Coronavirus: US scientist group says it has solution to virus

WASHINGTON • A group of top American scientists backed by billionaires and industry titans says it has the answer to the coronavirus pandemic, and has delivered a report to the White House through backdoor channels.

The scientists compiled a confidential 17-page report that suggests a number of unorthodox measures to combat the coronavirus, including the use of powerful drugs that were intended to be used against Ebola in far heftier doses than tried in the past, The Wall Street Journal reported

Specific recommendations, such as slashing manufacturing regulations and requirements for certain coronavirus drugs, have already been implemented by the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Veteran Affairs.

Calling themselves Scientists to Stop Covid-19, the members of the group - including chemical biologists, an immunobiologist, a neurobiologist, a chronobiologist, an oncologist, a gastroenterologist, an epidemiologist and a nuclear scientist - are marshalling brains and money to distil unorthodox ideas from around the globe.

They have described their work as a lockdown-era Manhattan Project - a reference to the World War II scientists who helped develop the atomic bomb - and are led by 33-year-old doctor-turned-venture capitalist Tom Cahill.

Living in a one-bedroom rental apartment near Boston's Fenway Park, Dr Cahill owns just one suit, but has enough lofty connections to influence government decision-making in the war against the virus.

Dr Cahill's connections come through his investment firm and include billionaires such as Peter Thiel, Jim Palotta and Michael Milken, who enabled him to reach officials in the middle of the crisis.

Of the other scientists at the centre of the project, biologist Michael Rosbash, a 2017 Nobel Prize winner, said: "There's no question that I'm the least qualified."

The 12-member group has helped pharmaceutical companies establish a link to Trump administration decision-makers. Its members also acted as an ad hoc review board for research on the coronavirus, rejecting flawed studies before they reach policymakers.

The director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr Francis Collins, told people this month that he agreed with most of the report's recommendations, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and people familiar with the matter.

The report was delivered to Vice-President Mike Pence, the head of the Trump administration's coronavirus taskforce, and other Cabinet members. Mr Nick Ayers, Mr Pence's long-time aide, has been frequently advised by the group, as have agency heads through phone calls over the past month.

The scientists say none of them will be gaining financially.

Much of the early work involved parsing through hundreds of scientific papers from around the world and separating promising ideas from dubious ones. Each member went through as many as 20 papers in a day and gathered to debate via video conference, text messages and phone calls.

The debates were not always purely on science, with the group at one point considering whether to recommend that the virus be renamed "Sars-2" after the 2003 China animal virus. The idea was dropped.

The team has also pledged to avoid politics in an election year. Hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug promoted by President Donald Trump, only received a passing mention in the final report. It disparaged the idea of antibody testing to allow people back to work.

The group's initial recommendations in the report centre on the government's response. One suggestion was to buy medicines not yet proven effective as a way to encourage manufacturers to ramp up production. Another was to slash the time required for a clinical review of new drugs to a week from up to a year at present.

The team is also looking to develop a plan for reopening the United States. Their ideas include development of a saliva test and the scheduling of tests at the end of the workday so that results would be available by morning.

They also suggested a nationwide smartphone app that requires residents to confirm each day that they do not have any symptoms associated with the coronavirus, The Wall Street Journal reported.