Remdesivir

Some of the statistical background.....it’s a bit troubling that the Chinese study shows no effect, and it was the study with patients who were sicker:

Patients in the trial generally lived, though this may be because their illness was not that severe to begin with. For most of the study, patients already on ventilators were not enrolled.

Eight percent of the patients treated with five days of remdesivir died, compared to 11% of the patients treated for 10 days. Outside of Italy, where 77 patients were treated, the overall mortality rate across the entire study was 7%, Gilead said. Those mortality rates are lower than those seen in other studies, which have been in the teens and twenties.

Only 5% of patients in the five-day group and 10% in the 10-day group had side effects that led to a discontinuation. The most common bad effects — and it’s impossible to tell which were from the drug — were nausea and acute respiratory failure. High liver enzymes occurred in 7.3% of patients, with 3% of patients discontinuing the drug due to elevated liver tests.

A full evaluation of the results will have to wait until complete data are available.

In the China study, also published Wednesday in the Lancet, investigators found that remdesivir “did not significantly improve the time to clinical improvement, mortality, or time to clearance of virus in patients with serious COVID-19 compared with placebo.”

There was a 23% improvement in time to clinical improvement for remdesivir compared to placebo, but the difference was not statistically significant. At the median, remdesivir-treated patients improved in 20 days compared to 23 days for placebo patients. At one month, 14% of the remdesivir patients had died compared to 13% of the placebo-treated patients. 

The China study enrolled patients with more severe Covid-19 than the study conducted by NIAID. The China study was also stopped early because of difficulties enrolling patients as the pandemic waned in China.

The Indian study showed that the Hydroxchoroquine was the most available medication - but got a 54% score in effectiveness,   Remdisivir was not included in the assessment as there is as yet no conclusive evidence as to its real effectiveness, 

The two drugs they found in India being most effective in treatment are Favipiravir and Tocilizumab,     , both with a treatment efficiency capacity of 73%.   See the following article on their findings:-

  Govt Task Force Ranks Favipiravir, Tocilizumab as Most Promising Drugs Against Covid-19

You can google the article.  What is clear is that no top solution has as yet been found anywhere,  

“ For most of the study, patients already on ventilators were not enrolled. “

This is a very telling part. My doctor told me that patients already on ventilators, for conditions other than coronavirus, have a fifty percent chance of survival as it is. I saw an article which stated that coronavirus patients on ventilators only have a 34% chance. 

That was one of the main reasons why my treatment has been put on hold for the moment. She told me that I have a close to zero chance of survival, should I pick up the coronavirus and end up on a ventilator. I have been in isolation since 20 March and I stick to the rules. I am quite healthy with no discomfort or symptoms and I’m by no means planning on tempting fate. 

The article mentions Tocilizumab. Without googling it, I would guess that it is some kind of drug that boosts your immune system. I had been treated with Pembrolizumab, a drug used in immunotherapy, but they are now considering switching to some other drug in the same class, also ending in ....izumab.

Vlag at this stage the things we don’t know are still too daunting for those at risk.....far too many people have been making empty promises. Best I can figure out we are still in the hands of nature for a cure. That being the case, you are wise to take no chances.

Yep. You just don’t go kick a rattle snake. 

Ceradyne

I spoke to Johnny Rey yesterday,  He is the brother-in-law of Penny Coelen Rey,  Like you his children does not allow him and his wife to leave their home - he is already 85 years old.  He told me that a son of Penny and his wife - together with 4 other couples went to Switzerland to go skiing and all 8 of them came back testing positive.   They are not ill and is in isolation until they are ousting negative.  

There were large numbers wealthy people from Johannesburg, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape that came back  from especially Europe that tested positive after extensive contact with local tested positive and that is where the SA problem started.

There as been no positive tests amongst the more or less 50 000 residents in the Roversdale Municipal area - so we are still restricted and life remains a total misery for a lot of us.

Please stay safe and be careful.   That is all I wish for you and your family.  My brother will be 80 years old next week and the tragedy is I cannot even go and visit him on his birthday - he stays in a townhouse about 1,5 kilometers from my house.            .