Studies corner

[Branster]

There are so many snippets of information regarding small tests, case studies and even research from all over the world, some interesting, some surprising, some hopeful. Too many and too small or sometimes obscure to make the main news

If you’d like to share you are welcome to join the thread.

I’ll make a start with these findings from Canada about a potential inhibitor drug

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200402144526.htm

[oldbagface]

Can any of you please direct me to any other sensible threads on Covid-19 please. Have read daily update today and this one. Thank you

[TheCanterburyWhales]

The "graphs and numbers" thread and the "worried about" threads are the sensible ones.

[oldbagface]

@TheCanterburyWhales Thank you. This is a great thread. Thank you to all of you knowledgeable and very patient contributors.

[NeurotrashWarrior]

BMJ rapid response letter around vit d and BAME Deaths. Cites lots of studies. V long list of signatories.


www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1548/rr-6

[NeurotrashWarrior]

Thread with some detailed studies of vit d and patients with COVID 19.


Vitamin D Supplementation and covid-19 Risk www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3889068-Vitamin-D-Supplementation-and-covid-19-Risk

[alreadytaken]

covid toes www.healio.com/dermatology/dermatitis/news/online/%7B1f54025b-e860-4862-979d-46daebae6818%7D/dermatology-expert-weighs-in-on-covid-toes-tracking-dermatologic-symptoms-of-covid-19

[oldbagface]

Just seen this about children. Anyone able to shed any light? www.hsj.co.uk/acute-care/exclusive-national-alert-as-coronavirus-related-condition-may-be-emerging-in-children/7027496.article#.XqatTaY_aMk.facebook

[ChazsBrilliantAttitude]

Chris Whitty is giving a Gresham College lecture on Covid 19 on Thursday
www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/covid-19?mc_cid=cde0b857f2&mc_eid=1fb6151985

Gresham College was founded to give free academic lectures in 1597. Leading academics are Gresham Professors and CW is the current Professor of Physic

[LWJ70]

The second vitamin D3 blood serum study in the world has been published yesterday.
It was a study of 780 Indonesian covid patients.

These are the conclusions of the study:
• Majority of the COVID-19 cases with insufficient and deficient Vitamin D status died.
• The odds of death was higher in older and male cases with pre-existing condition and below normal Vitamin D levels.
• When controlling for age, sex, and comorbidity, Vitamin D status is strongly associated with COVID-19 mortality.

*When compared to cases with normal Vitamin D status, death was approximately 10.12 times more likely for Vitamin D deficient cases (OR=10.12; p

[oldbagface]

New type of oxygen machine having positive results in Warrington hospital. It avoids the need for ventilation and is proving very successful www.warrington-worldwide.co.uk/2020/04/23/warrington-hospital-leading-the-way-in-cutting-covid-19-death-rates/

[Branster]

BigChocFrenzy
Korean health authorities had identified 163 patients who tested positive again after a full recovery.
Although not a study, this doctor talks about the observations made in South Korea. They concluded test sensitivity would result in a repeat positive result after negative

[Branster]

This is another specialist who talks sense in a measured way drawing on his extensive experience and asking pertinent questions. He doesn’t have answers as such and the conversation is centred around the situation in America but it’s worth listening to.

www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/podcasts-webinars/episode-5_

[BigChocFrenzy]

Self-reported symptoms of covid-19 including symptoms most predictive of SARS-CoV- 2 infection, are heritable

This was using existing volunteers in the long-running Twins studies at Kings College,
to check similarities of COVID symptoms

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.22.20072124v1.full.pdf

About the Twins Studies:

www.kcl.ac.uk/lsm/schools/life-course-sciences/departments/twin-research-and-genetic-epidemiology/about/index

[alreadytaken]

Paper on blood clots in those in ICU
www.thrombosisresearch.com/article/S0049-3848(20)30120-1/pdf

and a less technical version www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/doctors-report-uptick-surprising-coronavirus-complication-dangerous-blood-clots-n1190491

Think I would consider low dose aspirin if I had symptoms of the virus

[LWJ70]

The third study in the world that shows a clear relationship with vitamin D deficiency and covid 19 severity has been published. It's a study from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans.
20 patients, randomly sampled.
Conclusions:

''Strikingly, 100% of intensive care patients less than 75 years old had vitamin D deficiency. Among these, 64.6% had critically low (less than 20ng/mL) and three had less than 10 ng/mL.''

Only one of the randomly sampled patients was caucasian - the other 19 were afro american and hispanic.

The study also cites 33 references of causal evidence.

Here is the link.

//www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.24.20075838v1.full.pdf

A number of the patients were taking vitamin D supplements. So safe sunlight exposure must be more important and the much lower deaths rates in equatorial and southern hemisphere regions are surely explained by this.

SAGE, the group of scientists that advises Public Health England only meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so they will not have seen this study. I doubt whether they have read the previous two conclusive blood studies.

Even if SAGE does read these three studies, they do not have any specialist molecular virologists or immunologists to professionally interpret and evaluate the scientific evidence:

'Government rushes out request for experts to work with Sage panel Notice sent to universities amid concern over lack of expertise in parts of Covid-19 advisory group''

''The government's secret science group has a shocking lack of expertise''

//www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/27/gaps-sage-scientific-body-scientists-medical

//www.theguardian.com/science/2020/apr/29/government-rushes-out-request-for-experts-bolster-sage-panel

In the meantime thousands of elderly are dying in care homes. The government can't even be bothered to test all of them for covid and vit D def. and administer any vitamin D3 supplements. If only they knew.

[BigChocFrenzy]

"A number of the patients were taking vitamin D supplements. So safe sunlight exposure must be more important and the much lower deaths rates in equatorial and southern hemisphere regions are surely explained by this."

Supplements of all types - especially over the counter without medical advice - are usually much less effective than diet and lifestyle changes to provide the nutrients naturally.

Vit D3 supplementation looks advisable through the winter months, to compensate for lack of sun

I've objected on MN throughout lockdown to the demonising of sensible amounts of sitting in the sun
and the attempts to limit time outside, even when conforming fully with social distancing.

Sunlight, fresh air, with gentle exercise if possible - and consuming oily fish regularly - are known to be beneficial to the immune system
and especially in bolstering it against respiratory disease

There should be detailled studies ongoing specifically to investigate why the entire group of Nordic / Scandi countries have a much lower death rate from COVID to Western / Southern European countries with similar policies

Natural Vit D levels - from sun & diet - is likely to be a key part of this.

[BigChocFrenzy]

"Cluster of COVID-19 in northern France: A retrospective closed cohort study"
(Preprint before peer review, English lang.)

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.18.20071134v1.full.pdf+html

[cathyandclare]

Interesting. similar results to NY. I wonder if London is similar? As they say, nowhere near enough for herd immunity.

Although if some younger people use innate defences rather than developing antibodies could the level for herd immunity theoretically be lower?

[Didkdt]

Does anyone have know what happened to the studies around the anti inflammatory rather than antibacterial efficacy of Azithromyzin and Clarithramycin on Covid 19?

[Branster]

Saliva tests
news.yale.edu/2020/04/24/saliva-samples-preferable-deep-nasal-swabs-testing-covid-19
And the article I found it through news.yale.edu/2020/04/24/saliva-samples-preferable-deep-nasal-swabs-testing-covid-19

[Branster]

Didkdt were there links on another thread about these studies?
Or is it something you were hoping to follow but can’t find any information anywhere?

[Branster]

NewAccountForCorona page 2 on the A scientific discussion about Covid -19 thread has some links on Vit D

[Branster]

I stole this link from another thread, thanks to Nibblonian

eppi.ioe.ac.uk/COVID19_MAP/covid_map_v9.html

“This map consists of studies on COVID-19, identified in MEDLINE and Embase, and published in 2019 or later”

[BigChocFrenzy]

Good, informative lecture by Chris Whitty at Gresham College today

Covers ongoing development of treatments too

Video & pdf:

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/covid-19

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/content.gresham.ac.uk/data/binary/3292/2020-04-30Whittyy_t.pdf

[Didkdt]

@Branster this is one study about Azithromyzin the French were carrying out trials as well and as I understood it the NHS were trialling it too www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7102549/