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Corona drugs: the illusion of the miracle drug

2020-10-31T09:20:49.877Z


When US President Donald Trump fell ill with Covid-19, he received a novel drug and declared it a magic cure. The truth is: advances in medication will not replace contact restrictions for the time being.


But now a study has been stopped in which an antibody from Lilly was tested together with the antiviral drug Remdesivir on Covid-19 patients treated in hospital - because the antibody with Remdesivir was no better than the dummy drug in the placebo group.

Problems also arose when testing an antibody cocktail from Regeneron.

The cases show: A miracle cure for Covid-19 has not yet been found and the search will be arduous, hope and setbacks go hand in hand.

Any progress in treatment, as is normal in the development of new drugs, will be hard-won.

It is quite possible that the antibody from the stopped study is quite effective, but was administered too late in the course of the disease.

Or maybe it is unusable.

Perhaps it will have to be combined with other antibodies, or completely different antibodies will prove effective in the end.

All of this is being investigated.

Pharmaceutical research takes time.

It is therefore dangerous to give up blind faith in readily available drugs in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.

Contact restrictions and distance rules are still the most effective methods of fighting Sars-CoV-2.

Even if a monoclonal antibody for the treatment of Covid-19 should be approved in the coming months, these measures will continue to be essential: the fewer people get sick, the sooner there will be enough of such a drug for all those who urgently need it. 

Stay healthy!

Veronika Hackenbroch

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Abstract

My reading recommendations this week:

  • A total of 50 crashes of black holes and neutron stars: the catalog of all "events" observed so far shows that gravitational wave astronomy has blossomed into a new branch of celestial science.

  • An Australian company has developed a test that is supposed to identify super spreaders.

    Now scientists are arguing how much he is worth. 

  • Did you know that in addition to global warming, there is also global cooling?

    The normal temperature of healthy adults has dropped from 37.0 to 36.6 degrees in the last few decades.

    Why?

  • Hundreds of thousands of potentially dangerous pathogens lurk in the animal kingdom.

    How can future pandemics be prevented?

  • The present is not a good time for the truth.

    Lies, rumors and accusations of 2020: The New York Times takes stock.

  • The "brain in a glass" found its way into science fiction long ago.

    Neurobiologists and bioethicists are now discussing when the terrifying vision of consciousness in the test tube will become reality.

Quiz * (Click here for the interactive version of the quiz)

1. What are cobras also called?

a) soso lala


b) well well


c) oh dear oh dear

2. What color is the blood of the horseshoe crabs?

a) blue


b) green


c) golden

3. How did the pterosaurs take to the skies?

a) with catapults


b) by falling from rocks


c) not at all

* You can find the answers at the bottom of the newsletter.

Picture of the week 

Icon: enlarge Photo: Ehre Lab University of North Carolina School of Medicine / Ferrari Press / ddp Images

A battle is raging

in the lungs of Covid-19 patients

, as the electron microscope image shows: The coronaviruses (red) attack the ciliated epithelium of the lung with its hair-like cilia (light blue), which use mucus (green-yellow) to transport foreign bodies out of the lungs should.

The picture was taken 96 hours after US researchers infected a cell culture from human bronchial cells with Sars-CoV-2.

footnote  

Fossil finds reconstructed specimens of the primeval family of pseudo-toothed birds that lived in the Antarctic around 40 to 50 million years ago had a

wingspan of

5-6

meters

.

Similar to albatrosses (with a wingspan of around 3.5 meters, the record holder among the birds living today), these prehistoric animals probably hunted octopuses and fish using their pointed pseudo-teeth, bony protrusions on the edges of their beak

SPIEGEL + recommendations from science 

  • Psychology: During the pandemic, children and young people spend more and more time online - how should parents deal with it? 

  • History: The historian Timothy Moss explains why it was the modernization of electricity, water and gas that made Berlin a cosmopolitan city

  • Space travel: The first crew left for the ISS 20 years ago - what will happen to the outpost in space? 

  • Animals: Biologists decipher the last secrets of the moles

* Quiz answers (Click here for the

interactive version of

the quiz)


1) Answer B: The biological species name of the spectacled snake or cobra is well well. 


2) Answer A: The blue blood of these primeval sea creatures is tapped by the pharmaceutical industry because it is highly sensitive to bacterial toxins.


3) Answer A: Researchers assume that the mighty pterosaurs could only take off by using their powerful front legs as catapults.

Have you worked your way through?

Respect!

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Source: spiegel

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