April 25, the Anniversary of Our Wedding

Today April 25, 2020 is the 38th anniversary of my wedding to my wife.
The first thing we did is to listen to the Mass celebrated in Rome by Pope Francis on the feast of St. Mark the Evangelist here. The Mass readings are taken from the USCCB-Approved Bible - Read them here. The text of the lively homily of Pope Francis can be read here.
With the fear of the coronavirus pandemic, I suggest two things to my fellow friends:
1) Watch or read morally-good jokes;
2) Recall good and memorable events in your lives...
Well, our wedding like anyone is a memorable event for me. Bishops, priests, and nuns could consider that they are engaged to Christ in his service...

In our wedding on April 25, 1982, Bishop Paul Antaki the Great headed the celebration at St. Cyril's Geek Catholic parish in Heliopolis. Upon my request, he said a homily on the bond of marriage and the symbolic meaning of the rings we exchange. The choir of Our Lady of Peace led then by the gifted Rafic Greiche (who is today the popular and married-pastor of the same St. Cyril's) sang the service.    

To persons engaged or married, it seems to me that they have much to share. There are many more gifts of God in the world. Share them with your families and friends...

May the Lord, by his providential wisdom, heal all the sick through physicians, nurses, and lab workers, and, through his loving mercy, remember all the dead in his eternal kingdom...

 

On Saint George and the Coronavirus Pandemic

On Monday April the 23rd, 2020, the Holy Father Pope Francis celebrated the daily Mass in Rome in which it was indicated that today is the feast of St. George. If interested see it here. The text of the homily of the Holy Father in the Mass can be read here. Many churches around the world celebrate the memorial of St. George as they do every 23rd of April since the 5th century.  
Best wishes to everyone who carries the name George, Guirguis, Jeries, Georgette, Georgina, and other variants of the original Greek: Georgius...
According to tradition, Georgius (George) was born around 280 AD from a Greek Christian father named Geronitos and a Greek Christian mother named Polychronia. He was a soldier in the Roman army in Lydda, Palestine. When Diocletian, instigated by Galerius, started his persecution of Christians, George was sentenced to death for refusing to recant his Christian faith. He suffered torture and was martyred by decapitation on the 23rd of April 303. Over centuries, Christians venerating this megalomartyr developed legends around his courage to die for Christ and His bride, the Church. The most famous legend shows George taming and wounding with his lance a monster (Satan) who had terrified the Church (daughter of God, the King). His victory represented for many generations that of Christ's healing of the wounds, both spiritual and physical, that afflicted mankind. 

It is no accident that on the feast of St. George (April 23) Scientific American published a study by top medical researchers of the world on the new ways to fight the coronavirus - I received it from the top cardiologist/researcher in Canada. His credentials include: BSc Hons, MD, FRCPC, FACC, FAHA, FCAHS, FCCS; Professor Emeritus, Medicine and Physiology, University of Toronto,
Consultant Cardiologist, University Health Network, Toronto (see it below).

With the threat of the coronavirus pandemic, I believe it helps us to recall blessings that we receive from the Lord. I have been particularly blessed by God since my mother of blessed memory asked St. George in her heavy pregnancy to intercede for her well-being and made a vow to call her son "George". When the doctors found twins in her womb, they pulled me out after my twin brother was brought out and named "Shaker" according to my devout father's wish (also of blessed memory) for his son to be named after his dad. I thank God that He gave me life abundantly beyond the expectations of medical experts. The reader may wish to read my post here and an earlier one titled "Living Miracle" in July 2008 here.

Here is more about the coronavirus pandemic that should be of primary concern to hospitals, labs, physicians, nurses, technicians, computer engineers and business systems analysts, the elderly, and others who suspect they could be carriers...
First: I received yesterday the attached PDF file from a friend in Toronto who is a professional computer system engineer - The file is an introductory flyer of a German product called "Tauri Series Temperature-Check Tablets" that scans persons in seconds i.e. helps in screening out persons suspecting of being infected by the coronavirus or similar highly threatening diseases as it measures the high temperature. If interested or concerned, contact my friend through the telephone numbers identified on the flyer.  
Attached too is a research paper by scientists in AAAS titled "Targeting the SARS-CoV-2 main protease"published in Science on April 22, 2020.

Second: I received a very illuminating report from the top cardiologist/researcher in Canada. His credentials include: BSc Hons, MD, FRCPC, FACC, FAHA, FCAHS, FCCS

Professor Emeritus, Medicine and Physiology, University of Toronto,

Consultant Cardiologist, University Health Network, Toronto
The report is published today April 23, 2020 in Scientific American...
Here is the report:

With no time to make treatments from scratch, researchers search for existing compounds that deflect harm

Mark Denison began hunting for a drug to treat COVID-19 almost a decade before the contagion, driven by a novel coronavirus, devastated the world this year. Denison is not a prophet, but he is a virologist and an expert on the often deadly coronavirus family, members of which also caused the SARS outbreak in 2002 and the MERS eruption in 2012. It is a big viral group, and “we were pretty certain another one would soon emerge,” says Denison, who directs the division of pediatric infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

A virus is an unusual beast. Essentially it is a cluster of genetic material that integrates itself into a cell and takes over some of the cell’s molecular machinery, using it to assemble an army of viral copies. Those clones burst out of the cell, destroying it, and go on to infect nearby cells. Viruses are hard to kill off completely because of their cellular integration—they hide within their hosts. And they have explosive reproductive rates. Because total eradication is so hard, antiviral drugs instead aim to limit replication to low levels that cannot hurt the body.

In 2013 Denison and Ralph Baric, a coronavirus researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, identified a vulnerable site on a protein common to all coronaviruses they had examined, a spot that is key to the microbe’s ability to make copies of itself. If that ability is hindered, a coronavirus cannot cause widespread infection. Four years later researchers in the two laboratories spotted a compound that acted on this protein site. It was sitting, unused, in a large library of antiviral compounds created by the biotech giant Gilead Biosciences. The scientists got a sample and, in test tube and animal experiments, showed that the drug, called remdesivir, shut down the replicating machinery of several coronavirus variants.

So in early January, when the alarms rang about SARS-CoV-2, Denison and Baric alerted colleagues at Gilead that they were sitting on a potential treatment. Largely because of its activity against other coronavirus strains in Denison and Baric’s animal studies, remdesivir was made available to patients for “compassionate use” in January. By March, Gilead had rushed the compound into two human trials, planning to test the drug’s safety and most effective doses on about 1,000 ill patients over several months; health authorities in China began two similar trials. While that was happening, Denison, Baric and a group of their colleagues at Emory University identified still another compound, called EIDD-2801, that hits the same viral vulnerability. In early April they published results showing that in mice, the new substance helped breathing and reduced the amount of many coronaviruses. In test-tube experiments with human lung cells, it drastically hindered SARS-CoV-2.

Several labs around the world, like Denison’s and Baric’s, have logged years of experience poking about the inner workings of coronaviruses because of SARS and MERS. By the time the new coronavirus was genetically sequenced and its structure revealed, scientists already had identified the enzymes and proteins that most coronaviruses use to spread from one infected human cell to another and also understood that the body could create an overly aggressive inflammatory response when the virus infected lung airway cells.

Because of this work, three main strategies for impeding the virus have emerged as the labs have turned to the current threat. One strategy is to find compounds like remdesivir and EIDD-2801 that gum up the virus’s reproductive machinery when it enters a target cell. A second is to block the virus, like a bouncer outside a bar, from entering and infecting those cells in the first place. The third approach is to muffle the immune system’s dangerously overactive response, a “cytokine storm” that can drown a victim in a mass of congestion and dying airway cells.

To find these drugs, researchers have turned to the Food and Drug Administration’s list of some 20,000 compounds approved for human use and crawled through drug patent applications looking for compounds with promising mechanisms of action. The goal has been to find drugs that have been at least partly developed, avoiding years of making therapeutic molecules from scratch. The Milken Institute, a health advocacy think tank, counted 133 experimental COVID-19 treatments in mid-April. About 49 of these therapies are being rushed into clinical trials. Their effectiveness in people is not yet known, and scientists caution that such drugs, like other anti-virals, are unlikely to be cures. But they could reduce symptoms enough to give patients’ immune systems a chance to beat the virus on their own.

COPY STOPPERS

Because all coronaviruses use the same molecular mechanism to reproduce, Baric says, that mechanism, which involves the enzyme nsp12, was an obvious target. Nsp12 normally corrects mistakes made by the main replication enzyme, RNA polymerase, as it as--sembles new virus particles. But remdesivir appears to work its way into nsp12’s structure, disabling it. As a result, the virus’s copying factory becomes sloppy and produces fewer new viruses.

EIDD-2801, the compound with promising animal and test-tube results reported in early April, aims at the same viral enzyme. But unlike remdesivir, which much be given intravenously, EIDD-2801 can be taken as a pill. For this reason, Baric and other researchers investigating EIDD-2801, including George Painter, a professor of pharmacology and president of the Emory Institute for Drug Development, which first produced the drug, suspect it may end up being more widely used than remdesivir.

In 2018 Painter and his colleagues identified EIDD-2801’s activity during a search for a universal influenza medicine. When SARS-CoV-2 emerged, Painter’s group immediately shifted focus. EIDD-2801, like remdesivir, inhibits the coronavirus’s self-copying operations, but it also works against virus variants with a mutation that made them resistant to the Gilead drug. In addition, EIDD-2801 is effective against a host of other RNA viruses, so it could serve as a multipurpose antiviral, much as some antibiotics can work against a wide variety of bacteria. For COVID-19, says Wayne Holman, co-founder of Miami-based Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, which has licensed the drug and is planning clinical trials, the goal is to have a pill that can be taken by patients at home early in the course of the disease to prevent it from progressing.

BLOCKING INFECTION

To stop SARS-CoV-2 from penetrating cells in the first place, scientists are trying to develop antibodies that lock onto the viral protein that facilitates cell entry, a part of the virus known as the spike. Some of these neutralizing antibodies, made of a protein called immunoglobulin, may come from the blood of patients who have already cleared the virus. Several medical centers, including Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Mayo Clinic, are harvesting blood plasma from survivors and screening it for antibodies. In a technique known as convalescent therapy, doctors then transfuse it into hospitalized patients with life-threatening acute respiratory distress. Early studies of a few such patients suggest the approach may work—some patients’ symptoms improved, and levels of the virus in their bodies dropped—but the work is very preliminary.

Takeda Pharmaceuticals, a Japanese firm, is also collecting plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients to identify antibodies. In that plasma, the company is identifying antibodies that show the most activity against SARS-CoV-2. Using these antibodies as a template, the Takeda researchers plan to synthesize a batch of even more active versions to create a potent cocktail of infection inhibitors, says Chris Morabito, head of research and development of plasma-derived therapies. The therapy—TAK-888—might enter clinical trials by year’s end, Morabito says; the number “888” represents “triple fortune” in Chinese. Several other drugmakers, including Regeneron and Vir Biotechnology, are generating their own therapeutic antibodies and say they will also be tested in patients this year.

Another blockade strategy focuses on the cellular docking site that the virus uses. Josef Penninger, a molecular biologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and founder of drug company Apeiron Biologics, is trying to lure the virus away from a chemical receptor called ACE2 in the outer wall of lung cells. The coronavirus spike protein binds to this receptor. Several years ago Penninger’s lab synthesized a decoy version of ACE2. In test-tube experiments, the scientists found the synthetic molecule—APN01—attracted coronaviruses away from real human airway cells. The virus locked onto the decoy and was marooned there. “We are blocking the door for the virus and, at the same time, protecting tissues,” Penninger says. Apeiron is planning clinical trials later this year for APN01, which must be administered in the hospital as an infusion to sick patients.

OVERREACTIONS

In the sickest COVID-19 patients, a mass of mucuslike fluid accumulates in the lungs, preventing cells from absorbing oxygen. These are the patients that need ventilators. The fluid buildup is the result of an overactive immune response that involves a signaling chemical called interleukin-6 (IL-6). Biotech companies, including Regeneron and Genentech, have manufactured synthetic antibodies that can bind to IL-6 and mute the call to action that it sends out.

Northwell Health, a large system of 23 hospitals based in Long Island, N.Y., is one of more than a dozen centers participating in clinical trials of the IL-6 blockers, says Kevin Tracey, chief executive of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, which is running the trials at Northwell sites. “The hospitals are being inundated with very sick patients suffering from serious pneumonia and acute respiratory distress,” Tracey says. “The IL-6 drugs have a plausible mechanism of action. I’m optimistic they’ll work.”

None of these approaches are cures. Denison says the drugs under development may “reduce the severity” of an advanced COVID-19 episode, especially if they can be administered when initial symptoms—a mild cough, muscle aches or slight fever—first arise. In a hopeful future, a combination of various therapies may be able to thwart the virus on several different fronts, the way a cocktail of antivirals can beat back an HIV/AIDS infection. By limiting symptoms, drugs may be able to keep some patients out of the hospital and keep hospitalized patients off of ventilators. They can serve as a bridge to survival as other scientists rush to develop the real virus slayer: a vaccine. 

End of report in Scientific American...

Three areas of advanced technology are increasingly being used in many industries and businesses:
Nanotechnology (see an intro here) and Quantum computers (see recent articles here, here, here, and here).
Artificial Intelligence (see recent articles/presentations here, here, here, and here)...See here an article in  MIT Technology Review titled "Doctors are using AI to triage covid-19 patients. The tools may be here to stay." 
Robotics:  Titled "Building a robot ship to navigate the high seas and follow the route of the Mayflower",  Don Scott, chief technology officer of the Mayflower Autonomous Ship said "In 1620, the Mayflower set sail to the New World. Cliff Saran speaks to Don Scott, technology lead for an autonomous ship that has been built to make the same voyage 400 years later On 19 September 2020, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the voyage of the Mayflower taking the Pilgrim Fathers to the New World, an autonomous trimaran vessel, the Mayflower Autonomous Ship, will trace the route of the original Mayflower in 1620, sailing from Plymouth, UK, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, US. Although remotely controlled ships are not a new concept, Don Scott, chief technology officer of the Mayflower Autonomous Ship, says the project is at the bleeding edge. “What’s new about the project is the marine autonomy aspect, creating the ship as an edge device that operates on its own, sensing its environment, making intelligent decisions and acting on them without any human intervention,” he says. “That’s what makes this vehicle really innovative.” The Mayflower is a prototype, a proof of concept, to demonstrate that a solar-powered autonomous ship can navigate the oceans safely and cope with changeable weather, other ships, and encounters with marine creatures and submerged hazards. " See more here.

The above should be of interest to young adults as by the time the coronavirus pandemic is finally eliminated, skills needed will likely be in advanced technologies.

Let us pray the Lord to heal the sick and remember in his mercy all who died...He knows better...
He said  "A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly." (John 10:10).

Divine Mercy !

Jesus Christ is the light of the world. He said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12). In his Resurrection his light shone so much that the guards fell back...
In its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) the Second Vatican Council affirms the above dogma...For historical evidence on the Divinity and Resurrection of Christ, you may wish to read this post.
According to Fr. Georges Farah "the tomb/rock where the corpse of Christ was laid symbolizes the prison of Man where there is no window but only the darkness that blinds humanity and the blind loses sight of any direction". In his Resurrection, Christ liberates us from this prison of the self and opens the possibility for moving towards humanity's purpose and goal: God!

On April 19, 2020, the Divine Mercy Sunday Mass was presided over by the Holy Father Pope Francis in the Church of the Holy Spirit in Rome - In the Mass, he sent his greetings to Christians that celebrate Easter on April 19. Follow the Divine Mercy Sunday Mass here.

Read Pope Francis homily, one of the most beautiful ever said that connects the Biblical readings with the mystical spirituality of St. Faustina and St. John Paul II, yet makes the case for helping the poor in the current coronavirus pandemic (here)...

On Facebook, I wrote greetings to my brother with his family, and my friends who celebrated Easter yesterday in Egypt - Emotionally connected with St. Cyril's Greek Catholic parish in Heliopolis, Egypt, I also watched the Byzantine Divine Liturgy of Easter by Fr. Rafic Greiche sung along with the parish's astounding choir here.

From Cairo too, the Jesuit scholar Fr. Henri Boulad gave this Easter homily (here in French titled "quoiqu’il arrive, la Vie aura le dernier mot ..."). Fr. Boulad said "Let's rejoice today - Christ has risen. Life triumphed..." - The world lives a crisis since the coronavirus; a sign from heaven; is an  invitation for us today to believe and hope...In the Bible, the message of the Flood says that the world was corrupt. However, after allowing the Flood to swallow creation on earth, God made a covenant with Noah and, through him, with all creation that He will "set a bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth." (Genesis 9:13). The Biblical covenants are completed through Christ "The New Covenant" - The coronavirus spread all over the earth is a warning for us to renew our lives in light of the Resurrection of Christ. In a world full of technologies that forgot Him, let us mend our ways and actions. He is our hope...

Since Fr.  Boulad touched upon technologies, the reader may wish to read this recent report from Cambridge University that shows how artificial intelligence techniques help fight against the coronavirus (here).

On "Coping and Thriving in the Covid-19 Crisis" you may wish to read this excellent article by Maggie Ciskanik; M.S. senior writer associated with Jesuit Fr. Robert Spitzer. Fr. Spitzer is the former President of Gonzaga University.

Today I also received a most important report on research re COVID-19 crisis from the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. It states "A month ago, we interviewed Dr. Jay Bhattacharya just as the COVID-19 crisis was shuttering the economy and governments were ordering citizens to shelter at home. In that interview, Dr. Bhattacharya mentioned that he himself would soon be conducting tests for COVID-19 in Santa Clara County, California, one of the most active hotspots in the country. Today Dr. Bhattacharya returns to discuss the results of that study and one currently under way in partnership with Major League Baseball. We also discuss some signs of hope, and specifics about how the economy can be restarted safely and efficiently. Dr. Bhattacharya also gives some (unsolicited) advice to Dr. Anthony Fauci, California governor Gavin Newsom, and president Donald Trump." See the interview here. 
For friends interested in cosmology, I also received a report that scientists detected a rare crash of two mismatched black holes for the first time ever. The report's writer wrote "Scientists affiliated with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) announced the discovery April 18 at an online meeting of the American Physical Society." Read it here.

Back to Easter celebrations: 

On Facebook - From Jerusalem, I received a video of the celebrations of the joy of Easter that the Orthodox Church is celebrating - It was sent by Greek Catholic Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Jules Zerey; former Patriarchal General Vicar there - See it here. I have been informed that due to the coronavirus pandemic, students are suffering at the Patriarchal School near Jerusalem. If anyone wishes to contribute a donation, please contact Jerusalem Students here.

For a few minutes, I spoke with my spiritual director Fr. Daniel Callam; CSB on  matters related to spiritual confession and spiritual communion...

Msgr. Nusca, pastor of Holy Rosary parish in Toronto was the celebrant of Divine Mercy TV Mass to which thousands listen across Canada and abroad. In his homily, he combined his Biblical scholarship in ancient Hebrew with the mystical theology of St. Faustina and St. John Paul II. Citing St. Peter's words in the Biblical readings and St. Augustine, Msgr. Nusca shows that Christ is the fullness of God's covenants of mercy...

Many biblical words such as mercy, compassion, love, grace, and faithfulness relate to the Hebrew word hesed (חֶסֶד), but none of these completely summarize the concept. Hesed is not merely an emotion or feeling but involves action on behalf of someone who is in need. Hesed describes a sense of love and loyalty that inspires merciful and compassionate behavior toward another person.

Listen to the Mass here.

With the coronavirus scare, Bishop Robert Barron celebrated the Divine Mercy Sunday Mass with his assistants in his chapel. In his homily, Bishop Barron too reflects on the Biblical readings and starts with the Hebrew word "Hesed"...Despite being in fear behind locked doors, the disciples are visited by the Risen Christ who, eight days after his Resurrection, came and stood in their midst and said to them "Peace be with you." For Bishop Barron the Risen One is always in our midst...It is the story of persecuted Christians throughout the ages...His disciples denied him, betrayed him or at least contributed to his humiliation on the cross. Yet the Risen Christ did not show them himself with vengeance but with his wounds. We too sinners wound him. Yet he offers himself to us (in the Eucharist !)- His Divine Mercy...

With St. Faustina, let us say "Neither graces, nor revelations, nor raptures, nor gifts granted to a soul make it perfect, but rather the intimate union of the soul with God. These gifts are merely ornaments of the soul, but constitute neither its essence nor its perfection. My sanctity and perfection consist in the close union of my will with the will of God."