I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and I take Plaquinil - when I had my RA check up last week, my doc said that he had to add the diagnosis to each prescription because people were requesting it from their doctors.
When Trump first trumpeted the drug, my pharmacist called and told me they were filling my script early because they were expecting a run on the drug. I haven’t had any issues with supply yet.
I have to have a retina check each year. 10% of the folks who take it for 10 years or more develop irreversible retina damage. It happens slowly so the annual checks hope to catch it early.
This is great. I used to leave the empty shopping cart right in the middle of one of the driving lanes in the parking lot just so I could see one of my (more troublesome) foster girls flip out, return it and scold me. Every. Single. Time. And, sure enough, she’s grown up to become a delightful young woman. Strong parenting, FTW…
One stat I have looked for is mortality rates in April 2019 and 2018 vs the deaths in April 2020. I think the delta would give you a better picture of COVID. I think the deaths are likely worse than we are being reported. I think that info would be good to compare how certain states or countries are addressing the issue.
This is how epidemiologists will eventually figure the complete death toll. This way it takes into account the deaths from related issues such as stress-induced heart attacks, suicide, other illnesses that went untreated and early COVID-19 victims who were misdiagnosed as flu.
In fact, they’re already doing it and the “excess deaths” over the norm indicates a “vast underestimation” of the true cost in lives of this pandemic.
‘Excess deaths’ suggest a much higher COVID-19 death toll than current count
Ohio’s COVID-19 death count might be a vast underestimation of the virus’ true reach, data from the CDC suggests.
Researchers with the federal agency calculated Ohio’s “excess deaths” — the difference between expected deaths based on historical trends and the number of deaths expected in the state when all death certificate data is in.
Nearly 1,500 Ohioans have died from COVID-19 as of Wednesday, according to a count of lab-confirmed and probable cases published by the Ohio Department of Health. However, in late-April and early May, the CDC data shows significantly more Ohioans have been dying this year than in years’ past, and the state’s COVID-19 death tally alone doesn’t account for the gap.
For instance, in the week ending May 2, about 2,350 Ohioans die in an average year. The CDC expects when all death certificate data comes in, the week’s death toll will be closer to 3,650 this year.
So the count at the time of the article was 1500 in total, but they had 1,300 “excess deaths” in just the week of May 2 alone. The official count for that week (according to the NYT tracker) is 303; so that’s a potential undercount of 25%.
Can Ohio’s death toll really be 4x the current official number? Jesus wept!
There’s some relatively good news in the last couple of days. Forgive the lack of links but you can get more detail from the Google Machine if you want.
There MAY be some seasonality to the virus. There are some indications that the virus spreads less efficiently in warm, humid weather. Not to the extent of the influenza virus, but some summer reduction. Also, masks are very effective at reducing the spread. The greater than expected use of masks has helped offset the increased mobility in the last few days. Finally, South Korean officials have determined that those patients that re-test positive after recovery and a negative test are NOT contagious and are most likely immune. They are shedding virus fragments, not active virus.
The IHME model was dialed back slightly to 143 K deaths due to increased mask use.
Other good news is that a small, pilot test group has shown a successful response to a trial vaccine, producing a defensive response to the virus while exhibiting no side-effects to the vaccine itself.
Now, this test group was 8 people who, presumably, are fabulously healthy. How it will pan out when the sample size is expanded to include not-so healthy subjects, only time will tell. However, if the vaccine continues to have good results from the increasing test groups, it could be ready for deployment by year-end.
On the downside, we may need it because the WHO is now speculating that COVID-19 may be endemic; meaning that it’s here to stay (like HIV). We will need to have ways to deal with it one way or another.
I didn’t include that because of my innate skepticism. With such a tiny sample size I’m surprised there was any announcement. I suspect it was more about short term stock price than actual medical breakthrough. Still…better than nothin’.
It’s part of the FDA approval process. Moving from a smaller sample size to the next stage of human trials to include a larger sample size is definitely something every medical device/drug manufacturer celebrates. But, it’s still a long way from becoming an approved vaccine. The vast majority of medical devices/drugs in these early phases don’t pan out, but it’s still a necessary step if a vaccine is going to be reached.
But yeah, immediately announcing an IPO seems cynical, but also every startup medical device/drug manufacturer uses the success of an FDA stage as a basis for fundraising.
There have been breakouts in Brazil and Nigeria’s second largest city and Mexico is having Mexico is having trouble too. This makes me think the warm weather is not going to save us by itself (and I don’t think anyone thought that seriously).
I’ve been reading about Japan’s public health center’s which were set up in the 1930s for tuberculosis. They act as a “fire department” for epidemics and there are hundreds of them in the country which monitor flu, asthma, etc. I’m sure the CDC tries to do similar things, but obviously not as effective.
Trump Administration to End National Guard COVID Deployments One Day Before GI Bill Benefits Kick In
In 2017, Donald Trump signed something called the “Forever GI Bill” at his company’s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. The law expanded the educational benefits that had been made available under the “Post-9/11 GI Bill,” which was passed in 2008, and which supplemented various benefits that can be traced back to the original 1944 GI Bill. The White House would later tout the “Forever GI Bill” as an example of how Trump was “working tirelessly to provide the benefits and services that our veterans deserve.”
In late March, the Trump administration authorized the deployment of members of the National Guard to help local authorities conduct coronavirus tests, set up field hospitals, and perform other critical public health tasks that carried a risk of infection. More than 40,000 service members have been deployed in total, but Politico now reports that they will all be recalled on June 24—one day before the first group sent into the field would reach the 90-day active-duty minimum that’s required to qualify for GI Bill education benefits and for a retirement benefit that was also created in 2008.
A federal judge opened a path for a massive expansion in absentee voting in Texas by ordering Tuesday that all state voters, regardless of age, qualify for mail-in ballots during the coronavirus pandemic.
Days after a two-hour preliminary injunction hearing in San Antonio, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery agreed with individual Texas voters and the Texas Democratic Party that voters would face irreparable harm if existing age eligibility rules for voting by mail remain in place for elections held while the coronavirus remains in wide circulation. Under his order, which the Texas attorney general said he would immediately appeal, voters under the age of 65 who would ordinarily not qualify for mail-in ballots would now be eligible.
Biery’s ruling covers Texas voters “who seek to vote by mail to avoid transmission of the virus.”
There is no evidence in that data that you would continue to produce antibodies if your vaccine-induced sickness goes away. They may go hand-in-hand, a life none would choose to lead. And Moderna is a science-lite enterprise as these types of companies go, once widely compared to Theranos.