This seems like a good time to start a thread discussing the latest developments regarding SARS COV-2 / Corona Virus(CV-19). Given that it seems to move quickly to new areas that were previously unaffected, being as prepared as is reasonably possible seems to make sense, but is there really a good way to prepare for something that is not yet understood? At this point, it seems like you can try to prepare or do nothing and hope that it doesn't affect you or loved ones?
It seems that flu and colds tend to have an extra negative impact on PD symptoms, so this is another reason to be as knowledgeable as possible about CV-19!
Tonight the National Basketball Association otherwise known as the NBA has taken the very major step of suspending the professional basketball season after a player, Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz team tested positive for Covid-19. The game was immediately canceled before it got started and the Jazz team was told that they would have to stay at the arena.
It seems like collegiate basketball may follow in short order. This starts to give you an idea of the impact that CV-19 is likely to have in the way that we live our lives! The fact that China seems to be withholding useful information regarding CV-19 does not seem helpful at all!
One thing that has shown as an indicator of how badly the virus may affect each individual is very elevated levels of IL-6, a known inflammatory cytokine. Such elevated levels are associated with what is referred to as a "cytokine storm" which can be fatal as it overwhelms the bodies ability to cope with such a virus. The immune system seems to go into a hyper activated state as the level of IL-6 rises. The higher the level of IL-6, the more serious the results seem to be. There are many natural substances which inhibit IL-6. It is not yet proven if inhibition of IL-6 will attenuate the severity of the virus, but the article link below suggests that it may. With that thought in mind, I will list some common and known IL-6 inhibitors based on studies, just in case future research confirms that inhibition of IL-6 can be useful, we will have this list ready at hand or it may prove not! Currently, doctors have nothing to offer in terms of an actual treatment since testing is only beginning. They can give you Tylenol if you have a fever or intubate you if you can't breathe, but this seems to be a step that is sometimes followed by death.
Here are some supplements that have shown their ability to inhibit IL-6 and other inflammatory mediators.
1. Hesperidin - Anti-IL-6 plus antiinflammatory and antioxidant effects.
2. EGCG
3. Pine Bark Extract/Grape seed Extract - IL-6 inhibitors that have overall similar effect and also on other inflammatory mediators.
4. Amla - is definitely an IL-6 inhibitor as well as a glutathione increaser and anti-inflammatory. I have written about the potential value of Amla in another post. Click on my blue B-1 capsule icon and search the drop down list of 10 current posts to find it.
5. Andrographis Paniculata - Anti-IL-6 effects as well as antiviral, antioxidant and antiinflammatory effects. 😋😋😋
6. Zinc - Inhibits IL-6 and has synergy with L-Lysine as an antiviral!!! One study has shown that zinc picolinate is a well absorbed form!😋😋😋
7. Vitamin D-3 - Anti-IL-6 and it won't hurt to be in the upper half of the reference range for the many potential health benefits for PWP that I have written about here: healthunlocked.com/parkinso... 😋😋😋
8. Fish Oil / Omega 3's
9. Boswellia Serrata
10. Curcumin
11. Magnesium
12. Licorice
13. Lithium
14. Luteolin
15. Fisetin
16. Trehalose
17. Vitamin E - It should be noted that vitamin C and E work together well!😋😋😋
18. Vitamin C - It should be noted that vitamin C and E work together well!😋😋😋
19. Quercetin - 3 to 7 grams per day as suggested by the video that is lower in this thread. Also helps to improve zinc absorption!😋😋😋
20. Melatonin - Inhibits IL-6 and other inflammatory mediators while possessing potent antioxidant effects.😋😋😋
21. Xylitol - Xylitol not only inhibits IL-6, but also has the potential to increase T-Regulatory T-Cells or Tregs which have the potential to limit or control inflammation.
22. Mannitol - Also used for relief of some PD symptoms!
23. L-Lysine - An amino acid that inhibits both IL-6 and IL-8. It also is antiviral, especially when combined with Zinc!😋😋😋
24. Eldebery Syrup which can be found in a popular form, Sambucol Elderberry. This one was supplied by forum member KERRINGTON!
25. Ginger Extract - An inhibitor of NF Kappa b, IL-6 and IL-8. This one was also contributed by forum member, KERRINGTON!
Okay, that is just a list of 26 very common supplements, all of which have shown potential in terms of their ability to inhibit IL-6. A quick scan of the list reveals many supplements that have been discussed on this forum and which some on this forum may currently be taking! There are many natural IL-6 inhibitors and there are also drugs which can have a specific IL-6 inhibiting effect.
If anyone has any others they would like to add, post them and I will add them just as I have done with the thread about IL-8. On that note, I will add a link to the IL-8 thread as inhibition of IL-8 also results in inhibition of IL-6 and multiple other downstream inflammatory mediators which may prove useful in trying to inhibit a "cytokine storm". Here is that link :
For the potential cure, the following link will explain how two older existing FDA approved drugs have been used in Australia and elsewhere on CV-19 patients and the virus was cleared. Australia is currently in the process of doing a multi sight study testing these two drugs to see which of the two is more effective or if the two together is more effective than either one alone. Here is that link:
Another relatively new drug that was made in Japan and is currently being tested in China on patients with SARS CoV-2 / Covid-19 is showing good initial results. Japan designed this drug as a treatment for the flu but apparently it has shown some effectiveness against other nasty viruses It is called favipiravir/Avigan :
The following link takes you to a lot of information on the use of Melatonin to treat Covid-19 as well as the damage to other organs like the heart, liver and kidneys as Covid-19 is now known to cause. Melatonin is showing the ability to very quickly help Covid-19 patients start to improve in as little as 24 hours and possibly prevent the patient from getting the dreaded cytokine storm or pneumonia, both of which have shown the ability to prove fatal to the patient.
Please add to this thread any new information regarding CV-19 that you think might be useful. Thank you! The title of this thread should be easy to search for, but in case that doesn't work, you can just click on my icon, the blue B-1 capsule and you will see a list of just 10 posts that I currently have up, select this title from that list or select to follow this post or me.
I am adding this link so you can quickly check the status of Covid-19 in terms of confirmed cases and deaths by country :
If it gets to a point where you may decide to try anything on the list above, it is imperative to let your doctor or professional healthcare provider know so that he/she can be sure that it will not be in conflict with anything you may be taking.
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I did a little more reading and found that a supplement that is very frequently discussed on this forum, Mannitol, is also an inhibitor of IL- 6 and TNF alpha, another common inflammatory mediator that is present in many disease states including PD and possibly in CV-19. I will add it to the list of IL-6 inhibitors in the original post since some members are currently using it to good effect!
This is a general email sent to me, apparently written by a virologist. It seems to all make sense to me! No need for a full blown panic, but extra precautions will go a long way.
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Notes on Coronavirus for guidance: Good luck to all of us! James Robb, MD FCAP
Here is what I have done and the precautions that I take and will take.
These are the same precautions I currently use during our influenza seasons, except for the mask and gloves.
1) NO HANDSHAKING! Use a fist bump, slight bow, elbow bump, etc.
2) Use ONLY your knuckle to touch light switches. elevator buttons, etc.. Lift the gasoline dispenser with a paper towel or use a disposable glove.
3) Open doors with your closed fist or hip - do not grasp the handle with your hand, unless there is no other way to open the door. Especially important on bathroom and post office/commercial doors.
4) Use disinfectant wipes at the stores when they are available, including wiping the handle and child seat in grocery carts.
5) Wash your hands with soap for 10-20 seconds and/or use a greater than 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer whenever you return home from ANY activity that involves locations where other people have been.
6) Keep a bottle of sanitizer available at each of your home's entrances. AND in your car for use after getting gas or touching other contaminated objects when you can't immediately wash your hands.
7) If possible, cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue and discard. Use your elbow only if you have to. The clothing on your elbow will contain infectious virus that can be passed on for up to a week or more!
What I have stocked in preparation for the pandemic spread to the US:
1) Latex or nitrile latex disposable gloves for use when going shopping, using the gasoline pump, and all other outside activity when you come in contact with contaminated areas.
Note: This virus is spread in large droplets by coughing and sneezing. This means that the air will not infect you! BUT all the surfaces where these droplets land are infectious for about a week on average - everything that is associated with infected people will be contaminated and potentially infectious. The virus is on surfaces and you will not be infected unless your unprotected face is directly coughed or sneezed upon.
This virus only has cell receptors for lung cells (it only infects your lungs) The only way for the virus to infect you is through your nose or mouth via your hands or an infected cough or sneeze onto or into your nose or mouth.
2) Stock up now with disposable surgical masks and use them to prevent you from touching your nose and/or mouth (We touch our nose/mouth 90X/day without knowing it!). This is the only way this virus can infect you - it is lung-specific. The mask will not prevent the virus in a direct sneeze from getting into your nose or mouth - it is only to keep you from touching your nose or mouth.
3) Stock up now with hand sanitizers and latex/nitrile gloves (get the appropriate sizes for your family). The hand sanitizers must be alcohol-based and greater than 60% alcohol to be effective.
4) Stock up now with zinc lozenges. These lozenges have been proven to be effective in blocking coronavirus (and most other viruses) from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx. Use as directed several times each day when you begin to feel ANY "cold-like" symptoms beginning. It is best to lie down and let the lozenge dissolve in the back of your throat and nasopharynx. Cold-Eeze lozenges is one brand available, but there are other brands available.
I, as many others do, hope that this pandemic will be reasonably contained, BUT I personally do not think it will be. Humans have never seen this snake-associated virus before and have no internal defense against it.
1. If you have a runny nose and sputum, you have a common cold
2. Coronavirus pneumonia is a dry cough with no runny nose.
3. This new virus is not heat-resistant and will be killed by a temperature of just 26/27 degrees. It hates the Sun.
4. If someone sneezes with it, it takes about 10 feet before it drops to the ground and is no longer airborne.
5. If it drops on a metal surface it will live for at least 12 hours - so if you come into contact with any metal surface - wash your hands as soon as you can with a bacterial soap.
6. On fabric it can survive for 6-12 hours. normal laundry detergent will kill it.
7. Drinking warm water is effective for all viruses. Try not to drink liquids with ice.
8. Wash your hands frequently as the virus can only live on your hands for 5-10 minutes, but - a lot can happen during that time - you can rub your eyes, pick your nose unwittingly and so on.
9. You should also gargle as a prevention. A simple solution of salt in warm water will suffice.
10. Can't emphasize enough - drink plenty of water!
THE SYMPTOMS
1. It will first infect the throat, so you'll have a sore throat lasting 3/4 days
2. The virus then blends into a nasal fluid that enters the trachea and then the lungs, causing pneumonia. This takes about 5/6 days further.
3. With the pneumonia comes high fever and difficulty in breathing.
4. The nasal congestion is not like the normal kind. You feel like you're drowning. It's imperative you then seek immediate attention.
BIO: As some of you may recall, when I was a professor of pathology at the University of California San Diego, I was one of the first molecular virologists in the world to work on coronaviruses (the 1970s). I was the first to demonstrate the number of genes the virus contained. Since then, I have kept up with the coronavirus field and its multiple clinical transfers into the human population (e.g., SARS, MERS), from different animal sources.
The current projections for its expansion in the US are only probable, due to continued insufficient worldwide data, but it is most likely to be widespread in the US by mid to late March and April.
Tremendous worldwide efforts are being made to understand the molecular and clinical virology of this virus. Unbelievable molecular knowledge about the genomics, structure, and virulence of this virus has already been achieved. BUT, there will be NO drugs or vaccines available this year to protect us or limit the infection within us. Only symptomatic support is available.
I hope these personal thoughts will be helpful during this potentially catastrophic pandemic. You are welcome to share.
The above email has gone viral so I checked it out on snopes. Dr. Robb does exist and is who he says he is. This letter was apparently written by him to his family members, not for general circulation. Apparently some people take the part about zinc lozenges as curative or preventive, but he did not intend that. Zinc lozenges MAY help but also may not.
If that is correct, it seems that once in the body it would die based on the normal temperature (98.6 F.) range of the body and even more so once a fever starts and the body temperature rises above the normal range???
Yes, it is in one of the videos and they state that another form, Hydroxychloroquine has shown to be more effective because it tends to help zinc enter the cell more effectively. High dose quercetin was suggested as a potential substitute. I think they said something to the effect that wherever they use this hydrochloroquine, they do not have ready access to chloroquine, if I remember correctly.
Excellent post, as usual! I know a lot of forum members take the supplements you have listed above, including my husband.
I was wondering if this is the future biological war. . . Imagine the stock markets crashing, shares selling at ridiculously low prices, COVID-19 gone, and shares selling again at astronomical prices. . . who is behind this chaos????
I really don't know if it is/was intended as a biological weapon, but it is hard to imagine that it would be unleashed on the whole world, such that it appears to be. It certainly seems like it will affect the stock market in a way that is somewhat predictable and somebody who is reasonably savvy with the stock market could potentially make very large sums of money in a relatively short period of time!
if it was a true biological weapon, the death rate would not be as low as .2%, more like 30%...this has morbidity stats equal to cancer and less than heart disease which are about 400 per 100000, and this joke is way less than that...
Since I included Mannitol on the list and because forum members have reported using it, I am including this information page on Mannitol because it explains what it is used for as well as when it should not be used! Important information you should be aware of if you are considering using Mannitol. Here is a link to that page :
Yes and with daily oral dosing in gram amounts, it should be able to inhibit IL-6 and IL-8. This may partially account for the benefits that forum members have reported from the addition of mannitol to their daily regimen.
"Findings: The Result showed that cases with RNAaemia were exclusively confirmed in critically ill patients group and appeared to reflect the illness severity. Further more, the inflammatory cytokine IL-6 levels were significantly elevated in critically ill patients, which is almost 10-folds higher than those in other patients. More importantly, the extremely high IL-6 level was closely correlated with the incidence of RNAaemia (R=0.902) and the vital signs of COVID-19 patients (R= -0.682). Interpretation: Serum SARS-CoV-2 viral load (RNAaemia) is strongly associated with cytokine storm and can be used to predict the poor prognosis of COVID-19 patients. Moreover, our results strongly suggest that cytokine IL-6 should be considered as a therapeutic target in critically ill patients with excessive inflammatory response."
According to the study, viral load and IL-6 are closely correlated. So the study does not tell us whether it is the viral load or the IL-6, or both, that are most responsible for the poor prognosis.
Here is a study of what happened to mice with inadequate vitamin C after being exposed to influenza virus - they all died, versus mice with adequate vitamin C survived. The mice that died had a dysfunctional immune response which failed to control the virus early on:
"The defects on the production of type I IFNs ... are closely related to the inflammatory responses due to the failure of controlling virus replication at the initial stage of its infection"
So the human data is likely telling us the same thing – the key to a good outcome is an immune system that controls virus replication promptly, before it gets out of hand. Once it does get out of hand patients end up with both a high viral load and high cytokines.
The results of human trials on vitamin C to control viral respiratory infections have been mixed. There is a trial currently underway in Wuhan for high-dose vitamin C for severely affected coronavirus patients. Meanwhile, there is no harm in making sure one is getting adequate vitamin C.
CORONAVIRUS BY THE NUMBERS IN CALIFORNIA (as of 3/10/2020):
157 positive cases
2 deaths
Of all the confirmed positive cases:
Age 0 – 17: 2 cases
Age 18 – 64: 91 cases
Age 65+: 60 cases
Unknown: 4 cases
Approximately 10,300 people are self-monitoring, across 49 local health jurisdictions, after returning to the U.S. from travel.
Eighteen public health labs in California are testing for COVID-19.
More public health labs will soon be able to test for COVID-19. This means California public health officials will get test results sooner, so that patients will get the best care.
This tends to confirm that senior citizens are at elevated risk. I wish they had broken that 18-64 year old range down a bit more because it is such a broad range.
Yes, as a whole, most 80 year old immune systems are not going to be as resilient as people below the age of 60, with exceptions in individual cases, but they would be the exception, not the rule.
My cousin and his wife recently got back from a 4 week cruise and he was put in the hospital with pneumonia and tested for CV-13. His test came back negative! His wife who had no symptoms was put on a 14 day home quarantine and her test came back negative.
I added the amino acid L-Lysine to the list in the original post above as an IL-6 and IL-8 inhibitor and it also has antiviral effects! When used in conjunction with Zinc, which is also on the list as an IL-6 inhibitor, they have synergy together in terms of antiviral effects!
When I first started using L-Arginine and NAC together to lower my blood pressure effectively, it worked fine at first, but I soon noticed that I started getting colds one after another and this had never happened to me before so after doing some reading I realized that I had disrupted my L-Lysine / Arginine ratio in favor of Arginine and this was the problem because Arginine on the high side can have positive effects on some viruses! Many cold strains fall into the Corona Virus family. In my case the addition of L-Lysine put a stop to one cold after another and that was what made me think of L-Lysine as a possible IL-6 inhibitor as well as a potential antiviral. L-Lysine with Zinc definitely seems like a combination to keep in mind!
Both are potent antivirals. Sambucol Elderberry has been used to good effect and I would describe it as very good and a relatively safe product and I will add it to the list right now for sure!
For the oregano oil, it can be harsh on the gut for some people and I consider the essential oil as a "hot oil" in that even when diluted in a carrier oil, it can cause skin issues like rash. The thymol content is likely to blame for this effect. The soft gels did not bother me except for the occasional "oregano burps", but I suggested it to another person for its potent antiviral effects, but it caused severe stomach distress, so I'm not sure whether to add that one to the list or not? In any case it is in this thread now and anyone who has used it previously will already know if they can tolerate it or not.
Covid-19 is an upper respiratory tract infection that is definitely attracted straight to the lungs so perhaps the ginger tea may not be the best form for this particular purpose, but ginger extract supplements inhibit IL-6 and IL-8 so I will add the ginger to the list in its extract form.
I've heard one can rub in a few drops of Oregano Oil on the bottom of the foot at bedtime so maybe it will be absorbed w/o the irritation. I'm going to try it....and dream of spaghetti and meatballs. 😋
He uses them for a few things:; for sinus problems, mild COPD, head and chest colds , and general congestion he'll steam the oregano with apple cider, as well as taking it sublingual. He's doing some of this now on a limited basis as a preventive. He said he doesn't get a burn, but usually gets a burp, so he follows it with a chaser of water.
Elderberry products seem to be sold out everywhere
I went into garden and elderberries are just ripe now! So I picked them all. I might try making some syrup! I thought of making a tincture but don’t have vodka. I found sambuca in the cupboard and it has elderberry and liquorice in it!
Do you think boiling the berries will degrade the active ingredient we want? It seems the risk of poisoning yourself is there with raw berries, though these are very ripe. The birds are eating them.
I’m wondering how much is in sambuca! A tasty alternative😁
Just looked it up. Here’s a recipe
Ethanol (96%) or moonshine (70%) – 700 ml
Anise – 100 grams
Elderberry – 25 grams
Sugar – 400 grams
Water – 550 ml
So a bit but the sugar and alcohol probably offset health benefits!
The flower-shaped spice contains shikimic acid that is used as a base material for the production of Tamiflu, which is used for influenza virus. It is super powerful as an anti-viral. Take star anise and boil it in water and add it to your teas like green tea or black tea.”
Love that taste. I’m just sampling the sambuca at the moment! It is nighttime here😁. It’s been at the back of the cupboard for years. It is pretty aniseedy and black. I guesss the colour is from the elderberries.
Can Chinese Medicine Be Used for Prevention of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)? A Review of Historical Classics, Research Evidence and Current Prevention Programs.
Since I started LDN 4.5 mg X day some years ago I have not once had flu or a cold in spite of grandchildren with streaming noses and dreadful coughs. kids I see daily.
It isnan immune booster and has been amazingly successful for cancer and many other diseases.
You have to get a doctor to write a script and some won't but the LDN website gives you a list of the many who will.
If you Google LDN you can read about it.
All anecdotal of course because, llke HDT, it has not been through the many expensive double blind studies and is too cheap and well known for it to be attractive to pharmaceuticals.
There have been some though.It is beginning to be recognised.
I have been on low dose Naltrexone for quite a few years now too. I have noticed I don't really get any colds. My first neurologist wouldn't prescribe LDN to me so I got it from Canada. Now my GP is prescribing it for me. I dissolve a pill in a little jar in water, 50 ml to 50 mg Naltrexone pill. I swallow three ml a day. I use one of those plastic syringes. I keep it clean and in the refrigerator.
Thank you for posting that! I had been taking LDN for about 6 or 7 months and did not catch a cold during that period, but shortly after I stopped taking LDN, I did catch a cold on this past Super Bowl Sunday. Your post made me look and as it turns out, this is a common observation about LDN based on the following that relates directly to Dr. Bihari, the founder of the use of low dose naltrexone :
Do you have a link to the thread readily handy Re: the nebulizer, H2O 2 and iodine formula and I think rescuema and the comment that a vaporizer may be better?
One thing I have been thinking of is that if you only attack the virus in the lungs through inhalation of various antiviral substances, what about all of the other organs that C-19 is damaging in the body based on autopsy reports of patients? This is why for myself, I intend to inhale and drink the silver nanoparticles along with melatonin zinc and quercetin and the kitchen sink!!!
Thanks. I just got off the phone with my daughter, who is still having breathing problems a month later and still a slight fever, so I want her to try this.
My cousin who got Covid-19 pneumonia, left the hospital with significant lung damage. In the post I put up yesterday about melatonin is a link to an article that suggests that melatonin may help improve lung injury. This is one of the main points of melatonin is that it can potentially help minimize or prevent the collateral damage and direct damage done to all of the organs, not just the lungs. Notice how Dr. Neel said that one of his patients he tried to take down to 40 mg from 80 mg of melatonin and she developed a cough, but when he took her back up to 80 mg the cough went away.
The HP and the iodine are both potent viral destroyers, but once the virus is gone, they may be irritating to the lungs that are already irritated.
Here is a very short video that may interest you :
Art, thanks again. I believe that before it's all done, it's gonna touch everybody's family. If I ever get to the point Where I amhaving difficulty breathing, I will try everything else 1st, before I go to the hospital.
We now have a nebulizer and a vaporizer ready on standby.
I just watched this new video, which I feel is very interesting and discusses two supplements that are on our IL-6 inhibitor list. This video is definitely worth watching and I found it quite hopeful!
I would like to point something out about the video and their statement about zinc. They did not differentiate between the multiple forms of zinc, but not all forms are well absorbed. According to the study abstract below, zinc picolinate is well absorbed. Details matter!
While the zinc may work, chloroquine is known to work. This video above, suggests that Quercetin can act to help the zinc enter the cell in a similar manner to the chloroquine. In this case, the quercetin is required in a very high dose of 3 to 7 grams per day! That's a lot of quercetin! On the other hand, quercetin is an IL-6 inhibitor as discussed in the original post above, so it has a method of action which can potentially help zinc enter the cell and disrupt the virus cycle while having the desirable IL-6 inhibiting quality which can potentially inhibit the "cytokine storm" seen in many CV-19 patients who succumb to CV-19.
There is one major downside to this idea. Last week after posting this video above, I checked on the availability of Quercetin and Zinc Picolinate, a more absorbable form of zinc than others like zinc orotate, zinc gluconate and zinc citrate. While quercetin was available, at 3 to 7 grams per day, it gets a little expensive, while zinc, in all of its forms and doses was out of stock and back ordered at a large US supplement supplier! This is an excellent video series on Covid-19 and they mention that although Chloroquine was available at pharmacies two weeks ago that availability is no more. So that means that zinc and chloroquine are going to be hard to come by.
For myself, because I am willing to experiment on myself and would definitely not recommend that anyone try it themselves, would consider using colloidal silver nanoparticles in an oral form as well as direct delivery to the lungs to directly try and attack the virus in the lungs. I would try it because I have done this on myself before, but obviously not something I would recommend to others. The one manufacturer who actually makes colloidal silver nanoparticles as opposed to ionic silver is MesoSilver and they are sold out and back ordered. On that note, I notice that many on line suppliers of Ionic Silver are sold out or low on stock.
The other drug that is showing effectiveness against SARS CoV-2 is the Japanese made drug Favipiravir which is also called Avagan and was designed to treat the flu. China is currently testing it in their patients and it is showing good effect in those tests. Here is a link to an article that illustrates its effectiveness which sounds as good as or better than Chloroquine.
Judging by the way things are going, chloroquine, hydochloroquine/hydroxychloroquine and Favipiravir/Avagan do not seem like they are going to be available to the masses based on the worldwide demand. Now that more is known about the virus, I think other existing drugs can be considered and tested and that is probably happening as I type!
Is this saying these antiinflammatories like ibuprofen I ncrease IL-6 ?? Then you are on the right track! Although this one says they don’t make much difference.
They are talking specifically about ibuprofen and aspirin . These are very specific and very potent Cox 1 and /or Cox 2 enzyme inhibitors. Supplements on that list are not as potent and not as specific. Ibuprofen for example has shown itself to actually stimulate IL-6 production as well as another inflammatory mediator, TNF alpha, in humans. About the exact opposite of what that video was suggesting of inhibiting IL-6!
I don't think that aspirin and ibuprofen can be lumped together even though they both fall into the NSAID category, in this sense they are both similar in that aspirin also inhibits Cox 1/2, but through a complex process it does inhibit IL-6. Again being a very potent Cox 1/2 inhibitor may not be a good thing for Covid-19. These NSAIDS are much more potent than any supplement that I am aware.
The final consideration is that that list is only a consideration if IL-6 is found to be effective as a possible target for Covid-19 and they are only testing IL-6 inhibitors at this point to see if they will be effective against Covid 19. There are drugs that can inhibit IL-6, but if they are proven effective, considering the number of people that will be affected buy the virus, there may not be enough available to supply the masses.
The last video I put up was discussing Zinc and Quercetin in combination and the Quercetin required a mega dose just to help the absorption of Zinc which is poorly absorbed.
In this video they describe how getting enough sleep can strengthen your immune system to a more effective level that will be better able to handle the virus. This could potentially make the difference between fighting off the disease effectively or not. Many people have survived this disease and getting enough sleep is likely a contributing factor.
The US is currently at 2,976 confirmed cases and 60 deaths.
By comparison, Italy is at 21,157 confirmed cases with 1,441 deaths while the UK is at 1,140 confirmed cases and 21 deaths.
Interestingly, South Korea has 8,162 confirmed cases and only 75 deaths, but they are aggressively testing for the virus and catching it earlier.
Also interesting is that about a week ago Italy and South Korea were almost the same in terms of confirmed cases, but Italy has advanced rapidly from just a week ago.
The rate at which cases are increasing is rapid, but partly because testing is being increased rapidly. The US is probably higher than the numbers suggest because testing is minimal at this time compared to a country like South Korea with their aggressive testing.
Yes, I have read that they even do the testing using a drive through service! Convenient, fast and safer! Their approach seems like it could or should be the model for other countries to follow!
I watched an interesting video yesterday that does not discuss where SARS-COV2 came from, but rather discusses why it may be more viable in certain areas of the world at different times of the year and it shows certain areas that you may want to avoid, areas that may be more conducive to the virus thriving. In the USA, Washington on the west coast and New York on the east coast would be two such areas and appear to be two areas that seem to be hit particularly hard so far. Here is a recent CV-19 map of the USA that seems to point to those two general areas as being hit hard.
I want to emphasize that this video is "strictly speculation" and that is important to keep in mind if you watch it! The information in this video is not confirmed yet.
The lighter green color bands on her maps do seem to coincide with some of the areas known to be having unusually high viral activity such as Wuhan, China, Milan, Italy, New York state and Washington state.
Again, this is only a theory and unproven! The theory would suggest that as the weather warms in the areas that are being hit hard right now, the virus may find it more difficult to survive. If the theory is confirmed as correct, it could be very useful in predicting the next areas that the virus may spiral out of control in allowing those areas to be better prepared with testing and earlier detection. This could be very useful information if the virus returns every year.
Again, I am strongly reminding everyone that this is still unproven speculation and may be proven to be completely wrong, but it is worth monitoring to see if it has any predictive value!!!
I wish this was true. But the reality is that the part in red also happens to be the poorer regions where there testing way less. Those countries also happened to see there first cases later so they're just essentially at the start of the exponential 33% graph. Korea is very interesting though. Theyve not done the drastic lockdown but they have tested way more than everyone else.
They are also actively testing the chloroquine/hydrochloroquine on patients which may be a contributing factor to their relatively low death rate in comparison to Italy. They are extremely aggressive in their approach to SAR COV-2 with their drive through testing stations which are fast, safer than a doctor's office visit and very efficient.
Ya.. their approach has proven to be very effective. I dont think its weather based like that video suggests but instead due to excellent government policies and likely obedient people who did social distancing seriously and early.
The constantly changing map is so far fairly accurate with the exception of Turkey and I think it maybe a contributing factor to why Australia is stepping up their game as their winter season approaches and those light green bands are likely to start drifting north, The map is essentially nirroring the temperature range and humidity range where they already know the virus thrives.
Well this CV-19 is affecting more than people's health in a big way, it is also affecting many people's pocketbooks in the form of stock portfolio's as well as their retirement accounts if their retirement plan is somehow tied to the stock market. As of today, the DOW has lost all of the gains of the last 3 1/4 years, setting the DOW back to the level seen at the end of 2016 and beginning of 2017. There is nothing to suggest that this is the end of the decline !
Last month's high was 29,568 while today's close on volume that was well above a sharply rising average volume line is 20,188 for a loss of 9,380 points in just one month ! Over 3 years gains erased in just one month!
AND Don’t forget 40% of the US population live paycheck to paycheck. I’m in the SF Bay Area, we’re sheltering in place as of midnight tonight, for at least 3 weeks. The right thing to do, but I fear for all the people who have no savings and minimal income who will have to figure out how to survive until businesses reopen.
According to the following articles, Australia thinks they may have a potential cure by combining two existing drugs, Chloroquine an antimalarial and Ritonavir/Norvir an HIV drug, to treat patients. If true, this could be awesome news! Here is a link to articles discussing their findings :
Here are more articles claiming that Australia has found a "CURE FOR Covid -19" using two existing drugs. The Antimalarial drug, Chloroquine plus the anti-HIV drug Ritinavir/Norvir to treat patients with Covid-19 and eradicate the virus.
I posted 5 other articles yesterday confirming this in the post above.
With an infection in which 80% of people recover spontaneously, you understand that it is a bit difficult to establish what works and what does not. Here in Italy the databases are filling up to have at least the statistical data on this new drugs.
Apparently Australia has found that Chloroquine and Ritinovir both work alone or together as a cure/treatment for Covid-19 and now they want to find out if one works better than the other or if both together have synergy.
Today Italy has surpassed China in its death toll! China currently has 80,928 confirmed cases and 3,245 dead while Italy has 41,035 confirmed cases and 3.405 dead! Italy has approximately half of the confirmed cases, yet has surpassed China in the number of deaths.
Last week Italy and South Korea were both very close to 7,500 cases each, but this week South Korea has 8,565 confirmed cases while Italy has 41,035 or about 4.79 times as many confirmed cases in just one week!
This video may explain one possible reason for this discrepancy and was made based on the research of a small group of scientists :
If this video is correct it will help to predict the areas which may be affected next and allow those areas to prepare as best as possible ahead of time!
Maybe its me but covid19 doesn't seem to be a big killer, 10,000 deaths so far (according to Google), when you consider that over 3000 die in traffic accidents every day(Google again). The response to the crisis is incredible though, almost a complete shutdown of economies. To my mind this is like banning cars to prevent traffic-fatalities, a policy that would certainly work. I fear that getting the show back on the road will prove to be very difficult. And us PwP's need strong functioning and free-trading economies for our drugs.
I think it is you. These are a lot of deaths no matter how you slice it.
One thing to keep in mind is that these are only "confirmed cases and deaths". the actual numbers are likely to be higher, especially here in the United States as test kits are more of thought than an actual test kit, unless of course you happen to be an NBA player! Even then at 10,000 deaths in just 2 1/2 months that would be 48,000 deaths in a year at the current death rate, but Italy is showing that some areas are going to have an extraordinary number of deaths that could push the stats much higher! That sounds like a lot to me! For the families of the dead, just one death will seem like a lot!
'Getting the show back on the road', as you put it, will be very difficult, especially for the people who died!
My hunch is that we are in for a massive financial correction and the virus is a trigger. The world has become so weird but we hardly notice it. How can someone who is marginally better at golf end up with hundreds of millions! We have gone from an increasingly unregulated economy with staggering inequality to a complete lock down in the blink of an eye.
Ya, the economy will likely collapse due to this but itll recovery in time. This is a once in a lifetime event. This was not planned by any one. It's a freak of nature. If everyone works together we can get through this. Unfortunately most countries are not doing enough until it is too late. China is the beacon of hope. They reported zero cases today. Its quite possible they'll have a phase 2 but theyve shown the wave forward until we get a vaccine.
Our Dow Jones Industrial average has lost the last 3 1/4 years of gains in about a months time despite the president having just put over $2,000,000,000,000 into it with only an infinitesimal effect! If you are a believer in Elliott Wave Theory, there is room for a small bounce and then another wave down. The DOW was 29,000 and change last month and currently sits at 20,087. Major support sits as a broad band at the 15,000 to 18,000 area and looks like it could be tested to see if it will continue to act as support. If it were to fail, we will be in a depression and the last one took decades to "fully recover" from and World War 2 ended up speeding that recovery process to some extent.
Well, the super rich will have access to things that the not so rich will not and that alone will go a long way in sustaining them through this pandemic. Here in the USA, NBA basketball players are all getting tested while doctors do not even have enough kits available to regularly test the medical staff that are working with CV-19 cases everyday.
Hopefully it is, but there is a limit to how long you can practice it before the economy collapses. All of our restaurants are closed except for takeout, but most restaurants can not survive on takeout service only and that is a very huge industry and just one of many industries affected.
The Asian countries that have controlled the spread relatively well have used extensive testing in addition to social distancing. This allows individual cases to be identified and quarantined before they show symptoms but are already infecting people. Investigation of who they’ve been in contact with and further quarantining of those people leads to much greater control of disease spread.
Italy relied on social distancing (too little, too late) and unfortunately in the US we seem to be following that model instead of the Asian one. The Asians had this more figured out after SARS and MERS, its unbelievable that we aren’t using their experience to full advantage.
The patchwork nature of our response (every state and locality is doing it’s own thing) and the lack of widespread testing will have serious consequences.
Considering that the USA has barely started testing for the virus and still does not have enough test kits, that implies that a lot of people are walking around undiagnosed and likely spreading the virus even more. The current number of cases as of yesterday was 13,789 and today it increased to 17,729! It is hard to imagine how high those numbers would be if everyone were to be tested, but they would be a lot higher!
I was going to post a video which describes what the US governments tentative economic plans are to deal with the fallout from CV-19 proposed by senate Republicans Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and Dems Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, but after watching the whole thing I decided it was too depressing to post as it basically is sending about 80% of the relief to major corporations such as the airline industry instead of the laid off employees who were already struggling pre-CV-19. I have no idea how he is able to keep his position because he is definitely not representing the people who elected him! There is a special place waiting for them!
There is a new drug showing potential for SARS COV-2 treatment to good effect. The drug is made in Japan and is designed for use against the flu. It is called Favipiravir/ Avigan and is made in Japan. China is currently testing the drug for SARS COV-2 and is showing very good potential as an effective treatment.
Just thought I would update on the Japanese drug Avigan/Favipirivir, which I mentioned over three weeks ago is currently being tested by China for Covid-19. Japan developed the drug with the intention of fighting the flu. Japan was offering it to any country that wanted to test it for Covid-19.
Apparently the USA has plans to take them up on the offer according to this Newsweek article from 4/12/20. It makes me wonder why they waited over three weeks to make this decision to try Avigan :
The governor of California has very recently (3/19/2020) declared that it is projected that "56%" of the people of California will get the virus. In terms of land area, Italy would be roughly comparable to California. Italy( population as of 2018 is 60.5 million) is more densely populated than California at 39.56 million as of 2018. Currently, Italy has just over 59,000 cases. Rounding that up to 60,000 to make the math easier and then multiplying that number by 10 as what I think is a pretty generous guesstimate of total cases for Italy, that comes out to 600,000 total cases by the end of this outbreak. Compared to their total population of roughly 60,000,000, that is only 1% of Italy's population, yet the governor of California is projecting a 56% infection of the California population??? Am I doing this math incorrectly or is the governor crazy??? Even if you were to be exceedingly generous in this estimation of Italy and instead of 10 times higher than the current cases and go all the way up to 100 times higher, it still only comes out to 10% of the population, not 56%!
Please correct me if I am wrong on the math, but what kind of model could the governor be using to come up with 56% of the population of California.
China is already leveling out and is at 81,054 cases.
I'm not trying to minimize the severity of this outbreak in any way, just trying to keep it real and that 56% projection does not seem very real, at least to me it doesn't.
‘The governor of California has very recently (3/19/2020) declared that it is projected that "56%" of the people of California will get the virus...’
That seems reasonable to me: experts believe ‘herd immunity’ begins when 60% of a population are resistant to a pathogen. Here is the German Chancellor Angel Merkel saying 70 percent of Germans will get COVID-19.
The fight is to ensure we do not get it all at once, which will overwhelm the medical system, as in Italy. We do not as individuals have immunity to this virus. Until we develop as a group ‘herd immunity’ or we develop a vaccine we are all exposed.
For 80% no hospitalization will be required. It would be a normal flu. The other 20% is going to result in a surge, a tsunami as NY Governor Cuomo predicts. This will overwhelm the medical system. This why we speak of ‘flattening the curve’: spreading the incidence of illness over time.
We who are old people need to be extremely cautious. The virus will easily wipe out those with compromised immune systems and/or those with underlying ailments. It may be that 70% of those over 70 are not going to survive if the catch this virus.
And please be careful with the distorted figures coming out of Beijing or the ‘happy talk’ coming out of the Whitehouse in Washington.
Around 30% of people are completely asymptomatic. They are super spreading it, a lot worse than people that have symptoms. Both, Chinese and Japanese came to the same number
Not acquainted with the the percentage of asymptomatic people but this is a huge factor, since testing is highly targeted - we only test those with symptoms and travel history - because of shortage of testing kits.
My point is what is the governor basing this 56% infection rate on. To just throw such a specific number out there with no explanation seems careless, if he doesn't back it up with how they arrived at that specific percent. It does nothing , but instill fear in people who take it as fact since the governor is saying it. China is not reflecting that number and they have had it the longest. So what is he basing it on? On their current graph of new cases, they are leveling out not climbing. Their current count of cases is 81,054 while their population is approximately 1.4 billion. That is not even a half of one percent of the population and yet he is saying it will be 56%!
I'm not saying Covid -19 isn't dangerous, it is, but he needs to explain how he arrived at that figure, otherwise he is just instilling fear in an already stressed population!
This is exactly what he could and should have done with press releases and public service announcements as he already put the state in lock down, but he didn't do that important followup step. The result in my area of California was a sudden increase in break ins and door to door scams involving robbing the owner of the house. People are so fearful that they are willing to let perfect strangers into their home in uniforms claiming to be from a government agency who are there to inform homeowners how to keep themselves safe from the virus and then they rob them and take their food and other necessities! An increased run on grocery stores ensued making an already bad situation worse as people who were already hoarding started to hoard even more paper goods and groceries. People who store some of their canned food and paper goods in their garage can no longer leave their garage doors open and unattended as other people were driving around neighborhoods looking for open garage doors so they can take anything they deem worth taking.
Those press releases along with his statement could have gone a long way toward allaying those fears that is helping to drive people to do things that they would not normally do! There are always criminals looking for "opportunities" but this is well beyond that now!
Whoever thought that toilet paper would be such a hot commodity, but this is what some people are doing and then reselling it at much higher prices .
‘The essential underlying evolutionary purpose of this contagion (CONVID-19) is the realization that selfishness – both in individuals and in nations – has just collided with its own end game. The myth of the rugged, independent individual separate from everyone else has finally hit the wall.
As we have seen, we are all in this together.
Denying that reality simply no longer works in a practical way for anyone. Anyone who does deny it is more likely to get sick. Even money can’t keep anyone safe. Our anger with each other, our divisions, our brutal competitiveness, our sense that national boundaries reflect some immutable law of nature – all of that is collapsing right now before our eyes.’
Stay safe. It’s going to get much worse before it gets better.
Gio, is the one who will have the best insights on what is coming our way because he is just about in the midst of some of the worst of the effects of Covid-19 and I hope he shares!
Sorry I was busy sleeping on the sofa and reflecting on a 40-year-old comic movie "Totò lo smemorato" being in quarantine. 🤣
This video shows you entering the emergency room of the Bergamo hospital, it is not the intensive care unit. The patients already arrive with the protection of the plastic cap under pressure and with oxygen, do them an X-ray and a test to determine if they are positive. As described here:
What do the numbers of the dead, infected test mean? little or nothing but to convince the population to stay at home even more to avoid getting infected and infected. IMHO their evaluation done every day by the political authorities is only a hope or simple public relations. You must always know the situation that generates the data to make an evaluation of it. This virus has a very high contagiousness and a speed that will overwhelm you. 1 to 3, 9, 50, 250, 7500, 28000, 150000 etc. within a month. This means that first the masks will be missing, then the beds, then ... the reagents to make tests for everyone. Do you understand ??? something is always missing. That is the question. But when you lack the reagents to do all the tests you need to do, you understand that all the data based on the tests are a bit altered. You will have to decide who to take the tests maybe if you are with few symptoms at home with coughs you are not prescribed the test today. The virus is overwhelming but it is also a positive thing that ends soon. 80% of cases are with mild symptoms ... maybe .
Here in Italy we have chosen the line of maximum transparency because we are not mercantilists and the idea of the empire we have overcome it long ago and in the first places on the scale of values we have the health and after the economy. Quite right? Mistaken? I don't know, but here it is.
Take care to yourself !
IMHO It will be a short thing but if you are not careful it will hurt you a lot.
As you can see in my previous posts about a month ago I made a bad flu that resembled the symptoms of the virus, I took it from my 83 year old aunt. That the flu looks a lot like Coronavirus ( but covid is not a flu! ) is obvious and it was probably just flu because we had little fever, but one thing that helped both was the NAC 600mg twice a day. (N-Acetylcysteine - NAC). I hope it helps.
Thank you for that tip, Gio! I saw park_bear mention it recently also!
I also came down with what seemed to start as a flu on February 3rd, after attending a Super Bowl party on February second, with body ache, sore throat and fever that led to a cold and now a dry cough still today. I think it was just the flu though because the incubation period was very short since I think I caught it at the party the day before because I was sitting next to my brother in law during the game and he was sneezing and coughing. I will be glad when this dry cough is gone! I just started using a vitamin C multi product from Vitacost which seems to be helping with the cough already!
Try some fresh squeezed lemon 🍋 with some shakes of organic cayenne pepper for instant cough relief. It worked for me hope it works as well for you. Also google pineapple juice and coughs.
Here is an article on the 1918 influenza pandemic that highlights the tension between telling the public what they need to know and trying not to induce mass panic.
In 1918 “The government lied. They lied about everything”.
I think one major problem with the 1918 flu is that the treatment itself may have been adding to the death toll. High dosing of aspirin was the play of the day.
And here we are again. This time - early in the game - trying to self treat with the anti-malaria drug - chloroquine. Whitehouse hype leading to poisonings in Nigeria
Looks like the article described 2 cases of chloroquine poisoning which were result of overdosing :
"Health officials in the West Afrian nation confirmed on Sunday that two people were hospitalized in Lagos for overdoses of the anti-Malaria drug, which President Trump has touted as a potential treatment, Bloomberg reported."
Somehow they missed the word "overdosing" in the article's title and letter "c" in "African"
Italy, today posted 771 less new cases than yesterday! That makes two days in a row of decline in new cases for Italy. Previously, Italy had posted one day declines in new cases, but this is the first time that they have registered two days in a row of declines in new cases and hopefully they are showing the first signs of peaking in terms of new cases.
Well it looks like the USA will soon move to the top of the list in terms of new cases of CV-19 based on the fact that our new case stats are rising rapidly! We are currently behind Italy in third place of all countries. At the current rate of new cases for USA, we may surpass both Italy and China as soon as this weekend.
China is 81,178 cases today, Italy is 69,176 and the USA is closing rapidly on both countries with 7,248 new cases today bringing us to 50,982.
To make matters worse, we are barely starting to test because there are still no test kits in any significant amount, available. Considering that the virus was known about "at least by December of last year by our government", there is no good reason for the lack of test kits 4 months later! Based on the lack of testing and test kits, we are very likely already in the number one spot above China!
It looks like Spain has surpassed China in terms of total Covid-19 deaths, but while China has 81,218 cases of CV-19, Spain only has 47,610 cases. This moves Spain to the second position in this category and behind Italy which has a death toll of 7,503 while Spain is currently at 3,434. I'm really wondering and concerned about what the US is going to look like once they really start testing large numbers of people which is still little if any right now.
Today, USA has moved to the number one position surpassing both Italy and China with an astounding 13,968 new cases today for a total of 82,179 cases! I thought we would make it to the weekend before reaching that number one spot. The increased testing is no doubt the reason for the dramatic rise, but test kits are still not abundant so the actual number of cases is likely very significantly higher!
China is now in the number two position with 81,285 cases and Italy is now in the third position with 80,589. Spain is in the fourth position at 56,347 cases and rising fairly quickly.
Something different between China and South Korea, as China peaked and "flattened out", the graph looks fairly flat and horizontal while South Korea appeared to peak and instead of flattening out, it is continuing to climb at less of an uphill angle, but the graph line is not flat and horizontal like China which means they are still getting a significant number of new cases, just at lesser numbers of new cases than had previously been seen.
So that puts USA firmly in the number one spot, but this is one of those times that I would prefer to finish last! 😓😓😓
The USA is bounding upward at a very rapid pace with another 14,957 new cases today bringing the total case count to 100,392 compared to Italy's 86,498 and China's 81,340 while Spain has 64,285 cases and will likely surpass China next week. New York state is easily the worst place in America as they have accounted for over one third of today's new cases!
Famous sports talk radio host, Mike Francesa, weighs in on what it's like at a New York hospital with body bags piling up outside. You have to scroll down a bit to watch the video.
Relating to CV-19, I have a cousin who lives in Los Angeles county in California who contracted CV-19 and ended up being hospitalized with difficulty breathing. They diagnosed him with CV-19 related pneumonia and treated him for that. They were able to get the upper hand on the pneumonia and sent him home to finish his recovery. My cousin is in his late 50's and very fortunate to have survived this experience!
Apparently there is another well known and established drug that is showing potential to not only destroy SARS CoV-2, but also simultaneously slow the viral replication process. The drug is the antiparasitic drug Ivermectin which is already in testing! This is discussed in the video below. Below the video is a link to the study of SARS CoV-2 and Ivermectin. Below that link is a link to known side effects of Ivermectin as side effects are proving to be an issue with Hydroxychloroquine so that has to be considered also.
We use a lot of ivermectin in vet medicine. It is a neurotoxin and in some breeds of dogs with a certain mutation it can be deadly or cause permanent neurologic damage from brain toxicity. At too high a dose it can do the same. My understanding is it is not FDA approved in the US for humans because of this danger (I'm a vet so don't quote me on human approval). Add PD to the mix and the fact that folks can buy this at the feed store and it scares me that folks might decide to try this. Our brains already don't work right and we may be like the Collies.
Too bad for all the dogs who lost their lives or were hurt by Ivermectin. Aren't there other choices for dogs at risk? Do any of the natural remedies like black walnut hull and wormwood tincture in combination have any benefit? I hope people don't resort to acquiring Ivermectin from feed stores for themselves to treat Covid-19, but unfortunately I think people might if they feel desperate enough!
Recently I was giving a significant amount of thought to CV-19 because a friend had 4 family members die from this disease in Nevada. It made me think about other people who have reported little to no symptoms, mild symptoms, harsh symptoms and then there is death. Thinking about that, it made me think that there could be more than one virus involved in this pandemic. So I just did a very brief search on line to see if there was any information on this aspect of the virus and I found the following article suggesting that there may actually be a SARS Cov-2 type S and a type L of which more cases of type L have been found. Here I was thinking that Covid-19 was bad enough and now there is the possibility there is already a mutation! Ugggh! I wonder how this will affect the potential to develop herd immunity?Here is a link to the article and I am sure there are more, this just happened to be the first one I found :
So far I read there are many mutations but none major enough that one vaccine can not be developed. At least yet. A lesser strain might actually be good because it could spread herd immunity faster without killing. Like Cow pox did with small pox.
It looks like the potential for other virus strains is definitely there and apparently the A strain in California may be less severe than that found on the east coast which is called type B and appears to be more aggressive and deadly and possibly a mutation of the A strain. The type C strain appears to be prevalent in Italy and thought to be a mutation of the B strain. One site is reporting 8 strains of this SARS CoV-2 virus, but sensationalism sells newspapers.
This may partially explain why New York shows 478 deaths per million population, compared to California which only shows 17 deaths per million population. Granted New York is reporting about 8.2 times as many cases as California, but 8.2 x 17 is only 140, still very significantly lower than New York's 478 deaths. Not that this calculation matters, the deaths per million population is the correct way to view it. but clearly there is a very significant difference in the death rates of these two states from SARS CoV-2.
This goes to what I mentioned in my post which is three posts above this one and discusses about how it seems like there is more than one virus because so many people are reporting almost no symptoms while others are reporting mild to moderate symptoms and still others have severe symptoms and still others succumb to the virus fairly rapidly and die. Hopefully the idea that exposure to the A strain may confer protection from the B strain turns out to be correct, but is unproven yet.
News that the test kits sold by China to other countries are not accurate is definitely not helping an already bad situation! The U.K. seems to want their money back for the tests which they claim are giving false positives and false negatives! Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it does!
A lot of questions and many differing opinions, even from the experts, make it hard to know what is really the truth and not the truth!
I take comfort in our very human ability to adapt. Our world is truly one of chaos and unpredictability. We're just more aware of it when we hit something like C-Virus. We construct our lives to preserve the illusion of predictability and stability, which keeps us sane...but we really can't know where all this will end.
If you're thinking that 6' social distancing is safe, it may not be according to the following article linked to below. According to this article dated 04/11/2020, the virus has been found in the air 4 meters (13.1234') away from an infected person!
It looks like Stanford University has come up with an antibody test for Covid-19. I hope it is available soon because I would like to find out if I have had the west coast virus strain, Type A! This strain is considered to be milder than the type B strain that is ravishing the east coast in New York State. Type A is thought to be the original strain that was initially circulating in Wuhan and was soon replaced by the type B strain which is thought to be more aggressive in the way it spreads and is also thought to be a harsher strain than type A strain. Scientists are hoping that exposure to the milder A strain will confer immunity to the B strain, but that remains to be shown and proven. Interestingly, it is the B strain that seems to be circulating around Europe and other places while Italy seems to be mainly affected by the C strain.
The B strain is thought to be a mutation of the A strain while the C strain is thought to be a mutation of the B strain.
Here is a link to the Newsweek article discussing the antibody test developed at Stanford University :
Covid-19 cases surpassed 2 million total cases today in the world, currently at 2,073,568 on April 15, 2020. Death total for the world, 134,040.
On April 2, 2020, total cases for the world crossed the 1,000,000 case milestone. So in just about two weeks time, the total number of cases has doubled!
On April 5, 2020, Covid-19 deaths crossed 65,000 deaths and in roughly 10 days the death total has doubled!
I know this is a morbid discussion, but it is good to be aware of these facts to help get a grasp of just how bad this pandemic really is. It is hard to imagine how people will be able to go back to work in another two weeks or so???
Here is an update on Remdesivir , the antiviral drug from Gilead Sciences that MedCram previously reported on. That initial report is the second video below. The current video also discusses the use of far UVC light to destroy the virus in large public places effectively through overhead UVC light fixtures. Very interesting discussion!
This latest MedCram video gives a more detailed explanation of the hydroxychloroquine results in different trials including the latest release with a fairly good explanation of its shortcomings. They also give a recommendation regarding hydroxychloroquine which makes good sense.
They also discuss the mortality rate versus age of C-19 patients who are ventilated or not ventilated, but it left me hoping to never be ventilated!!! Overall another very interesting video by MedCram!
If it's hot and humid where you live, that may be a safer place to be as far as Covid-19! This type of weather is not conducive for the virus to thrive, especially outside!
Great information Art! especially for me in hot and humid Alabama. Lots of interesting points she brought up! I had wondered why Germany seemed to be doing so well compared to other places in Europe. I have been sitting outside more so sounds like that’s a good thing to do! I’m on Twitter a lot and lots of buzz about quercetin right now helping people might want to look at that also for people who aren’t in hot and humid places. My melatonin came in so I’m glad I’ve got that, take care everyone!
Today the world surpassed 3,000,000 Covid-19 cases. On April 2, 2020, it was 1,000,000 cases. On April 15, it was 2,000,000 cases and today, April 27, 2020, it is 3,000,000 or roughly a million more cases every two weeks! One can only wonder what it would be if everyone was getting tested.
The current death toll sits at 211,065, which if I did the math correctly is just shy of 7% of the total cases which suggests that there is a huge number of undiagnosed cases out there!
The USA surpassed one million cases today which is approximately one third of the total cases in the world! If that is correct, are we really that close to opening the economy here?
Today the world surpassed 4,000,000 cases of Covid-19. We crossed up 3,000,000 on April 27th, 2020. So it only took 11 days this time to add another million cases. Looks like we may be able to speed the process up as states start to reopen their economies.
I usually find your writings very useful, but this specific comment is just alarmist and a repeat of what we see in the news with nothing helpfull, on the contrary, just spreading panic , and is a reply to your own previous alarmist answer to another reply to yourself... We all know that anxiety and stress worsens pd symptoms.
You make it sound like I just pulled those numbers out of thin air. Those are real facts about the US stats, not made up and I had never heard the comparison to the rest of the world before, until I actually looked them up and compared the US to other countries and I was more than a little surprised. Am I supposed to try and sugar coat it to make it sound better? It is a fact that the US leads the world in terms of total cases (33% of the world total) and total dead (28% of the world total), yet account for only 4.25 % of the world population! How do I make such horrible stats sound better and why would anyone want to? If it makes you feel panicked, it probably should! How far ahead should we get before we start to panic? We should not be leading by such a large margin in cases and deaths, but we are, while the president is telling us he is doing some of his" best work" on Covid-19! With the president pressuring governors to open their local economies, those numbers are likely to grow even faster! How is quoting real stats alarmist? I can't help that you don't like these particular stats, but they are very real and ignoring them does not make them any less serious nor does it make them go away!
This is a Parkinson’s Disease forum. Although you have been of great help in providing info to our PD community in the past, your present panic state of mind is most likely exacerbating stress and anxiety to this comnunity.
I certainly didn’t says you are inventing the data. I stated your bringing it up is " a repeat of what we see in the news with nothing helpfull, on the contrary, just spreading panic ".
Alot of fellow pwp are looking up to you because of your usual good advise. Please be careful not to spred more panic. As Dr Jeanmonod text posted by MBAnderson a little while ago "Please stay calm", as Covid19 (and most other diseases) are worsened by anxiety.
Extract from Dr Jeanmonod’s text:
"Fear and anxiety are felt indeed typically at the cardio-respiratory level, with dyspnea (choking feeling) and heart palpitations.
And 24h / 7 day a week coverage, for weeks now, of the following, certainly affects people's health in a negative way, contributing to the downfall, provoking fear-based chain reactions"
even in there in house. A quarter of the infections occur at home among relatives here. This means that the number of infected people, symptomatic or not, does not drop drastically as it should. It will be tough.
I think the people at home are not following strict quarantine rules. I'm totally quarantined 7- 8 weeks with my husband.....while friends who claim they too are quarantined, insist on entertaining small groups, while social distancing in their home.
This explains why many people who claim they are quarantined are getting sick.
Today, 5/1/2020, the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the world is 3,388,936. Currently, the USA is accounting for over one third of those cases! If you also consider the idea that the case count for the USA is essentially low due to a lack of intensive testing until very recently, the USA "true count" is much higher than it appears and does not include any count of people who had Covid-19 early this year when the disease was relatively unknown. To be fair, other areas of the world also have incomplete counts.
To give a little more perspective, the total population of the world is 7.8 billion as of May 2020. The USA has a total population of just over 331 million people or about 4.25% of the world population. So while the USA only represents 4.25% of the total population of the world, it simultaneously is representing more than 33% of the total Covid-19 cases of the world! Even with error for different testing count intensities through the world, maybe it is just my fear mechanism over reacting to Covid-19, but it seems that something does not bode well for the USA in this scenario???
Today, the world surpassed 250,000 deaths due to Covid-19.
The USA continues to be the world leader in total cases and deaths by a very wide margin! The USA is accounting for 33% of all cases in the world, while accounting for only 4.25% of the world population. Increased testing may push us even further away from the rest of the countries of the world in terms of total cases. Seems like we are doing something very wrong in terms of fighting Covid-19 as these stats are simply, dreadfully awful for a country that only accounts for 4.25% of the world's population!!!
The picture is a little different if you look at cases per million. We're more or less on par with most of Western Europe, however our cases appear to be in a relative holding pattern -- flattish -- whereas Europe's cases #'s are now in steep decline overall. So we will likely end up with a higher number per million of population. Asia clearly has done a much better job.
So many unnecessary errors. Late start. Downplaying the severity of the pandemic. Prior pandemic planning and preparation WAY too limited for something we knew was coming sooner or later. No coherent national strategy. Weak and uneven local and regional responses. Etc Etc Etc. It is tragic. We could have done so much better.
It looks like Trump is going to try and pressure governors to open their economies while just having said he is going to leave it up to them to do so and that will mean even more cases and more dead. The trend will start to rise again to a new higher level instead of flatten. In a closed environment, in restaurants, theaters, workplaces, church and pretty much any place where people gather, the virus will readily transfer from person to person and while summer weather may not be the virus' most favorite environment to thrive in, it still readily transfers from person to person.
The one thing opening the economy up guarantees is more sick and more dead! I'm not sure if there will be a limiting factor, other than a lack of bodies to infect! The US is clearly leading the charge and we better not even discuss the chance for significant mutation of the virus!
While I agree that Trump's role in this has been sadly lacking and irresponsible, it's too easy to blame him. There are many, many politicians as well as business leaders and just everyday folks, of every political stripe, who are chomping at the bit to get back to "normal". Here in the SF Bay Area, 71% of business leaders say we should end the shelter in place order.
Where is the collective mourning for our dead? Why don't we hear more about them through the media, social networks? I fear we (as a nation) are becoming desensitized, denying that we've lost many more lives to this than to 9/11, than to the war in Viet Nam, in just a couple of months. The fact that our President shows no empathy does not justify that the rest of us - leaders, media, citizens - do not. We seem to be desensitized to the suffering of others and to our own vulnerability as well.
Perhaps the fact that we as a nation are not grappling with the enormity of the loss, is leading us to accept reopening in ways that will lead to even more sickness and death. Undoubtedly the fact that communities of color are being disproportionately impacted contributes to this disconnect in our relatively privileged white communities, and among political and business leaders who are overwhelmingly white.
Insensitivity to mass death is dangerous, I fear where it may lead.
I came across this article recently that suggests that High Dose Thiamine (HDT) may be of use in the fight against Covid-19. Interestingly they specifically note that Dr. Costantini was promoting the dose range that is likely to be helpful for this purpose! I also found it interesting that this source was well aware of Dr. Costantini and his HDT protocol!
You just knew it was coming, dogs that sniff out Covid-19! If it turns out the dogs are capable of definitively finding people with Covid-19, that will be very useful and exponentially faster and more accurate than current testing which is notoriously inaccurate! I can just imagine a drive thru where you just put your hand out the window and a dog sniffs your hand and lets you know if you have covid-19 or not!
According to this recent article, it appears that France may be another country considering using dogs to sniff out people who are Covid-19 positive which as noted in the post above is reaching the international community and sounds like a more accurate and much faster way to find Covid-19 infected people almost instantaneously, even if they are asymptomatic! That sounds pretty good to me!
Another good video from Dr. Seheult on why people test positive for Covid-19 when they are no longer positive. This has been a problem that had initially lead doctors to believe that Covid-19 is reinfecting people who were thought to be Covid-19 well. This video is a bit of relief to that horrible thought!
Here is the latest video from MedCram. The information and video portion show what exactly masks do as far as reducing the risk of getting or giving Covid-19 to others. The video showing what masks do is very interesting with the laser light they use to illustrate the effect is very impressive!
Btw, youtube has restored Dr. Seheult's censored videos.
The Doctors Hospital in Manila has gotten approval and funding for a 350 patient trial of high dose melatonin(HDM) for Covid-19 based on their initial successful results in Covid-19 patients. The patients to be treated will be those who have Covid-19 and pneumonia.
This is the first trial I have seen where they will focus only on Covid-19 patients who have pneumonia which seems pretty daring as Covid-19 patients with pneumonia are considered to have a significantly higher risk of dying suggesting that this group of doctors feel fairly confident of having success!
The US has surpassed 200,000 deaths from Covid-19 already this year and we still have half of September, October, November and December to go where the cooler damper weather will be more conducive for the virus to thrive and spread in, plus flu season will start in that time range which means that for people who catch both Covid and the seasonal flu will likely be at much higher risk for an extremely difficult time trying to survive that combination.
Already the highest death rate compared to any other country in the world with the next closest country being Brazil 133,207 dead, followed by India in a distant third place at 82,091, Mexico at 71,049 and then a huge drop to fifth position for the UK at 41,664 deaths. There are even new masks available to mark this coming event called CovaFlu masks!
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