Corona Virus

[Ken]

Interesting study on the efficacy of masks: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2029717

Wait what? I'm probably just missing it but I don't see anywhere in that article that measures efficacy of masks? Where is that referenced?

[madducks]

The brainwashed remain in denial until death.

[DMT]

I have no sympathy for them, only for the poor providers who have to care for them.

[nullnor]

here's a an article written by the Annals of Internal Medicine on a study on the efficacy of masks. https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-6817 and here's an additional article explaining it https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-7448

it's all pretty much common sense. from what I gather, even a mask 95% effective is going to have some issues due to mostly other circumstances. but the results are comparable. to other studies. also I think the jury is still out on the infection rate from an eye vector. additionally, the material science of a 3 layer surgical mask or an n95 should theoretically prevent infection or severely diminish the viral load upon infection. but that's also not the issue when you have people wearing shit like gaiters or makeshift masks. all masks aren't the same. which is why I mentioned Trump should've used his powers to force companies like 3M to step up. even a person like me that follows things is reusing the same masks for months. we were fortunate a vaccine came out so quickly. that was the plan. we knew even if we had the right tools to minimize infection rates it was going to be difficult. but I don't think that should be a reason to go balls to the wall thinking nothing is going to help.

even in a perfect world I think they would've shut down the economy. for me that's kind of the issue. all of it was preventable, and at the same time unpreventable.

[nullnor]

I have an issue with the governor or legislature of SD being the only state not accepting the $300-$400 extra unemployment out of ideology or politics. I didn't think it was going to pass or work but it did. might as well accept it since every other state did. and the 4.5% unemployed people in SD probably could've used it.

[madducks]

Wait what? I'm probably just missing it but I don't see anywhere in that article that measures efficacy of masks? Where is that referenced?

I thought it was just me. I didn't see it either.

[umjewman]

I thought it was just me. I didn't see it either.

Me neither. But, in fairness, I also didn’t read it.

[Ken]

I also didn’t read it.

I disagree....

[rhd]

Here is the text of an email that I received today (emphasis added). It supposedly is a compilation of info from some doctors. I cant vouch for the source but it is interesting and contains some info that I wasnt aware of before:

WHAT DOCTORS HAVE LEARNED ABOUT COVID-19

A professor of pharmacy at U of Toronto sent this clearly worded update to his family. For this pandemic, there's a greater chance of survival for those getting infected 3 months later like June 2020 than those who got infected 3 months earlier, say February 2020. The reason for this is that Doctors and scientists know more about Covid-19 now than 3 months ago and hence are able to treat patients better.
I will list 5 important things that we know now that we didn't know in February 2020 for your understanding.
1. COVID-19 was initially thought to cause deaths due to pneumonia-a lung infection - and so ventilators were thought to be the best way to treat sick patients who couldn't breathe.
Now we are realizing that the virus causes blood clots in the blood vessels of the lungs and other parts of the body and this causes reduced oxygenation.
Now we know that just providing oxygen by ventilators will not help.
We have to prevent and dissolve the micro clots in the lungs.
This is why we are using drugs like Aspirin and Heparin (blood thinners that prevent clotting) as a protocol in treatment regimens in October 2020.
2. Previously patients used to drop dead on the road or even before reaching a hospital due to reduced oxygen in their blood.
This called HAPPY HYPOXIA -- where even though the oxygen saturation was gradually reducing, the COVID-19 patients did not have symptoms until it became critically less, like sometimes even 70%.
Normally we become breathless if oxygen saturation reduces below 90%. This breathlessness is not triggered in COVID patients so we were late in getting sick patients to hospitals in February 2020. Now since knowing about happy hypoxia we are monitoring oxygen saturation of all COVID patients with a simple home use pulse oximeter and getting them to the hospital if their oxygen saturation drops to 93% or less.
This gives doctors time to correct the oxygen deficiency in the blood and there is a better survival chance in October 2020.
3. We did not have drugs to fight the coronavirus in February 2020.
We were only treating the complications caused by it... hypoxia. Hence most patients became severely infected.
Now we have 2 important medicines FAVIPIRAVIR & REMDESIVIR.
These ANTIVIRALS can kill the coronavirus.
By using these two medicines we can prevent patients from becoming severely infected and therefore cure them BEFORE THEY GO TO HYPOXIA.
This is knowledge that is available in October 2020... not in February 2020.
4. Many Covid-19 patients die not just because of the virus but also due to the patient's own immune system responding in an exaggerated manner called CYTOKINE STORM.
This stormy immune response not only kills the virus but also can kill the patients. In February 2020 we didn't know how to prevent it from happening.
Now in October 2020, we know that Steroids, that doctors around the world have been using for almost 80 years, can be used to prevent the cytokine storm in some patients.
5. Now we also know that people with hypoxia become better just by making them lie down on their belly- known as prone position.
Apart from this a few days ago Israeli scientists have discovered that a chemical known as Alpha Defensin produced by the patient's White blood cells can cause the micro clots in blood vessels of the lungs and this can be treated with Colchicine which has been used over many decades in the treatment of Gout.
So now we know for sure that patients have a better chance at surviving the COVID-19 infection in October 2020 than in February 2020. Going forward there's nothing to panic about Covid-19 if we remember that a person who gets infected now has a better chance at survival than one who got infected early.
Let's continue to follow precautions, wear masks and practice social distancing.
Please distribute this message, as we all need some positive news.

I had never heard before that aspirin was helpful in fighting CV-19. Everyone's heard of Remdesivir but I hadnt heard of Favipiravir before. I also didnt know that steroids can counter the adverse effects of cytokine storm, altho it would have been helpful to know exactly which steroids help w this. But the most significant thing that I never heard before was that the main problem caused by CV-19 is micro blood clots in the lungs and other parts of the body that reduce oxygenization. And I had never heard of Colchicine as being effective at dissolving these clots.

[nullnor]

I mentioned the blood problems a few months ago. there was a lot of literature coming out about it. I learned alot when my cat was sick years ago about related medications. amlodipine for blood pressure, clopidogrel for clotting, prednisone for asthma and a lot of other stuff (including gout). months ago it was clear we were relying on just ventilators too much and even said it was more like having an 'altitude sickness', like climbing a mountain. not sure if that is really accurate. also, it's not like the medical community wasn't aware, it just takes time to reach a consensus. you are going to go with proven techniques first before adopting new strategies due to the risk of lawsuits. you have to collect and review data and go through the right channels before trying any treatment the muckety mucks would perceive as radical.

the science was there. covid uses ACE2, amlodipine is an ACE inhibitor. ACE2 receptors are involved in regulating blood. ..I don't want look it up to be exact. and I am not sure there is an agreement on what causes clotting. covid messes with your angiotensin-converting enzyme which then causes clotting. a google search of ace inhibitor will say https://www.cardiovascularbusiness.c...ality-covid-19

Hospitalized COVID-19 patients who were already taking angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors have a reduced risk of mortality, according to new findings published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

OTHO while I believe it's true, remember everyone says almost everything can help.

on blood thinners, https://www.thailandmedical.news/new...t-for-covid-19 that's May20th, and while that site leans a little conspiracy, whoever maintains it seems to know alot of medical stuff.

but you can see, any new treatment takes time to adopt. what if you give blood thinners to someone and they bleed to death or whatever you do it has an unforeseen adverse affect.

prednisone is like a wonder drug. it does everything. and also apparently now prevents the cytokine storm in some patients. that's good news. it's also possibly habit forming, which might be one of the reasons they give you a hard time about prescribing it too long. there might be a building immunity to it problem too I don't know. I never looked it up.

[nullnor]

Wait what? I'm probably just missing it but I don't see anywhere in that article that measures efficacy of masks? Where is that referenced?

I read it but my attention span has gone into speed reading these days sort of. too many rum and cokes. I thought the point was it showed single digit percent effectiveness, like 1.8%. but mostly due to other reasons than mask. like covid just being really contagious. and then the Danish study I think said 1.8% for the same reason. ..the way I figure it, a couple billion people in the world are wearing masks, so I am inclined to give them the benefit of doubt.

[nullnor]

White blood cells can cause the micro clots in blood vessels of the lungs and this can be treated with Colchicine which has been used over many decades in the treatment of Gout.

I don't think it really dissolves the clots it boosts your immune system or body to treat the condition. I am guessing Prednisone and Colchicine are similar if they treat gout. drugs that dissolve blood clots are super expensive.

[nullnor]

I guess what I am saying is we should've been using these treatments in addition to ventilators by April and at least May. those doctors are saying the data results show June.

[nullnor]

the way the doctor that wrote that lines his timelines up carefully. he mentions June and compares it to anything after February -then was firmly established everywhere by October. by saying anything after February it's possible March to June the different treatments were possibly being engaged. still it seems sort of salad-like. I think it's kind of bad optics to say this wasn't established until October.
.

[nullnor]

amlodipine would have an effect of relaxing blood vessels and lowering high blood pressure for which it's intended for. and if blood clots formed it make it easier for them to not get stuck and get cardiac arrest. but could it also interfere with the virus and the cell docking. https://www.modernhealthcare.com/sup...19-replication

Mount Sinai identifies drugs that could prevent COVID-19 replication In a preprint paper posted to BioRxiv, the researchers explored viral sequences using PCR analysis, RNA sequencing, and bioinformatics. They identified four compounds that could block replication of the novel coronavirus, namely amlodipine, loperamide, terfenadine, and berbamine.

seems legit enough. I had been wondering about it for a while. not because it's called an ace inhibitor and covid uses ace receptor to dock. that would seem too easy and incorrect. but anything like that would've been worth a shot since amlodipine is a cheaper alternative to remdesivir and are very different drugs. remdesivir probably works like a combination of blocking replication and inflammation. I don't mean to be conspiracy but they say it has the big money. my gut tells me a combination of repurposed cheaper drugs will prove to be effective. someone in internal medicine would try amlodipine for the replication and vascular and clotting, clopidogrel to prevent clotting and prednisone for inflammation and other wonders, heh. the side effects would be low blood pressure and organ failure, bleeding do death, physicial dependence and increased risk for infections. I know you can give all three safely to a cat and not has any obvious negative side effects but that is based on an underlying vascular cardio condition.

any medications that would have side effects of increasing blood pressure would have a negative effect.