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Comment Re:Is this the right treatment to be pursuing? (Score 0) 284

Hydroxychloroquine might be a critical part of the treatment for COVID-19, or it might not.

The problem is that Trump's obsession with it means that a disproportionate number of resources are being focused on this one drug. Even if it's effective they may end up overlooking treatments that were more effective because this is the one getting the big push.

There's a reason that leaders try to coordinate the big things (like disaster relief) and leave the technical details (drug cocktails) to the experts. The US President seems to have things backwards, he's busy playing doctor while the medical supply chain falls into chaos.

Let me guess, you aren't a doctor and have no clue how medicine works. See, there are people called doctors that decide the best course of treatment for a patient, and then they treat them. Pretty simple to understand, right? Anyway, Trump isn't a doctor and doesn't actually prescribe medications to anybody. The medical supply chain isn't falling into chaos, that's just your ignorance showing. We can cure that. It isn't in chaos. If you want to be absolutely certain, read a report of the state of the supply chain, how it's functioning and how it presently is deviating from norms. And high quality doctors already know how to effectively treat covid-19 and are doing so today. It's rather trivial for them. The data is out there, exactly what to do, what to prescribe and why, compete with expected outcomes are available. The can do this regardless of your believe system, your ignorance and the level of Fake News that circulates. These things don't have any impact on how effective they are and their ability to so treat covid-19. Now, you might be skeptical. This is trivial to cure, ask your doctor, one that you trust, if a loved one had 3 risk factors from dying from covid-19, how would they treat them. Let us know what you find. Ask, what are the odds that they can save their life, if they intervene in the first 2 days of a 99+ temperature? Ask then how many lives they have already saved. If they say zero, you want to be very careful and like want to ask for a referral for a doctor that actually has experience with covid-19. Not all will.

Comment Re:1918 all over again (Score -1, Flamebait) 284

It's amusing, or distressing, to watch the repeat of the snake-oil sales resulting from the 1918 influenza epidemic. Quinine was in big demand because of it's effectiveness against malaria. (It's totally useless against the flu.) We can but hope that hydroxychloroquine , or something, will be found to be effective, even if only in certain cases. I'm not convinced but, until we have some science behind it, I'm just guessing like everyone else.

What separates you from everyone else is your ignorance. The good news, is this can be cured. All you have to do ask a person that has a clue, is it safe; they will answer yes, very. You can also ask, does it significantly help wrt covid-19, why yes, yes it does. There, now you are cured of your ignorance. See how utter easy that is. Now, if you want to know just how effective it is in treating covid-19, just read all the studies, and the patient outcomes, interview all the thousands of doctors that use it day in and day out for their patients. The world is awash in the data and it's trivial to find. See the 1000+ study for example. If you were educated, you'd even know which one it is. If you are ignorant, go find it; it's not that hard.

Comment Re:There's something really ridiculous here (Score 0) 284

The drug just can be fatal if the wrong dose is given.

This is is Fake News. In the total history of mankind no one has ever died due to HCQ. You say it, because someone invented Fake News and you are repeating it, not understanding that it's Fake News. Now, before you say, if a doctor proscribed 10,000 kg of it and managed to find a way to insert that into a persons body within 1 second, that likely would be fatal. This is true, but no more fatal than 10,000 kg of water. If you want to be absolutely certain this is Fake News, name the person that died. Name the Doctor that prescribed. The name dosage. You can't, because they don't exist.

Comment Re:No, we do _not_ know that it helps (Score 2) 151

I also don't think that unwavering optimism is appropriate, either.

This is simple. Let's say your doctor tells you have have a 1.5% chance of dying. Let's say that your doctor says that the numbers for the meds are 699 cases, no deaths, no intubations. What is your choice? It isn't unwavering optimism, you are wildly confused. It's the opportunity to not die. It literally is that simple. Sure, you might die, but the stats are right now, that unless you doctor is an idiot an prescribes aquarium cleaner, you won't die. Sure, we'd love a 1M person study, double blind, 15 year followup analysis... but if you get sick now, I mean, right now, and your doctor says 1.5% chance of death, what do you do?

Comment Re:Last I heard it's likely to hit 200k (Score 1) 576

What terrifies me is that you had multiple people saying that it's OK if people die to save the Economy & the Dow Jones average.

So, here the question for you to ponder, what's the number of dead, if the dow goes down 90%, 80%, 70%, ... 10%? Is this modeled accurately? Exactly how accurately? How was the model verified? When was the model used in a past pandemic and how did it perform? I don't recall seeing that number, and don't we care about all human lives, including those that die in someway that stems from the economy?

Comment Re:He's right. (Score 1) 576

Hardly. The death rate for patients on ventilation for COVID-19 is about 2/3.

I have a question, why would anyone want to go on ventilation instead of just being cured? The $20 for the cure doesn't strike me as a good reason to opt out of being cured. I can't think of any reason why I would opt out of being cured and instead face ventilation. You, what would you do?

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