Coronavirus Vaccine Development....Phase III A-Go-Go.

AllYourTechIsNow
BioVille


From the US CDC's website on vaccine development:

...Clinical (vaccine) development is a three-phase process. During Phase I, small groups of people receive the trial vaccine. In Phase II, the clinical study is expanded and vaccine is given to people who have characteristics (such as age and physical health) similar to those for whom the new vaccine is intended. In Phase III, the vaccine is given to thousands of people and tested for efficacy and safety.

Many vaccines undergo Phase IV....studies after the vaccine is approved and licensed...


As Derek Lowe, our go to drug development guy, notes, large scale clinical trials for a number of potential coronavirus vaccines are on the near horizon:

...What we’re seeing now is the plan for entering large-scale human trials. The Wall Street Journal‘s Peter Loftus broke the news of the overall plan in the US: Moderna’s candidate was said to be going into Phase III in July, followed by the Oxford/AstraZeneca effort in September, with Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine to follow. But J&J now says that they’re moving up the timetable and negotiating with the NIAID for Phase III trials before then. Moderna has selected 100 micrograms as the Phase III dose, which is what was expected based on their earlier results. Meanwhile, AZ says that they will be scaling up the manufacturing of the Oxford vaccine during the trials themselves, on a risk basis, and it would not surprise me at all to see other companies doing something similar. They’ll basically have to – if one or more of these vaccines reads out well in Phase III, you’d want to get to dosing people as quickly as possible...


So.

Does this mean that the end of the pandemic nigh?

Dr. Lowe suggests you would crazy to bet on it, at least at the moment:

...The next few months, then, are not going to be dull. Politics aside, the organization and execution of all these trials will be a huge and complex effort, as mentioned, and when the numbers start coming out of them we’re going to surely be taken by surprise. That’s what clinical trials do; this won’t be different. I’m expecting sudden reversals, and sudden bursts of hope, despair, and confusion. None of us have ever seen anything like what’s coming, and I hope we never have another opportunity to see anything like it again!...


As for that 'politics aside' business?

Well, if a certain politician can make a big deal about garbage treatments, is there any reason to think he won't pull the trigger early on a vaccine?

Especially if, say, an election is looming?


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Lowe also has an update on antibody development work....Unlike viruses and vaccines, this is something I actually know something about...The data so far are interesting but it's still early days, although the clinical trial data will soon start to come out there as well.


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Our Wednesday Pick...Jonathan Goldstein's 'Heavyweight'.

Hyperquench
ForeverVille


Folks that stop by here might know Jonathan Goldstein from his long running show called 'Wire Tap' that ran on CBC Radio One from 2004 to 2015.

It was like Mordecai Richler, generation four, writ smaller.

littler e. liked that show so much that she used to listen to replays to help her get to sleep.

Heckfire. Even a snot-nosed kid named Jesse Brown knew what was what back before Canadaland was even a digital couplet in his media-jaundiced eye.

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Mr. Goldstein also spent some time working for that nice Ira Glass fellow on his little radio show south of the border.

In fact, I reckon Jonny, as former sidekick Howard Chackowicz used to call him, especially when he was hooked on hyperquench, first met future podcast tycoon Alex Blumberg while working on This American Life.

And now it turns out that Goldstein has a show on Blumberg's Gimlet empire called 'Heavyweight'.

Mostly, Heavyweight is focused around helping people to construct better endings on some of the most important stories from their past lives.

Sarah Larson of the New Yorker described one episode this way:

...The most famous episode of “Heavyweight” is the second of the first season, “Gregor.” In it, Goldstein gets his friend Gregor (Ehrlich) to reconnect with Gregor’s long-lost friend Moby, to whom he had once lent his collection of Alan Lomax CDs, which Moby had then used to create his album “Play,” which made him a megastar. Gregor is bitter: he never heard from Moby again, he says, and he wants his CDs back. The resolution is as satisfying, provocative, and funny...


And now, in the most recent episode, Goldstein helps two young women connect with their first grade teachers. Each segment starts out elegiac in the extreme and then transforms into unrestrained joy, all of which is fantastic enough on its own.

And then...

Goldstein calls some guy in Winnipeg and convinces him to pick up his acoustic guitar and play the following into the phone:

And the MoCo let this guy go?

Sheesh.


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Need more?....Here's Jonnny with his longtime manager/nemesis, Gregor Ehrlich, in a clip that ends, ironically, with a tune from another band from Winnipeg.


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Tenth Avenue Freeze Out?

BikeRoute
UberAllesVille


Pretty soon, hopefully, I will once again be riding my bike from our home in the near eastern townships across the entirety of central Lotusland to get to my place of work way out on the western edge of the pointiest part of the grey plateau.

And when I do I will quite often use the 10th Avenue bike route, especially when I have to stop to pick-up or drop-off something in the bowels of the hospital industrial complex, as happens semi-regularly.

But, after reading Frances Bula's latest in the Globe I'm a little concerned:

...More than a third of people in the Vancouver region expect to drive more and use transit less postpandemic, while almost as many say they will cycle or walk more, a survey done for the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade has found...


Why concerned?

Because, before the long pause I had already started to notice that for bike routes that run close to and parallel to major arteries (as 10th Ave. does to Broadway and 12th) cars were already starting to choose the former over the latter during traffic-choked rush hour times.

And now, as we come out of the pause, if folks are going to eschew transit, as is likely sensible at rush hour, and a significant proportion of those folks are going to be jumping into their cars...

Oh boy.


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Earworm in the post header need scratching?....This!


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The Keef Report: Demonstrating Why Only Major News Outlets Should Be Allowed To Ask...

...The Really Important Questions.

Remember this, from last week:

That was the good Mr. Baldrey explaining why only he and his should be allowed to ask the questions at online provincial government presser's because it was they who would make sure all the important information got out to the public in the best way possible.

Well...

Apparently, in the theatre of his own mind at least, the Keef made sure to do just that at today's COVID-19 update:

Sheesh.


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Our Monday Pick...Bob Mackin's Tribute To Dermod Travis.

HeAlwaysTriedToHelpUs
DoTheRightThingVille


On his latest podcast, Bob Mackin pays tribute to Integrity BC's former executive director, Dermod Travis on his passing.

The tribute begins at the eight minute mark and includes short interviews with Wayne Crocker and Sean Holman.

It's....Here.


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Allegedly.

Where'sThatConfoundedBridge
PeaceVille


From the Twittmachine's news banner feed....

First, the headline:

Next, the lede immediately below said header:

The Buffalo Police Department has suspended two officers without pay and opened an investigation after a video showed a 75-year-old man being knocked down by police at a protest in the city...


Hmmmm....

It would appear that one of the above is not like the other, a fact that will be abundantly clear if you, like millions and millions, have seen the actual video.


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Our Friday Pick...John Fogerty Explains How The Songs Got Made.

And Mr. Fogerty explains it all to George Thorogood no less.

Which got me thinking of the first purveyor of the high lonesome sound...

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Returning to more pressing matters for a moment....Derek Lowe has the latest on hydroxychloroquine...And no, he's not talking about the retracted Lancet paper.

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How Would Lincoln Deal With Today's Map Of America?

38'89''North
77'05''West


Back in his day, the Western territorial portion of Abraham's Lincoln's America was constantly changing while those in control of the Southern statist portion of the same map dug in their heel in a doomed effort to hang on to their ways and means:

Of course, in the end, Lincoln had to step in and deal with those dug-in heels for all kinds of reasons, some of them pragmatic, some of them idealistic, but all of them ultimately right.

One can only wonder how he, Lincoln I mean, would step in and deal with today's map of  America:

Presumably, Mr. Lincoln would be a lot more proactive and effective in dealing with the emerging Southern viral propagation wave than the current president of America, a man who seems more bent on proactively protecting granite steps in front of monuments, etc.


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Why is this site called 'The Gazetteer'? Because I like maps, especially when they are in atlases with explanations and details and stuff....In the old dinosaur days (i.e. back when Stockwell Day was still, actually, relevant, and/or riding jet skis) almost every post was marked by the subject's  latitude and longitude...


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The Keef Report...And The Keefs Shall Inherit All Of The Media Earth.

Competition?
WeDon'tNeedNoStinkingCompetition!Ville


It would appear that, according the good Mr. Baldrey, only guys like him and his should get to ask questions at government pressers.

Because, 'big', or some such thing...

But why, you might be asking yourself, Mr. B's talk of  'biggism rules, exclusively' problematic?

I mean, it's not as if we haven't been forced to deal with the fall-out from back scratch-fevered, insider access-driven big press/gov't symbioses around here in the past.

Right?



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Previous Keef Reports, wherein you may just find some tracks of the symbiotic tears mentioned above, can be found...Here.
And, just to take the good Mr. Baldrey's argument one step further off the ledge...Is he suggesting that he and his would not actually tell his really big audience about a matter of import that came to light as the result of a question and/or line of inquiry started by a small media outlet?


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The Coldest Thing Ever Said?

AllTheStrongmenInTheWorld
Can'tBeatTinyBitsOffProteinEmbeddedInALipidFilmWrappedAroundAMinisculeStringOfRNAVille


Apparently, the two million doses of hydroxychloroquine that the Trump administration sent to Brazil have not yet saved the day:

...Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, continued to play down the crisis on Tuesday, telling supporters: “I regret every death but that’s everyone’s destiny.”...

****

Regardless, as long as the trains run, and Rio's beaches open, on time...

Well?



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As for the fallback gambit that hydroxychloroquine will finally work, for real, if used early and prophylactically?....Perhaps not.



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A Very Short-Fingered, But Apparently Not At All Vulgar, Amount Of Time.

NeitherTulipsNorNoTipToeing
AllegedlyVille


According to Mr. Trump he only visited the White House 'bunker' for a tiny amount of time, and only for inspections.

Yes, that is correct, 'plural' inspections:

Donald Trump has claimed to have spent only a “tiny” amount of time in a reinforced security bunker under the White House as protesters clashed with Secret Service agents outside and has insisted his time there was for an “inspection”, not his own safety.

In an interview with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade on his radio show on Wednesday, Trump also claimed to have visited the bunker in the daytime, not after dark, when protesters and law enforcement officers clashed outside the executive mansion.

The New York Times first reported that Trump was taken to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center on Friday night, for about an hour. Other outlets, citing White House sources, confirmed it.

The protected space under the White House was used by Vice-President Dick Cheney on 11 September 2001, when authorities feared a plane might strike the building. It has since been reinforced.

Trump told Kilmeade: “I was there for a tiny, short little period of time” and said he had visited the bunker “two or three times, all for inspection”....


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The above is the lede from Martin Pengelly's latest piece in The Guardian.


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A Closed Border Cannot Hold Back All The Crazy.

AllTheirConspiracies'R
(SomeOf)UsVille


Last week the National Post published a story by Calum Marsh about conspiracy theories regarding COVID-19 and the origin of the virus that causes it.

One upshot is that a significant proportion of the Canadian population is not immune.

To being infected by said theories, I mean:

...A recent poll conducted by Carleton University in Ottawa found that 11 per cent of Canadians believe COVID is a 5G cover-up, and more than a quarter believe the claim that COVID was concocted as a weapon by the Chinese. A separate poll by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies found that 15 per cent of Canadians believe Bill Gates is responsible, while another 15 per cent believe COVID doesn’t actually exist...

A. Reader recently sent us the Leger poll concerned (which the NaPo story did not link to).

The picture is actually more frightening for our collective body politic than you might have thought:

And here are the side-by-side numbers with our Southern neighbours:

It would appear that our smugness cup on such matters should stop running over, immediately.

OK?


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Leger is doing rolling polling on Canadian opinions about Covid-19 from a whole lot of angles with the Association for Canadian Studies...Interestingly, at least at first pass, I couldn't find the conspiracy polling in their library, except for a link to the NaPo story...If the actual data are out there for public viewing I'm pretty sure NVG will find it...



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Your Morning Audio...Railgate's Very Long Tail.

Reference/source material or today's episode...

'Essential Passenger Rail Service Still Shut Down', by Amanda Follett Hosgood in The Tyee, May 29, 2020.

'RailBiz Relativity', in The Gazeteer, May 29, 2010.

The legend of Stobe the Hobo.

'Looking Back on John Prine's Buddy Steve Goodman' by David Brown in Rolling Stone, July 19, 2019.


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Tuesday morning bonus read...Norm Farrell has a really great post up titled, 'We tolerate our own racism too easily.'
A. Reader has pointed out the odd symmetry of Ms. Follet Hosgood's piece on the loss of passenger rail service on the former BC Rail Northern line and my piece on the fine fellows that did very well, indeed, by the sale/not sale of BC Rail being published/posted exactly 10 years apart....


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All British Columbians Will Miss Dermod Travis.

WeWantToThank
HimVille


Dermod Travis, the Executive Director of Integrity BC, and the man who did as much, if not more, to make campaign finance reform happen in our fair province has died just shy of his 60th birthday.

A lot of folks have already had a lot of nice things about the guy that, as far as I can tell, everyone, regardless their politics and/or ideological stripe, respected because he was always a straight shooter.

Personally, my favourite comments so far have come from another watchdog of a different, but clearly related, kind, Sean Holman:

...Travis was like a “full-time professional citizen,” said Sean Holman, an associate journalism professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary. He was a one-man Ralph Nader, exposing waste, fraud and negligence.

“This was a person who marched straight into minefields because he thought he could help,” Holman said. “It’s a terrible loss. There’s not enough of those people in society.”...

Those words were noted for posterity by Tom Hawthorn who has outdone himself this time with his fantastic, detailed and nuanced obituary in The Tyee.

Go read all of Mr. Hawthorn's piece - you won't be sorry.



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And then there was....This.

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Documented Superspreader Events?....Why Worry?

TheOppositeOfThePrecautionaryPrinciple
Anti-PublicHealthVille


First, there was this, as reported by Lena Sun and Josh Dawsey in the Washington Post:

...Earlier this month, the (U.S.) CDC issued a report warning about “superspreader” events where the coronavirus might be “highly transmissible in certain settings, including group singing events.” That report described a choir practice in Washington state in March at which one person ended up infecting 52 other people, including two who died...


Then, there was this:

...The Trump administration with no advance notice removed warnings contained in guidance for the reopening of houses of worship that singing in choirs can spread the coronavirus...

{snip}

...Two White House officials said the first version posted by the CDC was not approved by the White House. Once West Wing officials saw it, they asked the CDC to post a different cleared document without the choir references and other parts.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk about policy discussions, said there have long been concerns within the White House that there were too many restrictions on choirs. A CDC official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the guideline change also said the updated Saturday guidance was approved by the White House...


Thus, it is impossible not to conclude that the Trump Administration is knowingly inviting large scale infection to happen.


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Please note: The published version of Ms. Sun and Mr. Dawsey led with the reversal...I brought the CDC's original version to the fore to unbury what I consider to be the true lede.



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