Covid 3/9/21 | COVID 19 Information Page

Covid19mathblog.com

Technical issues leading to delay of report.

Food for thought – this commentary expresses the concerns made in the beginning as China "lead" resulted in everyone else following the same path of quarantine – regardless of the society differences – https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1406508/coronavirus-pandemic-chronic-disease-health-care-comment

"WHO’s change in guidance to a full lockdown was all based in China’s success in containing the virus, essentially in just one city, where it originated; Wuhan. With hindsight that strategy seems all the more extraordinary when we compare the death toll of China with the staggering numbers in the UK and the colossal half a million in the US. As one prominent Chinese broadcast journalist, who now lives in London, told me, what China did was never going to work in the west. “It was a military style operation in China,” she said. “ Every single person was tagged and monitored, and all contacts of those testing positive for the virus tracked and traced. That is why it worked.” British values, cultural history and democratic system did not allow this to happen. Of course, proponents of the UK approach will cite the comparatively tiny mortality rates of countries such as New Zealand and Australia. But with such sparsely populated countries, a complete shut down of the borders and an effective trace and track system made it much easier to stop the virus in its tracks. In India, on the other hand, although in principle a lockdown was implemented, it didn’t get even close to the stringency of the UK.

Despite being the largest and most densely populated democratic countries in the world with over a billion people, most of whom live in abject poverty, the total death tole pales in comparison to western countries.

My relatives and friends in Delhi inform me that people are already out and about, eating in restaurants, shopping in the malls, going to the cinema.

In our attempt to protect the NHS and save lives, the life-saving has at best been marginal but the harms of lockdown are indisputable and in my view catastrophic.

The ONS estimates more than 200,000 collateral deaths. Fear-based messaging led to vulnerable people avoiding doctors for heart attacks and early cancer diagnosis and treatment. "

"But we mustn’t ignore the root causes of what led to this dreadful situation in the first place, the dire baseline health of the population.

Approximately 80 percent of UK adults have excess levels of body fat, putting them at risk of chronic disease and increased risk of dying from covid.

A recent analysis is JAMA suggested 63 percent of deaths in the United States were preventable if the population was healthier to begin with."

Another potential solution to Covid – via treatment similar to Tamiflu – https://www.merck.com/news/ridgeback-biotherapeutics-and-merck-announce-preliminary-findings-from-a-phase-2a-trial-of-investigational-covid-19-therapeutic-molnupiravir/

“The primary efficacy objective was reduction in time to viral negativity measured by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis of nasopharyngeal swabs. Periodic samples were collected for virologic analysis. Of the 182 participants with an evaluable nasopharyngeal swab, 42% (78/182) showed detectable levels of cultured virus at baseline. The full study results remain blinded and will be shared at a later date, as they become available. Other Phase 2 and Phase 2/3 studies are underway.

Today’s presentation described findings from the secondary endpoint of reduction in time (days) to negativity of infectious virus isolation in nasopharyngeal swabs from participants with symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, as determined by isolation in Vero cell line culture. At day 5, there was a reduction (nominal p=0.001, not controlled for multiplicity) in positive viral culture in subjects who received molnupiravir (all doses) compared to placebo: 0% (0/47) for molnupiravir and 24% (6/25) for placebo.”

“Molnupiravir (EIDD-2801/MK-4482) is an investigational, orally-bioavailable form of a potent ribonucleoside analog that inhibits the replication of multiple RNA viruses including SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19. Molnupiravir has been shown to be active in several models of SARS-CoV-2, including for prophylaxis, treatment, and prevention of transmission, as well as SARS-CoV-1 and MERS. EIDD-2801 was invented at Drug Innovations at Emory (DRIVE), LLC, a not-for-profit biotechnology company wholly owned by Emory University.”

First time US is not leading deaths and under 1K – Brazil leader. Way to go Biden?

Montana leads confirmation! TX leads death