Covid-19 News

    Quote from Shane D.

    Only 17% of the cruise ship Diamond Princess passengers were infected...most without symptoms.


    After how many weeks? They 23,5 hours lived in isolation. Most became infected because they had to stay on the ship and they did cross the path of others at least two times a day for dinner or walking on the desk. Death rate nevertheless is 1.5% among the 711 infected.


    And according to a Japanese doctor (did work for WHO in SARS/MERS case - his report is on youtube) because ignorants did run the quarantine.

    https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/928151


    FDA Authorizes Rapid Antibody Test


    A newly available antibody test may help evaluate the SARS-CoV-2 virus in 20 minutes or less. The US Food and Drug Administration has granted Cellex an emergency use authorization to market the first rapid antibody test for

    COVID-19.

    The test, which indicates the presence of IgM, IgG, or both antibodies against the virus, demonstrated a nearly 94% positive percent agreement with reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) during premarket testing and a 96% negative percent agreement with RT-PCR.

    MDedge explains how the test works and that negative test results do not rule out infection.

    Go! REMAP-CAP


    The Randomized Embedded Multifactorial Adaptive Platform for Community-acquired Pneumonia (REMAP-CAP) Study: Rationale and Design.

    http://dx.doi.org/10.1513/AnnalsATS.202003-192SD (research paper)


    news comment:

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/r…/2020/04/200409140015.htm


    A novel 'learning while doing' clinical trial approach called REMAP helps doctors find the optimal trade-off between quickly adopting new therapies during a pandemic, such as the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, and waiting until they are tested in longer clinical trials. The trial learns from similar trials enrolling around the world and uses artificial intelligence to quickly arrive at answers.


    robert bryant


    Unless somehow they list authors differently (in reverse of importance) in France! Raoult is making all the noise. But he is the least important author in terms of actually working on the study. Raoult has a sketchy past reputation (I linked that issue before). This study has no control patients at all. We have no idea what the outcome would have been without treatment with HCQ+Azi. The first study had controls but they were very poorly chosen and followed. These are tantalizing studies but they do not give enough information. Zelenko's work is also tantalizing but so badly done, it also is essentially worthless. Not enough is known about the extremely variable course of COVID-19 to predict what happens without treatment. Without controls, adequate controls, there is nothing to compare against. I love the possibility that we can actually do something against this horrible scourge but we will have to await proper studies.


    Look at the actual whole paper, not just the somewhat confusing data page: https://www.mediterranee-infec…2020/03/COVID-IHU-2-1.pdf


    It is beyond my understanding why these authors, given the critiques of their first paper, elected to do a study completely devoid of control subjects.


    Frankly, I dread the possibility of having to make recommendations to a friend or a family member should they get stricken. It would require consultation with specialists and a very careful measurement of QTc on the EKG. I have some especially vulnerable people in my group. For one family who are exposed due to their work, I have provided a Kardia EKG device (by mail from Amazon) so we can measure them should the need arise. Should anyone I know require the treatment from me, I would check their QTc twice a day. Absent that, I might have to withhold the drugs. It would be a very difficult decision. We just do not have the right data on this whole issue yet. I suggest more people here learn to say "I don't know yet".

    Quote from THHuxleynew

    Otherwise you have a cough and temperature at home for a few days, get over it, and are one of the "mild" 4 out of 5 cases. I know a number of such people and am pretty sure most of them did have COVID.


    This pretty much describes my experience. I caught it nearly a month ago in Indonesia, am fully recovered. Symptoms were mild. I'm 68 years old, but with no health issues. Until I get an antibody test I won't be certain that I'm immune, but I think the chances are good.

    Quote from THHuxleynew

    A newly available antibody test may help evaluate the SARS-CoV-2 virus in 20 minutes or less. The US Food and Drug Administration has granted Cellex an emergency use authorization to market the first rapid antibody test for

    COVID-19.

    "Available" is a relative term. Where do I buy it? Two large pharmaceutical supply houses I regularly deal with (Schein and McGuff) are saying they will have antibody tests but they are not even taking future orders yet and they have no description or pricing on their web sites.

    Quote from Dr Richard

    15-17% unseen infected in several independent studies. No herd immunity until 80 % infected and immune. So hand round the Z-pak anti Bat, Probably the only option for exit strategy. MDA.:)


    Alternatively, some populations may already be at least partially immune, say from previous related corona virus infections. Otherwise, it is hard to make sense of the German finding that if a household (in Gangelt, Germany) has an Covid19 infected member, other members of the same household have only about a 15 percent chance of infection (if I recall). Very strange.


    With that in mind, consider the mentality of the WHO through what Michael Ryan said, paraphrased : since infection is now more likely to be spreading within households than without, there is a 'need' to identify and remove infected members from a household, in a 'safe and dignified' manner.


    Not kicking and screaming like we saw in China. Ah, progress.

    And just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water (with apologies to "Jaws"):


    https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cm…4/08/cmaj.200528.full.pdf


    "Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are generally well

    tolerated, but clinicians and patients should be aware of

    serious adverse events that can occur, even during short

    courses of treatment.


    • Potential risks of treatment include prolongation of the QTc

    interval (especially in patients with preexisting cardiac disease

    or if coprescribed with azithromycin), hypoglycemia,

    neuropsychiatric effects, drug–drug interactions and

    idiosyncratic hypersensitivity reactions.


    • Genetic variability in metabolism of these drugs is considerable

    and influences their safety and effectiveness.


    • Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are extremely toxic in

    overdose.


    • As we await stronger evidence on the role, if any, of these drugs

    in the treatment or prevention of coronavirus disease 2019,

    uncommon but serious harms of treatment can be mitigated by

    careful patient selection and monitoring."


    ... and much more alarming stuff if you read the paper.

    Wyttenbach From THHuxleynew

    COVID-19: Attacks the 1-Beta Chain of Hemoglobin and ...

    chemrxiv.org › articles › COVID-19_Disease_ORF8_and_Surface_Glyc...

    2 days ago - COVID-19: Attacks the 1-Beta Chain of Hemoglobin and Captures the Porphyrin to Inhibit Human Heme Metabolism.

    The results showed the ORF8 and surface glycoprotein could bind to the porphyrin, respectively. At the same time, orf1ab, ORF10, and ORF3a proteins could coordinate attack the heme on the 1-beta chain of hemoglobin to dissociate the iron to form the porphyrin. The attack will cause less and less hemoglobin that can carry oxygen and carbon dioxide. The lung cells have extremely intense poisoning and inflammatory due to the inability to exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen frequently, which eventually results in ground-glass-like lung images. The mechanism also interfered with the normal heme anabolic pathway of the human body, is expected to result in human disease. According to the validation analysis of these finds, chloroquine could prevent orf1ab, ORF3a, and ORF10 to attack the heme to form the porphyrin, and inhibit the binding of ORF8 and surface glycoproteins to porphyrins to a certain extent, effectively relieve the symptoms of respiratory distress

    This is not as speculative as at first glance - chloroquine kills the Plasmodium malaria parasite in RBC's by blocking its heme polymerase thus allowing toxic levels of heme to build up inside its digestive vacuole, by binding to heme groups thus preventing polymerization to less toxic hemozoin crystals. So this binding of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine to the heme group of hemoglobin (as they also suggest from their molecular docking study) would prevent the attack and associated poisoning and inflammation.:)


    Toffoli, you are consistently channeling all the crackpot USSR-linked dark side conspiracy theories. I suppose someone has to do it - are you wanting us to reply with facts, or just laugh?


    https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Fort_Russ_News

    '@Curbana wrote And the bad news on this virus keep coming...

    It is indeed immunosuppressive as has been suggested.

    published in Nature:

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41423-020-0424-9


    Yes but the good news is that CQ or HCQ bind to the SARS CoV 2 spike protein which would prevent viral entry via ACE2 receptors or probably any other receptor mediated fusion (in this case receptor dependent S-protein - mediated membrane fusion )

    And it seems unlikely to replicate in T-cells so doesn't destroy them (although further work is needed to be sure):

    Based on the results of pseudovirus and live virus infection, here we proved that (1) SARS-CoV-2 could infect T cells, (2) SARS-CoV-2 infected T cells through receptor-dependent, S protein-mediated membrane fusion, and (3) infection could be inhibited by EK1 peptide. However, we observed a very low expression level of hACE2 in T cells; therefore, we further proposed that a novel receptor might mediate SARS-CoV-2 entry into T cells. Similar to MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 infection of T cells is abortive. A recent study reported that viral reads barely displayed in PBMC samples from COVID-19 patients through transcriptome sequencing of RNAs. Thus, it was inferred that SARS-CoV-2 could not infect PBMCs. However, the transcriptomic characteristics of PBMCs were detected and analyzed from three patients. Two SARS-CoV-2 reads were detected in one patient’s PBMCs, and zero reads in another.3 This result could be attributed to nonproductive replication of SARS-CoV-2 in T lymphocytes, with little viral genome in PBMCs possibly degrading in the sample collection and RNA extraction process. Thus, the questions of SARS-CoV-2 infection and replication in primary T cells and whether the infection induces apoptosis in T cells still need further research, potentially evoking new ideas about pathogenic mechanisms and therapeutic interventions.:)

    Quote from THHuxleynew

    Toffoli, you are consistently channeling all the crackpot USSR-linked dark side conspiracy theories. I suppose someone has to do it - are you wanting us to reply with facts, or just laugh?


    https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Fort_Russ_News


    We dare you to give a fact based - evidence-based response to this. It won't happen. Your mind is spitting out rationalizations for information that doesn't fit into your current world view.

    For those that don't know yet, the Gates Foundation and others held a pandemic Corona virus simulation event in October 2019. They even gave out corona virus stuffed bears.


    Do you know when the phrase "conspiracy theory" was first promoted and by whom?

    Quote from Dr Richard

    No herd immunity until 80 % infected and immune.


    I have read it is more like 60%. Even at ~10% there is some detectable herd immunity; the curve starts to bend down.


    Assume there are 10 times more cases than the ones recorded at Worldmeters. The U.S. now has 1,594 cases per million (0.15%). If that is actually 1.5%, there would still be no measurable herd immunity. Yet the number of cases has plateaued. This has to be due to the stay-at-home orders. On CNN an epidemiologist was asked if this is the cause. He said something like, "yes, I think it is, but I don't want to say that because people might think the problem is fixed and it is okay leave the house."


    The Trump administration is considering lifting the stay-at-home rules on May 1. An advisory group of businessmen is urging them to do that. But another advisory group of doctors and epidemiologists are warning that letting up on May 1 may cause a rebound in July.


    Actually, the administration cannot lift the rules, because the rules were imposed by governors and mayors, not the Feds.

    Quote from seven_of_twenty

    I dread the possibility of having to make recommendations to a friend

    You won't be prescribing HCQ to the patient anytime soon..

    In fact HCQ is probably in rather short supply in a number of countries


    Maybe you could consult with Didier the lead author of the recent third trial paper..

    He certainly has put HCQ in the spotlight..


    In his fourth trial he will have to recruit more hospitals

    to get enough patients to have a proper control comparison.


    Its probable that his trials have been underpowered.not enough patients.to see any HCQ + AZM effect

    and probably several people have told him recently..

    His expertise does not seem to cover clinical trials..


    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3148614/

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didier_Raoult

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