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I hope you don't remember the actual procedure. Lol. When I had one I told the nurse that gave me the drugs to put you in "twilight land" or whatever that "I was a bigger dude and she was probably gonna need to double that dose up." She just laughed at me and we started turning the corner to go down the hallway to the OR. The next thing I know I woke up in recovery. Just the way I WANTED to remember that procedure.
yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com
I was just at the doctor yesterday for my annual check-up. Everybody who was actually interacting directly with patients (my doctor, her nurse, the guy who drew my blood) were wearing masks. Almost nobody else was, including the receptionists. There were just a single-digit number of masked patients, but I have no idea what's up with those folks -- for all I know they're actually sick and contagious and/or immunocompromised somehow, and of course it makes sense for those people to mask up when they come in for care.
That you know of.
As usual, great info from YLE. This time on nasal vaccines
Hype or hope? Nasal COVID-19 vaccines
Five billion dollars was just allocated to Operation Next Gen with one goal: speed the creation of next-generation COVID-19 vaccines and therapies, including nasal (mucosal) vaccines. I advocated for this at the White House, but it’s going to be a hard road. Here’s why.
As usual, great info from YLE. This time on nasal vaccines
Hype or hope? Nasal COVID-19 vaccines
Five billion dollars was just allocated to Operation Next Gen with one goal: speed the creation of next-generation COVID-19 vaccines and therapies, including nasal (mucosal) vaccines. I advocated for this at the White House, but it’s going to be a hard road. Here’s why.
Don’t know anything about them, but I’m reluctant to get too excited about any topical microbicide. Almost always, there are unintended consequences of their use. For one, they tend to kill other stuff besides the intended targets, namely your healthy microbiome. And there may be adverse effects involving sense of smell/taste (probably less likely). Plus delivering stuff to mucosal surface at appropriate concentrations is a challenge.As usual, great info from YLE. This time on nasal vaccines
Hype or hope? Nasal COVID-19 vaccines
Five billion dollars was just allocated to Operation Next Gen with one goal: speed the creation of next-generation COVID-19 vaccines and therapies, including nasal (mucosal) vaccines. I advocated for this at the White House, but it’s going to be a hard road. Here’s why.
Of interest in the Comments section (to aid searching: posted by Nancy Beiman):
SaNoTize is a measured nitric oxide spray application that has been clinically proven to kill all viruses in the nose (link to manufacturer website - db). It was originally developed as a prophylactic against the flu. The tests showed that It kills ALL covid 19 virus in the nose within two minutes, and reduces viral load to a nearly undetectable amount in infected patients after two days. But don't take my word for it. Here is the result of the third stage trials in the LANCET. I use Enovid (its name in Israel - image of packaging [db]) and it appears to work. I have traveled, gone to crowded venues with poor ventilation, (although I still wear a mask) and eaten in restaurants, with no infection. There are no contraindications with any medication.. It is not a drug. Nevertheless The CDC and Health Canada have not authorized it. Israel, Germany, India and Singapore DID in 2021, and it's available in any drugstore in those countries. The additional tests by Health Canada and CDC should be expedited. It's even more inexcusable in Canada, since it was developed in Vancouver. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lansea/article/PIIS2772-3682(22)00046-4/fulltextSaNoTize are developing a nasal flu vaccine. They should receive funding....I had covid 19 in July 2022 and wish that i knew about Enovid at that time. It is a lot cheaper than getting sick and it probably costs pennies to make. Nitric oxide is the same substance given to premature babies, to kill viruses...it's not a novel substance; it's the spray bottle with the measured dose that makes it unique. There is no excuse not to approve it.
I went down a bit of a rabbit hole with nitric oxide, and read this on its Wikipedia page -- have never heard this before:
"Nasal breathing produces nitric oxide within the body, while oral breathing does not." (Link1)(Link2)
Anyway: So these virus-killing nasal sprays sound too good to be true. What do our resident medical folks think of this stuff? @Terminalxylem ? @gianmarco ? Any colleagues in NICU familiar with this stuff?
Could nitric oxide nasal sprays be decent pre-exposure prophylaxis that could be sold over-the-counter at chain drugstores? Take a hit before going out to a concert or bar-hopping? Or are there some obvious (to medical professionals) drawbacks to having nitric oxide sprays readily available to the public in this way?
Looks like I have some more reading to do.
The better question is, who thought a healthcare worker would believe endoscopies were performed sans masks?you guys really thought he meant during the procedure too?
Yeah, I didn’t wear them pre-pandemic, except when there were specific concerns for airborne/droplet spread infections. While employee masking is still policy at my hospital, I plan on wearing them indefinitely.
In the last 6 weeks I've been in a hospital, 2 diagnostic labs, and a doctor's office (twice). What I've seen here is the same as what you describe as far as those interacting with patients. Among patients and other staff it was more like 60/40 mask/unmasked. Seems like a new normal is settling in.
The WHO has been about three steps behind surface-level reality for this whole thing. Weren't they one of the very last holdouts against the idea that covid was airborne?
www.news-medical.net
academic.oup.com
www.nature.com
yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com
It's important to understand, in this country, we are still experiencing death numbers that are significantly worse than what we'd consider a "bad" flu season. However, the problem is getting more and more regional and the pockets are getting smaller and smaller even though the intensity is up in those pockets. It's really tough to gauge whether this is "endemic" or not by national numbers. We really need to zoom in and look at more local numbers IMO. It won't be the same for all of us unfortunately. As a virus, it's still very real and dangerous for us here in Florida. People may not be acting like it or behaving accordingly, but it's still very prominent down here.
OMG kids got sick? That never happens
yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com
www.futurity.org
Most technologies improve over time. I am hoping that the COVID vaccines given in, say, 5-10 years are significantly better (in important ways) than the earliest "Model T" COVID vaccines.Could a new COVID vaccine offer lifelong protection?
"We need a better vaccine, one that provides years of robust protection with fewer booster shots against a variety of SARS-CoV-2 strains."
Wheres the money in that?Could a new COVID vaccine offer lifelong protection?
"We need a better vaccine, one that provides years of robust protection with fewer booster shots against a variety of SARS-CoV-2 strains."
yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com
Catch up quick: COVID-19
We survived the end of the public health emergency. Here’s the state of affairs. Surveillance SARS-CoV-2 is nosediving across all metrics in all regions of the U.S.: hospitalizations, deaths, emergency room departments, and wastewater. Wastewater is still higher than in 2020 and 2021, though.
I would like to comment, but don't want to be glib ... so I'll ask: Do you know whether those five people are generally OK?
erictopol.substack.com
If they are doing their jobs correctly, they will undergo major overhauls forever.
