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JohnLocke

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Posts posted by JohnLocke

  1. Ok, I'll bite. There is not RCT results available that A) use hydroxychloriquine with zinc and azithromycin and B) are given early as an outpatient and C) have a large enough sample size of high risk patients to yield statistically significant results.

    I tend to be influenced when I see dishonesty and what I have seen is HCQ being discarded as a treatment based on the fact A) it doesn't work well on very sick patients and B) statistically insignificant results, although positive, and needing larger sample sizes, are reported in the mainstream media as if they were negative results.

    The 2nd layer of dishonesty has been the attack on the safety of HCQ, a widely used and well understood drug that is OTC in much of the world.  In Harvey Risch's words: The combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin has been used for decades in hundreds of thousands of people with rheumatoid arthritis. There is a concern that these medications do change the heart pacing a little and could cause cardiac arrhythmias. However, these arrhythmias are still very rare in people using these medications. People who already have heart arrhythmias or are predisposed to them or have family histories of them should discuss this with their health care providers and see if using hydroxychloroquine plus doxycycline or some other medications would be a better choice. 

    There is almost no downside to trying this drug if you are at high risk. In Dr. Risch's words again: Hydroxychloroquine alone is not the whole story. It needs to be combined with azithromycin or doxycycline and probably with zinc to make it most effective. The game changer is to aggressively treat people as soon as possible, before they are hospitalized, to keep them from becoming hospitalized in the first place. Hydroxychloroquine plus the other medications is what we know about now. In a few months we may have data on other medications that also work. We just have to start with something now.

    The medical profession has been slow to act on data that is not based on RCT's. Shamefully so, when the data can be conclusive in and of itself. I point again to the rather shameful behavior of the medical profession in adopting antibiotics to treat ulcers as exhibit A.

    When you are in the middle of a pandemic, you don't have time for RCT results. However, there is a huge mass of data available to sift through that is significant. I give the CDC an F for being prepared and able to do the heavy lifting in that regard. 

    We'll have much better data in six months. And hopefully, better treatment options to go along with a vaccine.

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  2. 26 minutes ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

    Honestly, if I had a kid supposed to start kinder I'd probably just hold them out a year.  Especially if they were born later spring early summer. People "redshirt" their 5 year old all the time for much less legitimate reason.  

    Yeah, that's probably what I'd do too.  You guys could home school him pretty easy yourself for Kindergarten if he doesn't have a late spring or summer birthday, and just put him in first grade next year.  Sounds like more of a daycare issue.

  3. 1 hour ago, Superhero said:

    My wife applying for private for my boy (5 years old) as I'm typing this. 

    I don't really want to pay $15K/year for tuition when the elementary school literally 5 minutes walk away from our house is rated 10/10. But the private school is open now, and they appear to have their shit together. My nephew, niece and a few of our friends' kids go there, and the parents seem okay with their reopening plan.

    Any other thought on how to educate kids when both my wife and I work?

    Well, insensitive remarks aside, I'd give AISD a chance if you can.  You may be pleasantly surprised. And if after a few months, you aren't happy, you can put him in private school then.  And if you put him in this year, he'll want to stay next year 'cause that's where all his friends will be.

  4. 33 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

     Take it to the #stonks thread. 

    I'm not interested in it as an investment.  Just pointing out the treatment is generating some buzz, and people are putting money on it.  It hasn't been tested in many patients, but so far the treatment has had remarkable success.

  5. This guy makes sense to me, anyway:

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/hydroxychloroquine-works-in-high-risk-patients-and-saying-otherwise-is-dangerous

    This company's penny stock up 10x due to good results in seriously ill patients:

    RADNOR, Pa. and GENEVA, Aug. 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- NeuroRx, Inc. and Relief Therapeutics Holdings AG (SIX:RLF, OTC:RLFTF) "Relief" today announced that RLF-100 (aviptadil) showed rapid recovery from respiratory failure in the most critically ill patients with COVID-19. At the same time, independent researchers have reported that aviptadil blocked replication of the SARS coronavirus in human lung cells and monocytes.

    RLF-100 has been granted Fast Track designation by FDA and is being developed as a Material Threat Medical Countermeasure in cooperation with the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies. Further research will be conducted.

    The first report of rapid clinical recovery under emergency use IND was posted by doctors from Houston Methodist Hospital. The report describes a 54-year-old man who developed COVID-19 while being treated for rejection of a double lung transplant and who came off a ventilator within four days.1 Similar results were subsequently seen in more than 15 patients treated under emergency use IND and an FDA expanded access protocol which is open to patients too ill to be admitted to the ongoing Phase 2/3 FDA trial.

    https://seekingalpha.com/pr/17955298-rlfminus-100-aviptadil-clinical-trial-showed-rapid-recovery-from-respiratory-failure-and

     

  6. Aside from some linemen, the likelihood is that 2 specific players would enter a 6-foot radius of each other for < 2 min/game.

    They must have done that study focusing exclusively on our defensive backs last year....

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  7. So, the season's over.  Blame the scientists that say it's medically unsafe.  When the dust settles, no bureaucrats will take a stand against that. Sliver lining:  Lack of revenue is going to hurt a lot of programs badly.  Despite what is sure to be a lot of whining from the athletic department asking for donations, UT is in a much better position than most to ride it out.

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  8. 13 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    This.  I think the T cell hypothesis is interesting, and I would hope some legit outfits are looking into it.  But when a complete clown is the one advancing it, in an era of charlatans and insane conspiracy theories, I can't give him much weight.

    You do realize he is simply summarizing the research of others.  I don't know if what he is saying is true or not, but the t-cell immunity theory does help explain why the pandemic is basically over in Sweden:

    EfExrwYX0AUkH48?format=jpg&name=large

     

  9. Public education has been a dumpster fire in America for a long time. "Normal" public education is an embarrassment.

    I hear this a lot but I don't see it. The formula hasn't changed in 75 years. If the parents care, the kid cares. And if the kid doesn't care, then everyone is wasting their time.  Kids get a good education if they want it.  My biggest complaint when my kids were in public high school is they had too much homework all the time.  Nothing has really changed, except schools today make a superhuman effort to get marginal kids who don't care to pass the required testing. What purpose that really serves is a bit of a mystery.

     

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  10. 2 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

    that we are facing existing requirements during this extraordinary time is such fucking madness to me. i know that the tea mandates a certain number of instructional minutes, but the people in charge amaze me. um, yall are the leaders, you can change this shit if necessary. fucking lead, man.

    kudos to aisd for being bold, though. it was the right decision given the choices they have been given, i guess.

    The extra 10 minutes likely isn't going to change much instruction wise.  Extracurriculars will have to wait an extra ten minutes before starting after school.  This is basically the locals working around the TEA.

  11. 1 hour ago, CooterBrown said:

    My wife’s 16 year old cousin had to go to ER last night with atrial fibrillation. He was just released and it was determine he had cardiac artery swelling due to a prior undiagnosed COVID-19 infection. They haven’t been social distancing.

    Damn, that's frightening, and a pretty good argument against opening high schools right now.

  12. 1 hour ago, Anastasis said:

     

    https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2019014

     

    Hydroxychloroquine with or without Azithromycin in Mild-to-Moderate Covid-19

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND

    Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin have been used to treat patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). However, evidence on the safety and efficacy of these therapies is limited.

    METHODS

    We conducted a multicenter, randomized, open-label, three-group, controlled trial involving hospitalized patients with suspected or confirmed Covid-19 who were receiving either no supplemental oxygen or a maximum of 4 liters per minute of supplemental oxygen. Patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1:1 ratio to receive standard care, standard care plus hydroxychloroquine at a dose of 400 mg twice daily, or standard care plus hydroxychloroquine at a dose of 400 mg twice daily plus azithromycin at a dose of 500 mg once daily for 7 days. The primary outcome was clinical status at 15 days as assessed with the use of a seven-level ordinal scale (with levels ranging from one to seven and higher scores indicating a worse condition) in the modified intention-to-treat population (patients with a confirmed diagnosis of Covid-19). Safety was also assessed.

    RESULTS

    A total of 667 patients underwent randomization; 504 patients had confirmed Covid-19 and were included in the modified intention-to-treat analysis. As compared with standard care, the proportional odds of having a higher score on the seven-point ordinal scale at 15 days was not affected by either hydroxychloroquine alone (odds ratio, 1.21; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.69 to 2.11; P=1.00) or hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin (odds ratio, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.57 to 1.73; P=1.00). Prolongation of the corrected QT interval and elevation of liver-enzyme levels were more frequent in patients receiving hydroxychloroquine, alone or with azithromycin, than in those who were not receiving either agent.

    CONCLUSIONS

    Among patients hospitalized with mild-to-moderate Covid-19, the use of hydroxychloroquine, alone or with azithromycin, did not improve clinical status at 15 days as compared with standard care. (Funded by the Coalition Covid-19 Brazil and EMS Pharma; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04322123. opens in new tab.)

    I honestly have a lot of respect for the medical profession. They perform near miracles on a daily basis. But to say they can be hard headed on occasion is an understatement. When an Australian doctor figured out that antibiotics cured ulcers in almost 100% of his patients, and he published a paper to that effect in 1985, it took TEN YEARS for the medical community to accept it.  What is surprising given the low cost and safety of the treatment, and the fact that virtually 100% of patients were being cured, is that very few doctors just tried it.  Thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of patients suffered and some died while this treatment was being proven in RCT's.  The incentives for doctors to try unproven treatments is very low, and I can understand that.  HCQ is particularly tough, given that most patients will recover without it, and some may die with it.  It's very hard to tease out the real signal from all the noise.

    However, it makes sense to me as a patient (without heart issues) to try HCQ plus zinc as an outpatient when covid is first suspected. Very low risk, and possible to probable benefit, and there is nothing else anyway. If I have to play Russian roulette, I'd like as few bullets in the chamber as possible.  From a doctor's perspective prescribing it, it's all risk and no benefit. You could get sued if the patient has a heart problem, and there is no upside to them recovering without hospitalization, which they will likely do anyway.

     

     

     

     

     

  13. 9 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

    For virtual, we have to see the kid in a zoom, get work turned in, or make some other contact with them for them to be counted as present. If not, no funding for that day. If even 10% of those kids stay awol, it can destroy the budget. 

    We haven’t even started to talk about how the next budget cycle that will be hashed out in the legislature next spring will be brutal. Not trying to be chicken little, but the effects of this will be with us for years after day to day life gets back to normal.

    Schools will be lucky to get 75% attendance.  This is going to be a huge problem for schools.

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  14. 11 minutes ago, Larry T. Spider said:

    It’s not just that they have terrible ideas and are holding money hostage. It’s that they keep changing the rules weekly. We are smart enough to find a way to make it work if you give us one set of plans. 52 hours after their last blackmail “guidance”, they still haven’t explained to district leaders what all of their conflicting statements actually mean.

    Exactly.  This is way past the last minute.  Explain how social distancing works without limiting the numbers on campus.  What a CF. 

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