I do wish the BBC news would be shown here daily at this time. It is far, far superior to anything we have on offer. They really preset all aspects of this tragedy, the stats, the science, economics and especially the human tragedy of it all. They give the grieving the time to speak and tell their powerful stories without hectoring or interruption. Today's broadcast was moving on so many levels.
This virus keeps proving itself more dangerous by the day. The serious syndrome in children which lands all the affected in the ICU very seriously ill, is now reported in Italy, Spain and France. Health authorities here have now issued an alert.
However the news also contained good progress from the Oxford Group. I now think they will almost certainly solve this problem and end this nightmare relatively soon. I am sorry Swerd but we can not progress according to usual process on this one. We are going to have to proceed with dispatch and throw some caution to the winds. Too many lives and will be lost with business as usual. THIS IS WAR. We all need to adopt a war footing. This is clearly the attitude in the UK, with WW II veterans summoning a younger generation to the Battle of Britain and Dunkirk spirit. The peril is as great. The US media are not reporting this the way they should and we are led by a demented President, and a vice President nearly as stupid after refusing to wear a mask at his visit today, as instructed to do by the leadership of Mayo Clinic. Apart from anything else this was plain rude.
Anyhow the Oxford group are now in a sprint, and I think they are set to achieve victory over this deadly pathogen. You can read an
article in the New York Times about it today.
If this is effective you can skip a lot of the usual protocols.
I can tell you a personal story that may help you understand. Sometimes we have to just take a risk to save a life.
One weekend we had a 16 year old come in, who had taken a massive overdose of Tylenol. She was way beyond the lethal dose time curve. So wisdom would have said, and the graphs in the literature, predicted certain mortality.
The poor girl was writhing around delirious in agony from liver failure and a very swollen liver.
However I was aware of a very few case reports from Scotland of using acetylcyteine as a competitive antagonist to the Tylenol in the liver. They had reported survivals in some expected to die. It was not a controlled trial. Now acetylcysteine is an inhalational agent that is sold as mucomyst to break up lung mucous plugs. On the bottle it said, "Not for Intravenous administration"
However in view of a certain mortality I mixed an intravenous drip if it and administered it IV.
I arranged her transfer to the U of M for urgent liver transplant. The director was sure she would need one if one could be found in time Otherwise it was deemed hopeless.
Anyhow much to his surprise the young girl started making a recovery, did not need a liver transplant and progressed to full recovery.
Anyhow I received a severe sanction from the pharmacy committee and told not to do it again.
Well it so happened that I had a similar case a few months later. The graphs again showed the patient the wrong side of the survival line.
So I phoned the chief of staff, and said I was going to administer acetylcysteine IV again. He came in and concurred. So it was administered and the patient made a full recovery.
This treatment became, and is, the standard of care for acetominophen (Tylenol) overdose. A controlled trial was never done as it would have been totally unethical. Acetylcysteine bottles no longer say "Not for IV injection."
I relate this story and could relate others, that in serious situations you can quickly prove efficacy and safety if the need is urgent and the treatment is obviously clearly highly effective. In any proposed vaccine effectiveness should be obvious or it is no use as a vaccine.
I know other jurisdictions will proceed with haste. I hope the US is not going to be an outlier in this a we have to have a lot of preventable loss of life.
