Covid-19 News

Italy may have turned the corner. Here is my graph of the Worldmeters data including today's data (which is final for this day):

Other countries seem to be leveling off, for 3 to 4 days in a row. It is hard to tell.

Quote from seven_of_twenty

Yes you can (or could as of recently). Use the same web site for 24/7 global med that you used for hydroxychloroquine.

As reported here, a trial of this will begin tomorrow. This may be repeat info. but, QUOTE:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday that drug trials to test coronavirus treatments will begin in the state Tuesday, after President Trump on Thursday said the Food and Drug Administration approved one of the drugs for clinical trials, as New York becomes the epicenter for the pandemic in the U.S.

• During a Sunday press briefing, Cuomo said 750,000 doses of chloroquine, 70,000 doses of hydroxychloroquine and 10,000 doses of Zithromax were acquired by New York state for the trial.
• Chloroquine (an anti-malaria drug) and hydroxychloroquine (used for lupus and arthritis) were approved by the FDA for clinical trials as possible coronavirus treatments, while Zithromax is a brand-name antibiotic.
• "The president is optimistic about these drugs and we are all optimistic that it could work,” Cuomo said.
• Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said Friday that the drug’s promise was “anecdotal,” adding, “It was not done in a controlled clinical trial. So you really can’t make any definitive statement about it.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/l…-cuomo-says/#2484d36b4203

[If this turns out to work, we will owe a lot of credit to Trump for getting the show on the road. Trump, of all people!]

[750,000 doses of this and 70,000 doses of that is quite a large trial! If the stuff works well, that's sure to tell us. In normal times, to do a study on this scale without first doing a safety check would be unthinkable. Doing it without the double-blind protocol would be verboten.]

Quote

Both these articles show the world has kicked into high gear to find the drugs that will kill the virus. They probably represent a longer term solution (although the statins could be used right now I would think?), than the Chloroquine combos already actively being incorporated into treatment protocols. But it does give one hope, that with so many bright minds around the world totally committed to finding the solution, one or more will hit the jackpot.

The impact of ACE receptor blockers (ARB's) is doubtful because this approach targets the wrong ACEII receptor (type 1 instead of type 2 which the virus uses). I've posted references on this before. For the same reason, it is probably a bad idea to stop angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors if you need them to control your blood pressure. They probably have nothing to do with the virus attachment point. Of course, I know nothing about this on my own, I just read it but the author was pretty convincing. YMMV.

Statins? That would be nice but seems sort of a long shot. For most people, other than taking extreme amounts, statins are pretty safe but if you take them, you should be alert to rare but disturbing side effects (Google it).

One will hit the jackpot if there is a jackpot. At the moment, it I were getting progressively very ill with COVID-19, and assuming no heart disease and good EKG monitoring, I'd try hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin.

Quote from Shane D.

One reason Germany's death rate is so low (.4%), may be for the same reason South Korea's was low...more testing:

Switzerland has ramped up daily tests to 6000 now. The Swiss deaths given by worldometers are wrong. Official number (currently..) is 69 only. But Switzerland has the same high infection rate as Italy but ten times less deaths/infection. (Most from the Italian part of Switzerland!)

Why? Italy can only test severe cases that go into a hospital. According to 10 majors of north Italian cities, for one patient that dies inside a hospital 3 more die at home. Thus the real number of cases in Italy has to be multiplied by 10. The number of deaths by at least 3. The same thing happened at Wuhan. I'm wondering whether one day China will confess that it cheated the world with wrong numbers about the initial infection rate.

Quote from Wyttenbach

dies inside a hospital 3 more die at home.

I play a lot of email chess games. Some of my partners from Italy said that most hospitals (north) are no longer admitting people over 60. So they must stay home and die. Those are not counted in the stats since they were not tested.

I am not sure if it is true to a large scale or not. But sad if true.

New trial starting in Canada Colchicine

New York Hospitals have been using chloroquine. Perhaps Cuomo and Fauci are unaware?

WATCH: NY Doctor says his hospital already using Chloroquine for coronavirus patients and have had ZERO deaths

https://therightscoop.com/watc…and-have-had-zero-deaths/

Dr. William Grace, Lenox Hill Oncologist, New York. Interviewed by Laura Ingraham on Fox News talking about using chloroquine to treat COVID-19

"Everybody is using it now off-label. We have a surge of coronavirus 19 patients throughout the metropolitan area of New York. And the problem is these patients are coming in quite sick and when they get to a very difficult respiratory status, doctors are using hydroxychloroquine with or without a drug called zithromax or azithromicin, and that's showing tremendous activity. And we have not had a death in our hospital. We have probably close to 100 patients and not had any deaths. But I've talked to many of my colleagues at other hospitals in New York and they also are using hydroxychloroquine although the supplies are running down, so any kind of supplements to those supplies will be much appreciated. . . in the trenches we're all using it, especially for desperately ill people . . . we think it works in two ways, as you know the death rate goes up as the age goes up, and what I think is the more mature your immune response is, the more likely you are to have a cytokine storm, which means that people with viral pneumonias die because their lungs fill up with fluids largely from an immune response, and this drug works not only inhibiting virus replication, but also inhibits the immune response so you don't get the tremendous amount of inflammation. That's why the drug is also used in rheumatoid arthritis and lupus"

I conjecture that Fauci is trying to stop a run on hydroxychloroquine so that essential government and health care workers and military can obtain what is available first. I doubt he has any question about its efficacy. Its contraindications have been well known for decades.

Quote from oldguy

I play a lot of email chess games. Some of my partners from Italy said that most hospitals (north) are no longer admitting people over 60.

I believe the report is they are no longer giving ventilators to people over 60 when there are not enough ventilators to go around. Not that they are turning people away from hospitals.

Quote from Lou Pagnucco

I conjecture that Fauci is trying to stop a run on hydroxychloroquine so that essential government and health care workers and military can obtain what is available first.

Your conjecture is based on nothing. Millions of doses can be made in a short time, at a low cost. The Israeli pharmaceutical company Teva has offered to send U.S. hospitals 10 million doses for free.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/…tential-to-help-covid-19/

You should not post such scurrilous, baseless accusations here.

Why have they not sent any to the UK? There seems to be a complete block on any discussion of its use here. I'll get back to harassing the BBC about this. The dip in Italian stat s begins on 20 March correlating with first use of chloroquine. I believe the low death rate in China correlates with its widespread use a month earlier. Without it even with vigorous quarantine, screening and testing the pandemic there would have continued rising exponentially as it has been doing elsewhere. Still only one or two cases in Kenya and Nigeria (Lagos has had a run on chloroquine with one of two non - fatal overdoses.)

Calm down Jed,

Sure millions of doses can be made, but when the statements were made supplies were insufficient - probably still are

(Some countries are prohibiting export.) See -- "Chloroquine in short supply as hospitals buy in bulk"

https://www.modernhealthcare.c…supply-hospitals-buy-bulk

According to my readings, many hospitals and professionals are using it now. (China, S.Korea, Australia, ...)

I see reports that some celebrities are also self-medicating.

Contraindications and dosage data have been established decades ago.

Also, it MAY turn out the "cure" (i.e., total lockdown) is worse the disease (CV).

Economic devastation, job losses, personal and business bankruptcies are not small costs. See --

"A fiasco in the making? As the coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions without reliable data"

https://www.statnews.com/2020/…ns-without-reliable-data/

California's shelter in place seems to be working (presuming timely reporting)

+73 cases +1 deaths

My county (Lake) is increasing its lockdown, including closing motels, rv parks, airbnb, camping to bay-area refugees.
So far no cases, but only 40 tested.

I should have said Uganda and Somalia, Kenya and Nigeria have cases in the teens now and one reported death. But these numbers are so low in malarial regions surely a case can be made for prophylaxis at least for exposed health workers? Am I the only person in the world making this connection?

Quote from Lou Pagnucco

Calm down Jed,

Sure millions of doses can be made, but when the statements were made supplies were insufficient - probably still are

You claimed that "Fauci is trying to stop a run on hydroxychloroquine" by claiming it does not work. That would extremely unethical. It would be tantamount to murder. If he thinks it works, but he thinks supplies are limited, he would say: "This may work, but unfortunately supplies are limited. So we must begin with 50,000 doses to patients who are gravely ill in test in New York, and we must reserve a large number of doses for the doctors and nurses on the front lines." He would not lie, and claim he thinks it does not work. He is a distinguished medical researcher, known to be honest.

UK now officially on lockdown from tonight.

Briefing at work today NHS is looking at 12 weeks minimum for this.

Treatment will get better - providing health systems are no overwhelmed

https://www.thelancet.com/jour…-6736(20)30628-0/fulltext

Jed,

You wrote: You claimed that "Fauci is trying to stop a run on hydroxychloroquine" by claiming it does not work.

I never said that or believed that.

Fauci was trying to dampen down the enthusiasm which is causing a run on supplies.

As a matter of fact, I have just spoken to two people who said they were waiting for Fauci's approval.

So, I do not condemn him for that, but I think I understand and approve of his motive.

Any effective medication should be saved for the severely ill, medical personnel, law enforcement, infrastructure workers, ..., until supplies are adequate for all.