ALVA Woodpeckers build home in Alva woman’s house You may have heard of squatters, but this woman is dealing with squawkers. Who needs a rooster to wake up when you have woodpeckers?
FORT MYERS Man claims he was trapped in a high-rise for 5 days A 77-year-old man wants justice after he claims he spent days trapped on the 24th floor of a high-rise apartment building.
PUNTA GORDA Charlotte Correctional prisoner arrested for death of another inmate State Attorney Amira Fox convened a grand jury, which decided to move forward with a case against a Charlotte Correctional inmate.
SANIBEL Construction near Dairy Queen eagle nest on Sanibel raises concerns While many eagle nests may be a bit difficult to see, one nest has always been a favorite for Sanibel residents and tourists.
The environmental effects of artificial sweeteners Experts are studying how the foods we eat affect the environment, especially after we flush our waste down the toilet.
Victim reacts to man exposing himself to her Ring camera You get a notification on your phone from your ring camera app that someone is at the door, only to find out it is someone exposing themselves. It’s the last thing victim Maria Kivi wanted or expected to see last week.
LEE COUNTY The art of capturing your eye and drawing you in How do you capture young, hip, trendy, fun, movers and shakers, all in a pose? We take you behind the scenes of a Gulfshore Life cover shoot.
FORT MYERS The lives of two SJC Boxers changed in the ring Two SJC Boxers, Mario Nunez and Arbon Kurtishi, help each other in the ring as each of them had their lives changed because of boxing.
FORT MYERS Chlamydia cases rising sharply in Lee County If you think about a crowded space- something with more than 250 people- if it’s in Lee county, statistically one person has chlamydia.
SANIBEL Sanibel resort day passes hope to get more business on the island A pass will allow vacationers to hang out at a Sanibel beach club for a day in hopes of drumming up some business.
Voting equipment tested ahead of Lee County elections Voting equipment is being tested in Lee County. This is to ensure all ballots are printed and counted correctly for the upcoming election.
Collier County teen assaulted after leaving party The teen has been charged and the sheriff’s office said they’re aware that many believe felony charges are in order, but under Florida law, there are very specific criteria that must be met for felony charges to be filed.
WINK weather team watching tropical wave over Atlantic Ocean The Weather Authority is watching a tropical disturbance over the Central Atlantic Ocean.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral drug bust leads investigators to fake fentanyl, cash and guns Cape Coral man arrest on drug charges. Investigators said they found, guns, drugs, and more than $32,000 in Richard Riley’s home.
NAPLES Naples youth flag football team to compete in Ohio tournament This weekend, the Naples Lunatics Green will compete in the Superhero Sports tournament in Canton, Ohio.
ALVA Woodpeckers build home in Alva woman’s house You may have heard of squatters, but this woman is dealing with squawkers. Who needs a rooster to wake up when you have woodpeckers?
FORT MYERS Man claims he was trapped in a high-rise for 5 days A 77-year-old man wants justice after he claims he spent days trapped on the 24th floor of a high-rise apartment building.
PUNTA GORDA Charlotte Correctional prisoner arrested for death of another inmate State Attorney Amira Fox convened a grand jury, which decided to move forward with a case against a Charlotte Correctional inmate.
SANIBEL Construction near Dairy Queen eagle nest on Sanibel raises concerns While many eagle nests may be a bit difficult to see, one nest has always been a favorite for Sanibel residents and tourists.
The environmental effects of artificial sweeteners Experts are studying how the foods we eat affect the environment, especially after we flush our waste down the toilet.
Victim reacts to man exposing himself to her Ring camera You get a notification on your phone from your ring camera app that someone is at the door, only to find out it is someone exposing themselves. It’s the last thing victim Maria Kivi wanted or expected to see last week.
LEE COUNTY The art of capturing your eye and drawing you in How do you capture young, hip, trendy, fun, movers and shakers, all in a pose? We take you behind the scenes of a Gulfshore Life cover shoot.
FORT MYERS The lives of two SJC Boxers changed in the ring Two SJC Boxers, Mario Nunez and Arbon Kurtishi, help each other in the ring as each of them had their lives changed because of boxing.
FORT MYERS Chlamydia cases rising sharply in Lee County If you think about a crowded space- something with more than 250 people- if it’s in Lee county, statistically one person has chlamydia.
SANIBEL Sanibel resort day passes hope to get more business on the island A pass will allow vacationers to hang out at a Sanibel beach club for a day in hopes of drumming up some business.
Voting equipment tested ahead of Lee County elections Voting equipment is being tested in Lee County. This is to ensure all ballots are printed and counted correctly for the upcoming election.
Collier County teen assaulted after leaving party The teen has been charged and the sheriff’s office said they’re aware that many believe felony charges are in order, but under Florida law, there are very specific criteria that must be met for felony charges to be filed.
WINK weather team watching tropical wave over Atlantic Ocean The Weather Authority is watching a tropical disturbance over the Central Atlantic Ocean.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral drug bust leads investigators to fake fentanyl, cash and guns Cape Coral man arrest on drug charges. Investigators said they found, guns, drugs, and more than $32,000 in Richard Riley’s home.
NAPLES Naples youth flag football team to compete in Ohio tournament This weekend, the Naples Lunatics Green will compete in the Superhero Sports tournament in Canton, Ohio.
A new COVID-19 breakthrough is showing promise – and would be an easy pill to swallow. More than a year into the pandemic, doctors and patients still have few treatment options. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. “You have cells in a dish that are infected with a virus. And then you have lots and lots and lots and lots of dishes. And all of them are exposed to different drugs. And you just look to see which drugs can stop the virus from replicating and which ones don’t. And usually, that ends up you could start with hundreds of 1000s of drugs, and you end up with like, 10,” said Dr. Timothy Sheahan with the Department of Epidemiology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But Sheahan’s team found what they were looking for: a drug that stopped coronaviruses from replicating. “It basically had antiviral activity against all coronaviruses that we tested it against.” It’s called molnupiravir, and it’s earned another new title: the COVID pill. A study by drugmakers Merck and Ridgeback Bio found that after taking the pill two times a day for five days, tests didn’t find any infectious virus in participants. “They basically showed that people who are on the antiviral drug, infectious virus disappeared faster from their nose than people who are not on it. So it’s like direct evidence that your antiviral drug is having an antiviral effect – it’s doing its job; it’s making the virus go away,” said Sheahan. Liz Chandler, pharmacy and clinical specialist for infectious diseases at Lee Health, is encouraged by the findings. “Especially that this new agent is potentially an oral option.” Chandler says taking the COVID treatment by mouth is a new and needed option. “The number of COVID therapeutics that we actually have available currently and are using is really a small handful,” she said. “It’s something that patients could potentially take at home, as opposed to having to go to an infusion center or going to the hospital for.” Still, it’s too early to pull out the prescription pad. “It still needs to undergo larger clinical trials to really determine its place in therapy. Right now, we have some preliminary data about reducing the viral load, for example. But that doesn’t always correlate with how the patients actually do. Does it actually improve their symptoms? Does it actually help prevent progression to hospitalization or even death? Those are a lot of questions that I still have in my mind, and we just don’t have that information yet. So it’s very early on,” said Chandler. “I think we’re gonna learn a lot more in the next few months about whether or not this is not only effective, but it’s also safe for people to take,” said Sheahan. Merck hopes to have interim results by the end of March. The COVID pill is expected to be effective against all coronaviruses, including the different variants. “We take a drug, and we test it against every coronavirus that we know about. And if it works against all those, it’s likely that it will work against those that might emerge in the future,” said Sheahan. “In the next year or so, we’re going to see probably multiple oral antiviral drugs come out. And so I think we might have not just one option but multiple options.”