Leo

Well-known member
cases spiking in china, they locked down so hard before that apparently there's a lot less immunity compared to elsewhere and their vaxx might not be as protective. growing cases in the UK too, right?
 

sufi

lala
cases spiking in china, they locked down so hard before that apparently there's a lot less immunity compared to elsewhere and their vaxx might not be as protective. growing cases in the UK too, right?
yeah isnt it about time for another variant?
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
cases spiking in china, they locked down so hard before that apparently there's a lot less immunity compared to elsewhere and their vaxx might not be as protective. growing cases in the UK too, right?
True, but they've aimed for a Zero Covid policy, and have the totalitarian apparatus to actually enforce that (or attempt to), so a "spike" might mean a city of 10M people going from no cases to a dozen cases.

Then again, China would have you believe they've had only 120,000 cases and under 5,000 deaths since the whole thing started...
 

Leo

Well-known member
Ivermectin Didn’t Reduce Covid-19 Hospitalizations in Largest Trial to Date, Patients who got the antiparasitic drug didn’t fare better than those who received a placebo

Researchers testing repurposed drugs against Covid-19 found that ivermectin didn’t reduce hospital admissions, in the largest trial yet of the effect of the antiparasitic on the disease driving the pandemic.

Ivermectin has received a lot of attention as a potential treatment for Covid-19 including from celebrities such as podcast host Joe Rogan. Most evidence has shown it to be ineffective against Covid-19 or has relied on data of poor quality, infectious-disease researchers said. Public-health authorities and researchers have for months said the drug hasn’t shown any benefit in treating the disease. Taking large doses of the drug is dangerous, the Food and Drug Administration has said.

The latest trial, of nearly 1,400 Covid-19 patients at risk of severe disease, is the largest to show that those who received ivermectin as a treatment didn’t fare better than those who received a placebo.

“There was no indication that ivermectin is clinically useful,” said Edward Mills, one of the study’s lead researchers and a professor of health sciences at Canada’s McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Dr. Mills on Friday plans to present the findings, which have been accepted for publication in a major peer-reviewed medical journal, at a public forum sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Mills and his colleagues looked at 1,358 adults who visited one of 12 clinics in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil with Covid-19 symptoms. The patients all had a positive rapid test for SARS-CoV-2, and were at risk of having a severe case for reasons including a history of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease or lung disease.

The researchers prescribed half of the patients a course of ivermectin pills for three days. The other half received a placebo. They tracked whether the patients were hospitalized within 28 days. The researchers also looked at whether patients on ivermectin cleared the virus from their bodies faster than those who received a placebo, whether their symptoms resolved sooner, whether they were in the hospital or on ventilators for less time and whether there was any difference in the death rates for the two groups.

To make sure they were being thorough, the researchers analyzed the data in three different ways. They looked at data from all patients; then analyzed data from patients who received ivermectin or a placebo 24 hours before they were hospitalized; and in a third review, looked at data from patients who said they had adhered strictly to their dosing schedule. In each scenario, they found ivermectin didn’t improve patient outcomes.

“This is the first large, prospective study that should really help put to rest ivermectin and not give any credibility to the use of it for Covid-19,” said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, who reviewed the findings.

Ivermectin is used primarily to treat patients with certain parasitic diseases. Some doctors have been prescribing it to Covid-19 patients, and some people have been found ways to obtain ivermectin without a prescription. The drug has antiviral properties, but hasn’t been approved by the FDA to treat any viral infections.

Given its antiviral prospects, scientists early in the pandemic thought it could be a candidate for treating Covid-19. In June 2020, a group of researchers in Australia published a paper showing that large amounts of ivermectin could halt replication of the coronavirusin cell cultures. But there was a problem: To achieve that effect, a person would have to take up to 100 times as much ivermectin as the dose approved for use in humans.

Some studies on ivermectin published in journals or on preprint servers ahead of peer review have demonstrated no benefits, or worsening of Covid-19 symptoms, after ivermectin use. Some have shown some benefit, such as shorter time to symptom resolution, reduction in inflammation, faster viral clearance and lower death rates.

But most studies showing positive effects had significant limitations such as small sample sizes or poorly defined outcomes, according to the NIH. Several studies on ivermectin have been withdrawn from publication, including a randomized controlled trial looking at 100 patients in Lebanon that was retracted by the journal Viruses due to issues with the statistical analysis, according to the journal. Researchers at the NIH and Oxford University also are conducting large trials on the effectiveness of ivermectin, though results haven’t been published.

Dr. Mills said ivermectin could improve outcomes in Covid-19 patients who are fighting off certain parasitic diseases at the same time. But based on his team’s findings, he said, the drug doesn’t seem to have any effect on Covid-19 itself.

Dr. Mills and his colleagues also are studying other drugs that could be repurposed to work against Covid-19. Such drugs could be useful because their side effects are well known and they may be cheaper to deploy in poor countries than drugs like Merck & Co. and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP’s molnupiravir or Pfizer Inc.’s Paxlovid.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
It struck me the other day that, now we're more than two years on from the first lockdown, absolutely none of the things the professional paranoiacs were fretting about - compulsory vaccination, vaccine passports, permanent closure of nightlife venues, indefinite extension of travel restrictions, social distancing and mask mandates beyond the end of the pandemic - have come to pass.

In fact, the exact opposite has happened. Life is officially back to normal, at least in England - except for the 2,500 people being admitted to hospital with covid every day, and the daily death rate of 150 (and climbing, again).
 
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mixed_biscuits

_________________________
It struck me the other day that, now we're more than two years on from the first lockdown, absolutely none of the things the professional paranoiacs were fretting about - compulsory vaccination, vaccine passports, permanent closure of nightlife venues, indefinite extension of travel restrictions, social distancing and mask mandates beyond the end of the pandemic - have come to pass.

In fact, the exact opposite has happened. Life is officially back to normal, at least in England - except for the 2,500 people being admitted to hospital with covid every day, and the daily death of 150 (and climbing, again).
The thing is, they could all be reintroduced at a drop of a hat (and UBI is happening)
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
The man in the street is far more interested in word-of-mouth treatments now, since he also has an increasingly dim view of the vaccines and can see that people are coming down with covid repeatedly
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
The thing is, they could all be reintroduced at a drop of a hat (and UBI is happening)
It's not going to be, though, is it?

UBI seems like a distant possibility, too, given the extent of the hatchet-job done on the benefits system over the last decade.

Not that UBI would be a bad thing. If it was actually enough to live on then it would alleviate the very worst poverty, and where it's been tried elsewhere it tends to cause a decrease, not an increase, in the unemployment rate.

Obviously a much better option would be jobs that pay a decent wage and living costs that aren't going through the roof.
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
He said he shook for five days after his vax and won't be having more and said that his niece has had covid four times, so obv some other solution is required
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Literally talked to the man in the street this morning: the guy from the shoe shop having a fag in the sun opposite
No doubt he told you about his unwillingness to pollute his body with potentially harmful chemicals made by an unethical corporation that cares only about money through a haze of tobacco smoke.
 
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