The Covid-19 virus “acts like no pathogen humanity has ever seen”
Yes, it attacks the lungs most; but it also can do severe damage to the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, gut, skin and brain.
Cardiologist Harlan Krumholz of Yale University says it “can attack almost anything in the body with devastating consequences. It’s ferocity is breathtaking and humbling”.
We also now know it has two pathways for infection, the ACE2 receptor (which is found in organs throughout the body) and the CD147 receptor on T-cells (found in the immune system).
The more we learn about covid-19, the more we realize what a formidable foe it is. This knowledge will eventually tell us how to contain and then beat it – but in the near term, it should keep us wary that the virus still likely has more surprises in store for us.
Don't forget to get your free download of Peak Prosperity's book Prosper!: How to Prepare for the Future and Create a World Worth Inheriting. Given its relevance to preparing for any kind of crisis, pandemic or otherwise, Chris and Adam are now making it available to the world for free. Click here to get it.
"How we actually maintain some sort of physical distance at the same time as certain businesses begin to open and workplaces re-adjust to the new normal — I think it will have some profound changes in society, including maybe our acceptance of people wearing masks," she said.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tam-who-defend-new-normal-pandemic-covid-coronavirus-1.5548285
Bold my emphasis. Let us hope that this is the case, and that all your efforts to educate have, and will continue to pay off!
Keep going Chris, you ARE making a big difference!
Jan
Chris,
On thought that struck me watching this video in relation to the skin issues showing up is that certain types of porphyria (there are 8) are associated with skin issues. This links in my mind with a previous video from a few weeks ago where you said that one hypothesis is that the Covid-19 is messing with the heme and kicking the iron out of the blood making it hard to carry oxygen. You said something in that video about prophyrins. And here again, there could be a connection. And given that there are 8 different types of porphyria, I wonder if that has anything do to with the wide variety of symptoms showing up. It is my understanding that porphyria can be either genetic or acquired by some kind of environmental injury (pollution, toxicity exposure), and in the case of acquired that any of the 8 pathways can be activated, but that treatment for porphyria is the same whether it is genetic or acquired. And it’s my sense that porphyria itself is not well understood, so if that is a factor in this disease, it could account for the magnitude of confusion about the process in the body.
The lesions you mention, on the toes, of covid patients, sounds a lot like Chillblains. I had them decades ago, and they were very painful. When I just googled “covid toes”, they said those with these symptoms, are not having much discomfort from them. Consider that a blessing. Chillblains used to show up many years ago, but many modern MD’s have not heard of the diagnosis. At least they did not, when I was trying to figure out why I was waking up with painful lessons, that seemed to appear from out of nowhere. Fortunately, an astute ND knew exactly what they were. They resemble frost bite. I would go to bed, with intact skin, on my toes, and awaken in the morning, with excruciatingly painful blisters, on one or more toes. Walking become very challenging. I have no idea why they came and they have never returned, thank god. I did, however, continue to wear socks to bed, to keep my feet evenly warm, throughout the night, for many years after that. I have no idea if this new covid symptom is occurring, for the same reason, but it is possible. Keeping the feet adequately warm, seemed to make a difference.
Normalcy bias trumps masks .
HAD to go to Home Depot today. Even now only maybe 10% were wearing masks. Very few of the employees.
Until new data proves me wrong I am going with fewer masks in the future. That is until the 2nd worse wave hits
Hi Chris,
This video failed to show the numbers around the young and covid’s impact’s just quoting worst case does not advance the science especially for someone wanting to know if they should send their kids to school. This matters because all infections have outliers if we just wrote/highlighted about all the worst cases no one would go outside ever.
If you are under 50 this thing has a mortality rate about the same as the flu(2017-18). https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/09f821667ce64bf7be6f9f87457ed9aa
I cannot find the 2017 flu’s data for Sweden but here is Oz https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/3303.0~2017~Main%20Features~Deaths%20due%20to%20influenza~5
Oz has about twice the population as Sweden but the Hospital system is about the same.
The R0 is higher (for covid) so it sweeps thu the population faster which causes a sharp spike in mortality’s the flu has more of a slow burn. This does not mean for the individual that one is more dangerous than the other just how quickly they are likely to catch it which then compresses or stretches the death rate over the population.
An interesting question under 20 would you be better of catching covid or the 2017 flu? Looking at the data currently covid is the safer bet.
Age matter’s for “it’s just the flu bro” as does the R0 fast burn vs slow.
Sweden is looking like the curve is flattening (finger’s crossed) https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/sweden/ I like using Sweden because it did not do a hard lock down.
Age matters. We don’t have all the data yet The US military has interesting data around mortality https://www.airforcemag.com/snapshot-dod-and-covid-19/ highlighting once again risk for the under 50’s.
So “It’s just the flu bro”* come’s with a caviar t
subject to one’s age and comorbidity's and a higher R0 so it passes thru the population faster.
Thanks for all your hard work
Chris your video got me to do a rather odd search. I wanted to see if bats had cd147 receptors on macrophages. I didn’t find that–but I found “CD147 might play an important role in the process of lung interstitial fibrosis” and “HAb18 mAbs had a therapeutic effect on lung interstitial fibrosis.” This was from an article in sciencedirect.com titled: Enhancement of CD147 on M1 macrophages induces differentiation of Th17 cells in the lung interstitial fibrosis.
What was cool is it showed pictures that looked like the autopsy photos you shared a while back of the lungs and lung tissue that looked better. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925443914001732#f0010
Anyway, I thought you might like to see it. Thanks for all you do,
Eric
If someone is willing to try HCQ, where can he/she get it?
Suppose HCQ works in COVID 19 early development
Suppose virus test is hard to come by
Suppose doctors willing to write Rx for mild symptoms are rare
Suppose not many doctors even believe in HCQ
It seems, sadly for many people who are not in hospital yet, waiting for COVID to run its unmitigated course (5% ends in hospital) is the only option left.
It is the same here re mask usage or lack thereof. It was not all that long ago when Dr. Tam was one of the mask use deniers, so saying this is in itself a profound change.
We in the west are simply not accustomed to wearing masks, especially where the population density is no where near that of some Asian countries where not wearing a mask is seen as being rude or bad manners. There is definitely a long way to go in North America before wearing masks is normalized in any way. It is a pity it always takes a crisis to provoke behavioural change. I had hoped this first wave would do it but you may be right and it may take a second wave of the honey badger kicking people’s butts to get better conformity. Perhaps the silver lining will be that at least there will be more masks available by the time that next wave hits, and there will be much much less effort needed to get people on board with using them. It may be Pollyanna thinking but what else is there?
Jan
It seems maybe you took my last comment into consideration in this video, what with spotlighting NYC and discussing potential error in total deaths, though perhaps we are just on a similar wavelength. In any case, much appreciated and thanks again for your work, Chris!
This may sound dumb, but it was helpful just to know what the conventional terminology is for deaths that exceed normal trends: “Excess mortality.” I’d been interested in this figure but unsure of how to look it up. On the other hand, searching that term doesn’t seem to help much…
The data given by your source makes sense, seems realistic, but when I share it with skeptical friends/family, they find many more articles claiming that the excess mortality is lower than usual. Cross-referencing such a statistic should be accessible. It is even difficult to find a source of this data that doesn’t specifically discuss the virus.
Could you shed light on what scientific sources typically track mortality and extrapolate predictions on it? This should not be a data point that journalists are entitled to much of an opinion on! And I agree that it’s our best metric for measuring the fallout of this virus.
I downloaded the research paper quoted in the video (Analysis of therapeutic targets for SARS-CoV-2 and discovery of potential drugs by
computational methods).
I won’t pretend that I understand the specifics in the cellular structures, genome or other biological jargon. And the ZINC that is referenced in the paper is a research tool, not the metal.
I was interested in the list of potential therapeutic compounds. Notably:
Aspertame – artificial sweetener
Riboflavin – Vitamin B2
Sildenafil – also sold under the label of Viagra
Surprisedly, Famotidine (Pepcid) is not on the list, but Carminic acid is listed (Red Food Coloring)
Something else listed is Fenoterol – An inhaled bronchodilator asthma medication. Perhaps this medicine might be used as a first line defense. Who knows.
Also listed is Atovaquone – and anti-malarial drug. Possible alternative to Hydroxychloroquine.
All in all, the vast majority of medications listed would need a physician involved.
Dr Didier Raoult posted this yesterday. For the first 4 minutes he talks about the “deconfinement” programmed for France the 11th of May. In answering this question he is operating in his specialty. here https://youtu.be/FcvDi6tjldk
He offers his analysis regarding mathematical studies done in Singapore which show that in each country the results fit a “bell curve” (courbe en cloche). He states that he is against giving predictions, (famous but) then he rambles on about epidemics during human history. We are still here. From the model, by the 19th of May France should be about 97% finished this “wave” (my addition).
For Chris who loves statistics he shows a chart from DDI Data Driven Innovation 3min 16.
If we are turning the page on this episode - we had better correct some of our mistakes.
For me number
1 You fight the battle with the drugs on hand.
2 You don’t just leave someone to die in a hospital bed without treating
In the 19th minute he compliments the doctors treating in ICUs. He talks about this phase of the illness where they treat with anti-coagulants (one of today’s topics) - he then says (and stops himself) that they also treated Hors Protocol - outside of the protocol directions (remember this) - then he quickly says but this will soon become the protocol - the utilization of immunity suppressing medications - because you have to save lives (sauver les gens).
Pr Dubray offered his translation of the interview here. https://peakprosperity.com/why-is-coronavirus-news-still-so-inaccurate/#comment-643900
Got tested this evening, it certainly was not a pleasant moment. The tester said, “OK got the brain biopsy !”
How did I end up there? ( we live on a small farm an hour from town)
In preparation in Feb had booked a dental appt in early March to reduce the risks of a tooth going bad in the midst of it all.
But the new filling failed, leading to a nasty abscess. So off to the dentist last Wed. Big perspex shield up in reception everyone wearing masks.
Monday a cough started. Immediately hit the elderberry and zinc. Given we were down to 2 or 3 cases per day probability it was covid was very low so took no other action. But person I do most contract work for needed me for some jobs an insisted on a test. So rang up and booked a slot. 6 hr from call to test. They tested even though my cough had almost completely gone. All staff had face shields and surgical masks and gowns and I had to hand sanitize 3 times.
Coincidently the same guy I do most of my work for was out riding his bicycle and face planted a stump. He went in to A&E. None of the staff wearing masks. But big signs at door saying stay out if sick and to go to correct entrance.
But despite all this only 2 case today 3 yesterday. As usual about half of new cases are returned travelers in arrival quarinteen. ( overall 40% of all cases were infected overseas )
Youngest of the 19 dead was 67.
Only 225 active case 6 in hospital 0 in icu.
So NZ, despite importing cases from all over the world, ( so a wide selection of strains ) has a low death rate of 1.3%, half being from a high dependency care home.
There is little scope for that number to climb much
As there was no order from the top, mask wearing was quite low. So somewhat of a mystery as to why we got off so lightly. Seasonal? ( people were breaking rules and swimming at the beach as still warm) Ozone hole giving us high UV levels ?
In Costa Rica, total deaths has remained at 6 for the whole week. They have had 705 recorded cases. The US has 1,009,727 cases with 52,578 total deaths. “No body seems to notice, nobody seems to care.”
