>"“Remdesivir doesn’t work at all, as far as I can tell, or has only a minor effect. It is comparable to Tamiflu and maybe not even as good,” William Haseltine, a scientist who has spent decades studying viruses and helped lead the U.S. government response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, said."<
1- hydroxychloroquine 200mg twice a day for 5 days
2- azithromycin 500mg once a day for five days
3- zinc sulfate 220mg once a day for five days
CONCLUSION – TREAT AS EARLY AND AS AGGRESSIVELY AS POSSIBLE IN THE OUTPATIENT SETTING
Respectfully,
Dr. Vladimir (Zev) Zelenko"
But Zelenko treated his patients _early_; he didn't wait until they had pneumonia or other lung problems to administer the triad of drugs.
The recent studies that "disprove hydroxychloroquine/chloroquin" differ from Zelenko's suggested treatment in that:
a) they select patients where disease is in an advanced stage, i.e., in in the lungs and/or pneumonia/SARS/ARDS has developed,
b) they don't administer zinc at all: they may not administer azithromycin,
c) these studies usually _overdose_ the hydroxychloroquine/chloroquin. Note that Zelenko used only 200mg hydroxychloroquine twice a day.
Zelenko makes it clear that his goal was to defeat the virus early (ergo the zinc sulfate + hydroxychloroquine as a zinc ionophore, which allows the zinc zn++ ion to move from the bloodstream into each cell's cytoplasm where viral replication takes polace.
Zelenko also clearly notes (in other places) that the azithromycin was a trick taken from ICU doctors, a drug intended to _prevent_ opportunistic bacterial infection consequent to the virus damaging lung tissue.
Waiting for pheumonia/SARS/ARDS to develop before deploying azithromycin or other antibiotics should be considered medical negligence.
jimmyswimmy says "I've seen no studies backing up the use of zinc for anything related to COVID-19."
It would be very early for posts specific to Covid-19. However that was not the claim: the claim was, verbatim,
"A zinc tablet (10-80 mg) dissolved slowly in the mouth, lavaging the throat and nose, while lying down will cease coronaviral replication on most of the surfaces of the upper respiratory system. Zinc sprays also work. This must be done within the first 3-4 days of infection with covid-19."
Covid-19 is a corona virus and, like all corona viruses, ceases to replicate in the presence of high zinc levels on the epitheleal surfaces. There are many studies re zinc and the way it halts viral replication:
As I believe I stated ealier, I made no claims as to mechanism.
I wish to point out that probably most of your information about chloroquine is based on the treatment of other diseases, and likely specifically malaria. It is by no means clear that the dose required for malaria is the same as the dose required for Covid-19, which indeed may be an order of magnitude or more less. Time will tell.
As for presenting symptoms, once again I believe this to be take from the malaria playbook. Researchers right now are testing chloroquine for prophylaxis (prevention) as well as treatment, _before_ symptoms present (certainly before serious symptoms present).
What I'm saying is that it is a different ailment and the protocols (and restrictions as to timing) for malaria may, indeed, probably do not apply.
When people with Covid-19 develop a cough and fever, Wilson says this is a result of the infection reaching the respiratory tree – the air passages that conduct air between the lungs and the outside.
He says: “The lining of the respiratory tree becomes injured, causing inflammation. This in turn irritates the nerves in the lining of the airway. Just a speck of dust can stimulate a cough.
“But if this gets worse, it goes past just the lining of the airway and goes to the gas exchange units, which are at the end of the air passages.
“If they become infected they respond by pouring out inflammatory material into the air sacs that are at the bottom of our lungs.”
If the air sacs then become inflamed, Wilson says this causes an “outpouring of inflammatory material [fluid and inflammatory cells] into the lungs and we end up with pneumonia.”
He says lungs that become filled with inflammatory material are unable to get enough oxygen to the bloodstream, reducing the body’s ability to take on oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide.
“That’s the usual cause of death with severe pneumonia,” he says.
"
The last 3 paragraphs are a description of the "cytokine storm".
Heard of Google, bro? It's settled fact that the covid-19 pneumonia is a result of a "cytochine storm". Always like to lead off with a lancet article, to lance the boil:
Then we have a treatment (i.e., zinc gluconate + chloroquine):
A zinc tablet (10-80 mg) dissolved slowly in the mouth, lavaging the throat and nose, while lying down will cease coronaviral replication on most of the surfaces of the upper respiratory system. Zinc sprays also work. This must be done within the first 3-4 days of infection with covid-19.
The covid-19 virus' usual course is to first infect the eye, nose and/or throat and then, after ~3 days, move down into the lungs.
If chloroquine (mg) stops the virus in the bloodstream then the combination of (dissolved zinc in mouth + chloroquine pill (up to 500 mg of chloroquine per day) should slow (if not stop completely) the virus, allowing time to clear the virus from the body without raising an excessive immune response ("cytokine storm"). But this treatment must be done within 3-4 days of contracting covid-19.
DIY on zinc - There is an entire industry of antiviral zinc sprays, lozenges and pills. Zinc stops viral replication deader than your prefrontal lobes:
Whoa! Put the flag down! If you look at my history in my profile you'll see that I _anticipated_ your questions about the chloroquine phosphate studies but now been provided enough information so that I do not doubt that chloroqine phosphate is a very good treatment (in conjunction with zinc).
Some links for Chloroquine phosphate:
"Breakthrough: Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of COVID-19 associated pneumonia in clinical studies":
L.A.Times article with links (feel free to chase the links yourself) that gives more detail about the above paper cited:
"A more unorthodox remedy being tested against the coronavirus in China is chloroquine.
The drug is intended to treat malaria, a condition caused by a parasite transmitted through a mosquito bite. A limited number of studies suggest the drug can work against SARS. In laboratory tests, it kept COVID-19 from spreading by blocking its method of infecting cells, according to a report last week in the journal Cell Research."
The Chinese source re chloroquine, was posted on ycombinator by sp332 3 hours ago (I quote him below):
"This summarizes the results of a bunch of trials that were run in parallel in China."
You can do your own search for information on the effects of zinc on viruses and in particular corona viruses - it's old story (dating back to circa 1970s at least), the results have created a entire industry of zinc-related products (zicam et al).
Then we have a treatment (i.e., zinc gluconate + chloroquine):
A zinc tablet (10-80 mg) dissolved slowly in the mouth, lavaging the throat and nose, while lying down will cease coronaviral replication on most of the surfaces of the upper respiratory system. Zinc sprays also work. This must be done within the first 3-4 days of infection with covid-19.
The covid-19 virus' usual course is to first infect the eye, nose and/or throat and then, after ~3 days, move down into the lungs.
If chloroquine (mg) stops the virus in the bloodstream then the combination of (dissolved zinc in mouth + chloroquine pill (up to 500 mg of chloroquine per day) should slow (if not stop completely) the virus, allowing time to clear the virus from the body without raising an excessive immune response ("cytokine storm"). But this treatment must be done within 3-4 days of contracting covid-19.
Opposing statement by a Ghanian doctor and director of public health:
"Dr. Badu Sarkodie, the Director of Public Health, Ghana Health Service (GHS), says they have no evidence that Chloroquine Phosphate 250mg is an effective treatment of the flu-like coronavirus (COVID-19).
He was reacting to claims on social media that Chloroquine Phosphate 250mg had been found by French and Chinese doctors to be effective for treatment of the virus.
Dr. Sarkodie in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said although the claim sounded promising, the GHS had not had any efficacy clinical trial to confirm that.
They could therefore not make any recommendation for the use of the drug to treat the virus.
"I cannot dispute the claim so the person saying this should provide more information because we have not sighted any publication to this effect," he added."
wonderwonder says> "There is no leadership on this issue."
There is an abundance of leadership: however, in many instances the leadership is unnecessary and/or ineffectual. One underlying problem is that those of us brought up as political science majors think they should, indeed, _must_ do something, anything! Better that they wait, watch, proceed with caution and steer within their legal limits.
wonderwonder says> "Health leaders are urging isolation while at the same time elected leaders from a certain party are going on TV and twitter and urging people to go out to restaurants and bars."
Here you paint with a broad brush, smearing all Republicans because of the statements/actions of a handful. Shame, shame. And if those few truly believe that the situation is not as bad as you believe, well then, what would you do? Incarcerate them? Is it not better to merely correct or chastise those who are wrong rather than use them as an instrument to slur millions of innocent people?
wonderwonder says> "thousands are dying in Europe".
It is about one and one half thousand dead right now. More will die of course. "Thousands"? Why exaggerate so? The situation is bad, by why alarm when alarm does no good, indeed harms?
wonderwonder says> "With no captain is anyone surprised the ship appears to be drifting? Pence appears to be doing his best but he is clearly handcuffed..
Vague, poetic, and simply wrong. All those who know what to do are doing it ASAP. Pence is handcuffed because he is the vice president and has no assigned tasks other than what the President allows. He's a backup drive for the President: if the President dies Pence will be plugged in and powered up. Until then he'd be foolish to take a pro-active role.
wonderwonder says> " there is literally zero true planning going on. ".
Everybody who _can_ plan is planning. There is likely too much planning and not enough paying attention to what is in front of us. You are not privy to the planning (probably for good reason - people will take advantage of such situations to make themselves rich or even, dare I say, gain some obscure political advantage!-). "*
I could go on but I've made my point. Better to condense your political views into a post 1/5 the length, omitting the misleading and/or false parts. Sadly, when i reread the post, I find little that does not mislead. You are clearly literate; you can pen a sentence well; you can do much better.
The article states:" We therefore hypothesise[sic] that diabetes and hypertension treatment with ACE2-stimulating drugs increases the risk of developing severe and fatal COVID-19."
From the paper you cannot conclude that, in general, "Ibuprofen may increase the risk of Covid-19 complications ", because the paper applies to people with hypertension and/or diabetes.
Nonetheless, for other reasons, it has been recommended that one take paracetamol (acetominophen, tylenol) instead of ibuprofen or naproxen for Covid-19: