Life Under Coronavirus

[_DoubtingThomas]

Ok, that might be a slight exaggeration. I can at least still read contemporary published papers and usually understand them well. So that's something. But it's not a lot.

With respect to this issue, the X chromosome has a high density of genes and regulatory elements related to immune system function. There are other known instances of differing responses to diseases between males and females because of this. It's just in this case, no one really knows what's going on here in terms of the mechanism causing the difference. You can vaguely gesture at sexual dimorphism in the variance of immune systems, but that doesn't say all that much.

While reading about this, I did read a paper studying this phenomenon in SARS-COV in mice. There are probably differing outcomes between the sexes in OG SARS and MERS as well.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5450662/

Because they were able to change the female disease outcomes to male-like by ovariectomies or administering a estrogen receptor antagonist, they concluded evidence suggests the difference is mediated at the hormonal signaling level.

That is interesting.

[_Jersey Girl]

Finally felt like adding to this thread. The original intent of this thread seems to have veered off a bit. This post probably will as well. I don't know if anything I'm saying here is a repeat.

Positive: I probably said this before but I've never been so happy that I live out in the sticks. Haven't see the inside of a real store for over a month now and I don't miss it. Our little part of the world has really pulled together out here. A local eatery (we have 5 or 6 little places all privately owned) offered to order supplies for people at cost. They helped me to get a case of bleach (!) and even offered to deliver free (I picked up) for which I was so grateful! It's a pizza place that has been here for years and now has locations in the actual town. The owner is from back East and man, did he rain down some East Coast heart on the greater community. They've been donating pizza to first responders and hospital staff all over the area. I tried to reciprocate by giving them some family orders at all three locations--put some money back in the till so to speak. His staff is masked, gloved and sanitizing everything in sight.

The ranchers and farmers are offering eggs, meat, goat's milk, etc. at competitive prices. A local place that does aquaponics opens every Friday to give away their greens to whoever shows up. I've seen people on our local Facebook group offering to pick up groceries for others who are at risk and shouldn't really be going out. Folks are giving away and also selling masks--depends on who is doing the sewing and for whom.

Everyone in the family has managed to stay well. I've seen my kids from a distance or through glass twice, we're doing Facetime stuff and hanging in there. JB is giving up his volunteer work at the food pantry in a couple of weeks. They're over staffed and he's at risk, wearing his mask each time. He'll go back in a couple of months. We still have a good stash of food. It's lasting longer than I expected. We really have all we need. Amazon and a couple of craft store websites own me now.

So you know how folks in Italy were singing to each other? Here in CO residents are HOWLING every night at 8 pm to thank the folks on the front line of this mess. First you hear the people howling, then the dogs start up and someone even reported they heard Elk bugling one night. I keep wondering if the coyotes are all tripped out because the human's have taken over their territory? The deer seem to like having the run of the roads right now. They're coming out of the woodwork around here. Had a herd of 15 on Easter Sunday down in front.


Negative: Of course it's the human suffering. Second is Trump who has got to be the biggest “F” up on the planet. I won't go into it. Anyone with a brain can see it. So many Republicans and Dems are following Cuomo's briefings. If the man threw his hat in the ring for President, he'd win it in a NY minute. He delivers the facts straight up, no BS, and with heart. I know people like him. His delivery is very familiar to me and I appreciate it. I follow both his and the White House briefings, though to be honest, I often now wait until it's over, watch the replay and just listen to Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx because Trump is plainly full of crap. I want to keep tabs on what's coming out of his actual mouth but I can only tolerate so much BS at one time that I have to take it in small doses just so I know what he's putting out there. Which again, is BS, but I still want to know.

by the way, if you haven't seen the briefing where Cuomo put Trump's crap in the street, you missed something good. ;-)

On a personal level, the negative for me is not being able to touch my people. I suppose we could get together if we wanted to but not one of us wants to be responsible for harming any of us, so we're apart physically. The other is that I recognize that I people are going through the grief process. I think the nation is one huge poster child for the Kubler-Ross model. I know I am. What I grieve for is time I'm losing. I don't know when I'll be able to touch my people again and I don't know when I'll be able to travel with some of them. I had plans for April and September and I can't do any of that until there is at minimum a therapeutic treatment for CV and if I'm to be bare bones honest, there needs to be a vaccine before I can cut out of here again.

All things considered, I'm tolerating the stay at home orders really well. I think introverts were made for this kind of thing. The less interaction that I have with people, the more I spend my time immersed in things that I love doing--for as long as I want to do them --which is like total bliss for me. I'm on my second online class now. I hesitate to call it an English Lit class (Shakespeare) because quite frankly, this one's so easy a first grader could do it in their sleep, but it's okay. The class is international and not all are English speakers so I guess that's why it seems to be dumbed down. I have another class in July for forensic psychology. I've been weaving like it's my job. I fabricated my own little loom and am learning to weave using cotton yarn. Hoping it works out well and I can graduate to a larger wooden loom--a real one. Multiple trips to the wood pile gave me enough material to work on other types of projects that mostly involve building, painting and staining. When the weather breaks, I've got 2 furniture sets to refinish and a list of other projects to follow. I feel like I could do this forever but who knows, maybe in another month it'll feel like forever! But it doesn't right now and I'm really at peace with life as it stands today. I'm not sure how much time I'll spend here now that the board is open. It's nothing against anyone, it's just that my attention is elsewhere and I like it this way.

I hope everyone's well and have found their stay at home groove. It was an adjustment, I know, and I'm sure it will wear on us to one degree or another. Just try to find your peace, folks. It's there. :-)

[_msnobody]

I'm working, but pretty much sequestered in a room at my workplace, with a computer, calling patients, and stepping out a few times a day to interact with others, checking fax, etc. I grew up an only child, and this is hard. You'd think I'd be better at this. Can I get a service animal?

[_EAllusion]

There's a preprint out of the first major hydrochloroquine study indicating it has no therapeutic benefit, with or without zpac, in treatment of COVID, but does have a statistically significant association with increased mortality rate. It's prudent to wait for peer-review, but that's doesn't sound too promising.

[_Res Ipsa]

There's a preprint out of the first major hydrochloroquine study indicating it has no therapeutic benefit, with or without zpac, in treatment of COVID, but does have a statistically significant association with increased mortality rate. It's prudent to wait for peer-review, but that's doesn't sound too promising.

Is that the VA study? I just caught a short bit about it on the TV during lunch.

[_EAllusion]

Yeah.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101 ... 1.full.pdf

Not the ideal study design, but reasonable given data limitations, and it's a preprint, but the results sure as heck aren't promising. There's two international attempts at a double blind placebo study I'm aware of that had to end the experiment because of patients potentially dying due to the hydrochloroquine treatment. I'm not sure what else is in the works. The French study - "study" - that seemed to be a font of the initial hype is quackery, so taken together things don't look good on that front. If this VA study's findings hold up, that would be scandalous given what Trump/Fox did, so I'd expect these findings to become political footballs.

On the more optimistic side, there are other treatments showing some preliminary positive signs. The most hopeful bridge to normalcy at this point is one or more treatments significantly improving outcomes.

[_Jersey Girl]

I'm working, but pretty much sequestered in a room at my workplace, with a computer, calling patients, and stepping out a few times a day to interact with others, checking fax, etc. I grew up an only child, and this is hard. You'd think I'd be better at this. Can I get a service animal?

I also grew up as an only child though I have 4 siblings. There's a story there. Anyway, I think I've overall handled this well though I did feel like I needed to cut down drastically on online activity and social media. I have my phone and computer shut down for long periods throughout the day. This feels a little like it did after 9/11 where there were 24/7 reports everywhere you looked. That's not particularly good for me. I think you really could get a service animal. Try a Pug! They want to squish up against you all the time. Think of it as a fat weighted blanket with a bold appetite!

:-)

[_MeDotOrg]

My best friend had an operation yesterday to remove a large cystic mass in her abdomen. It was not cancerous, but it was pressing against her psoas muscle. It was serious enough to have an operation at this time, which should tell you it was serious. She was scheduled to come home today, but she has post surgery muscle trauma and is having difficulty walking.

She's 70 years old. Not a great time to have surgery. Her daughter is disabled and lives at home. So most days I go from my apartment to her apartment.

When my friend comes home, her daughter will move to another friend's apartment for 2 weeks. Her daughter is disabled and has so many health complications that COVID-19 would probably be a death sentence. But until my friend comes home, her daughter stays at home. I get groceries, take-out and walk the dogs.

They have 2 dogs: a malti-poo and a yellow American lab. The lab is her disabled daughter's service dog. I love dogs. When I'm lying on the sofa and one of her dogs falls asleep with their head on my abdomen, it just makes me feel at peace and secure. I know there are studies about people's blood pressure dropping around dogs. I believe it.

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.
- Will Rogers

It's kind of sad: There is a LARGE Bernese mountain dog that lives my friend's apartment building that I've been seeing since she was a puppy. Now every time I see her, her owner has to drag her back because she lunges over to jump on me the way she used to. Social distancing can be a bummer with our canine buddies.

[_MsJack]

I'd like to see a study of HCQ, HCQ+Azy, and HCQ+zinc done in patients early in the disease. Lots of antivirals are only effective if given early, but most of the studies showing little effect for HCQ are being done on patients who are already hospitalized.

In other news, looks like my suburb in Cook County is the worst hit. Ugh.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/ ... story.html

[_Icarus]

This was the first video of a doctor pushing these drugs I saw a few weeks ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... e=emb_logo

What's wrong with this? He calls these "two antibiotics" that "cure" COVID.

Antibiotics don't work on viruses, they work on bacterial infections.