The administration needs to support this program just as it does vaccine development.
Saliva tests are useless if people who test positive refuse to quarantine. If 30% of Americans are so selfish they wonât even put on a damn mask at the grocery store, do we really expect them to quarantine their snowflake selves?
I pin my hope on cure or vaccine. If thereâs a decent cure, it matters less if people get infected. It will become a routine, take a pill, drink plenty of water and rest. You will be ok after 4-5 days kind of thing.
There is literally nothing like that on the horizon. There is not a drug being tested right now that youâd take when you tested positive and it would make covid go away.
And why would we expect something like that magic pill? Do we have such a pill for the common colds that are caused by coronaviruses?
A negative test would be mandatory each day to enter any public placeâschools, grocery stores, business offices, restaurants. No negative test, no entry. Set up tents in the parking lot or test people in their car.
Colleges could have testing on the quad each morning. If you test negative, you get a bracelet for the day, like at an amusement park or ski slope. If you test positive, an administrator escorts you straight to quarantine.
Can you estimate how many tests that would be? If we test half of the population every day, we need 100-150 million tests daily. They canât produce them fast enough.
.
We donât because the common colds are caused by other viruses in addition to corona, and common colds have never been as a giant problem as this virus. So not exactly a hot area of research that gets funding. But we finally do have a pharmaceutical solution of sorts to HIV - those cocktails of pills make the lethal virus a chronic condition. My husbandâs doc thinks this is what will happen with Covid: we will never have an effective vaccine but will be able to cobble together a treatment regimen that will make Covid manageable. Not sure I agree with the doc that a vaccine will never be found but given our populationâs reluctance to get vaccinated, we might never achieve herd immunity.
I donât think this link has been posted, but here you can get information on enrolling in the vaccine and monoclonal antibody studies. They are looking for tens of thousands of volunteers.
These trials can not be completed, nor can the products be approved if enough people donât volunteer.
Why not? You just print the antibodies onto paper strips. Or you could use BDâs method which is like a rapid flu test. Both use a lot fewer resources than the PCR test, and have the added benefit of immediately removing contagious people from circulation.
BD alone can manufacture 2 million per week, and if companies knew it would be profitable, they would develop their own tests, or manufacture a research groupâs test.
I am hopeful that either state or federal leadership will realize that cheap, fast, every day testing is our best option and start supporting it and insisting on it.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/07/03/opinion/coronavirus-tests.amp.html
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/3m-pairs-mit-to-develop-a-paper-based-coronavirus-diagnostic-test
Having an inexpensive rapid test, like the saliva test strips, could be a game changer, even for the reluctant.
Right now, as you know, asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic (mild cases) are a huge problem.
People fall under the illusion that they have not been in contact with anyone who is sick and could not possible be infectious themselves, and then they carry on with normal or semi-normal activities that seem entirely benign to them â like a bunch of 20-somethings hanging out with their crew.
These tests could make such a difference in vulnerable work places, and in schools.
If you can get passed the paywall,
Cholesterol-lowering drug could see coronavirus treated like common cold, study finds
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/a231cd65-0f1c-31fb-bb2f-52a6ff32742f/cholesterol-lowering-drug.html
Weâd need 100+million every single day. 2M a week is a drop in the bucket. Still good but it is not going to solve any problem.
I called to check about getting tested since we just returned from out of state. The woman said that itâs her understanding thereâs so much demand for tests in Maine now that the waiting time for results is 10 days. There would be only 12 days left in our quarantine time after getting the test tomorrow, so we may as well stay at home.
Just like younger Sâ friend who came home from a hotspot vacation with a fever, chills, sore throat, and vomiting. Parents have now declared it food poisoning. It doesnât sound like they plan to test him.
I am curious to see what the vaccine is like and tempted to volunteer for testing. Except I am so different. I keep my body a bit too clean, no medications, no drinks, no drugs. And over the age.
Does half of the US population enter high risk situations daily (e.g. indoor work situations with other people, indoor classrooms at school, eating at restaurants, contact with medically vulnerable people, etc.)?
Canât see how testing is going to be effective in the next few months given schools starting again, both K-12 and college. As @MaineLonghorn mentioned above, testing results take a super long time right now. I also live in northern New England, in a state that has maintained a fairly low rate of infection. Doesnât matter. Weâre all interconnected when it comes to testing/testing supplies. The wait for results is 7-10 days. This is BEFORE the need will ramp up due to rising cases and the need to test students.
And screw any idea of effective contact tracing because a) most areas havenât invested in it and b) even if they did, refer back to a 7-10 lag time for test results.
Kind of surprised it took until mid-July to acknowledge this.
CDC adds cancer patients to list of those at increased risk of severe illness from Covid-19
From CNN Healthâs Naomi Thomas
Cancer has been added to the US Centers for Disease Control and Preventionâs list of underlying medical conditions that increase risk of severe illness from Covid-19.
âRevisions were made on July 17, 2020 to reflect recent data supporting increased risk of severe Covid-19 among individuals with cancer,â the CDC website says.
The increased risk applies to people of all ages.
The other conditions included on the list include chronic kidney disease, obesity, serious heart conditions and Type 2 diabetes.
They also list conditions that could lead to an increased risk of severe illness. These include asthma, cystic fibrosis and high blood pressure.
The CDC says it will continue to update information as more becomes known.
Agree. Most common colds are so mild-no incentive to spend billions to develop drugs for them when most people just wait it out with or use OTC meds to address symptoms.
So far, over the last month or two, there have been so many potential âbreakthroughâ drugs: first of course hydroxychloroquine, Pepcid, Ivermectin, remdesivir, monoclonal antibodies, tocilizumab, azithromycin, convalescent plasmaâŠWell, here is a list of 271 (and 198 vaccines):
https://covid-19tracker.milkeninstitute.org/
After awhile I feel skeptical. After all, hydroxychloroqine apparently killed the virus in a test tube. On a good day, I am still capable of feeling hope for a new promising treatment. So I appreciate these posts.
Just hoping people can stay safe until something actually works- but of course many cannot stay safe but work in jobs or take public transportation or live in crowded conditions.