All COVID-19 Discussion GOES HERE

[Filliam H. Muffman]

I have an appointment in four weeks. I am hoping the health care worker that spread it to (at least) three people is done with the super-spreading event for the moment. The county had 25 new cases in the last week of May.

[Sam3]

I'm not really concerned. I have a temporary crown on that should have lasted only a week or two, but now has been "temporary" for over 2 months. I need to get the permanent one on. I look at it this way, they have masks on, so I'm being protected from their germs, they, however, have a greater chance of picking up my germs as my mouth is uncovered and I am breathing directly on them as they work on me.

[Speedy]

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020...virus.html

Many epidemiologists are already comfortable going to the doctor, socializing with small groups outside or bringing in mail, despite the coronavirus. But unless there’s an effective vaccine or treatment first, it will be more than a year before many say they will be willing to go to concerts, sporting events or religious services. And some may never greet people with hugs or handshakes again.

These are the personal opinions of a group of 511 epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists who were asked by The New York Times when they expect to resume 20 activities of daily life, assuming that the pandemic and the public health response to it unfold as they expect.

Their answers are not guidelines for the public, and incorporate respondents’ individual life circumstances, risk tolerance and expectations about when there will be widespread testing, contact tracing, treatment and vaccination for Covid-19. They said it’s these things that will determine their actions, because the virus sets the timeline. “The answers have nothing to do with calendar time,” said Kristi McClamroch of the University at Albany.

Still, as policymakers lift restrictions and protests break out nationwide over police brutality, epidemiologists must make their own decisions about what they will do, despite the uncertainty -- just like everyone else. They are more likely, though, to be immersed in the data about Covid-19 and have training on the dynamics of infectious disease and how to think about risk.

They mostly agreed that outdoor activities and small groups were safer than being indoors or in a crowd, and that masks would be necessary for a long time.

[NewtonMP2100]

......so....2nd wave coming........

[pdq]

Some good news:

Generic steroid reduces deaths by one-third among patients with severe covid-19, study says

The drug is the first to improve survival for covid-19-afflicted patients, said Peter Horby, one of the chief investigators for the trial.

“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,” he said in a statement. “Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide.”

Interesting, in that retrospective studies of the “Spanish” flu suggested it wasn’t so much the virus, but the exaggerated immune system response to it that produced much of the sickness and death in that earlier pandemic - perhaps here too.

Also, dexamethasone is cheap and widely available, in contrast to some of the newer drugs like remdesivir.

[Speedy]

pdq wrote:
Some good news:

Generic steroid reduces deaths by one-third among patients with severe covid-19, study says

The drug is the first to improve survival for covid-19-afflicted patients, said Peter Horby, one of the chief investigators for the trial.

“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,” he said in a statement. “Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide.”

Interesting, in that retrospective studies of the “Spanish” flu suggested it wasn’t so much the virus, but the exaggerated immune system response to it that produced much of the sickness and death in that earlier pandemic - perhaps here too.

Also, dexamethasone is cheap and widely available, in contrast to some of the newer drugs like remdesivir.

So, will this be something advocated at the national level by our leaders? Rhetorical question.

[Sarcany]

pdq wrote:
Some good news:

Generic steroid reduces deaths by one-third among patients with severe covid-19, study says

The drug is the first to improve survival for covid-19-afflicted patients, said Peter Horby, one of the chief investigators for the trial.

“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,” he said in a statement. “Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide.”

Interesting, in that retrospective studies of the “Spanish” flu suggested it wasn’t so much the virus, but the exaggerated immune system response to it that produced much of the sickness and death in that earlier pandemic - perhaps here too.

Also, dexamethasone is cheap and widely available, in contrast to some of the newer drugs like remdesivir.

Looks good. Preliminary. Not a completed study. Not peer-reviewed.

[Lux Interior]

pdq wrote: dexamethasone is cheap and widely available

Woah.

We'll have to fix that.

Get me pharma bro on line 1, stat!

[rjmacs]

Lux Interior wrote:
Get me pharma bro on line 1, stat!

He can currently only make, not receive, collect phone calls...

[Speedy]

I know there are a ton of COVID19 resource pages. Here’s another:

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/