Pandemic 2020

Dr.Amber Trichome said:

Best way I can describe the scene at my job is like the infrastructure to the building is cracking and no one has a plan to fix it. Everyday more and more people are out and no one is communicating anything about the huge gaps of loss and how to manage any of it. One colleague came back today after 11 days quarantine Covid positive. I was so excited to see her and asked how she was doing . She looked terrible and said she was really tired and has a headache . A couple hours later I heard she went home. It’s weird because it’s like people don’t want to admit who has Covid and is out . Like it’s some kind of hush thing so we are left guessing why and when are they coming back. It is beyond weird and management has no plan and pretending like the earth ain’t spitting up under our feet.

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Looks like a failure of leadership to me, disposable people, they wipe their asses with people and expect to dispose of them after this shit is over. If you win in Georgia there might be increased employment for services if people end up with single payer healthcare, there will be a large pent up demand and the health issues that come with covid recovery will be an issue moving forward. The great thing about healthcare, is you can get a decent job nearly anywhere and with an aging demographic trade will grow. It's also a human business, automation has an impact as does technology, but it's not so great at compassion or providing actual care, it hard to make a machine care.

DIY-HP-LED said:

It appears Ben Carson got antibody treatment, or said Chris Hayes tonight and suggested Donald, friends are getting it, the elites I guess. I wonder if Joe got covid would he get antibodies too, or would the drug companies have to give it to him directly?

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schuylaar said:

Herman Cain dies from coronavirus

Herman Cain, a onetime Republican presidential candidate and former CEO of Godfather's Pizza, has died from coronavirus, according to an obituary sent from his verified Twitter account and Newsmax, where he was launching a television show.

www.cnn.com

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that was posted earlier.

Well this looks like some more good news about covid, in a string of good news, with 3 vaccines using 2 different methods appearing to be effective and safe. Antibody therapeutics are being approved and supportive therapies and treatment protocols have lowered the case mortality rate. We are in the pay off period of a lot of science and a lot of effort.

Now if we can just stop people from killing each other with fucking stupidity, a war on stupidity is required now, like the economy, it too is linked to the pandemic.
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Good COVID News: None of the SARS-CoV-2 Genetic Mutations Appear to Increase Transmissibility

None of the mutations currently documented in the SARS-CoV-2 virus appear to increase its transmissibility in humans, according to a study led by University College London researchers.

The analysis of virus genomes from over 46,000 people with COVID-19 from 99 countries is published today (November 25, 2020) in Nature Communications.

First and corresponding author Dr. Lucy van Dorp (UCL Genetics Institute) said: “The number of SARS-CoV-2 genomes being generated for scientific research is staggering. We realized early on in the pandemic that we needed new approaches to analyze enormous amounts of data in close to real time to flag new mutations in the virus that could affect its transmission or symptom severity.

“Fortunately, we found that none of these mutations are making COVID-19 spread more rapidly, but we need to remain vigilant and continue monitoring new mutations, particularly as vaccines get rolled out.”

Coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2 are a type of RNA virus, which can all develop mutations in three different ways: by mistake from copying errors during viral replication, through interactions with other viruses infecting the same cell (recombination or reassortment), or they can be induced by host RNA modification systems which are part of host immunity (e.g. a person’s own immune system).

Most mutations are neutral, while others can be advantageous or detrimental to the virus. Both neutral and advantageous mutations can become more common as they get passed down to descendant viruses.

The research team from UCL, Cirad and the Université de la Réunion, and the University of Oxford, analyzed a global dataset of virus genomes from 46,723 people with COVID-19, collected up until the end of July 2020.

The researchers have so far identified 12,706 mutations in SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19. For 398 of the mutations, there is strong evidence that they have occurred repeatedly and independently. Of those, the researchers honed in on 185 mutations which have occurred at least three times independently during the course of the pandemic.

To test if the mutations increase transmission of the virus, the researchers modeled the virus’s evolutionary tree, and analyzed whether a particular mutation was becoming increasingly common within a given branch of the evolutionary tree — that is, testing whether, after a mutation first develops in a virus, descendants of that virus outperform closely-related SARS-CoV-2 viruses without that particular mutation.

The researchers found no evidence that any of the common mutations are increasing the virus’s transmissibility. Instead, they found most common mutations are neutral for the virus. This includes one mutation in the virus spike protein called D614G, which has been widely reported as being a common mutation that may make the virus more transmissible. The new evidence finds that this mutation is in fact not associated with significantly increasing transmission.

The researchers found that most of the common mutations appear to have been induced by the human immune system, rather than being the result of the virus adapting to its novel human host. This situation is in contrast with another analysis by the same team of what happened when SARS-CoV-2 later jumped from humans into farmed minks.

Dr. van Dorp said: “When we analyzed virus genomes sourced from mink, we were amazed to see the same mutation appearing over and again in different mink farms, despite those same mutations having rarely been observed in humans before.”

Lead author Professor Francois Balloux (UCL Genetics Institute) added: “We may well have missed this period of early adaptation of the virus in humans. We previously estimated SARS-CoV-2 jumped into humans in October or November 2019, but the first genomes we have date to the very end of December. By that time, viral mutations crucial for the transmissibility in humans may have emerged and become fixed, precluding us from studying them.”

It is only to be expected that a virus will mutate and eventually diverge into different lineages as it becomes more common in human populations, but this does not necessarily imply that any lineages will emerge that are more transmissible or harmful.

Dr. van Dorp said: “The virus seems well adapted to transmission among humans, and it may have already reached its fitness optimum in the human host by the time it was identified as a novel virus.”

The researchers caution that the imminent introduction of vaccines is likely to exert new selective pressures on the virus to escape recognition by the human immune system. This may lead to the emergence of vaccine-escape mutants. The team stressed that the computational framework they developed should prove useful for the timely identification of possible vaccine-escape mutations.

Professor Balloux concluded: “The news on the vaccine front looks great. The virus may well acquire vaccine-escape mutations in the future, but we’re confident we’ll be able to flag them up promptly, which would allow updating the vaccines in time if required.”

Reference: 25 November 2020, Nature Communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19818-2

The study was supported by the Newton Fund UK-China NSFC initiative and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

So Covid has entered my world pretty hard in the last couple of weeks. Several people that I work very closely with have it (as well as a handfull of those I don't share air with all day) and there are a couple more every day.

I feel much better about my decision to not attend Thanksgiving with my septuagenarian in-laws now. I think they were kind of pissed at first but they understand now.

Stay safe everybody and have a nice Thanksgiving.

COVID Vaccine Side Effects Include High Fever, Body Aches and Bad Headaches, Experts Say

As the world inches closer to effective COVID-19 vaccines becoming available, public health experts are warning that people should be prepared for the possibility that they could experience severe, but ultimately unharmful, side effects after being given the vaccines.

Vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer, both given in two doses approximately one month apart, could soon be approved for public use after data released from clinical trials showed that they may be up to 95 percent effective in providing immunity against the virus. While neither vaccine is believed to come with significant life-threatening side effects, experts are warning that those who receive the vaccines should be ready for unpleasant but temporary reactions.

"We really need to make patients aware that this is not going to be a walk in the park," Dr. Sandra Fryhofer of the American Medical Association said during a recent meeting of a group of experts who advise the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on vaccines, according to a Monday report from CNBC.

"They are going to know they had a vaccine," Fryhofer added. "They are probably not going to feel wonderful. But they've got to come back for that second dose."

In the Moderna vaccine trials, the only common "severe" side effect seen after the first dose was pain at the injection site, occurring in 2.7 percent of patients. After the second dose, the most common severe side effect was fatigue, which was seen in 9.7 percent of participants. Muscle aches or pains were experienced by 8.9 percent, while 5.2 had joint pain. Another 4.5 percent had headaches and 4.1 percent experienced pain at the injection site.

Luke Hutchison, a 43-year-old computational biologist who participated in the Moderna trials, told Science magazine that he endured an "unbearable" 102 degree fever after getting an injection of what he assumes was the vaccine, although he can't be certain because participants do not know whether they received a placebo instead.

"I started shaking. I had cold and hot rushes... I was sitting by the phone all night long thinking: 'Should I call 911?'" Hutchison said of his symptoms, which were gone after about 12 hours. "Nobody prepared me for the severity of this."

All vaccines come with a list of possible side effects, including rare but serious side effects. However, experts have long stressed that with modern vaccines it is not possible to contract the pathogen that one is being vaccinated against by taking the vaccine itself, while any side effects that do occur are nearly always short-lived and far less serious than the disease it provides protection against, even if they are unpleasant.

Detailed safety data from late stage trials of Pfizer's vaccine, developed in collaboration with the German company BioNTech, has not yet been released, but the companies said the vaccine does not present "any serious safety concerns." Initial data showed that fatigue and headaches were the most common side effects, both occurring in fewer than 4 percent of trial participants after the second dose.

Since both vaccines have the potential to result in severe but temporary side effects, possibly more often than other common vaccines like flu shots, some experts have urged doctors and public health officials to inform the public that effects like a temporary but high fever are possible, while taking care to counter those who would use the ultimately harmless side effects to promote anti-vaccination conspiracy theories.

"Public health professionals are going to have to have a story that gets out in front of [stories like Hutchison's]—that responds to the way that people are going to try to make that a story about vaccine injury," Bernice Hausman, a vaccine controversy expert at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, told Science.

Newsweek reached out to CDC for comment.

Why Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID Vaccine Could Be More Important Than Pfizer and Moderna's in Ending Pandemic

The COVID-19 vaccine being developed by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca with the University of Oxford could be key to curbing the pandemic in many low- and middle-income countries, despite its seemingly lower effectiveness compared to the other leading candidates, experts have said.

On Monday, AstraZeneca and Oxford announced interim data from its large Phase III trial indicated that its vaccine candidate is "effective at preventing COVID-19 and offers a high level of protection."

How effective is each vaccine?
The news follows announcements over the past month from U.S. companies Pfizer and Moderna, and the Russian Gamaleya Research Institute that their vaccine candidates have an efficacy of 95 percent, 95 percent and 92 percent respectively.

AstraZeneca and Oxford tested two different dose regimens in their study: one group were given a half dose followed by a full dose, while another were given two full doses.

In the latter group, the vaccine was found to have an efficacy of 62 percent, while in the former efficacy rose to around 90 percent.

When combining data from the two dosing regimens, Oxford and AstraZeneca said the vaccine is 70.4 percent effective—although we still have to wait for the conclusion of the study and publication of the results in a peer-reviewed scientific journal before the effectiveness of the jab can be fully assessed.

Despite the seemingly lower efficacy compared to the other leading candidates, the scientific community has welcomed the AstraZeneca-Oxford announcement given that the candidate appears to comfortably surpass the minimum threshold of 50 percent efficacy that is usually required by regulators.

In addition, the AstraZeneca-Oxford candidate appears to have some key advantages over its peers: it is much cheaper and easier to distribute.

What are AstraZeneca's advantages?
According to the developers, the vaccine also reduces virus transmission as well as illness—although this has yet to be confirmed. Most experts think that if a vaccine prevents illness it will also prevent transmission to a greater or lesser extent.

Scientists think that having several safe and effective vaccines is key to bringing the pandemic to an end, but the advantages of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine could mean it has a wider reach, even if it turns out to have slightly less efficacy.

"It's a really exciting day," chief investigator for the vaccine, Professor Andrew Pollard from Oxford, said at a press conference. "We have a vaccine for the world... It's effective, prevents hospitalization. It can be stored at fridge temperature and distributed through the normal system."

Dr. Colin Butter, from the University of Lincoln, in the U.K., said the vaccine offers a "clear pathway out of the present pandemic" and "advantages" over the Pfizer and Moderna candidates.

"Firstly, it requires only a conventional cold chain, used for many products by every surgery and pharmacy in the county," Butter said in a statement.

In comparison, the Pfizer and Moderna candidates need to be kept at ultracold temperatures, making them more difficult to transport and store.

"Secondly, although the manufacturers have not reported the number of doses presently available ... a reduced priming dose further reduces the actual requirement. Lastly, the trial provides evidence that the vaccine reduces not only clinical disease but also onwards transmission, giving the possibility of achieving head immunity."

Professor Stephen Evans from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said the fact that the vaccine can be stored in ordinary refrigerators is helpful in high-income countries, but is of "enormous importance for low-income countries," enabling more equitable access.

Which countries will get vaccines first?
AstraZeneca have said it will provide the vaccine to all nations on a not-for-profit basis for as long as the COVID outbreak is designated a pandemic. For developing nations, this deal will last indefinitely.

The pharmaceutical firm has said its jab will cost between $3 and $4 for a single dose under this approach, which is significantly less than what Pfizer and Moderna are currently charging for their candidates which are based on mRNA technology.

"It is unquestionably more good news for the COVID pandemic, and given its much lower price, this could be the vaccine that reaches more parts of the global community than the mRNA vaccines," Dr. Gillies O'Bryan-Tear from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, also in the U.K., said in a statement.

In fact, the AstraZeneca-Oxford accounts for more than 40 percent of the doses going to lower- and middle-income nations, according to deals tracked by London-based research firm Airfinity, Bloomberg reported.

Meanwhile, wealthier nations have already snapped up most of the initial supplies of the Pfizer and Moderna shots. The U.S. for example has ordered 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine contender, while Moderna has also committed to supply the country with another 100 million doses.

Lower- and middle-income nations—where most of the global population live—are also reliant on other vaccine candidates from the likes of Novavax Inc. and Johnson & Johnson. But AstraZeneca has said it has the capacity to manufacture around three billion doses in 2021—roughly a third of all the doses that have been committed by various developers.

"There's a lot riding on the Astra vaccine," Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, told Bloomberg. For lower-income countries, "it's huge."

The vaccine will also be produced in several countries around the world, including India and Brazil, which will help to fast-track its roll-out.

"This is a watershed moment for the world. To have an economically viable vaccine that is up to 90 percent effective, that can be stored at fridge temperature and distributed across the whole planet, gives us real hope of ending this terrible pandemic," Denis Mizne, CEO of the non-profit Lemann Foundation—which established the very first trial of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in São Paulo, Brazil—said in a statement.

They will be passing out a Nobel prize for medicine over covid, I wonder if some right wing loony will nominate Trump for it, Sweden is still on herd immunity I believe, I wonder what the fall out will be from that, with a vaccine less than 9 months from their outbreak and 11 months since it all began. Some one should have shit on their face over that, calling Dr Atlas

Let's put this one in the grave along with the victims.
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Top epidemiologist says Sweden has no signs of herd immunity curbing coronavirus
Sweden's top infectious disease expert said Tuesday that the country has not seen evidence of herd immunity slowing the spread of the coronavirus in the country.

“The issue of herd immunity is difficult,” Anders Tegnell, Sweden's state epidemiologist, said at a news briefing, according to Bloomberg News.

“We see no signs of immunity in the population that are slowing down the infection right now," Tegnell said.

Sweden has seen a resurgence of the virus in recent weeks, with the rate of new infections more than doubling from earlier this year.

The country has recorded roughly a quarter of a million confirmed COVID-19 cases, and about 6,500 deaths from the disease, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Some U.S. officials including Dr. Scott Atlas, a member of President Trump's coronavirus task force, have promoted a strategy of herd immunity despite repeated warnings from health experts that such a plan would be insufficient for controlling the spread of the virus or limiting deaths in the U.S.

Advocates of the idea have pointed to Sweden as an example, citing the country's unwillingness to implement lockdown measures inhibiting public life to stop the virus's spread.

Tegnell has fought back against those views, however, and in an interview last month pushed back against the idea that Sweden had pursued a strategy of herd immunity.


Covid-19 case surge forces Sweden to rethink strategy praised by U.S. conservatives
New measures command "both fear and respect," said Pady Cortinez, adding that she had stopped going out to bars and "did not hug."

STOCKHOLM — Sweden once found cheerleaders among conservative commentators and activists in the United States for its light-touch approach to the coronavirus pandemic.

But as the numbers of deaths and infections surge, Sweden's government has been forced to introduce much tougher regulations to prevent the virus from spreading.

Beginning Tuesday, the number of people who can gather in public will be reduced to eight from 50. Only eight diners per table will be allowed in restaurants.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven issued a stern warning on Sunday night as he explained the new rules.

"Tonight, in late November 2020, it is clear that it will be some time before we can return to normal," he told the nation in a televised address. "Many have neglected the advice during the autumn."

"All the things you would like to do, but that are not necessary: cancel, postpone," he added.

Dr. Karin Tegmark Wisell, chief physician at the Public Health Agency of Sweden's microbiology department, welcomed the new rules, which the government issued unilaterally.

"Large gatherings risk infection," she said Thursday, adding that limiting them was "a positive thing."

She said people had become tired of following the initial recommendations, "so we needed to take tougher measures."

The central government issued a recommendation to regional governments this month to make people avoid public gatherings like concerts, theater performances and lectures.

It also banned the serving of alcohol after 10 p.m. Special local recommendations, including avoiding public transportation and shops, are also in place across much of the country.

Unlike many other European countries, including its Scandinavian neighbors, where strict rules and lockdowns were introduced, Sweden had previously relied on recommendations that people wash their hands, socially distance and work from home.

But the number of cases started to rise significantly late last month, a trend that has continued into November. Almost 6,406 people have died from the virus, and almost 208,295 cases have been recorded, according to John Hopkins University. As a result, the government has been forced to act.

"It is very frustrating and worrying to hear about the increasing number of sick and dead people," said Mats Jerresten, 75, adding that the new rules will make little difference to him, as he has been limiting his time in public since March.

However, he said, he will have to wait even longer to see his 12 grandchildren.

For Pady Cortinez, a communications project manager, the new measures command "both fear and respect."

"You just try to adapt to the situation," said Cortinez, 48, adding that she had stopped going out to bars and "did not hug."

As numbers rise, medical facilities, like Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden's capital, Stockholm, are also having to prepare.

The CEO, Dr. Björn Zoëga, said Thursday that elective surgery and other procedures had been canceled but that other acute operations for cancer or cardiac patients would continue.

His colleague Dr. Björn Persson, the head of intensive care and thoracic surgery, added that the hospital had raised its capacity in case there was a spike in patients but that it was not full.

Sweden "was not prepared like other societies" for the rapid spread of the disease this year, Zoëga said.

"This came fast," he said, adding that most of the government's decisions "have been quite good."

His opinion was not shared by Dr. Cecilia Söderberg-Nauclér, a physician and professor at the Karolinska Institute, who said last week that health authorities "gave up" very early on

"They saw that the virus was entering Sweden. We didn't have test capacity, so we couldn't do testing and contact tracing, and they didn't get that up to speed. So they kind of resigned," she said.

"There were many things that we said they should do that they didn't, and it just took off," she said, adding that she disagreed with the government's claim that it was listening to the scientists.

Long-term Covid-19 patients remained a concern because they were not being monitored properly, which meant it was difficult to learn the best way to treat and rehabilitate them, she said.

Such patients "were basically put at risk at an unacceptable level during the spring" and were not being treated properly now, she said.

Calling the situation "concerning," she said, "We don't know how they are going to recover, because we don't know enough about this disease at the present time."

However, all were hopeful that a vaccine would be available soon. But Persson warned that there needed to be a balance "between rushing the vaccine and safety."

CunningCanuk said:

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He is so cute!

Dr.Amber Trichome said:

He is so cute!

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Perfect mascot for the democrats, an ass! I wanna see the GOP change from an elephant to a pig.

Some one should make him talk online, like a Mr. Ed the talking horse and use him to troll Trumpers!

In a 5-4 ruling, Supreme Court sides with religious groups in a dispute over Covid-19 restrictions in New York

CunningCanuk said:

In a 5-4 ruling, Supreme Court sides with religious groups in a dispute over Covid-19 restrictions in New York

In a 5-4 ruling, Supreme Court sides with religious groups in a dispute over Covid-19 restrictions in New York

In a 5-4 ruling, the US Supreme Court sided with religious organizations in a dispute over Covid-19 restrictions put in place by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo limiting the number of people attending religious services.

www.cnn.com

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So much for all the conspiracy theories about what powers the government got during 9/11.

Don't forget to kiss grandma during your visit on Thanksgiving you fucking idiots. Yep many kids are giving thanks to their parents for the values they taught them, or forgot to.
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One expert predicts daily Covid deaths will double in just a matter of days
• Physician fears 'the darkest days in modern American medical history' are coming

I have always wanted to avoid my family during the Holidays and thanks to the Trump virus I have the perfect excuse

Thanks Donald

Herb & Suds said:

I have always wanted to avoid my family during the Holidays and thanks to the Trump virus I have the perfect excuse

Thanks Donald

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There may be more relief than pining, nobody should be traveling in the shit WTF is wrong with these people, Joe would have restricted air travel for a week. Lead, let them whine, you are right and they are wrong, end of argument.

So much for praising Sweden's approach to herd immunity.

FDA clears a ‘new generation’ of Covid antibody test designed to tell how well someone is protected against the virus

KEY POINTS

• The FDA authorized one of the first Covid-19 tests designed to measure the specific amount of antibodies produced by the body’s immune system after infection or vaccination.
• Unlike many previously authorized Covid antibody tests that read a positive or negative, the new test, called COVID-SeroKlir, measures the specific levels of Covid-19 neutralizing antibodies.
• Kantaro Biosciences said the test produces accurate positive results 98.8% of the time and accurate negative results 99.6% of the time.

The FDA on Wednesday authorized one of the first Covid-19 tests that measures the amount of neutralizing antibodies produced by the body’s immune system after exposure to the virus — a “new generation” of coronavirus test that is designed to tell how well someone is protected against infection.

A person’s immune system produces antibodies to combat viruses and other foreign pathogens that invade the body. When it comes to Covid-19, it remains unclear how much protection antibodies provide and how long that might last, but this test could help researchers better understand the role of Covid antibodies in immune protection.

Unlike many previously authorized antibody tests that can tell if you’ve had the virus or not, the COVID-SeroKlir test measures your specific levels of Covid-19 neutralizing antibodies. The Food and Drug Administration has previously authorized some tests that estimate the level of antibodies, but not specifically for neutralizing antibodies.

The FDA cautioned that much remains unknown about the nature of Covid-19 neutralizing antibodies in humans and that a high level of antibodies does not necessarily guarantee immunity against the virus.

But the new test is important because it can be used by researchers to further study the relationship between Covid-19 antibodies and protection against the virus. That’s relevant for protection generated by both previous Covid-19 exposure and by a vaccine, once one is distributed, which could be next month in the U.S.

The test was developed by Kantaro Biosciences, a joint venture between the Mount Sinai Health System and Renalytix, a diagnostics start-up that went public earlier this year. Through a partnership with research and development firm Bio-Techne, which has a market cap of $11.7 billion, the companies are now manufacturing about 10 million tests per month, Mount Sinai’s chief commercial innovation officer, Erik Lium, said in a phone interview.

“It’s going to broadly enable studies of immunity and the relationship between immunity and the level of antibodies that an individual has,” Lium said, adding that the technology is already being used in studies. “A second use of this test is in vaccination.”

He said the test could be used to determine who already has high levels of neutralizing antibodies due to previous exposure, and may not immediately need the vaccine. Lium said he’d “defer to public health officials” on decisions of how to allocate the limited doses, but added that it would “not be unreasonable to focus efforts on those who have no antibodies to Covid-19.”

Lium said it also gives patients and clinicians more information about immunity to the virus whether someone recovers from an infection or gets immunized. For example, he said, it could be used to evaluate the effect of a vaccine and whether it provoked a robust immune response in someone.

“As we understand the relationship between the amount of antibodies that an individual has to these key components of the virus and immunity, a test like this can really start to provide peace of mind once we understand that relationship in the coming months,” he said.

Kantaro said the test has demonstrated 98.8% sensitivity and 99.6% specificity for detecting Covid-19 antibodies against two virus antigens, the full-length spike protein and its receptor-binding domain, two key elements of this virus. That means 98.8% of all positive diagnoses are accurate and 99.6% of all negative diagnoses are correct.

“We think that our test is really one of the first in a new generation of antibody tests that provide much more meaningful information to individuals and clinicians on whether an individual’s been infected and developed an immune response,” Lium said, “and then what’s the level of antibodies that they have.”

The test uses a blood sample and must be processed in a clinical laboratory, but it does not require any proprietary equipment, Kantaro said. It received a CE mark, which indicates approval by European regulators, in October and is in use in the European Union.

“With this EUA [emergency use authorization] in hand, we are ready to immediately supply this best-in-class serologic assay to clinicians across the U.S.,” Chuck Kummeth, CEO of Bio-Techne, said in a statement. “We anticipate that COVID-SeroKlir will play an increasingly important role in the decision making of healthcare providers and policymakers and are prepared to scale up to meet additional demand.”