3 Steps to Help Prevent Another Animal-to-Human Virus Pandemic (Seattle Times, co-written by Peter Rabinowitz)

By Peter Rabinowitz and Greg Gray

Governments and individuals are taking unprecedented, often very austere actions to control the ongoing spread of the pandemic coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). However, they are neglecting an extremely important question that could cause the loss of millions of more lives — how do we prevent the next zoonotic respiratory virus pandemic?

We have not yet identified the source of this virus. What if a new version emerges from the original animal source to cause a second wave of this pandemic?

Editorial: WHO Needs Funding, Not Scapegoating (Seattle Times, Quotes Judd Walson

Congress must quickly reverse President Donald Trump’s defunding of the World Health Organization.

This should be a bipartisan priority, to provide U.S. leadership in combating the worldwide pandemic and support WHO’s broader, ongoing global-health mission.

The WHO made errors in its initial response to the coronavirus but so did Trump, who is scapegoating and undermining a critical health organization when it’s desperately needed to save lives.

Africa Needs Afrocentric Solutions to Beat COVID-19 (Seattle Times - Written by Kingsley Ndoh)

While the U.S. and Europe battle to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, I can’t help but think about how Africa will cope when it becomes the next epicenter. Based on the three-month-old data that we have about the virus and its spread, guidelines on prevention, containment and mitigation have been set by the World Health Organization (WHO). So far, several African governments have adopted the U.S. and European approach that is centered on lockdowns, social distancing and frequent hand washing with soap and water.

Seattle Team Gets Funding to Start Human Trials of Potentially Groundbreaking Coronavirus Treatment (Seattle Times - Quotes Corey Casper)

Seattle’s Infectious Disease Research Institute has received seven-figure funding to begin human trials on a potentially groundbreaking novel coronavirus treatment.

The study could launch within weeks, take about 11 months to complete, and enroll about 100 patients diagnosed with a COVID-19 infection that’s causing moderate to severe pneumonia. It would deploy cancer-fighting NK-cells as an immunotherapy treatment for the coronavirus rather than the current approach of antiviral medication.

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