Cocaine was the secret ingredient in pig-to-human heart transplant

 The organ used during the groundbreaking pig-to-human heart transplant that took place earlier this month got a boost from an unlikely drug: cocaine.

Now, doctors hope to see more of the party drug in transplant hospitals.

Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, director of xenotransplantation — which refers to the process of transferring an animal organ into a human — at the University of Maryland Medical Center, spoke to Vice News about his historic work on a 57-year-old patient who became the host of a genetically modified pig heart.

The heart was developed by lab company Revivicor, tweaked so that its DNA would be more amenable to a human host, then fortified with the party drug by Swedish medical tech company XVIVO, before traveling to the US.

Usually, transplant organs originate from much shorter distances as they deteriorate within a few hours outside of the body.

The 57-year-old patient of the first successful pig heart xenotransplantation is now recovering.

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Mohiuddin explained how cocaine was used in a mixture among hormones, including cortisol and adrenaline, that keep the live tissue from spoiling during its long journey overseas to Maryland, but the proprietary solution raised flags with drug enforcement officials in the US, where cocaine has never before been used in this setting.

“The cocaine name pops out because everybody thinks, ’Oh my God, what is cocaine doing in here?’ ” Mohiuddin told the outlet.

Doctors hope to see more of the party drug in transplant hospitals: “It will be a great advance if this process is approved by the regulatory agencies.”

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Medical researchers aren’t clear on the mechanisms behind the amphetamine’s efficacy, but Mohiuddin wasn’t concerned with the “why” at the time, as the cocaine and hormone blend had bested the alternatives.

“When we were not using this solution, we were getting failures within 48 hours. But when we started using this and infusing the heart with this solution, the heart became well preserved and started beating very well,” he said. 

A tedious permit process with the US Drug Enforcement Administration ensued. “It’s a bit of a hassle but it’s a routine procedure when importing controlled substances,” said Mohiuddin. 

The doctor encouraged further research on the use of cocaine in transplantation protocol in the US. “It will be a great advance if this process is approved by the regulatory agencies,” he said.

https://nypost.com/2022/01/27/cocaine-helped-pig-to-human-heart-transplant-breakthrough/

CCP Expands Beijing Lockdown As More Cases Detected Among Olympics Personnel

 The other day, the English-language press picked up on a rumor that President Xi of China had implored his ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin, not to invade Ukraine until after the Winter Games. Anonymously-sourced leaks like these are often propaganda, not truth. But as the Games draw near, the Communist government is tightening the screws on the city of Beijing as COVID continues to spread - albeit, more slowly - despite their draconian measures.

Reuters reports that the CCP has expanded its localized lockdowns in Beijing, restricting movement to those who live within a growing number of neighborhoods and housing complexes, and prohibiting outsiders from entering.

For example, Beijing's Fengtai district said late on Wednesday residents in a new swath of areas should not leave their residential compounds for unnecessary reasons and must be tested daily for COVID.

Beijing has some reason to target the district: it has produced more local cases than any others, at least going by what the CCP has admitted publicly.

The area had already locked down some compounds that house tens of thousands of people, while several other city districts have restricted the mobility of their residents.

China's NHC said Beijing saw just five locally transmitted infections confirmed for Wednesday, down from 14 a day earlier.

Locals who spoke with Reuters anonymously indicated that they are all terrified of getting COVID for fear of provoking the government's wrath.

"I'm anxious everyday because the virus situation is still quite serious," said a traveler surnamed Wang at Beijing Railway Station. "I don't want to bring trouble to my hometown. Now I'm tested negative, but what if it changes to positive?"

Beijing has already locked down some compounds that house tens of thousands of people. Several other city districts have imposed mobility restrictions in certain areas. Meanwhile, elsewhere in China, travel has surged during the Lunar New Year holiday. Travel during the first ten days of the holiday season has risen 46% from last year.

Local authorities in charge of the Winter Games said 23 new cases were detected among Games-related personnel on Jan. 26, including eight among those already in the closed-loop Olympics bubble. The rest were discovered upon arrival at the airport.

China isn't alone. Cases are climbing elsewhere in Asia. For example, in Japan, Tokyo is reportedly facing "an explosive infection situation due to an omicron-fueled wave that's driving daily case numbers to record highs. Top Japanese health authority Norio Omagari said newly recorded daily infections in Tokyo could exceed 24K in a week if the current trend continues. The capital city reported 16.5K cases on Thursday.

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/ccp-expands-beijing-lockdown-more-cases-detected-among-olympics-personnel

Biogen Agrees with Samsung Biologics to Sell Stake in Biosimilar JV for up to $2.3B

 The companies will continue with their exclusive agreements, including for commercialization of their current portfolio

Biogen Inc. (Nasdaq: BIIB) today announced that they have entered into an agreement whereby Samsung Biologics will acquire Biogen’s equity stake in the Samsung Bioepis joint venture for an aggregate consideration of up to USD $2.3 billion.

Biogen and Samsung Bioepis have built the industry leading anti-TNF portfolio in Europe1. Upon the acquisition of Biogen’s stake, the companies will continue with their exclusive agreements, including commercialization of their current portfolio. This includes marketed products BENEPALI® (etanercept), a biosimilar referencing ENBREL®, IMRALDITM (adalimumab), a biosimilar referencing Humira®, and FLIXABI® (infliximab), a biosimilar referencing Remicade®. Additionally, Biogen will also retain commercial rights for BYOOVIZTM (ranibizuman-nuna), an approved biosimilar referencing LUCENTIS® (ranibizumab), as well as an investigational biosimilar candidate in development, SB15 (aflibercept), a proposed biosimilar referencing EYLEA®.

Samsung Biologics has agreed to pay Biogen up to $2.3 billion for its stake in the joint venture. Under the terms of this agreement, Biogen will receive $1 billion in cash at closing and $1.25 billion to be deferred over two payments of $812.5 million due at the first anniversary and $437.5 million due at the second anniversary of the closing of the transaction. Biogen is eligible to receive up to $50 million contingent upon achievement of certain commercial milestones. Closing of the transaction is contingent on the effectiveness of a securities registration statement filed by Samsung Biologics and satisfaction of certain regulatory and other customary closing conditions. Upon closing, Biogen will recognize a GAAP gain on disposal within other income (expense), net in its consolidated statement of income.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/biogen-reaches-agreement-samsung-biologics-235000649.html

Fauci: Kids Under Four Will Get Three COVID Vaccines

 by Steve Watson via Summit News,

Appearing during a White House press briefing Wednesday, Anthony Fauci decreed that children under the age of four will eventually be subjected to a “three-dose regimen” of COVID vaccines.

“Dose and regimen for children 6 months to 24 months worked well, but it turned out the other group from 24 months to 4 years did not yet reach the level of non-inferiority, so the studies are continued,” Fauci noted.

He added, “It looks like it will be a three-dose regimen. I don’t think we can predict when we will see an EUA [Emergency Use Authorization] with that.”

He told reporters that he couldn’t give an exact timetable on when this would happen, but was adamant it would.

“We need to be patient,” he said, adding “That’s why the system works. The FDA is very scrupulous in their ability and in their effort to make sure that, before something gets approved for any age, and especially  with children … that they will be safe, and that they will be effective.”

Watch:

Last week, Fauci suggested that he wants to see the FDA authorise the vaccines for toddlers within a month.

“My hope is that it’s going to be within the next month or so and not much later than that, but I can’t guarantee that,” Fauci said during an interview.

“I can’t out guess the FDA. I’m going to have to leave that to them,” he added.

However, after the interview, Fauci sent CNBC a statement “clarifying that he’s not involved in the decision making process at the FDA and didn’t know when the agency will clear the shots.”

“I did not at all mean to imply that the authorization would come within a month,” Fauci said, adding “I meant that we do not know … I am not involved in that decision.”

CDC Data has shown that children make up less than 0.1 percent of Covid deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.

Source

To date, 259 of around 860,000 recorded U.S. Covid deaths have been among children under the age of five.

A study out of the University of Utah last October (before Omicron) found that exactly 50 percent of children who contract the virus have asymptomatic cases.

The World Health Organization’s Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan previously said that the body does not see it as necessary for healthy children to take Covid booster vaccines.

“The aim is to protect the most vulnerable, to protect those at highest risk of severe disease and dying, those are our elderly population, immunocompromised with underlying conditions and also health care workers,” Swaminathan said last week.

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/watch-fauci-decrees-kids-under-four-will-get-three-covid-vaccines

Proposed State Law Would Make It Illegal To Request Person's Vaccine Status

 by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A newly proposed South Carolina law would make it illegal for certain institutions to ask a person for their COVID-19 vaccination status.

“The government has no place in making you or telling you to take the vaccination or threatening your livelihood if you don’t,” said state Rep. William Chumley, a co-sponsor of the bill, known as H.4848.

A representative of a public, private, or nonprofit entity who asks about a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status should be fined more than $14,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both, according to the text of the bill.

“South Carolina didn’t want to get in this fight,” Chumley told local media outlets. “It was brought to us by the federal government.”

The bill is currently being discussed in a state House committee.

Lawmakers who sponsored the bill said they support the measure because it can serve as a bulwark against government coercion.

“It’s about protecting people from being forced or coerced into getting a vaccine for purposes of employment, admission to schools, or government services,” state Rep. Wayne Long, a Republican, told Channel 2 News.

“I get calls from people literally every week begging the legislature to take some kind of action to protect people’s rights, to protect their privacy, and to keep them from being forced or coerced into getting a vaccine that they frankly don’t want to get,” Long added. “And even for people who have gotten the vaccine, I’ve spoken with many of them, it’s really a privacy issue.”

South Carolina labor law attorney Jeremy Summerlin told local media that he believes the bill would be very difficult to implement.

“You put employers in an impossible position,” Summerlin remarked. “You’ve got a (proposed) state law now that says that if you ask about that, and try to comply with federal law, then you are going to jail,” he added.

“What if you ask your coworker about their vaccination status, and you are just having a conversation?” he said. “What if you are a nurse, and you ask a fellow nurse about it? Do you want the local law enforcement to go in and arrest them because of this law?”

The proposed law comes two weeks after the Supreme Court, in a 6–3 majority opinion, blocked an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) emergency temporary standard that required employees at companies with 100 or more workers to either get the vaccine or submit to weekly testing. And on Tuesday, OSHA published an announcement saying it would formally withdraw the rule Wednesday.

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/proposed-state-law-would-make-it-illegal-request-persons-vaccine-status

More Than 1 in 10 People in US Have Diabetes, CDC Says

 More than one in ten Americans have diabetes and over a third have prediabetes, according to updated statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The National Diabetes Statistics Report includes data for 2017-2020 from several nationally representative sources on prevalence and incidence of diabetes and prediabetes, risk factors for complications, acute and long-term complications, and costs.

According to the new report, published on January 25, a total of 37.3 million people in the Unites States have diabetes, or about 11.3% of the population. Of those, 28.7 million are diagnosed (including 28.5 million adults), while 8.5 million, or 23% of those with diabetes, are undiagnosed.

Another 96 million adults have prediabetes, comprising 38.0% of the adult US population, of whom only 19% are aware of their prediabetes status.    

In a statement, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) said the new CDC data "show an alarming increase of diabetes in our nation among adults," while the high number with prediabetes who don't know that they have it "is fueling the diabetes epidemic."

Regarding the total estimated 1.84 million with type 1 diabetes, the advocacy organization JDRF said in a statement: "These data and additional statistical research reinforces the urgency to accelerate life-changing breakthroughs to cure, prevent, and treat [type 1 diabetes] and its complications."

Overall, ADA said, "the National Diabetes Statistics Report reaffirms why the ADA is dedicated to innovative research to find a cure for diabetes once and for all."

Notable Increases Since 2019

These new data represent notable increases since the CDC's 2019 Report Card, which gave the US population with diabetes in 2018 as 34.2 million, or 10.5% of the population, including 7.3 million undiagnosed. The prediabetes prevalence that year was 88 million.

Among children and adolescents younger than 20 years, 283,000, or 35 per 10,000 US youths, had diagnosed diabetes in 2019. Of those, 244,000 had type 1 diabetes. Another 1.6 million adults aged 20 and older also reported having type 1 diabetes, comprising 5.7% of US adults with diagnosed diabetes.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/967279

Chinese Scientists From Wuhan Discover 'Potentially Deadly' New Strain Of Coronavirus

 Here we go again.

A team of Chinese scientists from Wuhan have discovered a new strain of coronavirus that they fear could make the jump from animals to humans. Shortly after another team of Chinese scientists published new research claiming that the omicron strain may have gestated inside mice, this other team has warned about the "potential bio-safety threat" represented by a new strain of COVID.

The team of researchers from Wuhan University claimed to have "unexpectedly" stumbled upon the new strain, which they're calling "the NeoCoV strain" (should it become a serious enough threat to warrant a "variant of concern" label, the WHO will grant the mutant strain a new Greek letter name).

The strain was originally discovered in South Africa and is a "close relative" of omicron.

Keep in mind, this isn't the first new strain to emerge since omicron was first discovered by a team in South Africa. The world has already faced down "deltacron", a mutant with attributes of both strains, that caused a splash in global press when it was first discovered.

But the fact that a team of scientists from Wuhan has zeroed in on this strain certainly doesn't bode well.

The new strain "can efficiently use some types of bat Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and, less favorably, human ACE2 for entry."

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, was first discovered in Wuhan before it spread throughout the world as millions of Chinese traveled for the Lunar New Year holiday. The timing of the latest discovery comes amid this year's holiday.

While the strain presently targets bats, the scientists said it has the capability to infect humans as well. And should that happen, it appears the new strain "could not be cross-neutralized by antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2 or MERS-CoV" meaning natural immunity and vaccine-induced immunity would likely be powerless to stop it.

Although NeoCoV "remains enigmatic," the scientists warned of a "potential bio-safety threat" for humans "with both high fatality and transmission rate."

Interested parties can read the pre-print about the discovery below:

2022.01.24.477490v1.full (1) by Joseph Adinolfi Jr. on Scribd

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/chinese-scientists-wuhan-discover-potentially-deadly-new-strain-coronavirus