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- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
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COVID-19 Check-in
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Outstanding! Pretty much along the same lines as that other article that was published by Medium that was removed from the internet. Nobody is saying this isn't serious...just that maybe we are overreacting just a bit.
@pgjackson - the section around how cause of death is definted/recorded in hospitals every day for the regular flu was something I hadn't considered. I don't know if it's the same in the US and UK, but it would make sense that the underlying cause of death isn't necessarily how it's recorded/tracked. ie - an HIV patient catches the flu, develops and then dies of pneumonia but cause of death is "HIV" vs the standard flu.
Specific to New York City, there have been 790 COVID related deaths going back to March 14th (2 weeks). For reference, NYC had an average of 1,044 deaths per week in 2017 (2,088 over two weeks). Obviously these weren't all flu-related; with the majority appearing to be complications to cancer; but it would stand to reason that some % of cancer patients with weakened immune systems due to their cancer treatments might be more suceptible to a COVID-related hospitalization or death. In case people are wondering, 290 of the 54,280 deaths in NYC in 2017 were murders.
Sadly, still a long way to go on this story...
UPDATE: FDA has issued an emergency authorization for the use of hydroxychloroquine on COVID patients/
HHS Official Release:
Washington Post Article (love the objectivity of the headline "FDA authorizes widespread use of unproven drugs to treat coronavirus"):
It's pretty safe to say the reporting and data collecting of COVID has been very different than other diseases. It's like dying from COVID is way worse than dying from the flu or some other illness. One thing that isn't being reported are those testing negative (90+% of all tests are negative) and number who tested positive but have no symptoms.
Headline is objective. It hasn't been proven to treat COVID-19. The France study was small and flawed. There is a reason to move to clinical trials, but we shouldn't be using this as a treatment yet. People with autoimmune diseases are struggling to get their meds now, and we don't know if it will work. I hope it does, but the data isn't convincing yet.
Respectully, I'd hardly consider them "unproven". Hydroxychloroquine was approved by FDA in 1955 for Lupus and RA and Azithromycin was first approved by FDA in 1996. Sufficient data exists on safety and adverse events for each of these drugs and counterindications of these classes of drugs are also established.
Is there sufficient data to prove efficacy to a clinical endpoint in a controlled study specific to COVID-19? There is not. But does that warrant not considering off-label use which is done regularly around the world by physicians without clinical data for other conditions?
If you think "widespread use of unproven drugs" is an objective headline, then I think we'll need to agree to disagree on this particular point.
There is a big difference between creating a new drug and rolling it out without extensive testing vs. using an existing drug that is already FDA approved for medical usage for different illnesses. If you are on your deathbed, who cares if the drug hasn't been approved or tested for your specific illness? I'd be willing to try anything. Let's not slow-roll this over some red-tape administrative stuff.
Three weeks ago, you told us this was not serious. Now that reality has smacked you on the head, are you really sticking to your guns that this is STILL somehow an overreaction? Seriously, like three weeks ago you came on here and, against most scientific consensus and warning, called the coronavirus a cold, and told us that this whole thing would blow over.
You blasted "The Media" for hyping up a non-event and said the global response, which was an attempt to save lives, was unnecessary. You were wrong then, and you're wrong now. At what point do you personally reconcile the true possibility of 100K American (not to mention globally) deaths with your conviction that the media has blown this out of proportion? "Oh, it's only 100,000 deaths. That's no big deal." Fill up Sanford Stadium, and then remove those people from the planet. That's the scale of this now. And that's just America.
Yes, there is a lot of overreacting. You guys were saying it would kill millions in America. You need to take a deep breath and turn off the news. 60,000 Americans died from the flu in 2018 and nobody even heard of it. The swine flu has killed twice as many people this year than it did in 2009, and it's not even newsworthy. This is not the apocalypse that you imagine.
I said it was unproven in treating Covid. The headline states the same thing. I even referenced how it's used regularly for treating autoimmune disorders. Off label use is often backed up by medical research.
Mods are still modding and are not quarantined from the site. Please keep this in mind.....
I'm well aware of the differences, and I'd hardly call clinical trials to make sure a drug works administrative red tape. Stuff is already being fast tracked, but we need to know if it works before using it everywhere. Again, other people with immune disorders that rely on hydroxychloroquine can't get their medicine.
It's one of those deals where if the administration didn't try this route then it would get blasted by the media for not doing it and holding up progress. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Sure
Perhaps I'm not being as clear as I can be: I agree with you that there is not yet sufficient clinical data to prove this treatment's efficacy in COVID-19 patients. I happen to disagree with you that the WaPo wasn't being fully objective with it's headline.
They wrote: "FDA authorizes widespread use of unproven drugs to treat coronavirus, saying possible benefit outweighs risk".
A more accurate headline IMO would have been "FDA authorizes BARDA to distribute Arthritis & Lupus drug for treatment of COVID-19 patients when clinical trial is not available' (aligned with the actual text of the FDA EUA).
Here to do my job @DuckDawg25. Please PM me if you have any questions with it.
That looks the same to me. One just written for laymen. We can agree to disagree on it.
Folks,
I understand this pandemic has us all on edge a little bit. Maybe don't be so swift to return fire with fire. People are concerned about their elderly loved ones. Plenty of unknowns to go around with this stuff. Here's what we do know...
Let's all try to all share in the pain and anguish of this reality together because we are all in it together. I don't like everyone here, not by a long shot. But I still don't want anyone here to die before we all see Georgia win a national title.
Going forward, try not to respond angrily if someone has a differing opinion. Maybe they have a close relative or friend who has this, or is a high risk person for catching it. If you think the media is making a mountain out of a molehill, then you don't need to keep returning to this thread. This thread was intended to let people know how they are doing, how maybe we can help, and to help cheer each other along as we get thru this junk.
Thanks for understanding
Just so you know where I'm coming from: my grandmother is 72 years old. She had a str.oke about a year ago, leaving her immune system compromised. She has had numerous bouts with pneumonia and has asthma. Chances are, if she catches the virus, it will kill her. My parents and sister were very slow to take this seriously, certainly because media like FoxNews refused to note the severity of the problem until they could no longer ignore it. They still visit her sometimes, and she can't defend herself. I will be very angry if she gets sick as a result.
Can you not understand that, without these measures, millions of deaths is a completely realistic possibility? The entire point of these social distancing measures and shelter in place orders is to prevent the death total from reaching into the millions. The President said that in his press conference last night. Smarter people than you and me have been saying it for months.
There's not much else I can say to you about it. I see now that it's pointless.
I pray that nobody you know gets coronavirus. I pray that for everybody on this forum.
P.S. mod alert @Kasey @ghostofuga1 @dawgnms @Teddy @deutcshland_dawg if I have overstepped, I will edit my comment or you can remove it. I think this thread is helpful, so I want it to survive.
As for my check-in, we haven't left the house much in the last couple weeks. It's unnerving being so close to New York but we're handling it okay. We actually managed to get some ground beef and ground turkey at the grocery store yesterday after they were sold out the first few times we looked.
Thinking of your family, @CTDawg , as well as everyone else's here. You have every right to take it seriously as should we all. My 77-year old Dad lives with us and has a number of pre-existing conditions that put him at higher risk if infected, as well. My Dad complained of a sore throat and more fatigue than normal yesterday and we've been on pins and needles ever since, so I can certainly relate. We're keeping an extra sharp eye on him, obviously.
All this to say - I've been sharing articles and updates here because I personally believe that multiple things can be true: the virus may not turn out to be as deadly in the end as it was initially feared as time goes on AND we should continue to behave as if it is deadly (or worse) in terms of precautions and distancing. I can believe the majority of reporting on the pandemic is intended to inform and educate BUT also believe that some specific authors on either side of the political spectrum may try to politicize. For me, these things needn't be mutually exclusive.
Not trying to create more anxiety during an already-tense time so I'm glad to leave this thread as a place to check in on forum members' well-being vs. sharing news or perspectives on COVID if that's what folks prefer.