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Submission + - Meet Molnupiravir, Merck's Pill That Cuts COVID-19 Hospitalization and Death (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An oral antiviral drug appears to cut the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 by roughly 50 percent in people newly diagnosed with the infection and at risk for severe disease, pharmaceutical company Merck announced Friday morning. The drug-maker and its partner, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, released top-line results of a Phase III trial, which the companies ended early given the positive results. The companies say they will apply for an Emergency Use Authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration as soon as possible.

The trial enrolled people who had newly tested positive for a SARS-CoV-2 infection and had onset of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 symptoms within just the past five days of starting the trial. The enrollees also had to have at least one risk factor for a poor outcome, such as having obesity, diabetes, heart disease, or being age 60 or above. While some participants received a placebo and standard care, others took an oral dose of the drug every 12 hours for five days. After 29 days of follow-up, 53 out of 377 participants who received the placebo were hospitalized with COVID-19, and eight of those participants died. Among those who received the drug, only 28 of 385 were hospitalized and none of those patients died. Put another way, 7.3 percent of patients on the drug were either hospitalized or died compared with 14.1 percent in the placebo group. Merck also highlighted that the trial was global and that the drug appeared to work equally well against varying SARS-CoV-2 variants, including delta, gamma, and mu. The drug-maker noted that it had viral genetic data to identify variants from 40 percent of participants. The safety data was equally promising, with participants reporting similar numbers of drug-related adverse events between the placebo group than the drug group (11 percent and 12 percent, respectively). About 3.4 percent of people in the placebo group quit the study due to adverse events, while only 1.3 percent quit in the drug group.

The drug at the center of these seemingly smashing results is dubbed molnupiravir — a name inspired by that of Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. The idea is that the drug will strike down SARS-CoV-2, like a mighty blow from the god of thunder. In an interview with Stat news, Merck’s head of research and development, Dean Li, said that the new data proves the drug's mythological force. “Our prediction from our in vitro studies and now with this data is that molnupiravir is named after the right [thing]... this is a hammer against SARS-CoV-2 regardless of the variant.” Molnupiravir is a small molecule that wallops the work of a viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, an enzyme critical for making copies of RNA viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2. [...] Molnupiravir delivers a precise blow to viral RNA polymerase by posing as a building block for RNA. In the body, molnupiravir is forged into a deceptive ribonucleoside that the polymerase unwittingly incorporates into new strands of viral RNA instead of cytidine. This is essentially lethal. Researchers call the effect a "viral error catastrophe," in which the rate of genetic mutations or errors exceeds a threshold compatible with the virus surviving.

Submission + - Apple says motorcycle vibrations can damage iPhone cameras (engadget.com)

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: Hold off on purchasing that iPhone mount for your motorbike. In a new Apple Support post first seen by MacRumors, the tech giant has warned that high amplitude vibrations, "specifically those generated by high-power motorcycle engines" transmitted through handlebars, can damage its phones' cameras. As the publication notes, that damage can be permanent. A simple Google search will surface posts over the past few years by users whose cameras were ruined after they mounted their iPhone on their bike, mostly so they can use it for navigation.

While Apple didn't say why it's issuing a warning now, it did explain the reason why attaching the iPhone to a motorcycle can destroy its camera. The company said that the camera's optical image stabilization (OIS) and closed-loop autofocus (AF) features can be damaged by long-term exposure to high-amplitude vibrations. A camera's OIS makes it possible for a device's gyroscope to sense movement. In turn, the gyroscope changes its angle and the lens moves accordingly to prevent blur when you accidentally move while taking a photo.

Meanwhile with closed-loop AF, a phone's onboard magnetic sensors measure vibrations to compensate for the movement, so the lens can be positioned accurately. As MacRumor notes, all models since the iPhone 7 come with both features.

Thus, Apple says it's not recommended to attach iPhones to motorcycles with high-power or high-volume engines. For mopeds and scooters, you may want to buy a vibration-dampening mount to lessen the risk of damage — or simply just use another GPS device to make sure you don't ruin a device that costs hundreds to over a thousand dollars.

Submission + - The An0m scandal: bypassing wiretap laws (theguardian.com)

Submitted by jd
jd writes: For those who don't know, An0m was a fake phone sold by the Australian and US governments to criminals so they could spy on them more easily.

I have no doubt the US and Australian governments feel vindicated by the massive success of their fake secure phones, and it's not unreasonable to congratulate stopping murders, but data swapping via a third party to bypass the law isn't that much different from what the gangs were doing.

I'm glad they saw that weakening security for the innocent wasn't necessary after all, and that's something to keep reminding them, but ethics didn't feature heavily in this and, as the article notes, what's to stop a tyrant doing the same against rivals or innocent protestors? It's not like the UK hasn't sent in undercover spies as honeypots or passed laws to legally arrest "potential subversives".

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