NBCNews.com posted a crap article today ( 4.19.2020 ) that was an apparent Propaganda Piece. The extremely superficial and short article was an obvious wrapper to 3 points:
- Hydroxychloroquine with Azithromycin is Not Tested & Dangerous
- Immune system provides a protective antibody response to COVID-19 that lasts - such that re-infection is not likely
- SO TAKE YOUR VACCINE because they will be effective.
It is so poorly written that the duplicity is inescapable:
Don't take Hydroxychloroquine with Azithromycin because it is "untested", but the FUTURE vaccine that is also not tested should be encouraged once available.
#1 Hydroxychloroquine with Azithromycin is Not Tested & Dangerous
Saag: We don't have a proven treatment and I think that's essential to understand. It points out how spoiled we've become in the world of medicine. We have so many treatments for so many disorders that we just assume that when something pops up, we can handle this.
But the reason we can handle it for other diseases is that we've had time to do randomized trials that we haven't had time to do with COVID. So, in my case, after the second night of horror I'll call it, I was very concerned that I was heading the wrong direction. And that's about the time a study came out that suggested using hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin.
So I called 10 colleague experts and said, 'What do you think?' They said, 'Well, go ahead and try it.' I did. I can't really tell you it helped or hurt. In retrospect, now that I've been able to look into it a little bit more, I'm a little bit ashamed of myself, because I could have put myself into harm's way in terms of sudden death. That can happen when you use those two particular drugs together, because they can cause a fatal arrhythmia, and I was not being monitored properly.
The take-home point is I totally get why someone who's that sick would want something, because doing nothing is very, very difficult.
On the other hand, we really do need randomized controlled trials to tell us the truth of what the drug regimen does or does not do, and what its safety profile is. Until we have that, we're really trying to fly an airplane in fog without instruments.
Vaccine Immunity is Protective & Lasts - no mention of possibility of Sudden Death
NBC News: What do we know about immunity and how long might that last?
Saag: Well, I am connected to a lot of people in research labs, so I sent blood off to several places. I've been informed that I have high levels of antibody, and those antibodies seem to be neutralizing antibodies, which means that they can attack the virus, and protect cells and tissue culture from becoming infected.
But the question still remains: how does that translate into true protection should I be re-exposed to the virus?
Based on other viruses that we encounter, like measles or mumps, the evidence is pretty clear that that type of immunity is protective. But in other infections, such as hepatitis C, people can be reinfected. The same thing is true for viruses like dengue, which is a tropical virus.
So it's not 100 percent clear with coronavirus, but my personal bet is that the immunity will be protective.
So Take the Vaccine When Available
So it's not 100 percent clear with coronavirus, but my personal bet is that the immunity will be protective.
If that's true, then that's great news because the people who've had the infection are protected, and that's going to help us get out of this in the long run. But more importantly, it means that a vaccine can work.
A vaccine will be a game changer. That will allow us to think about getting back to "normal life" if it's available — widely available — and effective.