I am sure you’ve noticed that almost always I use peer-reviewed journals to report on developments.  The few times I haven’t, I made it clear that the results had not undergone peer-review, but many folks had already examined the data and found it worthy- and those results would help folks respond to situations that required timely responses.

 

That is NOT the case when TheDonald shared with the world his (idiotic) concepts of ingesting disinfectants (it wasn’t clear if it was Lysol or bleach- or both) or hydroxyquinone. (The last utterance spurred clinical trials- and the data , while NOT yet complete– have indicated harm the patient with COVID-19, rather than alleviate the situation- yet they are SO bad [>400% worse heart damage, >40% more deaths] that most of the trials have been halted. ). 

 

Nor it is the case with Moderna’s premature release of data claiming their vaccine is demonstrating promise. Now, don’t get me wrong- I, too, have hopes that their vaccine be successful.

 

But to promote themselves (and their product), they reported only the (barest of) results from 8 of 25 of the test patients.  Oh, wait- they didn’t report results.  They reported claims.  And, these were from healthy patients.

 

Claims that in 8 of the patients, they found antibody titers equivalent to those found in patients who recovered from Covid-19.  What were the titers?  Who knows.  And, as far as I know, we have no ‘average’ titer level for those who recovered by Covid-19, so I have no idea (nor do you) if these levels are clinically significant or not.)  Moreover, some folks who have recovered from the novel coronavirus have virtually no detectable antibody levels.   (This Moderna report led to a 900 point gain by Wall Street.  Even without any true foundation.)

 

(It turns out that those 8 patients had antibodies capable of neutralizing the virus; the 17 others just had antibody titers that were equivalent to those who recovered from COVID-19.  But, still- no true data to evaluate the situation that pertained.)

 

Now, I don’t want to be totally cynical, but you have to wonder whether this was announced just to boost its stock price (it shot up 30%)- or, more nefariously, to pump up demand for a stock offering Moderna proffered  9 hours after this premature announcement. planning to collect $ 1 billion to fund their vaccine development efforts.

 

I’m not just picking on Moderna.  Let’s consider Gilead Sciences and remdesivir.  Yes, they received the imprimateur of NIH (National Institutes of Health), claiming it provided a ‘clear’ benefit to those with moderate cases of Covid-10. 

 

But, what’s a moderate case?  And, it’s been about a month and I (and, therefore, I’m positive you) have not seen one scintilla of scientific evidence that several days of hospital treatment were lopped off.

 

Which is more troubling when another study (this one published in the esteemed medical journal, The Lancet) indicated that remdesivir had no affect on survivability (NOTE:  NIH did not so claim either) or on viral titer in respiratory secretions.  

 

Even the Oxford vaccine (from the Jenner Institute) has been hyped.  An NIH official involved in the trial reported to the NY Times that the vaccine was a success.  But, two weeks later, when we got a chance to view the test results in a preprint of the article, we realized the obfuscation.  After all, the vaccinated monkeys developed COVID-19, when exposed to SARS-CoV-2. No decreased titers in their respiratory secretions- just of the RNA in the monkey’s lungs.

 

I know we are all desperate for some good news about his pandemic.  Which leads many of us to grasp at straws.  But, straws and straw men won’t keep us safe.

 

I’ve written that sci/tech honor societies (of which I am a member) are worried that false– or at least inflated- reports such as these decimate the public’s trust in medicine, science, and engineering.  It’s bad enough that we have a President who lacks a scintilla of sci-tech knowledge, yet claims to be prescient in all things technical.  When it comes to sci-tech, it’s not majority rule- it’s facts and data- transparent and shared with the public.

 

We need to preserve – and improve upon- the 76% of the folks who still have faith in science, technology, and medicine reporting. For all of our sakes.

 

 

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