Back to school, back to lockdown?

The NPC Healthbiz Weekly has launched. It's your weekly briefing on topics pertinent to healthcare marketers and executives. From Chronicle Companies, organizers of the 14th National Pharmaceutical Congress, which begins Oct. 21. More info at pharmacongress.info

⇒ Issue #110 (In numerology, 110 implies a useful outlet for your creativity and talents.)
⇒ Confirmed Covid cases in Canada as of 09/16: 140,900*

⇒ Confirmed Covid fatalities in Canada as of 09/16: 9,293*
⇒ Worldwide Covid cases as of 09/16: 29,607,590*
⇒ Worldwide Covid fatalities as of 09/16: 935,871*

Sept. 16, 2020—Welcome to hump day, Curveflatteners. While you have all done great work getting per-day cases down through the year and improving everyone's safety, this is not a time for us to rest on our laurels. This week has seen some very good news, and some less good news in Covid-19-land. With children around the world, including here in Canada, heading back to school for the fall session there is a risk we could see a return to the per-day case increases we saw in March.

First, the good news. On Friday, Sept. 11, Canada reported no new deaths from Covid-19. We haven't had a day without at least one new death from the disease since March 15, reports CBS News. 

The less-good news is the world seems to be into its second wave of Covid-19. Maclean's reports that as of Sunday, Sept. 13, Canada's seven-day rolling average was 700 new cases each day, which is nearly double the rate from a month ago. Today we had nearly 1,400 new cases. The magazine also reports that there has been a surge of parent interest in having their children take classes online, which in some school districts has caused a delay in the start of remote classes as administrators scramble to hire more online teachers. The article lists several websites that have been launched to track what schools have had outbreaks.

In the U.K., the concern around education is that there is not sufficient Covid-19 testing infrastructure in place, reports The Guardian. The concern is that without quick and accurate testing, the whole education system will be at risk of “grinding to a halt” when staff and students are forced to stay home following a suspected case.

COVID CHRONICLE 09/16/2020

• A group of researchers from the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center in Dallas, Tx, suggest that the elevated severity of Covid-19 in obese and diabetic patients—who the researchers say typically recover better from respiratory illness—may be due to interactions between the virus and existing bacterial conditions through angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Dysregulation of ACE2 can impair other barriers in the body, such as in the gut, making them more permeable to harmful bacteria. 
• Researchers studying the structure of the Covid-19 virus, as well as two related viruses—SARS-CoV, which caused an outbreak of SARS in 2003, and MERS-CoV, the cause of a 2012 outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome—believe they have identified a potential path to developing an antiviral medication that would be effective on all three diseases. They have identified an enzyme involved in the viruses entering host cells, known as the papainlike protease or PLPro, and believe it may be possible to create an agent that would re-shape the enzyme in a way that would disable its ability to allow the virus to penetrate cell membranes.
  
• In the 'it is an ill wind that blows no-one any good' file, researchers from Dalhousie University in Halifax believe the aggressive immune response the body raises against Covid-19 can be channeled into fighting cancer.
  “We have figured out how to trick your coronavirus-specific T cells to think that your cancer is infected by the virus,” said Dr. Shashi Gujar, a scientist with the Department of Pathology at the university, in a press release. “The key is to do this without using the virus or actually causing the real infection.” 

STORIES CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAY

The Canadian Dermatology Association's Women in Dermatology Virtual Meeting was this past weekend and was a great series of valuable presentations. A number of the Chronicle team, including myself, will be preparing news articles about the meeting.

TONIGHT I AM WATCHING

Crash Course Linguistics, Episode 1: What is Linguistics? The latest series from the brilliant educational team at Crash Course, their new program on linguistics should be a fun exploration of the structure of language from phonemes to grammar to usage. Crash Course are now veterans of making complex topics accessible and interesting.

LATER I AM EATING

I am going to try something a bit different with my pasta. My plan is to fry in butter some chopped button mushrooms with garlic and textured vegetable protein, and use that as the sauce. I am still deciding on spices, though. Do I aim for Asian with Chinese five-spice, or go for black pepper and smoked paprika? Decisions, decisions.

LOOKING FORWARD TO THE REST OF THE WEEK

Please make use of the comments section at the Daily CurveFlattener, to let us know what you think. Have a safe and enjoyable weekend in late summer. My colleague, Assistant Editor Kylie Rebernik, will be compiling your need-to-know Covid-19 news for Thursday.

The NPC Podcast is back for another season. The organizers of the National Pharmaceutical Congress are proud to release our new weekly podcast series, hosted by Peter Brenders. Peter's guest this week is Lisa Mullett of Sunovion. Listen here now, or download the episode and play it at your convenience. The NPC Podcast is presented in cooperation with Impres Pharma