COVID Resources, Late November 2022
if you test positive, get Paxlovid
So, I personally know twelve people who got COVID over thanksgiving. What’s your count?
Speaking of everyone who got COVID over Thanksgiving: Paxlovid may reduce long covid risk for some patients, VA study finds The data has been trending this way for a while. What it means in practice is that if you think you have COVID, get tested. And if you have COVID, get Paxlovid if you can. Even if you have to make a fuss.
NIH Long COVID Study This is the actual study page, not an article about it. Not a lot here unless you’re really into examining research protocols.
The major thing to notice is that the study won’t be complete until January 2024. That’s a long way away. A year isn’t that long to spend on a research study, but this would be complete sooner if it had started in January 2022 instead of January 2023.
We’ve been talking about long COVID since spring 2020. Maybe if the nation’s medical research agency was genuinely committed to Turning Discovery Into Health® (1) they could have started looking into this a teensy bit sooner?
Treating Long Covid Is Rife With Guesswork Yes, it sure is. Maybe because we took so long to start researching it?
Desperate covid long-haulers turn to costly, unproven treatments And perhaps patients turn to costly unproven treatments because they can tell their physician is guessing and they figure their own guess is as good as their doctor’s? I’m just saying. (2)
This also reminds me of something I have noticed before: people who want to sell you quackery tend to be a whole lot more convincing than actual medical professionals who just want you to get better. This is a system problem in a few different ways - we don’t train physicians well enough on how to talk to patients, for one thing. Regular people don’t get taught enough in school about how to recognize real information versus hucksterism. And quackery is usually more transparent about costs, even when those costs are very high. WIth traditional medical care, you don’t know how much you’ll end up paying. At least you know what the GoFundMe goal is for your bleach and ivermectin cocktail.
The science behind masks and their use Masks work! We knew that, that’s why this substack exists. But this is a great summary, and a great newsletter.
Admit it, you thought I was being sardonic with the ® until you clicked the link.
It’s not - physicians really do learn stuff in medical school. But I think we can all understand the thought process.
Update: I now know 20 people who got COVID over thanksgiving.