IDguy Loc: Idaho

Much to my surprise too I found a figure of 11% of increase in a heart electrical delay signal in application to corona patients. No one died from it: just something to monitor.

berchman Loc: South Central PA

I have very good doctors. Every one of them has told me that they will not prescribe a drug or insert a medical device until it has been on the market at least seven years. Remember Thalidomide? And here are a few others:
https://prescriptiondrugs.procon.org/fda-approved-prescription-drugs-later-pulled-from-the-market/

Angmo

The prevented the use of baby aspirin for 10 years too.

berchman Loc: South Central PA

Some additional material from the Derek Lowe blog from which you're quoting:
"...we have a clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine from Wuhan that has just published on a preprint server. What’s good is that this one is blinded, randomized, and controlled (like the earlier hydroxychloroquine which one I blogged about here from Zhejiang University, so we can actually talk about it rather than just spend all our time wondering what the heck is going on.
....So you can see that these two came out rather differently, with the Zhejiang study showing no detectable difference on treatment and the Wuhan one showing what looks like a real effect, especially on radiological progression of pneumonia (which I have to say is a very strong endpoint to measure). Here, then, is a good exercise in interpreting clinical trial statistics: we are now one-and-one after two small hydroxychloroquine trials: which one (if either) reflects the real-world situation?
...You could argue that overall we’re seeing either no benefit or some benefit here, which is good. As for adverse events, neither trial reported anything serious, But both of them excluded patients with any sort of cardiac arrhythmias, a wise precaution since one of the most acute worries with high doses of hydroxychloroquine is QT-interval prolongation, and you don’t want to do that to anyone with any underlying problems. So as long as such patients are excluded, for now hydroxychloroquine is in the “might do nothing, might do some good” category, which under the current conditions seems sufficient for treating patients, pending further data. You will notice that we are not exactly in the “total cure” category that the Marseilles group has been putting itself in, but frankly, these results from China are more like what I expect from the clinic (at best!) when using a repurposed drug against such a pathogen.
...So if you want to see how many people you’re keeping from dying with any given therapy, you need a larger sample than anything we’ve seen so far. Getting people out of the hospital more quickly, or keeping them out of the ICU or off ventilators, though, are very worthy goals in themselves, and if HCQ treatment can help with those it’ll be most welcome. We have little or no data on these yet.

berchman Loc: South Central PA

I stopped taking baby aspirin after reading this:

In March, the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology (ACC) recommended against the routine use of low-dose (81-mg) aspirin in people older than 70 who do not have existing heart disease and haven't had a stroke, or in people of any age who have an increased risk for bleeding (from a peptic ulcer, for example, with sores on the stomach lining that can bleed).

"It's a big shake-up, based on three large studies. Two of the three showed there was no benefit to taking daily aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke, and aspirin was associated with an increased risk for bleeding severe enough to require transfusions or hospitalization. The other study showed that in people with diabetes but no cardiovascular disease, there was benefit, but also risk: a 1% reduction in heart attack risk, and a 1% increase in bleeding risk," explains Dr. Christopher Cannon, a cardiologist at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

Don’t know your criteria for “good” but I’d dump them. They’ll have many unnecessarily dead patients.

So you won’t take a coronavirus vaccine for seven years? You might kill a lot of people.

David Martin Loc: Cary, NC

Not BS. The reference he cited reported a 11% incidence of potentially fatal QT prolongation in Covid patients, and he did clarify in a subsequent post that he meant 10% in patients treated for Covid-19. The 10% figure therefore does not apply to the tens of thousands taking it for malaria, lupus, other rheumatic disease, amebiasis, etc. That's why I asked him for a reference.

The critically ill Covid patients frequently have comorbidities of heart disease and diabetes which increase the likelihood of experiencing prolonged QT interval while taking chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine. And do not forget that azithromycin (Zithromax/ZPak) can also prolong QT interval, so the drug combination requires very careful cardiac monitoring.

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

I’m sure everyone is quite aware of the side effects of medicine. As I stated before, drugs are tested quite extensively. My sister in law who was the senior scientist for Hoffman LaRoche, she Participated in many experiments done, and testing before they would present it to the FDA. This took years, and millions of dollars to do, and on some occasions the FDA wouldn’t approve it. So back to my original statement, every drug have side effects. If I had the virus I would want to try whatever has a chance of curing me. But that’s me, if you on the other hand would rather wait, then by all means do so.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

The Covid-19 numbers worldwide are not nearly as bad as they could be because most countries have more or less shut down and people are social distancing from each other. If the entire world was doing business as usual this incredibly virulent disease would be far far worse. It is not the flu, it is nothing like the flu. My wife and her medical team are struggling with this everyday at the hospital she works for. Two members of her team have come down with covid-19. This situation is unprecedented.

All you have to do is look at what's happening to microcosm populations like people trapped on ocean liners, or the elderly in nursing homes, to see how virulent this disease is.

As it is, the current official count is probably far lower than the actual count since not every person who has died of similar symptoms is tested for covid-19. and people who have had mild cases and never went to the hospital are also never tested. This is primarily because there have not been enough tests available.

Many doctors around the country have reported an unusually large number of deaths as a result of pneumonia since February. Since the majority those people were not tested for Covid-19 it's not clear exactly what they died of, but there is a suspicion among physicians that many of those people were carriers of the coronavirus.

My wife has been in the medical profession for over 40 years and has never witnessed anything even close to what she is seeing every day.

The naysayers and conspiracy theorists try to make it out to not be a big deal. It is a big deal and it's far from over.

Angmo

Lesson number one taught in medical school:

A patient cured is revenue lost.

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

Well this is enough for me, I'm going back to reading all the interesting post on photography, and the great pictures that the members share with us.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

My wife has been a medical practitioner in hospitals for over 40 years. Even at her age she has been risking her life working between 60 and 70 hrs per week for almost seven weeks treating patients in critical condition as a result of Covid-19. She's been sleeping in her office more than at home so she can be there when needed. And the best you can come up with is to demean a noble profession? You should be ashamed of yourself. If you should be unlucky enough to become infected you should pray to God that you have someone as dedicated as my wife or one of her wonderful colleagues to care for you.

Angmo

Open your eyes, kiddo

Jade Warrior Loc: Sydney, Australia

At every possible opportunity you demonstrate an appalling level of ignorance that just beggers belief.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

You are a sad, angry old man, and you are not worth spending one more second of my time.

My wife is on the front lines saving lives. What the heck are you doing with your life besides putting people down?.

If you catch Covid-19, I will have little pity for you. As a human being, you are just taking up space.