New Jersey doctor gives update on use of hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir on coronavirus patients

Fox News ^ | 03/30/2020 | Talia Kaplan

[SeekAndFind]

AS for HydroxyChoroquine:

“We are using hydroxychloroquine as an off-label use,” Varga said on Monday. “We use it for our intubated patients for the most part. We’re also using it for some of our nursing home patients because that’s a group that you don’t want to get sick, don’t want to it to spread because they’re so vulnerable.”

“And the other trial that we are looking at right now that we hope to get launched later this week, we’ve actually had it fast-tracked up until now, is actually using hydroxychloroquine for what we call chemoprophylaxis or prevention for front-line caregivers,” he added.

Chemoprophylaxis refers to the administration of a medication to prevent the development of a disease, according to Medicinenet.com.

Varga went on to say that there are currently 1,400 coronavirus patients in Hackensack Meridian Health facilities, with more than 300 in the ICU and more than 300 on ventilators.

“We’re probably using the hydroxychloroquine recipe in some way shape or form in about three-quarters of our patients right now,” Varga said.

[reasonisfaith]

“Anything that might work, it’s nice to get out there”

Somebody get this to Dr. Fauci.

Have an linguist present, and anyone else with expertise in grammar and plain English, in case he doesn’t understand.

[lonestar67]

Great point

[Billthedrill]

When host Brian Kilmeade asked Varga how coronavirus patients are responding to remdesivir, he said: “It’s hard to say.”

Not much meat on those bones but the guy is in the middle of a clinical trial so he's not going to say anything that indicates bias. I wish the reporter had asked him if anyone on the therapy had died. I think he can answer that one.

[RealVirginia]

I wonder why some drugs, like this one and the hydroxy...quine drug (forgot how to spell it) are ok to use as antiinflammatories, but ibuprofen is not ok.

[immadashell]

Even better to get it out in clinical trials.”

And what exactly is the purpose of clinical trials for drugs that have already passed the rigorous testing of clinical trials? If the drugs have been approved as safe for human consumption why would the result change because the disease may be different? People are dying bureaucrats!

[usafa92]

Can’t stand Fauci, and Birx seems to be trending down his path as well.

[null and void]

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

The false positive rate was 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's or one old fart’s life, it's worth it.

[null and void]

Mentions prone ventilation...

[DugwayDuke]

The Daily Mail reported. Studies reportedly suggest the drug, leronlimab, calms the overly aggressive immune response that could lead to pneumonia and even death.

“I don’t know the drug personally, but the studies we’re seeing is that, like several drugs we’re trying to use right now in COVID-19, it works predominantly by toning down the immune response that the virus participates in the lung so that the lung doesn’t get injured,” Varga said.

This is critical. There are reports that many, perhaps most, who died from the Spanish Flu were killed by a cytokine storm. My fraternal grandmother died from the Spanish Flu. She was in her early 30s.

From the Scripts Research Institute:

A cytokine storm is an overproduction of immune cells and their activating compounds (cytokines), which, in a flu infection, is often associated with a surge of activated immune cells into the lungs. The resulting lung inflammation and fluid buildup can lead to respiratory distress and can be contaminated by a secondary bacterial pneumonia — often enhancing the mortality in patients.

This little-understood phenomenon is thought to occur in at least several types of infections and autoimmune conditions, but it appears to be particularly relevant in outbreaks of new flu variants. Cytokine storm is now seen as a likely major cause of mortality in the 1918-20 “Spanish flu” — which killed more than 50 million people worldwide — and the H1N1 “swine flu” and H5N1 “bird flu” of recent years. In these epidemics, the patients most likely to die were relatively young adults with apparently strong immune reactions to the infection — whereas ordinary seasonal flu epidemics disproportionately affect the very young and the elderly.

As reported in Science Daily.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140227142250.htm

[meatloaf]

and a Louisville Slugger

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

So taking vitamin C to boost your immune system might not be such a good idea?

[DugwayDuke]

Lurkina.n.Learnin wrote: “So taking vitamin C to boost your immune system might not be such a good idea?”

I would have the check my physicians license I cut out of a box of Cheerios before I could provide an accurate assessment.

[Blue Highway]

Also get one of those interpreters that perform sign language for the deaf to give Fauxci this message:

[mmichaels1970]

We’re also using it for some of our nursing home patients because that’s a group that you don’t want to get sick

Let that slip, didn’t he. Using it for people they don’t want to get sick.

[headstamp 2]

[[[leronlimab]]]

These are the “mab” biologics used to control auto-immune disorders. I’m currently on Remicaide for Crohns. Settles down the immune response and puts patients into remission.

These should help patients ride out the virus.

[mikeus_maximus]

ping

[gas_dr]

We have been using prone ventilation for severe and refractory ARDS for a long time. It is not the easiest thing to accomplish. While it does increase oxygenation on ABG, there is no study that demonstrates improved outcomes at 30 days (which is the gold standard in ICU management). This has long been studies.

While I do it occasionally when I literally have nothing else to offer, there is significant issues in proning someone. There is increased incidence of blindness, increased incidence of injury related to pressure, and it is nearly impossible to draw labs and monitor appropriately. That being said, it is a Hail Mary last ditch. Oh, and you cannot do CPR on a prone patient — so another pseudo drawback

[CurlyDave]

...One of the things we’re seeing in people who have to get ventilated because of COVID-19 is this use of what’s known as prone ventilation, where you actually lay the patient on their belly while they are ventilated...

This is known as "doggy style" ventilation.