Coronavirus COVID-19 (a.k.a. 2019-nCoV) outbreak in China

[iam4liberty]

You generally don't take Hydroxychloroquine with Remdesivir.

[Mr. Bill]

You generally don't take Hydroxychloroquine with Remdesivir.

Ah, you're right:

BioSpace, 6/16/20: FDA Warns Against Co-Administering Remdesivir with Hydroxychloroquine or Chloroquine

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned about a newly-discovered potential drug interaction with remdesivir Monday afternoon. The warning came only a few hours after the FDA rescinded Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19. ...

Based on a non-clinical laboratory study in which remdesivir was administered with either chloroquine phosphate or hydroxychloroquine sulfate, the FDA revised its fact sheet for health care providers so that co-administration of these drugs is no longer recommended. The change in recommendation is based on the suggestion that co-administration diminishes remdesivir’s antiviral activity. The FDA admits the anti-viral effect was only seen in a non-clinical setting. It has not been observed among patients.

The fact sheet noted that co-administration of these drugs, during an in vitro study, demonstrated a dose-dependent “antagonistic effect of chloroquine on the intracellular metabolic activation and antiviral activity of remdesivir.” ...

[David in MN]

I don't for one second believe Trump is ill. You mean to tell me that he miraculously threaded the needle with a 2 week disease that will not interrupt his planned debates and cast him as a victim and heroic survivor?

I can write his speech now. "I didn't have the luxury of hiding in my basement like Sleepy Joe. I had to go to work for the American people and in doing so I contracted COVID and like so many of you I fought it off."

This is basically the ultimate retort to Biden's ill advised statement in the first debate about how we should think of our loved ones lost to COVID. It was dumb when he said it because 200,000 divided into 330,000,000 is .0006 so most of us are dealing with healing (like Trump) and not dealing with loss. But now Trump gets the trump card (geeze his name sucks) of being the survivor hero while Biden hides out.

I stand by my own belief that if it happens in politics and it reads like a dime store novel it probably isn't true. It's such an alpha move he's literally claiming he's sick because he was too close to former model Hope Hicks. Like his problem is that there are too many hot chicks around.

BS.

[LvsChant]

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you... while he is gaining some sympathy for this, he is garnering a lot more criticism for not being cautious (as the good Biden camp folks are). I think he would have been quite happy to have gone through the whole thing without contracting the disease... Plus, there are an awful lot of medical folks, etc., who would all have to be colluding on this... just doesn't seem plausible.

[David in MN]

How about the impact on Africa? I know, I know. The MSM is falling over themselves to report that case rates and death are lower in Africa so all is won. The reality may be a little different.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/08/26/impact-covid-19-childrens-education-africa

Unfortunately, the leaders of African countries mirrored the lockdowns put in place by the stupider than stupid western leaders. While it was bad for us it was devastating in Africa. In closing the schools they eliminated the primary source of food for many children. The numbers aren't clear but Malawi is set to have a 40% increase in child malnutrition. If that sounds sad, consider the options other than school. You could work on the family land or maybe get a job in the mines. Child labor in African mines has gone up 50% (by estimates) in 2020.

Africa has adopted the same strategy we all have: sacrifice the children to save the octogenerians. But in Africa it looks a little more dire.

[iam4liberty]

It is time for politicians to stop using the coronavirus to advance their ideology and listen to the real scientists.  This means ending all lockdowns of healthy people and making the proven hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, dextromethorphan, and spike insertion antibody therapies broadly available.  Hiding in a basement and allowing China to take control of world economy is not a policy that benefits the American people or the world.

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/health-54442386
Coronavirus: Health experts join global anti-lockdown movement

Thousands of scientists and health experts have joined a global movement warning of "grave concerns" about Covid-19 lockdown policies.

Nearly 6,000 experts, including dozens from the UK, say the approach is having a devastating impact on physical and mental health as well as society.

They are calling for protection to be focused on the vulnerable, while healthy people get on with their lives.
...
And the declaration has now been signed by nearly 6,000 scientists and medical experts across the globe as well as 50,000 members of the public.

The UK-based experts who have signed it include:

Dr Sunetra Gupta, an epidemiologist at Oxford University
Nottingham University self-harm expert Prof Ellen Townsend
Edinburgh University disease modeller Dr Paul McKeigue

They say keeping the lockdown policies in place until a vaccine is available would cause "irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed".

The health harms cited include:

lower childhood vaccination rates
worsening care for heart disease and cancer patients

And they point out the risk from coronavirus is 1,000 times greater for the old and infirm, with children more at risk from flu than Covid-19.

[David in MN]

We're going to double the number of acutely starving people globally to ~260 million in 2020 based only on the stoppage of international trade and increased supply chain costs.

https://insight.wfp.org/covid-19-will-almost-double-people-in-acute-hunger-by-end-of-2020-59df0c4a8072

That's not the people who are "food insecure". That's acute hunger. The charities I've worked with in the past are already starting to really hurt.

I sincerely hope that decades from now the history books don't read that in 2020 half a million North Americans and Europeans died in a tragic disease while 100 million children starved globally in their response.

[iam4liberty]

https://m.hindustantimes.com/health/hydroxychloroquine-dexamethasone-remdesivir-desperation-science-slows-the-hunt-for-coronavirus-solutions/story-rFfOhH330j77QIs3iAo6XL.html
Hydroxychloroquine, dexamethasone, remdesivir: ‘Desperation science’ slows the hunt for coronavirus solutions

The third "desperation science" treatment also has been proved effective

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2007764
Remdesivir for the Treatment of Covid-19 — Final Report

Results

A total of 1062 patients underwent randomization (with 541 assigned to remdesivir and 521 to placebo). Those who received remdesivir had a median recovery time of 10 days (95% confidence interval [CI], 9 to 11), as compared with 15 days (95% CI, 13 to 18) among those who received placebo (rate ratio for recovery, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.12 to 1.49; P<0.001, by a log-rank test). In an analysis that used a proportional-odds model with an eight-category ordinal scale, the patients who received remdesivir were found to be more likely than those who received placebo to have clinical improvement at day 15 (odds ratio, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.2 to 1.9, after adjustment for actual disease severity). The Kaplan–Meier estimates of mortality were 6.7% with remdesivir and 11.9% with placebo by day 15 and 11.4% with remdesivir and 15.2% with placebo by day 29 (hazard ratio, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.52 to 1.03). Serious adverse events were reported in 131 of the 532 patients who received remdesivir (24.6%) and in 163 of the 516 patients who received placebo (31.6%).
Conclusions

Our data show that remdesivir was superior to placebo in shortening the time to recovery in adults who were hospitalized with Covid-19 and had evidence of lower respiratory tract infection. (Funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and others; ACTT-1 ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04280705. opens in new tab.)

[David in MN]

I'm going to harp on the math a little again. I'm a little miffed that death numbers during a pandemic are being politicized and I'm (in my mind) rightfully pissed off. We live in a time where ~200,000 deaths is simultaneously touted by both parties because (presumably) were Hillary Clinton our president the death count would be 0 and had it not been for the measures Trump took there would have been 2.2 million deaths (from the Ferguson model).

This is right BS on both counts. Show me any country, with any response, normalized for age and we're playing in the margin of error. Yes, you might do better in Germany than Belgium but take Europe on average and it's about the same as the States. Similarly, we make a massive data error in claiming that Africa hasn't been hit as hard because life expectancy in Africa tops at 65 for females (62 for males) so the most "at risk" people aren't alive. That's not a sign of success but more an indicator that we haven't figured out how to keep Africans alive in the first place. That should give us pause when organizations like Brookings tell us we have a lot to learn from Africa regarding COVID.

Last, I'll once again harp on the data being shared. One could paint whatever picture one wants provided the ability to intertwine case rate with death rate using data skewed based on very small testing. Have our responses worked? Who knows? We certainly won't put up a chart that coincides policy changes with death rate to figure out which policy had the effect of turning a power function linear. COVID has entered the dreaded realm of quantitative easing. If the policy doesn't work we just need more of it.

[Hurricane]

I'm seeing an increasing number of people Not wearing masks in stores, or getting take-out. There is a city ordinance requiring them. The stores have signs posted, whether there is an ordinance there or not, but still, less masks.

[ChEng]

Unfortunately, Pittsburgh has it's own secret police. The city has hired a couple hundred spies who go to different businesses. If they see any customers without masks, they report back to the city who can pull their license, and shut them down.

Our (liberal) city government even deems itself above federal law; they do not care about the ADA exemption, which says that you cannot force someone who has a health issue to wear a mask. All they need is for some person in the store to be seen without a mask (they don't even ask about that person's health) and they can shut down the business.

[iam4liberty]

Unfortunately, Pittsburgh has it's own secret police. The city has hired a couple hundred spies who go to different businesses. If they see any customers without masks, they report back to the city who can pull their license, and shut them down.

It's funny you say that.  I was talking to a LEO at the range yesterday and his perspective was that the defund the police movement was not to eliminate police but to replace them with secret police who are not beholden to the police oath and do not follow due process.  Yanking licenses in this way definitely violates due process and is unconstitutional. 

[surfivor]

It's funny you say that.  I was talking to a LEO at the range yesterday and his perspective was that the defund the police movement was not to eliminate police but to replace them with secret police who are not beholden to the police oath and do not follow due process.  Yanking licenses in this way definitely violates due process and is unconstitutional.

 That's messed up but makes sense. You should post any articles on that if you have some. I had not heard of that but I like to have stuff to counter the masks are no big deal narrative

[iam4liberty]

One down, two treatments to go.

[url]https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/10/22/business/gileads-virus-therapy-remdesivir-gains-approval-fda/[url]
FDA approves first COVID-19 drug: the antiviral remdesivir