Corona Virus Updates Part 6

originally posted by: Byrd
Hydroxychloroquine trials for veterans shows dismal results

Correct title: Outcomes of hydroxychloroquine usage in United States veterans hospitalized with Covid-19

This is a preprint, so hasn't been reviewed by peers.

Hydroxychloroquine, alone or in combination with azithromycin, is being widely used in Covid-19 therapy based on anecdotal and limited observational evidence.

That's pretty self-explanatory. We've seen lots of people insisting (based on some cases) that certain treatments are absolutely the best way to treat Covid-19.

METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of data from patients hospitalized with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in all United States Veterans Health Administration medical centers until April 11, 2020. Patients were categorized based on their exposure to hydroxychloroquine alone (HC) or with azithromycin (HC+AZ) as treatments in addition to standard supportive management for Covid-19. The two primary outcomes were death and the need for mechanical ventilation.

You may have seen me talk about similar things - that after a patient is discharged, researchers review the case and use it to compile statistics. The good thing about this data is that VA hospitals give a pretty uniform standard of care.

RESULTS: A total of 368 patients were evaluated (HC, n=97; HC+AZ, n=113; no HC, n=158). Rates of death in the HC, HC+AZ, and no HC groups were 27.8%, 22.1%, 11.4%, respectively.

Bottom line: If you're in the hospital with Covid-19, your best chance of surviving is if you do NOT get Hydroxychloroquine... even in conjunction with other drugs.

They didn't include zinc. Isn't that an integral part of treatment with hydrchl. + z-pac?

originally posted by: drussell41

originally posted by: Byrd
Hydroxychloroquine trials for veterans shows dismal results

Correct title: Outcomes of hydroxychloroquine usage in United States veterans hospitalized with Covid-19

This is a preprint, so hasn't been reviewed by peers.

Hydroxychloroquine, alone or in combination with azithromycin, is being widely used in Covid-19 therapy based on anecdotal and limited observational evidence.

That's pretty self-explanatory. We've seen lots of people insisting (based on some cases) that certain treatments are absolutely the best way to treat Covid-19.

METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of data from patients hospitalized with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in all United States Veterans Health Administration medical centers until April 11, 2020. Patients were categorized based on their exposure to hydroxychloroquine alone (HC) or with azithromycin (HC+AZ) as treatments in addition to standard supportive management for Covid-19. The two primary outcomes were death and the need for mechanical ventilation.

You may have seen me talk about similar things - that after a patient is discharged, researchers review the case and use it to compile statistics. The good thing about this data is that VA hospitals give a pretty uniform standard of care.

RESULTS: A total of 368 patients were evaluated (HC, n=97; HC+AZ, n=113; no HC, n=158). Rates of death in the HC, HC+AZ, and no HC groups were 27.8%, 22.1%, 11.4%, respectively.

Bottom line: If you're in the hospital with Covid-19, your best chance of surviving is if you do NOT get Hydroxychloroquine... even in conjunction with other drugs.

They didn't include zinc. Isn't that an integral part of treatment with hydrchl. + z-pac?

That study is ongoing and is in Turkey.

originally posted by: Byrd

originally posted by: MonkeyBalls2

originally posted by: Byrd

originally posted by: MonkeyBalls2
a reply to: Arbitrageur

Here's a Filterable List from Finddx.org, of all of the the Covid-19 test kits available, or in development, worldwide.

What I wondered is "how much will it cost us" and "how long does it take to get results". I think that they are NOT like home pregnancy tests, where you get an instant result -- looks like most have to be administered by a doctor. Could be wrong, though.

It's a big list to check, yes.

I found this one BioCan Diagnostics from the list.
It is an Antibody test, so to see if you have already had it, and it is like a Pregnancy test.
Some Huge caveats though :

The test result should be read between 10 and 15 minutes.
Note: Do not interpret the result after 20 minutes

This one by BioLidics Limited is also an Antibody test, also akin to a pregnancy test.

The PCR tests look mostly (if not all) to be lab based though so far (have to look at each available test one by one...)

The instructions said " Pipette 10μL of serum, plasma or whole blood into the sample well of the test device." and I don't see anyone doing that at home. You have to draw the blood first (possibly with finger stick) but I don't see a pipette there.

It could be added very easily in a small 'ready made' pipette that you cut the top off and squeeze out, like you can get for eye drops.

I looked at all the CE-rated PCR tests that had links, and all of the manual ones require a lab machine to be processed, so it doesn't look like anyone is going to be doing the 'Do I have it or not' tests at home.

The Antigen tests look possible, they could be read by a doctor over tele-medecine (video link), but they would only let you know if you've had it or not.

Hope we'll get more information soon on how much, if any, natural immunity is possible after recovering, and if so, how long it lasts.
(By soon I mean weeks/month or two)

Numbers Update for Europe, and Elsewhere :












www.worldometers.info...
bnonews.com...

originally posted by: deltaalphanovember
"originally posted by: Arbitrageur"

In retrospect, you are correct. I will try find the age/gender stats for deaths.

Thank you.

Edit - I have searched all government sources and cannot find a breakdown for the 58 deaths. If anyone can find this, please post. Thanks.

I had already done a search before I replied to you and I couldn't find that breakdown either. But the COVID-19 death rates being higher with older people is documented, and I know of no reason why South Africans would be any exception to the research:

What explains Covid-19’s lethality for the elderly? Scientists look to ‘twilight’ of the immune system

Researchers on Monday announced the most comprehensive estimates to date of elderly people’s elevated risk of serious illness and death from the new coronavirus: Covid-19 kills an estimated 13.4% of patients 80 and older, compared to 1.25% of those in their 50s and 0.3% of those in their 40s.

The sharpest divide came at age 70. Although 4% of patients in their 60s died, more than twice that, or 8.6%, of those in their 70s did, Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London and his colleagues estimated in their paper, published in Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The new estimates come as scientists have been scrambling to figure out the underlying reasons for older people’s greater susceptibility to the virus — and, in particular, why some mount a stronger immune response than others.

South Africa's stats surely vary somewhat from that but would still be expected to follow the same pattern seen globally.

With regard to gender, there could be some local or regional cultural or behavioral effects at work influencing gender bias in infection rates, but I haven't tried to follow any gender stats so I can't say much about that. I think immunosenescence doesn't respect borders though, it should happen everywhere.

originally posted by: Arbitrageur
With regard to gender, there could be some local or regional cultural or behavioral effects at work influencing gender bias in infection rates, but I haven't tried to follow any gender stats so I can't say much about that. I think immunosenescence doesn't respect borders though, it should happen everywhere.

It seems pretty consistent in the data I've looked at, suggesting that it has more to do with the extra genetic material (XX instead of XY -- the Y is a reduced X)

If you'll recall, females in general seem to be somewhat sturdier and live longer.

First Confirmed Covid-19 in Wastewater in Australia

Full title: First confirmed detection of SARS-CoV-2 in untreated wastewater in Australia: A proof of concept for the wastewater surveillance of COVID-19 in the community

First study that reports the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater in Australia.

•The presence of SARS-CoV-2 was confirmed by sequencing.
•A median range of 171 to 1090 infected persons was identified in the catchment.
• Further study will be needed

In spite of my initial skepticism, it turns out that the virus can apparently be shed in feces. The "median range of infected persons" is rather large, but the top end is kind of scary. On the other hand, if this works out, this is a fairly easy way of assessing the virus load in the area.




Further methodological and molecular assay validation will be required.

Disturbing news from South Africa

In what may be a foreshadowing of what our future holds, President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered the largest deployment of the army (in South Africa) in South African history.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has informed Parliament he had authorised the deployment of an additional 73 180 members of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) to assist the police in battling the spread of Covid-19.

Helmoed Romer-Heitman, who is an independent defence analyst and correspondent for Jane's Defence Weekly, said the deployment would rank among the biggest in the country's history.

"The biggest I can recall was during the election in 1994, and that was certainly bigger than anything during the Bush War. It also seems that almost the entire SANDF is being called up.

"The total complement is something like 73 000, 74 000, so this is all of it. The Reserve Force takes it up to 85 000, 86 000 service members. So, this is a biggie."

What does this deployment suggest?

Our lockdown will not be totally lifted next week, and the simmering unrest that we are seeing is expected to explode.

"This seems to suggest that the 'hard lockdown' will be enforced longer, beyond next Friday's deadline. We can’t extend the lockdown into perpetuity. I would rather spend the money on testing and tracing to make sure we know exactly what the extent of the virus is.

"This [the deployment] is not a good sign. Friday is going to be a turning point when people get their reduced salaries, debit orders start going off … we hope the soldiers aren't being called up to enforce the lockdown."

To reiterate - we have 58 deaths.


Source

It looks like the US still has not hit peak deaths.

For a few days here it has been under 2,000 per day.

Yesterday 1,939

Today 2,583 and some states have not reported yet.

We could once again break 3,000 deaths today.

With all the protests, and people beginning to ignore social distancing, we could see more peaks like this for weeks.

www.worldometers.info...

I've checked out of this thread more recently... I mentioned a few chapters back (Part 4 or 5) how my company furloughed 60-something people, including 8 that reported directly to me.

I'm still getting a paycheck but things are really dismal, the economy is in shambles, politicians and the media are politicizing this whole thing and the economic damage is just really getting started.

I'm extremely disheartened to see what our elected officials are doing and to see how many people are suffering from this while Nancy Pelosi shows off her refrigerators (that cost more than many Americans make in a year) stuffed with Ice Cream with a smile on her face talking about getting through these times.

This is like 9/11 but it seems exponentially worse in the grand scheme of things considering the loss of freedoms and economic fallout.

The WHO being defended by politicians and Hollywood is criminal as well! WHO screwed this whole thing up neglecting to call it a pandemic for almost 2 months when it was obviously a pandemic already. And to my knowledge only $133 million of the World Bank Pandemic Bonds have been paid out meaning big money scumbags lined their pockets and failed to pay out on hundreds of millions of dollars that remain: World Bank pandemic bonds to pay $133m to poorest virus-hit nations

My home state had less than 5 new confirmed cases of coronavirus today and yet everything is still shut down and neighbors aren't paying their mortgages.

Meanwhile Harvard receives $9M in tax payers money even though they have a multi-billion dollar endowment (46 members of Congress went to Harvard, wonder why places like that are getting 'bailouts' but my neighbors can't pay their mortgages?)

I'm down in the dumps but there are millions (billions of people now) who are in much worse shape. IDK what to do or how to help but am just very discouraged and beside myself right now...

originally posted by: FamCore
I've checked out of this thread more recently... I mentioned a few chapters back (Part 4 or 5) how my company furloughed 60-something people, including 8 that reported directly to me.

I'm still getting a paycheck but things are really dismal, the economy is in shambles, politicians and the media are politicizing this whole thing and the economic damage is just really getting started.

I'm extremely disheartened to see what our elected officials are doing and to see how many people are suffering from this while Nancy Pelosi shows off her refrigerators (that cost more than many Americans make in a year) stuffed with Ice Cream with a smile on her face talking about getting through these times.

This is like 9/11 but it seems exponentially worse in the grand scheme of things considering the loss of freedoms and economic fallout.

The WHO being defended by politicians and Hollywood is criminal as well! WHO screwed this whole thing up neglecting to call it a pandemic for almost 2 months when it was obviously a pandemic already. And to my knowledge only $133 million of the World Bank Pandemic Bonds have been paid out meaning big money scumbags lined their pockets and failed to pay out on hundreds of millions of dollars that remain: World Bank pandemic bonds to pay $133m to poorest virus-hit nations

My home state had less than 5 new confirmed cases of coronavirus today and yet everything is still shut down and neighbors aren't paying their mortgages.

Meanwhile Harvard receives $9M in tax payers money even though they have a multi-billion dollar endowment (46 members of Congress went to Harvard, wonder why places like that are getting 'bailouts' but my neighbors can't pay their mortgages?)

I'm down in the dumps but there are millions (billions of people now) who are in much worse shape. IDK what to do or how to help but am just very discouraged and beside myself right now...

I feel ya man. Some days are better than others. Some days you just feel like throwing your hands up and saying "screw it, I am going out."

Hang in there, we still have probably 2 months of this to go, at least in my state, NY.

We made it this far, others sadly, have not. Do your best to not spread this crud to others, things will work out in the long run.

originally posted by: MrRCflying
It looks like the US still has not hit peak deaths.

For a few days here it has been under 2,000 per day.

Yesterday 1,939

Today 2,583 and some states have not reported yet.

We could once again break 3,000 deaths today.

With all the protests, and people beginning to ignore social distancing, we could see more peaks like this for weeks.

www.worldometers.info...

Remember that this isn't nationally coordinated so there's different metrics. And it was a weekend, so some labs are closed.

Remdesivir
Gilead Sciences
fintel.io...
Stanley Druckenmiller
business.financialpost.com...
The biggest acquisition last quarter for the family office was Facebook Inc. and Gilead Sciences Inc.

Numbers Update for USA, and Elsewhere :











www.worldometers.info...
bnonews.com...

USA States :









www.worldometers.info...
bnonews.com...

Financial Times Graphs by John Burn-Murdoch (More at the link) :

originally posted by: MrRCflying
It looks like the US still has not hit peak deaths.

For a few days here it has been under 2,000 per day.

Yesterday 1,939

Today 2,583 and some states have not reported yet.

We could once again break 3,000 deaths today.

With all the protests, and people beginning to ignore social distancing, we could see more peaks like this for weeks.

www.worldometers.info...

I’ve been too busy working long hours to reply much here , but I have been paying attention to the numbers .

I’ve asked myself a few times If we have peaked and we will begin a slow trend downward .

Then a day like today pops up. Are we at the peak now , it’s just a long extended peak that will fluctuate daily?

It’s going to be interesting to see how the numbers react to states attempting to open back up.

Will Americans even want to run out and get their nails done, or hit the gym? Hard to run a service economy if people just stay away from those said services .

originally posted by: elitegamer23

originally posted by: MrRCflying
It looks like the US still has not hit peak deaths.

For a few days here it has been under 2,000 per day.

Yesterday 1,939

Today 2,583 and some states have not reported yet.

We could once again break 3,000 deaths today.

With all the protests, and people beginning to ignore social distancing, we could see more peaks like this for weeks.

www.worldometers.info...

I’ve been too busy working long hours to reply much here , but I have been paying attention to the numbers .

I’ve asked myself a few times If we have peaked and we will begin a slow trend downward .

Then a day like today pops up. Are we at the peak now , it’s just a long extended peak that will fluctuate daily?

It’s going to be interesting to see how the numbers react to states attempting to open back up.

Will Americans even want to run out and get their nails done, or hit the gym? Hard to run a service economy if people just stay away from those said services .

Don't look at the daily numbers; look at the weekly or biweekly numbers. It will show the trend better than individual days. Here's a link to the global weekly trends As you see, deaths are rising more slowly than infections... but infections on a global scale are still out of control.

As to the "will they want to go out" -- the BIGGER question that no one is asking is "will the hairdressers/trainers/etc want to put themselves at high risk of a high medical bill from a lengthy illness (or risk of death) by seeing many different customers each day who might infect them?" I know people in retail, and if there was financial support they wouldn't work until the pandemic crisis was over.

My daughter said rather bitterly (paraphrasing) "We have to sanitize to see them. They don't have to sanitize to see us. They want us to die for their convenience."

There's a weekly "number of cases since first reported case" at this link

The trend for the US is.... scary looking. It's "all known cases" and not "deaths".

I like the way they are blaming the protest on the increase in deaths and cases. Ummm the first protest was last Thursday less than a week ago.

Is it OK to call BS??