Wuhan (Novel) Corona Virus -looming pandemy of deadly pneumonia? - Pandemy ongoing!

(November 30, 2020) SII rejects Covishield volunteer's allegations; PM to interact with 3 teams making COVID vaccine today
The Serum Institute of India (SSI) termed as 'malicious and misconceived' the allegations of serious side effects by a 40-year-old man
who took part in the third phase of the the 'Covishield' vaccine trial in Chennai.
The vaccine manufacturer's statement came as officials said the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI)
and institutional ethics committee are investigating the business consultant's
claims that he suffered serious neurological and psychological symptoms after taking a dose of the vaccine.

He was administered the shot Chennai's Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (SRIHER), one of the trial sites on 1 October.
As per a legal notice, though there was no side effects for the first 10 days, he subsequently had episodes such as severe headache and vomiting.
A doctor suggested investigations like a CT-scan as the man was oblivious of what was happening around him and could not respond to questions.

An electroencephalogram (EEG) test showed that the brain was affected partially (dysfunction involving both hemispheres
and the ascending sensory pathways on both sides from both the lower extremities).
A pyschiatric evaluation revealed a mild deficit in verbal and visual memory functions
and an under-functioning in overall cognitive functions, it said.

The notice given on 21 November by a law firm on the man's behalf said,
"Our client states that he must be compensated, in the least, for all the sufferings
that he and his family have undergone and are likely to undergo in future."

The notice also said that testing, manufacturing and the distribution of the vaccine should also be stopped immediately,
"failing which he has no other option except to take appropriate legal action against all the concerned parties,
who would be made responsible for all the costs and consequences".

The Pune-based Serum Institute has collaborated with Oxford University and pharmaceutical company Astra Zeneca
for making the COVID-19 vaccine, 'Covishield', and is conducting trials in India.

(December 1, 2020) DNA Data Storage Alliance Launches With Illumina, Microsoft, Twist Bioscience, Western Digital
Twist Bioscience Corporation, Illumina, and Western Digital announced an alliance last month with Microsoft to advance the field of DNA data storage.
Microsoft has already demonstrated a fully automated end-to-end system capable of storing and retrieving data from DNA in collaboration with the University of Washington.
“We have separately stored 1GB of data in DNA synthesized by Twist and recovered data from it,” added Karin Strauss, senior principal research manager at Microsoft
in the Alliance announcement. Synthetic DNA is preferable because it is easier to handle and store.
“A key component of a DNA data storage system is its ability to read back the digital information when needed,”
said Alex Aravanis, chief technology officer at Illumina in the same statement.

(November 30, 2020) DeepMind AI breaks through decades-old protein folding puzzle
DeepMind, with its AlphaFold project, took home the top prize in 2018 as a first-time entrant.
The AI program was able to predict the most accurate final shape, from scratch, for 25 of the contest’s 43 proteins.
This year, they returned with the updated AlphaFold 2 — posting a median similarity score of 92.4,
which judges how well the AI’s predictions line up with the known structures of all of CASP’s protein targets.
Two-thirds of the scores, known as a global distance test, were over 90.
This means the models were only off by about the width of a single atom, according to DeepMind.
AlphaFold previously set an accuracy record in 2018, but it was unable to break a median score of 60.
“AlphaFold is a once in a generation advance, predicting protein structures
with incredible speed and precision,” said Arthur Levinson, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Calico, a subsidiary of Alphabet akin to Google and DeepMind.

Fake election results in Nevada, also! https://t.co/l8MDOSlqQ7

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 1, 2020

(November 29, 2020) Saudi Pharma in Talks With Germany’s CureVac for Covid Shot
Saudi Pharmaceutical Industries and Medical Appliances Corp. signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding
with German biotech company CureVac NV to provide a Covid-19 vaccine in Saudi Arabia.
The MoU includes the possibility of extending the supply and distribution rights
in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman.

(December 3, 2020) Coronavirus vaccine: Pfizer given protection from legal action by UK government
The UK government has granted pharmaceutical giant Pfizer a legal indemnity protecting it from being sued,
enabling its coronavirus vaccine to be rolled out across the country as early as next week.
The Department of Health and Social Care has confirmed the company has been given an indemnity
protecting it from legal action as a result of any problems with the vaccine.
Ministers have also changed the law in recent weeks to give new protections to companies such as Pfizer,
giving them immunity from being sued by patients in the event of any complications.

(December 4, 2020) CDC Quietly Adjusted Covid Death Data, Shows Higher Relative Toll on Black, Hispanic People
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has quietly revised
its estimates for the disproportionately deadly toll that Covid-19 is taking on communities of color.
After adjusting for age, the CDC now says Hispanic and Black Americans
are shown to die at a rate of almost three times that of White Americans.
The nation's top health agency revised the analysis after Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.,
called on the CDC to adjust the data by age.

(December 2, 2020) Drugmaker Merck divests stake in vaccine-maker Moderna
U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co said on Wednesday it has sold its equity investment in Moderna Inc,
after benefiting from a surge in the stock price of the vaccine developer this year.
Merck did not disclose the details of the sale proceeds,
but said it expects to record a small gain from the sale in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Moderna's shares have risen more than seven-fold this year,
valuing the company at US$55.80 billion as of Tuesday's closing price.

(December 3, 2020) Keneka Eurogentec Joins Inovio’s Global Mfg. Consortium
Inovio, a biotechnology company focused on bringing to market precisely designed DNA medicines
to treat and protect people from infectious diseases and cancer, has executed an agreement with Kaneka Eurogentec S.A.,
an affiliate of Kaneka Corporation, for Eurogentec to manufacture Inovio's Covid-19 vaccine candidate INO-4800
at their industry-leading GMP plasmid production scales. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Kaneka Eurogentec joins existing partners Thermo Fisher Scientific, Richter-Helm BioLogics and Ology Biosciences in Inovio's global manufacturing consortium.
The INNOVATE(Inovio INO-4800 Vaccine Trial for Efficacy) trial will be funded by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)
Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND)
in coordination with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs (OASD (HA)) and the Defense Health Agency (DHA).