There are lots of myths and mysteries around BIT and coronavirus, as I read in the posts. This is my opinion as someone who works in the medical field:
Why coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is deadly and scary? Firstly because it is NEW. It does belong to a family, the Corona family. But little do we know about: What is the mortality and morbidity rate? How fast and effective can it spread? How fast can it mutate? Will it be like seasonal flu or it is a long lasting disease?..etc
So far it looks like SARS-CoV-2 has an insanely high “secondary attack rate”, which means if someone is infected, he is very contagious and can infect many, many more people. Also, it has a long latent or incubation period (~ 14 days), when infected person shows no symptoms. SARS and MERS both have very high mortality rate (up to 50% in some populations), but they are not as scary because their symptoms are so dramatic that infected people would either make it or break it. They are identified and isolated early so community spreading is less likely.
Secondly, the assumption from many governments that it’s the same as “common flu”. This assumption is the same as when you see an Asian looking person and you start talking to him in Chinese. Asia has 50 other countries. SARS-CoV-2 can be very different from its cousins as well. When China, after consulting with its top scientists, decided to suffer HEAVY economic lost by quarantine and shutting down almost the whole country, the rest of the world including US, Europe and Australia are still very much relaxed. We are the first country who grew SARS-CoV-2 in the lab but it took more than 4 weeks for the paper work to go through so the testing can begin. What a shame if we look at what happened to Gilead and Remdesivir!
Besides, I could not understand why some people think flu would infect and kill more people? It is now confirmed that Ro for SARS-CoV-2, is estimated at about 2.5, meaning a single infected person will infect about 2.5 others, on average (in some cases this number rose to 30-40). By comparison, the flu has an R0 of just 1.3. Mortality rate of Cov-2 is ~1.5-3.0% while flu is 0.1%
Is SARS-CoV-2 so hard for modern medicine to find a treatment for it?
NO!
Coronavirus has never been famous for its ability to hide from our immune system (like HIV or Hepatitis) or its resistant to antiviral therapies. Different countries have tried different antiviral drugs to combat SARS-CoV-2: anti HIV & Hep C drugs, anti-malarial drugs and even Oseltamivir that has been using for common flu. All of them showed promising results! BIT has 20+ years of experiences with virus, and it is dealing with the toughest ones like HIV and HepC so I strongly believe it will not have any issue with SARS-CoV-2. Same as when ZNO said it is testing its effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2, I knew 100% it would success.
But treatment is not the first option in this pandemic! In epidermiology, “flatten the curve” or reducing the number of infected individuals at one time is very important. Quarantine >> Vaccine >> Treatment. I have friends who are doctors in Wuhan and Italy, they both said people died mostly because the the healthcare system was overwhelmed. No hospital is ready to treat thousands of sick people at the same time.
On the other hand, Virus can cause a lot of damage before symptoms show up. And by the time these symptoms show up, the virus may already be in decline, or it may be too late to act. There is a “golden window” for antiviral therapies to work. There is no point in shooting down a plane when it already drops the H-bomb. Early testing/screening of suspected individuals is therefore necessary. Our government needs to be more proactive.
BIT is developing a vaccine?
NO!
I was surprised to see this on some newspapers' headlines. And instead of coronavirus’ picture or something related they used pictures of Klebsiella (a bacteria) on Agar medium.
BIT is not developing anything. It just sends its antiviral compounds for testing.BIT225 has a vaccine-like effect but it’s not a vaccine. A drug and a vaccine are 2 totally different things. Why BIT225 is considered having vaccine-like effect? Because it can modify T-cell response and reduce inflammatory markers as observed in studies, proving the same effect as when we give someone vaccine. This is promising because it opens the door for BIT225 to be a prophylactic agent. How exactly can it do that? Not sure.. more studies about mechanism of action needed..
If one day you wake up and read on the news that a “cure” has been found, is it game over for BIT? NO!
No antivirals can claim that they can provide the BEST outcome, FASTEST mode of action, SAFEST to use, is CHEAPEST and can work on ALL VIRAL MUTATIONS.Since Penicillin’s discovery in 1928, we now have more than 100 types of antibiotics. And we do still need MORE!
Anyway, I invested in BIT not because of coronavirus but because it is a forerunner in HIV and HepC treatment! Which is the FUTURE of medicine, with a HUGE market!! Of course, an announcement about Coronavirus would please the market and boost the SP but I consider myself an investor not a trader so I would love something more permanent. I agree with and support MM when she said the main focus of BIT is HIV and HepC. This is my opinion only.
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