Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

Discussion in 'General OT' started by imart, Jan 28, 2020.

  1. raypin

    raypin PhilMUG Addict Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2008
    Messages:
    15,010
    Likes Received:
    8,223
    mm...yeah but its accuracy is yet to be widely validated. If it is high, it could be a game changer, both in terms of rapid and convenient access as a consumer-direct, point of care tester and its ultra low cost.

    DOH should monitor this.
     
    Sir iAco likes this.
  2. Salaryman Ryan

    Salaryman Ryan PhilMUG Addict Member

    Joined:
    Oct 18, 2007
    Messages:
    5,940
    Likes Received:
    788
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Tokyo, Manila
    Haha. If the good man Actually took responsibility he should have resigned a long time ago.
     
    Sir iAco, Juice, raypin and 1 other person like this.
  3. JKK

    JKK Active Member

    Joined:
    Aug 13, 2007
    Messages:
    170
    Likes Received:
    81
    Location:
    Quezon City
    Pupkin and raypin like this.
  4. raypin

    raypin PhilMUG Addict Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2008
    Messages:
    15,010
    Likes Received:
    8,223
    Mm...lol!
     
    Sir iAco likes this.
  5. Kingmaker

    Kingmaker Active Member

    Joined:
    Dec 16, 2012
    Messages:
    263
    Likes Received:
    249
    Hi Muggers, just catching up on this thread, and it seems the pace here has slowed down a lot since beginning of the March lockdown, almost 6 months ago. Next month, start of BER-months, you know what (usually) happens. Or maybe this time, it won't happen?

    Hope everyone's doing fine, both on the health front and the economic front.

    While much has changed, a lot still remains the same. ICYMI, the use of Hydrochloroquine is still very much politicized by both the medical world and the media. Face shields (on top of face masks) are now mandatory everywhere -- even in some condominium common areas, so I heard -- which is just crazy! What next? Mandatory use of hazmat suits in public? Very laughable now, but wait til some bright IATF mind proposes it, and every private and / or commercial establishment embrace it. That will probably be the day I really lock myself up at home for good, but don't take my word for it. :whistle:

    Where this virus is concerned, there's just too much to take in and it's simply overwhelming at times, especially since our version of the lockdown has become a roller coaster ride with no end in sight. It seems our president was serious when he said very early on in one of his midnight ramblings that he will formally end the lockdown only when there's already a vaccine. And the sad part is that it seems there's nothing anyone can do to change his mind.

    So we take it one day at a time. Grin and bear the craziness all around us. I know most of us are already tired about news of Covid 19. We are indifferent to it already, until we hear that someone we know got it or someone we know died from it. Hope we don't have too many of that kind of news, though. Stay safe everyone, and if you think there's some news worth repeating in this forum, just post away to show us all that you're still around. Sharing is caring, right? :)

    By the way, for some Apple related update, I just got myself the new iphone SE (2020) last month to replace the old iphone SE that's been with me since 2016. Except for the battery life, which could've been better, I'm generally happy with the purchase. 24 months, 0% did it for me. :D

    Glad to be still be here. :)
     
  6. jetan

    jetan PhilMUG Addict Member

    Joined:
    Nov 10, 2013
    Messages:
    4,950
    Likes Received:
    2,215
  7. ice

    ice PhilMUG Addict Member

    Joined:
    Dec 13, 2007
    Messages:
    15,653
    Likes Received:
    3,597
    Location:
    NCR+
  8. topaz

    topaz Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 8, 2004
    Messages:
    982
    Likes Received:
    253
    This is a "must" join webinar for everyone especially employees and employers.



    "FOR ALL WORKERS AND WORKPLACE ADMINISTRATORS:

    We invite you to participate in the #ThisWorks Webinar Series organized by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) in cooperation with the World Health Organization Philippines country office (WHO Philippines) and the Department of Health (DOH).

    #ThisWorks is a 4-day webinar series that will discuss practical tips on the prevention and control of COVID-19 in the workplace. It aims to identify specific workplace scenarios and recommend customized approaches to beat COVID-19 in the workplace. Speakers and panelists from the WHO, DOH, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), DOLE, PEZA, and business establishments from the business process outsourcing (BPO) and manufacturing sectors, among others, will cover COVID-19 prevention and control within ‘a day in the life of a worker and his/her workplace owner/administrator’:

    Sep 1 (Tue): Waking up on a work day
    Sep 2 (Wed): At the workplace
    Sep 3 (Thu): What if I get sick? What to do if someone is infected at work?
    Sep 4 (Fri): Going back home

    The webinar will always be from 11:00am to 12:00pm (Manila time, GMT+8) on the above dates. Speakers for the scheduled topic will present the latest guidance for the first 30 minutes; additional panelists will be available to answer as many questions as possible from participants for the second 30 minutes, through a moderated open forum. We advise everyone to please update your Zoom app/client to the latest version so that should the room be full, you can be automatically redirected to the simultaneous YouTube live broadcast.

    Please register using this link: http://bit.ly/ThisWorksWebinars. Feel free to pass this message on to all workers and workplace owners/administrators who may be interested.

    We look forward to your participation!"
     
  9. eag

    eag PhilMUG Addict Member

    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2008
    Messages:
    1,778
    Likes Received:
    1,140
  10. rbenzon

    rbenzon Super
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 17, 2008
    Messages:
    8,265
    Likes Received:
    3,784
    my first post in a long while. meeting with PRRD in davao next week—that's what happened when i stopped debating with people who will never develop solutions worthy of being escalated and endorsed to the president. :)

    talk is cheap. got solutions? where? :D

    gawa > ngawa
     
    macjobber likes this.
  11. Sir iAco

    Sir iAco PhilMUG Addict Member
    Supporter

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2009
    Messages:
    9,314
    Likes Received:
    7,056
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Around Here
    Your Coronavirus Test Is Positive. Maybe It Shouldn’t Be.
    The usual diagnostic tests may simply be too sensitive and too slow to contain the spread of the virus.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/29/health/coronavirus-testing.html

    NY TIMES: Up to 90% Who’ve Tested COVID-Positive Wrongly Diagnosed! TRUTH: A Whole Lot Worse! (Pt 1)
    https://www.redstate.com/michael_th...t-infectious-but-problem-actually-much-worse/

    NY TIMES: Up to 90% Who’ve Tested COVID-Positive Wrongly Diagnosed! TRUTH: A Whole Lot Worse!! (Pt 2)
    https://www.redstate.com/michael_th...ongly-diagnosed-truth-a-whole-lot-worse-pt-2/

    NY TIMES: Up to 90% Who’ve Tested COVID-Positive Wrongly Diagnosed! TRUTH: A Whole Lot Worse! (Pt 3/3)
    https://www.redstate.com/michael_th...19-not-infected-truth-a-whole-lot-worse-pt-3/
     
  12. ransom

    ransom PhilMUG Addict Member

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2005
    Messages:
    2,848
    Likes Received:
    709
    Location:
    QC
  13. Salaryman Ryan

    Salaryman Ryan PhilMUG Addict Member

    Joined:
    Oct 18, 2007
    Messages:
    5,940
    Likes Received:
    788
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Tokyo, Manila
    raypin and Sir iAco like this.
  14. Sir iAco

    Sir iAco PhilMUG Addict Member
    Supporter

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2009
    Messages:
    9,314
    Likes Received:
    7,056
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Around Here
    Why poop tests may be a better way to detect COVID-19
    By Jackie Salo
    September 7, 2020 | 10:24am | Updated
    nypost.com
    [​IMG]
    Cells containing the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 are seen through a microscope at the Stabilitech laboratory in Burgess Hill in southeast England. Getty Images

    COVID-19 may persist in the gut even after the virus has been cleared from the airways — suggesting that fecal matter could be a better way to detect the virus than traditional nose swabs, according to a new study.

    The study, which was published in the medical journal GUT, said the virus may continue to infect the digestive tract even if a patient isn’t suffering from any gastrointestinal symptoms.

    Researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong said stool samples could be used to detect the virus.

    They looked at the stool samples of 15 COVID-19 patients and found active gut viral infections in seven — even without any gastrointestinal symptoms.

    Three of them continued to suffer from active gut viral infections for as long as six days after their respiratory samples tested negative for the virus, researchers said.

    Researchers said the findings suggest that stool samples may be a better way to detect the virus.

    Paul Chan, chairman of the university’s Department of Microbiology, noted that children are particularly good candidates for stool samples since their viral load was “many times higher” than that of adults.

    “Stool specimens are more convenient, safe and non-invasive to collect in the pediatric population and can give accurate results,” Chan said in a statement.

    With Post wires
     
    raypin likes this.
  15. Sir iAco

    Sir iAco PhilMUG Addict Member
    Supporter

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2009
    Messages:
    9,314
    Likes Received:
    7,056
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Around Here
    Post-COVID heart damage alarms researchers: 'There was a black hole' in infected cells

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/me...ck-hole-in-infected-cells/ar-BB18Ugz2#image=4

    helby Hedgecock contracted the coronavirus in April and thought she had fought through the worst of it — the intense headaches, severe gastrointestinal distress and debilitating fatigue — but early last month she started experiencing chest pain and a pounding heartbeat. Her doctor put her on a cardiac monitor and ordered blood tests, which indicated that the previously healthy 29-year-old had sustained heart damage, likely from her bout with COVID-19.

    “I never thought I would have to worry about a heart attack at 29 years old,” Hedgecock told Yahoo News in an interview. “I didn’t have any complications before COVID-19 — no preexisting conditions, no heart issues. I can deal with my taste and smell being dull, I can fight through the debilitating fatigue, but your heart has to last you a really long time.”

    Hedgecock’s primary-care physician has referred her to a cardiologist she will see this week; the heart monitor revealed that Hedgecock’s pulse rate is wildly irregular, ranging from 49 to 189 beats per minute, and she has elevated inflammatory markers and platelet counts. She was told to go to the emergency room if her chest pain intensifies before she can see the specialist. A former personal trainer who is now out of breath just from walking around the room, Hedgecock is worried about what the future holds.

    She is far from alone in her struggle. Dr. Ossama Samuel is a cardiologist at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital, where he routinely sees coronavirus survivors who are contending with cardiac complications. Samuel said his team has treated three young and otherwise healthy coronavirus patients who have developed myocarditis — an inflammation of the heart muscle — weeks to months after recovering from the virus.

    Myocarditis can affect how the heart pumps blood and trigger rapid or abnormal heart rhythms. It is particularly dangerous for athletes, doctors say, because it can go undetected and can result in a heart attack during strenuous exercise. In recent weeks, some collegiate athletes have reported cardiac complications from the coronavirus, underscoring the seriousness of the condition.

    Last month, former Florida State basketball center Michael Ojo died from a heart attack in Serbia; Ojo had recovered from the coronavirus before he collapsed on the basketball court. An Ohio State University cardiologist found that between 10 and 13 percent of university athletes who had recovered from COVID-19 had myocarditis. When the Big Ten athletic conference announced the cancellation of its season last month, Commissioner Kevin Warren cited the risk of heart failure in athletes. Researchers have estimated that up to 20 percent of people who get the coronavirus sustain heart damage.

    Samuel said he feels an obligation to warn people, particularly since some of the patients he and Mount Sinai colleagues have seen with myocarditis had only mild cases of the coronavirus months ago.

    “We are now seeing people three months after COVID who have pericarditis [inflammation of the sac around the heart] or myocarditis,” Samuel said. He said he believes a small fraction of coronavirus survivors are sustaining heart damage, “but when a disease is so widespread it is concerning that a tiny fraction is still sizable.”

    Samuel said he worries particularly about athletes participating in team sports, since many live together and spend time in close quarters. Teammates may all get the coronavirus and recover together, Samuel said, but “the one who really gets that crazy myocarditis could be at risk of dying through exercise or training.”

    “It’s a concern about what do you do: Should we do sports in general, should we do it in schools, should we do it in college, should we just do it for professionals who understand the risk and they're getting paid?” Samuel asked. “I hope we don’t scare the public, but we should make people aware.”

    Samuel is recommending that patients recovering from COVID-19 with myocarditis avoid workouts for three to six months.

    Todd McDevitt, who runs a stem-cell lab at Gladstone Institutes, which is affiliated with the University of California at San Francisco, recently published images that show how the coronavirus can directly invade the heart muscle. McDevitt said he was so alarmed when he saw a sample of heart muscle cells in a petri dish get “diced” by the coronavirus that he had trouble sleeping for nights afterward.

    McDevitt said his team’s research was spurred by their desire to understand if the coronavirus is entering heart cells and how it is affecting them. He was surprised to see the heart muscle samples he was studying react to a very small amount of the coronavirus, usually within 24 to 48 hours. He said the virus decimated the heart cells in his petri dishes.

    “Cell nuclei — the hubs of all the genetic information, all of the nuclear DNA — in many of the cells were gone,” McDevitt said. “There was a black hole literally where we would normally see the nuclear DNA. That’s also pretty bizarre.”

    While McDevitt’s study has not yet been peer-reviewed — it is still in pre-print — he said he felt compelled to share the findings as soon as possible. He said his team also sampled tissues from three COVID-19 patient autopsies and found similar damage in the heart muscles of those patients, none of whom had been flagged for myocarditis or heart problems while they were alive.

    “This is probably not the whole story yet, but we think we have insights into the beginning of when the virus would get into some of these people and what it might be doing that is concerning enough that we should probably let people know, because clinicians need to be thinking about this,” McDevitt said in an interview. “We don’t have any means of bringing heart muscle back. ... This virus is [causing] a very different type of injury, and one we haven't seen before.”

    McDevitt said the chopped-up heart muscles he and his colleagues saw are so concerning because when the microfibers in the muscle are damaged, the heart can’t properly contract.

    “If heart muscle cells are damaged and they can’t regenerate themselves, then what you’re looking at is someone who could prematurely have heart failure or heart disease due to the virus,” McDevitt said. “This could be a warning sign for a potential wave of heart disease that we could see in the future, and it’s in the survivors — that’s the concern.”

    McDevitt said he believes the risk of heart disease is serious and one people should consider as they assess their own risk of getting the coronavirus.

    “I am more scared today of contracting the virus, by far, than I was four months ago,” he said.

    [​IMG]© Provided by Yahoo! News In lab experiments, infection of heart muscle cells with SARS-CoV-2 caused long fibers to break apart into small pieces, shown above. (Gladstone)

    The medical journal the Lancet recently reported that an 11-year-old child had died of myocarditis and heart failure after a bout of COVID-induced multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C). An autopsy showed coronavirus embedded in the child’s cardiac tissue.

    A recent study from Germany found that 78 percent of patients who had recovered from the coronavirus and who had only mild to moderate symptoms while ill with the disease had indications of cardiac involvement on MRIs conducted more than two months after their initial infection. Lead investigator Eike Nagel said it is concerning to see such widespread cardiac impact; six in 10 of the patients Nagel’s team studied experienced ongoing myocardial inflammation.

    “We found an astonishingly high level of cardiac involvement approximately two months after COVID infection,” Nagel said in an email. “These changes are much milder than observed in patients with severe acute myocarditis.”

    The scale of the cardiac impact on relatively healthy, young patients surprised many doctors. Nagel said the findings are significant “on a population basis,” and that the impact of COVID-19 on the heart must be studied more.

    Dr. Gregg Fonarow, chief of UCLA’s Division of Cardiology and director of the Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center, said the picture is evolving, but the new studies showing cardiac impact in even young people with mild cases of COVID-19 have raised troubling new questions.

    “We really do need to take seriously individuals that have had the infection and are having continued symptoms, [and] not just dismiss those symptoms,” Fonarow said. “There could be, in those who had milder or even asymptomatic cases, the potential for cardiac risk.”

    Fonarow said it is important to understand whether a “more proactive screening and treatment approach” is needed to better address the needs of patients who have recovered from the coronavirus and who may still have weakened heart function. Fonarow said he found McDevitt’s research to be potentially significant because it proves “from a mechanistic standpoint that there can be direct cardiac injury from the virus itself.”

    “Even if it were going to impact, say, 2 percent of the people that had COVID-19, when you think of the millions that have been infected, that ends up in absolute terms being a very large number of individuals,” Fonarow said in an interview. “You don’t want people to be unduly alarmed, but on the other hand you don’t want individuals to be complacent about, ‘Oh, the mortality rate is so low with COVID-19, I don’t really care if I’m infected because the chances that it will immediately or in the next few weeks kill me is small enough, I don’t need to be concerned.’ There are other consequences.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/me...ck-hole-in-infected-cells/ar-BB18Ugz2#image=4
     
  16. Sir iAco

    Sir iAco PhilMUG Addict Member
    Supporter

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2009
    Messages:
    9,314
    Likes Received:
    7,056
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Around Here
    Rogue' Chinese Virologist Claims She Has "Evidence" COVID-19 Was Created In A Lab

    'Rogue' Chinese Virologist Claims She Has "Evidence" COVID-19 Was Created In A Lab
    Once again, the claims of a rogue Chinese scientist with a lot to say, and at least some evidence to back up her claims, has been ignored by the mainstream media. Intead, Chinese virologist Dr. Li-Meng Yan, who was among the first to study the virus at a prestigious university in Hong Kong, where she worked before fleeing China, appeared on the British interview show 'Loose Women' late last week. During the interview, she answered questions about her claims, and reiterated that the CCP didn't just deliberately cover up COVID-19 in a manner that led to thousands of unnecessary deaths, the party also knew that SARS-CoV-2 was created by Chinese scientists.

    Asked about the origins of the virus, the doctor said "it comes from a lab," again rejecting reports from last year that the virus originated from a Wuhan wet market, claiming they were a "smokescreen".

    Dr. Li also commented on her claims that Beijing deliberately tried to cover up the outbreak when it first learned of the killer virus, effectively allowing it to escape China and infect the world. When she sounded the alarm about human-to-human transmission in December last year, her former supervisors at the Hong Kong School of Public Health, a reference laboratory for the World Health Organization, silenced her. After a while, she "could not keep silent", and decided to flee.

    In April, Yan reportedly fled Hong Kong and escaped to America in an effort to evade persecution and to 'spread the truth' about the pandemic.

    "From the beginning, I decided to get this message out in the world and it was very scary in the world because I'm a doctor and I knew if I don't tell the truth to the world I will regret it myself in the future."

    "I never thought this would happen when I did the secret investigation, I [thought] I would speak to my supervisor and they would do the right thing on behalf of the government."

    "But what I saw was nobody responding to that. People are scared of the government but this was something urgent, and Chinese New Year time, [I knew] this was a dangerous virus and all these things meant I could not keep silent, there are human beings and global health [at risk]."

    China's national health commission has denied that the outbreak started in the lab, insisting there is "no evidence" the new coronavirus was created in a laboratory. Beiing has already scapegoated a large group of local party officials for the errors.

    But Dr. Li's testimony remains extremely compelling.
    zerohedge.com

     
    raypin likes this.
  17. Sir iAco

    Sir iAco PhilMUG Addict Member
    Supporter

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2009
    Messages:
    9,314
    Likes Received:
    7,056
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Around Here
    Look at the shape of these curves.

    New York and Madrid had similar epidemics until they spectacularly diverged.

    In March, both cities were caught by surprise and shut down because of #COVID19.

    In September, the situation is under control in NY and alarming in Madrid.

    Why?[​IMG]

    Let’s start with the similarities: two big, dense cities with a large network of public transit and lots of visitors.

    An explosive outbreak of #SARSCOV2 overwhelmed their contact tracing system and their hospitals. A lockdown was required to reduce the public health disaster.
    t
    By June, both places had succeeded in bringing down the number of new cases. That's precisely what lockdowns do.

    In July, new cases started to increase in Madrid until reaching one of the highest incidences in Europe.

    New York has not seen any increase in new cases yet.

    We could argue that number of new #COVID19 cases isn't the best metric for the severity of the #SARSCOV2 epidemic. Perhaps most cases are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic?

    Let's then look at hospital occupation. No problem in New York. Serious trouble brewing in Madrid.
    [​IMG]
    So what happened?

    #NewYork and #Madrid had significantly different responses in terms of contact tracing, number of tests, and speed of reopening.

    Let’s review each of these elements.

    This comparison is a case study on epidemic management in hub cities around the world.

    CONTACT TRACING
    New York state aimed at 30 contact tracers per 100,000 people before reopening. Minimum.

    That translates into 6000 contract tracers in New York and 2000 in Madrid.

    Madrid had about 200 contact tracers in July (maybe 700 now). An order of magnitude difference.

    TESTING
    In April, >70% of PCRs were positive in both New York and Madrid.

    New York aimed at achieving <5% positivity before reopening. It is now 1-2%.
    www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid…

    Positivity in Madrid is ~20% and increasing since July. That is, not nearly enough tests are done.

    SPEED OF REOPENING

    Let's focus on indoor dining, a vital economic activity in both #NewYork and #Madrid, and arguably one of the main sources of transmission of the #coronavirus.

    Indoor dining in New York is CLOSED.

    It'll open on September 30 at 25% capacity (50% on November 1) with

    - NO bar service.
    - Strict protocols
    - Phone number to report violations
    - Deployment of hundreds of enforcement personnel to ensure compliance
    NYC Indoor DiningThe State will allow indoor dining to resume in New York City at 25% capacity with strict restrictions on September 30.https://forward.ny.gov/nyc-indoor-dining

    Indoor dining in Madrid was OPEN at 60% capacity in June.

    Bar service opened too.

    Protocols weren't aggressively enforced.

    Since June it has been easy to find crowded bars and tables. The contrast with NY was striking as anyone spending time in both places can tell you.

    Contact tracing, testing, and speed of reopening differed dramatically between #NewYork and #Madrid.

    New York opened the economy without overwhelming the hospitals and confirmed its credentials as a serious place to do business.

    By simply doing what experts say since March.

    A colleague asked whether New York may have reached "herd immunity" whereas Madrid has not. That'd explain the low number of cases in NY.

    Unlikely. Based on the available seroprevalence studies, both places had a similar % of population who developed antibodies to #SARSCOV2.

    Of course, bad luck can never be ruled out in epidemics.
    A spark at the right time may ignite a wildfire in one place but not another.

    But bad luck seems a poor explanation for the NY-Madrid differences after comparing their testing, contact tracing, and reopening policies.
    • • •
    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1304424019450630144.html
    Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
    https://twitter.com/_MiguelHernan/status/1304424019450630144
     
    #2278 Sir iAco, Sep 13, 2020
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2020
    raypin likes this.
  18. raypin

    raypin PhilMUG Addict Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2008
    Messages:
    15,010
    Likes Received:
    8,223
    Mm...contrasting results. Madrid made Madrid more hospitable to Covid 19 after suppressing it. New York seems to have found the right mix of public health measures and New Yorkers are being spared.

     
    Sir iAco likes this.
  19. Sir iAco

    Sir iAco PhilMUG Addict Member
    Supporter

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2009
    Messages:
    9,314
    Likes Received:
    7,056
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Around Here
    Lessons learned in early days on COVID-19 front lines are now saving lives
    By Isabel Vincent
    nypost.com
    September 12, 2020 | 2:00pm | Updated
    Enlarge Image

    [​IMG]
    Medical personnel wearing a BYD Care N95 particulate respirator mask and a face shield. REUTERS

    More than six months into the coronavirus pandemic in the US, a cure is still elusive but radical changes in screening and treatment have saved thousands of lives.

    At the height of the pandemic in April, the mortality rate in the US was just under 24 percent, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control. As of last week, the CDC reported the mortality rate — the percentage of those infected who die — was hovering at just above 6 percent.

    Worldwide, 911,000 people have succumbed to the dreaded bug, including 193,000 in the US. In New York state, the virus has killed 33,000 people, and sickened 446,000 more.

    At the height of the pandemic, the Empire State was the COVID epicenter of the world, with almost 800 deaths a day.

    Front-line health workers were forced into a steep learning curve that began with hospitals overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients during the first weeks of March.

    “We’ve learned to treat a disease for which we had no cure or previous model,” said David Battinelli, chief medical officer for Northwell Health, which runs 23 hospitals throughout NYC and Long Island. “Our supportive care improved dramatically.”

    For instance, in order to inhibit the growth of the virus, doctors are now treating patients with anti-viral drugs such as Remdesivir in the early stages of COVID-19, and supplementing that with a cocktail of anti-inflammatory steroids, such as dexamethasone, that could prevent respiratory failure.

    [​IMG]
    Doctors and nurses wearing their protective gear, attending to a coronavirus patient.
    EPA

    “I think that what we know with a high degree of certainty now — that we didn’t know when we were getting pummeled by COVID — is that steroids appear to be helpful for patients with high levels of respiratory disease, and probably reduces their risk of dying,” said David A. Kaufman, director of ICU at NYU Langone Tisch Hospital. “Remdesivir is not a wonder drug but it probably limits how much the virus can grow in a person’s body.”

    Importantly, the drugs also helped reduce the number of patients put on ventilators, which were a death sentence for many early patients.

    In April, one study showed 88 percent of patients placed on ventilators in New York hospitals died. Studies in Wuhan and Italy echoed the grim findings. Overwhelmed health workers were quick to place patients who developed acute respiratory distress syndrome, or a buildup of fluid in the lungs often caused by pneumonia, on the breathing machines. The procedure is invasive, requiring intubation, and could further weaken patients with pre-existing conditions such as hypertension and diabetes.

    But doctors began noticing that some of these distressed patients, while their oxygen levels were extremely low, were not gasping for air. They began to use less invasive breathing support — such as masks used for sleep apnea.

    The ventilator-death rate dropped dramatically to 35.7 by the end of May, according to a study in the Critical Care Medicine journal. Outcomes were improving as medical professionals learned on the job.

    “We learned how much oxygen to give, and what the optimal settings [for the ventilators] were, and we learned about kidney disease,” said Battinelli.

    In the early days of the pandemic, doctors were increasing the air pressure on ventilators in order to open up their lungs. In many cases, it led to long-term cognitive and physical damage and even death, according to front-line health care workers.

    JAMA Internal Medicine, three of the patients improved within an hour, and no longer needed ventilators.

    Other studies found that in some patients high doses of intravenous vitamin C appeared to reduce the time needed on ventilators, but trials are still ongoing. Taking vitamins to strengthen the immune system, especially C and D, can help fight the virus, but they do not ward it off, studies show. Kaufman cautioned that previous studies had suggested high doses of vitamin C reduced sepsis but once those studies were subjected to rigorous testing, the results showed the vitamin actually had little effect, he said.

    In the early days of the pandemic, many health care professionals, and President Trump, backed hydroxychloroquine as an early treatment for coronavirus patients. Many doctors and patients gave testimonials in the media about how the malaria drug quickly cleared up the flu-like symptoms associated with the coronavirus. Although the US Food and Drug Administration temporarily granted the drug emergency authorization, it revoked that authorization in June, saying that it was “unlikely to be effective” and could cause side effects such as heart arrhythmia.

    The jury is still out on other treatments for the virus, including convalescent plasma, the antibody-rich blood taken from patients who have recovered from the coronavirus. Some researchers are working to synthetically reproduce those antibodies in a lab. Although the FDA authorized the emergency use of convalescent plasma in August for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, the agency cautions on its web site that “adequate and well-controlled randomized trials remain necessary” to prove it works.

    Among the biggest questions is, Kaufman said, “How well do those antibodies stick to the offending germ and prevent coronavirus from doing its business?

    “We just don’t know.”

    Nor does anyone know when a vaccine will be ready. According to the World Health Organization, there are 169 vaccines under development, with 26 in the human trial phase. One promising vaccine trial, by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, was halted Tuesday when one of the 30,000 participants suffered a serious inflammatory condition that could result in paralysis. It must be investigated before the trial can resume.

    In the meantime, long-held wisdom has been reinforced: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Wearing a mask can block exposure to even the smallest amount of the airborne virus, and is likely behind a current infection rate of less than 1 percent in New York.

    A study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine noted that “as SARS-CoV-2 continues its global spread, it’s possible that one of the pillars of Covid-19 pandemic control — universal facial masking — might help reduce the severity of disease and ensure that a greater proportion of new infections are asymptomatic.”

    Both Battinelli and Kaufman said they believe in the efficacy of masks and increased testing to reduce the spread of the virus.

    “If we have learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that it’s too difficult to provide state-of-the-art critical care to that many people at one time,” said Kaufman, whose unit had to deal with as many as 180 patients requiring ventilators per day in the early days of the pandemic. “We ran out of drugs, we ran out of good ventilators, we stretched our personnel incredibly thin. Flattening the curve is the single most important thing to do, so that the people who are severely ill will get the care they need.”

    BREAKTHROUGHS and DISAPPOINTMENTS
    • Anti-viral drugs, such as Remdesvir: limit how much the virus can grow inside the body
    • Steroids: Anti-inflammatory drugs reduce respiratory failure and can lessen the amount of time patients need to be on ventilators
    • Proning: Laying patients in acute respiratory distress on their stomachs can help with breathing and in many cases reduce the need for ventilators
    • Face masks: “The crude vaccine” for the coronavirus reduces exposure to the spread of airborne virus particles
    • Convalescent plasma: Antibody-rich blood taken from patients who have recovered from COVID-19 is still undergoing clinical tests
    • Hydroxychloroquine: Anti-malarial drug used to treat early symptoms, was used successfully by some doctors in the early days of the pandemic but clinical trials have shown that it could lead to severe side effects and the FDA banned the drug for emergency use in treating COVID-19
    • Vitamins C and D: Scientists are still studying their efficacy in preventing and treating the coronavirus.
    • nypost.com
     

    Attached Files:

    raypin likes this.

Share This Page

  • About PhilMUG

    Since the mid-1990s, PhilMUG (formerly the Philippine Macintosh Users Group) has grown to become not just the Philippines’ but one of the world’s foremost Apple user groups. Our online community brings together thousands of members from the Philippines and around the world for the latest news and discussions covering all Apple products and related hardware and software. Anyone can join PhilMUG, from newbies to experts, subject to our membership rules and guidelines.
  • Like us on Facebook

  • Buy us a beer!

    The staff works very hard to make sure that PhilMUG is running 24/7. Care to buy us a beer or help out with our hosting fees? We'd really appreciate it!

    Donate to us!