IBM’s Watson Leading the Super Computer Charge on COVID-19

Posted on March 25, 2020March 25, 2020 by Denise Simon

Most missed the Trump White House announcement that on March 11th, the leaders of several tech companies met with the Trump team to discuss ways that super computers can process and speed up solutions for eradicating COVID-19 with treatment discoveries. On tap for the meeting, Facebook, Alphabet, Amazon, Twitter, Apple and Microsoft. The White House Chief Technology Officer, Michael Kratsios also enlisted the help of NASA, IBM, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US Department of Energy, Argonne National Lab, Sandia National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Los Alamos National Laboratory, The National Science Foundation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and several others.

The COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium will bring significant computing power, 16 systems with over 330 petaflops, 775,000 CPU cores, and 34,000 GPUs to help researchers understand COVID-19 potential treatments and cures. “These high-performance computing systems allow researchers to run very large numbers of calculations in epidemiology, bioinformatics, and molecular modeling,” Dario Gil, director of IBM Research said in the announcement. “These experiments would take years to complete if worked by hand, or months if handled on slower, traditional computing platforms.”

“Since the start of COVID-19 pandemic we have been working closely with governments in the US and worldwide to find all available options to put our technology and expertise to work to help organizations be resilient and adapt to the consequences of the pandemic, and to accelerate the process of discovery and enable the scientific and medical community to develop treatments and ultimately a cure,” Gil said.

Powerful supercomputer and training program, IBM’s Summit, previously enabled researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee to screen nearly 8,000 compounds to uncover, which are most likely to bind to the main “spike” of the coronavirus, making it unable to reproduce and infect other cells.

The organizations were able to recommend 77 promising small-molecule drug compounds that could be experimentally tested. IBM will continue to work with different partners to evaluate proposals and provide access to supercomputing capacity to tackle to global pandemic.

“I am proud to be working with my IBM colleagues and the extended scientific community to help kick-start this effort. What began just two days ago with one conversation with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has solidified quickly into an unprecedented effort that can make a real difference,” Gil stressed.

***

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee (one member of the consortium) is using its supercomputers to look for compounds already on the market that might foil the virus.

Oak Ridge’s approach involves what’s called computational structure-based drug discovery. Basically, that means they use a computer to calculate how drugs might work against germs like viruses.

source

“We could get these calculations done in one day on the supercomputer, whereas a normal computer, it would take a month,” says Jeremy Smith, director of the Center for Molecular biophysics at Oak Ridge.

To run the calculations, you need to know the physical properties of the proteins a virus makes — what they’re made of and what their shape is.

One key viral protein of the coronavirus is called the spike protein. Information about what it looks like came out in mid-January, so Smith asked people in his lab if they wanted to start looking through databases of existing drugs that would block it.

***

Summit, IBM’s supercomputer equipped with the “brain of AI,” ran thousands of simulations to analyze which drug compounds might effectively stop the virus from infecting host cells.

The supercomputer identified 77 of them. It’s a promising step toward creating the most effective treatment.

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory published their findings in the journal ChemRxiv.

Summit was built to solve the world’s problems

Summit was commissioned by the US Department of Energy in 2014 for the purpose it’s serving now — solving the world’s problems.

It’s got the power of 200 petaflops, which means it has the computing speed of 200 quadrillion calculations per second, aka: It’s 1 million times more powerful than the fastest laptop.

Summit, the world’s most powerful supercomputer, modeled how different drug compounds might prevent the coronavirus from spreading to other cells.

At its station in Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, Summit has identified patterns in cellular systems that precede Alzheimer’s, analyzed genes that contribute to traits like opioid addiction and predicted extreme weather based on climate simulations.

How Summit fights coronavirus

Viruses infect host cells by injecting them with a “spike” of genetic material. Summit’s job is to find drug compounds that could bind to that spike and potentially stop the spread.

Here’s a list of articles explaining the coronavirus pandemic

Oak Ridge researcher Micholas Smith created a model of the coronavirus spike based on research published in January. With Summit, he simulated how the atoms and particles in the viral protein would react to different compounds.

The supercomputer ran simulations of over 8,000 compounds that could bind to the spike protein of the virus, which could limit its ability to spread to host cells. Summit identified 77 of them and ranked them based on how likely they were to bind to the spike.

What’s next

The team will run the simulations on Summit again, using a more accurate model of the coronavirus’ spike that was published this month.

More here.

Hat tip to the Trump White House

$2T Stimulus COVID Recovery Must Exclude Chinese Corps

Posted on March 25, 2020March 25, 2020 by Denise Simon

So, Congress appears to have a deal for an estimated $2 trillion to backstop the economy, jobs and small to large domestic companies.

Waldorf Astoria, most expensive hotel in the world: in ... source
Enter Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz:

Washington, D.C. — Congressman Matt Gaetz (FL-01) introduced legislation today to prevent any funds appropriated by the U.S. Congress, including coronavirus relief funds, from being distributed to businesses owned by the Chinese government. The “No CHINA (Chinese Handouts In National Assistance) Act” would ensure that American taxpayer dollars used in any COVID-19 funding package do not support the communist regime in China, or businesses owned by the Chinese government.

China’s inaction, distortion of data, and outright lies have exacerbated the global coronavirus epidemic, and helped fuel its rapid global spread. Under the “No CHINA Act,” companies owned by the Chinese government will not receive any American taxpayer dollars from Congressional aid packages.

“Every single American worker displaced by COVID19 should be fully compensated, before one nickel from our treasury goes to Chinese-owned corporations operating here in the United States. Full stop.

“The global coronavirus pandemic has been exacerbated by the Chinese government’s malicious misinformation and propaganda campaign against the United States and its citizens. Allowing American taxpayers’ money to go to companies owned by the Communist Chinese government is antithetical to our ‘America First’ agenda.

“I’m proud to introduce the “No CHINA Act” today, which prevents appropriated money, including coronavirus relief funds, from being disbursed to businesses owned by the Chinese government. Chinese corporations operating in America must not be eligible for the upcoming trillion-dollar bailout, now or ever,” Congressman Gaetz said. Click here for text of his proposed legislation.

This is an excellent matter to consider, while others in Congress are proposing legislation beyond condemnation and investigation in to China’s virus activities that include reparations for the financial damage to the United States and even demanding that China forgive the U.S. debt held by China estimated at $1.8 trillion.

But, let’s look deeper into what the Communist Chinese Party/Beijing actually owns in the United States for context and owned by Chinese oligarchs. By the way, there is precedence for seizing real property. We did so with the real estate owned in the United States by Iran.

AMC Theaters to launch On Demand movie service – HD Report

AMC Theaters.

Smithfield Foods

Legendary Entertainment Group

Haier/ GE

Waldorf Astoria Hotel

Strategic Hotels and Resorts (Ritz Carton/Four Seasons)

Riot Games

Ingram Micro (distributes everything from Apple’s iPhone to Cisco’s network equipment)

Motorola Lenovo

As of 2017, Chinese conglomerates in New York City receiving 46% of total Chinese investment, the San Francisco Bay Area getting 15%, Los Angeles 7%, Chicago 5% and Seattle 2% in real estate. New York City, the main recipient of Chinese investment into commercial real estate, was home to many of the largest deals of the year. Of the ten largest transactions in 2016, half were in Manhattan and 63% of those deals were in office buildings. More here.

*** Beyond the Hunter Biden and father/ presidential candidate Joe Biden deals with China, still being investigated…..

The American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation’s China Global Investment Tracker follows large Chinese investments, excluding bonds, around the world.

The leading recipient of these kinds of investments is the United States, which received over $180 billion from January 2005 through December 2019. Chinese investment in 2019, though, barely exceeded $3 billion. The US has passed legislation limiting Chinese access to not only technology but also personal data, so the 2017 spending level of $25 billion will be difficult to regain.

The deals described in the tracker are worth $100 million or more. More important, they are voluntary transactions that let Americans make their own choices. Chinese purchases benefit Americans who hold desirable assets—city property and large corporations but also individual family homes (not in the tracker). Chinese investment helps support a small number of American jobs.

Against that, China is not a friend. The US certainly should not ban Chinese investment, but, as Congress has directed, Chinese firms and individuals should not be permitted to buy advanced technology that could have military uses. Chinese firms that receive stolen intellectual property should be punished. Most Chinese firms have little familiarity with a competitive market under rule of law, so their ability to obey the law is in doubt. In particular, Chinese firms cannot be trusted with Americans’ personal data. Within these guidelines, Chinese investment in the US can be positive for both countries.

Democrats Counter-proposal for Covid Stimulus Spending

Posted on March 24, 2020March 24, 2020 by Denise Simon

The disgusting political pork, poison politics on full display. If for nothing else, we have learned another level of the nasty appropriations injected into crisis spending. This should never be overlooked or forgotten as we go to vote.
If you can stand to read the Democrats 1119 page fleecing of the taxpayer, click here.

If not, here is the Cliff note list which is hardly all of the items, but you get the idea:

$33,200,000 for NOAA to get new facilities for operations and research
$100,000,000 for NASA and $100,000,000 for construction and compliance
$278,000,000 to the IRS for taxpayer services
$90,000,000 for yet another HIV program
$36,000,000 for the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
$7,000,000 for one, ONE Washington DC Charter School called Gallaudet University
$23,000,000 handout to Howard University AND $647,000,000 endowment to Howard University
$300,000,000 to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
$500,000,000 for the Institute of Museum and Library Services
$1,000,000 for the Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Doorkeeper of the Senate
$300,000,000 for Migration and Refugee Assistance
$22,000,000 for the Expansion of Use of Minority Banks and Minority Credit Unions
$300,000,000 to Expand Emergency Food Assistance Programs
$40,000,000 for a new division, the Oversight and Accountability Transparency Committee dedicated to coronavirus
$35,000,000 for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
$300,000,000 National Endowment of the Arts
$300,000,000 for National Endowment of the Humanities

Add in the following as noted by Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas)

Removing all current debt of the US Postal Service
Monies for more REQUIRED early voting, same day voter registration AND registering to vote abilities via internet registration
Removing off the top $10,000 for every person holding a student loan
Any U.S. corporation accepting Federal government assistance must have 1/3 of their Board members chosen by their own emloyees
Additional provisions for official time for union collective bargaining
Full offset of airline emissions by 2025
Each airline flight must report greenhouse gas statistics (carbon output) of individual flights
Retirement benefits for community newspaper employees
Any and all corporations accepting Federal government assistance must pay all employees a minimum wage of $15/hr.
Permanent paid leave for all corporations receiving Federal assistance
Expansion of wind and solar tax credits
Election Assistance Commission

Now understand how the items referring to domestic corporations is actually a quid pro quo or rather extortion or rather nationalizing corporations in America.

Now this list, while being somewhat abbreviated, is not something just recently concocted by Democrats for this pending spending bill…consider these are items that have been sitting on the wish list for quite some time and these items are just like those that get injected into spending legislation all the time at the last minute when members of Congress get 30 minutes or less to read bills before they vote.

Pelosi’s $2.5 Trillion Virus Bill Delays Mortgage, Car Payments source and more details here

For those in the many domestic industries affected by being shuttered due to governor decrees, remember the hold up in financial stability, jobs and loans sits squarely in the lap of the Democrats led completely by the master legislator…Speaker Nancy Pelosi, third in line to the presidency. Scary….no terrifying.

Hey CNN/MSNBC for 15 Years, it has Been China’s SARS-CoV

Posted on March 23, 2020March 23, 2020 by Denise Simon

So, President Trump is right…how about media being real journalists for a change? Tell Hillary, CNN and the rest that Trump is hardly “racist” and “xenophobic”.

Let’s travel over to Basel, Switzerland shall we?

Primer: MDPI is Molecular Diversity Preservation International/Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute founded in 1996 located in Basel. The organization is an open access repository of medical journals where each paper has citations from medical academics and experts. Health issues include various human health conditions such as obesity, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and many many others.

Image result for sar cov china

So, media, when it comes to China and SAR-CoV, review their summary. (BTW, it is full of citations)

1. Introduction

Fifteen years after the first highly pathogenic human coronavirus caused the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) outbreak, another severe acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV) devastated livestock production by causing fatal diseases in pigs. Both outbreaks began in China and were caused by coronaviruses of bat origin [1,2]. This increased the urgency to study bat coronaviruses in China to understand their potential of causing another virus outbreak.

In this review, we collected information from past epidemiology studies on bat coronaviruses in China, including the virus species identified, their host species, and their geographical distributions. We also discuss the future prospects of bat coronaviruses cross-species transmission and spread in China.

2. Why Study Bat Coronaviruses in China?

2.1. Coronavirus Taxonomy

Coronaviruses (CoVs) belong to the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae in the family Coronaviridae and the order Nidovirales. CoVs have an enveloped, crown-like viral particle from which they were named after. The CoV genome is a positive-sense, single-strand RNA (+ssRNA), 27–32 kb in size, which is the second largest of all RNA virus genomes. Typically, two thirds of the genomic RNA encodes for two large overlapping polyproteins, ORF1a and ORF1b, that are processed into the viral polymerase (RdRp) and other nonstructural proteins involved in RNA synthesis or host response modulation. The other third of the genome encodes for four structural proteins (spike (S), envelope (E), membrane (M), and nucleocapsid (N)) and other accessory proteins. While the ORF1a/ORF1b and the four structural proteins are relatively consistent, the length of the CoV genome is largely dependent on the number and size of accessory proteins [3].

Compared with other RNA viruses, the expanded genome size of CoVs is believed to be associated with increased replication fidelity, after acquiring genes encoding RNA-processing enzymes [4]. Genome expansion further facilitates the acquisition of genes encoding accessory proteins that are beneficial for CoVs to adapt to a specific host [5]. As a result, genome changes caused by recombination, gene interchange, and gene insertion or deletion are common among CoVs. The CoV subfamily is expanding rapidly, due to the application of next generation sequencing which has increased the detection and identification of new CoV species. As a result, CoV taxonomy is constantly changing. According to the latest International Committee of Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) classification, there are four genera (α-, β-, δ-, and γ-) consisting of thirty-eight unique species in the subfamily [6]. The number of species will continue to increase, as there are still many unclassified CoVs [7,8].

CoVs cause disease in a variety of domestic and wild animals as well as in humans, where α- and β-CoVs mainly infect mammals and γ- and δ-CoVs mainly infect birds (Table 1). Two highly pathogenic β-CoVs, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV have caused pandemics in humans since 2002 [1,9]. Originating in China and then spreading to other parts of the world, SARS-CoV infected around 8000 individuals with an overall mortality of 10% during the 2002–2003 pandemic [1]. Since its emergence in 2012 in the Middle East, MERS-CoV spread to 27 countries, resulting in 2249 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with an average mortality of 35.5% (until September 2018) [9]. Besides these two viruses, α-CoVs 229E and NL63 and β-CoVs OC43 and HKU1 can also cause respiratory diseases in humans [10]. Moreover, CoVs cause pandemic disease in domestic and wild animals (Table 1). SADS-CoV was recently identified as the etiological agent responsible for a large-scale outbreak of fatal disease in pigs in China that caused the death of more than 20,000 piglets [2]. Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) and transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) that belong to α-CoV and porcine δ-CoV (PDCoV) are also important emerging and re-emerging viruses in pigs that pose significant economic threat to the swine industry [11]. In addition, avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV, γ-CoV) causes a highly contagious disease that affects poultry production worldwide [12]. Coronaviruses have also been associated with catarrhal gastroenteritis in mink (MCoV) and whale deaths (BWCoV-SW1) [13,14].

Read on here if you need to.

Wonder if candidate Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders will reveal this as truth in their ad attacks?

Terrifying Facts about our Prescription Drugs

Posted on March 20, 2020March 20, 2020 by Denise Simon

Congress, the FDA and the Pentagon is well aware of how tainted many of the drugs from China.

Priest, a retired Army colonel, delivered these remarks July 31 on Capitol Hill at a meeting of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. The commission in-part investigates national security risks related to foreign trade and provides recommendations to Congress.

The U.S. purchases of drugs from foreign countries came under scrutiny earlier this year, when the Food and Drug Administration discovered that carcinogens in generic products used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure. Some of those drugs made their way to military treatment facilities, where veterans pick up their prescriptions.

The 10 most prescribed drugs are found here.

Made in China: new and potentially lifesaving drugs - SFGate source

The common debate on Capitol Hill has been the cost of prescription drugs, when the 800 lb. gorilla in the room has been uncontrolled ingredients in over-the-counter drugs as well as prescription that legislators have known about but ignored. The same debate continues with medical devices manufactured in China. The United States does not even produce vitamin C. Yeesh, and China has been called a drug cartel of distinction because of trafficking fentanyl.

Communist China controls 80% of American drugs - Metro ...

GoodRx, commercials often seen on TV to save money by using their APP recently published the following about bizarre ingredients:

1) Gold

Gold, of course, has been used for thousands of years in jewelry, but few know that it has therapeutic properties. Today, we have the oral anti-inflammatory medication, Ridaura (auranofin), which is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Likewise, an injectable gold known as gold sodium thiomalate (GST) is injected weekly or monthly into joints to treat arthritis. Fancy.

2) Saliva of a Gila monster

Ok, that’s slightly misleading. Exenatide, the active ingredient in Byetta and Bydureon, and an important medicine to control blood sugar in diabetics, is a man-made form of a protein found in the saliva of the Gila monster, a poisonous lizard native to the southwestern United States. Still weird.

3) Urine from pregnant horses

Premarin, a medication used as hormone replacement therapy to treat symptoms of menopause, comes from estrogen hormones isolated from pregnant horse urine. Yep.

4) Rooster combs

Synvisc and Synvisc-One (Hylan G-F 20), injectable medications given for knee arthritis to provide pain relief for up to six months, both contain hyaluronan, which is made from chicken combs. Hyaluronan makes joint fluid more flexible and fluid, so there’s better shock absorption in the knee. Cock-a-doodle-doo.

5) Poop

“Fecal pills”, used in fecal microbiota transplantations (FMTs), are capsules containing frozen bacteria collected from the stool of donor patients. Fecal pills taken orally have been shown to be 96% effective in treating C. diff diarrhea. A truly hard pill to swallow.

6) Formaldehyde

Yes, you heard that right. Formaldehyde, the main ingredient in embalming fluid and a common substance in household cleaning products, is used in medicine. Hiprex, which contains methenamine, is making a resurgence in popularity as an effective medication for preventing recurrent urinary tract infections. And methenamine works when it’s converted in urine to formaldehyde, the same chemical we use to embalm dead bodies.

7) Fish

While not exactly gross, the contribution of marine life to medicines is worth mentioning. Lovaza, the only pharmaceutical-grade fish oil on the market, is used to lower triglycerides, a type of fat found in your blood that can increase your risk of heart disease at high enough levels. The oils in cooked masses of fish are separated from the solids—and that’s how you get Lovaza. Ok, not so bad.

8) Urine from postmenopausal women

The urine of postmenopausal women is in many follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) preparations, including Repronex and Bravelle, which are used to treat infertility. Unlike donated blood, where the donation can be traced to one donor, these medications are made with pooled urine from multiple donors, so there’s some concern over safety. That’s why Follistim, which contains synthetic FSH is a good alternative. Pools of urine.

9) Pig pancreas

Creon (pancrelipase) is made from the pancreas of pigs and is available only with a prescription. Creon is used in patients who lack full pancreatic functionality, whether because of cystic fibrosis, chronic pancreatitis, type 1 diabetes or removal of the pancreas. Oink.

10) Pig thyroid gland

Armour thyroid comes from the dried out thyroid glands of pigs. Armour thyroid is prescribed for underactive thyroid, or hypothyroidism, and is less tightly regulated than Synthroid, a manufactured form of thyroid hormone. Oink take 2.

Setting aside for a moment how the United States has in recent days complained about China’s lack of cooperation with the United States over COVID-19, other nations have as well. Just a few day ago, the UK published an immediate report stating that China was to blame and noted that the lack of truth from China has caused the global health crisis.

So, there is an immediate movement authorized by President Trump to fast track domestic manufacture production of many top medicines not only for treating COVID-19 but other most prescribed drugs as well. The FDA is fast tracking several variations of chloroquine, which has several names including Aralen,Plaquenil or Avigan already used to treat COVID-19. Yes, however, this comes from China as well. In fact Wuhan and Shenzhen treated coronavirus patients with favipiravir with excellent success, meaning patient’s tests are negative just after 3-4 days.

***

Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) introduced legislation Thursday to repatriate pharmaceutical manufacturing from China to America, aiming to reduce a dependency that could seriously limit the U.S. coronavirus response.

The bill, which Cotton introduced with Rep. Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.), aims to severely curtail the volume of Chinese active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from the U.S. medical drug supply. The PRC currently produces most of the world’s APIs—the “active ingredients” in commonly used drugs—leaving the United States and other nations critically dependent on it for medicines.

Cotton’s is just the latest proposal to onshore pharmaceutical supply chains, including a similar one from Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and rumblings from the White House about a “buy American” executive order. Prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, many are beginning to see the cost-savings from Chinese-made pharmaceuticals as not worth the risk of undersupply during another pandemic, or during a potential conflict with America’s main geostrategic rival. More here.