June 25, 2020

Potential Parkinson's breakthrough? Parkinson's reversed in mice

A potentially exciting breakthrough for generating new neurons and completely reversing Parkinson’s...at least in mice. I know that just because something works well in mice doesn’t mean it will act the same in humans, but hopefully this discovery will lead to a cure...one way or another.

https://scitechdaily.com/parkinsons-disease-eliminated-in-mice-by-one-time-genetic-treatment-that-generates-new-neurons/?fbclid=IwAR1fevSOcWaTBDosbclXLHBvSC63_O30xvluPp8eHwb64WpQn7iJT6jYGJs

June 22, 2020

Gilead to begin clinical trials of inhaled version of Remdesivir

Not a cure or a vaccine, but if remdesivir can be administered at home and be shown effective in earlier stages of infection, this gives me some hope. If it can be used prophylactically, even better. For example if someone has been exposed but not yet showing symptoms. Many anti-virals will prevent the virus from infecting a person if given after exposure.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/22/coronavirus-drug-gilead-to-begin-trials-for-the-inhaled-version-of-remdesivir.html

April 23, 2020

Psychiatrist: Trump Supporters think like 5 year olds

I apologize if this video has been posted before, but I just stumbled across it and thought I'd share. It gave me some real insight into why Trump supporters continue to support Trump no matter what. Basically their thought process and the way the view the world is akin to how a normal 5-year old sees the world. It's just that most people develop beyond that.

EDIT: Many are pointing out that the advice given at the end for how to combat Trump seems completely wrong. I absolutely agree! While the explanation from the psychologist re: Trump voters and why they support him no matter what made sense to me, the advice the video maker gave at the end for how to deal with Trump seemed exactly opposite of what needs to be done. Hillary DID give a lot of policy, maybe too much even. You can't combat people who are driven by emotion with "boring" policy. That made zero sense.

April 2, 2020

Is it just me, or are others disturbed reading posts mocking people who died from COVID-19

I’ve seen many posts on a different (progressive) site where they will cite a story about Trump supporters doing something stupid and ending up dying from coronavirus. The comments are brutal, mocking, and almost celebratory. To me they sound like comments Trump supporters would make. If it were just one or two stories that’s one thing, but I’ve seen several now and these types of mocking comments are the rule, not the exception.

One example was the couple in AZ who took fish tank chloroquine and the husband died. I heard an interview of the wife and it was absolutely heart breaking. It was clear this couple was TERRIFIED and wouldn’t venture out of their home (so they weren’t putting anyone else at risk). They believed Trump and were desperate to protect themselves. After her husband’s death the woman was filled with grief and pleaded with people not to believe what Trump or anyone but the doctor’s said. It broke my heart. Yet the overwhelming response from this particular popular liberal site was to laugh and mock about how stupid they were and that’s what they get for believing Trump. To talk about Darwin awards.

I don’t get it. Can’t we at least be human?

March 29, 2020

Results of using antibody plasma on 5 critically ill COVID-19 patients

Some New York hospitals are entering a trial of using COVID-19 antibodies as a treatment for COVID-19. China just published results from a very small trial (5 patients) who were not responding to other treatments. Looks promising. Let’s hope!


https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/hospitals-in-nyc-will-start-testing-therapy-using-plasma-of-those-infected/

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2763983

EDIT: Below is a fascinating article that describes the different targets of attack for halting coronavirus inside the body. It explains why certain therapies appear to show some promise.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/covid-19-the-biology-of-an-effective-therapy/

March 25, 2020

UPDATE on COVID-19 co-worker---he had to call 911

Last Wednesday I posted about a co-worker who had tested positive for COVID-19. In my post I had listed his symptoms and stated that he felt a bit better. Well, I just learned today that he crashed about 6 days in and had to call 911. He was having severe breathing issues. (My original post: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213123558)

I also have friend whose wife tested positive about 6 days ago. She is under 50, in great health, works as a radiologist. He told me she hasn't had to call in sick in over 20 years. She was dealing with the virus pretty well until Sunday night when she started having severe breathing problems. He said in all his years of dealing with illness in himself, wife, and kids he has never been so scared. They were minutes away from calling 911 but her symptoms eventually subsided to the point that she felt it wasn't necessary. Then again last night she had another breathing attack, but not as severe. She seems to be on the mend now, but still can't take more than 20 steps without feeling exhausted. They are thinking it will be another week before she can go back to work.

My friend has been exposed to his wife for days before she knew she was sick and has been taking care of her now that she is sick (with as many precaustions as possible). So far he is feeling fine. He was tested before his wife got sick as he was exposed at work. He still hasn't gotten his test results back as they are totally backed up.

I don't want to scare anyone, I think there is enough news out there to scare us all and then some. But I also wanted to pass this information on.

Finally, there are a lot of articles out there about Zinc helping to curb the effects of coronavirus. The jury is still out on whether or not it will have an effect, it's too early to tell. If you do take Zinc, do NOT take a formula that includes vitamin C. Apparently Vitamin C can neutralize the impact of the zinc ions in fighting the RNA virus. There is a scientific study on this that I was reading through but didn't understand a word. Below is a video that is a "RNA virus for dummies" type explanation. They talk about the Zinc study towards the middle of the video.

March 18, 2020

Japan developed drug shows promise against coronavirus

This is very hopeful: https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/China-says-Japan-developed-drug-Avigan-works-against-coronavirus|

Patients taking favipiravir tested negative after a median of four days, compared to 11 days in the control group, according to Zhang. There were no clear side effects, he added.

Another clinical trial in Wuhan revealed that patients treated with favipiravir recovered from fever in 2.5 days on average, versus 4.2 days for other patients. Coughing symptoms also improved within 4.6 days -- about 1.4 days earlier than those who did not take the drug.

Only 8.2% of the patients taking favipiravir needed respiratory aids, whereas 17.1% of the patients in the control group were put on devices.

Another article about this drug from the nypost. https://nypost.com/2020/03/18/japanese-flu-drug-clearly-effective-in-treating-coronavirus-officials-say/

"Researchers also found that the lung condition improved in about 91 percent of the patients who were given the medicine, compared to 62 percent of those who didn’t take it, according to the local media outlet Nikkei"

March 18, 2020

Coworker (works remote) tested positive

A co-worker of mine just announced in our (online) staff meeting that he tested positive for coronavirus. He is in his 30's and in good health. We were asking what his symptoms were and I'm passing them on.

1) Had a couple of weeks of bad sneezing, like allergies (may or may not be related as he suffers from allergies)
2) Woke up with a really bad headache about 3 days ago. He never gets headaches so it was unusual
3) That night he experienced a bad case of chills, worst chills he remembers ever having
4) Fever of 101.3
5) No respiratory symptoms at all
6) tested positive today

This virus seems to be all over the place with symptoms but apparently the main symptom that my co-worker mentioned was how bad the chills were.

He is feeling fine, symptoms haven't worsened since they first started about 3 days ago. He's actually feeling a bit better (no fever), just really tired.

I wanted to pass it on for what it's worth. This guy works from home so didn't effect anyone on our team. He's also been super careful about hand hygiene way before he got sick, so that's good.

March 7, 2020

"Welfare has done far more damage to the Black family than slavery could ever do"

That is what a co-worker of mine just said to me. I was so dumbstruck that I wasn't even sure how to respond. (Of course he is of white privilege, as am I). I finally replied "You're kidding, right? Blacks were murdered, raped, beaten, and their children wrenched from them and sold. They were PROPERTY of white men. And you say that "welfare" has done far more damage? There are so many things wrong with that statement I don't even know where to start. Your offensive comments about slavery aside, why do you only mention blacks when you speak of "welfare". 40% of welfare recepients are white 25% black, 15% Hispanic."

He doubled down with: "During the worst of slavery, the black family was totally nuclear and intact. The only thing that broke it up was the the actions of slave owners." Meaning, I guess, that the black slaves were living Leave to Beaver type lives even as slaves. If it weren't for those pesky slave owners raping, murdering, beating, forcing their kids to work, selling their kids--yeah, outside of that it was a nice intact family!

I finally just responded with "I can't have this discussion with you" and walked away.

This whole conversation started with a discussion on abortion. He was making the statement that "totally healthy women are aborting totally healthy babies in their 3rd trimester". I'm like "uh, I don't think it happening.". He argued it was and said those women should be put in jail. I asked him "ok so if you want to make sure that these totally healthy babies aren't aborted, what is your proposal to make sure they live after they are born? What are your proposals to provide them access to medical care, food, school, etc? Because it seems that those most opposed to abortion are also the most opposed to helping people in poverty, which is far more likely to cause the death of a child/baby than abortion in the 3rd trimester." That is when he went into the welfare state crap.

I just had to vent. I feel like I did a sh*tty job of arguing my point. I'm not good at that. I get too angry and emotional and end up babbling. That's why I walked away.

March 1, 2020

NASA images show dramatic drop in China pollution during production slowdown (coronavirus)

Dramatic satellite images show a sharp decline in pollution over China due to the production slowdown during the coronavirus. Wow— look at that lovely blue! They also saw a decrease in nitrogen oxide levels.

Is it possible we still have time to reverse climate change if such a dramatic effect can be seen by a production slow down? What if we were able to slow down pollution across the entire planet by massive and fast investment in clean energy? Uphill battle but seeing this dramatic difference in pollution levels gave me some hope.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51691967?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ocid=socialflow_twitter&ns_campaign=bbcnews