Socorro governamental às pequenas unidades produtivas frente à atual pandemia

Este trabalho tem por objetivo avaliar as principais ações do governo federal brasileiro, no sentido de socorrer os segmentos mais vulneráveis do aparato produtivo nacional. Como será possível observar ao longo do texto, entendemos que as medidas apresentadas até o momento não se conectam em uma perspectiva sistêmica, mas, sim, compõem uma miríade cujo entendimento está escapando à grande parte dos micro e pequenos empresários e dos trabalhadores autônomos, alvos principais das ações aqui destacadas.

HGF and CXCL13, Two Antagonizing Cytokines in Lung Inflammation and Fibrosis, Predict the Severity and the Mortality of COVID-19 (preprint)

The objective of the present study was to identify biological signatures of severe COVID-19 predictive of admission in the intensive care unit (ICU). Over 170 immunological markers were investigated in a ‘discovery’ cohort (n=98 patients) of the Lausanne University Hospital (LUH-1). While cellular immunological markers lacked power in discriminating between ICU and non-ICU patients, 13 out of 49 cytokines were significantly associated with ICU admission in the three cohorts (P<0.05 to P<0.001). The cytokine results were confirmed in two ‘validation’ cohorts, i.e. the French COVID-19 Study (FCS; n=62) and a second LUH-2 cohort (n=47). Of note, HGF is a pleiotropic cytokine with anti-inflammatory properties playing a fundamental role in lung tissue repair, and CXCL13, a pro-inflammatory chemokine associated with pulmonary fibrosis and regulating the maturation of B cell response. The two cytokines in combination were the best predictors of ICU admission (positive and negative predictive values ranging from 81.8% to 93.1% and 85.2% to 94.4% in the 3 cohorts) and occurrence of death during patient follow-up (8.8 fold higher likelihood of death when both cytokines were increased). Up-regulation of HGF reflects the most powerful counter-regulatory mechanism of the host immune response to antagonize the pro-inflammatory cytokines including CXCL13 and to prevent lung fibrosis in COVID-19 patients.

Socorro governamental às pequenas unidades produtivas frente à atual pandemia

Este trabalho tem por objetivo avaliar as principais ações do governo federal brasileiro, no sentido de socorrer os segmentos mais vulneráveis do aparato produtivo nacional. Como será possível observar ao longo do texto, entendemos que as medidas apresentadas até o momento não se conectam em uma perspectiva sistêmica, mas, sim, compõem uma miríade cujo entendimento está escapando à grande parte dos micro e pequenos empresários e dos trabalhadores autônomos, alvos principais das ações aqui destacadas.

From biological viruses to economic viruses: a vaccine for microenterprises in Brazil De la virosis biológica a la virosis económica: una vacuna para microempresas en Brasil

Facing the threat of disruption to the productive sector as a result of social distancing measures imposed in Brazil, and considering that micro and small enterprises are those hardest struck, this study aims to formulate a government emergency aid proposal for this segment. It presents a brief analysis of the federal government’s current actions and proposes a measure capable of filling the gaps observed. Finally, the study offers an estimation of costs for the National Treasury if adopting the proposed measure.