Letter to the Editor: COVID-19 treatment

Editor:

To the critics and naysays

As a WWII bomber pilot of the 8th Air Force reputed to have said after returning from a mission over Nazi Germany, "If I am taking Flak I know I'm over the target."

Question? Why are you critics so vicious? My only intent is to inform. and see this pandemic ends as soon as possible. Make no mistake this virus kills without discrimination. It kills evangelicals, Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, Democrats, Republics, agnostics, atheists with equal vigor.

Refute the following if you can:

Dr. Stephen Smith, whom Fox News’ Laura Ingraham describes as one of the preeminent infectious disease specialists in the U.S., announced some very good news which, if true, would be a game-changer in the fight against the Chinese coronavirus.

For those of us who are unfamiliar with some of the terms, he explained that when a patient goes into respiratory failure, they are intubated (they insert a tube into the patient’s trachea), and placed on a ventilator. He said that, so far, 20 of his patients have been intubated. And that has generally happened on day two.

Here is the great news. Dr. Smith said, “No person who has received five days or more of the hydroxychloroquine-zithro (Zithromax or Azithrocin) combination has been intubated. It’s ridiculously low no matter how you look at it.”

Smith added, “We worry about selection bias in this situation. But I cannot think of a reason why, if all else is equal, why people that have received five days or more or even four days or more of this hydroxychloroquine-zithro regimen wouldn’t get intubated.”

He calls this “a game-changer. An absolute game-changer. I think this data goes to really support the French data” and went so far as to say, “Laura, I think this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic.”

During his briefing on Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters, “[The New York coronavirus death toll] is people who have been on a ventilator for a period of time. If you go on a ventilator there is roughly only a 20% chance that you will come off the ventilator. The longer you’re on the ventilator, the lower the chance you’ll come off…four/fifths of coronavirus patients who need ventilators will end up dead.”

Dr. Smith’s point is that, the sooner a patient begins the hydroxychloroquine-zithro therapy, the better their chances of avoiding intubation/ventilator, because once a patient gets to that point, the lower their chance of survival.

John Stiegelmeyer

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DL April 7, 2020, 11:24 am I failed to address the name you called the virus that the people of our country are fighting right now. Every thing, animal, insect, person in our world has a name. All viruses, bacteria and disease are given names in our world. Yet you chose to make up your own name for this virus. Some other people have chosen to call this virus by the name of the country which it originated. But, you went an extra mile. You didn't just target the country that the virus most likely started in. You chose to attack that whole race. John, if you were walking down a street in Harlem, would you greet the residents there with "Hi (n word)"? Or would you say " Hi (sir or maam)"? Do you call a 🔨 a hammer? Or a nail? Do you call a 🐦 a bird? Or a bear? Do you call a 🚗 a car? Or a house? Why do you feel the need to be nasty to other human being? Why do you take your leaders word, when he's a known, lifelong con artist? Why not try to do a little research? I know it's tedious work. But, a 73 year old con artist can't change his ways. I'll let you know one more thing about our mobbed up president. He has two different CIA files from when he was a confidential informant and when the was a counterintelligence investigation on him. Both, concerning his contacts with the mob. First with the La Costa Nostra crime families in New York. Then, with the Russian Mafiya after his casinos failed. Robert Mueller was the lead investigator at the time.

NG April 6, 2020, 2:43 pm John, you ask why people are being so vicious, well I can answer that. It is because Republicans are constantly putting out lie after lie after lie about what the Democrats are doing. You can't seem to just have a discussion about what is going on without telling more lies like the list of them you had a couple of letters ago about what was in the Covid-19 bill and it just wasn't true. Then some other guy said the Democrats had given themselves a pay raise in the bill, totally not true. That is the kind of lies that make us vicious. Republicans in the House and Senate get on TV and lie like there is no tomorrow and you followers believe it, don't do any fact checking, just pass it along. Ever since impeached 45 became president and started his lying routine Republicans have joined in. Integrity has gone out the window. Go ahead and call us vicious if you want but Republicans are the reason behind the season of viciousness. As far as this drug you and your president are pushing the trial that was done was only with 31 people but you fail to mention that. There will another trial of around 2000 people so lets see how that goes. I hope you are right and it is the miracle drug we are all hoping it is but there is a long way to go before we know for sure. The president has been pushing this way before any trials were done. He must own stock in the company don't you think?

DL April 6, 2020, 1:18 pm You basically refuted yourself. Patients aren't being put on ventilators until they go into respiratory distress. Did you forget about the video you shared with us? That was a great video. I've shared it many times. There have been over 300,000 cases of COVID-19 in our country. With roughly 8,000 deaths, it means that about 2,000 people have survived after being put on a ventilator. It also means that 290,000 people have survived COVID-19 without having been put on a ventilator at all. That number is low, because many young people have had it, and didn't even know it. Now, out of those 290,000 survivors that didn't go on a ventilator, about 100 have been given the drug combination that you're pushing, so far. What they're looking for with Hydroxychloroquine is it's inflammatory properties. I would suggest you watch that video again to understand the reason. But, when the disease attacks the cells in our lungs, and it quickly starts killing those cells, it causes inflammation around those cells, that, in turn, causes our immune system to overreact. So, they're hoping that this drug can keep that inflammation down, so the immune system doesn't start attacking the body. But, despite what your fearless leader says, this drug combination does have a possible side effect in people that have heart issues. It can cause heart arrhythmia, and could stop the heart immediately. That's why it's so damn dangerous have a president prescribing medication on TV every day.

Opinion : Letter to the Editor: COVID-19 treatment

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