I read a very detailed posting from an ER MD in New Orleans that is seeing COVID-19 in almost every patient. He was prescribing hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin for some very sick COVID patients but did not see significant benefits.
This was the first negative report I have seen and is disheartening. Its only one data point but the drugs may only benefit patients early in their illness and not later once they are on ventilators. He said about 86% of patients that had to be ventilated eventually died.
That was some supposed doctor on Reddit who claims he works in a community hospital in New Orleans. Just a user name on Reddit and no hospital named and nothing from him about his own name or credentials. Don’t believe everything you read on those sites.
I read the same thing... I didn’t see single reference to those drugs.
An epidemiologist from New Orleans was on Laura Ingraham Tuesday and she was not very encouraging either. She said they were using it for most cases and the results were not clear.
If it is the article that I think it is - it was purported to be an email from an MD working in New Orleans, and it included a lot of technical lingo (to enhance his credentials, I suppose). Sounded pretty grim - but also seemed pretty sketchy to me (no names named).
I.e., it sounded like a bit of fiction. I'm sure that anyone who harbors a grudge against America (enemies domestic or foreign) is having a field day fueling panic -- and our Media will just lap it up. Although to be fair, as far as I know, this particular 'article' was just an anonymous email making the rounds (so I shouldn't tar the Media regarding this particular report).
I spent two days on a ventilator in 2014. After the fact I researched the issue and found that, at the time, only 40% of people put on ventilators left the hospital alive.
There was also a lot of information about VAP, Ventilator Associated Pneumonia. Evidently there is a lot of care required to administer properly to a ventilated patient and many ways that the process can go wrong. Solving these problems improved the survival rate for such patients dramatically. Unfortunately, I believe that the 40% rate was post-improvements.
The study on VAP also revealed a great disparity in outcomes from one hospital to another.
If the number is 86%, then that dramatically reduces the value of additional ventilators and means that the virus will kill you independent of whether there is a ventilator for you or not.
This was the first negative report I have seen and is disheartening.
*******U*****************************
Dude, you’re entirely too easily disheartened. Be smart and don’t place too much credence in ANONYMOUS POSTINGS on the internet. Seriously.