FAST TRACK NEEDED (NOW)

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD FAST TRACK REVOLUTIONARY COVID DRUG.

By: Stan Kipper.

There is nothing new about people turning up to work when they’re sick. During the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, many Melbournians had no option but to carry on working in defiance of public health advice, during an era before paid sick leave and with virtually no social safety net.

Today many employees are entitled to sick leave. And yet Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews this week complained that “far too many people” are going to work with COVID-19 symptoms, describing this as the “biggest driver” of the state’s persistently high rates of transmission.

It’s easy to understand Mr Andrews’ frustration. But while times have indeed changed for many employees since 1918, those in the casual and part-time workforce face the same stark choice – stay at home,or go the work and get paid, it’s as simple as that. Not all Australians have the luxury of being paid like our public service.

Casuals account for 25 per cent of the Australian workforce, mainly in lower-paid jobs. This creates huge vulnerability, both in terms of these workers’ personal circumstances and in the public’s efforts to suppress COVID-19.

But there is now hope and for many Australians and help simply can’t come quick enough. A repeat preliminary evaluation by Australian company PharmAust (ASXAA) of its lead cancer drug monepantel and monepantel sulfone has found it can reduce transmission in cells infected with the current SARS-CoV-2 strain of coronavirus.

Replication of an in vitro virus infectivity experiment carried out earlier this monthhas used the same median tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50) method and confirmed initial findings.

The repeat experiments were conducted by virologists at Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and again demonstrated that infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles can be suppressed by up to 95% in cell cultures treated with either monepantel or monepantel sulfone.