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[News] The Coronavirus Good News thread



The Wizard

Well-known member
Jul 2, 2009
18,399
Interesting, science will get on top of this soon.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www....ed-covid-19-using-low-doses-of-radiation/amp/

Copy and paste:

Human medical trials have begun on severely ill COVID-19 patients using low-doses of radiation. The first results on a very small group were published this week in a non-peer-reviewed journal that exists to get critical results out quickly to the scientific and medical community.

The results were quite extraordinary.

Researchers at Emory University Hospital, led by Dr. Mohammad Khan, Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology, treated five COVID-19 patients with severe pneumonia who were requiring supplemental oxygen and whose health was visibly deteriorating. Their median age was 90 with a range from 64 to 94, four were female, four were African-American, and one was Caucasian.

These patients were given a single low-dose of radiation (1.5 Gy) to both lungs, delivered by a front and back beam configuration. Patients were in an out of the Radiotherapy Department in 10 to 15 minutes.

Within 24 hours, four of the patients showed rapid improvement in oxygenation and mental status (more awake, alert and talkative) and were being discharged from the hospital 12 days later. Blood tests and repeated imaging of the lungs confirmed that the radiation was safe and effective, and did not cause adverse effects – no acute skin, pulmonary, gastrointestinal or genitourinary toxicities.

The gray (Gy) is a dose unit of ionizing radiation defined as the absorption of one joule of radiation energy per kilogram of matter. The Gy replaces the older unit of the rad, and 1 Gy = 100 Rad.

This treatment is critical because severe COVID-19 cases cause cytokine release syndrome, also known as a cytokine storm. Such a storm is a deadly uncontrolled systemic inflammatory response of the body’s immune system resulting from the release of great amounts of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which act as a major factor in producing acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, which is what kills.

It’s why we need ventilators and ICU beds so badly, and why this pandemic threatens to overwhelm our hospital systems.

One reason why this trial is so important, and why the success rate was so exciting, is COVID-19’s increasing fatality rates with age – 8% for patients aged 70 to 79 and 14.8% for those aged 80 and over – so showing this treatment is safe and effective for these elderly patients was vital. Mortality rates are even higher if you get hospitalized and are in the ICU, over 50%.

It’s the anti-inflammatory effects of radiation, not its antiviral action, and it’s these anti-inflammatory effects that is invaluable in helping patients with COVID-19 and that were demonstrated in this trial.

We are already completely set up for these radiation treatments at almost every hospital and cancer center – no new preparation, additional equipment, or training is needed. There is no supply chain issue with this treatment.

As discussed previously, several medical institutions are starting radiation therapies for COVID-19. The Clinicaltrials.gov website gives information on these trials, including an Italian clinical trial, a Spanish clinical trial and others that have begun and more have recently been added to the ClinicalTrials.gov website, with five of them currently recruiting patients. The countries represented are USA(2), Spain(2), Italy (1), Iran(1), and India (1).

Dr. James Welsh at Loyola University Medical Center, and former Chairman of the Board of the American College of Radiation Oncology and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Radiation Oncology, is moving to begin a national trial within the next few months on this treatment using low-dose radiation to the lungs.have
 






Poojah

Well-known member
Nov 19, 2010
1,881
Leeds
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-53034924

Ok, so the headline here doesn’t sound like good news. Read beyond that. There is one potentially significant line in this piece:

“A total of 45 people out of 517 tested at the Xinfadi market tested positive for Covid-19, a district official said. None were displaying symptoms.”

So, out of 45 infected people 100% were asymptomatic. This reinforces what I believe is happening across the world - Covid-19’s prevalence is not diminishing, but it’s virulence is. Lots of people are still getting it, but few are noticing because it’s no longer doing harm to its hosts in most cases. Asymptomatic people do not seek a test, and so apparent cases drop.
 
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LamieRobertson

Not awoke
Feb 3, 2008
48,421
SHOREHAM BY SEA
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-53034924

Ok, so the headline here doesn’t sound like good news. Read beyond that. There is one potentially significant line in this piece:

“A total of 45 people out of 517 tested at the Xinfadi market tested positive for Covid-19, a district official said. None were displaying symptoms.”

So, out of 45 infected people 100% were asymptomatic. This reinforces what I believe is happening across the world - Covid-19’s prevalence is not diminishing, but it’s virulence is. Lots of people are still getting it, but few are noticing because it’s no longer doing harm to its hosts in most cases. Asymptomatic people do not seek a test, and so apparent cases drop.

Very interesting..thanks for posting...I heard about the incident on the radio earlier today...no mention at all about all 45 being asymptotic
 






The Wizard

Well-known member
Jul 2, 2009
18,399
Sunday & Monday always lower due to weekend lag but only 27 deaths announced from NHS England, really took me aback seeing that number. A decrease from 72 last Sunday.
 




Tom Hark Preston Park

Will Post For Cash
Jul 6, 2003
72,327
Coronavirus: Safe for the public to shop again - Sunak

AKA F*ck 'Following The Science', just get out there and spend money hand over fist in shops
 




Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo

I believe in Joe Hendry
Oct 4, 2003
12,070










Mellotron

I've asked for soup
Jul 2, 2008
32,468
Brighton
36 in all settings, lowest daily total since before lockdown.

Usual weekend caveat and RIP to those lost, but encouraging numbers.

Hopefully will see a single digit day or two before June is out.
 


The Wizard

Well-known member
Jul 2, 2009
18,399
Agree with all the above, and though the new cases remains steady in the mid/low 1000s testing by date of specimen shows a still consistent drop in cases that require medical care. 1100 of the 1500 cases today are from Pillar 2 of testing which is general public testing, most of which are likely to be mild cases.

208B0450-A84F-4C9F-B803-737056DB4C2F.jpeg
 














Yoda

English & European
A positive headline on the Evening Argus website....that’s novel

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/18516844.no-coronavirus-deaths-registered-whole-sussex/

I know it might sound as a moan, but I do wish they wouldn't add Surrey & Sussex Hospitals Trust's figures with Sussex deaths. Yes they run some minor services from Crawley & Horsham Hospitals, but they are primarily run by Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust who provide non acute care. Their main acute site is East Surrey Hospital in Redhill. Yes, I expect some patients from the Crawley & Horsham area's were taken there, but it mainly provides a service for the central Surrey area so to include their figures will skewer the overall Sussex figures.

Based from that, you could say the actual figures for Sussex are 352-436 (allowing Sussex SASH deaths to be a generous third of their figure).
 




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