Coronavirus Special Coverage

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COVID-19: key developments for Monday, May 4, 2020

6 Comments on COVID-19: key developments for Monday, May 4, 2020

Incredibly good news. Scientists conclude people cannot get coronavirus twice

Also very good news. FDA approves coronavirus antibody test that boasts near-perfect accuracy

Coronavirus Antibody Tests: Can You Trust the Results?. “A team of scientists worked around the clock to evaluate 14 antibody tests. A few worked as advertised. Most did not.””

A bombshell if it pans out. Coronavirus: France’s first known case ‘was in December’

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic could have been prevented. “After SARS-CoV, a number of laboratories continued their research on the virus, but big Pharma lost interest in the virus – because it had disappeared from the face of the Earth. There was no money to be made in SARS-CoV antivirals or vaccines, so none were made. As a result, when SARS-CoV-2 emerged in late 2019, humanity was completely unable to stop its inexorable spread around the globe.”

She Predicted the Coronavirus. What Does She Foresee Next?

We found and tested 47 old drugs that might treat the coronavirus: Results show promising leads and a whole new way to fight COVID-19. “In theory, any intersection on the map between viral and human proteins is a place where drugs could fight the coronavirus. But instead of trying to develop new drugs to work on these points of interaction, we turned to the more than 2,000 unique drugs already approved by the FDA for human use. We believed that somewhere on this long list would be a few drugs or compounds that interact with the very same human proteins as the coronavirus. We were right.””

MTA to use ultraviolet lights to kill coronavirus on NYC subways, buses

Exclusive: Internal Chinese report warns Beijing faces Tiananmen-like global backlash over virus

Revealed: 100,000 crew never made it off cruise ships amid coronavirus crisis. “Guardian investigation finds workers stranded on at least 50 ships with Covid-19 outbreaks, limited medical equipment, some without pay, and no end in sight.”

Mike Pompeo: “Enormous Evidence” Coronavirus Came From Chinese Lab

I dunno who this writer is, but he is correct. We Should All Be Preppers

Probably not a great idea. Missouri Governor Says Concerts Can Resume Monday

Can dogs be trained to sniff out COVID-19 in patients?

Jon Stokes | jonst0kes

Jon Stokes is a co-founder of Ars Technica, founding editor of AllOutdoor, and contributing editor to The Firearm Blog. Jon's a lifelong knife collector, outdoorsman, and prepper.

  • 6 Comments
    • Bob6590 May 4, 2020

      Thanks to finding this site back in early March, we have stocked up on a bunch of things we need for the interim, including items (now almost completely unavailable) such as a Pulse Oximeter and reliable forehead thermometer, camera/mic combo for virtual meetups, a water filtration system and quite a bit of hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, cleaning supplies and hand soap. Due to late start we only have a few masks and gloves, but since we stay at home as much as possible(we are in our 70’s), that is not an issue yet. Thankfully the medicines we take seem to be not on the endangered list yet.

      What I am wondering is what will be the next essential things that may come up in short supply as we move into the next few months of the pandemic. Any clues what we should be ordering in before they disappear from the market like so many other things have?

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      • Jon StokesStaff Bob6590 May 5, 2020

        Thanks! My advice on prepping for what’s next, which I’ll elaborate on more shortly with an update on the website, is to just stay topped up on essentials. All the stuff you’ve been using, replenish it when and where you can.

        I don’t have any new intel on coming shortages (apart from stuff that’s already here that we’ve written about, like the meat shortages), so I’d say just stay topped up and be ready for whatever is next.

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    • Cebrf May 4, 2020

      Thank you for the time consuming job of putting these blogs together.  I’ve noticed on more than one occasion this site has info before the mainstream media does.

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      • Jon StokesStaff Cebrf May 5, 2020

        Thanks! We try to stay as on-top of what’s next as we can. 🙂

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    • lemur May 5, 2020

      Thank you for the news. I must comment on one of the news items’ headline:

      “Scientists conclude people cannot get coronavirus twice”

      No, scientists did not conclude that. That’s the headline MSN chose for the article, but that’s an incredibly bad headline. The article reports about the cases in South Korea of people who had recovered from SARS-CoV-2, and had tested negative for it, but then tested positive again. When news of this came out the mainstream press came out with headlines saying these people had been reinfected. *If* that had turned out to be true, that *would* have been terrible news indeed. In my opinion though, the press, as it often does, jumped the gun when it first reported about these people and assumed that they had been reinfected. My stance was let’s wait and see what the scientists find out. There could have been testing errors, interpretation errors, errors in the records they kept. Lots of opportunities for the conclusion “these people have been reinfected” to be wrong. The article you linked to reports that the investigation revealed issues with the test and that there is no proof that **these people** were reinfected. This is great news indeed!

      However…

      It does not follow that “scientists conclude people cannot get the coronavirus twice”. And indeed the article ends with:

      “In the future it could be possible that the coronavirus mutates and infects people who have previously overcome it, similarly to the flu.”

      Scientists still don’t know whether an individual can be reinfected by SARS-CoV-2. Again, the news that the folks in South Korea were not reinfected is great news, but not as great news as if scientists had definitely found that SARS-CoV-2 is like measles, for which the chance of reinfection is exceedingly small. (I’ve seen reliable medical sources say categorically “you cannot get measles twice” and I’ve seen some say the chance of reinfection is exceedingly small.)

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      • Jon StokesStaff lemur May 5, 2020

        You may be correct. I’m going to look into this more. Thanks for flagging it.

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