SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

So, you found other link. That doesn't mean STAT site news is trustworthy, but they are Boston based medical and life science news firm produced by Boston Globe Media. They do marketing for subscription. I am not a paid subscriber, but receive e-mail alert. For what's worth I first found out about their publication when I read a piece "A fiasco in the making? As the coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions without reliable data" by John P.A. Ioannidis, now famous by the Stanford study COVID-19 Antibody Seroprevalence in Santa Clara County, California

 

Word for the day .... "VPN"

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As I read this article, I was reminded of the vaccine paper that appeared in Lancet, later withdrawn, that claimed vaccinations were associated with autism. The absence of vaccinations in some populations led to severe medical outcomes. Bad data leads to bad results and the inconsistencies reported in this study are pretty devastating.

What this means is we don't have a credible call on either medication. Understand I remain skeptical of medicines aimed at blood parasites which is off by three orders of magnitude from something aimed at a virus. Not impossible but somewhat improbable.

Bob Wilson

 

So aspirin works and I'm OK with that and even exploit similar compounds (aka., cranberry) to amplify one of my medications. My informal tests have shown shiitake mushrooms have a blood pressure effect not found with garlic.

My mind is open to a well controlled, double-blind test that quantifies any medication. Like my Marine drill instructor once said,"A grain of observation outweighs a pound of 'bovine fecal matter' any day."

Bob Wilson

 

Hot on the heals of the studies withdrawn yesterday by Lancet and NEJM, a separate study by Oxford reports its first results. This study of a half dozen treatments just ended the hydroxychloroquine arm yesterday because it doesn't work. Though it doesn't appear to hurt either, in the scanty pre-publication info released so far:

Malaria drug didn’t help virus patients, big UK study finds

"Leaders of a large study in the United Kingdom that is rigorously testing the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and other medicines for hospitalized COVID-19 patients say they will stop putting people on the drug because it’s clear it isn’t helping.

Results released Friday from 1,542 patients showed the drug did not reduce deaths, time in the hospital or other factors. After 28 days, 25.7% on hydroxychloroquine had died versus 23.5% given usual care -- a difference so small it could have occurred by chance.

The results “convincingly rule out any meaningful mortality benefit,” study leaders at the University of Oxford said in a statement. ...

More than 11,000 patients in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were randomly assigned to get either standard of care or that plus one of these treatments: hydroxychloroquine, the HIV combo drug lopinavir-ritonavir, the antibiotic azithromycin, the steroid dexamethasone, the anti-inflammatory drug tocilizumab, or plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 that contains antibodies to fight the virus.

Independent monitors met Thursday night to review results so far and recommended ending the hydroxychloroquine part of the study because results from 80% of participants suggested continuing was futile. ..."

 

all is lost

 

No pun intended, that was just a typo for "heels".

Dang editing time limit ...

 

nbc news: '48 hydroxychloroquine studies continue in the usa'

'researchers want to know if it is effective as a prophylactic'

 

Maybe they should see if it works as a placebo . . .

 

So I think you'd have to test it against a placebo to see how well it does.
Isn't that what they are already doing?

Mike

 

I treat around 8 covid cases a day. It's not what you see on the news. Kill your televisions ppl

 

Please enlighten us

 

What is happening is not on TV:

My sister-in-law is an ER doctor in Connecticut, ~3.6 million people, which is running about 200 new cases per day.

Bob Wilson

 

that could equal 8 per doctor

 

we were in orlando until march 13th. possible contracted it down there, can't get an antibody test yet.

i'm surprised how low your numbers are, with all the international travelers

 

it must be that the levels vary from area to area - way more than we hear about on TV. The hospital procedure my wife just finished a week ago in Laguna Beach, we were told it's absolutely nothing - zero there.
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