[RedTerrano]

Some good news for a change. India registered 1 lakh plus recoveries (against ~75K new cases) taking the sum total to a negative 25K.
Hopefully this downward spiral of the graph continues and this is the beginning of the end.

More details here:
https://www.opindia.com/2020/09/coro...nd-bend-curve/

[tj123]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Some good news for a change. India registered 1 lakh plus recoveries (against ~75K new cases) taking the sum total to a negative 25K.
Hopefully this downward spiral of the graph continues and this is the beginning of the end.

Please don't take comfort in these numbers. Kindly note that COVID testing has reduced significantly over the last weekend, hence giving a false narrative.

Source https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/new-cases-drop-by-20-as-covid-19-testing-dips/articleshow/78245679.cms

[DCEite]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Hopefully this downward spiral of the graph continues and this is the beginning of the end.

umm beginning of the end, but end for how long ?

Covid-19 antibodies fade away in 3-4 months. Which means herd immunity is only applicable till 3-4 months after peak. And then we will have another wave by the time cases reach March/April levels. And then another wave after the second wave ends. And so on.

I think this Corona cycle will continue indefinitely. There is no end as such. Only thing is that wearing masks and sanitising hands and believing in good luck is the only way going forward in distant future. Even vaccines are not 100% effective (if and when it will come)

[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by tj123

Please don't take comfort in these numbers. Kindly note that COVID testing has reduced significantly over the last weekend, hence giving a false narrative.

Source https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/new-cases-drop-by-20-as-covid-19-testing-dips/articleshow/78245679.cms

Please check out Prof. Shamika Ravi's tweet in the article I have shared. She cites numbers over the week and specifically mentions no weekend effect.

[comfortablynumb]

Originally Posted by gthang

Recently saw a Vit.C + Vit.D + Zinc tablet specific for Corona at the local pharmacy. Heard the government is supplying it as well.

I'd been meaning to ask this for a while, but somehow slipped my mind. Thanks for reminding me.

Question to the learned docs on the forum - Is it okay to take a multivitamin supplement like the one mentioned in the quote above as a preventive / immunity boosting measure against Covid-19? If yes, what should be the frequency and duration (e.g. once a week for 8 weeks)? Lastly, could you suggest a good one? I am in my mid-40s and had a clear health checkup report in early 2020 (no bp/diabetes).

The reason for asking here is my family physician is away in the US (with his phone switched off), and having read the posts by various doctors on this thread, I would rather trust the advice of forum members like The Rationalist, vivek95 etc., rather than visiting a doctor whom I don't know at all.

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Recently some Belgium doctors and health professionals published an open letter to the Belgium government. It’s lengthy, but it is well worth the read I found. it is showing up on just about all legitimate news sites, so I assume it is for real.

https://www.aier.org/article/open-le...belgian-media/

That's a fantastic letter. Thanks !! That too coming from doctors in Belgium which was one of the worst affected in March-Apr, and still leads the world table in terms of deaths-per-million.

Understanding of the virus and its effects have grown leaps and bounds in the last 7-8 months, and it is criminal to base decisions just based on what we knew (or did not know) in March.

Just taking lockdown or other decisions based on "number-of-cases" is plain ignorance.

It's time to dial down the fear.

Some of the lines from the article are worth repeating:

The PCR test works with cycles of amplification of genetic material – a piece of genome is amplified each time. Any contamination (e.g. other viruses, debris from old virus genomes) can possibly result in false positives.8

The test does not measure how many viruses are present in the sample. A real viral infection means a massive presence of viruses, the so-called virus load. If someone tests positive, this does not mean that that person is actually clinically infected, is ill or is going to become ill. Koch’s postulate was not fulfilled (“The pure agent found in a patient with complaints can provoke the same complaints in a healthy person”).

Most people therefore already have a congenital or cross-immunity because they were already in contact with variants of the same virus.

Most people who test positive (PCR) have no complaints. Their immune system is strong enough.

Mortality turned out to be many times lower than expected and close to that of a normal seasonal flu (0.2%).

There is a difference between death by corona and death with corona. Humans are often carriers of multiple viruses and potentially pathogenic bacteria at the same time. Taking into account the fact that most people who developed serious symptoms suffered from additional pathology, one cannot simply conclude that the corona-infection was the cause of death. This was mostly not taken into account in the statistics.

The most vulnerable groups can be clearly identified. The vast majority of deceased patients were 80 years of age or older. The majority (70%) of the deceased, younger than 70 years, had an underlying disorder, such as cardiovascular suffering, diabetes mellitus, chronic lung disease or obesity. The vast majority of infected persons (>98%) did not or hardly became ill or recovered spontaneously.

[DigitalOne]

Mods, apologies for back-to-back post. Please merge with earlier post.

Another article along the same lines, this time by BBC

Hospital admissions matter 'not cases'
The argument put forward by Prof Heneghan and a number of other experts is that more weight needs to be put on disease rather than cases. While hospital admissions have started rising they are still incredibly low compared to the spring and the increase is much more gradual than it was.

....the Covid test is actually so sensitive it's picking up what is effectively dead virus as it spots traces of it months after the person has stopped being infectious.

Some more useful stuff about how to protect the vulnerable, and herd immunity.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by gthang

Recently saw a Vit.C + Vit.D + Zinc tablet specific for Corona at the local pharmacy.

I've been taking D+K since our last conversation about vitamins.

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

It's time to dial down the fear.

Maybe that's just what the virus wants you to think!

Joke. Or might not be?

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Maybe that's just what the virus wants you to think!

Joke. Or might not be?

Ha ha . Virus failed to do a "Niall Fergusson" on human species; So it started playing mind games with us ?

[Thad E Ginathom]

With nothing to do all day but engage with various forums, one does a get a bit crazy, no?

Viruses affecting behaviour is a thing

Or perhaps that should be a

[avishar]

Mondays usually show a dip in numbers and testing because of weekend. Lets us see what happens today and for the next few days. If we continue with the downward movement of active cases then we would have finally turned the corner!

[NiInJa]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

She cites numbers over the week and specifically mentions no weekend effect.

My brother's wife had quite an opposite experience. She has been sick with weakness, loss of taste and runny nose since last week's Monday. Her 1 year old baby caught cold too. The pediatrician told her to isolate (with the baby), so all others moved out of the house. She went to Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital (DMH) for getting tested for Covid-19 but was not allowed without prescription. No doctor gave her a prescription for testing despite having most symptoms, but gave her medicines and suggested home quarantine. Luckily, her sister is a doctor who had worked at DMH and she pulled some strings to get her sample collected. Her test was negative.

The ground reality at least in Pune is that testing for young/healthy people is not prescribed as long as symptoms are not deemed considerable enough by the doctors. There is allegedly some political pressure to reduce the number of positive cases in Pune, even if that means artificially

The virus has hit us personally. I lost my Maternal uncle, two old friend's dads (all below 55) in the last 2 weeks. They all had one or other health issue - diabetes, obesity or heavy smoking. My maternal uncle was very close to my mother and in general a very loveable person, until last month he was sharing jokes on whatsapp and suddenly he just vanished. The worst part is nobody gets to talk or see the person one last time.

[BoneCollector]

A July 25 Covid-19 “Long-Hauler” Symptoms Survey Report by Indiana University School of Medicine and Survivor Corps was conducted on over 1500 patients and findings are tabulated here.
Note: Study not peer-reviewed; it’s possible that not all symptoms are directly attributable to Covid-19.

The case projections in this study are based on speculations and extrapolations but as far as the post COVID sequelae is concerned, it's to the point. This disease affects almost all systems of our body even when the person has become negative. During the course of this disease, there are various life threatening issues happening inside the body at an accelerated rate but later also, it keeps on troubling. I'm myself looking at 2 cases in family who have residual issues.

Like I've said earlier, this disease is still evolving and we really don't know how bad the future implications will be on one's health. We all should stop blaming either the government or the administration or the medical fraternity as they were and are equally clueless as much as a normal person. And brace for a much longer haul than anticipated.

[Zen2001]

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

A July 25 Covid-19 “Long-Hauler” Symptoms Survey Report by Indiana University School of Medicine and Survivor Corps was conducted on over 1500 patients and findings are tabulated here.

Note: Study not peer-reviewed; it’s possible that not all symptoms are directly attributable to Covid-19.

[i]

Is there any symptom that they could have left out? This is like reading the side effects of something like paracetamol - if you are inclined to go into every detail, you will find many side effects involving multiple organ systems. But does that worry you from taking a tablet endosome you have a headache or fever? These phenomena are true of the sequelae of ANY infection - the body's immune system does not react in any special way just because the infection was Covid19. They problem is, no one bothered to read about that - everything's just because of Covid these days.
Absolute BS. And it's easier to publish because there's no existing scientific data for review and comparison. 99% of these studies will be garbage by next year.

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Please check out Prof. Shamika Ravi's tweet in the article I have shared. She cites numbers over the week and specifically mentions no weekend effect.
Attachment 2058120

The numbers are purely a reflection of the number of tests. Increase the number of tests and you'll have a corresponding increase in positives ( although that doesn't mean detecting the active virulent virus). The government response is very calculated according to what it wants you to believe, fear and accordingly manipulate.

Originally Posted by NiInJa

My brother's wife had quite an opposite experience. She has been sick with weakness, loss of taste and runny nose since last week's Monday. Her test was negative.

There are many other flu like illnesses; most of which are self limiting. For that matter that's true even for Covid19. Also, PCR can be false negative in as high as ⅓ of the samples.

Originally Posted by NiInJa

The ground reality at least in Pune is that testing for young/healthy people is not prescribed as long as symptoms are not deemed considerable enough by the doctors.

That's subjective. On the other hand, many asymptomatics have also voluntarily got themselves tested by home collection of samples by approved labs.

Originally Posted by NiInJa

There is allegedly some political pressure to reduce the number of positive cases in Pune, even if that means artificially

What do you imagine happens in the weekly PMC/PCMC collector office meetings? (I have probably known officials who objected to draconian unscientific protocols - they were silently transferred). They call it "Pandemic response management". I call it manipulation.

Originally Posted by NiInJa

The virus has hit us personally. I lost my Maternal uncle, two old friend's dads (all below 55) in the last 2 weeks. They all had one or other health issue - diabetes, obesity or heavy smoking. My maternal uncle was very close to my mother and in general a very loveable person, until last month he was sharing jokes on whatsapp and suddenly he just vanished. The worst part is nobody gets to talk or see the person one last time.

Sorry about that. Added co morbidities tend to complicate other simple curable infections (all viral/bacterial/fungal) or even recovery from otherwise uncomplicated surgeries (pneumonias in upper GI surgery for example). It's time people became more pro active towards their own heath besides working on self inflicted causes like obesity, smoking, drinking etc. After all, health is not merely "the absence of disease" as correctly defined by the WHO more than 30 years ago. The isolation is what kills as much as the disease itself - that should stop.

[PearlJam]

Originally Posted by Zen2001

Is there any symptom that they could have left out?

Only two, actually: