re: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) ***W.H.O. DECLARES A GLOBAL PANDEMIC***

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50 million doses being produced.

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Mylan expects to be in a position to begin supplying product by mid-April, and with the active pharmaceutical ingredient that we currently have available, will be able to ramp up manufacturing to provide 50 million tablets to potentially treat a total of more than 1.5 million patients. The potential use of this medicine for COVID-19 related treatment is pending additional FDA and other regulatory body guidance.

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It'll be interesting to see how the production goes with the language of "ramp up." Hopefully they can produce enough quickly to treat a good number of people.

Edit: Here is another 6 million tablets to be donated by March 31.

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“We are committed to helping to supply as many tablets as possible as demand for this treatment accelerates at no cost,” said Brendan O’Grady, Teva Executive Vice President, North America Commercial. “Immediately upon learning of the potential benefit of hyroxychloroquine, Teva began to assess supply and to urgently acquire additional ingredients to make more product while arranging for all of what we had to be distributed immediately.”

Additional production of hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets is also being assessed and subsequently ramped up with materials that are being sent to Teva from our ingredient supplier. Teva will ship 6 Million tablets through wholesalers to hospitals by March 31, and more than 10 Million within a month.

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That’s a really really encouraging sign

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The difference now is purely, 100% politics. That’s it.

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The reaction here is political? Or everywhere? Is Italy's reaction political? South Korea? And if so, what is the motivation?

I said a few hundred pages ago that this would be an excellent bioterrorism weapon because it is destabilizing many Western democracies. But got downvoted to hell. I could totally see China using this to destabilize other countries, and the Chinese economy emerging stronger on the other side. But I don't see how this benefits Italy or Iran or France.

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Until there’s a vaccine, it’ll be around.

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Theres vaccines for the seasonal flu and it still whips arse. China flu is here to stay, not all that deadly, and there ain't shite we can do about it. Let's get back to doing life like normal.

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I'd rather worry about the economy later than half-arse precautions and risk this shite lingering for a year or more.

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Tell that to the millions who were laid off over the last two weeks who are currently out of a job.

Have the released the ages of the 14 people that died in LA? Or in the country as a whole? Seems we’re seeing more young people than before being hospitalized.

Woke up and my cough is pretty much gone. I had it for 8 days total.

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The economy at some point has to take the lead over the egghead doctors. Sorry.

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That point is coming in a couple of weeks when our testing capacity allows us to start relaxing the most stringent rules. The new high-speed tests from Roche and Abbott Labs are literally game-changers.

For example, Roche got FDA approval this week for its new test that is ten times faster than previous tests. A single Roche cobas 8800 machine can process 4000 tests per day. For perspective, so far, about 2000 Louisiana residents have been tested total.

Now, I don't know if there is a cobas 8800 machine in Louisiana, or if the state health lab is buying one, but I would certainly hope so.

Roche is making 400,000 test kits each week for their machines, and Abbott is making 1,000,000. And all of the traditional lab tests are increasing as well.

Here's what will happen in a couple of weeks:

Johnny feels like he has a fever, so he goes through a drive-thru and gets tested and stays home that day. He finds out that night that he's positive. The next day, his co-workers and everyone in his family get tested. Johnny also thinks about anyone he was in contact with the prior two days. Since Jimmy cut his hair the day before, Jimmy is notified and also gets tested.

In short, the virus does not spread, because people are tested, find out that they are positive, and quarantine before they infect others.

When that can happen, everyone doesn't have to stay home. Now, you and I still don't get to go to a Pelicans game, because that invites large-scale, untraceable spread. We can't do that until the virus is basically eliminated.
But we can start eating in restaurants again.

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Abbott Labs

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This was awesome news to get from our company. I saw in the release right now they're developing 150,000 tests and anticipate 1 million a week by the end of the month. Hopefully they get out and in the hands of the field for use quickly.