Now, if there would only be a good study of starting it early for out patients: Because when you give medicines for virus infections (influenza, herpes) you have to start it within 2 days or it doesn't make much difference.
I wonder if this will get as much publicity as the fake study that managed to get printed quickly in the Lancet despite data so questionable that a lot of doctors immediately saw it was fake/ made up by the authors?.
But this one seems to be a bit more scientifically accurate
Full paper of the Michigan study here.
Treatments were protocol driven, uniform in all hospitals and established by a system-wide interdisciplinary COVID-19 Task Force. Hydroxychloroquine was dosed as 400 mg twice daily for 2 doses on day 1, followed by 200 mg twice daily on days 2-5. Azithromycin was dosed as 500 mg once daily on day 1 followed by 250 mg once daily for the next 4 days.
The combination of hydroxychloroquine + azithromycin was reserved for selected patients with severe COVID-19 and with minimal cardiac risk factors.
Because even when there is a study, the dirty little secret is that docs use everything but the kitchen sink to treat patients, and of course, some patients had been given steroids too when they developed ARDS,
Overall crude mortality rates were 18.1% in the entire cohort,
13.5% in the hydroxychloroquine alone group,
20.1% among those receiving hydroxychloroquine + azithromycin,
22.4% among the azithromycin alone group,
and 26.4% for neither drug (p < 0.001).
Adjunct therapy with corticosteroids (methylprednisolone and/or prednisone) and anti-IL-6 tocilizumab was provided in 68% and 4.5% of patients, respectively.
Instpundit posts a tweet from a physician who asks:
every time such things happen, some people notice, and as a result, the trust in the experts and the medical profession in general goes down.
Sigh.
that is why there is such a reaction to mandates to wear face masks, even in places where you are not near anyone else.
Because no one bothers to educate the public that there are different masks for different purposes.
we are required to wear mask here when we go outside, but most are regular surgical masks or home made masks.
Indeed, the Philippines had a mask shortage before the virus because of the Taal volcano spewing so much dust in the air.
as for face masks: the regular surgical masks do not filter the virus: As one of my medical school teachers quipped: it just keeps you from spitting in the patient's wound when you talk while doing surgery.
I wear one outside because I cough a lot due to allergies, and here in Asia, masks are often worn because of air pollution/dust even when it's not flu season.
So yes they keep out dust, and prevent virus rich spittle from being spewed to those near you when you cough or sneeze.
but for those with allergies, one need to use the heavy masks used by painters etc. to keep out the dust and floating viral particles in the air.
My mother had asthma and would wear one while cleaning the house.
and of course, as a doc, I had the heavy mask to protect me from PCP Pneumonia and tuberculosis patients. It was heavy and I had to be fitted with it. Lots of information here (MEGO type article)
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