Covid-19 News

    Can zinc levels predict COVID-19 severity?


    https://www.medicalnewstoday.c…severity#Laboratory-study


    Are zinc levels a risk factor?

    People with a SARS-CoV-2 infection have a broad spectrum of possible clinical outcomes ranging from asymptomatic to severe disease. Understanding the risk factors that determine COVID-19 severity is crucial in developing effective early stage treatments.


    This need prompted doctors and researchers at Hospital del Mar, Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, and the Pompeu Fabra University, all in Spain, to investigate the effect of zinc levels in people with severe COVID-19 on disease progression and clinical outcomes.


    The scientists also examined the effect of zinc supplementation to block SARS-CoV-2 replication in the laboratory.


    Dr. Robert Güerri-Fernández, a doctor at the Infectious Diseases Service of Hospital del Mar and one of the authors of the study, explains the rationale for the study:


    “Zinc is an essential element for maintaining a variety of biological processes, and altering its levels causes increased susceptibility to infections and increased inflammatory response. […] zinc levels and zinc supplementation may prove useful tools to tackle the COVID-19 crisis.”


    In the study, which appears in the journal Nutrients, the researchers analyzed data from 249 adults admitted to the hospital’s COVID-19 unit between March 9, 2020, and April 1, 2020. The median age of the participants was 65 years, and 51% were male.


    In all, 28% of the participants required intensive care unit admission, and 9% died while in the hospital.

    Improved outcomes

    Approximately 23% of the participants had low serum zinc levels at admission. Participants with low zinc levels were more likely to experience severe COVID-19 and increased levels of inflammatory markers (interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein).


    For the participants with healthy zinc levels, the time to recovery was approximately three times less than for those with a low serum level: 8 days versus 25 days, respectively.


    Individuals with low zinc levels had a significantly greater mortality rate (21%) than those in the healthy zinc group (5%).


    After adjusting for differences in the participants’ age, sex, comorbidities, and disease severity, the study revealed a significant 6% decrease in mortality with every unit increase of serum zinc at admission.

    Laboratory study

    In a parallel laboratory experiment, the researchers demonstrated that increased zinc concentrations decreased the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in cell cultures.


    Dr. Güerri-Fernández elaborates on the important implication of study results, “We have shown the importance of zinc levels in patients’ blood as an additional predictor of outcome in COVID-19, as well as its potential as a therapeutic tool for treatment.”


    The study does have some limitations. For instance, it is observational, so it is not possible to demonstrate causality. In other words, the researchers cannot determine from the findings whether low levels of zinc increase the risk of severe COVID-19 or severe COVID-19 causes zinc to become depleted.


    Also, the study is relatively small, and all of the participants came from a single center, which could limit the study’s generalizability.


    Dr. Güerri-Fernández highlights the study’s importance and the need for more work:


    “We, therefore, propose this variable as a new parameter to predict the evolution of patients, and we propose initiating clinical trials concerning zinc supplementation in patients with low levels admitted for COVID-19 and implementing programs to administer supplements to groups at risk of having low zinc levels to reduce the effects of the pandemic.”

    Quote from Fm1

    Merck has also reached an agreement to retool 2 lines for vaccine production. Ivermectin manufacturing lines. It's all about the almighty dollar $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. There is no morality in modern medicine

    This statement makes no sense from a business point of view. You cannot make money by not selling something.


    I believe your suggestion is that Merck hopes to make more money by selling some other drug that is more expensive than ivermectin. That strategy cannot work. If ivermectin is effective, other drug makers will sell it. Merck will not be able to sell a more expensive alternative, unless it can be shown that the alternative is far better. Or, if ivermectin is not effective -- if it does not work -- Merck cannot make money selling it because doctors and patients will discover it does not work.


    The strategy you seem to have in mind would be like an auto dealer refusing to sell $20,000 Toyotas while offering only $100,000 luxury cars. That would only work if there were not other auto dealers. No competition at all. Since there are other auto dealers, very few people will buy the luxury cars. Most people will buy the Toyotas. Since there are other drug companies, Merck cannot make any money selling overpriced drugs.


    Merck is also not capable of covering up the fact that ivermectin is effective -- assuming it is. No doctor, no patient and no other drug company will pay attention to what Merck says if the stuff actually works. Suppose the luxury car dealer in my pretend example was to tell you: "Don't buy a Toyota because they don't run. They never work. Your only choice is to buy my $100,000 luxury car!" Would you believe him? Of course not! No one is going to let Merck dictate their decisions, and no one will hesitate to use ivermectin just because Merck says it does not work. If they are hoping to distort the market, as you apparently believe, anyone would see through that. Anyone would suspect they are just trying to make money. You suspect that!


    I don't suspect that because I know that business strategy would be crazy.

    Quote from Fm1

    But, Osterholm said the more infectious B.1.1.7. variant from the U.K. is surging beneath the surface. Responsible for just 1 to 4 percent of U.S. cases a month ago, the variant has now grown to 30 to 40 percent of cases.

    That is bad news. The good news is that the present vaccines appear to be effective against this variant. So it is race with time. We have to get people vaccinated before the variant spreads, and before unvaccinated people get sick or die. If we can vaccinate enough people this variant will stop, even though it is more contagious.


    I cannot understand why so many governors and other people are acting as if the pandemic has ended, by not wearing masks. Why are people risking their health, and their lives? If they just wear masks a few more months, and keep taking other precautions, all will be well. Except, of course, for people who refuse to be vaccinated. They will get sick and die. However, the pandemic will end because we will reach herd immunity. Some people will reach it because they are vaccinated. Others because they get infected and get sick. Soon, 70% to 80% will be immune, either way. I think the virus is contagious enough that it will soon infect 80%, the way the 1918 virus did. It is not going to linger for years. Your choice is to get vaccinated, get sick, or get lucky and be one of the 20% who are safe after herd immunity is achieved.

    You missed yesterday's news


    Merck has better luck with 2nd COVID-19 drug attempt as it sees a positive in early molnupiravir data


    https://www.fiercebiotech.com/…sitive-early-molnupiravir


    How as far as any company manufacturing ivermectin, india is tooled to manufacture Vaccines and existing contracts for other drugs, all main manufacturing in Europe is involved n Vaccine production, merck agreed to manufacture Vaccines so where is the production going to come from ivermectin sells for pennies.

    Body Mass Index and Risk for COVID-19–Related Hospitalization, Intensive Care Unit Admission, Invasive Mechanical Ventilation, and Death — United States, March–December 2020


    https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volum…10e4.htm?s_cid=mm7010e4_w


    Around 78% of people who were hospitalized, needed a ventilator or died as a result of COVID-19 were overweight or obsess, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).


    The report tracked more than 148,000 U.S. adults who received a COVID-19 diagnosis during an emergency department or inpatient visit at 238 U.S. hospitals between March and December 2020. Of those adults, more than 28% were overweight while 50% were obese.

    CDC recommendations not based on science


    Research doctors: The CDC misrepresented our data on school reopenings


    https://hotair.com/archives/ja…ta-school-reopenings/amp/


    The recent school reopening guidance released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is an example of fears influencing and resulting in misinterpretation of science and harmful policy. In the U.S. 50% of schools are closed and more only partially open. President Biden ran on a campaign indicating that science and data would guide his policy. As we approach the anniversary of the first COVID shut down, this approach is needed more than ever, especially when it comes to schools.


    Like in so many states, California and Illinois schools are being hamstrung by the CDC guidance. The guidance does not take into account the data we have regarding little disease transmission in schools. Nor, although the guidance cites the work performed across Wisconsin districts performed by our group and published in the MMWR, does it take that data and new analyses from that dataset into account. Keeping schools closed or even partially closed, based on what we know now is unwarranted, is harming children, and has become a human rights issue.


    Ouch! That had to sting a bit.


    The doctors go on from there to hit the CDC with a barrage of facts that have now been clearly established. They first note that children are the least likely to suffer poor outcomes from COVID. As of March 3, 286 children have died from COVID as compared to more than half a million adults. That’s on par with the number of children who die from pneumonia every year. And at this point, we’re losing more children to suicide than we are to the novel coronavirus.

    COVID-19 'long-haulers' report nearly 100 symptoms for more than 100 days

    "How long does it take you to get back to normal? That's an open question," Dr. Anthony Fauci told NBC News.


    https://www.nbcnews.com/health…ymptoms-more-100-n1235217


    COVID-19 symptoms that can linger for weeks and months after a diagnosis may be wide-ranging — and include everything from joint pain and fevers, to hair loss and double vision.


    In fact, those patients, self-nicknamed the long-haulers, reported experiencing 98 different symptoms in a survey released Wednesday.


    Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak


    "They're not quite sick enough to be hospitalized, but they are suffering from very severe symptoms, sometimes for a very long time at home," Natalie Lambert, an associate professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine, said.


    Lambert partnered with a COVID-19 support group called Survivor Corps to survey patients on the group's Facebook page about their symptoms. She estimated more than 1,500 members of the group gave their responses.


    The questionnaire asked users to identify which symptoms they were experiencing, and allowed them to add symptoms Lambert hadn't considered.


    In all, patients reported 98 different symptoms they attributed to their COVID-19 diagnosis. In part, those symptoms included dizziness, anxiety, headache, rashes, joint pain, shortness of breath, heartburn, diarrhea and fevers. They also reported difficulty with memory, thinking, sleep and vision.

    More than a quarter of the respondents said they experienced ongoing pain, such as body aches, nerve pain and joint pain.


    All participants remained anonymous, making it impossible to confirm their diagnosis or symptoms with a physician. And it's impossible to tease out which symptoms may be directly linked to COVID-19 infection, such as fever, and which might be linked to overall stress and anxiety of being in a pandemic.


    But that does not mean doctors aren't paying attention.


    "When people get infected, and get sick, and maybe are in bed for a few weeks," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top expert in infectious diseases, said on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports on Wednesday, "we're starting to see that they do not recover as completely and as quickly as you would like."


    "How long does it take you to get back to normal? That's an open question," he added. "We're only six months into the outbreak."


    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists just 11 COVID-19 symptoms on its website. However, in a significant acknowledgment, the CDC reported on long-term COVID-19 symptoms for the first time last week.

    Convalescent Plasma Strikes Out As COVID-19 Treatment


    https://www.npr.org/sections/h…out-as-covid-19-treatment


    More than half a million Americans have received an experimental treatment for COVID-19 called convalescent plasma. But a year into the pandemic, it's not clear who, if anyone, benefits from it.


    That uncertainty highlights the challenges scientists have faced in their attempts to evaluate COVID-19 drugs.


    On paper, treatment with convalescent plasma makes good sense. The idea is to take blood plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 and infuse it into patients with active infections. The antibodies in the donated plasma, in theory, would help fight the virus.


    Based on that idea, last March Dr. Nicole Bouvier at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York decided to give it a try.


    She recalls thinking, "we have this new disease that didn't have any known therapies, and convalescent plasma has been used in new epidemic and pandemic diseases," as recently as in an Ebola outbreak in West Africa a few years ago.


    She says she was the first doctor to get special permission from the Food and Drug Administration to use it as an experimental treatment.

    The Bird (UK Ivermectin panel) home page. https://www.e-bmc.co.uk/

    Quote from JedRothwell

    I cannot understand why so many governors and other people are acting as if the pandemic has ended, by not wearing masks. Why are people risking their health, and their lives?

    Because there is "0" risk for the working population. No excess mortality. --> people that die would die for other reason too!

    Quote from Fm1

    Keeping schools closed or even partially closed, based on what we know now is unwarranted, is harming children, and has become a human rights issue.

    We never fully closed schools. Only countries like Germany/US/UK that base its state on so called "mafia science experts" do this.


    Real science did (long time ago already) prove that children to not significantly transmit the CoV-19 virus due to many facts.

    An exploratory study of selenium status in healthy individuals and in patients with COVID-19 in a south Indian population: The case for adequate selenium status


    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7657009/


    Abstract

    The acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has affected millions of individuals, causing major health and economic disruptions worldwide. The pandemic is still raging, with a second and third wave in a few countries, while new infections steadily rise in India. Nutrition and immune status are two critical aspects of fighting the virus successfully. Recently, selenium status was reported to positively correlate with the survival of patients with COVID-19 compared with non-survivors. We analyzed the blood serum levels in 30 apparently healthy individuals and in 30 patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection in the southern part of India. The patients showed significantly lower selenium levels of 69.2 ± 8.7 ng/mL than controls 79.1 ± 10.9 ng/mL. The difference was statistically significant (P = 0.0003). Interestingly, the control group showed a borderline level of selenium, suggesting that the level of this micronutrient is not optimum in the population studied. The results of this exploratory study pave the way for further research in a larger population and suggest that selenium supplementation may be helpful in reducing the effects of the virus.

    after a year of covid 19 it looks like " The Experts " don't understand coronavirus's very well. They claimed early on coronavirus mutations are much slower developing than influenza. Surprise!!!!!


    We Now Can See a Virus Mutate Like Never Before


    https://news.google.com/articl…=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen


    Since then, the number of sequenced genomes has simply exploded, to 700,000. In just over a year, the virus that causes COVID-19 has become the most sequenced virus of all time—soaring past such longtime contenders as HIV and influenza. Thousands of coronavirus genomes are sequenced around the world every day; several were generated in just the minute it’s taken for you to read these three paragraphs. “It’s been a revolution,” says Judith Breuer, a virologist at University College London.


    Quote from Wyttenbach
    Because there is "0" risk for the working population. No excess mortality. --> people that die would die for other reason too!

    I am trying to come up with the simplest way to show this is generally the case - what statistics are the best to demonstrate this (or is there a paper I can use) I know various people have done this analysis and I just want to use the best ones

    The Role of Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Selenium in Immune System against COVID-19


    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7696052/


    Abstract

    Low levels of micronutrients have been associated with adverse clinical outcomes during viral infections. Therefore, to maximize the nutritional defense against infections, a daily allowance of vitamins and trace elements for malnourished patients at risk of or diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may be beneficial. Recent studies on COVID-19 patients have shown that vitamin D and selenium deficiencies are evident in patients with acute respiratory tract infections. Vitamin D improves the physical barrier against viruses and stimulates the production of antimicrobial peptides. It may prevent cytokine storms by decreasing the production of inflammatory cytokines. Selenium enhances the function of cytotoxic effector cells. Furthermore, selenium is important for maintaining T cell maturation and functions, as well as for T cell-dependent antibody production. Vitamin C is considered an antiviral agent as it increases immunity. Administration of vitamin C increased the survival rate of COVID-19 patients by attenuating excessive activation of the immune response. Vitamin C increases antiviral cytokines and free radical formation, decreasing viral yield. It also attenuates excessive inflammatory responses and hyperactivation of immune cells. In this mini-review, the roles of vitamin C, vitamin D, and selenium in the immune system are discussed in relation to COVID-19.

    Quote from Navid

    I am trying to come up with the simplest way to show this is generally the case -

    Torkel did it for Sweden: http://www.sifferkoll.se/siffe…ing-numbers-and-insights/

    Quote from zorud

    https://www.destatis.de/EN/The…ety/population_death.html

    In fact the picture is everywhere the same. Excess death due to CoV-19 includes untreated heart/brain stroke and other untreated illnesses including a strong increase in suicides. After each wave we have a counter reaction with less than average death.

    This was obvious from the begin (first shown by Italy) of the pandemic as the average age of deaths from CoV-19 was always > average age of death of the country!

    Nobody can choose time and mode of death except with suicide if its successful! So why complain about CoV-19 killing people a few weeks/months ahead??

    Quote from Fm1

    You missed yesterday's news


    Merck has better luck with 2nd COVID-19 drug attempt as it sees a positive in early molnupiravir data

    If it is much better, then it makes sense for them not to manufacture ivermectin. They can sell the new one for more money. Others can continue to sell ivermectin. Whichever product works better should win out. That's free market competition!


    If it isn't much better, doctors and patients will soon find out and Merck will lose a lot of money.

    Quote from Mark U

    You missed the currently most populated bracket : Those who are exposed to the virus and don't get appreciably sick at all.

    I did not miss them. I said there are three groups: those who get sick, those who get vaccinated, and those who are never exposed because of herd immunity. People who do not get appreciably sick are still sick. They are lucky, but sick. There were people in 1918 who had very mild cases of the Spanish flu. They still had it.

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