Does 5G Internet Networks Cause And Help Spread COVID 19?

Given that the belief is straight out off Trump’s climate change denial playbook, does the belief that 5G internet networks causes COVID 19 more dangerous than the pandemic itself?

By: Ringo Bones

The dismissal of the pandemic as a hoax and questioning of scientific experts is straight out of President Trump’s, and other right-wing populist demagogue’s, playbook of climate change denial that got them elected in the first place. The 5G theory about radio waves transmitting or activating the virus, for example, is a reworking of long running conspiracy fears about mind control experiments, subliminal messaging and supposed United States military weapons projects that has since been a staple of Hollywood’s TV and movie industry way before the runaway mid 1990s success of The X-Files. Add to that an utter lack of how science works of most of Trump’s supporters and it is no longer a mystery that the belief that 5G internet networks causes and spreads the COVID 19 virus is very popular in the United States at the moment. 

The 5G coronavirus conspiracy theories are particularly challenging to debunk by normal educated people with a working grasp of science – never mind tenured government scientists - because they bring together people from very different parts from the political spectrum. On the other hand, they attract the far-right Trump supporters who see them as part of a technological assault by big government and the “rich liberal elite” on the freedom of individuals. On the other, they appeal to the well established “anti-vaxxer community” who are often allied with those distrustful of Big Pharma. Getting COVID 19 from 5G internet networks is probably like someone getting smallpox from lighting a 1950s era flashlight into their face.

Cow Plasma: Possible COVID 19 Treatment?

Given that the race is on to find a possible treatment to this terrible pandemic as soon as possible, is cow plasma the most viable method to provide COVID 19 antibody treatment?

By: Ringo Bones

A biotech company in South Dakota says it could hold the key to help fight the COVID 19 virus. The antibodies from the cows could help fight off the infection and speed up the recovery. Dr. Ryan Schaefer, a veterinarian at Walcott Veterinary Clinic says “they engineer the animals so that they actually produce human immune cells, and then they are basically vaccinating those cows with COVID 19, and then turning around and collecting the plasma from those cows and getting the antibodies.”

SAb Biotherapeutics in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is the brains behind the science. Dr. Ryan Schaefer says antibody testing is different to finding a vaccine. Dr. Schaefer says: “The antibodies are already produced and they are going to attack that cell if somebody is infected. Cow’s antibodies would come in first to at least help because you don’t need to produce that antibody right away.” A vaccine would take a bit longer than the antibody treatment method because a vaccine works by first requires your body to make antibodies to ward off infection. The biotech company plans to begin clinical trials in the coming months.

Sewage Epidemiology: Viable COVID 19 Early Warning System?

Could a sewage-based coronavirus test provide faster and better results than existing medical tests?

By: Ringo Bones

Current rapid coronavirus antibody tests recently got a bad rap after providing a lot of false-positive results, but could testing a city or community’s sewer system for the COVID 19 virus provide faster and more accurate results? Scientists led by UK’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology are working on a standardized test to “count” the amount of coronavirus in a wastewater sample. The test could pick up COVID 19 infection spikes up to 10 days earlier than with existing medical based tests. Newcastle University’s Prof. David Graham and his colleagues have now developed a way to quantify the genetic material from the coronavirus.

Early in the COVID 19 pandemic, research revealed that people infected with the virus “shed” viral material in their feces. That insight prompted an interest in “sewage epidemiology”. A somewhat similar test used by Chinese epidemiologists working with Italian health authorities during the spring of 2020 produced test results showing that coronavirus could already had been present in Italy near the end of December 2019. The researchers want to fine tune and reproduce this test before it can be rolled out as part of a COVID 19 alert system.

Dexamethasone: Possible COVID 19 Cure?

Given the drug’s ability to reduce deaths among patients on ventilators and on oxygen, is dexamethasone a promising COVID 19 cure?

By: Ringo Bones

Given that a working COVID 19 vaccine is probably still months away, this “miracle drug” is already widely available around the world for years. Primarily used to reduce inflammation in a range of conditions caused by an overactive immune system like arthritis, asthma and some skin conditions and an added bonus that the drug is not astronomically expensive when as little as UK£5 per patient could save a patient on a ventilator or on oxygen due to COVID 19, dexamethasone was recently labeled as a “miracle drug” after the anti-inflammatory drug showed promising results after being tested as part of the world’s biggest trial of existing treatments to see if they could also work against coronavirus.

In a trial led by a team from Oxford University, about 2,000 hospital patients were given dexamethasone and compared with more than 4,000 who were not. For patients on ventilators, it cut the risk of death from 40-percent to 28-percent. For patients needing oxygen, it cut the risk of death from 25-percent to 20-percent. The researchers said this was equivalent to one life being saved for every eight patients on a ventilator and one life being saved for every 20 to 25 patients being treated with oxygen. Chief investigator Prof. Peter Horby said it was “the only drug so far that has been shown to reduce mortality – and reduce it significantly.”

UK Heath Secretary Matt Hancock told the commons that 240,000 doses of the drug are in stock and on order. Dexamethasone works by dampening down the reaction of the body’s immune system to COVID 19, which can often be more harmful than the virus itself. And given the initial results of the trial, some experts even said that COVID 19 deaths in the UK could have been cut by half of the June 16, 2020 total of 42, 153 if UK hospitals started using dexamethasone by the beginning of March 2020.

Does President Trump Still Harboring A Cavalier Attitude About The Novel Coronavirus?

Given that the WHO just declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on the novel coronavirus, does President Trump still harboring a “cavalier attitude” towards the coronavirus emergency?

By: Ringo Bones

Given that his so-called inner circle often advises anyone who approaches to within talking range of President Trump – like foreign dignitaries and reporters from major news outlets – that he is a “germophobe”, Trump really has a track record of harboring a cavalier attitude towards pathogens of public health concern. I mean since 2018, on average, the Trump Administration had been slashing the annual budgets of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services by almost 15-percent on an annual basis since 2018.

President Trump enacted an executive decision to slash the budget of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention back in 2018 focused on eliminating the funding of Obama era disease security programs and also of the Health and Human Services. Back in 2018, the White House eliminated a position on the National Security Council tasked with coordinating a global pandemic response. During a federal government budget proposal meeting for the 2020 US Government Budget held back in 2019, the Trump Administration sought to cut the CDC’s annual budget for the fiscal year 2020 by as much as 16-percent.

President Trump’s rather cavalier attitude about the novel coronavirus even raised a furor of criticism by the American public that raises an impression that President Trump is more concerned about the health of Dow Jones than the health of Joe Public. Given the March 9, 2020 declaration of the World Health Organization that the spread of the novel coronavirus across China and to a growing list of international locations constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern will prompt the Trump Administration to be concerned with the American public’s health – as opposed to the financial health of Wall Street.

Could Artificial Intelligence Soon Replace Doctors In Diagnosing Breast Cancer?

Given very promising results from an international team of medical researchers, including Google Health, could AI be soon replacing doctors when it comes to diagnosing breast cancer?

By: Ringo Bones

Latest results of a medical research published in the journal Nature has shown that artificial intelligence is more accurate than doctors in diagnosing breast cancer from mammograms. The international medical research team, including researchers from Google Health and Imperial College London, designed and trained a computer model to analyze X-ray images from nearly 29,000 women. The algorithm outperformed six radiologists in reading mammograms. AI was still as good as two doctors working together and unlike humans, AI is tireless and experts say it could improve detection.

The newfangled AI mammogram was tested against the current system in the UK’s NHS that uses two radiologists to analyze each woman’s X-rays. In rare cases when the two radiologists disagree, a third doctor assesses the images. In the research study, an AI model was given anonymized images, so that the women could not be identified. Unlike the human experts, who had access to the patient’s medical history, the AI had only the mammograms to go on. The results showed that the AI model was as good as the NHS’s current double-reading system of two doctors. And it was superior at spotting cancer than a single doctor.

Compared to one radiologist, there was a reduction of 1.2-percent in false positives, when a mammogram is incorrectly diagnosed as abnormal. There was also a reduction of 2.7-percent in false negatives, where a cancer is missed. Dominic King from Google Health said “Our team is really proud of these research findings, which suggest that we are on our way to developing a tool that can help clinicians spot breast cancer with greater accuracy”. Could AI based cancer diagnosis soon become a regular vital medical routine? 

Can Sound Waves Be Used To Cure Cancer?

I don’t know if this latest breakthrough in medical science will soon allow your healthcare provider to subsidize your high end audio rig, but can sound waves soon be a viable cure for cancer?

By: Ringo Bones

The newfangled medical procedure is called acoustic cluster therapy and even though a number of white papers had been published of the subject as far back as 2015, the first ever patient has been treated with acoustic cluster therapy got press coverage back in December 17, 2019. The procedure uses microscopic clusters of bubbles and liquid droplets formed via ultrasound waves to enhance the delivery of chemotherapy drugs to tumors. The procedure promises to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy by better targeting it to the cancer site and could potentially be explored with reduced doses of chemotherapy drugs in order to reduce the severity of the side effects.

The new treatment has been recently being trialed by The Institute Of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. The next step, the phase I and II clinical trial of acoustic cluster therapy will aim to provide early data on the effectiveness of the therapy as well as establish its safety. The treatment will then be used to treat patients with tumors in the liver that had spread from the bowel or pancreas.

Professor Jeffrey Barber, professor in physics applied to medicine at The Institute Of Cancer Research is delighted that the work “has progressed to the point where the technology is now being assessed in patients for the first time. It’s a very exciting door opening technology which concentrates more of the drug in the tumor.” The clinical trial is largely funded by Phoenix Solutions with additional funding from the Research Council of Norway, as well as support from the NHR Biomedical Research Centre at The Royal Marsden and the ICR.