Is convalescent plasma the next silver bullet for Covid-19

 Is Convalescent Plasma the next silver bullet for Covid?

Last week I heard on the news that convalescent plasma (CP) had been approved in record time by the FDA as a treatment for Covid-19. This makes a little more sense than rushing through hydroquinone as an unresearched treatment for Covid with it's potential for deadly side effects.

Let me explain what this is exactly:

The use of convalescent plasma (CP) collected from previously infected individuals to passively transfer antibodies in order to protect or treat humans dates back almost 100 years. CP has been used for the treatment of different kinds of viral infectious diseases, especially in times of outbreaks for example polio and pandemics. Other examples of CP use include rabies, hepatitis B, measles, influenza, Ebola and hemorrhagic fevers^.

CP for Covid treatment is thus made from the blood of people who have already had Covid. This requires Covid survivors to be willing to donate their blood.

If you think about it, the logistics and practicality of this would be no easy task assuming that convalescent plasma actually works. It has not been proven.

Why? First of all getting enough regular blood for all the people who need it is hard enough. There is always a shortage.

Although an estimated 38 percent of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood at any given time, less than 10 percent do so annually. According to studies, the average donor is a college-educated white male, between the ages of 30 and 50, who is married and has an above-average income. This may not necessarily be the profile of the average Covid-19 survivor.

So now we would need to keep tabs on everyone who has had a Covid infection and convince them to donate their blood.

 The donor and the patient must also have compatible blood types. Once plasma is donated, it is screened for other infectious diseases, such as HIV. Then hopefully made available in a timely fashion for the sick person.

The good thing about CP is that over the decades it has been proven to be relatively safe so long as the recipient does not have an allergic reaction (which is basically the same risk as having a blood transfusion). Another good thing is that it will be available a whole lot faster than a vaccine !

At the end of the day this is not a ‘new’ therapy as touted and the availability is currently quite scarce. Once again forget the wonder treatments. The only thing you can really hang your hat on is making sure you don’t get Covid in the first place. Yep, same ole same ole! Wash your hands, use hand sanitizer, wear your mask, stay inside, social distance. Take your vitamin D, zinc, vitamin C and you can add echinacea or elderberry if you like.

Stay well. Please let me know if you have questions.

The symptoms of Hormone Imbalance, Perimenopause and Menopause

 In this video I talk about the symptoms of hormone imbalance and two unfortunate young ladies who are suffering from it. As with most women they had no idea what was going to hit them when their ovaries started to pack up. The purpose of this video is to begin to discuss the taboo and fear of hormone replacement therapy. The discussion of natural hormone replacement is covered in another video. For now let's talk about the 'why' you need them as opposed to the why not and the 'how'. Don't talk yourself out of something you know nothing about, open your mind and educate yourself starting with this video and my books (also available in Spanish)

https://youtu.be/FhmLqInnt7o

Do-It-Yourself Covid Testing!

 I want to highlight an article I read today in the Harvard Gazette about a new approach that has not been suggested before. This idea is from Michael Mina a Harvard epidemiologist and expert in disease testing. He is calling for a shift in strategy toward a cheap, daily, do-it-yourself test that he says can be as effective as a vaccine at interrupting coronavirus transmission. He believes it is currently the only viable option for a quick return to a normal life.

Dr. Mina, is an assistant professor of epidemiology at my alma mater the Harvard T.S.Chan School of Public Health. He suggests that this would be a better strategy than closing down the economy and keeping schools closed which is really the only other viable option.

These paper-strip tests (similar to the popular pregnancy tests) have already been developed and their shotgun approach to testing cheap and widespread provides a way back to the workplace, classroom, and other venues.

The strategy, “could put hundreds of millions of tests in the hands of consumers within weeks, at a cost far less than repeated rounds of economic stimulus” Mina said. Several companies have produced these tests which can be produced for less than a dollar. With tests like these, ordinary people can perform their own tests each day or every other day. They are not as accurate as the current diagnostic tests but they are effective at detecting virus when a person is most infectious. If everyone who tests positive stays home, the thought is that the widespread effect would be similar to that of a vaccine because people would stop the transmission chains across the country. If people are concerned about false positives they could then follow up with a formal test with their doctor and stay quarantined meanwhile.

So whats the catch ?

First of all unless the tests are FDA approved and federal government sanctioned, companies are not going to invest and produce these tests in the numbers that would be required to be effective.

The currently available tests take time and are expensive. Which makes them impractical for daily in- home testing. These tests may not be perfect but the nation’s current testing strategy catches less than 3 percent of cases early enough for a person to proactively prevent transmitting the virus. Now if those testing positive stay home, “a cheap, at-home testing regimen has the potential to provide a kind of artificial herd immunity, interrupting enough transmission nationwide to cause the pandemic to stall”

Another catch is one that relates to all fields of prevention: it still requires people to take some level of responsibility and motivation to actually do the test and then follow through if the results are positive.

According to Dr. Mina what’s needed, is the federal government’s financial and organizational clout to both provide resources and get companies working together. Though even a $1 per day test gets expensive, if the federal government provides them free to all Americans, the cost would be far less than recent stimulus efforts. We could get these tests up and running right now unlike the vaccines.

“It will stop the vast majority of transmission and it will cause these outbreaks to disappear in a matter of weeks,” Mina said. “This is something we can actually do at warp speed.”

If you would like to read the full article you can read it here:

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/08/cheap-daily-covid-tests-could-be-akin-to-vaccine/

Its not over yet! The 'state' of the state.

There have been 3600 deaths in Maryland so far with huge differences between the counties. For example: deaths in Howard county 106, PG county 741 and Montgomery county 767.

Presently there are 488 people hospitalized in the state, 117 in ICU.

We were doing so well until the July 4th holiday when people became very lax.

I know you are tired of the restrictions but please don’t quit while we are ahead!

We now have to look forward and figure out how to keep our children safe as people press for a return to the classroom.

Even though things are ‘opening up’ please be cautious and don’t go overboard. Just because you can sit inside in restaurants now doesn’t mean you need to.

Your nails can wait another two weeks, two months if they have to!