Remdesivir available to coronavirus patients this week: 'We've donated the entire "

[groveChuck]

Remdesivir available to coronavirus patients this week: 'We've donated the entire "

Gilead's antiviral drug — remdesivir— has shown success in helping coronavirus patients recover faster.

"We intend to get [remdesivir] to patients in the early part of this next week, beginning to work with the government which will determine which cities are most vulnerable and where the patients are that need this medicine," Gilead Sciences chairman and CEO Daniel O'Day told CBS' "Face of the Nation."

Gilead Sciences donated its entire supply of the drug to the U.S. government.

Gilead expects to produce more than 140,000 rounds of its 10-day treatment regimen by the end of May and anticipates it can make 1 million rounds by the end of this year.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/03/gil...this-week-weve-donated-the-entire-supply.html

 

[ahalpert]

Very good news. Although I've read it cuts recovery time by about a third (and maybe fatality rate as well). Not a miracle cure. But very good news.

 

[mcbob]

HCQ-Zn-AZ for early treatment, Remdesivir for later-stage treatment (or where HCQ is contraindicated), quarantine the most at-risk. Especially as we're learning more about the sheer numbers that have already had it, it's time to resume smartly about daily life.

 

[groveChuck]

I've read it cuts recovery time by about a third

And perhaps keep people from going on ventilators, which sometimes seem to be a potential Twilight Zone cause of unexpected problems...

it's time to resume smartly about daily life.

It's the "smartly" part that gets tricky. One person's smartly is another's stupidly, and vice-versa (not saying this about you, mcB).

The South Dakota and Texas numbers are not good... 60 Minutes piece tonight on the struggles in rural Texas, hospitals closing, no insurance.

And Leslie Stahl was hospitalized (and released after an unknown number of days) for Covid after 2 weeks at home with pneumonia (hello, Leslie?), and said numerous 60 Minutes staffers had coronavirus... wonder if they got it on shoots, or just life in NYC?

 

[mcbob]

well, if this were Facebook, wouldn't I be contractually required to take it as a personal insult?

Covid lockdown is exacerbating the closing of rural (and other) hospitals... even here at one of Virginia's most esteemed hospitals (UVA), they recently furloughed hundreds of workers and cut pay, because practically nothing's happening at the hospitals aside from Covid cases, and there aren't many of those at all.

In many rural lockdown communities, deaths from suicide and overdose are exceeding covid cases.

More and more physicians and researchers are joining the chorus advising against strict lockdowns.

Developing data is showing the 'cure' growing rapidly worse than the problem.

There are no perfect solutions, only measured trade-offs.

...and no, I don't hate old people nor do I want them all to die (just in case I'm in a state of hypoxia and am accidentally posting to Facebook).