Methods to Combat the COVID-19 Coronavirus

[nivek]

CDC test to simultaneously detect coronavirus, influenza given FDA emergency use authorization
According to the FDA, combination tests offer less patient discomfort and faster, more comprehensive results

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has received an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration for a new diagnostic test aimed at simultaneously detecting and differentiating between influenza and the coronavirus, according to a press release Thursday.

"With the authorization of these tests, the FDA is helping address concerns in anticipation of this upcoming flu season during the COVID-19 pandemic, which might be especially worrying for some Americans," said FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen M. Hahn. "This is another example of the FDA working with test developers to bring important diagnostics to Americans. With just one swab or sample, combination tests can be used to get answers to Americans faster. This efficiency can go a long way to providing timely information for those sick with an unknown respiratory ailment."

According to the FDA, the combination tests use a single sample from a patient to check for multiple respiratory diseases, including the flu and COVID-19.

Combination tests offer many advantages, including less discomfort to patients due to fewer samples being taken and faster, more comprehensive results. In addition, combination tests require fewer supplies, such as swabs and personal protective equipment, and reduce pressure on supply chains for reagents, or substances used to cause chemical reactions.

(more on the link)

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[nivek]

Group of 239 scientists demand WHO admit coronavirus is AIRBORNE -meaning the public should wear masks indoors and AC units should be fitted with filters

Hundreds of scientists say there is evidence that novel coronavirus can linger in smaller particles in the air and infect people indoors, which could mean that masks may be required while inside. The new findings have prompted researchers to call for the World Health Organization to revise recommendations that could radically affect how people go about their days while indoors in confined spaces.

If their conclusion is accurate, people may need to keep wearing masks indoors, even when they are socially distanced, according to The New York Times.

It would also mean that ventilation systems in schools, nursing homes, residences, and businesses would need to add new filters to their air conditioning units. Another possibility is that ultraviolet light would be deployed to kill tiny, infected particles.

The WHO has said the coronavirus disease spreads primarily from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth, which are expelled when a person with COVID-19 coughs, sneezes or speaks.

In an open letter to the agency, which the researchers plan to publish in a scientific journal next week, 239 scientists in 32 countries outlined the evidence showing smaller particles can infect people, Times reported on Saturday.

(more on the link)

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[AlienView]

Low incidence of daily active tobacco smoking in patients with symptomatic COVID-19

"Results: The inpatient group was composed of 343 patients, median age 65 yr: 206 men (601%, median age 66 years) and 137 women (39.9%, median age 65 years) with a rate of daily smokers of 4.4% (5.4% of men and 2.9% of women).The outpatient group was composed of 139 patients, median age 44 years: 62 men (44.6 %, median age 43 years, and 77 women (55.4 %, median age 44 years). The daily smokers rate was 5.3% (5.1% of men and 5.5 % of women). In the French population, the daily smokers rate was 25.4% (28.2% of men and 22.9% of women)..........

Conclusions and relevance: Our cross sectional study in both COVID-19 out- and inpatients strongly suggests that daily smokers have a very much lower probability of developing symptomatic or severe SARS-CoV-2 infection as compared to the general population.......

In conclusion, our results suggest that active smokers may be protected against symptomatic covid-19. This was true for outpatients (who have less serious infections) as well as for hospitalized patients. Nicotine and the nicotinic receptor (and not the smoke of cigarettes per se, which is responsible for a very heavy public health burden with more than 78,000 deaths per year in France) may be indeed involved in the pathway leading to viral infection, and particularly in the most severe forms of the disease. Nicotine administration, e.g. via a transcutaneous route may be tested as a therapy to recapitulate the protecting effect of smoking against SARS CoV2 infection."

See whole article here:
Low incidence of daily active tobacco smoking in patients with symptomatic COVID-19 - Article (Preprint v3) | Qeios

If you have any problem with link try just googling the title.
- There are some people that don't want you to see this info

 

[nivek]

Wearing a face mask decreases your risk of being infected with coronavirus risk by 65%, scientists find

Wearing a face mask dramatically reduces your risk of falling ill with the novel coronavirus, scientists have found.

A team from the University of California Davis Children's Hospital has found that covering the nose and mouth decreased the risk of COVID-19 infection by 65 percent. Previously, researchers believed that mask-wearing was only beneficial to prevent transmission of the virus to others. But, as more studies have found, the piece of cloth doesn't just stop a sick person from spreading the virus, but also protects healthy people from falling ill.

'Everyone should wear a mask,' Dr Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Children's Hospital, said during a July 2 livestream. 'People who say, 'I don't believe masks work,' are ignoring scientific evidence. It's not a belief system. It's like saying, 'I don't believe in gravity.'

There are two main methods by which the coronavirus spreads with the first being via droplets that are expelled into the air when a person coughs or sneezes. Researchers say these droplets are about one-third the size of a human hair, but visible to the naked eye. The second way is from aerosol particles that humans spray into air when we speak, which are one-onehundreth the size of a human hair and nearly impossible to see. This method is more dangerous in terms of transmission, but can be lessened by avoiding crowded indoor spaces.

(more on the link)

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[Captain Tinkle]

Wearing a face mask decreases your risk of being infected with coronavirus risk by 65%, scientists find

Wearing a face mask dramatically reduces your risk of falling ill with the novel coronavirus, scientists have found.

A team from the University of California Davis Children's Hospital has found that covering the nose and mouth decreased the risk of COVID-19 infection by 65 percent. Previously, researchers believed that mask-wearing was only beneficial to prevent transmission of the virus to others. But, as more studies have found, the piece of cloth doesn't just stop a sick person from spreading the virus, but also protects healthy people from falling ill.

'Everyone should wear a mask,' Dr Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Children's Hospital, said during a July 2 livestream. 'People who say, 'I don't believe masks work,' are ignoring scientific evidence. It's not a belief system. It's like saying, 'I don't believe in gravity.'

There are two main methods by which the coronavirus spreads with the first being via droplets that are expelled into the air when a person coughs or sneezes. Researchers say these droplets are about one-third the size of a human hair, but visible to the naked eye. The second way is from aerosol particles that humans spray into air when we speak, which are one-onehundreth the size of a human hair and nearly impossible to see. This method is more dangerous in terms of transmission, but can be lessened by avoiding crowded indoor spaces.

(more on the link)

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Brings to mind the phrase "water is wet".

I would have thought it was pretty obvious that masks help stop the spread of the Virus but apparantly not!

 

[AD1184]

Brings to mind the phrase "water is wet".

I would have thought it was pretty obvious that masks help stop the spread of the Virus but apparantly not!

The medical authorities in many places are beholden to something called 'evidence-based medicine' (which sounds like a good thing, who could be against medicine based on evidence?). This means, however, that until mask use is proven to work in a large scale study, the medical authorities discount it as a possible public health measure.

Existing studies from before the pandemic did not generally show that mask usage worked, but they also suffered from severe methodological shortcomings (they did not take place during pandemics, not enough people in the study or control groups caught respiratory tract infections during the study periods, and there was frequently poor compliance with mask wearing by the study groups).

It didn't matter that the principle could be demonstrated in physics-based studies, fluid simulations or whatever other method you can think of, so long as no study associated mask wearing with lower rates of respiratory tract infections in a statistically significant fashion, no matter the difficulties in investigating this question. However, the major reason to wear masks is to prevent the wearer from infecting others, which cannot be very easily studied scientifically in a controlled manner, and would need to rely upon population-wide observations, as it is not about what the mask wearer does (a would-be subject of a controlled study), but what people around the mask wearer are doing.

 

[nivek]

 

[Thomas R. Morrison]

If the US had acted swiftly and decisively in the early stages of the outbreak, we too could've beaten Covid-19 just as New Zealand did...and saved hundreds of thousands of lives in the process:

"Coronavirus: How New Zealand went 'hard and early' to beat Covid-19" BBC, July 10, 2020

 

[nivek]

An experimental COVID-19 vaccine that is being developed by US biotech firm Moderna induced antibody responses against the coronavirus in all 45 participants - Reuters
https://www.yahoo.com/news/experimental-covid-19-vaccine-produces-213017042.html
Experimental Covid-19 vaccine produces antibodies in 100 percent of US trial participants

An experimental Covid-19 vaccine that is being developed by US biotech firm Moderna induced antibody responses against the coronavirus in all 45 participants of a human trial, a paper published Tuesday showed. Moderna had previously published "interim results" from its Phase 1 in the form of a press release on its website in May, which revealed the vaccine had generated immune responses in eight patients.

Though these were called "encouraging" by Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases official, the full study had been eagerly awaited by the scientific community. The company has since moved to the next stage of its trial, involving 600 people. The new paper was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The 45 participants were split into three groups of 15 each to test doses of 25 micrograms, 100 micrograms and 250 micrograms. They were given a second dose 28 days later. After the first round, antibody levels were found to be higher with higher level doses, and after the second round, participants had higher levels of antibodies than most patients who have Covid-19 and gone on to generate their own antibodies.

More than half the participants experienced mild or moderate side-effects, though these did not rise to the level where the trial would be called off. The side effects included fatigue, chills, headache, bodyache, and pain at the injection site.

Three participants did not receive their second dose, including one in the 25 microgram group who developed a skin rash on both legs, and two (one in the 25 microgram group, one in 250 group) who missed their window because they had Covid-19 symptoms, but their tests later returned negative.

Andrew Freedman, an infectious disease expert at the University of Cardiff who was not involved in the study, said the paper suggested the vaccine "is able to stimulate antibody production in a dose-dependent fashion." "Importantly, the antibodies generated were able to neutralize the virus" in lab conditions, he added.

"The side effects experienced by more than half the participants are quite common after other vaccinations, although the 'more severe adverse events' experienced by three of the subjects given the highest dose may mean that dose is too high to take forward," he said.

The Moderna vaccine belongs to a new class of vaccine that uses genetic material, in the form of RNA, to encode the information needed to grow the virus' spike protein inside the human body, in order to trigger an immune response.

The spike protein is a part of the virus it uses to invade human cells, but by itself is relatively harmless.

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[AlienView]

Of course everyone knows smoking tobacco kills, right? But what about this.......

French study claims smokers safe from Covid-19

A study by the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris claimed smokers are at a far lesser risk from Covid-19. The researchers have also suggested using nicotine for the treatment of Covid-19

Notice how the video ends by following the orthodox view by the World Health Organiztion
that smoking can not be good - Maybe? But not paying attention to reality that opposes
a biased mind set can be just as bad.

 

[nivek]

After battling coronavirus for 106 days Long Island man, Hafeez Yehman, emerged from the hospital with loved ones and hospital staff cheering by his side.

The 43-year-old was intubated three times during his hospitalization and will now enter rehab. Yehman’s four-month ordeal at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park was the longest stay of anyone to date at that hospital, according to Fox 5 New York. No hospital in New York has treated more COVID-19 patients than LIJ during the pandemic. More than 25,000 people have died in the state since the coronavirus outbreak began, Fox 5 New York reports.

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[nivek]

More evidence coronavirus can spread through the air: Scientists find droplets of all sizes can scatter the virus in unpredictable directions - and invent an 'extractor' to trap tiny infectious particles

Air transmission of Covid-19 is being underestimated - which could impact guidelines on social distancing, ventilation systems and shared spaces, warns new research. Researchers at Heriot-Wyatt University and University of Edinburgh found evidence that both small and large droplets can travel relatively long distances through the air - and not always in predictable directions with airflow.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned aerosol transmission of Covid-19 is being underestimated as a study reveals droplet spread from humans does not always follow airflow. Researchers say the new findings on droplet migration may have important implications for understanding the spread of airborne diseases such as COVID-19.

It comes after top US infectious disease specialist Dr Anthony Fauci admitted during a Monday JAMA interview that there is much unknown about how coronavirus spreads through the air and that he himself needs to 'study' papers that suggest big droplets can travel further than six feet.

Scientists of the study at Heriot-Watt University and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland echoed his sentiments that a better understanding of different droplet behaviors and their spread based on droplet size is also needed.

Government guidelines will need to be considered if air transmission is proven to be significant. Dr Cathal Cummins, an assistant professor at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, said: 'The flow physics of someone coughing is complex, involving turbulent jets and droplet evaporation. 'And the rise of Covid-19 has revealed the gaps in our knowledge of the physics of transmission and mitigation strategies.'

One such gap in the physics is a clear, simple description of where individual droplets go when ejected. Dr Cummins added: 'We wanted to develop a mathematical model of someone breathing that could be explored analytically to examine the dominant physics at play.'

The team created a mathematical model that clearly shows small, intermediate and large-sized droplets. They found simple formulas can be used to determine a droplet's maximum range. This has important implications for understanding the spread of airborne diseases such as Covid-19 because their tests revealed the absence of intermediate-sized droplets, as expected.

As a person breathes, they release droplets of different sizes that do not necessarily follow the airflow. Dr Cummins said: 'We represent breathing as a point source of both air and droplets and include a point sink to model the effect of extraction of air and droplets. 'To take their size and density differences into account, we use the Maxey-Riley equation, which describes the motion of a small but finite-sized rigid sphere through a fluid.'

This work gives researchers a general framework to understand the droplet dispersion. The model shows that bimodality, or having two modes, could actually be a property of the droplets themselves. Researchers provided formulas to predict when such droplets will have short ranges and say both large and small droplets can travel further than medium-sized ones.

(More on the link)

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[nivek]

Ontario doctor subject of complaints after COVID-19 tweets

Ontario doctor Kulvinder Kaur Gill has been criticized by fellow physicians and others after a series of tweets that they say spread misinformation about COVID-19.

CBC has reviewed two email complaints about Gill's tweets, including one by a family doctor to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, which sets regulatory standards for doctors in the province.

One of her tweets, from Aug. 6, stated: "#Humanity's existing effective defences against #COVID19 to safely return to normal life now includes: -Truth, -T-cell Immunity, -Hydroxychloroquine."

That tweet has since been taken down for violating Twitter's rules. Twitter doesn't confirm what rules a specific tweet may have violated when it has been taken down. Many doctors also replied critically to Gill's tweet.

Hydroxychloroquine is a drug used to treat malaria and some autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. It has been touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as a potential fix for COVID-19. However, the drug has been shown to be ineffective in combating the virus, according to a major study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Medical bodies such as the Canadian Pediatric Society say hydroxychloroquine has no significant benefit in fighting COVID-19. Health Canada has not authorized hydroxychloroquine to treat or cure COVID-19 and has warned Canadians about products making false and misleading claims. It says hydroxychloroquine can have serious side effects. Only recently did Health Canada authorize, with conditions, remdesivir to treat severe cases of COVID-19.

On Aug. 4, Gill tweeted "If you have not yet figured out that we don't need a vaccine, you are not paying attention," adding the hashtag #FactsNotFear. Gill identifies herself as Kulvinder Kaur on her Twitter profile.

Another of Gill's tweets on the same day states, "There is absolutely no medical or scientific reason for this prolonged, harmful, and illogical lockdown."

Gill operates a clinic in Brampton, Ont., and she has over 22,000 followers on Twitter. She is also the president and co-founder of Concerned Ontario Doctors, a self-described grassroots group that has been critical of the Ontario Medical Association, the organization that represents 34,000 of the province's doctors.

All practicing physicians in the province are legally mandated to pay dues to the OMA, though they do not have to be members of the group. The Concerned Doctors of Ontario did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Gill and others have said the OMA attempts to muzzle doctors, and it refuses to be financially transparent and accountable to its members.

According to the CPSO, Gill's specialty is pediatrics.

Gill did not respond to CBC News's multiple requests for comment. On Twitter, she said,"There are always opposing views in medicine — historically many have led to some of the most significant medical advances.

"In a democratic society: there must always be open, constructive, public debate. Voices of Physicians & Scientists must never be attacked, censored or silenced."

Gill has also retweeted another doctor, Simone Gold, who claimed there was a financial incentive to discredit hydroxychloroquine as a treatment. Gold's tweet was taken down for violating Twitter rules, but not Gill's retweet.

Gold was one of the doctors in a 40-minute long video that went viral at the end of July, which promoted hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19. At least 17 million people saw one version of the video, though both Facebook and Twitter removed copies from their platforms.

'This is a threat to me in my practice'

Alex Nataros, one of the people who filed a complaint with the CPSO, is a family doctor in Comox, B.C. He disagrees with Gill's opinions.

"This is a threat to me in my practice and my professional integrity here in British Columbia," he said of Gill's tweets on hydroxychloroquine. "It's a threat to my 1,500 patients to have a Canadian licensed physician promoting misinformation that is harmful."

He said many of his patients are older and may already have health issues, and he spends a lot of time re-educating his patients about the pandemic.

"I spent too much of my time every day debunking what they've read on Facebook or read on Twitter or in Instagram," he said.

Nataros's views are echoed by Michelle Cohen, a family doctor in Brighton, Ont.

"She is promoting some misinformation that's quite dangerous, especially considering that we are in the middle of a public health crisis," said Cohen, who tweeted her concern at the CPSO, though she did not file a formal complaint.

Cohen said that Gill's tweets are setting the stage for people to reject a vaccine that could be very helpful.

Gill says she is being 'defamed'

In an email to CBC News, the CPSO said it doesn't comment on ongoing investigations.

"It's important that physicians recognize the influence they may have on social media, particularly when it comes to public health. The CPSO believes questioning the value of vaccinations or countering public health best practices during COVID-19 represents a risk to the public and is not acceptable behaviour," wrote a spokesperson for the CPSO.

"Physicians who are found to be spreading misleading medical information that may bring harm towards patients can face practice restrictions or suspension for their actions."

On Sunday, Gill tweeted that she "will not abide being defamed" and has retained legal counsel.

She also said, "#Groupthink is dangerous. Well-intentioned people make irrational or detrimental decisions spurred by urge to conform or the belief that dissent is impossible."

"It is often fuelled by a cult of personality ahead of critical thinking and dissent is silenced with threat of reprisals," she wrote.

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[nivek]

Why the CDC wants you to wear a mask

"We're still generating 50,000 to 70,000 new cases a day, 1,000 Americans are dying every day," said Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. "This is all wholly preventable."

The rate of daily Covid-19 deaths dipped nationwide in early July, but has steadily increased since then, according to Johns Hopkins data.

Nationwide, 299 deaths were reported on July 5. On August 5, that number had jumped to 1,372. And for five days in a row last week, more than 1,000 Americans died each day.

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[nivek]

New coronavirus test could give results in seconds

Israel is working on a new COVID-19 test that could provide results exponentially faster than most standard tests being used in the U.S. The new test consists of patients rinsing their mouths with a saline solution and spitting it into a vial. A small machine shines a light on the sample, and depending on how the light interacts with the sample, it can determine if the coronavirus is present.

This new testing method takes just seconds and has a 95% success rate, Reuters reported. “So far we have very promising results in this new method which will be much more convenient and much cheaper,” said Eli Schwartz, who is leading the testing trials at the Center for Geographic Medicine and Tropical Diseases at Sheba Medical Center.

A rapid test like this could be revolutionary and allow more people to be tested in a shorter amount of time. Currently, most people that get tested in the U.S. have to wait several days to get there results back. This new method of testing is also relatively cheap with the device priced at less than $200 and each test costing less than a quarter, Reuters said.


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[AlienView]

I posted this earlier - This is a newer version from the same medical group:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, August 16, 2020

Preliminary Report of Chinese High Dose Vitamin C for Covid-19 Treatment Studies
by Richard Z. Cheng, M.D., Ph.D.

"
(OMNS August 16, 2020) Covid-19 has caused more than 700,000 deaths and USD$86 trillion economic losses worldwide in just over half a year! And yet, there are still no specific drugs or treatments that the top medical advisors (medical agencies) in US are willing to recommend. Really? No specific treatments for Covid-19? Effective, safe and inexpensive treatments for viral infections including Covid-19 do exist. But these medical advisors (medical agencies) either have turned a blind eye or are suppressing these treatments intentionally or not.

Since my early reports of high dose IV vitamin C (HDIVC) for Covid-19 treatment, by Dr. Zhiyong Peng's group in Wuhan and Dr. Enqian Mao's group in Shanghai [1,2], I have been receiving regular inquiries about the results. The studies have been analyzed and papers have been written up. These studies show very promising results including statistically significant reduction in mortality and inflammation of Covid-19 patients treated with HDIVC, with no significant side effect. But no major medical journals have agreed to publish the papers.

While we are waiting for journals to publish these important studies, I'd like to share some of the key results of these studies, as they may help the world in combating Covid-19................"

Preliminary Report of Chinese High Dose Vitamin C for Covid-19 Treatment Studies

 

[AlienView]

Dietary therapy and herbal medicine for COVID-19 prevention: A review and perspective

"
Abstract
A novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), transmitted from humans to humans, has rapidly become the pandemic responsible for the current global health crisis. COVID-19 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is said to be of zoonotic origin. This review describes the etiology and signs and symptoms as well as the current allopathic therapy for COVID-19. Additionally, findings of previous studies on the immunomodulatory effects and antiviral activities of particular foods and herbs on influenza virus and coronaviruses have been collated, with the aim of promoting the use of dietary therapy and herbal medicine as COVID-19 preventive therapies, while specific drugs and vaccines are yet to be discovered or are still under development. The volume of existing reports is irrefutable evidence that foods and herbs possess a potential antiviral ability against SARS-CoV-2 and can prevent COVID-19. Foods and herbs could be used as dietary or complementary therapy to prevent infection and strengthen immunity, as antiviral agents for masks, as disinfectants to curb aerosol transmission, or as sanitizing agents to disinfect surfaces. However, these hypotheses need to be experimentally verified for SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 patients."

Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Coronavirus, Dietary therapy, Herbal medicine, Herbs, Prevention

See whole article here:
Dietary therapy and herbal medicine for COVID-19 prevention: A review and perspective

 

[nivek]

THC chemical in cannabis could help prevent and treat deadly COVID-19 complications

Cannabis could be used to help treat potentially deadly complications with COVID-19, a growing body of research suggests. Researchers at the University of South Carolina performed a trio of studies on mice which found that THC - the chemical that gives cannabis its mind-altering effect - could help prevent a harmful immune response that causes Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). ARDS is one of the most common complications for patients with severe cases of coronavirus. It can be fatal or lead to permanent pulmonary scarring.

The goal of the USC study was to see if THC could block the immune response that leads to ARDS developing by introducing a toxin into the mice that triggers the response. In dozens of experiments across all three studies, all of the mice that were given THC after the toxin survived, while those that didn't get the chemical died.

The researchers cautioned that their work is still far from conclusive and stressed that they are not encouraging people to use marijuana to self-medicate for COVID-19. However, they said the preliminary research showed immense promise of THC as a treatment for severe cases of the virus that has already killed more than 209,000 people in the US and more than one million around the world.



Prakash Nagarkatti, who co-authored the USC studies, explained the research in an interview with The State in August. 'The underlying mechanism is your immune system goes haywire and starts destroying your lungs and all your other organs,' Nagarkatti said of ARDS. 'It's like a car where you're putting on a lot of accelerator, but the brakes aren't working. Basically what's going to happen is your car is going to crash because you can't stop it. And that's basically what's happening with ARDS.'

ARDS is a form of lung failure that occurs when small blood vessels in the lungs begin to leak fluid, blocking air from the bloodstream. It's been known to strike in COVID-19 patients when their immune systems go into overdrive to fight the virus and begin attacking healthy cells.

The USC studies found that THC, which stands for Tetrahydrocannabinol, helps suppress the body's immune response while also increasing healthy bacteria in the lungs. The findings were so promising that the researchers are now looking to begin human trials to further examine the potential effectiveness of the chemical in fighting coronavirus.

But Nagarkatti emphasized that his team's research in no way advocates for people to use marijuana if they think they have coronavirus. 'I just want to make sure our research is not interpreted as marijuana is good for COVID 19,' Nagarkatti said. 'If you start using THC early on it might worsen the effect because it suppresses the immune system.'

Meanwhile other studies have found evidence of marijuana's potential effectiveness in treating the virus.

A study by researchers in Israel found that a specific terpene compound in cannabis could also be used to prevent cytokine storm syndrome, an inflammatory response that can lead to fever, fatigue and vomiting in COVID-19 patients. Early results from that study, which was published in August, found that terpene was twice as effective in suppressing cytokine storms than Dexamethasone, a common corticosteroids treatment for inflammation.

And another study published by Canadian researchers in June found that a specific strain of cannabis could help block the virus from entering the body in the first place. 'Similar to other respiratory pathogens, SARS-CoV2 is transmitted through respiratory droplets, with potential for aerosol and contact spread. It uses receptor-mediated entry into the human host via angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE2) that is expressed in lung tissue, as well as oral and nasal mucosa, kidney, testes, and the gastrointestinal tract,' the study states.

'Modulation of ACE2 levels in these gateway tissues may prove a plausible strategy for decreasing disease susceptibility.' The researchers said that their strain of cannabis targets those ACE2 receptors, potentially blocking the virus from taking hold in the body.

While each of the aforementioned studies are still in their early stages, together they paint a promising picture of marijuana's role in fighting the global pandemic.

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[nivek]

Human coronaviruses ‘inactivated’ by mouthwash, oral rinses: study

A new study conducted by researchers at the Penn State College of Medicine has found that a common dental item can inactivate human coronaviruses: mouthwash and oral rinses.

For the study, the results of which were published in the Journal of Medical Virology, researchers tested various oral and nasopharyngeal rinses — which included a 1% solution of baby shampoo, a neti pot, peroxide sore-mouth cleansers, and mouthwashes — to determine how well they inactivated human coronaviruses.

The baby shampoo solution, “which is often used by head and neck doctors to rinse the sinuses,” the researchers noted in a news release regarding the findings, was particularly effective; the solution inactivated “greater than 99.9% of human coronavirus after a two-minute contact time,” they said.

The mouthwash and oral rinses were also efficacious, they found: "Many inactivated greater than 99.9% of virus after only 30 seconds of contact time and some inactivated 99.99% of the virus after 30 seconds.”

More specifically, researchers “used a test to replicate the interaction of the virus in the nasal and oral cavities with the rinses and mouthwashes,” as the nasal and oral cavities are thought to be main points of entry for human coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, better known as COVID-19. Though the researchers didn’t specifically test SARS-CoV-2 in the study, the novel virus is genetically similar to the other human coronaviruses tested, leading the researchers to hypothesize that the results would be similar.

A strain of human coronavirus was mixed with “baby shampoo solutions, various peroxide antiseptic rinses and various brands of mouthwash,” allowing the solutions to iterate with the virus for different amounts of time, including 30 seconds, one minute, and two minutes. The solutions were then diluted to “prevent further virus inactivation,” they wrote.

“To measure how much virus was inactivated, the researchers placed the diluted solutions in contact with cultured human cells. They counted how many cells remained alive after a few days of exposure to the viral solution and used that number to calculate the amount of human coronavirus that was inactivated as a result of exposure to the mouthwash or oral rinse that was tested,” per the news release.

Lead study author Craig Meyers, a distinguished professor of microbiology and immunology and obstetrics and gynecology, said the results show that the amount of virus (viral load) in an infected person’s mouth could be reduced by using these common over-the-counter products, ultimately helping to reduce the spread of the novel virus.

“While we wait for a vaccine to be developed, methods to reduce transmission are needed,” Meyers said in a statement. “The products we tested are readily available and often already part of people’s daily routines.”

The team’s findings bolster past research that also looked at how oral rinses and mouthwashes may be able to reduce the viral load of human coronaviruses. For instance, a study published in the scientific journal Function in May also concluded that mouthwash could play a role in preventing the transmission of the novel coronavirus.

Additionally, a more recent study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases came to a similar conclusion. Meyers said that his findings add to this research, noting that his team evaluated the salutations at longer contact times in addition to studying “over-the-counter products and nasal rinses that were not evaluated in the other study.”

“People who test positive for COVID-19 and return home to quarantine may possibly transmit the virus to those they live with,” said Meyers. “Certain professions including dentists and other health care workers are at a constant risk of exposure. Clinical trials are needed to determine if these products can reduce the amount of virus COVID-positive patients or those with high-risk occupations may spread while talking, coughing or sneezing. Even if the use of these solutions could reduce transmission by 50%, it would have a major impact.”

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[nivek]

Hospitalized coronavirus patients who take daily aspirin have lower death risk, study finds

Hospitalized coronavirus patients who took daily aspirin for cardiovascular health had a lower death risk than those who did not take aspirin, according to the findings of a new study conducted by researchers with the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Patients who took aspirin also had a lower risk of complications, while their chances of requiring admission into the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) and being ventilated also fell, according to a news release regarding the findings, which were published Wednesday in the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia.

For the study, the team looked at the medical records of some 412 patients who were hospitalized due to complications with COVID-19. The average age of patients was 55. All patients in the study were treated at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore or three other hospitals along the East Coast, per the release. Any of the patients’ preexisting conditions, such as hypertension, diabetes, kidney disease, and others, as well as age, gender, body mass index and race, were all accounted for in the study.

Roughly a quarter of the patients were taking daily, low-dose aspirin before they were admitted or began taking the drug shortly after they were admitted to the hospital.

Following their analysis, the study authors concluded that those who took aspirin had a 44% reduced chance of requiring ventilation, and a 43% less risk of requiring admission into the ICU. Most importantly, the researchers said, those who took aspirin also had a 47% reduced risk of dying in the hospital compared to those who did not take the drug.

“The patients in the aspirin group did not experience a significant increase in adverse events such as major bleeding while hospitalized,” they added. (Daily use of low-dose aspirin, which is often recommended for those who have previously suffered a heart attack or stroke to prevent future blood clots, can increase the risk “of major bleeding or peptic ulcer disease,” the researchers explained.)

The researchers hypothesize that aspirin’s blood-thinning effects may have played a role in the positive outcomes for hospitalized patients taking the drug, as COVID-19 infections “increase the risk of dangerous blood clots that can form in the heart, lungs, blood vessels and other organs. Complications from blood clots can, in rare cases, cause heart attacks, strokes and multiple organ failure as well as death,” they said.

“This is a critical finding that needs to be confirmed through a randomized clinical trial,” said study leader Dr. Jonathan Chow, an assistant professor of anesthesiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, in a statement. “If our finding is confirmed, it would make aspirin the first widely available, over-the-counter medication to reduce mortality in COVID-19 patients.”

The researchers in the study also noted that the findings provide “cautious optimism,” but warned any COVID-19 patients should speak with their doctor before taking daily aspirin, as those who suffer from chronic kidney disease or use other medications such as blood thinners may not be able to take the drug.

“While confirmatory studies are needed to prove that aspirin use leads to better outcomes in COVID-19, the evidence thus far suggests that patients may want to discuss with their doctor whether it is safe for them to take aspirin to manage potentially prevent serious complications,” said the Dr. E. Albert Reece, the executive vice president for Medical Affairs, UM Baltimore, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers distinguished professor and dean at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, in a statement.

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