This has to be one of Martin's "Only in the US" stories.
Mail - Remdesivir- the only drug shown to work against coronavirus - could cost up to $4,500 per treatment despite costing just $9.32 to make

Gilead has not revealed how much its antiviral drug, remdesivir, which is approved by the FDA to treat coronavirus, will cost.

The California-based company drew intense public scrutiny when it priced its hepatitis C treatment at $1,000 per pill in 2013

A report estimated that it costs $9.32 to manufacture one 10-day course of remdesivir treatment.

The cost watchdog said that, if the drug is proven to save lives, Gilead could charge up to $4,500 per treatment

But consumer advocates say anything more than $10 does not constitute fair pricing during a pandemic.

Edit] and another one. Two Friends in Texas Were Tested for Coronavirus. One Bill Was $199. The Other? $6,408.

https://abc7.com/health/$2340-price-for-coronavirus-drug-draws-criticism/6281198/
$2340

Why doesn't this surprise?
Fiduciary duty enabled by patent laws results in upward wealth transfer.

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https://abc7.com/health/$2340-price-for-coronavirus-drug-draws-criticism/6281198/
$2340

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/29/gilead-sciences-remdesivir-cost-coronavirus/
$3,120

https://abc7.com/health/$2340-price-for-coronavirus-drug-draws-criticism/6281198/
$2340

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/29/gilead-sciences-remdesivir-cost-coronavirus/
$3,120

Ah, $2340 is the copay, $3120 is the list?

Ah, $2340 is the copay, $3120 is the list?

The best part is the CDC funded the research, as always the tax payers are getting screwed.

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I have a question. For almost three months everything non-essential was shut down here in Florida. Many who still worked during this time had to undergo the test for Covid19 and anyone testing positive was quarantined for two weeks. The number of new cases dropped almost to zero. Then, almost two weeks ago the state allowed a "stage 1" reopening of businesses following strict guidelines. Then boom, over just a few days, the number of new cases daily skyrocketed to over 9000. How was the virus laying low for over a month? It almost looks to me like some people were hiding the fact that they were infected just so that they could restart the spread as soon as restrictions were lifted. New cases don't just spring up out of thin air. The county I live in is heavily populated with the elderly 65 and older and most of us are taking the precautions seriously. On the other hand the young population, 20s-30s, almost immediately returned to their pre--pandemic activities and most of the new cases are in that age bracket. What are we going to do? Shut things down again and possibly ruin the economy for years to come or just allow things to run their natural course as the Swedes are doing.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Bob I take a cynical view. Social security and medicare are underfunded, It is an established fact that Covid 19 is very lethal for both the elderly and those who have other health concerns. Killing 10% of those people would greatly ameliorate the finance issue with out raising taxes. They want to kill you and me off in order to save money.

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Bob I take a cynical view. Social security and medicare are underfunded, It is an established fact that Covid 19 is very lethal for both the elderly and those who have other health concerns. Killing 10% of those people would greatly ameliorate the finance issue with out raising taxes. They want to kill you and me off in order to save money.

+1

Bob I take a cynical view. Social security and medicare are underfunded, It is an established fact that Covid 19 is very lethal for both the elderly and those who have other health concerns. Killing 10% of those people would greatly ameliorate the finance issue with out raising taxes. They want to kill you and me off in order to save money.

Well, I'm going to fool them and live through it. Heck, I've been living in semi-isolation for the last 10 years. I moved from Orlando to this tiny community halfway between Orlando and Daytona Beach to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life. I rarely leave my house. Going to the grocery store and doctors appointments accounts for at least 75% of my outside the home time.
But I still wonder how the virus managed to stay active during the shutdown and infect so many people in such a short time after removing the restrictions.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Virus have many tricks up their sleeves when it comes to laying dormant or invisible. Two weeks is probably far too short a time to isolate someone.
Working it through:
Incubation period - somewhere between 5 and 15 days;
"Infective" period - 2 to 45 days;
"Ill period" - 5-60 days.

To ensure an infected person doesn't infect anyone else you have to make sure they are isolated for longer than the infective period. There's nothing that can be done about the period before someone is "ill" (or is tested), so you have to assume that they are at "day 0" when they identified as being infected by the virus and then isolate then for the maximum expected infective period and a bit more just to be sure - yes that's 45 days or more isolation.
So what has happened in the case of Florida (and many other places that have "rushed" out of lock-down) is that people are isolated when identified as being infected, then let them out of isolation after two weeks; in some people the illness will have run its course, and so they have passed out of the infective group; in others the illness will not have run its course (either because it developed slowly or ran longer) and they are still infective.
It is the last group that have now come out from isolation and are mixing again with the general population, and, guess what, infecting people and hence the new spike in Florida etc.
I saw some evidence the other day that suggested that for less half the people infected have an infective period of less than 10 days, and for most people (I think the figure was 75%) the period was in the 10-20 days, then the size of group halving for every additional ten days - don't ask me where I saw these figures as I thought at the time "interesting, must look at that later" and forgot to follow it up later.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I don't think we will know how many people have Covid-19 or have had it until they test everybody for the virus and to see who has the antibodies for it.

I've just found this https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200309110456.htm which states;

By March 1, 2020, between 1,043 and 9,484 people in the U.S. may have already been infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus, far more than the number that had been publicly reported, according to a new Cedars-Sinai study.

"This suggests that the opportunity window to contain the epidemic of COVID-19 in its early stage is closing," the researchers stated in their paper, which is posted online on a forum where physicians and researchers share information.

The range of possible patients is significantly higher than the number of confirmed and presumptive U.S. cases reported by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which stood at 164 as of March 7. Some news media on March 8 were reporting more than 500 total cases. [Editor's note: as of its March 9 update, the CDC put the total number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. at 423, including both confirmed and presumptive positive cases.]

So when the official number stood at less than 500, the actual number could have been nearly 10,000.

Therefore when some bright spark, read "My State Governor", decided that cases were low enough to lift the restrictions, they actually had no idea how many were infected or what the result would be. And as we now know Texas, Florida, Arizona and other states got it completely wrong, and thousands will suffer or die.

P.S. It's not just the US, here in the UK, Leicester has had to be shut down,
Therefore my worries start again because that is where my sister lives. Family has in it, 1 Doctor, 2 nurses and a dentist who has been doing emergency dental cases.

Essential services were never closed. Virus never had to hide.

BBC - Death rate 'back to normal' in UK

The number of deaths registered in the UK over one week has fallen below the five-year average for the first time since mid-March.

More than 80% of local authorities in Great Britain have also seen death rates fall to normal levels.
The decrease reflects a decline in coronavirus-related deaths, official data shows.
Of 10,681 deaths registered in the week up to 19 June, 849 (8%) mentioned coronavirus.
This is the lowest number of coronavirus deaths registered since the week lockdown was announced.
The total number of deaths registered in the week up to 19 June was eight below the five-year average for that week and the lowest figure since the week of 13 March.

And if the coronavirus wasn't enough we maybe in for another swine flu outbreak as well.

New swine flu with pandemic potential identified by China researchers.

Researchers in China have discovered a new type of swine flu that is capable of triggering a pandemic, according to a study in the US science journal PNAS, although experts said there is no imminent threat.

Named G4, it is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009.

It possesses “all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans”, said the authors, scientists at Chinese universities and China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in the study published on Monday.

Between 2011 and 2018, researchers took 30,000 nasal swabs from pigs in slaughterhouses in 10 Chinese provinces and in a veterinary hospital, allowing them to isolate 179 swine flu viruses.

It could be that we are living in a bad science fiction movie.

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It could be that we are living in a bad science fiction movie.

https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=84230&postid=2052588

US buys up world stock of key Covid-19 drug remdesivir
No other country will be able to buy remdesivir, which can help recovery from Covid-19, for next three months at least
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/30/us-buys-up-world-stock-of-key-covid-19-drug
However, the pharmaceutical company Gilead has promised donations, including to Sweden. The extent of the donation is secret, but it is clear that it is sufficient for only a few Swedish patients.

As long as the I's are dotted & the T's crossed, all's well with the world.
Communication is the key

Unfortunately these are, it seems, going to become a way of life from now on.

The 1%ers won't like that, but they'll find ways.
Definitely need faster communication
It seems BoJo is imitating the Blonde Bimbo across the pond.

He said the prime minister had talked about a "whack a mole strategy" to tackle local outbreaks.

A total shambles
At one time, wasn't it stated that technology would make communication simpler & faster?

Now the republicans turn
You know, the non-adults judging by their leader in DC who don't believe in science and refuse to wear a mask.