As you may have noticed, there’s a lot happening on this small
planet of ours. One small personal bright spot is that, having spent years
involved in infectious disease, from diagnostic test design through vaccine and
drug development, I’ve been able to help family, friends and colleagues make
sense of the pandemic and have been fortunate to engage with those whose
knowledge and experience goes well beyond mine.
Let’s start with the good news. While in no way underplaying
the threat posed by COVID-19, the biopharma industry has been quick off the mark,
with both well-trodden and new paths to treatment and prevention under very
active exploration. Experience gained from past SARS and MERS epidemics (and seasonal
influenza) mean that industry and public health and regulatory agencies are not
starting from scratch.
That’s not to imply that treatments and vaccines will be
here a week come Tuesday. Problems encountered in early SARS vaccine studies are
a reminder of just how steep the learning curve might prove to be, and, at the
time of writing, early clinical data for studies of repurposed drugs in ameliorating
the effect of COVID-19 infection is equivocal at best. But, every hint of potential
benefit will assist in identify strategies with a higher probability of
success.
My white coat-days are long gone, and my battle against COVID-19
is essentially confined to taking the obvious practical measures to keep
family, friends and myself at low-risk for infection. Lord, how I miss the pub
already….
The only small additional effort I can make is in using this
(very) modestly visited blog to pull together what’s relevant and important in controlling
COVID-19, with the hope that it just might assist in developing a sense of
perspective for anyone interested in the how and why of the science and
industry effort.
So, until the world has adjusted to the new normal, this blog
will be mainly dedicated to selected COVID-19 news, with at least a once a day
update. Comments and questions, all and any feedback more welcome than ever.
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