A new Covid study.

Submitted by vtcc73 on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 2:07pm

I was talking with an old friend in Austin this morning. He mentioned a newly published study in the British Medical Journal regarding the use of famotidine to treat infected patients.

There are a few things that seem odd and promising at the same time. BMJ publishing a study based on ten patients doesn't look right. That's an awful small patient sample size to base any conclusion on much less getting a study published anywhere except YouTube. What got my attention was that all ten patients saw positive responses within 24-48 hours and all had recovered their pre-infection level of health within 14 days. The patients are also diverse with regard to age, sex, and ethnicity. Still, it's only ten. The big shock is that it's sold OTC as Pepcid AC for indigestion and acid reflux relief but was given in "massive" doses. It has been around a long time and has a pretty good safety record.

I do not engage in magical thinking and certainly don't think a magical cure will just pop up out of the air like HCQ was supposed to be. It's a small study but seems to be getting some attention from the science and medical community. There are a lot of other links that suggest famotidine may be on the right track under the right circumstances. Cheap and a good safety record would certainly be welcome. There had been a suggested connection where patients using it in China who experienced much less severe infections compared to patients who used reflux medications like omeprazol. A similar connection has been suggested for patients using medications of a similar class for rheumatoid arthritis and asthma. As I understand famotidine work to suppress the hyperactive immune response which is suspected as the reason for the severe SAR2 disease process.

For me, there's sufficient reason to consider that famotidine might be very promising. I'm interested in the thoughts of our better qualified members.

Tags:

COVID-19

BMJ

famotidine

Pepcid AC

Vote

Comments

Submitted by wetterau on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 3:31pm

HCQ taken with zinc and an

HCQ taken with zinc and an antibiotic has demonstrated favorable results at the earliest signs of infection. It is not a miracle cure at later stages of the disease. HCQ is about as safe as drugs can be, taken for many years by millions of people to ward off malaria. It is inexpensive.
You can draw your own conclusions about the widely spread misinformation, the fraudulent article in the Lancet, the misleading test results, the slowness of the medical establishment to conduct a double blind placebo study of the combination given early, etc.

Submitted by vtcc73 on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 10:51pm

The medical community around the world

@wetterau @wetterau @wetterau @wetterau appears to disagree. Even here in tiny Ecuador the Minister of Health and the doctor heading up the national effort abandoned all use of HCQ two months ago citing severe cardiac side effects (know side effects in its intended use absent Covid) that were causing harm with no identifiable benefit. The CDC just recently revoked the emergency authority to use HCQ to treat Covid. As usual the CDC is behind many developed countries. The claim of its benefit in early stages or when used prophylactically is untested. Yes, there is anecdotal evidence which, again, hasn't been rigorously tested.

On the claim of safety I disagree. Most medications when used as tested, approved, and intended are mostly safe, there are always people with side effects, but are not safe used without doctor's advice and as directed. HCQ is no different until rigorously tested and approved for this purpose. Right now the opposite is the reality. Even tested and approved is no guarantee but it's light years ahead of YouTube and unconfirmed stories. On balance, I'd steer clear of it.

I get it. Big Pharma and Big Medicine for Profit in the US is always suspect in their motives. I can't disagree that some of their actions combined with the insurance industry are pure evil. I am no fan of any of them. The work of the experts and the community consensus that is developing is far better than the guesses of everyone else. Again, I have no way of knowing who is right on HCQ, among other things, the many YouTube prophets (profits?) and trump or the worldwide medical community but I know who I trust more with my health and my life. YMMV

—

"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

Submitted by Blue Republic on Wed, 06/17/2020 - 10:41am

Does the

@vtcc73
"medical community around the world" include India? They have gone to HCQ in a big way primarily as a prophylaxis - started in March and continue to expand on it.

New Delhi: .The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex medical research body spearheading India's battle against coronavirus has now released an Advisory on the use of hydroxy—chloroquine as prophylaxis for SARS-CoV-2 infection

https://medicaldialogues.in/medicine/guidelines/breaking-news-icmr-permi...

This Brazilian study saw no serious side effects among over 400 people receiving hydroxychloroquine. Their results showed that people starting HCQ treatment within seven days of developing symptoms ended up requiring hospitalization at only a fifth (1.17% v. 5.8%) of the control group.

According to our study, empirical treatment with hydroxychloroquine
associated with azithromycin for suspected cases of COVID-19 infection reduces the
need for hospitalization.

source

That was one of the studies cited by Yale epidemiologist Dr. Harvey Risch in his recent recommendation for HCQ therapy to be immediately and widely implemented (he extensively debunks the supposed severity/frequency of heart-related side efects).

Yale Epidemiologist: Hydroxychloroquine Should Be 'Widely Available And Promoted Immediately' As Standard Treatment

FWIW - it was the FDA that revoked the emergency authorization for HCQ use for COVID. Doctors in most states can still prescribe it "off-label".

Submitted by Roy Blakeley on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 3:36pm

It is actually in a journal called Gut

published by the BMJ group. The study is small and there is no control group. The authors suggest that it is a candidate for a proper clinical trial and that seems to be justified. It certainly is unlikely to do any harm.

Submitted by vtcc73 on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 6:31pm

Thanks for restating those points

@Roy Blakeley and acknowledging GUT which I failed to do.

—

"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 4:07pm

I think all promising drugs should be examined

...with an open mind — especially older, safe "off brand" drugs that are in the public domain.

These will be bitterly and savagely smeared by the medical community and research labs around the world, especially if they are effective. We saw this with HCQ, which continues to be the most commonly used drug throughout the world to treat Covid-19. Why? Because it works when used together with other compounds like zinc.

These drugs are safe, affordable, and offer no profits to pharmaceutical companies.

Utterly corrupt drugs, like remdesivir — which was approved by the FDA for Gilead Science, a pharmaceutical company affiliated with Donald Rumsfeld. former Secretary of Defense during the Iraq invasion — are dangerous and are not effective. But they are frightfully expensive and profitable. The drug was rush-approved to pump up the stock market.

No surprise there.

So far public domain drugs are the only ones that work for Covid-19.

And on that note, another British trial was announced this week:

Dexamethasone can help save lives of very ill coronavirus patients, British trial finds

Researchers gave the anti-inflammatory drug to some 2,000 hospitalised patients

Dexamethasone reduced deaths by one-third for patients on ventilators and one-fifth among patients who were on supplemental oxygen

This generic steroid trial sounds very promising. I've printed it out for emergency purposes. (In order to give consent for its use on your behalf, in lieu of a ventilator, which currently has a 90 percent mortality rate in the US.)

A low-cost and widely available drug has been found to reduce the death rate by one-third among most severe Covid-19 patients, according to trial data published on Tuesday.

The trial gave a low dose – 6 milligrams – of the steroid to 2,104 hospitalised patients for 10 days and results were compared with 4,321 patients who did not use the drug.

Dexamethasone reduced deaths by one-third for patients on ventilators and one-fifth among patients who were on supplemental oxygen, compared to those who only received usual care.

The Oxford researchers said they are “now working to publish the full details as soon as possible”, but are calling for the drug to become the “standard of care” in patients requiring oxygen treatment.

“The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment, so dexamethasone should now become standard of care in these patients,” said Peter Horby, a professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health at the University of Oxford and one of the chief investigators for the trial.

Martin Landray, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Oxford and also one of the chief investigators, said that the results showed the drug is the “first treatment demonstrated to reduce mortality is one that is instantly available and affordable worldwide. It’s going to be very hard for any drug really to replace this, given that it costs less than 50 pounds [$63]."

Nick Cammack, Covid-19 therapeutics accelerator lead at UK-based research charity Wellcome Trust called for the drug to be used worldwide.

“Dexamethasone must now be rolled out and accessed by thousands of critically ill patients around the world. It is highly affordable, easy to make, can be scaled up quickly and only needs a small dosage. Any and every successful treatment against Covid-19 must be made available to everyone who needs it globally, regardless of their ability to pay,” Cammack said.

You may not hear about this drug in the US media.

It's not profitable to the predators.

(Warning: Do not inject a Covid-19 vaccine that is not in the public domain.)

Submitted by vtcc73 on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 6:32pm

Thanks for the addition.

@Pluto's Republic @Pluto's Republic Everything in your post is under consideration and were part of our discussion. Any treatment is going to be a combination of several support protocols and medications depending on the individual's medical history and their infection. There is certainly nothing in stone yet but several pieces of the puzzle seem to be in sight. That's why I tossed this piece out for information and discussion.

...with an open mind — especially older, safe "off brand" drugs that are in the public domain.

These will be bitterly and savagely smeared by the medical community and research labs around the world, especially if they are effective. We saw this with HCQ, which continues to be the most commonly used drug throughout the world to treat Covid-19. Why? Because it works when used together with other compounds like zinc.

These drugs are safe, affordable, and offer no profits to pharmaceutical companies.

Utterly corrupt drugs, like remdesivir — which was approved by the FDA for Gilead Science, a pharmaceutical company affiliated with Donald Rumsfeld. former Secretary of Defense during the Iraq invasion — are dangerous and are not effective. But they are frightfully expensive and profitable. The drug was rush-approved to pump up the stock market.

No surprise there.

So far public domain drugs are the only ones that work for Covid-19.

And on that note, another British trial was announced this week:

Dexamethasone can help save lives of very ill coronavirus patients, British trial finds

Researchers gave the anti-inflammatory drug to some 2,000 hospitalised patients

Dexamethasone reduced deaths by one-third for patients on ventilators and one-fifth among patients who were on supplemental oxygen

This generic steroid trial sounds very promising. I've printed it out for emergency purposes. (In order to give consent for its use on your behalf, in lieu of a ventilator, which currently has a 90 percent mortality rate in the US.)

A low-cost and widely available drug has been found to reduce the death rate by one-third among most severe Covid-19 patients, according to trial data published on Tuesday.

The trial gave a low dose – 6 milligrams – of the steroid to 2,104 hospitalised patients for 10 days and results were compared with 4,321 patients who did not use the drug.

Dexamethasone reduced deaths by one-third for patients on ventilators and one-fifth among patients who were on supplemental oxygen, compared to those who only received usual care.

The Oxford researchers said they are “now working to publish the full details as soon as possible”, but are calling for the drug to become the “standard of care” in patients requiring oxygen treatment.

“The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment, so dexamethasone should now become standard of care in these patients,” said Peter Horby, a professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health at the University of Oxford and one of the chief investigators for the trial.

Martin Landray, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Oxford and also one of the chief investigators, said that the results showed the drug is the “first treatment demonstrated to reduce mortality is one that is instantly available and affordable worldwide. It’s going to be very hard for any drug really to replace this, given that it costs less than 50 pounds [$63]."

Nick Cammack, Covid-19 therapeutics accelerator lead at UK-based research charity Wellcome Trust called for the drug to be used worldwide.

“Dexamethasone must now be rolled out and accessed by thousands of critically ill patients around the world. It is highly affordable, easy to make, can be scaled up quickly and only needs a small dosage. Any and every successful treatment against Covid-19 must be made available to everyone who needs it globally, regardless of their ability to pay,” Cammack said.

.

You may not hear about this drug in the US media.

It's not profitable to the predators.

(Warning: Do not inject a Covid-19 vaccine that is not in the public domain.)

—

"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 7:38pm

Thanks for introducing the topic

@vtcc73

I admit that I'm deeply focused on drug development and cover-19 research at present, but there are not too many opportunities to discuss them in some kind of context. I appreciate that you posted this.

I am kind of surprised at the level of corruption among the world's pharmaceutical corporations. I didn't realize it was endemic. This pandemic has shown a spotlight on all of it. That takes some getting used to. I also did not realize the vast array of US bioweapons labs throughout the world, especially along the borders of our alleged enemies. It's amazing and sickening how many coronavirus labs the US owns and operates in the world. But these are not topics being discussed at this time. Not anywhere. Also, there is widespread sabotage at drug companies and research labs, and especially at the CDC and the FDA. As for medical journals like Lancet, they have lost their fucking minds, the sleazy cowards.

So stepping around all this corruption to look at proactive research is really a complicated process. While this is not my field, the more I learn the more I realize that there will be no vaccine. I don't put any of my eggs in that basket. The world will develop preventives and treatments. And that is not necessarily a bad thing. It could lead to cures for many major diseases. There's a good chance that we already have medications that prevent Covid-19. I'm following a few, on a hunch. Plus there are highly effective treatments used in China and South Korea, for example, that are not shared with Western medical journals. I follow those, too. That's how the future looks to me.

Submitted by vtcc73 on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 11:29pm

I'm encouraged when I see

@Pluto's Republic so many people like those who have commented paying attention to something other than the "shiny shit" peddled in the media. None of this is in my area of expertise or experience. It's good to test my critical thinking skills and resistance to confirmation bias with people who do know what they're talking about. That's why I tossed this out for you folks to chew on and pull apart.

I received the paper from my friend when he mentioned it this morning. I'd probably not have come across it on my own but he is one of those guys who like to dig into things like this. The subject happens to be of personal interest since he is dealing with a couple of health issues that may require immunosuppressants in the future so he's been educating himself. The two, his issue and Covid, just happen to dovetail together.

I was shocked that this was published based on only ten patients. That would normally have been a big flapping bullshit flag to me. I got a little excited after a couple pages. The paper is well done and makes sense from what little I know about the direction research for treatments and vaccines is going. A lot of little pieces come together to say this looks promising. We'll see. It wouldn't be the first time that something promising goes bust.

A common thread in the comments and the general feelings of people is the mistrust of Big Pharma and the rest of the corporatized medical and scientific research. The corrupting influence is massive amounts of money. So many crackpots, charletons, and unethical people looking to make a buck make it tough to know what to think. These are very challenging times for people trying to figure out WTF is real and what's a scam or just out to make themselves famous and wealthy. Toss in the uncertainties and lack of solid knowledge about Covid and most people don't know whether to shit or go blind.

I always point to Charles Pierce's Three Great Premises from his book Idiot America as one of my first tests for determining validity. Google it if you aren't familiar. Identity isn't all that consistent a lens unless it's trump. There's no doubt he won't have anything right and is always looking to profit. The other end is my dog. Kevin has never told me a lie but never trust the cats. And I have solid proof that sheep lie.

—

"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

Submitted by ggersh on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 7:37pm

I was given a list of drugs that might be of use

@vtcc73 this guy has tried to get in touch with those that might
want to help people, not profit from them.

FWIW all this is way above my paygrade, hopefully this makes sense

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=32712951

—

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by vtcc73 on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 11:31pm

I'll look into them.

@ggersh Thanks ggersh.

—

"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

Submitted by Granma on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 7:01pm

I read about dexanethasone

@Pluto's Republic @Pluto's Republic in the Guardian today. It is a steroid that has been around for 60 years so they know its safety record. It was part of the Recovery trials. The Recovery trials are trying several drugs. They are large randomized, scientific trials. My understanding is that scientists and Dr.s in many countries are participating/working together in them in an effort to find treatments that help Covid patients. They are pretty happy about this steroid.

...with an open mind — especially older, safe "off brand" drugs that are in the public domain.

These will be bitterly and savagely smeared by the medical community and research labs around the world, especially if they are effective. We saw this with HCQ, which continues to be the most commonly used drug throughout the world to treat Covid-19. Why? Because it works when used together with other compounds like zinc.

These drugs are safe, affordable, and offer no profits to pharmaceutical companies.

Utterly corrupt drugs, like remdesivir — which was approved by the FDA for Gilead Science, a pharmaceutical company affiliated with Donald Rumsfeld. former Secretary of Defense during the Iraq invasion — are dangerous and are not effective. But they are frightfully expensive and profitable. The drug was rush-approved to pump up the stock market.

No surprise there.

So far public domain drugs are the only ones that work for Covid-19.

And on that note, another British trial was announced this week:

Dexamethasone can help save lives of very ill coronavirus patients, British trial finds

Researchers gave the anti-inflammatory drug to some 2,000 hospitalised patients

Dexamethasone reduced deaths by one-third for patients on ventilators and one-fifth among patients who were on supplemental oxygen

This generic steroid trial sounds very promising. I've printed it out for emergency purposes. (In order to give consent for its use on your behalf, in lieu of a ventilator, which currently has a 90 percent mortality rate in the US.)

A low-cost and widely available drug has been found to reduce the death rate by one-third among most severe Covid-19 patients, according to trial data published on Tuesday.

The trial gave a low dose – 6 milligrams – of the steroid to 2,104 hospitalised patients for 10 days and results were compared with 4,321 patients who did not use the drug.

Dexamethasone reduced deaths by one-third for patients on ventilators and one-fifth among patients who were on supplemental oxygen, compared to those who only received usual care.

The Oxford researchers said they are “now working to publish the full details as soon as possible”, but are calling for the drug to become the “standard of care” in patients requiring oxygen treatment.

“The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment, so dexamethasone should now become standard of care in these patients,” said Peter Horby, a professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health at the University of Oxford and one of the chief investigators for the trial.

Martin Landray, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Oxford and also one of the chief investigators, said that the results showed the drug is the “first treatment demonstrated to reduce mortality is one that is instantly available and affordable worldwide. It’s going to be very hard for any drug really to replace this, given that it costs less than 50 pounds [$63]."

Nick Cammack, Covid-19 therapeutics accelerator lead at UK-based research charity Wellcome Trust called for the drug to be used worldwide.

“Dexamethasone must now be rolled out and accessed by thousands of critically ill patients around the world. It is highly affordable, easy to make, can be scaled up quickly and only needs a small dosage. Any and every successful treatment against Covid-19 must be made available to everyone who needs it globally, regardless of their ability to pay,” Cammack said.

.

You may not hear about this drug in the US media.

It's not profitable to the predators.

(Warning: Do not inject a Covid-19 vaccine that is not in the public domain.)

Submitted by GreatLakeSailor on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 8:03pm

Heard it on NPR in the car today.

@Granma

Heard it on NPR in the car today. Can't get much more corporate than that!

—

Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 8:07pm

Donald Rumsfeld is a bad penny

@Pluto's Republic

He got the FDA to approve Tamiflue before it had gone through clinical trials. He also got them to approve aspartame over..oh darn it I just had a brain spasm...the artificial sugar that came in pink packets...??

Rummy did sell his stock in Gilead iirc before remdesivir got the nod.

Saccharine?

...with an open mind — especially older, safe "off brand" drugs that are in the public domain.

These will be bitterly and savagely smeared by the medical community and research labs around the world, especially if they are effective. We saw this with HCQ, which continues to be the most commonly used drug throughout the world to treat Covid-19. Why? Because it works when used together with other compounds like zinc.

These drugs are safe, affordable, and offer no profits to pharmaceutical companies.

Utterly corrupt drugs, like remdesivir — which was approved by the FDA for Gilead Science, a pharmaceutical company affiliated with Donald Rumsfeld. former Secretary of Defense during the Iraq invasion — are dangerous and are not effective. But they are frightfully expensive and profitable. The drug was rush-approved to pump up the stock market.

No surprise there.

So far public domain drugs are the only ones that work for Covid-19.

And on that note, another British trial was announced this week:

Dexamethasone can help save lives of very ill coronavirus patients, British trial finds

Researchers gave the anti-inflammatory drug to some 2,000 hospitalised patients

Dexamethasone reduced deaths by one-third for patients on ventilators and one-fifth among patients who were on supplemental oxygen

This generic steroid trial sounds very promising. I've printed it out for emergency purposes. (In order to give consent for its use on your behalf, in lieu of a ventilator, which currently has a 90 percent mortality rate in the US.)

A low-cost and widely available drug has been found to reduce the death rate by one-third among most severe Covid-19 patients, according to trial data published on Tuesday.

The trial gave a low dose – 6 milligrams – of the steroid to 2,104 hospitalised patients for 10 days and results were compared with 4,321 patients who did not use the drug.

Dexamethasone reduced deaths by one-third for patients on ventilators and one-fifth among patients who were on supplemental oxygen, compared to those who only received usual care.

The Oxford researchers said they are “now working to publish the full details as soon as possible”, but are calling for the drug to become the “standard of care” in patients requiring oxygen treatment.

“The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment, so dexamethasone should now become standard of care in these patients,” said Peter Horby, a professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health at the University of Oxford and one of the chief investigators for the trial.

Martin Landray, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Oxford and also one of the chief investigators, said that the results showed the drug is the “first treatment demonstrated to reduce mortality is one that is instantly available and affordable worldwide. It’s going to be very hard for any drug really to replace this, given that it costs less than 50 pounds [$63]."

Nick Cammack, Covid-19 therapeutics accelerator lead at UK-based research charity Wellcome Trust called for the drug to be used worldwide.

“Dexamethasone must now be rolled out and accessed by thousands of critically ill patients around the world. It is highly affordable, easy to make, can be scaled up quickly and only needs a small dosage. Any and every successful treatment against Covid-19 must be made available to everyone who needs it globally, regardless of their ability to pay,” Cammack said.

.

You may not hear about this drug in the US media.

It's not profitable to the predators.

(Warning: Do not inject a Covid-19 vaccine that is not in the public domain.)

—

Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Submitted by peachcreek on Wed, 06/17/2020 - 1:04am

iirc pink packets were "Sweet 'N Low" aka saccharin n/t

@snoopydawg

Submitted by snoopydawg on Wed, 06/17/2020 - 1:27am

Thanks!

@peachcreek

—

Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Wed, 06/17/2020 - 11:54am

I'll drop my Covid LOL here.

@Pluto's Republic

Yesterday I was wondering how the corrupt FDA was going cover their asses when it is discovered that Remdesivir was a bogus approval for a drug that didn't work:

Utterly corrupt drugs, like remdesivir — which was approved by the FDA for Gilead Science, a pharmaceutical company affiliated with Donald Rumsfeld. former Secretary of Defense during the Iraq invasion — are dangerous and are not effective. But they are frightfully expensive and profitable. The drug was rush-approved to pump up the stock market.

No surprise there.

Well that didn't take long!

The FDA is going to blame it on the evil Trump drug HCQ.

Apparently that's not a stretch for the FDA.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: FDA Warns of Newly Discovered Potential Drug Interaction That May Reduce Effectiveness of a COVID-19 Treatment Authorized for Emergency Use

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning health care providers about a newly discovered potential drug interaction related to the investigational antiviral drug remdesivir, which has received emergency use authorization for the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients with severe disease.

Based on a recently completed non-clinical laboratory study, the FDA is revising the fact sheet for health care providers that accompanies the drug to state that co-administration of remdesivir and chloroquine phosphate or hydroxychloroquine sulfate is not recommended as it may result in reduced antiviral activity of remdesivir. The agency is not aware of instances of this reduced activity occurring in the clinical setting but is continuing to evaluate all data related to remdesivir.

...with an open mind — especially older, safe "off brand" drugs that are in the public domain.

These will be bitterly and savagely smeared by the medical community and research labs around the world, especially if they are effective. We saw this with HCQ, which continues to be the most commonly used drug throughout the world to treat Covid-19. Why? Because it works when used together with other compounds like zinc.

These drugs are safe, affordable, and offer no profits to pharmaceutical companies.

Utterly corrupt drugs, like remdesivir — which was approved by the FDA for Gilead Science, a pharmaceutical company affiliated with Donald Rumsfeld. former Secretary of Defense during the Iraq invasion — are dangerous and are not effective. But they are frightfully expensive and profitable. The drug was rush-approved to pump up the stock market.

No surprise there.

So far public domain drugs are the only ones that work for Covid-19.

And on that note, another British trial was announced this week:

Dexamethasone can help save lives of very ill coronavirus patients, British trial finds

Researchers gave the anti-inflammatory drug to some 2,000 hospitalised patients

Dexamethasone reduced deaths by one-third for patients on ventilators and one-fifth among patients who were on supplemental oxygen

This generic steroid trial sounds very promising. I've printed it out for emergency purposes. (In order to give consent for its use on your behalf, in lieu of a ventilator, which currently has a 90 percent mortality rate in the US.)

A low-cost and widely available drug has been found to reduce the death rate by one-third among most severe Covid-19 patients, according to trial data published on Tuesday.

The trial gave a low dose – 6 milligrams – of the steroid to 2,104 hospitalised patients for 10 days and results were compared with 4,321 patients who did not use the drug.

Dexamethasone reduced deaths by one-third for patients on ventilators and one-fifth among patients who were on supplemental oxygen, compared to those who only received usual care.

The Oxford researchers said they are “now working to publish the full details as soon as possible”, but are calling for the drug to become the “standard of care” in patients requiring oxygen treatment.

“The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment, so dexamethasone should now become standard of care in these patients,” said Peter Horby, a professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health at the University of Oxford and one of the chief investigators for the trial.

Martin Landray, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Oxford and also one of the chief investigators, said that the results showed the drug is the “first treatment demonstrated to reduce mortality is one that is instantly available and affordable worldwide. It’s going to be very hard for any drug really to replace this, given that it costs less than 50 pounds [$63]."

Nick Cammack, Covid-19 therapeutics accelerator lead at UK-based research charity Wellcome Trust called for the drug to be used worldwide.

“Dexamethasone must now be rolled out and accessed by thousands of critically ill patients around the world. It is highly affordable, easy to make, can be scaled up quickly and only needs a small dosage. Any and every successful treatment against Covid-19 must be made available to everyone who needs it globally, regardless of their ability to pay,” Cammack said.

.

You may not hear about this drug in the US media.

It's not profitable to the predators.

(Warning: Do not inject a Covid-19 vaccine that is not in the public domain.)

Submitted by Blue Republic on Thu, 06/18/2020 - 3:00am

I'd be more worried

@Pluto's Republic about the remdesivir interfering with the HCQ...

co-administration of remdesivir and chloroquine phosphate or hydroxychloroquine sulfate is not recommended as it may result in reduced antiviral activity of remdesivir.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 7:28pm

Trump said that the folks working on a vaccine for COVID

were very smart people and they were the ones who created the AIDS vaccine. Just a small problem with that....

—

Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Submitted by vtcc73 on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 11:34pm

That man is a hemorrhoid.

@snoopydawg He's a PITA and he won't go back where he belongs.

—

"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

Submitted by lotlizard on Thu, 06/18/2020 - 5:42am

There oughta be a big outfit called Recto-Sigmoid Corporation

@vtcc73
There’d be no shortage of qualified CEO candidates.

Submitted by Blue Republic on Thu, 06/18/2020 - 3:09am

Oxygen diffusion

It seems that understanding of the nature of the disease is evolving and it is becoming understood that the disease interferes with the blood's ability to transport oxygen. Capillaries end up damaged (possibly by iron shed from red blood cells) and this results in damage to surrounding tissue in the lungs and elsewhere.

This line of thinking was proposed by a NYC frontline doctor, Cameron Kyle-Sidell in a now-deleted youtube video. The following video from a doctor with a respiratory therapy background is a reply to Kyle-Sidell - he proposes a form of respiratory therapy (hyperbaric, I think) as a means of getting more oxygen into the bloodstream. The idea being that O2 diffused into the blood plasma will get it transported to where it needs to be delivered and damage to capillaries and surrounding tissue will be averted.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOvsxfbOXgc]

The very same concept - of infusing oxygen into the bloodstream - forms the basis for treatment of the disease with chlorine dioxide, the "bleach" that Trump was mercilessly derided for mentioning.

There are a hundred or so people in Guayaquil, Ecuador who are not joining in the ridicule as they survived COVID there in a trial where it was treated with intravenous ClO2. The success rate was close to 100%.

While "injecting bleach" may sound insane, ClO2 has been used since the 1980's to purify (kill viruses and bacteria) blood for use in transfusions. (as a gas, ClO2 is dangerously explosive at above 10 degrees C - and damaging to inhale - but, according to its proponents, safe in correct doses drunk mixed with water or as an IV)

Video in Spanish here by bio-physicist Andreas Kalcker about the Ecuador trial is here

and more discussion of ClO2 therapy and the Ecuador situation with Kalcker and Terri Rivera (English) here: