atypical). The US has done [1.6 million tests so far](https://covidtracking.com/data), but we would need another 329 million tests to cover the whole population. [Testing](https://ourworldindata.org/covid-testing) will ultimately allow the identification and treatment of all COVID-19 carriers. The advent of the inexpensive [Abbott 5-minute test](https://www.abbott.com/corpnewsroom/product-and-innovation/detect-covid-19-in-as-little-as-5-minutes.html) pretty much obsoletes all the other tests but will take a while to get mass produced and testers distributed.
The White House has been prescribing hydrochloroquine + azythromicin combo. Both medications are risky for people with heart conditions. [A doctor in upstate New York](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/technology/doctor-zelenko-coronavirus-drugs.html) has treated a small community successfully with this combo and with zinc. [A doctor in Long Island](https://nypost.com/2020/04/04/long-island-doctor-tries-new-hydroxychloroquine-for-covid-19-patients/) is substituting doxycycline for azythromicin. Apparently doxycycline, in addition to being an antibiotic, has similar anti-inflammatory properties to azythromicin but lower toxicity.
[Convalescent plasma therapy](https://nypost.com/2020/04/04/nyc-hospital-stalls-on-potentially-lifesaving-treatment-for-coronavirus-patient/) is becoming a very popular alternative for severe cases.
[Scripps Research](https://www.scripps.edu/news-and-events/press-room/2020/20200403-wilson-covid19.html) says they have identified [a highly conserved cryptic epitope in the receptor-binding domains of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV](https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/04/02/science.abb7269) which could server as drug therapy target to kill [the virus](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9). [Mathematicians](https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2020/03/25/polymath-proposal-clearinghouse-for-crowdsourcing-covid-19-data-and-data-cleaning-requests/) have been getting into the game to organize data. @allawayr can you have a chat with Scripps about getting a Synapse bioinformatics challenge going to screen drug candidates for this target? Maybe add some remote wet lab options? Not sure how you'd define the criteria. Cash prize would be nice! Hi @lars.ericson
Best wishes of prompt recovery for your friend ! My teammate is stuck in Manhattan and not feeling well and hospitals are completed overloaded so he can't risk getting tested or seeking treatment in a likely contaminated facility.
The newspapers print stories every day about otherwise healthy people dying suddenly, typically by oxygen deprivation due to lung congestion.
This pandemic has the same effect as a tsunami, only invisible.
I don't think we should be in a rush to get stuff finalized when many of us are just trying not to get killed by the virus. @james.costello I understand.
I will wait for the email.
Thanks for your reply. Hi @decentmakeover, the honest answer is we don't know. I think there will be an extension, but as you can appreciate things are changing by the hour with coronavirus. The pathologists on this project are working tremendous hours dealing with issues clearly outside this project. We need their help with any updates to the dataset and that will be put on hold till after dealing with the most immediate needs. I will send an email to the group to discuss these issue so that everyone will get an email with the update. We appreciate your questions and concerns and we are trying to deal with this project in the most timely manner we can. So, stay tuned for an email update to the participants. Tagging @RA2DREAMOrganizers so that the steering committee will see this thread and your question!
Cheers,
Robert