Regarding this ...
The US Is Scrambling To Produce The Experimental Ebola Drug ZMapp [UK/Telegraph]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3210701/posts
“...they may not be able to produce more than a few hundred treatment courses by early spring.”
I have trouble imagining what the bottleneck is here. I seriously doubt that any republican would want to block more funding of ZMapp after it offered so much promise. Tobacco isn’t the bottleneck — harvests are in the fall. And we could plant it in hothouses year-round.
I can only imagine that the Executive Branch is failing Ebola victims.
Actually, I grew up on a tobacco farm. It takes the plant 3.5 to 4 months to reach maturity. I’m not exactly what tinkering they do with the plant beforehand, but I can see problems with growing a 5-6 ft. tall, 4 ft. diameter (at the bright leaf) plant in hothouses. What part of the plant are they using? (Leaf, stem, root, all?)
>> a few hundred treatment courses by early spring
> I have trouble imagining what the bottleneck is here.
If I recall, the issue is that Zmapp is made from organic components (a hybridized tobacco strain?) that have to first be grown, before being distilled into the Zmapp components. Of course, my memory could be incorrect.