Scientists Go Full-Speed Ahead Testing Antiviral Drug That Offers Hope As Coronavirus Treatment

The New York Times: China Begins Testing An Antiviral Drug In Coronavirus Patients
China is forging ahead in the search for treatments for people sickened by the new coronavirus that has infected more than 28,000 people in a countrywide epidemic, killed more than 500 and seeded smaller outbreaks in 24 other nations. The need is urgent: There are no approved treatments for illnesses caused by coronaviruses. On Thursday, China began enrolling patients in a clinical trial of remdesivir, an antiviral medicine made by Gilead, the American pharmaceutical giant. (Grady, 2/6)

The Associated Press: Experts Scramble, But New Virus Vaccine May Not Come In Time
The flu-like virus that exploded from China has researchers worldwide once again scrambling to find a vaccine against a surprise health threat, with no guarantee one will arrive in time. Just days after Chinese scientists shared the genetic map of the culprit coronavirus, researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health had engineered a possible key ingredient for a vaccine they hope to begin testing by April. (Neergaard, 2/6)

Stat: In Coronavirus Vaccine, Outbreak Expert Sees ‘Hardest Problem’ Of His Career
As China struggles to contain an epidemic caused by a new coronavirus, science is racing to develop vaccines to blunt the outbreak’s impact. Central to the effort is CEPI — the Oslo, Norway-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations — a global partnership created to spearhead development of vaccines in just this type of emergency. Two weeks after China announced on Jan. 7 that a new coronavirus had ignited a fast-growing outbreak of pneumonia cases in the city of Wuhan, CEPI announced funding for three efforts to develop a vaccine to protect against the virus, currently known as 2019-nCoV. A week later, it added a fourth. (Branswell, 2/6)

The Wall Street Journal: World Health Authorities Warn Virus Hasn’t Peaked After China’s Deadliest Day
Separately, Singapore—home to the second-largest number of cases outside mainland China—reported two new infections, including one with no apparent link to China. The city-state warned the public to be “prepared for the possibility of new infection clusters involving locals within the community,” and that future cases might not arise from recent travel to China or contact with travelers from that country. (Lin and Woo, 2/6)

The New York Times: W.H.O. Fights A Pandemic Besides Coronavirus: An ‘Infodemic’
With the threat of the coronavirus growing, Aleksandra Kuzmanovic sat at her computer in Geneva on Monday and sent out an important public health email. She works for the World Health Organization and her aim was to assess and stop a global spread — not of the dangerous virus but of hazardous false information. She wanted to halt what her colleagues at the health agency are calling an “infodemic.” (Richtel, 2/6)

MPR: Don't Drink Bleach: 4 Myths About Coronavirus And How To Spot Them
Disinformation about the coronavirus is spreading online just as quickly as it is spreading in real life.Take a video posted to social media app TikTok showing a man claiming to have the blood of “patient zero.” According to The Associated Press, the video was satire but nevertheless circulated widely, contributing to rumors, confusion and fear around the virus, also known as nCoV-2019. The virus has killed more than 500 people in China. (Richert, 2/6)

The Hill: Reddit Enlists Users To Combat Coronavirus Misinformation
Reddit is encouraging its users to combat misinformation about the coronavirus on its platform, prompting medical experts to take matters into their own hands. The unpaid curators of the popular website’s largest coronavirus-related discussion groups, the r/coronavirus and r/china_flu “subreddits,” are working overtime to ensure verified information rises to the top of the platform. Reddit’s leadership is encouraging those users to take the lead. (Birnbaum and Mills Rodrigo, 2/7)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Live Updates: Death Of Doctor Li Wenliang Unleashes Fury In China; More Trouble For Cruise Ship Passengers
Chinese researchers said they had found evidence linking the spread of coronavirus to the pangolin, a mammal illegally trafficked in huge numbers for the supposedly healing qualities of its scales and meat. (Denyer and Crawshaw, 2/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Scientists Link China Coronavirus To Intersection Of Humans And Wildlife
Scientists tracking how the deadly new coronavirus leapt from animals to humans said the likely source of the infection is bats, underscoring the health risks associated with humans’ increasing push into the habitats of wild animals. The 2019 novel coronavirus marks the third leap of its kind in 20 years following the SARS virus, which moved from bats to a mammal called a civet and then to humans beginning in 2002, and the Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, which was transmitted from camels in 2012. (Camero, 2/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Plagues From The Animal Kingdom
Earlier this week, the still-rising death toll in mainland China from the coronavirus surpassed the 349 fatalities recorded during the 2003 SARS epidemic. Although both viruses are believed to have originated in bats, they don’t behave in the same way. SARS spread slowly, but its mortality rate was 9.6%, compared with about 2% for the swift-moving coronavirus. Statistics tell only one part of the story, however. Advances in the genetic sequencing of diseases have revealed that a vast hinterland of growth and adaptation precedes the appearance of a new disease. Cancer, for example, predates human beings themselves: Last year scientists announced that they had discovered traces of bone cancer in the fossil of a 240-million-year-old shell-less turtle from the Triassic period. (Foreman, 2/6)