By [email protected]_84
October 14, 2020 Off

Eli Lilly says other COVID-19 antibody drug trials ongoing after study halted for safety concern

By Carl O’Donnell and Michael Erman



a large building: FILE PHOTO: Eli Lilly logo is shown on one of their offices in San Diego

© Reuters/MIKE BLAKE
FILE PHOTO: Eli Lilly logo is shown on one of their offices in San Diego

(Reuters) – Eli Lilly & Co on Wednesday said other trials of its experimental coronavirus antibody therapy remain on track after a government-run study testing the treatment in hospitalized COVID-19 patients was paused due to safety concerns.

Lilly said on Tuesday that an independent safety monitoring board requested a pause in the trial, called ACTIV-3, due to a potential safety issue.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is collaborating with Lilly on the trial, said the advisory board paused the trial after seeing a “difference in clinical status” between patients on Lilly’s drug on those who received a placebo, without providing further detail.

Lilly on Wednesday said the paused trial is distinct from others it is conducting because it focuses on hospitalized patients who are

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By [email protected]_84
October 14, 2020 Off

Fitness Coalition, LI Law Firm Spearhead Lawsuit Against Cuomo

SYOSSET, NY —Two weeks after Michigan’s Supreme Court overturned the continued emergency executive orders of Gov. Whitmer, a coalition of business owners on Long Island are hoping their own lawsuit will achieve the same result in New York.

The New York Fitness Coalition, an advocacy group of gym owners who came together during the coronavirus pandemic, is leading the class-action lawsuit. A news conference to announce the lawsuit is being held Wednesday at the Sysosset office of The Mermigas Law Group, P.C.

Charlie Cassara founded the New York Fitness Coalition, which sued Gov. Cuomo in July, seeking an injunction of Cuomo’s orders in order for gyms to reopen. This lawsuit, Cassara, says is a broader effort to declare the extended emergency executive orders that Cuomo uses to mandate the COVID-19 business and school regulations as unconstitutional and illegal.

“This wasn’t his job,” Cassara told Patch. Once the original aims of

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By [email protected]_84
October 14, 2020 Off

Council Rock North Shuts Down Athletics Amid Rising COVID Cases

NEWTOWN, PA — All athletics and activity programs for Council Rock North High School students are shut down until further notice, Principal Susan C. McCarthy told parents in an email Tuesday afternoon.

The move comes one day after the high school decided to cancel in-person classes for the week after three students reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.

Superintendent Robert Fraser’s decision to close the school went against the advice of Bucks County Health Director David Damsker, who did not recommend closing school.

The health department will only recommend closing a school when there is a clear indication that the district’s health and safety plan isn’t working, Damsker told Patch, and there’s no evidence at this point that transmission is happening within schools.

“School closures are very disruptive and don’t help stop people from getting sick outside of school,” Damsker said. “If people continue to have parties and gather, closing school

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By [email protected]_84
October 14, 2020 Off

As virus surges anew, Milan hospitals under pressure again

MILAN (AP) — Coronavirus infections are surging anew in the northern Italian region where the pandemic first took hold in Europe, putting pressure again on hospitals and health care workers.

At Milan’s San Paolo hospital, a ward dedicated to coronavirus patients and outfitted with breathing machines reopened this weekend, a sign that the city and the surrounding area is entering a new emergency phase of the pandemic.

For the medical personnel who fought the virus in Italy’s hardest-hit region of Lombardy in the spring, the long-predicted resurgence came too soon.


“On a psychological level, I have to say I still have not recovered,’’ said nurse Cristina Settembrese, referring to last March and April when Lombardy accounted for nearly half of the dead and one-third of the nation’s coronavirus cases.

“In the last five days, I am seeing many people who are hospitalized who need breathing support,” Settembrese said. “I am

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By [email protected]_84
October 14, 2020 Off

Summit, Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine to Develop Saliva Tests for COVID, Head & Neck Cancer

AURORA, Colo., Oct. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Summit Biolabs, Inc., an early-stage molecular diagnostics company specializing in saliva-based testing for COVID-19 and head & neck cancer, and the Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine (CCPM) at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus announced today a broad strategic collaboration involving research, development and commercialization of saliva liquid-biopsy tests for early cancer detection and diagnosis of COVID-19 and other viral contagions.

The CCPM holds one of the largest research biobanks in the United States with clinical data from more than 8.7 million de-identified patient records and plans to integrate the data with personalized genomic information.

“This partnership brings two innovative programs together to optimize COVID testing at a time when it’s desperately needed,” says Kathleen Barnes, Ph.D., Professor and Director of CCPM at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. “Collaborations like this are crucial in moving research forward and

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By [email protected]_84
October 14, 2020 Off

A Canadian spin studio followed public health guidelines. But 61 people still caught the covid-19.

Now, despite appearing to have complied with public health regulations, at least 61 people linked to the studio have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

“They had done all sorts of things to remove the potential for spread,” Richardson told reporters. “Unfortunately, gyms are a higher-risk place because of the fact that generally people are taking off their masks, they’re breathing at a higher rate.”

Although Hamilton requires masks to be worn in most public settings, the law includes an exemption for anyone “actively engaged in an athletic or fitness activity.” In keeping with that policy, the studio, SPINCO, allowed riders to remove their masks once clipped into their bikes, and told them to cover up again before dismounting.

In a recent Instagram post, SPINCO’s owners said that they had been “hesitant” to reopen after getting the green light in July, and would not resume classes “until it is safe

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By [email protected]_84
October 14, 2020 Off

Zoom is releasing a new tool to let paid users charge for admission to online events like conferences or fitness classes



Eric S. Yuan standing in front of a sign: Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom Video Communications takes part in a bell ringing ceremony at the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York Reuters

© Provided by Business Insider
Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom Video Communications takes part in a bell ringing ceremony at the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York Reuters
  • Zoom is introducing OnZoom, a new way to host events — free and paid — using the popular videoconferencing tool.
  • Zoom has come to be used to host all kinds of events amid the pandemic, from board meetings and conferences to fitness classes and concerts. The new OnZoom platform includes the ability to charge for tickets, as well as a directory of public event listings.
  • Zoom is also launching a new kind of app integration, called a Zapp, that can bring information from productivity tools like Dropbox, Slack, or Asana directly into a video chat.
  • Facebook launched its own features for paid videoconferencing events over the summer.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

As the pandemic drags on, Zoom is releasing a

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By [email protected]_84
October 14, 2020 Off

How do pandemics end? History suggests diseases fade but are almost never truly gone

<span class="caption">The COVID-19 new normal might be here for quite some time.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="link rapid-noclick-resp" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/reflecting-on-her-day-royalty-free-image/1263884394" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:SolStock/E+ via Getty Images">SolStock/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
The COVID-19 new normal might be here for quite some time. SolStock/E+ via Getty Images

When will the pandemic end? All these months in, with over 37 million COVID-19 cases and more than 1 million deaths globally, you may be wondering, with increasing exasperation, how long this will continue.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, epidemiologists and public health specialists have been using mathematical models to forecast the future in an effort to curb the coronvirus’s spread. But infectious disease modeling is tricky. Epidemiologists warn that “[m]odels are not crystal balls,” and even sophisticated versions, like those that combine forecasts or use machine learning, can’t necessarily reveal when the pandemic will end or how many people will die.

As a historian who studies disease and public health, I suggest that instead of looking forward for clues, you can look back to see what brought past outbreaks to a close –

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By [email protected]_84
October 14, 2020 Off

Facebook to crack down on ads that discourage vaccines

Facebook announced a new policy that prohibits advertisements on the platform that discourage people from getting vaccines, as part of a new effort to encourage people to get flu shots amid the COVID-19 pandemic.



a sign on the screen: The Facebook logo is displayed on a mobile phone in this picture illustration taken Dec. 2, 2019.

© Johanna Geron/Reuters, File
The Facebook logo is displayed on a mobile phone in this picture illustration taken Dec. 2, 2019.

“We don’t want these ads on our platform,” Kang-Xing Jin, the company’s head of health and Rob Leathern, the director of product management, said in a blog post Tuesday.

The post added that while they already don’t allow ads featuring vaccine hoaxes, “Now, if an ad explicitly discourages someone from getting a vaccine, we’ll reject it.”

MORE: More people engage with verifiably false news outlets on Facebook now than in 2016

Moreover, the social media giant announced the launch of a new campaign to provide information about flu vaccines to users, and pledged to work

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By [email protected]_84
October 14, 2020 Off

U.K.’s Film and TV Charity Launches Two-Year Program For Better Mental Health in Film and TV

The U.K.’s Film and TV Charity has launched the Whole Picture Program, a two-year initiative designed to to improve the mental health and wellbeing of the 200,000 people who work behind the scenes in film, TV and cinema.

The Film and TV Charity has now secured £3 million ($3.87 million) in funding from Amazon Prime Video, Banijay U.K., BBC, BBC Studios, Channel 4, IMG, ITV, Sky, Sky Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company, ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia to deliver the program that is supported by the BFI and backed by U.K. mental health charity Mind. The charity estimates that mental health problems, including staff turnover, cost the sector at least £300 million ($387 million) in losses each year.

The program will deliver a toolkit for mentally healthy productions; enhanced professional and peer support for freelancers; people skills and training guides; industry actions to improve behavior; and anti-bullying services and

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