The world is slowly grinding to a halt and photography is the last thing on most people’s minds, but it is interesting the Fujifilm is playing an increasingly larger roll in treating the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. FujiAddict has followed the progress of Avigan being used to treat Coronavirus, which started here and here. Today Nikkei published a story about how Indonesia is now using Avigan to treat Coronavirus due to Beijing endorsing the drug for treatment.
Nasdaq also published a story today called “All the Drugs Proving Anecdotally Effective Against COVID-19, and the Companies That Make Them” and in it, they have the details about the effectiveness of the drug stating:
Favipiravir (Avigan): In addition to these two drugs that have been approved for compassionate use, favipiravir, also known as Avigan, is an antiflu drug that was developed by a subsidiary of Japanese company Fujifilm (OTC: FUJIY) in 2014. It has also gotten some press recently as a possible treatment for COVID-19.
In China, a trial involving 340 people showed that favipiravir allowed patients to turn negative for the disease in a median of four days, versus the 11 days for those not treated with the drug. China’s science and technology minister, Zhang Xinmin, called the drug “clearly effective” on the basis of this study. In addition, X-rays showed that those treated with the drug had less lung damage that those who weren’t.
Still, there were some shortcomings, as Favipiravir apparently doesn’t work as well in people who are already severely ill, according to Japanese health officials. – Nasdaq
There are other drugs that are offering people hope listed in the article, but you can read it here if you are interested in the complete picture. I hope you are all staying safe and doing well. I will be posting an update about my astrophotography project, which I started yesterday. So far I am very impressed with the Magic Venus Optics Laowa Magic Format Converter MFC (Nikon F to Fujifilm G) and Venus Optics Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D combo, but the Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC Wide-Angle vignettes some in the real world.
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