I'm Drafting Online Now.
Given how stressed hackers get when I use offline machines.
So I should really tidy this up before attempting to merge it with; https://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-pox-on-all-your-houses-pt2.html
But while I try and regain my train of thought.
The practice of medicine is really a series of Risk/Reward calculations.
Take for example Ibuprofen.
Ibuprofen can cause shortness of breath, wheezing and an erratic heartbeat. All symptoms of ARS.
However the Risk of Ibuprofen causing those symptoms is very low. While the Reward of Ibuprofen relieving inflammation and pain is very high.
So Doctors are happy to use Ibuprofen as a medicine. They're even happy to sell it to the type of idiots who panic-buy toilet roll to use at home, unsupervised.
At the risk of a tangent I should touch on the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine issue.
Researchers in Australia are currently conducting a study. To see if the BCG is effective in treating, rather than preventing, COVID-19.
Last Thursday (2/4/20) two French Doctors caused controversy. Suggesting that mirror studies of the BCG are also conducted in African countries.
Their argument being that the Australian studies wouldn't be effective because of the high level of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) used in Australia. Whereas the lack of PPE in African countries means that the studies would be more effective.
They were immediately condemned for racism. The African head of the WHO has since said that the BCG wouldn't be used in Africa.
To me that seems unwise. Particularly if the BCG is being donated for free.
In any study you want to test against as many variables against a control group. So here; no BCG, BCG with PPE and BCG without PPE.
What would be unethical would be to create the BCG without PPE group. As would deliberately infecting people with COVID-19. However as the BCG without PPE group already exists in many African nations it would be foolish not to collect that data.
The BCG has been used as a vaccine against Tuberculosis (TB) since 1921. Its risks are well understood, including for immunocompromised (HIV/AIDS) patients.
The only added Risk using it to treat COVID-19 is that it won't work.
Even then though you still have the big Reward that people recieving the BCG will then be immune from contracting TB.
If someone's already sick with SARS-CoV-2 the last thing you want is for them to also catch a serious bacterial lung infection at the same time.
Although there is strong data that the BCG becomes less effective as a TB vaccine the closer you are to the equator. Nobody knows why.
All of the big US pharmaceutical companies are currently donating large amounts of Hydroxychloroquine to the US government for free. Suggesting it could be used as a potential treatment for COVID-19.
This generosity strikes me as part the drug companies wanting to profit massively from a COVID-19 vaccine. Under the Defence Production Act (1950) the US can deny them a global patent for any vaccine. Forcing them to give it away for free.
So a little bit of charity now, along with the advice to lockdown, helps to guarantee massive profits later in the year.
I also suspect the drug companies don't think Hydroxychloroquine will be particularly effective against COVID-19. They just think USAID will dump the stock on Africa. Where it will be used to treat Malaria.
So I should really tidy this up before attempting to merge it with; https://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-pox-on-all-your-houses-pt2.html
But while I try and regain my train of thought.
The practice of medicine is really a series of Risk/Reward calculations.
Take for example Ibuprofen.
Ibuprofen can cause shortness of breath, wheezing and an erratic heartbeat. All symptoms of ARS.
However the Risk of Ibuprofen causing those symptoms is very low. While the Reward of Ibuprofen relieving inflammation and pain is very high.
So Doctors are happy to use Ibuprofen as a medicine. They're even happy to sell it to the type of idiots who panic-buy toilet roll to use at home, unsupervised.
At the risk of a tangent I should touch on the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine issue.
Researchers in Australia are currently conducting a study. To see if the BCG is effective in treating, rather than preventing, COVID-19.
Last Thursday (2/4/20) two French Doctors caused controversy. Suggesting that mirror studies of the BCG are also conducted in African countries.
Their argument being that the Australian studies wouldn't be effective because of the high level of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) used in Australia. Whereas the lack of PPE in African countries means that the studies would be more effective.
They were immediately condemned for racism. The African head of the WHO has since said that the BCG wouldn't be used in Africa.
To me that seems unwise. Particularly if the BCG is being donated for free.
In any study you want to test against as many variables against a control group. So here; no BCG, BCG with PPE and BCG without PPE.
What would be unethical would be to create the BCG without PPE group. As would deliberately infecting people with COVID-19. However as the BCG without PPE group already exists in many African nations it would be foolish not to collect that data.
The BCG has been used as a vaccine against Tuberculosis (TB) since 1921. Its risks are well understood, including for immunocompromised (HIV/AIDS) patients.
The only added Risk using it to treat COVID-19 is that it won't work.
Even then though you still have the big Reward that people recieving the BCG will then be immune from contracting TB.
If someone's already sick with SARS-CoV-2 the last thing you want is for them to also catch a serious bacterial lung infection at the same time.
Although there is strong data that the BCG becomes less effective as a TB vaccine the closer you are to the equator. Nobody knows why.
All of the big US pharmaceutical companies are currently donating large amounts of Hydroxychloroquine to the US government for free. Suggesting it could be used as a potential treatment for COVID-19.
This generosity strikes me as part the drug companies wanting to profit massively from a COVID-19 vaccine. Under the Defence Production Act (1950) the US can deny them a global patent for any vaccine. Forcing them to give it away for free.
So a little bit of charity now, along with the advice to lockdown, helps to guarantee massive profits later in the year.
I also suspect the drug companies don't think Hydroxychloroquine will be particularly effective against COVID-19. They just think USAID will dump the stock on Africa. Where it will be used to treat Malaria.
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