Salam RalphFitzzy

With aggressive testing, single digit confirmed case?

On 14 March, 1600+ from Tabligh reported to have breathing difficulty. I estimate the gov test 100-200 of them daily. Not really sure how many GH can test per day, but I don't think it can be quick. By counting the date, most of them have been tested by now. What we see from now maybe from the second wave, the friends and relatives of those 1600+ and those from 12500 attendees who ran away hiding.

Swabbing takes 6 hours to confirm the result.

youngthugs

As the First Coronavirus Vaccine Human Trials Begin, Manufacturer Is Already Preparing to Scale Production to Millions

Last week, the first volunteers in a study of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine received their first doses, and the vaccine’s developer, Moderna Therapeutics, is already thinking ahead. Although testing on the vaccine will take at least a year to complete, the work could provide valuable information about how the immune system can fight coronaviruses and could give scientists a head start if any new outbreaks of the virus were to occur.

Non-essential staff at Moderna Therapeutics’ manufacturing facility, in Norwood, Mass., including president Dr. Stephen Hoge, are working from home as recommended by public health officials, but those involved in manufacturing what may be the first vaccine against the novel coronavirus are ready to scale up production if the first phase of testing on the vaccine shows that it’s safe.

The vaccine will be studied first in a group of 45 healthy volunteers, who have not been infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. In this group, scientists are looking to see if the shots are safe, and to test three different dosages to see which seems to activate the strongest immune response. If these initial subjects don’t develop any severe side effects or reactions, then researchers will recruit hundreds more healthy volunteers to confirm those results,

For the first phase, Moderna shipped hundreds of vials of the test vaccine to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is overseeing the study in multiple centers in the US. For the next, says Hoge, “it will be several fold, maybe five-fold larger than the first phase. We are talking thousands of vials.”

And if the vaccine proves not just safe, but also successful, the company is preparing for an anticipated “incredible demand to scale up the vaccine very, very quickly,” Hoge says, “we have already started to do work to scale up to producing millions of doses.”

That’s made possible, in part, by the non-traditional technology used to make this particular vaccine. Moderna uses mRNA, a genetic form of the virus’ genome, in its vaccine. When it’s injected into people, cells then process it so immune cells can recognize it and target it for destruction. Unlike the processes used to make most traditional vaccines, this method does not require growing huge amounts of the virus, which is time-consuming.

It’s also why the vaccine was developed in record time. Chinese researchers first posted the genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 in mid-January, and by Feb. 7, Moderna had vials of the vaccine ready for the standards-testing needed before the treatment could be cleared for human trials. By the last week of February, that was completed and the company sent vials to NIH for further review by its scientists. Then both Moderna and NIH filed for a request to the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates trials of experimental therapies, to start injecting the vaccine in people for human testing.