While there are no drugs to treat COVID-19 (coronavirus), pharmaceutical companies are using existing drugs to assist those seriously affected by the deadly pathogen. The global scientific community hopes to cram into several months a process that traditionally took over a decade. The World Health Organization (WHO) states there are 70 vaccines in the works for COVID-19 treatment, and four of the most promising are already in testing.
While the United States sets aside $27bn from its multitrillion-dollar stimulus package for the development of vaccines, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will fund the manufacturing of seven potential vaccines. Understandably, billions of dollars could be lost in this effort,and at best, result in only one or two viable vaccines. Bill Gates, who is said to have an estimated net worth of $106 billion, clarified that losing a billion is better than the global economy losing trillions of dollars.
Across the globe, a laboratory in Senegal has used its AIDS and Ebola expertise to develop a $1 COVID-19 testing kit. This has enabled Senegal to more effectively and efficiently test, and offer medical assistance to coronavirus patients. “The purpose is to serve all countries in Africa,” said Dr. Amadou Sall, the head of the Pasteur Institute in Dakar.
Dr. Sall and his team are working in partnership with Mologic, a British biotech company, to develop a 10-minute rapid detection test kit that could be available by early June. Together, the Pasteur Institute and Mologic are working on two test methods; a saliva swab to confirm coronavirus presence in those who are at high risk and think they’re infected, and the second is a finger prick for people who are curious to know if they’ve been exposed to the virus.
This pandemic has set forth a new normal, and social interactions are highly unlikely to return to business-as-usual, even after the quarantine and social distance mandates are lifted. Stay Safe out there.
