Rhode Island’s EpiVax, Inc., announced it is using advanced computational tools to accelerate a COVID-19 vaccine candidate (EPV-CoV19) for healthcare workers (HCW) and is pushing to get this into clinical trials in 6 months.
EpiVax has been one of Rhode Island's star biotech firms.
According to EpiVax, EPV-CoV19 is a peptide-based, epitope-driven vaccine that can be rapidly and safely produced in most countries.
Once the company has raised $1.75 million the company will enter clinical trials -- the company has pledged to make a free license available to developing countries if the vaccine is successful.
To raise the funds EpiVax has partnered with GAIA Vaccine Foundation (“GVF”) to crowd-source funds.
Annie De Groot, MD, EpiVax CEO/CSO, states “The soul of each company will be revealed during this crisis. Personally, I do not believe this is the time to become a billionaire. Each of us should do what we do best to reduce the impact of COVID-19 globally.”
WATCH: Former RI Director of Health Dr. Michael Fine on GoLocal LIVE at 12 PM on Wednesday
"Applying EpiVax’s expertise enabled the selection of sequences representing all circulating SARS-CoV-2 genomes that will drive a T cell-mediated immune response, providing HCW with immune system “body armor”, reducing their risk of morbidity and mortality,” said the company.
GVF, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, will enable private citizens and foundations to contribute to development of EPV-CoV19. GVF’s mission is to reduce incidence of infectious diseases that disproportionately affect the under-served and promote the development of globally relevant, accessible vaccines that can be distributed on a not-for-profit basis in the developing world.
As it is the mission of EpiVax to “improve human health everywhere”, the company has granted GVF a cost-free, royalty-free license to the EPV-CoV19 design for use in countries that can produce and test the vaccine candidate on the Least Developed Countries list published by the United Nations. Collaborators and a clinical trial site in West Africa have been identified.
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Related Slideshow: 7 Major Coronavirus Developments — Wednesday, April 8, 2020
Congress and White House Move to Add $250 Billion for Small Businesses
The CARES program is overwhelmingly popular and small businesses have overrun banks and the Small Business Administration with applications for requests for funds.
Now, the White House and Congress are moving quickly to add $250 billion more to the existing $349 billion which was a key part of the $2 trillion stimulus package adopted two weeks ago.
JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon wrote that he expects the coronavirus pandemic to inflict "a bad recession" and financial stress similar to that of the global crisis of 2008.
Dimon wrote in his annual letter to shareholders that his bank won't be immune to the downturn.
Dimon's comments came as the International Monetary Fund declared a global recession is now underway -- one that will be worse than the 2008 crisis.
"Our classification implies that 37 percent of U.S. jobs can plausibly be performed at home," says a new study.
"We obtain our estimate by identifying job characteristics that clearly rule out the possibility of working entirely from home, neglecting many characteristics that would make working from home difficult. Our estimate is therefore an upper bound on what might be feasible and greatly exceeds the share of jobs that in fact have been performed entirely at home in recent years.
According to the 2018 American Time Use Survey, less than a quarter of all full-time workers work at all from home on an average day, and even those workers typically spend well less than half of their working hours at home," report authors Jonathan I. Dingel and Brent Neiman of the University of Chicago.
"Workers in occupations that can be performed at home typically earn more. If we assume all occupations involve the same number of hours of work, the 37 percent of U.S. jobs that can plausibly be performed at home account for 46 percent of all wages," said Dingel and Neiman.
Chinese leaders and many medical experts have held up this city as an example of what can be achieved through extreme efforts to contain the coronavirus.
It’s now becoming clear the battle in Wuhan is far from over—and the human cost much higher than officially acknowledged.
The city has announced only three new confirmed cases with symptoms since March 18. Authorities have just formally ended the 77-day lockdown on the city, allowing inbound and outbound travel for healthy people, after easing some residential restrictions to revive a crippled local economy.
In the past few days, however, it has tightened restrictions on some housing complexes, and said others will remain in place, after confirming dozens of new asymptomatic cases. An official newspaper said Monday there could be 10,000 to 20,000 such cases in Wuhan. The report was swiftly deleted online.
Epidemiologists, U.S. intelligence sources and Wuhan residents suspect that Chinese authorities substantially undercounted infections and deaths over the past several months, especially in Wuhan, in part to boost President Xi Jinping’s image. Such doubts, combined with the reports of new asymptomatic cases, are triggering fears of a potential second wave of infections that could undermine Beijing’s claim to have tamed the virus.
Respiratory Clinics to Help Patients with Symptoms of COVID-19
Thundermist Health Center is providing care for patients with symptoms of COVID-19, and has established a respiratory clinic at 450 Clinton Street in Woonsocket.
Doctors and nurse practitioners will care for patients who do not need hospital care but will benefit from an in-person outpatient medical evaluation, testing, or other intervention.
“As our state prepares for a surge in COVID-19 patients, this is one-way Thundermist can help,” said Chief Medical Officer David Bourassa, MD. “Thundermist will help care for patients with respiratory symptoms and those who test positive for COVID-19 and need other primary care services. Primary care has an important role in this crisis and Thundermist is working hard to respond appropriately.”
