Coronavirus

[Swerd]

My mom used to throw in a dab of Vicks Vaporub. Its supposed to be used topically but it worked very well.

My grandmother had similar cure-all. She kept a red flannel cloth inside an old blue glass jar of Vicks Vaporub. That red flannel was saturated with Vaporub. If you got sick at her house, she would wrap that red flannel cloth around your neck and pin it in place with a safety pin. You had to wear that all night. I had that done to me one time, as a kid. It was so nasty smelling that by the next morning, I swore that I was completely cured. It was a miracle ! Everyone else in the family had that same experience – just once.

Apparently there was similar episode on the Beverly Hillbillies, where Granny Clampett would brew up her magic cure-all from rendered gopher fat to which she added a number of secret ingredients. I wonder if she threw in some Vicks Vaporub too. Just like in my family, everyone swore after only one night's exposure (she rubbed it all over your chest) that it worked miracles, and they wouldn't need any more.

 

[Swerd]

@Mr._Clark

Thanks for those links. I'll read them all.

I remember people who claimed they would never get injected with a vaccine that wasn't fully approved. It was approved early for emergency use. They were probably all hardcore anti-vaxxers and never intended to ever get vaccinated at all.

The same emergency approval is used for Paxlovid. That's the reason behind the FDA's requiring extra caution. As cases like mine come up, the data from is being collected so the Paxlovid guidelines can become more flexible once it's fully approved.

 

[Verdinut]

That's a good question, but I don't expect a clear answer. My guess is YES, the vaccinations helped.

I had mild symptoms on the first go round, runny nose, cough, low-to-mid fever 99-101°. (I treated the fever with ibuprofen and Mucinex DM at night for the cough.) If I had no Covid-19 vaccinations, I would have expected much worse symptoms – hospitalization, intubation, or worse. These mild symptoms are the same for my 2nd go round.

My thinking is that the 5-day course of Paxlovid was not long enough to eliminate my virus. It was enough to make me feel much better after 2-3 days of the 5-day course. I tested Negative on days 6 & 8, but was Positive again on day 10. Today is day 11 and I've had symptoms since yesterday. It may be enough for people with normal immune systems, but not enough for those who take immune suppressing drugs.

I went to the MinuteClinic at my local CVS drug store this morning. The nurse practitioner said she could not give me another course of Paxlovid without waiting 3 weeks between courses.

I called my primary care doctor, and I will speak with her by video call later today. She is up to speed on my auto-immune condition and it's treatments. If necessary, she'll contact my rheumatologist.

Do you know if your Vitamin D blood level adequate? Vitamin D3 might help should the blood level be below norms. Preferably, it should be taken with Vitamin K2 to prevent calcium from accumulating in the arteries. A few companies make gels containing both vitamins. CanPrev is one of them, it's a Canadian lab manufacturing them and I consume 2000 IU daily and 3000 in winter months.

 

[Swerd]

Yep. Vicks has humidifiers that do this too. Apparently you have to be careful to not inhale too much or bad stuff can happen. They say not to use it with really small kids too.

My wife is Hispanic so Vicks is a catch all to her.

I just did some Internet Research on Vick's VapoRub (I looked it up on Wikipedia).

• It contains petroleum jelly with camphor (4.8%), eucalyptus oil (1.2%), and menthol (2.6%). It's somewhat effective at suppressing coughs and as a topical analgesic.
• The product is a cultural touchstone among Hispanic and Latino Americans. (I never knew that.)
• It can be rubbed on the chest or inhaled with hot steam.
• A Penn State University study showed Vicks VapoRub to be more effective than placebo petroleum rub for helping cough and congestion with regard to helping children and adults sleep. However, the study also showed that, unlike with the petroleum rub placebo, Vicks VapoRub was associated with burning sensations to the skin (28%), nose (14%) and eyes (16%), with 5% of study participants reporting redness and rash when using the product.

Of course, they never tested it when applied with a red flannel rag.

 

[Swerd]

Do you know if your Vitamin D blood level adequate? Vitamin D3 might help should the blood level be below norms. Preferably, it should be taken with Vitamin K2 to prevent calcium from accumulating in the arteries. A few companies make gels containing both vitamins. CanPrev is one of them, it's a Canadian lab manufacturing them and I consume 2000 IU daily and 3000 in winter months.

Yes, my blood levels of Vitamin D3 are in the normal range. I take D3 supplements (about 1900-2000 IU daily) along with calcium & magnesium supplements in an effort to replace bone loss I experienced from years of prednisone. My blood calcium levels have also been tested and are within the normal range.

 

[Swerd]

I will speak with my primary care doctorr by video call later today. She is up to speed on my auto-immune condition and it's treatments. If necessary, she'll contact my rheumatologist.

I just got off the phone with her. She told me:

• Hang in there. Your symptoms are mild so far. If they get worse, especially shortness of breath or difficulty in breathing, call and come in to be checked in person.
• Step away from those home test kits. There is no need for such frequent testing (as I did*). Whatever you read that said one should test negative 3× to be disease-free is wrong. Stop reading anything else they say. (Unfortunately I can't remember where I read that. But there is plenty of misinformation about Covid-19 all over the internet, both well-meaning and malicious.)
• On Wednesday evening, day 5 of the rebound infection, test yourself again, and let her know the results.

* I have a carton full of home test kits. I got them from a certain MD I know who said they were near their expiration date and were to be thrown out, even though they were still perfectly usable. A mixed blessing, I guess.

 

[Dude#1279435]

I just got off the phone with her. She told me:

• Hang in there. Your symptoms are mild so far. If they get worse, especially shortness of breath or difficulty in breathing, call and come in to be checked in person.
• Step away from those home test kits. There is no need for such frequent testing (as I did*). Whatever you read that said one should test negative 3× to be disease-free is wrong. Stop reading anything else they say. (Unfortunately I can't remember where I read that. But there is plenty of misinformation about Covid-19 all over the internet, both well-meaning and malicious.)
• On Wednesday evening, day 5 of the rebound infection, test yourself again, and let her know the results.

* I have a carton full of home test kits. I got them from a certain MD I know who said they were near their expiration date and were to be thrown out, even though they were still perfectly usable. A mixed blessing, I guess.

I tested myself twice initially. Then after the fifth day did just now. Still positive so going to cvs for another test to be sure.

 

[Swerd]

I tested myself twice initially. Then after the fifth day did just now. Still positive so going to cvs for another test to be sure.

Hang in there! It can easily take more than 10 days to run the course with Covid-19. There's a very wide range of normal.

 

[Dude#1279435]

How the Test-to-Treat Pillar of the US Covid Strategy Is Failing Patients - KFF Health News

The federal “test-to-treat” program was designed to be a one-stop shop for people to get tested for covid and to receive treatment. But as covid cases rise again, many communities have no participating locations, and website bugs make it difficult to book an appointment at the biggest participant.

khn.org

 

[Swerd]

Swerd, regarding COVID, my co-worker sent me this. It looks interesting. I don't know how much truth there is in it. It could just be a big plug for the cannabis industry. Feel free to critique it.

Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV-2 and the Emerging Variants

As a complement to vaccines, small-molecule therapeutic agents are needed to treat or prevent infections by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its variants, which cause COVID-19. Affinity selection–mass spectrometry ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

I read that paper last night. I thought it would help me nod off to sleep, but it turned out to be a decent paper that was interesting. The authors, from the Linus Pauling Institute, Dept of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Oregon State University, and the Dept. of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland did a decent job with their scientific methods and writing – I can't criticize them. I never heard of the Journal of Natural Products before, but it's a journal of the American Chemical Society which is a solid organization.

The authors used mass screening methods in hemp extracts for chemical compounds that could bind (ligands) to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. They found several cannabinoid ligands and measured their ability to bind the spike protein. Two of these cannabinoid compounds with the highest affinities for the spike protein were cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) and cannabigerolic acid (CBGA). Further experiments confirmed that they could block infection of human epithelial cells by a pseudovirus expressing the spike protein.

The Kd values (binding constants) for the binding of CBGA and CBDA to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S1 subunit were determined using equilibrium dialysis. The Kd values for CBGA and CBDA were 19.8 ± 2.7 and 6 ± 2.2 μM, respectively. (Kind of high – see my comments below)

More experiments were done with viruses and cells to see if CBDA or CBGA could prevent infection by blocking SARS-CoV-2 cell entry. From these experiments, the concentrations of cannabinoids that reduced virus infections by half (IC 50) was 24 and 37 μg/mL.

Although these concentrations may not mean much to the non-scientist, they are kind of high for concentrations that are achievable in the blood for drugs given to people. I'd rather see those numbers at roughly 100- to 1000-fold lower concentrations than what they observed with cell cultures in dishes.

That's the only thing I can criticize about the paper. It's something the authors didn't try to hide. They freely admitted this:

Our infection inhibition assay results clearly indicate that CBDA and CBGA are both able to block cell entry by SARS-CoV-2. The concentrations needed to block infection by 50% of viruses is high but might be clinically achievable.

That's the big unanswered question: How much cannabinoids would a person have to take in, and for how long, before CBDA or CBGA could prevent infection by SARS-CoV-2?

Here's a link to the full paper, with all it's figures. I liked the clever molecular cartoon shown in the paper's introduction:

 

[BigRed1]

I'd have to agree with Swerd. Given the serum Cmax values achievable with these cannabinoid compounds and the micromolar Kd values, these claims of anti-viral activity, like many other in vitro (tissue culture) studies, are misleading and, quite frankly, a joke.

 

[Swerd]

I'd have to agree with Swerd. Given the serum Cmax values achievable with these cannabinoid compounds and the micromolar Kd values, these claims of anti-viral activity, like many other in vitro (tissue culture) studies, are misleading and, quite frankly, a joke.

Thanks. I'm glad to know someone read & followed all that.

I wouldn't go so far as calling it a joke … a scientific dead-end, maybe. It's a lot better than other stuff I've seen since the pandemic began … such as all that so-called evidence to support hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin. Those publications were jokes – more embarrassing than funny.

A funnier joke. If that cannabinoid story actually leads to a way to prevent infection by SARS-CoV-2, how would it be given to people? Instead of wearing N95 masks, people might have to walk around wearing one of these:

 

[panteragstk]

I'd have to agree with Swerd. Given the serum Cmax values achievable with these cannabinoid compounds and the micromolar Kd values, these claims of anti-viral activity, like many other in vitro (tissue culture) studies, are misleading and, quite frankly, a joke.

Ah yes. That clears it up.

(that's a joke)

 

[panteragstk]

Thanks. I'm glad to know someone read & followed all that.

I wouldn't go so far as calling it a joke … a scientific dead-end, maybe. It's a lot better than other stuff I've seen since the pandemic began … such as all that so-called evidence to support hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin. Those publications were jokes – more embarrassing than funny.

A funnier joke. If that cannabinoid story actually leads to way to prevent infection by SARS-CoV-2, how would it be given to people? Instead of wearing N95 masks, people might have to use this:
View attachment 55975

I had a friend with one of those in college. They DO NOT make it easier to breathe.

 

[Swerd]

I had a friend with one of those in college. They DO NOT make it easier to breathe.

Did your "friend in college" put weed in the bowl – without adding any Vaporub to the water?

 

[panteragstk]

Did your "friend in college" put weed in the bowl – without adding any Vaporub to the water?

Mayyyybee

 

[Dude#1279435]

Thanks. I'm glad to know someone read & followed all that.

I wouldn't go so far as calling it a joke … a scientific dead-end, maybe. It's a lot better than other stuff I've seen since the pandemic began … such as all that so-called evidence to support hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin. Those publications were jokes – more embarrassing than funny.

A funnier joke. If that cannabinoid story actually leads to a way to prevent infection by SARS-CoV-2, how would it be given to people? Instead of wearing N95 masks, people might have to walk around wearing one of these:
View attachment 55975

I do think this will help with my breathing.

 

[Dude#1279435]

I checked into ER. Went about 36 hours with shortness of breath and the last two hours it go worse. The doctor visit I had earlier she said if your having difficulty breathing while sitting or laying it's not a good sign.

 

[Dude#1279435]

Turned out to be all fine. Xrays, oxygen level etc all normal. They sent me home with a pulse oximeter. Yippie! Another toy!!!

 

[highfigh]

What my ma taught me was get a pot of water boiling and leave it on low and every now and then inhale through your nose for a minute or two at a time. It helps with nasal congestion.

I bought a massage gun for my knee last Summer and when my COVID struck, I decided to see if it would help clear my sinuses- it has a foam ball and I lightly pressed it against my cheek bones, then across my forehead above my eyebrows- it works great. Feels weird, but works great.