Good morning, folks. I hope you are healthy and hale wherever you are from.
I have been asking for quite some time now about what people think about the covid-19 outbreak. I started 7 weeks ago, when the deaths were about
2500 people in the US, and have been reasking with updated information every two weeks ever since. link to last thread[1] with all the rest contained
therein.
I am seeking to know what people think. I want to know if your mind has changed. Why it has or has not. I am also providing updated information
with links. I want to reemphasize the main stream media has been spinning this since day one. This has been done on all sides. Disinformation has
been horrible and people have received a grave disservice as a result. All of them - and I *DO* mean *ALL* - have been more concerned about their
political team rather than the people who are being sickened and killed by covid-19.
Let's update some information here before proceeding.
As of the time of posting this morning, a total of 1,675,880 cases of Covid-19 have been announced by the various states and counties in the US. A
total of 14,446,617 tests have been conducted. There have been a total of 99,003 deaths since the outbreak has reached American shores[2]. For
confirmed cases, the US currently has 30+% of the total reported[3].
We know China has under reported their cases. We also know Russia has been doing the same. Other nations have been accused of claiming other health
issues were the cause of death. Here in the US, some states have been accused of manipulating their data as well[4]. For that matter, each state
seems to have different reporting standards making accurate information hard to tell. As I stated before, the data on who is recovered from the virus
and who is an active case is wildly wonky from state to state.
Since the first case in the US, we have had a 'covid season' of 125 days. This means on average, we have had over 792 deaths per day since the
first case was reported. In contrast, since everyone likes to compare to the flu, on the high end for the estimates for deaths has been 62,000 this
year[5] with an average of 337 deaths per day. Flu season only lasted 187 this year. It was rather short. It has been reported the reason is the
lockdowns and social distancing actually caused the flu to be stopped in its tracks[6]. Since I first asked, there has been almost 97,000 deaths in
the last two months.
The science associated with covid has been advancing as well. There have been disappointing and exciting developments.
Sorrento, the biopharma company, is reporting in a lab setting they have an artificial antibody that 100% blocks the covid virus[7]. This is the
very first step with developing a new drug. Animal and human trials are still down the road. Lots of things die along the way in development,
so don't be surprised if this does, too. it is also NOT a vaccine and will not grant immunity. It might be treatment and 'cure.'
Secondly - referring back to the original media manipulation thread - the largest study[8] ever on hydroxychloroquine with 96,000 patients. 15,000
were given hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine and the other 81,000 were not. Those given hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine were far more likely to die
than those who were not: 18% died who received hydroxychloroquine; 16.4% for those who took chloroquine; and 9% for those who took nothing in the
control group. The study is here[9] and supports the results in the previously published work in the New England Journal of Medicine[10]. In some
ways, that should not be a surprise: hydroxychloroquine's primary use is as a immunosupressant. This means it trashes your immune system on purpose?
Why would anyone take this, you might ask? Well, it is useful against autimmune diseases, ones where your own immune system has gone hyperactive and
attacks the person's own body. These are ones like lupus. It is also used for treating malaria as it kills the parasite. That parasite is NOT a
virus though and functions and infects the body rather differently.
Thirdly - and this is old, but not mentioned here - the covid strains that infected NYC actually came from Europe, not China[11]. To be sure, the
virus did start in China. However, the virus spread from there to Europe and from Europe to NYC. They can tell this based on the mutations in the
virus and then compare them[12].
And speaking of mutations, in a
preprint, a not yet peer reviewed paper, Los Alamos National Laboratory (yes, that one) in collaboration with
others found the dominant strain of covid has mutated to become more infectious than the original[13]. This is not unexpected, if unwelcome. You
could easily compare it to the longer legs in Cane Toads[14].
Finally, there appears to be a reason why men are dying so much more than women from covid[15]. Men apparently have higher levels of an enzyme in
their blood stream that allows the virus to penetrate the cell membrane and infect the cells.
As we are about to end the lock down and venture forth, have you, oh ATSer - wise, foolish or sophomoric - changed your mind?
1.
www.abovetopsecret.com...
2.
www.worldometers.info...
3.
www.worldometers.info...
4.
www.floridatoday.com...
5.
www.cdc.gov...
6.
www.nature.com...
7.
techcrunch.com...
8.
www.bbc.com...
9.
www.thelancet.com...(20)31180-6/fulltext
10.
www.nejm.org...
11.
www.mountsinai.org...
rces-pr
12.
www.pnas.org...
13.
www.biorxiv.org...
14.
www.nature.com...