Coronavirus Outbreak

[Robert]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/a ... MC8712288/

Background

COVID-19 is a global pandemic. Treatment with hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), zinc, and azithromycin (AZM), also known as the Zelenko protocol, and treatment with intravenous (IV) vitamin C (IVC) have shown encouraging results in a large number of trials worldwide. In addition, vitamin D levels are an important indicator of the severity of symptoms in patients with COVID-19.

Objectives

Our multicenter, randomized, open-label study aimed to assess the effectiveness of HCQ, AZM, and zinc with or without IVC in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in reducing symptom severity and duration and preventing death.

Methods

Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in seven participating hospitals in Turkey were screened for eligibility and randomly allocated to receive either HCQ, AZM, and zinc (group 1) or HCQ, AZM, zinc plus IV vitamin C treatment (group 2) for 14 days. The patients also received nontherapeutic levels of vitamin D3.

The trial is registered on the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry ACTRN12620000557932 and has been approved by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

Results

A total of 237 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 aged 22-99 years (mean: 63.3 ± 15.7 years) were enrolled in the study. Almost all patients were vitamin D deficient (97%), 55% were severely vitamin D deficient (<25 nmol/L) and 42% were vitamin D deficient (<50 nmol/L); 3% had insufficient vitamin D levels (<75 nmol/L), and none had optimal vitamin D levels.

Of the patients, 73% had comorbidities, including diabetes (35%), heart disease (36%), and lung disease (34%).

All but one patient (99.6%; n = 236/237) treated with HCQ, AZM, and zinc with or without high-dose IV vitamin C (IVC) fully recovered. Additional IVC therapy contributed significantly to a quicker recovery (15 days versus 45 days until discharge; p = 0.0069).

Side effects such as diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting, reported by 15%-27% of the patients, were mild to moderate and transient. No cardiac side effects were observed.

Low vitamin D levels were significantly correlated with a higher probability of admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) and longer hospital stay.

Sadly, one 70-year-old female patient with heart and lung disease died after 17 days in ICU and 22 days in the hospital. Her vitamin D level was 6 nmol/L on admission (i.e., severely deficient).

Conclusions

Our study suggests that the treatment protocol of HCQ, AZM, and zinc with or without vitamin C is safe and effective in the treatment of COVID-19, with high dose IV vitamin C leading to a significantly quicker recovery.

Importantly, our study confirms vitamin D deficiency to be a high-risk factor of severe COVID-19 disease and hospitalization, with 97% of our study’s patient cohort being vitamin D deficient, 55% of these being severely vitamin D deficient, and none had optimal levels.

Future trials are warranted to evaluate the treatment with a combination of high-dose vitamin D3 in addition to HCQ, AZM, and zinc and high-dose intravenous vitamin C.

[Ken]

Where do you get this narrative that Israel is "lagging behind"? 80% of the eligible population has been vaccinated, and Israel is one of the places that includes children in that count. 90% percent of those over 60 have been vaccinated. Israel is also one of the most boosted nations in the world. Israel is effectively the poster-child for COVID vaccine use, which makes sense, considering what their agreement with Pfizer stipulated, and the discount they received.

you keep talking about large subpopulations, and "pockets" of unvaccinated people. What are you talking about in Israel?

Israel ranks 55th in the world in the percentage of population that is completely vaccinated. Down there with countries like El Salvador and Mongolia. Yes they have a lot of people who have had booster shots, but also large populations that are completely unvaccinated. It is kind of a barbell country with people concentrated at both ends. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... acker.html. It also has very disparate subpopulations like Arab neighborhoods and ultra-orthodox neighborhoods, Russian immigrant neighborhoods, Ethiopian immigrant neighborhoods, and modern secular neighborhoods that have little connection to each other. So it is unlike more homogenous countries of similar size like say Norway or Ireland.

According to the NYT, Norway is at 80%, Israel is at 74%. Norway has administered 200 doses per 100 people, Israel has administered 196. Israel is also ahead of Norway in boosters.

try again?

I’m looking at the “fully vaccinated” column in which Israel is at 67% which ranks 55th in the world. Or maybe 54th, I sort of lost count scrolling down so much. Israel has more people boosted but less people fully vaccinated. So basically a smaller portion of the Israeli population has gotten a lot of vaccine but a larger portion has gotten no vaccine or is only partially vaccinated compared to say Norway. It is more imbalanced than most other countries in vaccine distribution.

My only point is that there are a lot of things about Israel that are not representative of how the rest of the world is doing things. They have a more segmented population. And their vaccine program has been more “patchy” with some being super vaccinated and a lot being unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. The pattern in most of the rest of the world is somewhat different. So I’m not sure how representative Israel is of anything.

[Valerie]

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/poli ... ly-nothing

Prominent public health officials have increasingly highlighted the limitations of cloth face masks, pushing for more effective respirator masks such as N95s as omicron engulfs the United States, a shift in messaging from earlier in the pandemic.

Officials encouraged the use of cloth masks in the spring of 2020 as a desperate measure to slow the spread of COVID-19 after previously recommending against masks and continued to boost them in the months after. Now, though, more experts are saying that the masks are not helpful.

“Cloth and surgical masks do absolutely nothing for protection from ambient virus,” said Chad Roy, a microbiologist at Tulane University School of Medicine, referring to the virus spreading through the air. “All this song and dance of wearing cloth masks with some presumption that you're being protected from ambient virus is completely and positively 100% counter to how masks and respirators work.”

This is what I have been saying for the past year.

And so did the microbiologists who said so in the very beginning- but of course they were censored and accused of conspiracy theory.

[Soloist]

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/poli ... ly-nothing

Prominent public health officials have increasingly highlighted the limitations of cloth face masks, pushing for more effective respirator masks such as N95s as omicron engulfs the United States, a shift in messaging from earlier in the pandemic.

Officials encouraged the use of cloth masks in the spring of 2020 as a desperate measure to slow the spread of COVID-19 after previously recommending against masks and continued to boost them in the months after. Now, though, more experts are saying that the masks are not helpful.

“Cloth and surgical masks do absolutely nothing for protection from ambient virus,” said Chad Roy, a microbiologist at Tulane University School of Medicine, referring to the virus spreading through the air. “All this song and dance of wearing cloth masks with some presumption that you're being protected from ambient virus is completely and positively 100% counter to how masks and respirators work.”

This is what I have been saying for the past year.

And so did the microbiologists who said so in the very beginning- but of course they were censored and accused of conspiracy theory.

I also basically said it was only good for droplets from coughing or sneezing and wouldn't stop an airborne disease. Of course that initially was a conspiracy too and they insisted it wasn't airborne for some time.

[RZehr]

I had a slight sore throat when I woke up in the morning Thursday and Friday. It went away each day after an hour or so. No fever. No sore throat this morning.
Today I was given a couple packs of Covid tests, so I took one. I tested positive. Not a real surprise, knowing it is running rampant in this community. I am vaccinated.

[mike]

I had a slight sore throat when I woke up in the morning Thursday and Friday. It went away each day after an hour or so. No fever. No sore throat this morning.
Today I was given a couple packs of Covid tests, so I took one. I tested positive. Not a real surprise, knowing it is running rampant in this community. I am vaccinated.

What steps are you taking due to having tested positive?

[RZehr]

I had a slight sore throat when I woke up in the morning Thursday and Friday. It went away each day after an hour or so. No fever. No sore throat this morning.
Today I was given a couple packs of Covid tests, so I took one. I tested positive. Not a real surprise, knowing it is running rampant in this community. I am vaccinated.

What steps are you taking due to having tested positive?

Nothing. Probably nothing. It’s all through the church already, our family was one of the more recent ones. My son had it last week. My wife had it 9 days ago. She tests negative now. I have no trips planned. I have a couple more tests here, I might take another one next week. I feel about 99% fine. I was working outside when the tests came, so I just opened one up and did the test off the pickup tailgate.

[Somebody]

I was working outside when the tests came, so I just opened one up and did the test off the pickup tailgate.

So you are saying your pickup tailgate has covid????

[mike]

I had a slight sore throat when I woke up in the morning Thursday and Friday. It went away each day after an hour or so. No fever. No sore throat this morning.
Today I was given a couple packs of Covid tests, so I took one. I tested positive. Not a real surprise, knowing it is running rampant in this community. I am vaccinated.

What steps are you taking due to having tested positive?

Nothing. Probably nothing. It’s all through the church already, our family was one of the more recent ones. My son had it last week. My wife had it 9 days ago. She tests negative now. I have no trips planned. I have a couple more tests here, I might take another one next week. I feel about 99% fine. I was working outside when the tests came, so I just opened one up and did the test off the pickup tailgate.

That's what I would do if I tested positive at this point. My wife and I had colds/minor sore throats a couple weeks ago, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was Covid. I didn't bother to test. It's just not a big deal to me any more at this point. Even if you test positive, I don't see the point of quarantining if you have no symptoms, or even mild symptoms, with the exception of knowingly being in close contact with someone vulnerable. That's where I'm at these days.

[ragpicker]

I got it and it kicked my butt hard. I am still struggling with recovery. Incidentally, I can’t think of a single opinion or position I have changed as a result.