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*** OFFICIAL *** COVID-19 CoronaVirus Thread. Fresh epidemic fears as child pneumonia cases surge in Europe after China outbreak. NOW in USA (16 Viewers)

When I got my colonoscopy at hospital two weeks ago nobody was wearing masks including doctors and nurses
That’s terrible, considering the potential for aerosolized fecal matter during that procedure.
Lmao I'm not talking about DURING the procedure
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.
 
As usual, great info from YLE. This time on nasal vaccines
 
When I got my colonoscopy at hospital two weeks ago nobody was wearing masks including doctors and nurses
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.

This seems reasonable to me. If I were working around sick people all the time, maybe I would re-think wearing a mask. It makes sense to me that this might be one of the very few places where masking "sticks."
 
As usual, great info from YLE. This time on nasal vaccines

Makes me pessimistic on the nasal vaccine front.

I guess no pan-covid vaccine in 2023 either. Just some kind of updated booster in the fall.
 
As usual, great info from YLE. This time on nasal vaccines

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/fulltext
SaNoTize 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.
 
As usual, great info from YLE. This time on nasal vaccines

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/fulltext
SaNoTize 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.
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.

Interesting concept though. I‘ll wait for a large-scale clinical trial before believing they work.
 
When I got my colonoscopy at hospital two weeks ago nobody was wearing masks including doctors and nurses
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.

This seems reasonable to me. If I were working around sick people all the time, maybe I would re-think wearing a mask. It makes sense to me that this might be one of the very few places where masking "sticks."
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.

It‘s probably reasonable, both to protect yourself and immunocompromised patients.
 
Today, on Thur 4/27/2023, using 7-day averages:

  • - The U.S. has been below 300 COVID deaths/day, sustained, since March 7, 2023
  • - The U.S. has been below 200 COVID deaths/day, sustained, since April 8, 2023
  • - The U.S. has been below 150 COVID deaths/day, sustained, since April 12, 2023

Bah. It probably takes a good six weeks for these figures to lock in now, with so many states reporting weekly and even bi-weekly.

Today, on Thur 5/4/2023, using 7-day averages:

  • The U.S. has been below 300 COVID deaths/day, sustained, since March 7, 2023 (unchanged from last week)
  • The U.S. has been below 200 COVID deaths/day, sustained, since April 12, 2023
  • The U.S. has been below 150 COVID deaths/day, sustained, since April 24, 2023

I'd guess -- based on the movements and adjustments we have been seeing -- that the true current 7-day average of COVID deaths is still in the neighborhood of 160-180.
 
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.

Conceptually, it reminded me of gargling/rinsing with alcohol-based mouthwashes like Scope. Or doing the same with a weakened hydrogen peroxide solution (I've done this from time to time).
 
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.
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.
 
Weren't they one of the very last holdouts against the idea that covid was airborne?

This is true -- but thankfully, the WHO wasn't really driving the pandemic-response bus in the U.S.

The reading on this topic interests me, and I hadn't really dove into it before. Checking these articles out today:



What were the historical reasons for the resistance to recognizing airborne transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic? (Wiley Online Library via Indoor Air, 8/21/2022) <-- Ivan's friend Zeynep contributed to this one :D


I want to read this one, too, but it's behind Nature's strong paywall ($40 to purchase the article, $199 for a one-year subscription to the journal). Maybe @Commish 's wife can read it?

 
Last edited:
YLE's writeup on the WHO's ending of the Public Health Emergency of International Concern

 
With the WHO milestone and good data on wastewater, deaths, hospitalizations, maybe this is almost over over and is ready to be actually endemic and seasonal.

But then I talk to a colleague today in Chicago whose kid had a total outbreak in her class and brought it home to infect all 4 family members this week. And my one kid has a 102 fever and sore throat the last 2 days (but negative so far).
 
With the WHO milestone and good data on wastewater, deaths, hospitalizations, maybe this is almost over over and is ready to be actually endemic and seasonal.

But then I talk to a colleague today in Chicago whose kid had a total outbreak in her class and brought it home to infect all 4 family members this week. And my one kid has a 102 fever and sore throat the last 2 days (but negative so far).
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.
 
With the WHO milestone and good data on wastewater, deaths, hospitalizations, maybe this is almost over over and is ready to be actually endemic and seasonal.

But then I talk to a colleague today in Chicago whose kid had a total outbreak in her class and brought it home to infect all 4 family members this week. And my one kid has a 102 fever and sore throat the last 2 days (but negative so far).
OMG kids got sick? That never happens
 
Disease experts warn White House of potential for omicron-like wave of illness

@Doug B This is more info on what I mentioned a week or two ago. A little more data/discussion included in this piece.

Saw this when you posted it. The following is not aimed at you, but at the advisers quoted in the article:

I see the predictions, but I am just not "there" yet. I don't feel we're on this constant knife-edge where we're one mutation away from biological Armaggedon. Pandemics end -- they always end. And they don't keep coming back in waves over and over in the immediate aftermath.
I'm a little uncertain what's being called for here. A return to 2020 protocols? Just "keeping an eye" on things and preparing to respond better the next time? I don't know.
 
 
I wish Johns Hopkins (or some other agency) could have found a way to keep up the hospitalizations and ICU data. That all sunset in mid-March. While it was a trailing indicator of COVID-wave occurrence & severity, it was a nice cross-check alongside other metrics.

At the moment, all you can really count on is COVID death numbers (which still need about a month to lock in) and the Biobot sewage data.
 
 

Some takeaways and responses (items quoted are Dr. Jetelina's words):

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.

She is getting some pushback in the Comments because people are thinking that the wastewater levels are supposed to eventually end up near zero "when COVID is all over", and that she is underselling the danger of all those 'cases!'. But that's now how it works -- COVID is now an endemic illness like influenza, rhinoviruses, enteroviruses, legacy coronaviruses, etc. If we checked wastewater for those older, familiar pathogens, we'd see natural rises and falls but never to the point of virtually disappearing. So it is and will continue to be with COVID -- it's out there among people in our environments in May 2023, yes. But mere preponderance of cases doesn't broadly affect society so much anymore. And that will be all the more true going forward.



Mask usage. Polling on May 6-9 found 46% of respondents wore a mask at least some of the time in the past 7 days. Just looking outside, I was surprised about this statistic, but probably because I’m white and in the suburbs, two groups with the lowest rates. We really need to improve masking among older adults, especially in times of high transmission.

However: Some context is given in the Comments section:

Kathy
I am very surprised at the 46% of respondents stating that they have worn a mask in the past 7 days. I have not seen anyone anywhere wearing masks. I recently traveled overseas and saw at most maybe two people wearing masks at a very, very busy airport terminal, maybe 1 person on the plane had a mask on. No one wears them in stores, church etc. For reference I live in Pennsylvania.
Melissa Gold
I was a little surprised also, but then I looked at the source of the survey, which is YouGov. I am a YouGov member and receive occasional surveys, and I think the company's typical respondents are people who are socially engaged, politically savvy and who follow current events. I would guess that 46% is accurate among YouGov surveys, but the population surveyed is not necessarily in line with the general population in the US.


I think Melissa Gold is right on here.



Risk of long COVID after second infection. Risk of long COVID decreases after second infections, but is not zero. A new preprint found the risk of long COVID after a second infection is 1 in 40 for those over 16 years old and 1 in 165 for those under 16 years old. (As a comparison, the annual risk of getting into a car accident is 1 in 30 and the annual risk of permanent impairment is 1 in 700.)

Yeah, it's a preprint ... so this definitely isn't the last word on the matter. Still, this particular study is interesting to me because it's collecting self-reports of long COVID yet still coming with somewhat low percentages (I'd expect self-reporting to tend to exaggerate reported symptoms). More data will have to be collected to arrive at firmer conclusions, and that's going to take a good bit of time -- especially considering that we're only 16 months past the high point of Omicron (I feel like long COVID data from before Omicron, and especially from 2020, don't tell us a lot about May 2023 long COVID prevalence).
 
I wish Johns Hopkins (or some other agency) could have found a way to keep up the hospitalizations and ICU data. That all sunset in mid-March. While it was a trailing indicator of COVID-wave occurrence & severity, it was a nice cross-check alongside other metrics.

At the moment, all you can really count on is COVID death numbers (which still need about a month to lock in) and the Biobot sewage data.

The CDC has a COVID Data Tracker page which does keep track of COVID hospitalizations like Johns Hopkins used to. I don't see a way to tease out COVID ICU admissions, unfortunately. But it's something.


Admissions were over 15,000 the week ending April 1, 2023. The week ending May 20, 2023? Down to 8,200.
 
Paxlovid gets full FDA approval:


Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the oral antiviral Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir tablets and ritonavir tablets, co-packaged for oral use) for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, including hospitalization or death. Paxlovid is the fourth drug—and first oral antiviral pill—approved by the FDA to treat COVID-19 in adults.​
Paxlovid manufactured and packaged under the emergency use authorization (EUA) and distributed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will continue to be available to ensure continued access for adults, as well as treatment of eligible children ages 12-18 who are not covered by today’s approval. Paxlovid is not approved or authorized for use as a pre-exposure or post-exposure prophylaxis for prevention of COVID-19.​
 
Kind of a watershed in online COVID tracking these past few weeks:

I didn't catch it initially, because I always look at the 7-day averages but as of May 17, 2023, Worldometers no longer adds new COVID cases to its U.S. Daily New Cases graph. Right now, the graph just looks like it's trailing off to zero. Those who have followed COVID case trends knew that U.S. case data has been unreliable for some time now -- but now it's essentially absent. At least in a one-stop-shop form ... might still be able to cherry-pick from among however many state and municipal health department websites.

The Worldometers COVID deaths counts seemed to still be chugging along, allowing maybe 4-6 weeks for the numbers to adjust and get "baked in". But today I noticed that no new deaths have been added since May 25. Could be a blip in the counting, to be made up over the next month or so. Or it could be similar to the case counts, where the death counts just peter out to nothing as fewer and fewer states continue to report consistently.

Well ... I guess I knew COVID counts wouldn't be a thing forever. Just kind of interesting to experience the familiar, oft-checked Worldometers graphs just drying up like a puddle on a sunny day.
 
Not a big shocker, but it's nice to see research trending this way (from US News & World Report, 6/1/2023):

CDC Study: Nearly All Americans Had Some Level of COVID-19 Immunity by Last Fall

Almost all Americans have some level of immunity against COVID-19 through vaccination, previous infection or both, suggests new research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study, which was published Thursday, tested blood donations from people ages 16 years and older for antibodies against the coronavirus from July through September 2022.
It found that 96% of people had antibodies by last fall. About 23% were from infection alone and 26% were from vaccination alone. Nearly 48% had hybrid immunity – a number that’s only expected to grow as the coronavirus continues to circulate.
 
Kind of a watershed in online COVID tracking these past few weeks:

I didn't catch it initially, because I always look at the 7-day averages but as of May 17, 2023, Worldometers no longer adds new COVID cases to its U.S. Daily New Cases graph. Right now, the graph just looks like it's trailing off to zero. Those who have followed COVID case trends knew that U.S. case data has been unreliable for some time now -- but now it's essentially absent. At least in a one-stop-shop form ... might still be able to cherry-pick from among however many state and municipal health department websites.

The Worldometers COVID deaths counts seemed to still be chugging along, allowing maybe 4-6 weeks for the numbers to adjust and get "baked in". But today I noticed that no new deaths have been added since May 25. Could be a blip in the counting, to be made up over the next month or so. Or it could be similar to the case counts, where the death counts just peter out to nothing as fewer and fewer states continue to report consistently.

Well ... I guess I knew COVID counts wouldn't be a thing forever. Just kind of interesting to experience the familiar, oft-checked Worldometers graphs just drying up like a puddle on a sunny day.
Hasn’t been a big deal here for a while. But last week, for the first time in several months, I heard about three people admitted to the hospital for symptomatic covid. They were old and/or immunosuppressed, and two of the three were not up to date on boosters. The vaccinated guy had a transplant, with reinfection in less than six months.

And my sole antivax friend, a twenty-something year-old with no medical problems, is out with covid for the third time.
 
And my sole antivax friend, a twenty-something year-old with no medical problems, is out with covid for the third time.

Curious: Your friend's in their twenties, essentially healthy, unvaccinated, and is on their third bout of COVID. How's the severity/level of infirmity been? Feeling it for real, or skating through it?

...

COVID is starting to pop up on my wife's work's radar (works with able-bodied elderly in a recreational setting) after several months of calm. I guess the fall 2022 boosters are no longer at least speed-bumping infections. Good news is despite the ages at her work, the recent cases have been taken in stride and haven't caused hospitalizations.
 
And my sole antivax friend, a twenty-something year-old with no medical problems, is out with covid for the third time.

Curious: Your friend's in their twenties, essentially healthy, unvaccinated, and is on their third bout of COVID. How's the severity/level of infirmity been? Feeling it for real, or skating through it?

...

COVID is starting to pop up on my wife's work's radar (works with able-bodied elderly in a recreational setting) after several months of calm. I guess the fall 2022 boosters are no longer at least speed-bumping infections. Good news is despite the ages at her work, the recent cases have been taken in stride and haven't caused hospitalizations.

It rolled through my workplace in early April. About ten of us got it, out of 30 total people. Four (including myself) tested positive on home tests, one at test site, and the others never tested, but logic tells me that they probably had it too. Only one was more sick that any normal cold or flu. He was unvaxed and had never had it before. I guess there's still of few of those unicorns out there.

My two takeaways from this are A) covid is still severely undereported, and that will not change unless this thing morphs back into Delta-level severity. Of the ten coworkers that got it, only one got an "official" test and was counted. And B) That's not necessarily a bad thing. Most are not getting as sick as the used to. Seems like this is something we can live with now.
 
Always anecdotal, but my latest observations from traveling have been pretty interesting this time around. From OC, Cali to ATL, ATL to Charlotte and now back in ATL, seeing a bit more mask usage than I'm accustomed to seeing on planes / in airports recently. Dunno why, maybe just coincidental based on this trip.

I know folks are still getting hospitalized and God forbid dying of this, but to be honest the only time I really think about COVID is when I see this thread bumped or if I'm traveling and see folks wearing masks.
 
And my sole antivax friend, a twenty-something year-old with no medical problems, is out with covid for the third time.

Curious: Your friend's in their twenties, essentially healthy, unvaccinated, and is on their third bout of COVID. How's the severity/level of infirmity been? Feeling it for real, or skating through it?

...

COVID is starting to pop up on my wife's work's radar (works with able-bodied elderly in a recreational setting) after several months of calm. I guess the fall 2022 boosters are no longer at least speed-bumping infections. Good news is despite the ages at her work, the recent cases have been taken in stride and haven't caused hospitalizations.
He‘s been out of commission for a few days-week each time. Fully recovered thereafter.
 
Kind of a watershed in online COVID tracking these past few weeks:

I didn't catch it initially, because I always look at the 7-day averages but as of May 17, 2023, Worldometers no longer adds new COVID cases to its U.S. Daily New Cases graph. Right now, the graph just looks like it's trailing off to zero. Those who have followed COVID case trends knew that U.S. case data has been unreliable for some time now -- but now it's essentially absent. At least in a one-stop-shop form ... might still be able to cherry-pick from among however many state and municipal health department websites.

The Worldometers COVID deaths counts seemed to still be chugging along, allowing maybe 4-6 weeks for the numbers to adjust and get "baked in". But today I noticed that no new deaths have been added since May 25. Could be a blip in the counting, to be made up over the next month or so. Or it could be similar to the case counts, where the death counts just peter out to nothing as fewer and fewer states continue to report consistently.

Well ... I guess I knew COVID counts wouldn't be a thing forever. Just kind of interesting to experience the familiar, oft-checked Worldometers graphs just drying up like a puddle on a sunny day.
Bad/unreliable data feels like a hallmark of the covid experience sadly.
 
Needs replication and corroboration, but this is a promising long-COVID-fighting development:



Covid-19: Metformin reduces the risk of developing long term symptoms by 40%, study finds (British Medical Journal, 6/8/2023)

Metformin—a cheap, safe, and widely available diabetes drug—could reduce the incidence of long covid if given during the acute phase of covid-19, a new study indicates.​
A two week course of metformin given within three days of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 led to 40% fewer long covid diagnoses over the following 10 months compared with people who had taken placebo, according to a randomised controlled trial.​
The authors of the study, published in Lancet Infectious Diseases, caution that the trial did not look at whether metformin would be effective as a treatment for those who already have long covid.​
The 1126 people included in the trial had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the previous three days but had no known previous covid infection. They were not admitted to hospital for covid-19 but were at higher risk of developing severe covid-19 as they were overweight or obese. The median age of participants was 45 years; 44% were male and 56% were female.​



A LOT of Americans fall into that category in red, and that middle-aged cohort tends to be somewhat overlooked in studies. At least from what I've been seeing.
 

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