The true death toll
A commenter asks why people don ' t count death certificates to determine the actual number of deaths above the norm, since we can ' t trust the reported Covid-19 deaths. Well, people have done this, and it ' s pretty disturbing. Researchers who did this in Italy found the actual number of excess deaths to be twice the reported rate. In New York and New Jersey, the excess is at least 50%. This can happen because many deaths are not attributed to Covid-19, whether because they are attributed to influenza or pneumonia in the absence of testing, or because the virus can cause symptoms such as stroke and kidney failure, which ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 23, 2020 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Covid-19 Reuters Newsmaker Broadcast with William Haseltine
I live-tweeted a fascinating and perhaps rather depressing meeting with William Haseltine via a Reuters Newsmaker Broadcast. His talk was upbeat but the message does not offer a positive outlook unless we can collaborate internationally to identify, trace, and isolate and go back to early antivirals to treat people urgently. A vaccine will probably never be found, we must stay on top of this virus when we get communities under control. Moreover, we must recognise that another emergent pathogen could appear any time.
These are essentially my notes from Haseltines’s talk.
Might we ever achieve herd immunity?
There is n...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - May 20, 2020 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Sciencebase Source Type: blogs
Covid-19 Reuters Q & A with William Haseltine
I live-tweeted a fascinating and perhaps rather depressing meeting with William Haseltine via a Reuters Newsmaker Broadcast. His talk was upbeat but the message does not offer a positive outlook unless we can collaborate internationally to identify, trace, and isolate and go back to early antivirals to treat people urgently. A vaccine will probably never be found, we must stay on top of this virus when we get communities under control. Moreover, we must recognise that another emergent pathogen could appear any time.
These are essentially my notes from Haseltines’s talk.
Might we ever achieve herd immunity?
There is n...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - May 20, 2020 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Sciencebase Source Type: blogs
Better Vaccines for Older People are a Poor Alternative to Better Immune Systems for Older People
The paper here offers a good overview of recent research and development aimed at improving the effectiveness of vaccines in old people. Vaccines are only poorly effective in the old because of the age-related decline of the immune system. A great deal of effort, with only some success, has gone into trying to improve vaccine effectiveness in older populations. Even if tinkering with vaccines boosts the percentage of patients who exhibit an immune response, however, that response is always going to be more anemic than that of a younger person, given the effects of aging on the immune system. This time and funding would per...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 20, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 18th 2020
This study provides direct evidence for the contribution of gut microbiota to the cognitive decline during normal aging and suggests that restoring microbiota homeostasis in the elderly may improve cognitive function.
On Nutraceutical Senolytics
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2020/05/on-nutraceutical-senolytics/
Nutraceuticals are compounds derived from foods, usually plants. In principle one can find useful therapies in the natural world, taking the approach of identifying interesting molecules and refining them to a greater potency than naturally occurs in order to produce a usefully large therap...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 17, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
COVID19 and Finding Effective Medical Therapies
This post introduces a column I wrote over at TheHeart.org | Medscape Cardiology
—
The good news is that most people infected with coronavirus don’t need a hospital or doctor. But some do. Some get very ill.
The maddening thing is that doctors don’t have an effective treatment for the virus. There are no cures. The Worldmeter today shows nearly 5 million infections and more than 300,000 deaths. And no effective therapy.
Excluding a possibly modest effect of Remdesivir, our care is supportive, which is medical jargon for giving simple things like oxygen, acetaminophen, IV fluids and letting ...
Source: Dr John M - May 16, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr John Source Type: blogs
And now for some good news on health
When it comes to health concerns, the COVID-19 pandemic is top of mind for most people right now. And that’s for good reason.
But there is some very good non-COVID health news that may not be getting the attention it deserves. According to the CDC, the rates of six of the top 10 causes of death in this country, which account for about three-quarters of all deaths, have been declining. That’s remarkable. And these improvements are occurring despite an aging population and an obesity epidemic that affects several health conditions.
Six positive health trends
Let’s look at the trends in these conditions and their rank ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 15, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Cancer Health Health trends Heart Health Source Type: blogs
The hardest data
There is always a certain amount of slop in attribution of causes of death. Actually those annual influenza death rates that are talked about so much are estimates, because in ordinary times most people with respiratory infections aren ' t lab tested to confirm the pathogen. Death certificates might just say pneumonia. But enough tests are done to be able to extrapolate. Covid-19 is different in that people who present at the hospital with serious symptoms are tested, so a much higher proportion of deaths are laboratory confirmed. However, some states are only reporting laboratory confirmed deaths, and people who die at ho...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 11, 2020 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
SENS Research Foundation on COVID-19 and Aging
SENS Research Foundation here explains why COVID-19, like near all infectious disease, is far worse for the old. It isn't just a matter of the decline of immune function, though that is the bulk of it. Older people have a greater burden of damage and dysfunction that makes them less resilient in many other ways. Rising mortality due to infectious disease with age is the result of both (a) a greater likelihood of severe infection due to immune aging, and (b) that the individual is less likely to survive a severe infection due to general frailty. Tens of thousands die every year in the US from seasonal influenza; that is lar...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 11, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
A man in his 50s with fever and shortness of breath
Written by Pendell MeyersA man in his 50s with HTN, HLD, obesity, and restrictive lung disease presented with shortness of breath worsening over the past 3 days. He also had a cough and subjective fevers. He denied chest pain. His vitals were within normal limits.Here is his triage ECG (no baseline available):What do you think?Findings: - sinus rhythm at about 100 bpm - STE in I and aVL (meets STEMI criteria) - hint of STD in III and aVF - STD in V1 and V2 - hyperacute T-waves in I and aVL (with reciprocal negative hyperacute T in III)Interpretation:This is definitive evidence of acute transmural i...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - May 10, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Pendell Source Type: blogs
Will This Novel Virus Revive Older Ones?
Jeffrey A. SingerAs I recently wrotehere, and spoke abouthere, bans on elective surgery invoked by governors across the country in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have caused many people to suffer and even possibly face fatal consequences due to delays in necessary medical care. But there are other reasons why the public health emergency has the potential to generate secondary public health crises.In some cases people are avoiding doctors ’ offices and emergency rooms because they worry about handling theexpense at a time they have seen their income, and perhaps their savings, vanish during the current econom...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 9, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
Can AI and radiographs help in resource-poor areas for the fight against COVID-19?
Conclusion
With new evidence emerging every day and with COVID-19 guidance and protocols adapting responsively, the national responses vary widely across the globe. However, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea have shown that aggressive and proactive testing plays a crucial role in containing the spread of the disease.
We believe AI has great potential for helping doctors quantify and monitor COVID progression from a patient’s chest X-rays – this will help determine treatment pathways faster and thus slow any surges in emergency cases. AI will also play a critical role in expanding screening for...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 7, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Health Tech bhargava reddy manoj tld pooja rao preetham srinivas qure.ai tarun raj Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 4th 2020
The objective is to start treating chronic diseases from the root and not the symptoms of the disease. As we are starting to enroll patients in "senolytics-clinical trials," it will be imperative to assess if senolysis efficiently targets the primary cause of disease or if it works best in combination with other drugs. Additional basic science research is required to address the fundamental role of senescent cells, especially in the established contexts of disease.
Notes on Self-Experimentation with Sex Steroid Ablation for Regrowth of the Thymus
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2020/04/notes-on-self-experi...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 3, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
COVID-19: Physicians in Shackles
By ANISH KOKA, MD
A number of politically tinged narratives have
divided physicians during the pandemic. It would be unfortunate if politics
obscured the major problem brought into stark relief by the pandemic: a system
that marginalizes physicians and strips them of agency.
In practices big and small, hospital-employed
or private practice, nursing homes or hospitals, there are serious issues
raising their heads for doctors and their patients.
No masks for you
When I walked into my office Thursday, March 12th, I assembled the office staff for the first time to talk about COVID. The prior weekend had been awa...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 2, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Medical Practice Physicians Anish Koka medical autonomy Pandemic Source Type: blogs
COVID-19 in the Context of Aging
It is widely appreciated that old people have a poor time of it when it comes to infectious disease. Seasonal influenza kills tens of thousands of older people every year in the US alone. The aged immune system functions poorly, and vaccinations for many conditions have low success rates in older people. Thus the vast majority of COVID-19 deaths are old people exhibiting immunosenescence. Given that the world at large seems to be entirely accepting of the yearly toll of influenza, while COVID-19 is classed as an apocalypse of some sort, one has to wonder how much of the hysteria surrounding COVID-19 stems from the rare - b...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 28, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
