updates

Jan 15, 2022, 8:44 AM

Interesting tidbits from an MD friend who sends out regular updates...

a. Night sweats: Doctors have noted that patients with the Omicron variant have scratchy sore throats, no loss of smell or taste, but sometimes have night sweats that often aren't associated with a fever.

b. Early false negative rapid antigen tests with positive PCR tests: A small (20 cases) study found that on days 0 and 1 following a positive PCR test, all of the antigen tests were negative, even though in 28 of the 30 cases levels of virus detected by the PCR were high enough to infect others, and had done so in at least 4 cases. So these rapid tests don't catch people during their first couple of days after infection.

c. Increased non-COVID deaths, with and without infection: Deaths among Americans aged 18 to 49 increased by more than 40% in the 12 months ending October 2021 compared to the same period in 2018-2019, according to CDC death certificate data. The percentages vary considerably from state to state, but the majority of deaths in most states was not from COVID-19. The mortality increase was most notable in the 30-39 age group; deaths increased by almost 45%, with only a third involving COVID. The percentage of COVID-related deaths did increase with age however. There were about 6,000 excess pneumonia death not involving COVID-19 in this age group. Drug overdoses, most of which were from drugs smuggled from China through Mexico, accounted for more than 100,000 deaths. Bottom line is that with fewer people catching the virus one would expect an overall decline in emergency room visits, but the opposite is happening. Treatment delays for abdominal pain, respiratory problems, blood clots, heart conditions, and suicide attempts, as well as drug overdoses, appear to be causative factors.

d. Flap over stats involving comorbidities: CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Wolensky was reported as stating on CNN that over 75% of COVID-19 deaths are in people with at least 4 comorbidities (e.g. age, diabetes, immunosuppression, chronic diseases of the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and neurological disorders), causing many to believe that only those who are already very sick will die of COVID-19. "What the Director meant to say" was that of the roughly 1.2 million people vaccinated between December 2020 and October 2021 2,246, or just under 0.2%, of these had breakthrough infections (she didn't use this particular term). Of these, 189, or 8%, had severe disease; 36, or 20%, died. Of the 36 deaths, 28 had four or more of the diseases listed above. What Dr. Wolensky didn't state was how many of the 1.2 million had four or more comorbidities to begin with, which would have given a different and less severe picture of the effects of the virus on seriously ill people. It is far from true that most patients with COVID and comorbidities die; most do not, as the unedited remarks of Dr. Wolensky bring out. I don't always agree with Dr. Wolensky, but in this case she was taken out of context. The CDC informed CNN subsequently that "in 91% of all deaths that mention COVID-19, COVID-19 is listed as the underlying cause of death", which is what begins the chain of events ultimately leading to death. As a rule, healthier people survive longer than those already sick in most diseases, from cancer to COVID.

Will antioxidants help in the treatment of COVID-19?:

Researchers from Ben Gurion University were surprised to find out that significant mitochondrial gene expression occurred in the blood of COVID-19 patients, rather than in the lung. COVID-19 is most likely an immune and respiratory condition, not just pulmonary. Abnormal mitochondrial function and immune disruption, e.g. as in a cytokine storm, may occur before respiratory issues develop. The lead researcher speculated that supplements, particularly antioxidants, available OTC might reduce the signals generated by the mitochondria in cytokine storm. Dysfunction of the immune system may lead to both the cytokine storm characteristic of COVID-19, and also lung disease. More research is obviously needed in this area.

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Maybe because hospitals have been admitting a higher %

Re: Maybe because hospitals have been admitting a higher %

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