The COVID-19 Science and Medicine Question Thread

[george]

This may have been asked earlier in the thread but I'm wondering why people with Covid are not being treated at all? Everyone I know that got it was sent home with no meds and no treatment. Right now a close friend is at home dealing with Covid pneumonia and he was just told that if it doesn't subside he will need to be hospitalized.

You would think by now there would be some type of protocol to treat people that have it.

 

[Roccus7]

This may have been asked earlier in the thread but I'm wondering why people with Covid are not being treated at all? Everyone I know that got it was sent home with no meds and no treatment. Right now a close friend is at home dealing with Covid pneumonia and he was just told that if it doesn't subside he will need to be hospitalized.

You would think by now there would be some type of protocol to treat people that have it.

One has to be in bad shape to get treatment, in that Remdesivir or preparations of synthesized antibodies, are only authorized for hospitalized patients in whose next step is a ventilator.

Here's the recommended in home treatment protocol...

• Stay home except to get medical care.
• Monitor your symptoms carefully. If your symptoms get worse, call your healthcare provider immediately.
• Get rest and stay hydrated. Take over-the-counter medicines, such as acetaminophen, to help you feel better.
• If you have a medical appointment, notify your healthcare provider ahead of time that you have or may have COVID-19.
• Stay in a specific room and away from other people in your home. If possible, use a separate bathroom. If you must be around others, wear a mask.

 

[pequa1]

sounds like a regimen for common influenza ( ? )

 

[Roccus7]

sounds like a regimen for common influenza ( ? )

With the exception of 4 approved antivirals that can be administered on the onset of flu, Tamiflu, Xofluza, Rapavab, and Relenza...

 

[george]

One has to be in bad shape to get treatment, in that Remdesivir or preparations of synthesized antibodies, are only authorized for hospitalized patients in whose next step is a ventilator.

Here's the recommended in home treatment protocol...

• Stay home except to get medical care.
• Monitor your symptoms carefully. If your symptoms get worse, call your healthcare provider immediately.
• Get rest and stay hydrated. Take over-the-counter medicines, such as acetaminophen, to help you feel better.
• If you have a medical appointment, notify your healthcare provider ahead of time that you have or may have COVID-19.
• Stay in a specific room and away from other people in your home. If possible, use a separate bathroom. If you must be around others, wear a mask.

Let's wait until he's on the brink of death before we do anything?

A year and 1/2 in and that's the best they can come up with? I'm sorry but I'm not buying that's the best they can do.

 

[OVERBORED]

Its not so easy to dignose when we dont have all the facts:

Does your friend have any underlying conditions?
Has he been treated with any meds before and had no response?

Steroids and monoclonal antibodies have been standard protocol UNLESS there are underlying factors. If his pulse Oxygen levels are stable, he should ride it out.

Once again, underlying conditions are the big X factor with treatment. (ie., overweight, smoker, diabetic, asthmatic....etc)

 

[george]

He's on no meds with no underlying conditions. He's a bit overweight but never a smoker and he keeps up on annual checkups. Sadly it was his never getting sick in the past leading him to believe that he had natural immunity.

I just got a text from him and he said they just prescribed some meds today. I'll find out what they are after his wife gets home. He can barely text.

 

[Roccus7]

Let's wait until he's on the brink of death before we do anything?

A year and 1/2 in and that's the best they can come up with? I'm sorry but I'm not buying that's the best they can do.

Antivirals by nature are tough nuts to crack. Vaccines are best and that’s where the researchers focused. Antivirals will ensue, but it’s better to avoid getting sick with a potentially fatal disease then going for a treatment.

 

[Roccus7]

Antivirals by nature are tough nuts to crack. Vaccines are best and that’s where the researchers focused. Antivirals will ensue, but it’s better to avoid getting sick with a potentially fatal disease then going for a treatment.

Just wanted to expand on the above, as I wrote it on my cell phone and my fat fingers aren't very agile...

Why are antivirals difficult to make? Well you have to think about exactly what a virus is and what it does. It's actually debatable whether or not a virus is actually a "live" organism. It's the ultimate parasite, as it cannot thrive without a host cell, but does it "live"? That's one of my favorite 5 beer debates with fellow colleagues...

When a virus infects a cell, it releases it's nucleic code and this code gets incorporated into the host's DNA. The code from the virus then takes over the host cell's cellular processes to make more virus; it makes the cell it's virus' slave factory.

And there's the rub. The virus doesn't change the cell's cellular processes, it just hijacks them. So finding a compound that prevents a virus from hijacking a cell is a very demanding, and difficult process. To stop the virus by just "shutdowning" the new "factory", you would be shutting down that cell, along with all the cells of the same type in the infected host, whether or not they're infected, which isn't good for the infected person as an entire organ may be killed. So an antiviral drug is a much "finer" target than getting an antibiotic that works on a bacterium. Bacteria are living organisms that have, and use their own cellular processes to live and reproduce, offering biochemists a much wider choice of weapons to kill the bacterium without killing the infected person.

COVID-19 offered scientists a huge Achilles Heel, the spike protein, which is quite immunogenic and pretty-well conserved across variants. This gave a perfect target for vaccine development, and it was exploited by many companies. This was the best, and quickest, avenue for disease control research, as the "warp speed" development of multiple safe and effective vaccines can attest to!!

 

[OVERBORED]

So when you say he can barely text, what are his symptoms besides fatigue? Any fever?

 

[Roccus7]

@george and other interested parties, here's a snippet from a NYTimes piece specific to a possible COVID-19 pill treatment...

ATLANTA — Nine years ago, Dr. Dennis Liotta, a professor of organic chemistry at Emory University, set out to change the way drugs are developed for so-called neglected diseases — those that primarily affect populations in poorer countries and for which there exist few, if any, safe and effective treatments.

“The cold hard truth is that it can cost billions of dollars and take decades to develop a new drug,” he said during a TEDx talk in 2016, shortly after the World Health Organization had declared the Zika virus — a neglected disease that had long been overlooked in the African countries where it is endemic — an international public health emergency. “So pharmaceutical companies almost invariably only pursue drugs for diseases that will generate large profits.”

Dr. Liotta would know.

He is a co-inventor of 12 drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Two of them, the antiretrovirals lamivudine and emtricitabine, were instrumental in curbing the spread of H.I.V., the latter having made possible the first-ever combination therapy for the virus in a once-daily pill. Dr. Liotta is considered a leader in discovering new disease-fighting drugs.

Now, many scientists think another drug from Dr. Liotta’s lab could similarly transform the fight against Covid-19.

If approved, Molnupiravir, an antiviral agent licensed by Merck & Co., in partnership with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics — a smaller company that first acquired the drug and remains involved in its development — would be the first treatment for the virus that could be taken as a pill. That would allow it to be quickly and easily disseminated, a major advantage over currently existing options like remdesivir and monoclonal antibody therapies, all of which have to be infused intravenously.

While the F.D.A. is still awaiting data from a Phase II/III clinical trial, Merck says it has partnered with generic drugmakers in India to make Molnupiravir available there pending its authorization for emergency use amid the country’s catastrophic second wave of infections.

 

[JackPrintMD]

That should bring in some big bucks for the industry.

I’m sure they will make it a low dose so its needed weekly or monthly.

I think its a great idea.

?

 

[Roccus7]

That should bring in some big bucks for the industry.

I’m sure they will make it a low dose so its needed weekly or monthly.

I think its a great idea.

?

Drug half-life, how quickly the body metabolizes the drug, is a critical factor in dosage regimes, and what’s tested and validated in clinicals. This won’t be a prophylactic treatment, there’s a vaccine for that. It will be an acute treatment.

 

[Roccus7]

Potentially great news!!

Immunity to the Coronavirus May Persist for Years, Scientists Find​

Important immune cells survive in the bone marrow of people who were infected with the virus or were inoculated against it, new research suggests.

Immunity to the coronavirus lasts at least a year, possibly a lifetime, improving over time especially after vaccination, according to two new studies. The findings may help put to rest lingering fears that protection against the virus will be short-lived.

Together, the studies suggest that most people who have recovered from Covid-19 and who were later immunized will not need boosters. Vaccinated people who were never infected most likely will need the shots, however, as will a minority who were infected but did not produce a robust immune response.

Both reports looked at people who had been exposed to the coronavirus about a year earlier. Cells that retain a memory of the virus persist in the bone marrow and may churn out antibodies whenever needed, according to one of the studies, published on Monday in the journal Nature.

The other study, posted online at BioRxiv, a site for biology research, found that these so-called memory B cells continue to mature and strengthen for at least 12 months after the initial infection.

 

[pequa1]

No problem. Will gladly get the booster.

 

[george]

Are there any side effects that have been found during this massive experiment? I'll give you one example, actually the only example I know of. A good friend of mine received the moderna vaccine and had his second shot in April. He has suddenly lost the taste for sugar. He simply can't taste it. He never had Covid.

 

[pequa1]

Co winky dink ? Losing the taste for sugar might not necessarily be a bad thing for some... just sayin'

 

[TonySmjc]

Co winky dink ? Losing the taste for sugar might not necessarily be a bad thing for some... just sayin'

Unless he was a baker the. It would be very bad

but here’s the rub little side effects can quickly turn into huge problems , not saying that this will end poorly but the truth is
It’s one big experiment we are the lab rats and the results are still yet to be seen
We all weigh the risk then take the leap or don’t

 

[cany]

Someone was just telling me that if you got the shots you cant give blood Anyone hear about this?

 

[jpd]

Someone was just telling me that if you got the shots you cant give blood Anyone hear about this?

Can I donate after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine?

Blood donation guidelines for COVID-19 vaccine recipients. Title: Can I donate after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine?

www.redcrossblood.org