AdventHealth Ocala Officials Report Groundbreaking Results from New COVID-19 Drug Therapy — and More News Shorts
In this week’s news round-up, AdventHealth Ocala reports groundbreaking results from new COVID drug, an Adventist is named most outstanding teacher in Ghana, award-winning Netflix documentary features Adventist octogenarian, and LLUC’s car show creates chaotic traffic jam.
AdventHealth Ocala Officials Report Groundbreaking Results from New COVID-19 Drug Therapy. A new COVID-19 treatment developed in Ocala, Florida, is seeing measurable results with a near-perfect success rate. AdventHealth Ocala officials reported groundbreaking results from a new drug therapy they developed called ICAM. “The ICAM protocol has the potential to trigger the reopening of the country,” said Dr. Carlette Norwood-Williams, Director of Pharmacy at AdventHealth Ocala. “We will know the next step after our out-patient study.” She said ICAM works by reinforcing the immune system and protecting the lungs from inflammation.
“We had no need for mechanical ventilation, and the patients all survived the discharge regardless of age and regardless of past medical history,” Norwood-Williams said.
Since April, the center has documented a 96.4 percent survival rate for COVID-19 patients admitted at AdventHealth Ocala. “It’s a drug class combination,” she said. “It works to defend the body from the most severe cases of the coronavirus.” ICAM is an acronym for the types of medications used: Immunosupport such as Vitamin C and Zinc; Corticosteroids to control inflammation; Anticoagulants to prevent blood clots; and Macrolides to help fight infection.
“What we found out was that ICAM works as a strategy for super defense for the body,” she said. “It doesn’t kill coronavirus, but it doesn’t need to. Viruses are self-limiting anyway. They have a very short life cycle. What kills people are the consequences of coronavirus in multiple ways.” The center will begin a clinical trial for the drug therapy to publish its findings and share the treatment with physicians around the world. From Fox 2 Detroit, “COVID-19 treatment underway in Florida has near-perfect success rate.”
Ghana Adventist Teacher Crowned Most Outstanding Teacher in Ghana. Eric Asomani, a 39-year-old teacher at Naylor Seventh-day Adventist School in Tema Community 6, was crowned the Most Outstanding Teacher in Ghana at the National Teachers’ Day Celebration in Cape Coast. The enterprising teacher with over 12 years of experience in teaching Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Integrated Science will receive a three-bedroom house worth GHC180,000.00 and other assorted items during the third edition of the “Ghana Teacher Prize” 2020.
A teacher at Aboabo No. 4 Presbyterian Primary school, Gloria Anima Junior who was the first runner-up took home a 4 X 4 double cabin pick-up truck, while Sandrah Osei of Akwatia Technical Institute was given a saloon car as the second runner-up. In all, 17 others including teaching and non-teaching staff who excelled in their various fields of endeavor were awarded fridges, laptops, flat screens, and other assorted prizes. From MyJoyOnline, “ICT Tutor wins ‘Most Outstanding Teacher in Ghana.’”
Seventh-day Adventist Dick Johnson Featured in Daughter’s Award-winning Documentary. “No one lives to die another day like Dick Johnson, the octogenarian subject of his daughter Kirsten’s tender, tricky documentary on Netflix. Whether he’s being crushed by a rogue air conditioner or waylaid by lethal chocolate cake, Dick — a long practicing Seattle psychiatrist and faithful Seventh-day Adventist facing a diagnosis of dementia — gets knocked down, but always, Chumbawamba-style, seems to get back up again. That’s the magic of moviemaking (a soft pad, a stand-in, a few low-key special effects) but also of Kirsten Johnson’s wishful thinking: Faced with the inevitable loss of an aging parent, she chooses instead to take his demise, at least on celluloid, into her own hands. And so she sends him through a sort of Final Destination gauntlet, discarding various fatal scenarios as she goes. From Entertainment Weekly, “Netflix's Dick Johnson Is Dead turns documentary (and dads) into a radical art form: Review” and from Patheos, “‘Dick Johnson Is Dead’: Grieving and Finding Moments of Joy in Dementia.”
Loma Linda University Church’s Youth Ministry’s Small Drive-thru Event Creates Chaotic Traffic Jam. Loma Linda University Church’s youth ministry planned a small drive-thru event near the university’s hospital. When organizers originally applied to host the car show three weeks ago, they had a much smaller event in mind. The applicants included Loma Linda University Church of Seventh-day Adventists which described the event at the time as involving a caravan “somewhere in the range of 10 to no more than 20 cars,” Konrad Bolowich, an assistant city manager for Loma Linda, said. Instead, 3,000 people showed up. The Sheriff’s deputies had to disperse the crowds.
About 9 p.m. Saturday, a flood of calls came into the county Sheriff’s Department. Residents were reporting a traffic jam near the hospital’s parking garage. Callers said numerous cars were backed up inside the structure. Videos of the event show large groups of attendees — many wearing masks, others not — huddling around sports cars and luxury vehicles as they slowly drive through the garage. The structure is located less than a block from the hospital entrance. From Redlands Daily Facts, “Deputies close crowded event.”
Please note: Spectrum news round-ups are an aggregation of regional, national, and international publications around the world that have reported on stories about Adventists. As such, the accuracy of the information is the responsibility of the original publishers, which are noted and hyperlinked at the end of each excerpt.
Pam Dietrich taught English at Loma Linda Academy for 26 years and served there eight more years as the 7-12 librarian. She lives in Yucaipa, California.
Photo by Javier Matheu on Unsplash
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