Wu Flu treatment is staring us in the face
What a wondrous thing politics is. When properly functioning, which occurs rarely, it is like a beneficent immune system fighting off invaders, preserving health. Most often politicos are fine-tuned to be grifters. The most recent, egregious example is Sen. Richard Burr of GA who has been caught selling his hospitality industry stocks when he first got wind of the COVID-19 apocalypse heading our way. Richard Burr's insider trading.
Coup plotters aside, Burr is a traitor to the country. Treason, indeed. To jail with him and all others seeking to make illicit profit from this pandemic.
The above information gives a sort of prologue to assessing Governmental responses to this pandemic. The Public likely will be enraged by this news. Burr must go. So too with other elected profiteers.
Much push back against Trump is occurring against Trump (what else is new?) who proposed the utility of chloroquine and its somewhat safer derivative hydroxychloroquine in treating the disease.
Trump is certainly no medical font of wisdom (spare me the other wisecracks which I know will be appended in the following thread to this essay, should there be any such thread). But he knows how to read. He especially knows how to read people, but that is another matter. Literature from China demonstrates the use of chloroquine (CQ) or hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to treat established Wu Flu cases or even prophylactically use this for disease prevention. Early Chinese results, published in English language medical journals seem to reinforce this theory.
Another drug, which has been around for decades is azithromycin (AZ), the main ingredient in the antibiotic Z-pack. AZ has been around for decades. Its benefits and drawbacks are widely known, just as are those of CQ and HCQ.
Cautionary information published in ScienceDirect via the journal Antiviral Research needs to be understood.
Highlights
In vitro data suggest that chloroquine inhibits SARS Cov-2 replication.
In past research, chloroquine has shown in vitro activity against many different viruses, but no benefit in animal models.
Chloroquine has been proposed several times for the treatment of acute viral diseases in humans without success.
The outcomes of some current clinical trials of chloroquine in China have been announced, without access to the data.
Peer review of the results and an independent assessment of the potential benefit for patients are essential.
But...
The contrasting view must be considered during this dire emergent disaster, threatening lives, societies, cultures.
There are growing numbers of scientific papers, some comprehensive and others not so much, about this use of CQ and HCQ: Chloroquine phosphate shows efficacy in COVI-19 associated pneumonia
Chloroquine phosphate, an old drug for the treatment of malaria, is shown to have apparent efficacy and acceptable safety against COVID-19 associated pneumonia in multicenter clinical trials conducted in China. In the early in vitro studies, chloroquine was found to block COVID-19 infection at low-micromolar concentration, with a half-maximal effective concentration of 1.13 μM and a half-cytotoxic concentration (CC50) greater than 100 μM. A number of subsequent clinical trials have been quickly conducted in China to test the efficacy and safety of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19 associated pneumonia in more than 10 hospitals in Wuhan, Jingzhou, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Ningbo. Advertisement Thus far, results from more than 100 patients have demonstrated that chloroquine phosphate is superior to the control treatment in inhibiting the exacerbation of pneumonia, improving lung imaging findings, promoting a virus-negative conversion, and shortening the disease course according to the news briefing. Severe adverse reactions to chloroquine phosphate were not noted in the aforementioned patients. Given these findings, a conference was held on February 15, 2020; participants including experts from government and regulatory authorities and organizers of clinical trials reached an agreement that chloroquine phosphate has potent activity against COVID-19. The drug is recommended for inclusion in the next version of the Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Pneumonia Caused by COVID-19 issued by the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China.
https://medicaldialogues.in/pulmonology/news/breakthrough-chloroquine-ph...
Read the rest of the product labelling approved by the FDA by searching their website. I possess the full information in pdf form and if I knew how to post it, I would.
CQ, HCQ both have multiple uses. The antimalarial activity was the original reason for use of these drugs. So CQ (and HCQ, which will be considered to be included in all further mentions of CQ) combats inflammation, hence the utility in disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. But also CQ has activities which inhibit viral replication. Yes, side-effects do occur, as is true of all drugs, including water. If you doubt that water is a drug, an essential for life, it is probably because Big Pharma can't patent water. If they could, have no doubt that they would.
Those of you who have digested this information so far (I love alimentary descriptors), may proceed to the other part of this extremely promising intervention: azithromycin, AZ. This antibiotic has also been around a long time. It is widely used to treat infections and suspected infections.
For those who like to get more detailed, please consider the following schematic:
For those who comprehend this schematic, wonderful. For the rest, sorry, but I won't delve further into AZ's mechanism of action nor side-effects.
Early reports from China, as alluded to above, indicate that AZ + CQ = virologic cure in 5 days.
Check out this video from a well-respected oncologist, Dr. Grace
I suspect that most readers will be satisfied with the rather broad outline presented here. Now, I will get into greater detail should any on c99 so request.
Now onto politics. Wu Flu is heavily politicized: as to origins, data sharing, country-blaming, mitigation, treatment--anything Wu Flu-related. Trump is being lobbied strongly by Dr. Fauci and other medical establishment types, to suspend discussion of unorthodox Wu Flu treatments. You caught the significance hopefully. Medical establishment exists, is robust, and functions well--sadly often suppressing innovation. I do not agree with rushing unproven drugs to market, but both CQ and AZ have been around a long time, used by millions in the case of AZ and probably hundreds of thousands who use CQ.
In a comment today, https://caucus99percent.com/comment/479949#comment-479949, which I made to PriceRip https://caucus99percent.com/content/trump-being-managed-sorta, my reasoning for supporting the "unproven efficacy" of CQ + AZ for Wu Flu is given by analogy:
But, in this time of looming economic disaster, let us for the moment disregard Fauci's dire protestations. Suppose your house is on fire. The fire department comes to your flaming abode and inquires of the owner: do you think this structure could withstand the application of our high-powered water pumps or do you think it would damage the structure?
After the owner regains composure, he blurts out: "spray the goddam place! If the water knocks down the house, the outcome won't be worse than letting the fire consume it".
Personally, I have a contraindication against using CQ. But most definitely I would use AZ immediately if I came into contact with a known or suspected Wu Flu carrier.
Absent my personal contraindication for CQ usage, I would take that too.
This is not a prescription for any person here. This is just my statement that I would bet my life on using these drugs.
Comments
As a correlate to Remarks about Richard Burr
Hang all those corrupt bastards who sold out stock and the U.S. populace. Richard Burr. Dianne Fineswine (and a swine she is), and all other politicos possessing advanced warning of the imminent dangers posed by Wu Flu.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIuayJJ9IEk]
But Ed...
How will the pharmaceuticals companies make their billions coming up with a new vaccine if in the meantime we find off the shelf stuff that already works?
Can't trust those ChiComs anyway you know. They're probably just sending out peer reviewed disinformation to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
NHK, them Commies won't get my precious bodily fluids
Just try it, Xi, I dare ya!
That's why we aren't testing at rates other countries are. The
W.H.O tests have been available for a long time, but big pharma won't profit from those. So the bastards killed people while letting the virus grow market demand for their not-yet-available but profitable test kits. And no doubt there possibly exists treatments that the for-profit sectors won't disseminate because money.
I would be all-in for an aggregation website that documents and exposes high profile individuals endangering lives by profiteering. We should start screaming for these individuals to be prosecuted commensurate with how many lives they have imperiled.
Well written but depressing. Good Night and Good Luck.
I thought this was interesting from Wikipedia
You want to know why single payer healthcare will lower our medical expenses, there's one example right there.
But until we overthrow the illegal regime that has fraudulently stolen our elections, we won't ever get it.
Wouldn't you also include zinc with the Chloroquine?
That appears to be the role of the drug to help zinc get in the cell and block viral reproduction.
Why isn't there more discussion of Vitamin C IV treatment? The Chinese claim no one treated with IV C died. We know that is safe (and pretty inexpensive).
We don't have health care in the US, we have for profit sickness and prescription care. No offense meant to those caught in the corrupt system.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good point. One more huge reason nationalizing health care
would save billions. Everyone in the healthcare delivery chain would be focused on cures rather than behaving like pushers trying to get their customers addicted to chronic treatment drugs.
Zinc, Vitamin D, Vitamin C,
The likely mechanism of CQ is not by direct zinc transport, which I wrongly assumed in a previous post I made a correction in may essay the Alligator and the PEA.. The
PEA mechanism is through PPAR--an enzyme which is unrelated to zinc pharmacokinetics, in other words, not related to movement of zinc through cells. Vitamin D must be at requisite levels or usual, normal levels. Sunlight does not provides to provide enough vitamin D to most individuals, even those who work outdoors in the sun. Vitamin C was promoted as a health-preserving measure by double Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling 80+ years ago. I am unaware of experimental results for IV vitamin C use, not yet having come across this in my research to date. Specifically, the use of vitamin C in any form has not been mentioned in any articles I've encountered in the Wu Flu pandemic. Any links you might have will be reviewed by me, after which an answer to your question will be formulated.
Edit: sunlight does NOT provide adequate vitamin D even to outdoor workers. I altered the text in my comment to reflect that. Sorry, to mislead anyone.
I notice that the political-medical establishment
...that the media asked about that press conference were commenting from their fainting couches. Trump dared to mention an off-label use for a old drug designed for a different purpose. O the condescension .
I happen to be a fan of older drugs with unusual off-label efficacy, Metformin and aspirin are two examples of such drugs. They have a wealth of direct and incidental data from long term studies, often spanning decades. When carefully analyzed, these studies sometimes reveal unexpected benefits or protective properties that may even
extend the life span.
There's a monograph about this area of pharmaceutical treasure-hunting here: Capturing the Unexpected Benefits of Medical Research:
.
Doctors are notoriously suspicious of off-label drugs, typical of the apoplexy we saw today. It can be tedious to get an off-label prescription from most off-the-shelf doctors. And no matter how exciting the newly-discovered purpose for the medication, drug companies are reluctant to undertake expensive new studies in a drug whose patent has expired. I didn't read the studies or papers related to hydroxychloroquine, but I saw the press conference and recognized Trump's "ill-advised" enthusiasm that must be criticized by serious people.
Coincidently, a little later, I ran across the story below that may explain what is really going on:
.
No US doctor will write a prescription for this. It is useful as a preventive, I noticed. I'll have to order it from India.
FYI, I shop here: http://www.internationaldrugmart.com/
Interesting essay, ed.
I would write CQ Rx if my current practice was so structured.
Currently, having retired from the trenches of fighting disease daily, my practice does not involve giving primary care. No house calls. No on-call. No ER. No emergencies. I did that for 38 years. As the saying goes, "been there, done that". But I guarantee you if my family, having been given fully-informed consent by me on both CQ (HCQ) and AZ, I would gladly get them CQ and AZ.
Reticence on the part of many, if not most physicians, likely relates to the risk of being sued. Consider this scenario: Kindly Dr. AE prescribes off-label use of CQ and / or AZ for a Wu Flu sufferer. Because no drug or drug combination works for every one, some patients will not benefit from the treatment. So, if the treatment fails, then any and all deficits from a patient's former status will be blamed on inadequate or unproven treatment-->malpractice suit. Guess who won't win such a suit at the current time, based upon the "established" treatment protocols? The prescribing physician gets hammered. To repeat the previous aphorism: "been there, done that" also.
New message on PEA as an antiviral
Hi Ed-
Just got this message from the owner of the Fiteyes site about PEA and the coronavirus.
Fri, Mar 20 at 11:17 PM
I hope everyone is being safe. I'm happy COVID-19 isn't dominating every one of our discussions, but I am happy to discuss it as needed. This topic (PeaPure and COVID-19) came up today, so I'm sharing what I know about it.
PeaPure has long been one of my favorite glaucoma-focused dietary supplements, primarily due to the proven ability of PeaPure to reduce neuroinflammation. (PeaPure may also reduce IOP, but FitEyes members have reported mixed results in that regard. I use it mainly to reduce neuroinflammation where it is uniquely efficacious.)
There's a lot of quackery going around now, but in the case of PeaPure, there is a very real connection with COVID-19 that I think deserves a real discussion.
For background we have to understand what a “cytokine storm" is and how that relates to COVID-19. Here's the conclusion from the article that I believe was the first to describe it.
In conclusion, predictors of a fatal outcome in COVID-19 cases included age, the presence of underlying diseases, the presence of secondary infection and elevated inflammatory indicators in the blood. The results obtained from this study also suggest that COVID-19 mortality might be due to virus-activated “cytokine storm syndrome” or fulminant myocarditis.
Here is a lay press report about the "cytokine storm" issue that puts it into everyday language.
The coronavirus turns deadly when it leads to ‘cytokine storm’; identifying this immune response is key to patient’s survival: report - oregonlive.com
The "cytokine storm" is a type of hyper-inflammation where "a flood of immune cells [go] into the lungs. This has a rapid cascading effect in the body."
It turns out that there is real research showing PeaPure can be effective against this type of hyperinflammation in influenza, and that this research existed long before we heard about COVID-19. This is not a case of a product attempting to capitalize on this pandemic. Here's the abstract from the study:
Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) is a food component known since 1957. PEA is synthesized and metabolized in animal cells via a number of enzymes and exerts a multitude of physiological functions related to metabolic homeostasis. Research on PEA has been conducted for more than 50 years, and over 350 papers are referenced in PubMed describing the physiological properties of this endogenous modulator and its pharmacological and therapeutical profile. The major focus of PEA research, since the work of the Nobel laureate Levi-Montalcini in 1993, has been neuropathic pain states and mast cell related disorders. However, it is less known that 6 clinical trials in a total of nearly 4000 people were performed and published last century, specifically studying PEA as a therapy for influenza and the common cold. This was done before Levi-Montalcini's clarification of PEA's mechanism of action, analyzing the role of PEA as an anti-inflammatory agent. We will review in depth these studies, as the results support the effectiveness and safety of PEA in flu and respiratory infections.
The full paper is available online here.
Some people (in these online discussions) consider PeaPure to be a safe supplement that can help reduce the amount of cytokines and prevent the runaway inflammation. They are seeing it as an important supplement for COVID-19.
Here is the conclusion of the 2018 PeaPure study linked above:
Given the results of 6 clinical trials in flu and the common cold, seen in the context of the serious criticism on the efficacy and safety of oseltamivir and zanamivir, PEA should be reconsidered by clinicians as a new treatment modality for the flu and respiratory infections due to its documented efficacy and more importantly its very benign side effect profile. Furthermore, oseltamivir and zanamivir are known to induce resistance; PEA has a very low likelihood of inducing resistance due to its mechanism of action. Finally, the ease of application of PEA offers the possibility to have a quick therapeutic answer ready in case of a flu epidemic, especially in cases of a mismatch between circulating strains and the recommendations from WHO.
I think that is very relevant.
Here's one thing to keep in mind. On FitEyes, our experience has been that it can take up to a couple weeks after one begins supplementing with PeaPure for the body's level to rise enough for it to produce strong results in reducing neuroinflammation. I don't know if it will also take a couple weeks before it can begin impacting a "cytokine storm" but it is something to keep in mind. However, for those of you who are already taking PeaPure for reasons related to glaucoma, I think you can feel happy to know that this may already be helping to protect you from COVID-19.
I'm not advocating that everyone start taking PeaPure. (If they did, our supply would run out quickly and I don't want that to happen.) I am saying that if you are taking it or are considering taking it for reasons related to neuroinflammation, it's immuno support properties are a great additional reason to keep taking it. I plan to take PeaPure for my entire life because I think it is a uniquely beneficial supplement for combating neuroinflammation and it has a very strong record of safety.
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
You write of what technically is called hypercytokinemia
This is referred to by the descriptive term cytokine storm. Fulminant myocarditis is only one possible outcome of such a tempest. Most Wu Flu or influenzal deaths involve ARDS triggered by hypercytokinemia. In other words, pulmonary complications. Any organ system can fall victim to the storm--even skin and brain. But cardiac damage is not the usual modality resulting in influenzal death, to which I include Wu Flu and its baby brother SARS-Cov-1.
If any are interested, this subject will be dealt with in another tedious essay written by yours truly. All you have to do is ask.
This is of great interest to me.
Thanks for the clarification. The earlier advisories I've seen focused only on avoiding common anti-inflammatory medications, such as Ibuprofen, and recommending the use of steroids. I haven't seen any discussion of alternatives until now. Thanks for covering it. And thanks to @Fishtroller 02 for bring PEA to our attention.
Word is out...
https://www.drkarafitzgerald.com/2020/03/19/pea-for-covid19/
https://www.reddit.com/r/COVID19/comments/fl94n0/palmitoylethanolamide_p...
This one is interesting as it has a dosage used in the studies of 1800 mg.
https://www.eyesiu-care.com/would-palmitoylethanolamide-pea-also-help-co...
Here is a European supplier of bulk PEA who has a message that pops up on the page about demand for its product related to COVID-19
https://www.tocris.com/products/palmitoylethanolamide_0879
There are several PEA products on Amazon, but buyer beware... look into each and every ingredient in these capsules. So far I think the Russell Science PEAPure from the Netherland and the Vitalitus products are the best.
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
Price gouging of PEA?
The supplier to which you linked supplies 50 mg tablets at a big price (I guess the supplier must think like Big Pharma). Dose-finding is still in early phases. If 1800 mg of PEA is the necessary dose to kill them bugs, then that's 36 tabs daily. I would rather eat steak and eggs daily for that price--plus my usual fortifying tonic (vodka martini--one olive, I'm on a diet).
Which supplier?
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
Good video which explains how the various
potential treatments for the COVID-19 virus works at the cellular level in a simplified and coherent manner. I highly recommend watching this short video. It will greatly assist in understanding Dr. Alligator Ed's technical essays. (Mea culpa if this was already done.)
1. Antibodies:
2. Antiviral drugs:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuLAX7uQa4Q]
Good video presents snap shot of one antiviral mechanism
A more complete discussion of viral infectivity and cellular mechanisms is in Dr. Seheult's MedCram episode 34. The following diagram is reached after carefully explaining each individual step as to how we get from here (viral presence external to cell) to here (viral replication and release) while also including outlines of one form of antiviral action.
For those wishing greater detail, please watch Dr. Seheult's video.
The use of IVIG, which is intravenous immune globulin, is well-known in treatment of Guillain-Barre syndrome and other conditions which can be ameliorated by rapidly increasing circulating antibodies derived from a pooled group of previously immunized people. Some risks adhere, especially if certain substances are in the pool to which the recipient reacts strongly. This cannot be predicted in advance--or at least until genetic markers of special susceptibilities are identified.
I'm not sure if you watched my video
It discusses the four different mechanisms by which the antiviral drugs listed destroy and/or reduce the viability of the coronavirus within the cell. I believe that one or another of these four mechanisms will be used by any new coronavirus drug to be developed in the future.
I don't have the time to take a more detailed course. The video gives the basics in less than 4 minutes. I've taken up a new hobby.
CB, thanks for the nudge
Reviewing the video, there are four antiviral modes of action discussed:
1. protease inhibitors, which prevent the sliced viral genome components from assembling
2. replicase inhibitors preventing assembly of viral constituents
3. drugs creating mis-sense viral parts due to insertion of altered nucleotide building blocks, such as A' in the video. Other drugs cause insertion of congeners to the other three nucleotides.
4. drugs which block vesicle rupture of coated viral invaders.
Plus other antiviral mechanisms not mentioned. One such approach, used for different ailments than Wu Flu, occupy viral attachments sites, preventing the virus from moving through the outer cell membrane.
I have been required to take CQ
for trips to various countries.
It is not stocked at just any pharmacy. I had to find one that was designated to dispense it.
The closest one was 50 miles away.
I suspect Big Pharma will send out that memo that using these existing, relatively inexpensive drugs is not recommended, so Drs., beware!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Echoes of your caution are current
Dr. Fauci et. al are reluctant to promote CQ, AZ etc. because of lack of RCTS. I don't blame him--but in this essay above, the burning house metaphor is quite apt. When in dire straits, do what works even if some risk is entailed. If one doesn't act, disaster follows.