Pandemic threat? Anyone else concerned?

SouthernYankee

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In the early 1970’s I was working on my advance degrees in Physical Oceanography and Meteorology. I was doing field data collection on pollution and currents in the coastal waters on the North East US for my advisor, a PhD professor. After I did the data collection, I read the professors peer reviewed paper. The paper was pure garbage it did not match the collected at all. I questioned the paper to the professor, I was told that I did not understand, “The purpose of research is to get the next research grant”. I never completed my advance degree.

The question in science, is who is paying for the research and who is receiving the money. That will determine the results. Follow the money.
 

J Sigmo

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Just as another data point, of no statistical value, but perhaps interesting for its anecdotal amusement value:

My wife started having a severe headache around the 11th of November. She always has a lot of headaches, but this didn't respond to caffeine or anything. A few days later, a coworker of hers let her know that she had tested positive. Since my wife was feeling worse, I took her to be tested. It took three days to get her results, which were positive. I figured there was no way I wouldn't already have it, so we took no special precautions to isolate from each other. I did get it, too.

I'm 63, she's a few years younger. But she's overweight and semi-diabetic, so I figured she'd have a rougher go from it.

Since I've been following this thing since late in 2019, I already knew that Vitamin D3 was important, and we both already had been taking it for years, anyhow because we live in a northern state, and both of our doctors had advised us many years ago that living here, we needed to take it. They even test for it in annual blood testing around here.

Coincidentally, we also both already took Famotidine every day for heartburn, and had for a few years. We started making sure we each were getting 40milligrams of zinc back in late 2019 because of the Covid-19 information that was coming out.

When I took my wife to be tested, we got a pamphlet from the county health department that recommended a number of things. Even though there aren't any peer-reviewed double-blind studies to show the efficacy of these things, what they recommended were:

Melatonin: 0.3mg per day, increasing as tolerated to 2mg at night.
Vitamin D3: 1000-3000iu per day. Safe upper limit, without knowing your own tolerance is 4000iu per day.
Vitamin C: 500iu twice per day.
Quercetin: 250mg/day, use with caution in patients with hypothyroidism. Prolonged high dose can (rarely) cause hypothyroidism.
Zinc: 50-75mg/day. After one month, decrease to 30-50mg/day.
Famotidine: 20-40mg/day.

If you actually have the virus, and are symptomatic at home:

Melatonin: 6-12mg at night. If this causes worsening restless leg syndrome, decrease dosage.
Vitamin D3: 1000-3000iu per day. Safe upper limit, without knowing your own tolerance is 4000iu per day.
Vitamin C: 500iu twice per day.
Quercetin: 250-500mg/day, use with caution in patients with hypothyroidism. Prolonged high dose can (rarely) cause hypothyroidism.
Zinc: 75-100mg/day. After one month, decrease to 30-50mg/day.
Famotidine: 40mg TWICE/day. Decrease dose if decreased kidney function noted.
Aspirin (ASA): 81 to 325mg/day unless contraindicated.
Monitor blood oxygen level: Using pulse oximetry. Use index or middle finger. Remove fingernail polish from the finger, and warm extremities before measuring. Observe for 30-60 seconds. Readings that are consistently below 90% or are downtrending must be evaluated by medical professionals.

We already were taking 5000iu/day of Vitamin D3 on the recommendation of both of our doctors for years. It's dark and nasty in the winter here, and barring a lot of skiing or the like, people are always deficient in Vitamin D3, especially in the winter.

We were already taking some Famotidine for heartburn.

We had been taking Zinc.

Neither of us had been taking Melatonin, or Quercetin (Which I'd never even heard of before, but it's supposedly a "zinc ionophore", and helps Zinc to enter cells the same way that Hydroxychloroquin does). We hadn't been taking daily aspirin previously.

Once we started monitoring my wife's blood oxygen, it was low. So I called the local health department where they were managing the outbreak here, They said to take her to the emergency room right away, which I did. She was admitted, and kept for several days. During that time, they actually gave her Remdesivir and dexamethasone. The Remdesivir is administered in the hospital as an IV infusion. The dexamethasone is simply tablets, and they sent her home with a prescription which we filled, and she took for a week after her release.

While in the ER, they gave her oxygen, and she said that cured her headache almost instantly, which tells me that the headache was a result of low oxygen concentration. She is STILL on oxygen at home, and her O2 sat drops into the 80s when she is off of it for very long, but she is going without it at times to wean herself off of it, but wears it most of the time at home, and especially at night. My feeling is that she's had low O2 sat for years, or all of her life, especially when sleeping, and that's why she has often woken up with headaches. Sleep apnea is common in her family. So she might benefit from staying on it at night forever (sort of like CPAP, but often as or more effective).

From the Covid-19, she suffered from weakness and lack of balance, but all of that is slowly getting better.

I didn't have things as bad. I had a slight sensation similar to mild asthma, had a fever that came and went rapidly, and the sensations that a person has when they have a fever.

Other people who have had it have described the same thing with the fever. Measure 102-103, and then 15 minutes later, no fever whatsoever, and on and on. So I think that's a characteristic of this virus. I never felt all that bad. Really, no pain or coughing like others have reported. However, at the end of it (as it often the case when I'm getting over almost anything), I had typical cold symptoms. Plugged up, yet runny nose, sneezing for a few days. And it was then that I lost my sense of smell. My sense of taste was not affected, but my formerly very sensitive sense of smell has pretty much vanished.

It's been two months, and my sense of smell still hasn't recovered. I can smell some things when very concentrated, and oddly, some subtle smells fairly well like bread. But, for example, poop, onions, garlic, etc., are completely absent. I cut up some onions the other night, and while my eyes burned, I couldn't smell a thing, even with the onions held right under my nose. It's bizarre.

I do think it's getting a bit better, but very very slowly, and some smells are not improving at all.

I have had increased fatigue the whole time, but that's getting better as well, so I got off easy.

Anyhow, that information may be of some value, but is statistically insignificant.
 
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bigredfish

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SouthernYankee

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On vitamin D, the sun vitamin. There was a study done on the covid rate is Stockholm Sweden. there are a group of Muslin Somalis that make up less than 1% of the population, but make you 40% of the Covid cases. Why their diet, there clothes totally covered and they have dark skin. Dark skin does not absorb vitamin D as well as light skin.

 

Frankenscript

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Right On Cue For Biden, WHO Admits High-Cycle PCR Tests Produce COVID False Positives | ZeroHedge

None of this was for your health. It was to get rid of Orange Man Bad.
...now they will drop the cycle rates and you can watch the curve go negative... like magic... because the new magic man isn't the bad man and the masks he ordered worked!!!!!.

Disgusting liberal Democrat lies
A couple thoughts on this, while avoiding political discussion to the extent possible:

1. The standard of 40 cycles or thereabouts has been a worldwide standard used in most countries since the pandemic began and testing by PCR started. The US inherited this process from other countries. This suggests it's not something cooked up here in the US by a leftist agenda to effect regime change. Most of the world doesn't really care who our president is.

2. Most front line doctors I've talked to or read opinions from would prefer many false positives to a single false negative; false positives don't result in exposure to deadly diseases. Also, most "false positives" in this context aren't really false; they just indicate a past infection that may have run its course.

3. Even if we change the testing standard, it will only have a lowering impact on the number of cases, which is a statistic, not the number of sick people in the hospitals or the number of deaths. It won't effect the facts on the ground. Most people care about the deaths number much more than the cases number. And, lowering the stringency will mean there are more false negatives slipping through, leading to some increase in sickness and death.
 

SouthernYankee

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The only number that counts is dead. But the deaths as reported are miss reported.
90% of the deaths have comorbidity factors, in other word the people were already sick.
80% are over 65. Most have weak immune systems.
40% are in nursing homes, you do not go to a nursing home, to get better, it is were you go to die.

This is simply Charles Robert Darwin rules being applied,
 
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sebastiantombs

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An interesting video. I know, anecdotal, only one hospital being mentioned, yada, yada, yada. If it happens in one hospital you can take it to the bank that many many more are doing the same damn thing. As Rahm Emmanuel famously said "Don't let a good crisis go to waste", in this case make it worse.

 

David L

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Just as another data point, of no statistical value, but perhaps interesting for its anecdotal amusement value:

My wife started having a severe headache around the 11th of November. She always has a lot of headaches, but this didn't respond to caffeine or anything. A few days later, a coworker of hers let her know that she had tested positive. Since my wife was feeling worse, I took her to be tested. It took three days to get her results, which were positive. I figured there was no way I wouldn't already have it, so we took no special precautions to isolate from each other. I did get it, too.

I'm 63, she's a few years younger. But she's overweight and semi-diabetic, so I figured she'd have a rougher go from it.

Since I've been following this thing since late in 2019, I already knew that Vitamin D3 was important, and we both already had been taking it for years, anyhow because we live in a northern state, and both of our doctors had advised us many years ago that living here, we needed to take it. They even test for it in annual blood testing around here.

Coincidentally, we also both already took Famotidine every day for heartburn, and had for a few years. We started making sure we each were getting 40milligrams of zinc back in late 2019 because of the Covid-19 information that was coming out.

When I took my wife to be tested, we got a pamphlet from the county health department that recommended a number of things. Even though there aren't any peer-reviewed double-blind studies to show the efficacy of these things, what they recommended were:

Melatonin: 0.3mg per day, increasing as tolerated to 2mg at night.
Vitamin D3: 1000-3000iu per day. Safe upper limit, without knowing your own tolerance is 4000iu per day.
Vitamin C: 500iu twice per day.
Quercetin: 250mg/day, use with caution in patients with hypothyroidism. Prolonged high dose can (rarely) cause hypothyroidism.
Zinc: 50-75mg/day. After one month, decrease to 30-50mg/day.
Famotidine: 20-40mg/day.

If you actually have the virus, and are symptomatic at home:

Melatonin: 6-12mg at night. If this causes worsening restless leg syndrome, decrease dosage.
Vitamin D3: 1000-3000iu per day. Safe upper limit, without knowing your own tolerance is 4000iu per day.
Vitamin C: 500iu twice per day.
Quercetin: 250-500mg/day, use with caution in patients with hypothyroidism. Prolonged high dose can (rarely) cause hypothyroidism.
Zinc: 75-100mg/day. After one month, decrease to 30-50mg/day.
Famotidine: 40mg TWICE/day. Decrease dose if decreased kidney function noted.
Aspirin (ASA): 81 to 325mg/day unless contraindicated.
Monitor blood oxygen level: Using pulse oximetry. Use index or middle finger. Remove fingernail polish from the finger, and warm extremities before measuring. Observe for 30-60 seconds. Readings that are consistently below 90% or are downtrending must be evaluated by medical professionals.

We already were taking 5000iu/day of Vitamin D3 on the recommendation of both of our doctors for years. It's dark and nasty in the winter here, and barring a lot of skiing or the like, people are always deficient in Vitamin D3, especially in the winter.

We were already taking some Famotidine for heartburn.

We had been taking Zinc.

Neither of us had been taking Melatonin, or Quercetin (Which I'd never even heard of before, but it's supposedly a "zinc ionophore", and helps Zinc to enter cells the same way that Hydroxychloroquin does). We hadn't been taking daily aspirin previously.

Once we started monitoring my wife's blood oxygen, it was low. So I called the local health department where they were managing the outbreak here, They said to take her to the emergency room right away, which I did. She was admitted, and kept for several days. During that time, they actually gave her Remdesivir and dexamethasone. The Remdesivir is administered in the hospital as an IV infusion. The dexamethasone is simply tablets, and they sent her home with a prescription which we filled, and she took for a week after her release.

While in the ER, they gave her oxygen, and she said that cured her headache almost instantly, which tells me that the headache was a result of low oxygen concentration. She is STILL on oxygen at home, and her O2 sat drops into the 80s when she is off of it for very long, but she is going without it at times to wean herself off of it, but wears it most of the time at home, and especially at night. My feeling is that she's had low O2 sat for years, or all of her life, especially when sleeping, and that's why she has often woken up with headaches. Sleep apnea is common in her family. So she might benefit from staying on it at night forever (sort of like CPAP, but often as or more effective).

From the Covid-19, she suffered from weakness and lack of balance, but all of that is slowly getting better.

I didn't have things as bad. I had a slight sensation similar to mild asthma, had a fever that came and went rapidly, and the sensations that a person has when they have a fever.

Other people who have had it have described the same thing with the fever. Measure 102-103, and then 15 minutes later, no fever whatsoever, and on and on. So I think that's a characteristic of this virus. I never felt all that bad. Really, no pain or coughing like others have reported. However, at the end of it (as it often the case when I'm getting over almost anything), I had typical cold symptoms. Plugged up, yet runny nose, sneezing for a few days. And it was then that I lost my sense of smell. My sense of taste was not affected, but my formerly very sensitive sense of smell has pretty much vanished.

It's been two months, and my sense of smell still hasn't recovered. I can smell some things when very concentrated, and oddly, some subtle smells fairly well like bread. But, for example, poop, onions, garlic, etc., are completely absent. I cut up some onions the other night, and while my eyes burned, I couldn't smell a thing, even with the onions held right under my nose. It's bizarre.

I do think it's getting a bit better, but very very slowly, and some smells are not improving at all.

I have had increased fatigue the whole time, but that's getting better as well, so I got off easy.

Anyhow, that information may be of some value, but is statistically insignificant.
So can I ask each of your blood types? I was informed by our family expert :), that blood types matter. I am A+ and my wife is A-, apparently we are screwed since we both have A type blood, according to our Son-in-Law expert LOL We still love him even though he gave us a death sentence ;)

EDIT: Oh and I am sorry for your infections but thankful for your recoveries...
 

Frankenscript

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The only number that counts is dead. But the deaths as reported are miss reported.
90% of the deaths have comorbidity factors, in other word the people were already sick.
80% are over 65. Most have weak immune systems.
40% are in nursing homes, you do not go to a nursing home, to get better, it is were you go to die.

This is simplify Charles Robert Darwin rules being applied,
Not really. The most common comorbidities are respiratory and circulatory/vascular issues caused by COVID.

True, most of the dead were old to start off with, that's a major factor.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk
 

SouthernYankee

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TO BAD I am old and not dead :) I have no comorbidity factors, 72 yo and no meds. I am not over weight, 5'11" at 172 lb.
Blood type : A-

I think a big factor is that I was sick as a kid, Mumps, measles and chicken pox, a good immune system. I also teach 3YO Sunday school, (cancels since April 2019) talk about a germ factory. :)
 

tigerwillow1

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I also teach 3YO Sunday school, (cancels since April 2019) talk about a germ factory.
Just about every time we see the grandkids I come down with something the next week. Their bugs spread a lot easier than covid. I guess the difference is that they generally don't end with hospitalization or death.
 

sebastiantombs

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I'm 72, too (is that a two two?). Not overweight, 5-11 and 160 pounds, but do have a co-morbidity. On the other hand that co-morbidity is being treated with a therapy that ramps my immune system up, plus I had measles, chicken pox and what not as a kid. Add in I've been taking zinc and vitamin D for years and I think I'm as resistant to it as possible under the circumstances. To my knowledge neither my wife or I have been in contact with anyone that is infected, so far anyway.
 

David L

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Just about every time we see the grandkids I come down with something the next week. Their bugs spread a lot easier than covid. I guess the difference is that they generally don't end with hospitalization or death.
I am with you, my son was in a daycare prior to school, I was sick all the time with him bringing things to us, now a grandfather and on our third grandchild, we went through the same sicknesses, now our 5 year old started pre-K a few weeks ago, I am now once again sick. No not with fever, just cold like symptoms. I understand it is winter but what happened to Nov. & Dec., he was around us those months but was at home with his parents. Once kids get around kids, now that is a the true meaning of super spreader :) I would say those around kids will eventually have a stronger immune system over time. I bet I have so many different type of antibodies in me I am a walking medical encyclopedia :) But what do I know, cough, sniff, cough...
 

tigerwillow1

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Now that Trump is gone, things are improving at a breakneck pace:
  • New test guidelines will lower the case counts
  • Amazon will help with getting the vaccine out
  • It's so much better that CNN doesn't have to spread fear as much:
cnn.png
(We don't get CNN so I can't personally verify this one).

An as a bonus, some of the Arizona votes can now be looked at.
Maricopa County is preparing for a new audit of election results. Here's how it might go

I know this last amazing coincidence isn't directly related to covid. For so many things it has been a struggle to decide if it belongs in the covid or political thread. Would be a lot easier if it wasn't that the main purpose of covid reaction and reporting was to hammer Trump.
 
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