Take the Time to Watch!!

[MeganMN]

This IS a really long video, but captivated me nonetheless. Would love to hear responses from both sides of the aisle in regards to Covid treatment, politics of Covid, and Covid vaccine. take the time to watch the video first though!!

 

 

[toomuchbaloney]

It's difficult to have a treatment plan for a novel virus. 

[MeganMN]

Except he talks quite a bit about a treatment plan that they have used quite effectively at his health system in Texas. 

[toomuchbaloney]

OK

It's a novel virus with novel disease progression and symptoms...all of the experts were guessing how to successfully treat the illnesses.  That's why prevention is so important for these transmissable viruses. 

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

I tried to watch, but it got too repetitive. A good deal of this seems to be the interviewee stating how correct he was and how wrong everyone else was. 

He claims nothing was done for non-hospitalized patients. Well, not exactly.  At first, there was a lack of testing or results took forever, so we had no idea initially who did or didn't have it. I remember we couldn't even test people if they weren't symptomatic, or hadn't traveled. And there was a scramble to see if any known antivirals would be effective. It's ridiculous to equate treating a bacterial infection early with treating a viral infection. 

I think the concern for keeping the virus out of hospitals was the correct initial decision, especially because of the lack of adequate PPE. He doesn't mention that staff were to keep using masks meant for 1 time use for 2 weeks or until it fell apart. Health care workers were afraid to even go home to their families. 

Hydroxychloroquine received emergency authorization as early as March 20, 2020, so to say it wasn't widely known or used is not true. And I heard about so-called nutraceuticals early, including the use of Vitamin D and zinc. 

Did the federal government fail to respond quickly and adequately? Yes, without a doubt. Political appointees and the former guy's family were put in charge, while career public health practitioners were sidelined. And years of inadequate public health funding was on full display. 

Response to a global pandemic should not be a "both sides of the aisle discussion" as far as I am concerned.  

[JVBT, ASN]

At about a quarter of the way through I was finding myself agreeing with him on many things. But towards the end of this exceedingly long video, I asked myself has all the world gone crazy? In my view, he would have had a lot more credibility had he not hit all the Tucker Carlson conspiracy checkpoints, happily ticking them off and moving on, predictably, to the next one. It's just too (to use his word) binary. I am massively pro-vaccine but also think we needed to have done much more to treat patients early.

Early in the video, he cites Sweden positively. It's his perfect right to do so, but I'm not 100% sure that Sweden's strategy was correct, as proven over time. He goes on to mildly denigrate the decision not to allow academic meetings, the life blood of his profession, and question other things done early on.

The crux of the video at about a quarter of the way through though, to me is when he discusses early treatment. He says that the medical community settled into a groupthink ,supported by the medical societies and agencies, not to touch the (out)patient; keep them at home. He is far from alone in pointing out the inadvisability of this both retrospectively and in real time (Spring and Summer 2020).  Early on in treating Covid, he says we waited very/too late before giving the anti viral. The federal agencies were inept in their perception of the problem, he says. Doctors were frightened, waiting for the societies for support, opposite from what has always been: early innovation by doctors, small studies, empiric treatment, then sponsored larger RCTs, etc. in that order. Then guideline bodies issue guidelines. The federal agencies would follow the guidelines! Early empiricism starts it out.

And he is 100% correct that we never launched Covid treatment centers and developed ways to treat early Covid. What has been "my thing" since the beginning was ... what did doctors' offices do? They closed down and went to video quickly. I will never ever forget that or forget the uselessness of the e-messages I received from my own doctor's group to, basically, stay the heck away. I have worked in doctor's offices in the past and will in the future, I know so many who do and they are good people, but I cannot express the outrage I experienced receiving those messages.

I will keep listening, and though I agree with much of what he is saying about early treatment, the only glaring obvious asterisk is that this is all happening during a pandemic.

Finally, for him to cast massive aspersions on docs for refusing to treat early and call it malfeasance, while denying the efficacy and absolute necessity of vaccines is, well, malfeasant. I don't think that word exists, but you know what I mean.

[JVBT, ASN]

Nearing the end, and O my Lord, he's talking about the "globalists" and vaccination as a way to enact behavioral norms. (Because he says you have to be vaccinated to go to a, wait for it, Dallas Mavericks game.) This man is OFF THE RAILS officially now. That is what I meant above when I asked if all the world's gone crazy.

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

I felt like the push to keep patients out of hospitals and clinics was to protect the staff, in case many became sickened at once. Sort of like put your own air mask on first. It is pretty easy for a cardiologist/academic to decide what ought to go on in hospitals when he is not the one there for 12-16-20 hour shifts in PPE. And  a significant number of health care workers have died from COVID. 

And I continue to dispute the contention that nothing was done to treat patients. There were all kinds of trials for anti-virals, convalescent serum, anti-inflammatories, anticoagulants, and yes, hydroxychloroquine. Even the right method of oxygenation was trial and error.

It is disingenuous to compare treating a bacterial infection with a viral infection.