Category: Health & Medicine

U.S. sees fewer than 50,000 new COVID-19 cases for 2nd straight day.

Aug. 4 (UPI) — For the second day in a row, researchers say new COVID-19 cases in the United States have numbered under 50,000.

About 45,400 new cases were recorded Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, the first time since late June with two straight days under 50,000. There were about 47,500 on Sunday. U.S. cases averaged about 60,000 per day in July.

The university has recorded 4.718 million U.S. cases since the pandemic began and 155,400 deaths. Continue reading “”

Yale Epidemiology Professor Touts Hydroxychloroquine Against COVID-19

“In the future, I believe this misbegotten episode regarding hydroxychloroquine will be studied by sociologists of medicine as a classic example of how extra-scientific factors overrode clear-cut medical evidence,” wrote Harvey Risch in a recent edition of Newsweek magazine.

Risch is not a writer for the New American, nor is he a truck driver, politician, insurance adjustor, real estate agent, or tax accountant. Rather, Dr. Risch is a professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, and he said unequivocally that hydroxychloroquine, sold under the brand name of Plaquenil, is “the key to defeating Covid-19.”

Dr. Risch has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles, and is on the editorial board of several leading medical journals. He wrote, “I am fighting for a treatment that the data fully support but which, for reasons having nothing to do with a correct understanding of the science, has been pushed to the sidelines.” Continue reading “”

Eating chocolate weekly cuts risk of heart disease, study says.

There is good news for chocoholics, who can cut the risk of heart disease by indulging at least once a week, according to new research.

A study of 336,289 people found that consuming chocolate more than once a week reduced the risk of developing coronary heart disease by 8 percent when compared to those who eat it less frequently, the Standard reported.

“Our study suggests that chocolate helps keep the heart’s blood vessels healthy,” said the study’s author, Dr. Chayakrit Krittanawong of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

The researchers combined six studies to study the link between chocolate consumption and coronary heart disease, a condition in which the arteries become blocked by a build-up of fatty substances.

They said nutrients in chocolate — including flavonoids, methylxanthines, polyphenols and stearic acid — may reduce inflammation and increase good cholesterol. Continue reading “”

If anyone else wants to make the case that Fauci is a partisan hack; you can start here.

Fauci holds up New York as model for fighting coronavirus — ‘They did it correctly’.

White House health advisor Anthony Fauci has praised New York for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying the state responded “correctly” to bring its outbreak under control.

“We know that, when you do it properly, you bring down those cases. We have done it. We have done it in New York,” Fauci said in an interview with “PBS NewsHour” that aired Friday evening.

“New York got hit worse than any place in the world. And they did it correctly by doing the things that you’re talking about,” he continued.

New York was once the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States with more than 10,000 new cases a day during its peak outbreak in April. The state has dramatically reduced daily new infections to 776 as of Thursday.

Continue reading “”

Hebrew U. scientist: Drug could eradicate COVID-19 from lungs in days.
New study shows how coronavirus controls metabolism and which FDA-approved drug could stop it

Researchers at Israel’s Hebrew University of Jerusalem and New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center believe they could potentially downgrade COVID-19’s severity into nothing worse than a common cold.
New research by Hebrew University Prof. Ya’acov Nahmias and Sinai’s Dr. Benjamin tenOever revealed that the FDA-approved drug Fenofibrate (Tricor) could reduce SARS-CoV-2’s ability to reproduce or even make it disappear. Continue reading “”

Dr. Fauci says the surge in new infections is because the country never shut down entirely?
Lord love a duck, that’s the most stupid thing I think I’ve heard to date from a supposed authority on health.
It is flatly impossible to ‘entirely shut down’ the U.S.
So, while he’s technically correct, the statement is nonsensical garbage.
Whether he knows that and is spouting propaganda, or he believes the populace is so stupid we’ll believe that without question and demand the impossible, or he’s so insulated from the reality of how the world actually operates, he doesn’t realize just how stupid he sounds makes no difference.
This man is a clown and needs to be removed from any position of power to make decisions.

CDC chief says Northerners heading South for vacation may be to blame for surge in coronavirus cases, not state reopenings

The current surge in coronavirus cases across the U.S. South may have been caused by Northerners who traveled South for vacation around Memorial Day, said Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“If you look at the South, everything happened around June 12 to June 16. It all simultaneously kind of popped,” he said in an interview Tuesday with The Journal of the American Medical Association’s Dr. Howard Bauchner. Independent of state reopening plans, “we’re of the view that there was something else that was the driver. Maybe the Memorial Day, not weekend, but the Memorial Day week, where a lot of Northerners decided to go South for vacations.”

“Something happened in mid-June that we’re now confronting right now,” he added. “And it’s not as simple as just saying it was related to timing of reopening or not reopening.”

The comment by Redfield appears to contradict remarks by White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said in an interview Monday that the United States is seeing a surge in new Covid-19 infections because the country never shut down entirely.

Continue reading “”

Perhaps our Correspondent at the South American Desk can add to this report.

‘Get me back to Caracas’: desperate Venezuelans leave lockdown Bogotá

Rosa Vera, a 40-year-old from a small town in crisis-ridden Venezuela, thought moving to Colombia would give her the chance to find work. Five months ago, she left her family and began the arduous journey to Bogotá, the Colombian capital, to look for a job.

Instead, as coronavirus shut down economic life in the city, Vera and more than 400 Venezuelans had no choice but to camp out for a month, waiting for help to get them home.

“I left Venezuela because the situation was so bad that I couldn’t feed my family,” Vera says, as cars whizz along the highway that cuts through the impromptu camp. “I never thought that here I wouldn’t be able to feed myself.”

Venezuela, despite having the largest proven oil reserves on the planet, is mired in economic and social ruin. Hyperinflation is rampant, rendering the currency, the bolivar, practically useless, while food shortages are a daily reality.

I can knock on doors but if there’s no work, what can I do? Going home is the only option I have

More than 4 million Venezuelans have now left, with about 5,000 crossing into neighbouring Colombia each day at the end of last year, according to data from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Nearly 2 million live in Colombia.

But now, with lockdown shuttering businesses and keeping customers away, there is little work for Venezuelans such as Vera. Unable to pay rent, she was evicted from the house she shared with other migrants in the south of Bogotá. She has spent the past month camped outside a bus terminal on the northern outskirts of the city. Vera, like the 430 others here, would rather be home in Venezuela, where at least shelter is guaranteed. “I can knock on doors but if there’s no work, what can I do?” Vera asks, as she washes her clothes in a stream. “Going home is the only option I have.

“The dream is to get home and get a roof over my head,” Vera says. “With a little help from God, I’ll get there.”

Last Thursday morning the city began bussing the migrants towards the border. Between rain showers, hundreds of hungry Venezuelans packed up their tents and queued for buses.

Continue reading “”

I don’t see the need for the ?, but that’s just me

Trump Vindicated? New Peer-Reviewed Hydroxychloroquine Study Shows Reduced COVID-19 Mortality.

A new large-scale study conducted by the Henry Ford Health System concluded that hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug touted by Trump as a potentially game-changing treatment for the coronavirus, successfully lowered mortality rates for hospitalized coronavirus patients. The results were published Thursday in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Just The News reported on its findings:

The study examined 2,541 patients who had been hospitalized in six hospitals between March 10 and May 2, 2020.

More than twenty-six percent (26.4%) of patients who did not receive hydroxychloroquine died.

But among those who received hydroxychloroquine, fewer than half that number — 13% — died.

More than 90% of the patients received hydroxychloroquine within 48 hours of admission to the hospital. Scientists say giving the drug early during illness may be a key to success.

Continue reading “”

A Long Talk With Anthony Fauci’s Boss About the Pandemic, Vaccines, and Faith.

*******

I am guardedly optimistic that by the end of 2020 we will have at least one vaccine that has been proven safe and effective in a large-scale trial. Nobody should accept it as safe and effective without that large-scale trial. There are at least four vaccines that will be getting into such large trials this summer beginning as early as July. Each one of those trials will involve roughly 30,000 volunteers, half of whom will get the vaccine, half of whom will get a dummy placebo. You have to have that control or you will never know if the vaccine worked or not.

Continue reading “”

Hydroxychloroquine lowers COVID-19 death rate, Henry Ford Health study finds.

A Henry Ford Health System study shows the controversial anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine helps lower the death rate of COVID-19 patients, the Detroit-based health system said Thursday.

Officials with the Michigan health system said the study found the drug “significantly” decreased the death rate of patients involved in the analysis.

The study analyzed 2,541 patients hospitalized among the system’s six hospitals between March 10 and May 2 and found 13% of those treated with hydroxychloroquine died while 26% of those who did not receive the drug died.

Continue reading “”

Out of the clear blue sky………

Houston Protesters Begin to Fall Ill With Coronavirus After Marching for George Floyd.

Increasing numbers of Houston residents have reportedly been diagnosed with COVID-19 after attending protests against the death of George Floyd.

Large protests began in the city days after the death of Houston native Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25. Texas has been experiencing a surge of new COVID-19 cases. Harris County, which encompasses Houston, has been adding hundreds of new cases each day to the more than 17,000 total confirmed cases reported as of Monday.

Continue reading “”

Here we go again
Same old stuff again
Marching down the avenue
Another bug and we’ll be through

Another Virus with the Potential to Cause a Pandemic Was Discovered In None Other Than China

As the world continues to deal with the Wuhan coronavirus, researchers are warning about another strain of the flu that has the potential to turn into a pandemic. Pigs are the source of the strain but have the potential to be transmitted to humans, the BBC reported. Because of how new the strain is, the chances of humans having immunity to it is little to none.

This new strain of the flu, called G4 EA H1N1, is said to be similar to the swine flu, which came from China in 2009. The humans that are being infected with the new strain, as of now, work in China’s pig industry.

Continue reading “”

Study: Zinc, HCQ, Z-Pak Cocktail Effective Early Vs. COVID-19

An outpatient study is reporting a combination of zinc, hydroxychloroquine, and azithromycin significantly reduces hospitalization and death for COVID-19 positive patients, cutting mortality rate to a mere 0.3%.

The current COVID-19 positive case mortality rate is 5.26%, according to the study. Azithromycin is more commonly known as Z-Pak.

The key note of this study, according to CrowdProtocol doctors, is the early treatment of COVID-19 in outpatients before they require hospitalization for a severe COVID-19 case, the latter of which was used to suggest no benefit to HCQ use in hospitalized patients.

Continue reading “”

No new COVID-19 cases from Lake of the Ozarks crowds, Missouri health director says

ST. LOUIS — The large crowds of people at the Lake of the Ozarks over Memorial Day weekend have not led to any more reported cases of COVID-19, Missouri’s top health official health department said Wednesday.

“The answer, to our knowledge, is no,” Dr. Randall Williams, director of the Department of Health and Senior Services, said when asked whether more cases have come from the gatherings, photos of which showed throngs of people close together without wearing masks.

Williams answered questions during a daily news briefing in Jefferson City hosted by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to address civil unrest and efforts to contain the coronavirus.

Pictures and videos of the lake crowds had prompted concern among the public and health officials.

One person, a Boone County resident, tested positive last week and likely was infectious while among the crowds. That is according to the Camden County Health Department, which has jurisdiction over much of the Lake of the Ozarks region……….